About

Season one of Relatively Prime was released in 2012 and had stories about checkers, survival housing, swine flu, juggling, a Spanish basilica, and an alien civilization in England and Season two is still in the middle of being released featuring stories about gerrymandering, how to mathematically cut cakes, and readings of mathematical fiction.. Now the creator, Samuel Hansen , wants to make season 3, but this time he wants to try something different.

For the first two seasons we reached the Kickstarter’s goal and then Samuel retreated to his cave for months and months to make the show. Which is all well and good but, what were you supposed to do in the long mathless months waiting for episodes to start? Especially as we all knew that once they did show up all the mathematical stories were going to be gone less than two months.

That is why this year Relatively Prime goes monthly. That’s right, 12 new episodes of Relatively Prime for your mathematical enjoyment, and the first episode will come out March 31st, just one month after the final episode of Season two. So not only no waiting around this time, but you can be assured of great mathematical content on the last Thursday of the next 12 months when you back this Kickstarter.

And each of those 12 episodes will feature wonderful mathematical stories. Stories like:

Did an act of mathematical vandalism help liberate algebra from the shackles of arithmetic?

How do you design a lottery to fairly distribute licenses to marijuana dispensaries?

Why did Rally teams love an old mechanical calculator?

What do you do when you prove a 300 year old conjecture, but other human’s can’t verify your proof?

Can computers write short stories, compose sonnet, or DJ a club as well as a human?

The schedule is not the only change Samuel has planned for season 3 either. He is also excited to be working with some new collaborators, like Anna Haensch and Annie Rorem from The Other Half to help bring a greater diversity of voices and stories to the show.

Relatively Prime is a small show with huge ambitions, and Season 3 is by far the most ambitious so far. Please help us tell these wonderful mathematical stories.

Sample Episodes:

Season 1

Season 2

The Rewards:

If you want more than just the warm feeling of knowing that you helped create more awesome mathematical content for the world to consume you are in luck because with your support comes the chance to get one, or many, of these rewards.

Funders List

Your name on the Season 3 Funders List at http://relprime.com

RelPrime Extra

Exclusive access to at least one full length interview per episode and other bits which do not make it into the show

Pin

Show your allegiance to the greatest mathematics podcast in the world with this great pin

Let everyone know just what you use your notebook for with this Kickstarter only RelPrime notebook

Postcard

Samuel will send you a postcard in one of the places where he goes to get an interview.

Credit Read

Your voice will feature in one of the episodes reading credits for the show.

Voice Over

Samuel will record up to 30 minutes of audio for you. Do you have a short story that you want recorded, need 30 new outgoing voicemail messages, or maybe you just want to hear Samuel read names from the phone book. This is your chance. (The content is subject to basic decency standards and Samuel reserves the right to not record content he finds distasteful)

Ad/Personal Messages

Be it one episode, half the series, or every episode you can have your own 30 second message on the show. This will let you reach an audience of some of the smartest, coolest, and most beautiful listeners in the world, and if you happen to make calculators, protractors, or compasses this would be the most receptive audience you could hope to target. (Once again basic decency rules apply here)

Interview

Samuel will call you up and interview you. He will then burn that interview onto a CD, draw some album art on it, and send it to you.

Signed Script

Samuel will send you one page of the scribbled on, annotated, and actually used scripts that he will use to produce the episodes.

Custom Story

Samuel will produce a story for you on a topic of your own choosing. Samuel will work with you to make sure that the topic is one that is feasible to cover, and just like the ads or voiceover basic decency rules are in effect, but other than that feel free to make Samuel create a story on whatever you desire.

Extra Episode

Exactly what it sounds like, except beyond just making sure that everyone gets yet more awesome Relatively Prime to listen to Samuel will work with you to develop the theme for the episode, determine the best people to interview, and make production decision like music choice and story ordering.

Your Own Samuel

Samuel will travel to where you are and give a talk at your institution about mathematical storytelling or he will do your yard work or he will produce a live Relatively Prime in your living room or he will cook you and your family dinner. Really he will do pretty much any legal work that you would have him do for the day*. (Please add $850 if you are not in the USA)

*This is not really limited to a single day. If you support at this level Samuel would be more than happy to teach a week long workshop on producing math and science media for your University. The only catch is for stays longer than one day housing of some sort(including couches or floors on which to crash) would need to the provided.

How your money will be spent:

If the goal is met the money will be used to cover the expenses of creating a 12 episode series. These expense include equipment, travel, hosting, freelance fees, research materials, Samuel’s salary, and extra white board markers.

Bonus Goals:

If more than 750 people back the new series one of the wonderful people behind the video above, Rob Schultz, will do an animated mathematics story.

If we raise double the goal a video version of one of the episodes will be created.

Credit for the video goes to the wonderful Rob Schultz, Lewis Sequeira, and Natalie Hazen.