To be honest, I'm like a massive sports fan.

So when I sit here and think about, oh, all the things I'd love to talk about, there's loads and loads of football stuff, but I have to remember, this is from my number file audience, and most of them aren't sports fans.

So I've got to like rain it in.

Right. You've got to control yourself.

Today's guest is a mathematician currently completing his PhD at MIT.

But call up John Oshall's CV and there are a few lines that, well, might catch your eye.

That's because he played three seasons as a professional footballer in the NFL,

lining up in 40 games for the Baltimore Ravens.

And before that, he was a star college footballer at Penn State.

But throughout his athletic career, John's continued with mathematical study and research.

And after retiring from the NFL at the ripe old age of 26, he's now focused full-time

on mathematics.

If I went back in time and met you as a kid, what do you like?

Let's see.

I love puzzles.

I love horror movies. I know this is pretty random. but yeah, these are the two things I really enjoy. You wouldn't think I was an athlete. No? You wouldn't think I was, you know, a social butterfly, let's say, but I was just really into, especially puzzles, man. That was my thing. Or games. big guy because obviously you're a big guy now. Anyone who looks at you would think, well, that guy is obviously a footballer. Well, I was a big guy, but I was also pretty overweight when I was little. Okay. So I didn't really look at the athlete part. So if I'd met you, I would be more likely to think that you're a future mathematician than a future footballer? Oh, absolutely. I want you to know that like from elementary school all the way through like middle school, if you had met me, you would have been like future mathematician, but I don't know about the football. What happened? What changed? I got in shape. I lost a lot of weight. I started exercising. I started looking at what all the other kids were doing, and I thought,

wow, I should really try this whole conformity thing out. And so I just started playing sports.

I started doing things that other kids were doing because, well, I was sort of quiet. I was

soft-spoken. I didn't really sort of naturally get along with other kids. So I thought,

let me just fit in and do what the other kids are doing.

And the other kids were playing sports.

So, John, I think it's a bit of a cliche or a bit of a trope that if a kid is really smart,

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