Well, for better or worse, we're now living in a world where epidemiologists have become

rock stars of the scientific world.

Some of them are household names.

Adam Kacharski is one of them.

And he's today's guest on the Numberphile podcast.

Adam was born in the quintessentially English city of

Bath, but his surname sounds less British to my ear. So before we got down to the serious business

of mathematics and disease, I asked Adam about the name Kacharski. So Kacharski, is that how do you say your surname?

So that's, yeah, that's how we say it phonetically.

The Polish pronunciation is slightly different.

But it actually translates as cook.

So it's not that unusual as a surname in Poland, but yeah, in the UK, it was my grandfather

originally. He died back in the 70s. Unfortunately, never got to hear his stories and sort of get

that side of the culture. Obviously in the UK, it's like a reasonably exotic surname in Poland.

It's like pretty common. Yeah, yeah. So they probably

have a much easier time of spelling it than I sometimes do. As a youngster and bath, you know,

as a boy, what were you like? Were you destined for, to get into the field you're in? Were you

really, were you mathematical? Were you nerdy? I think I always had an interest, yeah, in maths and

puzzles and problem solving. But I think alongside that, I mean, always had an interest, yeah, in maths and puzzles and problem solving. But I think

alongside that, I mean, always kind of had an interest in travel. Me and my parents worked to

board for a period of time before we kind of settled in the UK. And so I think I kind of had that

interest in what was going on globally. I think I had that interest in science and obviously maths. And then I think I kind of had that interest in what was going on globally. I think I had that

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