Explore Over 100 Links and Meet the Storytellers Who Bring Mathematics to Life

Television

1. There is a television show you can watch right now. It will entertain you and get you laughing about mathematics. It also happens to be my favorite tv show of all time, Futurama.

   Many gags are easy to miss because they appear on screen so briefly. They are often references to mathematics. If you want to see what I mean, watch the episode “The Prisoner of Benda.” The premise is a legit mathematical theorem developed for the episode. Written by a staff writer who was also a mathematician, Ken Keeler. You can watch it in the US on Hulu (Season 7, Episode 10.)

2. When I was a kid, I would watch Saturday Morning Cartoons. So hard to believe that isn’t a thing anymore. It was during this time that ABC would show Schoolhouse Rock! segments. Doing research for this, I discovered that they did a 50th anniversary special this year. You can catch clips on YouTube but you can stream them all on Disney+. This is my favorite song from what they call Multiplication Rock.

   Play

3. SquareOne TV is a show that aired on my local PBS station when I was a kid. It was a children’s show that was all about mathematics. I was able to learn the rules for adding and subtracting negative numbers by watching it. You can still find clips on YouTube.

   Here is a playlist of the episodes from the first season

4. Of course, we cannot forget The Count from Sesame Street! This is a children’s show that teaches about numbers and letters. Here is a 40 minute compilation of sketches from different years of the show.

5. This one comes from over the pond, QI. Which stands for Quite Interesting. This is a panel show where contestants don’t guess the right answer. They come up with the most interesting or funny ones. It was originally hosted by Stephen Fry but now it is Sandi Toksvig. The show features many science questions, and of course, mathematics from time to time.

Films

1. The first one that I want to list is Stand and Deliver. I almost forgot about this one but found it when I was doing research. It has an important message about believing in yourself.

   This is what I would tell my younger math anxious self. It matters far less what people think of your abilities. What matters is what you believe about yourself. I wish that I had understood that then.

   If you are having a hard time with math, my emails are open. Let’s talk about it.

2. I would recommend A Trip to Infinity which is a documentary you can watch on Netflix. They do try to explain it in the simplest terms. There are plenty of easter eggs for people who know more. A bit of a spoiler, some infinities are bigger than others. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elvOZm0d4H0)

3. The Man Who Knew Infinity is about the Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan. I’ve read the book and enjoyed the movie. It was dream casting with Dev Patel as Ramanujan. Jeremy Irons wasn’t bad as Hardy either but I still think we need to move away from the idea that he was cold, shy, and awkward.

4. I don’t want to leave out The Dot and the Line. This cartoon won Best Animated Short Film at the Oscars. It’s based on a story written by Norton Juster (The Phantom Tollbooth) and inspired by the book Flatland. A good watch for people who like geometry.

   Play

5. Well, let’s also put the Phantom Tollbooth on this list. Butch Patrick plays Milo. Eddie from The Munsters. Features a dodecahedron which is a platonic solid with twelve faces. It is also known to Role Players as the D12.

6. There is the Disney classic, Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land. For whatever reason, the segment on billiards is the one that I remember the most.

7. Hidden Figures is a wonderful movie. It took way too long for this story to make it to the screen. It tells the story of mathematicians Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson. Three black women whose contributions were vital to the early missions of NASA.

8. I will admit, I have not seen this documentary. I wanted to add it to the list since it is about the first woman to win the Fields Medal, Maryam Mirzakhani. The movie is Secrets of the Surface. It is an important story so I don’t mind recommending it sight unseen. International Women in Mathematics Day is on May 12th, Mirzakhani’s birthday. She passed away in 2017.

9. One documentary that I really liked was Between the Folds which is about origami. Paper folding often takes on modular and geometric forms, making it great for math art. There is a history of studying the subject in mathematics.

   Play

10. This movie is not for kids. If you don’t mind a story that gets dark, then you might like Pi. Described as a psychological thriller. I’m not sure if this is exactly a math movie. Though numbers are essential to the plot. I put some math songs on my playlist that only feature numbers. So I am going to include this one.

Podcasts

1. The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry - This is a podcast from the BBC. Featuring award winning presenter Hannah Fry. The other host is Dr. Adam Rutherford
2. My Favorite Theorem - Is co-hosted by Evelyn Lamb whose column I used to read in Scientific American. Her fellow host is Kevin Knudson.
3. Numberphile Podcast - A podcast that interviews mathematicians. Many of the presenters from the main channel. Not the same as the videos. These interviews also appear on the Numberphile2 YouTube channel, if you prefer that.
4. Mathematical Objects - This is from the folks from The Aperiodical blog which I’ll talk about a little later. Hosted by the mathematicians Katie Steckles and Peter Rowlett. Where they use an object as inspiration to talk about mathematics.
5. Think Queen - As I was writing this article Kyne dropped a mathematics podcast! Kyne is a drag queen who competed in the first season of Canada’s Drag Race.

This is where the Lists get longer. I primarily get my information from YouTube, Books, and Blogs.

Video Streaming

These are all YouTube channels. I’ve watched them all at some point. I may no longer be a subscriber.

1. Vsauce - I’m not sure if there are new videos. Though, I have seen some activity on YouTube shorts. There are some fun math videos if you look through the archives.
2. Numberphile - The complexity of Numberphile varies. Some things are stuff you learn in school. Some things are more abstract.
3. 3Blue1Brown - Regarded as one of the best channels on mathematics.
4. Eddie Woo - Maybe the most well-known math teacher on YouTube. Can be helpful when you are studying.
5. Combo Class - I discovered this channel through YouTube shorts. I enjoy it and there are live streams most days.
6. Tibees - Another channel I started watching that I discovered through YouTube shorts. There is a** Flatland **like series. Describing what it would be like if we interacted with people in the 2nd dimension.
7. Kyne - One of my favorite presenters who is also a Drag Queen. Here is a math pop quiz with Hank Green.
8. Mathematical Visual Proofs - These are really special animated proofs.
9. Another Roof - A new channel that caught my attention.
10. Tom Lum - Not really updated anymore but there are still some relevant videos if you look for them. Tom is also a co-host of a science podcast.
11. Vi Hart - Vi isKnown for doodling in math class and Hexaflexagons.
12. Khan Academy - You are probably going to want to watch the playlists. They cover about every level of math you will learn in school. An excellent resource for studying. The website might be easier to navigate.
13. Quanta Magazine - This is also a blog but occasionally they make videos as well. They cover news in mathematics and physics.
14. The Royal Institution - A charity bringing science education to the public. Famous for their Christmas lectures.
15. The Royal Society - This organization is a big deal and is one of the oldest scientific fellowships in the world. G.H Hardy and Ramanujan were both fellows of The Royal Society. Along with many great mathematicians.
16. PBS Infinite Series - Videos on mathematics hosted by mathematician Tai-Danae Bradley and physicist Gabe Perez-Giz. Unfortunately, they are no longer making videos but they are all still up.
17. 24 Hour Maths - So far they have had two streams. One on Math Magic and more recently Math Games.
18. National Museum of Math - Uploads of lectures and events from Mo Math in New York.
19. Ted-Talks - The archives have many lectures from mathematicians like Hannah Fry.
20. Ted-Ed - Short animated educational stories including mathematics and science.
21. Computerphile - This is a sibling of Numberphile with videos about computers. Also by Brady Haran.
22. Free Code Camp - The best resource for learning programming or web development. They even have courses on Algebra, Calculus, and Linear Algebra. I’m completing their free courses in JavaScript and Responsive Design.
23. MathsWorldUK - There are so many gems here that haven’t gotten a lot of love. Check out their interviews with people in the mathematics community.
24. Meet a Mathematician - This channel is a great starting place for someone looking for a role model who wants to know more about what mathematicians do.
25. LATHISMS - I just discovered this organization and wanted to add it to the list.

Books

I am not including links in this section. If you make a purchase, I hope you will support an independent bookstore.

These are not books that teach you math. Or textbooks. They are books that cover a variety of interesting topics in mathematics. I’m organizing this section by the author’s last name.

Edwin A. Abbott

• Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions

Donald J. Albers & Gerald L. Alexanderson (Editors)

• Fascinating Mathematical People: Interviews and Memoirs
• The G. H. Hardy Reader (with William Dunham)

Amy Alznauer

• The Boy Who Dreamed of Infinity

Alex Bellos

• Visions of the Universe: A Coloring Journey Through Math’s Great Mysteries (with Edmund Harriss)
• Here’s Looking at Euclid: A Surprising Excursion Through the Astonishing World of Math

Lewis Carroll with Annotations by Martin Gardner

• The Annotated Alice: 150th Anniversary Deluxe Edition

Eugenia Cheng

• How to Bake Pi: An Edible Exploration of the Mathematics of Mathematics
• The Joy of Abstraction: An Exploration of Math, Category Theory, and Life

Dover Books on Mathematics

• Excursions in Number Theory

Tessa Dunlop

• The Bletchley Girls: War, secrecy, love and loss: the women of Bletchley Park tell their story

Edward Frenkel

• Love and Math: The Heart of Hidden Reality

Hannah Fry

• The Indisputable Existence of Santa Claus
• The Mathematics of Love

G.H. Hardy

• Bertrand Russell and Trinity
• A Mathematician’s Apology

Sarah Hart

• Once Upon a Prime: The Wondrous Connections Between Mathematics and Literature

Deborah Heiligman

• The Boy Who Loved Math

Andrew Hodges

• Alan Turing: The Enigma

Paul Hoffman

• The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdős and the Search for Mathematical Truth

Norton Juster

• The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics
• The Phantom Tollbooth

Robert Kanigel

• The Man Who Knew Infinity

Sinclair McKay

• The Secret Life of Bletchley Park: The WWII Codebreaking Centre and the Men and Women Who Worked There

Ben Orlin

• Math with Bad Drawings: Illuminating the Ideas That Shape Our Reality
• Math Games with Bad Drawings: 75 1/4 Simple, Challenging, Go-Anywhere Games—And Why They Matter

Tony Padilla

• Fantastic Numbers and Where to Find Them: A Cosmic Quest from Zero to Infinity

Matt Parker

• Humble Pi: When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World
• Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension

Charles Petzold

• The Annotated Turing: A Guided Tour Through Alan Turing’s Historic Paper on Computability and the Turing Machine

Quanta Magazine

• The Prime Number Conspiracy: The Biggest Ideas in Math from Quanta

Marcus Du Sautoy

• The Music of the Primes

Jon Scieszka & Lane Smith

• Math Curse

Margot Lee Shetterly

• Hidden Figures

Simon Singh

• Fermat’s Enigma
• The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets

Michael Smith

• The Debs of Bletchley Park and Other Stories

Steven H. Strogatz

• The Joy Of X: A Guided Tour of Math, from One to Infinity

Francis Su

• Mathematics for Human Flourishing

Erica N. Walker

• Beyond Banneker: Black Mathematicians and the Paths to Excellence

Jessica Wynne

• Do Not Erase: Mathematicians and Their Chalkboards

Websites and Blogs

This is a catch all for things that didn’t seem to fit anywhere else. I’ll try to give it some organization.

Mental Health

I volunteered with THRIVE not too long ago to run their Facebook page. They help people with marginalized identities who are studying math and science. It is also staffed by people who have those identities.

1. THRIVE Lifeline

   Text “THRIVE” 24/7/365, from anywhere: +1.313.662.8209 (US only)

2. Voices of Academia