Mind and Matter | John Urschel
Good Life Project
Jonathan Fields / Acast
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 30 July 2019
⏱️ 69 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Former Baltimore Ravens linebacker, John Urschel, lived a double-life. On the field, he was a celebrated football player, starting out at Penn State before turning pro and playing in the NFL. But, off the field, a profoundly different, yet equally powerful passion and lifelong fascination consumed human--mathematics. Now, a Ph.D. candidate in mathematics at MIT, he's building a life and living around this pursuit, with a vision to teach. He shares insights about this journey in his book, Mind and Matter (https://amzn.to/2JYDtlh). In today's conversation, explore how these dual passions found a place in his life and were nurtured and pursued. We also talk about his time at Penn State, during what was a very dark period, how he personally experienced it and the choices he made along the way.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | So my guest today, John Arshel, played in the NFL, played professional football for the |
| 0:09.5 | Baltimore Ravens played as a linebacker. |
| 0:12.3 | What it takes to succeed to the work ethic, the talent, the extraordinary grit to get to |
| 0:19.6 | the level where you're actually chosen and you're playing in the NFL is an astonishing |
| 0:25.2 | story on its own. |
| 0:26.8 | So that is not the entirety of John's story. |
| 0:29.9 | In fact, from the youngest of times, John developed kind of a passion slash obsession slash |
| 0:36.6 | love for math for complex problem solving and found himself actually immersed in the |
| 0:43.2 | world of math and mathematics. |
| 0:44.8 | From the time he was a little kid, teaching himself all sorts of things just for the fun |
| 0:49.1 | of it. |
| 0:50.1 | That ended up eventually landing him degrees in mathematics while simultaneously playing |
| 0:55.1 | at Penn State for one of the biggest teams in the world in college. |
| 0:59.6 | And then as he's wrapping up his pro career, making a decision to go back and pursue his |
| 1:05.6 | PhD in math at MIT, which is actually where he was when I sat down with him to record |
| 1:11.6 | this conversation. |
| 1:13.2 | I love the way that he weaves together. |
| 1:16.0 | This deep passion and love for two worlds for football and for math and complex problem |
| 1:20.7 | solving is really compelling. |
| 1:22.8 | It's all laid out in a new book called Mind and Matter, a Life in Math and Football, which |
| 1:27.6 | also has a pretty cool structure. |
| 1:29.3 | He literally alternates chapters between math and football, which I thought was a fascinating |
... |
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