My guest to date to Lithia Williams is a statistician and mathematician at Harvey Mutt College

and a host of PBS's Nova series.

She's won national awards both for teaching math and for communicating mathematical ideas

to the general public.

There was a lot happening in our country at the time, lots of racial reconciliation happening

and I wasn't afraid to have those conversations with students in the classroom or just ask

them how they were doing.

There wasn't any magic in the material, it was still statistics, it was still math, it

was still the basics, but I think it was just how they felt in that space.

Welcome to People I Mostly Admire with Steve Love It.

To look at the first came into the public eye with a TED Talk that encouraged people to

track their own bodily data to empower their interactions with the medical system.

That's a powerful idea and I'm excited to delve into that and also to get some tips

on being a world-class teacher.

So back in 2015, you won something called the Henry L. Alder Awards given by the Mathematical

Association of America each year to the two or three most distinguished young college

math teachers in the country.

What in the world are you doing in the classroom?

I think at the time, and hopefully I continue, but really making my students feel seen

and heard and valued in that space, often in a math classroom, we don't think of it as

a space where students can feel included and a part of the learning process and the journey.

I really wanted to create a math space where students felt comfortable being a part

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