The first series of Maths Appeal podcasts is now complete! We published the 12th and final episode on Monday 4th March, and as the Producer of the series, I’ve really enjoyed learning more about maths, education and the importance of maths role models to encourage people to embrace the subject.

I’ve also loved working with the two presenters Bobby Seagull and Susan Okereke . The three of us celebrated the end of the first Maths Appeal series at the Newham Word Festival, when Bobby was doing a talk about his book, The Life-Changing Magic of Numbers, at Forest Gate Library. He treated the audience to his maths rap – always a treat – as well as some great stories about his experiences as a contestant on University Challenge. I’ll never listen to the Game of Thrones music in the same way again…

So, a big thank you to Bobby and Susan for putting up with me and my demands in the studio, and to our brilliant guests, maths champions from the worlds of broadcasting, writing, comedy, education and tech: Johnny Ball, Alex Bellos, Danielle Newnham, Mike Ellicock, Gareth Jones, Ken Cheng, Simon Singh, Anne-Marie Imafidon, Catherine Breslin and Zoe Griffiths.

Another thank you to Gillian Reynolds in The Sunday Times for making Maths Appeal her Podcast of the Week on 20th January 2019. She described it as “entertaining and informal”, praising the podcast because “it makes wonderfully accessible a subject that’s always scared the living daylights out of me”. We were so chuffed to read this because this was our main aim for Maths Appeal from the start.

But most of all, we’d like to say a huge thanks to everyone who listened to the podcast, recommended it to their friends, and left positive reviews such as this by Ochtaye on iTunes, who also describes our objectives perfectly: “Really enjoying this podcast and I never thought I’d say that about anything mathematical! I was never a fan of it at school, it scared me a little, but I want to gain a better understanding so I’m giving it a go. The podcast, the way it’s delivered and the passion of the presenters feels like getting a comforting mathematical hug each episode”.

Bobby, Susan and I have big plans for future series, so for more information keep an eye on our Twitter and Instagram, and in the meantime, if you’ve missed any of the episodes, you can find get your mathematical hugs on iTunes, Soundcloud or Spotify.