Math Therapy

S4E06: From mathochistic to mathcurious w/ A.K. Whitney

April 28, 2022 The Math Guru Season 4 Episode 6
Math Therapy
S4E06: From mathochistic to mathcurious w/ A.K. Whitney
Show Notes Chapter Markers

This one’s for all the adults out there who are like “hmmm maybe it’s not too late to learn a little math…”! On today’s episode Vanessa talks to journalist A.K. Whitney, who went back to school at 38 to learn math and chronicled it in Cosmopolitan, The Washington Post, and her own podcast/website delightfully titled “The Mathochism Project”. She is basically the definition of overcoming math trauma and making it less of a stigma - but how did she do it? Why don’t more people do it? And how can we make math less traumatic for women and girls?

About A.K.

A.K. Whitney is a journalist with 25 years of experience in print and online. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Cosmopolitan and more. She was a regular contributor to Noodle, an educational website, writing mostly about society’s fraught relationship with math, which is the subject of her website, The Mathochism Project.

Show notes:

Connect with us:

Intro
Falling back in love with math at 38
How A.K.'s mathphobia started
The "cult of the genius"
Q1: How math is taught in school
Q2: I'm not a "math person"
Outro

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