Welcome to the fifth episode, where we focus on so-called 'pure' mathematics, together with our guests Oliver Lorscheid and Jaap Top.

We discuss the term 'pure' mathematics,  the relation to applied mathematics, and a question mathematicians might come across often: why should we care about mathematics that is not immediately applicable?

Other topics of discussion are how our guests were drawn to mathematics, and how to change students' perspectives on mathematics in high school. Or is just focussing on students not enough?

Episode links:

• Jaap Top's website: ⁠https://www.rug.nl/staff/j.top
• ⁠Oliver Lorscheid's website: ⁠https://oliver.impa.br⁠
• Pythagoras, the mathematics magazine for high school students: ⁠https://www.pyth.eu⁠
• FMF Periodiek: https://perio.fmf.nl
• Chalkdust magazine: https://chalkdustmagazine.com

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Produced by Marcello Seri and Marit van Straaten

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Illustrations by Henrieke Krijgsheld

The podcast soundtrack is derived from the royalty free track Starving by OctoSound and used in agreement with pixabay license https://pixabay.com/music/funk-starving-170377

We are grateful to the friends of FSE Radio for allowing us to use their equipment for this recording. Consider giving their podcast a go: https://open.spotify.com/show/1wi0YWwEQiZHyNDEYG2KHz