Relatively Prime: Stories from the Mathematical Domain

Latest Episodes:

Timeline with two rows and a title of "Timeline of Events" in upper right. The top timeline has 5 events, they are January 20-24 Executive Orders targeting federal spending, workforce, DEI, etc. issued January 21 Communications & travel pause January 27 OMB memo directing federal funding pauses January 28 Legal challenges to OMB funding pause January 29 OMB memo rescinded; Data & website removal and the second row has 7 events, they areJanuary 31 More legal challenges to funding pause February 3 Court extends injunction against OMB funding freeze February 4 Legal challenges to data and website purges February 7 15% cap on indirect cost rates (ICR) February 10 Legal challenges to ICR cap at NIH; Judge upholds halt on OMB funding freeze February 11 February 21 Health agencies ordered to restore websites & datasets; EO to reduce the size of the federal workforce (DOGE) Court hearing on NIH ICR cap scheduled — **Relatively Prime Seminar: Funding** Mar 25, 2025
Show notes

We are back with a new series in Relatively Prime that we are going to be calling Seminars!

The seminars are going to be going out into the Relatively Prime feed off and on and they will be tackling the big questions about mathematics. In other words the seminars will be more of a meta conversation about what goes on in mathematics and our first conversation is going to be about funding in mathematics.

If you have a question that you want to hear a seminar about please just email seminar@acmescience.com

Joining our host Sam Hansen to discuss funding in mathematics we have Carrie Diaz Eaton (BSky), a mathematician, an associate professor of digital and computational studies at Bates College, and the executive director of the Rios Institute, Drew Lewis (BSky), a mathematician and independent consultant, and Jude Higdon (BSky), the chief operation officers of the Institute for Quantitative Study of Inclusion, Diversity and Equity or QSide (BSky).

Timeline of Executive Actions from the American Institute of Biological Sciences

Resources Mentioned in the Seminar:
Breakdown of Federal Mathematics Funding
Federal Funding for all Disciplines Report
Cruz Report
Silicon Reckoner Newsletter
Science Magazine Reporting on Howard Hughes Medical Institute Inclusive Excellence Fellows Program Cancellation
NIH in Your State
Ibberson Spreadsheet
Music:
lowercase n

Transcript
ACMEScience · Funding

Carry the Two: Mathematics & Voting Oct 30, 2024

Show notes

Sorry for the unannounced hiatus that has now lasted for four years, but our host and producer Sam Hansen has had a lot of life events and changes that led them to not be able to devote the time they needed to making the show. We are planning on coming back very soon, but until then please enjoy this episode about the Mathematics of Voting from the podcast Carry the Two made by the Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation where Sam is the new Director of Communications and Engagement.

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ACMEScience · RelPrimeCt2 Mix

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IMSI is very proud to announce that Carry the Two is back and with a new co-host, IMSI’s new Director of Communications and Engagement Sam Hansen!

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • RSS

We in the United States are deep in the middle of a major national election, and over half of the world’s population also have elections in 2024. This is why Carry the Two is going to focus on the intersection of mathematics and democracy for our new season.

In this episode, the first episode of our mathematics and democracy season, we speak with mathematician Ismar Volić of Wellesley College and Director of the Institute for Mathematics and Democracy and Victoria Mooers, an economics PhD student at Columbia University. We discuss what mathematics has to say about our current plurality voting system, how switching to preference ranking votings systems could limit polarization and negative campaigning, and why too much delegation causes problems for those pushing for Liquid Democracy.

Find our transcript here: Google Doc or .txt file

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Ismar Volić

Making Democracy Count: How Mathematics Improves Voting, Electoral Maps, and Representation

Institute for Mathematics and Democracy

Victoria Mooers

Liquid Democracy. Two Experiments on Delegation in Voting

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (mastodon) https://sciencemastodon.com/@IMSI, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Music by Blue Dot Sessions and lowercase n

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348

#BlackInMathWeek Nov 09, 2020

Show notes

On this episode of Relatively Prime, Michole Enjoli and Noelle Sawyer take over for Black in Math Week. They talk to Brea Ratliff and José Vilson, two Black math educators, and discuss what it’s like to be Black in math, what they would say to people making common false statements about Black students in math, and better hopes and dreams for Black students. Black in Math week is November 8th – 13th, 2020! It’s a week on Twitter to celebrate community among and uplift Black mathematicians. Check us out @BlackInMath for updates! Brea is currently pursuing a PhD at Auburn University in Math Education. She is the founder of and CEO Me to the Power of Three and is a past president of the Benjamin Banneker association. José is located in New York City and is the founder and executive director of EDUcolor. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at Teachers College at Columbia University in Sociology and Education. We talk a bit about Afrofuturism in this episode. If you’re interested in checking out more on Afrofuturism, try SpaceBox, a STEM escape room to save astronauts from a virus, and this special minizine from Bitten Magazine! Music: Kirshmusic Transcript available at https://relprime.com/bimw

Black Girl Mathgic Nov 01, 2020

Show notes

On this episode of Relatively Prime Samuel is joined by Brittany Rhodes the creator of the amazing monthly mathematics subscription box Black Girl Mathgic. They discuss where the idea of the box came from, what comes in the boxes each month, and why everyone benefits when young Black women are centered in mathematics. If you want to help Brittany and Black Girl Mathgic reach more people you can help out by donating a box. Music: Broke For Free (Night Owl) (Only Instrumental)

The Somervilles Mar 31, 2020

Show notes

On this episode of Relatively Prime Samuel is joined by Brigitte Stenhouse of the Open University to talk about the life and times of Mary, and William, Somerville. Music: Lowercase n

3 Scenes from the Life of Benjamin Banneker Feb 29, 2020

Show notes

On this month's Relatively Prime Samuel shares three scenes from the life of Benjamin Banneker. One about a clock, one about a solar eclipse projectsion, and one about a puzzle. You can learn more about the life of Benjamin Banneker by checking out the book The Life of Benjamin Banneker by Silvio Bendini which was essential in the production of this episode and it is available to borrow for free on the Internet Archive or if you prefer a physical copy your library may have it on hand and if they do not the amazing system that is Interlibrary Loan should be able to provide for you.

Truthiness Feb 15, 2020

Show notes

In this live episode recorded at the 2020 Joint Mathematics Meetings in Denver Samuel Hansen talks about the truth behind the stories we all tell in mathematics. In order to do this they will investigate the actual facts of the Galois narrative, have a conversation about where and when the decimal point appeared with Glen R Van Brummelen of Quest University, and play a game of 2 lies and a truth with some people in the audience.

2019 Year End Review Dec 31, 2019

Show notes

To wrap up the year 2019 Samuel Hansen is joined by Katie Steckles and Christian Lawson-Perfect of Aperiodical.com to discuss some of the big stories from the world of mathematics this year. The stories they discuss include Hannah Fry's Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, Karen Uhlenbeck's Abel Prize, year two of the Big Internet Math Off, a new multiplication algorithm, a new pi digits record, 33 and 42 as the sum of three cubes, and advances toward solutions for Collatz and Riemann. Music: lowercase n

Authors Nov 01, 2019

Show notes

On this episode of Relatively Prime we explore the thoughts of authors of general audience mathematics books. Specifically they share why they started writing, how they choose their topics, and how they think about their audiences. It features clips from interviews Samuel Hansen conducted with Colin Adams, Ivars Peterson, John Allen Paulos, Jordan Ellenberg, Dave Richeson, Matt Parker, Steve Strogatz, and Alex Bellos.

Citation Aging Oct 01, 2019

Show notes

For this episode of Relatively Prime Samuel decided that instead of speaking to a guest they would instead talk about the research they are conducting now that they are the Mathematics & Statistics Librarian at the University of Michigan. This research looks into how the citations of mathematical publications age over time, and its discussion includes a first for Relatively Prime - Data Sonification! These sonifications were created using Jonathon Middleton's website Musical Algorithms (you hear more about Jonathan and this site on the Relatively Prime Season 1 episode The Score)