Speaker 1: Your first kiss was on camera with Fred in the pilot.
Speaker 1: How did that bring some extra nerves for you, especially
Speaker 1: because at the time I had a huge crush on
Speaker 1: him and I was just so excited and so nervous.
Speaker 1: And I still remember after the first take when they
Speaker 1: said cut, the whole crew started a plodding, and I
Speaker 1: don't know who started that, but it was mortifying. I mean,
Speaker 1: you can only imagine all the nerves, anticipation. You know,
Speaker 1: you're about to have your first kiss, You've got a
Speaker 1: crush on the guy, you know, and then it finally happens.
Speaker 1: It's the most amazing moment ever, and it's like, wait,
Speaker 1: that wasn't a private That wasn't real, Okay, right. Hi.
Speaker 1: My name is Danika McKellar. I act in Christmas movies
Speaker 1: and I write math books for kids. Hello, my favorite
Speaker 1: listener and also my not so favorite listeners. Welcome to
Speaker 1: another episode of Off the Beat. I'm your host, as always,
Speaker 1: Brian Baumgartner. Now, as you just heard, my guest today
Speaker 1: is Danica mckeller, who, well you might know from her
Speaker 1: time playing Winnie Cooper on The Wonder Years. Everyone who
Speaker 1: I have told that I have talked to Danica has
Speaker 1: been so excited. Apparently there are a lot of Wonder
Speaker 1: Years fans out there, or maybe you know her from
Speaker 1: the many rom coms that she started the Winter Palace
Speaker 1: Christmas at Dollywood with of course Dolly Pardon, but there's
Speaker 1: also a subset of you who might know her for
Speaker 1: a totally different reason. That's right, Danika is gonna out
Speaker 1: math even me today. Yes, she does do the numbers.
Speaker 1: She literally has a mathematical theorem named after her. I mean,
Speaker 1: is that normal? It is certainly not normal on this podcast.
Speaker 1: And to think her big splash in the world of
Speaker 1: academics happened after she'd already kicked off her acting career.
Speaker 1: Danica has truly led an exceptional life, which has included
Speaker 1: things like writing an advice column for Teenbeat magazine and
Speaker 1: appearing in one of Avril Levine's music videos. I'm so
Speaker 1: excited for her to tell you all about it, and
Speaker 1: so much more so. Let's bring her on my new
Speaker 1: best friend, Danica McKellar. Everyone, Bubble and Squeak. I love it,
Speaker 1: Bubble and Squeak, Bubble and Squeaker cooking at every month
Speaker 1: left over from the nut before. What's up to Entica? Hey, Hey, Brian,
Speaker 1: I'm good. How are you good? Where are you? I
Speaker 1: am at home, but I just got back from Canada.
Speaker 1: I just shot a Christmas movie. I was so much fun.
Speaker 1: It actually comes out in November. Nice. Yeah, I got
Speaker 1: me like Christmas stuff in the Christmas The movie is
Speaker 1: called Christmas at the Drive In, by the Way, and
Speaker 1: it will be on Great American Family is a new
Speaker 1: channel very similar to Homemark. I know all about it.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about that and your your history
Speaker 1: with Christmas. Uh, movies of of varying types. I want
Speaker 1: to I want to start back with you though you
Speaker 1: were You were born in Lahoya? Is that right? Very
Speaker 1: close to where I live now? Yeah? I mean what
Speaker 1: was it like being born in Paradise? Oh? I know
Speaker 1: you just you just take it for granted and don't realize. Wait,
Speaker 1: Laoia is this incredible vacation spot. And to grow up
Speaker 1: there and my dad still lives there. I go there
Speaker 1: all the time. In fact, my family built the Laoia
Speaker 1: beis and Tennis Club a couple of generations ago. No, well,
Speaker 1: I grew up at the beach club. I mean I
Speaker 1: have a lifetime membership just because I'm family. I'm actually
Speaker 1: a part owner um technically speaking. So yeah, that's buying
Speaker 1: my roots. I need a discount. I need a friends
Speaker 1: and family discount. I love that place. For those of
Speaker 1: you who don't know, this is a it is. It's
Speaker 1: private on the beach. It's one of like two in California.
Speaker 1: It is absolutely And you think, what difference does that make? What?
Speaker 1: What the difference it makes is? You can do anything
Speaker 1: you want. That's basically it. If you want to make
Speaker 1: a bonfire, you can have a bonfire. If you want
Speaker 1: to put a grill out, you can do that. It's
Speaker 1: an in doable place. I don't live quite close enough
Speaker 1: that it makes sense for me, but it is a club.
Speaker 1: By the way, if you if you there's it's a
Speaker 1: hotel as well, so you can stay at the hotel.
Speaker 1: You can stay there, that's right, you can stay there
Speaker 1: all the same benefits as a member. That is what
Speaker 1: I have done. Yes, so that is very cool. I'd
Speaker 1: always tell people it's only bad if you don't like perfect. Yes,
Speaker 1: but you fairly early on age eight, you moved up
Speaker 1: to Los Angeles. Why did you leave Paradise? So my
Speaker 1: my parents divorced and my mom was producing music videos
Speaker 1: of all things. She was a answer before and work
Speaker 1: brought her to l A. And then my sister and
Speaker 1: I decided we kind of wanted to try acting, and
Speaker 1: she put us in acting classes at LEA Strassburg like
Speaker 1: that same year, I think, and so very quickly it
Speaker 1: like we started working, and then I started doing commercials
Speaker 1: and things. We both did, me and my sister. About
Speaker 1: a year and a half later, I booked The Wondering Years,
Speaker 1: and then I was working as well. Okay, so the
Speaker 1: Lee Strasburg Institute, for those of you who don't know,
Speaker 1: there's like three who are considered to be the greatest
Speaker 1: theater teachers Udahgen Lee Strasburg. I mean, this is this
Speaker 1: is serious business. And so like at age eight and nine,
Speaker 1: you're already taking classes there. Yeah, your classes kids, you
Speaker 1: know well, of course, but we loved it. We loved
Speaker 1: it so but my mom had she said my my
Speaker 1: mom's rule was this, She said no projects would take
Speaker 1: us away from home and no series. So I wasn't
Speaker 1: allowed to audition for any series. The part of Winnie
Speaker 1: Cooper was only supposed to be a guest role on
Speaker 1: the pilot episode only, so that's the only reason I
Speaker 1: was even allowed to audition for it. And when I
Speaker 1: got the job and we were midway through shooting, the
Speaker 1: producers saying, hey, toll my mom, we really think that
Speaker 1: Danna Kinfred had this really cool chemistry. So I would
Speaker 1: like to extended cotton in. The network agrees we want
Speaker 1: to if I never had to go to network for
Speaker 1: that show. Uh, they like to to make for a
Speaker 1: series regular. My mom was really torn about him. No, please, please,
Speaker 1: please you because I loved working and I was I
Speaker 1: loved the group, and because the other moms Joanne Savage,
Speaker 1: James Saviano, Marsha Hervey, they were very much about their
Speaker 1: kids and protecting their kids. They weren't that typical stage
Speaker 1: mom do you think of like mom's shoving their kids
Speaker 1: in front of the camera and you know, kissing after
Speaker 1: the producers. These moms were all like, you know, our
Speaker 1: kids or kids first. And because of that, my mom said,
Speaker 1: you know, this might be an okay environment, but I'm
Speaker 1: getting a really expensive lawyer, and if there's any issue
Speaker 1: of bread, have a loophole and you tell me, you
Speaker 1: just say the word and you can just leave the
Speaker 1: show at anytime, Like okay, I'm not going to do that.
Speaker 1: But your sister, Crystal you mentioned, is active with you
Speaker 1: as well, and presumably you both enjoyed it. Now I
Speaker 1: read that both you and your sister were up for
Speaker 1: the role of Wenny Cooper. Now was this? Did this
Speaker 1: cause issues when you got cast with the family at
Speaker 1: home and it was just a one time role. It
Speaker 1: wasn't like a big deal role that I got, you know,
Speaker 1: it was a one off. But they loved her so
Speaker 1: much they said they were going to write a role
Speaker 1: for her, and they did. She played Becky Slater. She
Speaker 1: did I think nine or ten episodes. That's awesome. So
Speaker 1: because you weren't auditioning for serious roles, this ends up
Speaker 1: becoming a really big deal for you. Do you remember
Speaker 1: anything about the audition? Yes, I remember. I remember we
Speaker 1: auditioned on a Thursday callback for that Friday, and I
Speaker 1: remember there's like a group of girls all reading for
Speaker 1: the part of Winning Cooper, including me and my sister,
Speaker 1: and the room got small and small, and I kept
Speaker 1: having us come in and read again, and I said,
Speaker 1: we're taking a dinner break. You come back and you're
Speaker 1: gonna read with Fred Savage, the boy who's playing the lead.
Speaker 1: After dinner, I was like okay. So we all went
Speaker 1: to dinner and there's a restaurant down belows the studio city,
Speaker 1: and H remember seeing Fred and wondering if that was
Speaker 1: the kid, and I was like, oh, he's cute. I
Speaker 1: wonder if she's the guy who I'll be reading with,
Speaker 1: and it was. I'm not sure I ever said in
Speaker 1: this in an interview, but it came down to the
Speaker 1: three of us, Me and my sister and this actress.
Speaker 1: I don't know her name, but she ended up with
Speaker 1: like a couple of lines in the pilot episode. She's
Speaker 1: the girl for people who are super fans of the
Speaker 1: Wonder Years. Kevin is talking about love, you know, Junior High,
Speaker 1: and there's this couple who's holding hands across his desk
Speaker 1: saying I love you, I love you too, And she
Speaker 1: was one of she was one of the three of
Speaker 1: us who were the final contenders or Winnny Cooper. So
Speaker 1: of the three of us who were sitting there reading
Speaker 1: with Fred after dinner, we all ended up with Roles
Speaker 1: on the show. With Roles on the show, that's awesome
Speaker 1: that I love That's a BTS everybody. That's a behind
Speaker 1: the scenes nugget. Um. I did talk for a while
Speaker 1: to to Daniel Fishel about what I understand is the
Speaker 1: same with you that you're your first kiss was on
Speaker 1: camera with Fred in the pilot. How did that bring
Speaker 1: some extra nerves? Oh for you, especially because at the
Speaker 1: time I had a huge crush on him and I
Speaker 1: was just so excited and so nervous. And I start
Speaker 1: remember after the first take when they said cut the
Speaker 1: whole Who started a plotting? And I don't know who
Speaker 1: started that, but it was mortifying. I mean, you can
Speaker 1: only imagine all the nerves, anticipation. You know, you're about
Speaker 1: to have your first kiss, You've got a crush on
Speaker 1: the guy, you know, and then it finally happens. It's
Speaker 1: the most amazing moment ever. And it's like, wait, that
Speaker 1: wasn't a private that wasn't real, Okay, right? Did you
Speaker 1: did you think for the rest of your life every
Speaker 1: time you kissed someone that would it would break out
Speaker 1: an applause all around you. I remember when I had
Speaker 1: my first real kiss at least two years, no year
Speaker 1: and a half later, with Jeremy Miller, by the way,
Speaker 1: who was the little boy on Growing Pains. That was
Speaker 1: my first kiss. He was my first little boyfriend. I
Speaker 1: was fourteen and he was thirteen, and and uh, it
Speaker 1: was actually at my dad's house in Lahoya, were they
Speaker 1: were down there for some reason, and so we all
Speaker 1: hung out and then we're my dad's house and we
Speaker 1: had a moment alone and and I remember thinking, wait,
Speaker 1: is this gonna be my first kiss? And it was like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is so different because I don't know, oh you know,
Speaker 1: but not scripted, it may or may not happen. Yes,
Speaker 1: So no, I didn't think You're gonna be cameras. But
Speaker 1: I was like stunned at how addit felt to not
Speaker 1: actually know how I was going to go now how
Speaker 1: it was going to go down. Yes, um, you are
Speaker 1: on the Wonder Years, basically your entire teenage years, right
Speaker 1: twelve to eighteen. What was it like for you growing up?
Speaker 1: And this is a huge show at the time, and
Speaker 1: everybody is talking about it, and everybody is talking about
Speaker 1: you and and about Fred at the time. What was
Speaker 1: it like for you growing up in the spotlight with
Speaker 1: all of that attention during what for most is awkward
Speaker 1: teenage years. I was not in touch with it. And
Speaker 1: that's the truth. I was not in touch with it
Speaker 1: at all. At some point some point. I think I
Speaker 1: was probably sixteen, and someone on set referred to me
Speaker 1: as America's sweetheart, and I was like, what we're talking like,
Speaker 1: I just I was very busy with school and work
Speaker 1: and family life and my mom on both my parents
Speaker 1: always emphasize the importance of basically everything over show biz.
Speaker 1: So health, family, school, and then sure showbiz. But that's
Speaker 1: that was the prioriest game. In fact, when The Wonder
Speaker 1: Years got nominated for the first time for an Emmy,
Speaker 1: in fact, we won that year. I wasn't there because
Speaker 1: there was a river trip like a river rafting trip
Speaker 1: scheduled with my dad and my sister that and he
Speaker 1: had a really busy work schedule and we couldn't move it,
Speaker 1: and so we went on the trip, I mean, and
Speaker 1: it was kind of like, well, we have this invitation
Speaker 1: we could go to the Emmy's where we could go
Speaker 1: in this river rafting trip, And my parents decided together, know,
Speaker 1: the trip is more important. And I remember being in
Speaker 1: this tiny, little more Tell room in Oregon. We're gonna
Speaker 1: get in the Rogue River the next day, and it
Speaker 1: was like a TV from the nineteen seventies. I don't
Speaker 1: know where. It was, tiny, little screen and we watched
Speaker 1: The Wonder Years win the enmy we jumped up and
Speaker 1: down the bed and like the we won, and we
Speaker 1: went to sleep, got up at like five in the
Speaker 1: morning and hit the river and had the trip of
Speaker 1: our lives. I mean, I remember click picking black berries
Speaker 1: on the side of the river with my dad and
Speaker 1: my sister, and it's some of the most precious memories.
Speaker 1: So that kind of thing, you know, that's that was
Speaker 1: my life. My life was all the all the regular stuff.
Speaker 1: And then I went to work and I loved it,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't the focus. I didn't go to Hollywood parties.
Speaker 1: I mean there would be like ABC affiliate parties here
Speaker 1: and there that would go to with my mom, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. But I was never I was
Speaker 1: never in that scene where I would have been offered
Speaker 1: drugs or gotten going wrong group, but just that just
Speaker 1: wasn't my reality. I was going to a challenging school
Speaker 1: and it took up a lot of time and that
Speaker 1: was my that's my focus. Were you doing set school
Speaker 1: as well? Yes, So any day that I missed, I
Speaker 1: actually I just take the homework and do it on set.
Speaker 1: And we had a fantastic teacher David Combs. He was great,
Speaker 1: and he was great at everything except for math. Like
Speaker 1: he was fine. But when I got into pre calculus
Speaker 1: and stuff, they brought in somebody else, so I had
Speaker 1: my own personal calculus tutor. I mean, in some ways
Speaker 1: you could say that being on the Wonder Years helped
Speaker 1: me in my math education. And ultimately, yeah, I became
Speaker 1: a I don't want to jump ahead, but but like
Speaker 1: I became a math major e c l A. They
Speaker 1: love math so much, and I had all that wonderful
Speaker 1: private tutor in for caculus um. I love that you
Speaker 1: went river rafting instead of going to the Emmy's. I
Speaker 1: love that that your parents were trying to keep that
Speaker 1: normalcy and put their importance on on family and those
Speaker 1: and those experiences. I do want to ask you, though,
Speaker 1: what are some of your favorite memories from your teenage
Speaker 1: years that that either were outside of the show or
Speaker 1: or happened because of the show. Oh my gosh, it's
Speaker 1: a huge question. I mean I went to prom you know,
Speaker 1: and uh, I would go to the Homecoming games. The
Speaker 1: producers of the Wonderings were really really good about like
Speaker 1: if we had some event coming up, they would try
Speaker 1: to work around it. They weren't always able to, but
Speaker 1: they always tried, so that was really special. Kent to
Speaker 1: fulsky Um and Bob Brush. They were just wonderful and
Speaker 1: really really cared about us being kids, So that made
Speaker 1: a huge, huge difference, and I remember being really grateful
Speaker 1: to them on several occasions, so that that's a happy memory.
Speaker 1: It seems to be, though, as big as the show God,
Speaker 1: as much as your parents wanted to shelter you and
Speaker 1: give you, as you say, a normal life, the experience
Speaker 1: at what became Harvard Westlake, you must have been getting
Speaker 1: some attention. There was that positive or was that a negative?
Speaker 1: You know, it's in l A. I mean, it's not
Speaker 1: that big a deal. Tori Spelling was a couple of
Speaker 1: years ahead of me. It's not a big deal. Okay.
Speaker 1: In l A. It was every now and then somebody
Speaker 1: would have a problem with me, but it was really
Speaker 1: not a big deal. And the guys definitely stayed away.
Speaker 1: I don't know it's just intimidating or what. But I
Speaker 1: have a boyfriend eventually, but not from school. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I felt pretty normal, okay. And I'll say because we
Speaker 1: were not one of those shows that taped in front
Speaker 1: of life, suit of your audience. There, I only worked
Speaker 1: on the days that I was in scenes. And if
Speaker 1: you really watched the show, Winnie Cooper wasn't in that
Speaker 1: many episodes until the very ill season. The sixth season,
Speaker 1: I was in almost every one. But I would like
Speaker 1: have a couple of weeks where I was just in school,
Speaker 1: and then I have a week where I was only
Speaker 1: worked two or three days. I would say I was
Speaker 1: in my regular school at least half the time. Now,
Speaker 1: it was an interesting skill set to go back and
Speaker 1: forth and back and forth. It's an interesting It would
Speaker 1: have been a little easier if I just known kind
Speaker 1: of what the deal was. But I'd be in school
Speaker 1: and they say, Okay, we've got a history test next Friday,
Speaker 1: and I wouldn't know if I was going to be
Speaker 1: there for it or not. And I remember when I
Speaker 1: got to U c l A, how much of a
Speaker 1: relief it was, like, Oh, wait, I can like set
Speaker 1: mind the schedule. I can be dependable. I know what
Speaker 1: next week looks like. Right when you start hearing things
Speaker 1: on set about being America's sweetheart or whatever, when you
Speaker 1: started to realize how important that relationship was too people
Speaker 1: outside of it, do you think that that increased the
Speaker 1: pressure of you portraying it or how did that affect
Speaker 1: specifically your performance do you think I don't think I
Speaker 1: was aware enough of it to have affect my performance,
Speaker 1: but I did affect the way I related to the world,
Speaker 1: especially when the show was done. I mean, even through today,
Speaker 1: having a certain sense of responsibility to people because of
Speaker 1: the character that I play. I mean, I'm very similar
Speaker 1: to any Cooper, to be quite honest. But it also
Speaker 1: just so I did have a sense of responsibility the
Speaker 1: whole time. We just didn't affect play the role, but
Speaker 1: affected me in the world. Remember where I was probably
Speaker 1: fortunate or fifteen, and I was offered a contract to
Speaker 1: represent some sort of granola bark and it was a
Speaker 1: lot of mine. And I looked at the ingredients. I'm like,
Speaker 1: with a sugar in hand, I don't like, you don't
Speaker 1: need sugar. And my mom was like really proud, and
Speaker 1: I said, no, I can't. I can't tell people to
Speaker 1: eat this because they might listen to me and this
Speaker 1: isn't what I would eat, so that's not healthy. So
Speaker 1: we said no, and I remember my mom was like
Speaker 1: so proud because of just no understanding that I had
Speaker 1: a responsibility to the public and I wanted to be
Speaker 1: a good leader and take this gift of being the
Speaker 1: block I and do something positive with it. I mean,
Speaker 1: I look and I've certainly continued that I love mathematics.
Speaker 1: But what I do with that now is I don't
Speaker 1: go in a corner and do mathematics by myself. I
Speaker 1: have all these books to help kids. You know, I
Speaker 1: know that that the parents normally from the Wonder Years.
Speaker 1: Some of the kids normal me from my Christmas movies,
Speaker 1: but the parents definitely know me from the Wonder Years.
Speaker 1: And so to be able to take my position as
Speaker 1: this public figure and people somebody who people look up to,
Speaker 1: a character that people look up to you and say, oh,
Speaker 1: well I can do something positive with that and help
Speaker 1: these parents with you know, their kids math issues and
Speaker 1: help do something to that. Well, you've transitioned beautifully. I
Speaker 1: have not spoken, for sure in all of my guests
Speaker 1: to a math genius until today. Um, you go to
Speaker 1: U c l A. Well, first off, did you make
Speaker 1: a conscious decision that you were going to take a
Speaker 1: hiatus from acting like you were going to go to
Speaker 1: school and focus on school? So I first went to
Speaker 1: U c l A with the idea of being a
Speaker 1: film major and learning the other side. And then for
Speaker 1: the first year I still did jobs. I did a
Speaker 1: movie with the Week for NBC, and I did like
Speaker 1: an episode Bad one five, and I was doing things
Speaker 1: here and there. But it's funny because I realized, wait
Speaker 1: a minute, because it was it's so stressful going back
Speaker 1: and forth, not again, not knowing if you're gonna be
Speaker 1: there for something, leaving town, coming back, trying to make
Speaker 1: up assignments, find out what the work was, get ahead
Speaker 1: of the curb. All that stuff really really tough. And
Speaker 1: I was like, wait, so the wonder years and in
Speaker 1: high school, like the law told you you have to
Speaker 1: go to high school. Well now I'm an adult. I
Speaker 1: don't even have to be school if I don't want
Speaker 1: to be. And I don't have to take any of
Speaker 1: these jobs because they're all one off jobs, and that
Speaker 1: it's less serious, Like what am I doing to myself?
Speaker 1: So about a year into it, and I kept getting incomplete.
Speaker 1: The professions, weren't letting me make up the exams. I'm like, what,
Speaker 1: why would you just let me take it again? And
Speaker 1: I'm like, well, if we just don't do that, like, Okay,
Speaker 1: different fault, this is a different this is a different
Speaker 1: landscape here. So I decided to take a break at
Speaker 1: that point and just focus on school work. And at
Speaker 1: that point, by that point, I had taken a math class.
Speaker 1: It was multi variable calculus, and it was as tough
Speaker 1: class I was. I was so nervous about because I
Speaker 1: hadn't taken math since high school. Its's been almost a
Speaker 1: year since I've taken any math. Well, I still had
Speaker 1: all my high school math notes, because that's just the
Speaker 1: kind of first I am. And I studied them, learned
Speaker 1: all the trigonometric identities for calculus, for doing integrals and
Speaker 1: all that stuff, and so I get to multiple calculists
Speaker 1: and I was like really prepared, and I had no
Speaker 1: idea that I was so like overly prepared for this class.
Speaker 1: It was a class of like a hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: three people. And I remember the first mid term exam.
Speaker 1: I studied so hard for that. I memorized everything, I
Speaker 1: knew everything, and yet the test was ridiculously difficult. I
Speaker 1: got like a forty four or something out of a
Speaker 1: hundred and um. As it turns out, it was a
Speaker 1: weader test. The professor raft the scores on the chalkboard.
Speaker 1: Forty four was by itself, and there were a couple
Speaker 1: of fifteens, and then it was like nine below and
Speaker 1: this is the class of a hundred and six to
Speaker 1: three people. I'm looking at my test. I'm looking up
Speaker 1: and like, that's that's met working get the number wrong.
Speaker 1: But it was it was like it was all by
Speaker 1: itself and everything was blow. It might have been twenty.
Speaker 1: It was twenty two out of forties. Twenty two out
Speaker 1: of forty. So I'm getting mixed up anyway. Point is
Speaker 1: I'm a numbers person because matters and don't getting the
Speaker 1: numbers right. So I was like, I was like, oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, this is amazing. And the professor pulled me
Speaker 1: aside afterwards and said, like, you've got a gift. I
Speaker 1: mean you you're really good at math, and like, I don't.
Speaker 1: I studied really hard. I don't know, but as it
Speaker 1: turns out, that's part of it, studying really hard and
Speaker 1: wanting to study hard and wanting to become a master.
Speaker 1: It's something that's part of It's not like you're just
Speaker 1: a math genius and so it's just easy. That's not
Speaker 1: what makes you good masking. Yeah, but hold on it.
Speaker 1: Since I stopped talking about the Wonder years and started
Speaker 1: talking about math, your energy has changed. So there is
Speaker 1: something inside you that you love. It's of her from
Speaker 1: being a genius. I love it. I want to learn it.
Speaker 1: I want to study. It's a puzzle. It's it's beautiful
Speaker 1: if these proofs are beautiful. And he was just reading
Speaker 1: a book she's talking about. She's trying to like bridge
Speaker 1: mathematics and literature, and she says, if you happen to
Speaker 1: be a mathematician, then you already have poetry in your soul.
Speaker 1: And I was like, yes, she gets it, she gets it,
Speaker 1: because math is beautiful when you are doing this proofs
Speaker 1: and you understand, it's like crystallized beauty. I don't even
Speaker 1: know how to but you don't get to that until
Speaker 1: you've gotten through calculus and gone through all that stuff.
Speaker 1: So that's all fun and good, and I would hope
Speaker 1: that some people might get that who may not have
Speaker 1: having been exposed to me talking about it. Yes, no,
Speaker 1: I'm with you, but just hold on first. She's a
Speaker 1: three time New York Times bestseller, by the way, so
Speaker 1: she knows what she's talking about. But four time, four
Speaker 1: times our research was wrong. I'm gonna yell at somebody later.
Speaker 1: You have a mathematical theorem with your name on it.
Speaker 1: The chase is that right, Chase McKellar in theorem? She
Speaker 1: has a theorem? All right, you gotta talk slower, and
Speaker 1: you've got to explain elevator talk. What what is that?
Speaker 1: What is the theorem relate to? It relates to a
Speaker 1: two dimensional mathematical model of magnetic material that has to
Speaker 1: do with temperature, and based on a temperature, whether or
Speaker 1: not the magnetic material will hold its magnetic charge as
Speaker 1: you pull the magnets farther and farther away. That's kind
Speaker 1: of based on temperatures in temperature. So the colder it is,
Speaker 1: it's mathematical physics. Really, the colder it is, the longer
Speaker 1: they'll stay magnetized. The low stone. But it's a two
Speaker 1: dimensional model of it, and it's kind of amazing and
Speaker 1: an only con point in four directions the electroc theat
Speaker 1: the polls, which is not anything like the real world.
Speaker 1: But what's really cool about math is that it's the
Speaker 1: language of the science is right, and it's amazing. Even
Speaker 1: with a two dimensional model of the magnetic material, you
Speaker 1: can still get a lot from it. But if you
Speaker 1: look at the paper, it's not like a bunch of
Speaker 1: pictures of magnets. It's all this crazy looking math, Like,
Speaker 1: what is all this? I did that during college. It's
Speaker 1: a long time ago. And I look at the paper
Speaker 1: now and I'm like, kind of sort of, yeah, I
Speaker 1: was there. Did I listen? I here's the crazy thing.
Speaker 1: I kind of understood what you said. Yes, I kind of.
Speaker 1: I kind of understood. What you say. Is way easier
Speaker 1: than mass. If you can look at in the real world,
Speaker 1: there's something you can grab onto tangible. But if you
Speaker 1: if you don't, if you want to be kind of
Speaker 1: not feeling is on top of this um, we'll just
Speaker 1: say the title that's percolation. It gives its multiplicity for
Speaker 1: fair magnetic Ashman teller models and two dimensions. It's fara magnets,
Speaker 1: not regular magnets. Anyway, all right, what you lost me?
Speaker 1: But I can tell you why to be lost. I
Speaker 1: think you were happy when you were lost. No, you're
Speaker 1: exactly right. Here's a fun fact for everybody here. Now,
Speaker 1: many people haven't an Urdos number. Burtis Iritish. It's actually
Speaker 1: pronounced British Kurdish. Okay, so Danica has an Urdish number. Okay,
Speaker 1: do you know who Paul Urtish is. Uh, He's an
Speaker 1: Huggarian mathematician. Of course, he's a very prolific mathematician, much like. Okay,
Speaker 1: so let's think we should start with the Kevin Bacon number,
Speaker 1: because Kevin Bacon number, that's what people know about, right,
Speaker 1: Urgish number. Yeah, people have Kevin Bacon number. That's that's
Speaker 1: how many degrees away from Kevin Bacon. You are, right
Speaker 1: with Kevin Bacon. So I've got to baking a number
Speaker 1: of two. Yeah, yes, and my Iurgish number. He wrote
Speaker 1: many many mathematical papers. My my Iritish numbers four. So
Speaker 1: together my Bacon Iurgish number, and there are only a
Speaker 1: few people who have the can work with Kevin Bacon
Speaker 1: at some point, which I really must do, then I
Speaker 1: can bring it down to five. I think I'm tried
Speaker 1: with Natali Aportman right now. I'm not totally sure she
Speaker 1: has an Earnish number. Yeah, oh yeah, Natalie Portman's your number.
Speaker 1: What's what's her number? There's also six, but but I'm
Speaker 1: not sure. I haven't looked in years. It was years
Speaker 1: ago that I saw that. I was like, hmmm, because
Speaker 1: she has written she she went to Harvard and she
Speaker 1: did something really smart. It wasn't math, it was something else,
Speaker 1: but it was something in the sciences. So this math
Speaker 1: person did something with this science, and that science person
Speaker 1: did something over there. And so it's still linked your
Speaker 1: back to Paula Artisi. So you can crush her in math.
Speaker 1: I mean maybe, but I he's super smart. She might
Speaker 1: do on the side for all I know. It's all
Speaker 1: about a competition for me. Um. So yes, you have begun,
Speaker 1: not just begun. You've been doing it for for quite
Speaker 1: a while now, writing children's books related to math. Four
Speaker 1: time New York Time best selling author. Why what was
Speaker 1: missing in this category? Well, so in the year two thousand,
Speaker 1: I was I was invited to speak in front of
Speaker 1: Congress about the importance of women in mathematics. I just
Speaker 1: graduated from college and it was known that oh, Winnie
Speaker 1: the math whiz okay and to auch a kind of
Speaker 1: funny story. So this commission wanted to get more money
Speaker 1: for scholarships for women in college to entice more women
Speaker 1: to study the STEM careers. So they invited me to
Speaker 1: testify basically about the importance of When my mathematics so
Speaker 1: they could get more money for this thing. But I
Speaker 1: wasn't really thinking of it in that way. I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna help solve this problem in this country. So
Speaker 1: I read the hundred page report, okay, hundred pages, and
Speaker 1: it was detailed. And in this document and this hundred
Speaker 1: page document, it was clear that middle school was the
Speaker 1: time when girls started to shy away from Matt. That's
Speaker 1: when their confidence really started dropping, and then their grades
Speaker 1: would drop after that. And I was like, wow, this
Speaker 1: is really, this is this is crazy, this is kids
Speaker 1: need support in middle school. Like it's too late by college.
Speaker 1: So I get up there and in my four minutes
Speaker 1: I was given to give a speech, I say all
Speaker 1: this and I say, look, it's too late by college.
Speaker 1: So unwittingly, like like ruining their their whole plan for it,
Speaker 1: invited me out there, um and uh. And they didn't
Speaker 1: get the money, by the way, my fault. So I said, look,
Speaker 1: it's too late by then. Middle schools the time. And
Speaker 1: here's the other thing my dad loves to tell people
Speaker 1: because he was there. He came with me in the
Speaker 1: executive summary, which is what the Congress people usually read,
Speaker 1: because how they're not gonna read a hundred page report
Speaker 1: on every single issue they're looking at. Right, it wasn't
Speaker 1: in there. The thing about middle school was not in
Speaker 1: the executive summary. So this commission had paid for all
Speaker 1: this research and put this paper together, but then they
Speaker 1: put the argument that they wanted to try to get
Speaker 1: their money because that's what I'm sure that's how politics works. Fine, whatever,
Speaker 1: So I tell them, I say, I said, you know what,
Speaker 1: the information that I had to tell you, the most
Speaker 1: important stuff, wasn't in the executive summary. And my dad
Speaker 1: says that the congressman put glasses dentists will why don't
Speaker 1: you enlighten us, young lady? I said. I was like,
Speaker 1: no problem. So I'm like, go on and time. I said, like, look,
Speaker 1: middle school as the time the grade started to job
Speaker 1: in this country is fourth grade. When you start to
Speaker 1: see if it really by eighth grade. This is the
Speaker 1: middle problem. I said, math. I said, if you have
Speaker 1: your money to help a math education, give it to
Speaker 1: middle school teachers. We need better middle school teachers. A
Speaker 1: lot of them are underpaid. You know, they're like gym
Speaker 1: teachers who then are pulled in because they're they're low
Speaker 1: on math teachers. We need to attract more math teachers
Speaker 1: to middle school. This is when we really need that support. Also,
Speaker 1: mathews better pr and I said, and I will be
Speaker 1: working on that. I pledged to you that I will
Speaker 1: do everything that I can to improve the image that
Speaker 1: people have of math in this country because when you
Speaker 1: started growing up, and I even talked about like on
Speaker 1: the Wonder Years, it's that time and life when you're
Speaker 1: worried about who you are and trying to figure out
Speaker 1: who you are. Well, if you're like, I don't know
Speaker 1: who I am, but you're seeing all these stereotypes about mathematicians.
Speaker 1: But but I'm not. I'm not that, I'm not a
Speaker 1: math nerd. So I'm gonna just not look at that
Speaker 1: plus be here that math it's too hard, it's too boring,
Speaker 1: it's just for boys. It's whatever. It's it's other, it
Speaker 1: doesn't apply to our lives, it's not relevant. I'm like,
Speaker 1: this is all untrue. But let me, you know, let
Speaker 1: me like work on that. So I told him I
Speaker 1: will pledge to do what I can. So at that
Speaker 1: point I was like, Okay, I'm not sure I'm gonna do.
Speaker 1: But I started a website and then it was in
Speaker 1: July of two thousand five when I did a lingerie
Speaker 1: spread for Stuff magazine because I was thirty and I
Speaker 1: was like, hey, I'm gonna show that you can still
Speaker 1: look hot at thirty, which is so funny now in
Speaker 1: my forties. Um. So it was a class every tasteful.
Speaker 1: But that same month, in July two thousand and five,
Speaker 1: the New York Times decided to do a story about
Speaker 1: my math paper that I had written years before. So
Speaker 1: it was this great article that came out. And so
Speaker 1: those two things came out the same month, and it
Speaker 1: just kind of showed this duality, you know, like breaking
Speaker 1: stereotypes about who's good at math. So I had a
Speaker 1: couple of different literary agents reach out to me until
Speaker 1: my manager saying, hey, we would we think that Dannicus
Speaker 1: should write a book of some story. And at that point,
Speaker 1: I've been doing so much studying about middle schools, like
Speaker 1: I know exactly the book. I want it right, And
Speaker 1: it was this one math doesn't Suck? I think, how
Speaker 1: does provive middle school math without losing your mind or
Speaker 1: breaking a nail? So this is the book that came
Speaker 1: out in two thousand and seven, and uh runaway bestseller
Speaker 1: like crazy, like couldn't keep it off. Shelf kept having
Speaker 1: to reprint it because this book it teaches fractions and
Speaker 1: decimals and percents and you know, proportions, solving for X,
Speaker 1: all that stuff, but it does it like a girlfriend
Speaker 1: talking to my girlfriend. And it was it's friendly, it's successful.
Speaker 1: I have real world examples. Every single chapter shows you
Speaker 1: how you might use that in real life. So I
Speaker 1: had to, you know, tackle k It doesn't have to
Speaker 1: just be wos. You can be a glamorous girl if
Speaker 1: you want and still be good at math. Picture. Math
Speaker 1: is the thing that's making your brain sharp and preparing
Speaker 1: you to be in charge of your finances, preferring your
Speaker 1: brain to be good at problem solving, and then you
Speaker 1: can tackle anything any goal you have. But aspire if
Speaker 1: you want to be glamorous, aspired to be the woman
Speaker 1: in for in shields, holding your briefcase, walking down you know,
Speaker 1: Wall Street, and go into a super important job like
Speaker 1: make that the type of glamorous that you aspire to.
Speaker 1: And so that whole message was it just hit a nerve,
Speaker 1: It just struck a chord, and everyone seemed to get
Speaker 1: on board, and I was like person of the week
Speaker 1: on ABC World News and like this crazy time, and
Speaker 1: I thought that was just gonna be the one book
Speaker 1: that I would write. Well, eleven books later, here we
Speaker 1: are writing book number twelve right now. And um so
Speaker 1: next one was kiss My Math, showing creology with his boss.
Speaker 1: And then I have hot X the Algebra book, and
Speaker 1: I've got girls Get Curves. John Ashul takes shape. So
Speaker 1: it goes all the way up through high school geometry.
Speaker 1: And then I had so many people saying, please write
Speaker 1: little kid books. We want maths support even younger. And
Speaker 1: it's like, you know, it's true, even though you might
Speaker 1: middle school at the time when you really see it
Speaker 1: falling apart, the problem starts sooner and you can't. There's
Speaker 1: no time. It's too soon to start showing kids that
Speaker 1: math is part of your life, part of your life.
Speaker 1: It's friendly. So this book Ten Magic Butterflies, it teaches
Speaker 1: different ways of making ten from two numbers. It's a
Speaker 1: story of these ten flowers who, one by one they
Speaker 1: ask a fairy if they can become a butterfly, and
Speaker 1: they do and then but in the meantime, it's teaching
Speaker 1: you how to make ten from two numbers one and nine, two,
Speaker 1: and eight, three and seven. It takes you through the
Speaker 1: whole thing. So and then very good Kevin. This is
Speaker 1: the book that I can't believe it just called you, Kevin.
Speaker 1: Do you have people to call me Winnie? Like they
Speaker 1: call me Winnie and I'm like, I can't, but I
Speaker 1: forgive them. You must be in the same space. It's
Speaker 1: just did that to you, and oh stop. The crazy
Speaker 1: thing is this just happened to me today, right? You know,
Speaker 1: you go into a Starbucks and they make you and
Speaker 1: especially if they're playing it very cool. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: not thinking about it, and I give my name, which
Speaker 1: is I know I don't And then I'm standing there
Speaker 1: and you hear names start to be called up Kevin.
Speaker 1: I don't turn around because I'm like, oh no, I
Speaker 1: mean clearly. And then I turned around and they're looking
Speaker 1: at me, and it's like, all right, it's written on
Speaker 1: the car exactly. Wanted to call you, Kevin. Exactly. They
Speaker 1: just love your character and that's why people love the
Speaker 1: character so much. Anyway, what I'm saying was, this is
Speaker 1: the most recent like teaching book. It's the Times Machine,
Speaker 1: and it might be the one that I'm maybe the
Speaker 1: most proud of it came out in which is just
Speaker 1: in time, so many kids were falling behind. Already teaches
Speaker 1: multiplication and division for third and fourth graders to help
Speaker 1: memorize multiplication facts. And so I have this whole section
Speaker 1: where I do like a story and a poem and
Speaker 1: things for all the difficult ones, for example, six times seven?
Speaker 1: Do you know that one? I know them all. I'm
Speaker 1: actually not bad for two. Go ahead, go ahead, quiz man.
Speaker 1: Now here's the story of Mr Masse. Mr mass loves
Speaker 1: cheese because what mouse doesn't love cheese? Well, magine Mr
Speaker 1: Mouse eats a six sided block of cheese every day
Speaker 1: three weeks at seven right, six times seven. Well, by
Speaker 1: the end of the week, Mr Mouse is pretty full
Speaker 1: and farty too. I got what you did. I see
Speaker 1: what you did there. Kids will then seven is forty two.
Speaker 1: This is what this book does. The Times Machine, well,
Speaker 1: I gotta tell you something with all sincerity and all
Speaker 1: joking aside. I have a second grader and she is
Speaker 1: in love with math and is already at the start
Speaker 1: of second grade, is already doing third grade math. The
Speaker 1: Times Machine sounds like for her, I'm going to get
Speaker 1: her the Times Machine. We'll do it together. She was
Speaker 1: just doing her eights with me the other day. We
Speaker 1: do math together. She teaches me daily. So I want
Speaker 1: to say to you, one, I appreciate what you're doing.
Speaker 1: And I appreciate this, particularly as a father of girls,
Speaker 1: that you are doing this for the girls. And I
Speaker 1: hope she sticks with it, and you know what, if
Speaker 1: she doesn't and she finds something else, that's amazing too.
Speaker 1: But I want you to know I appreciate that. And uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: the Times Machine and by the way, I'm sure the
Speaker 1: Little Kid books all the way up through the Times Machine,
Speaker 1: those are very co it's really starting with math doesn't stuck.
Speaker 1: By the way, all the books can be found at
Speaker 1: McKellar math dot com math dot com. You still have
Speaker 1: a math going on, but a career, a math author career. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but anytime you have a theorem, you're an act of
Speaker 1: math mathy. What brought you back to your acting career?
Speaker 1: I mean, you have so many credits I can't even
Speaker 1: begin to name them. You've been doing this for so long,
Speaker 1: but also a voiceover career as well, doing things like
Speaker 1: Young Justice, DC, Superhero Girls, Generation rex Um Acting on
Speaker 1: camera or voiceover? What do you on camera? I love
Speaker 1: I love them both, but on camera, I just there's
Speaker 1: so much more you can do. There's so much more innuendo,
Speaker 1: and there's a lot of subtlety. But look, voice, that
Speaker 1: was super fun and you're done right away. It's fast,
Speaker 1: and you could could fully be a character that maybe
Speaker 1: you wouldn't normally get to play otherwise. And Young Justice
Speaker 1: my character and Miss Marshall has gone so many places,
Speaker 1: dark places, places that you know that I haven't gotten
Speaker 1: to do on camera because I don't come off that
Speaker 1: way like I'm, you know, wholesome girl, light story and
Speaker 1: I always happen and I was over and it was
Speaker 1: and I love it. I'm I'm very grateful. But you
Speaker 1: asked me what brought me back? Um, it was missing
Speaker 1: connecting with people. Matt is so much fun, but you're
Speaker 1: why yourself most of the time. And I missed Sharon.
Speaker 1: I would even just try to have lunch with my
Speaker 1: mom and talk to her about what I was doing,
Speaker 1: and I would have to keep defining all the words
Speaker 1: I was using, and it just by the time we
Speaker 1: finished lunch, I had just finally finished all the definitions.
Speaker 1: It couldn't even really by that point, she'd forgotten the
Speaker 1: first one, because it's just not it's a totally different
Speaker 1: language when you get up into the high crazy you know,
Speaker 1: specific math stuff. So writing the books also turned out
Speaker 1: to an amazing way of connecting with people got math.
Speaker 1: But long before that, I had already gone back to acting,
Speaker 1: and um, I've done a few independent films. And then
Speaker 1: The West Wing came up and I got to read
Speaker 1: for Aaron Sorkin and some of that audition and he goes,
Speaker 1: I am crazy about you, and I was like, I'm
Speaker 1: crazy about you. Amazing moment. I did like nine episodes
Speaker 1: for The West Wing and it was fantastic. And then
Speaker 1: and then I got really into the math book writing
Speaker 1: for a while. And then I had a baby, and
Speaker 1: then I year now after that, I got divorced and
Speaker 1: kind of restarted my life and moved with my mom.
Speaker 1: And then um, yeah, I think I started doing I
Speaker 1: started doing Hallmark movies in and I did like seventeen
Speaker 1: movies there in the space of like six years or something,
Speaker 1: and started your love of the Christmas movies. Absolutely, Christmas
Speaker 1: at Dollywood with Dolly. Did you film at Dollywood for
Speaker 1: a few days of it? Yeah, we shot mostly in
Speaker 1: Vancouver and then a few days at Dollywood, which and
Speaker 1: it was during Christmas to so they don't turn on
Speaker 1: the Christmas Lives until the beginning of November, and these
Speaker 1: movies come out like that movie came out the beginning
Speaker 1: of December, so we shot the entire movie before and
Speaker 1: then had like a couple of days at Dollywood. They
Speaker 1: had to just cut stick in the movie to be
Speaker 1: able to have that air on time. Instaying, I was like,
Speaker 1: how is this going to happen? What was it like
Speaker 1: working with Dolly? She is such a professional, she's so
Speaker 1: she's just she's larger than life in the best way.
Speaker 1: She walked into the room, this big theater which is
Speaker 1: where we shot the first stuff with her, and she
Speaker 1: was like Mary, Christmas everybody and you just everyone was happy.
Speaker 1: I mean everyone was like waiting. It's like she's getting here,
Speaker 1: so okay, well yeah to Dallas, come and say okay.
Speaker 1: It's all this is anticipation. She walked in put everyone
Speaker 1: at ease. And she also knows how to make things
Speaker 1: sound good no matter what she's saying, so even if
Speaker 1: it's like threatening, this is one moment where so it
Speaker 1: was it was on my clothes up and she was
Speaker 1: walking past the camera to be to be over her
Speaker 1: shoulder onto me, and there was a chord where she
Speaker 1: had to walk and the DP said, um, I don't
Speaker 1: want you to trip on that. She goes no, you know,
Speaker 1: and honey, right right, so good. So she's so good
Speaker 1: and anyway, so she I I absolutely adore her. That
Speaker 1: was twenty nine and then it was last year that
Speaker 1: I made the move from Hallmark Channel to Great American
Speaker 1: Family and the Bill Abbott so he he left Hallmark
Speaker 1: and went to Great American Family and he kind of
Speaker 1: just starting another Basically, it's another Hallmark. I mean, he's
Speaker 1: creating what he created before. He revived the whole Christmas
Speaker 1: movie genre, and then he really gave me this whole
Speaker 1: section of my career that I love so much. And
Speaker 1: it's been so much fun and playing these roles in
Speaker 1: these movies where everything is going to work out. It's wonderful.
Speaker 1: I just I love giving people happiness and giving them
Speaker 1: It's nut's not just an escape to people talk about
Speaker 1: this as being an escape, but it's more than that.
Speaker 1: It's a reminder of the good side of human nature.
Speaker 1: And the Christmas movie is, in particular one of the
Speaker 1: things that Bill Abbott is always really specific about is
Speaker 1: you always want to talk about traditions within the Christmas movie.
Speaker 1: And it's a reminder of people to, oh, you know what,
Speaker 1: it's good to have little Christmas traditions, however small they
Speaker 1: might be, especially for kids, because it tells them what
Speaker 1: season they're in, it tells it's a grounding effect, and
Speaker 1: it connects people. It connects the family together to have traditions,
Speaker 1: whatever they are. So these movies give ideas for traditions
Speaker 1: as well. And just kind of hearing that word makes
Speaker 1: you go, oh, right, it's Christmas time. We should do
Speaker 1: a tradition. I love that. November. Uh, your latest Christmas movie,
Speaker 1: Christmas at the drive In? By the way, how many
Speaker 1: of your viewers do you think have been to a
Speaker 1: drive in? I don't know, you know what, honestly that
Speaker 1: I mean, I have not been doing well. Okay I
Speaker 1: have because of the movie, but I'm not sure if
Speaker 1: that counts. And and to be honest, they've built the
Speaker 1: drive in. It was a working it's a working drive in,
Speaker 1: like they built it projector and they built the whole
Speaker 1: big screen in the whole thing. I don't know, I
Speaker 1: don't know, but they it should be because they well,
Speaker 1: they built it on the on the back lot up
Speaker 1: in Canada that they have So I don't know, but
Speaker 1: I think I've been to a drive in once, like
Speaker 1: with my dad a long time ago. Yeah, I think so,
Speaker 1: when I was a kid. Yeah, but this is the
Speaker 1: nineteen fifties style drive in the decor and the story
Speaker 1: is that was built in the nineteen fifties. So my
Speaker 1: co star, played by Neil Blasto, his father owned the
Speaker 1: drive in, and his father passed away last year and
Speaker 1: now it's his, but he doesn't live there anymore. Hasn't
Speaker 1: been profitable for years, so he's gonna just sell it,
Speaker 1: and he's selling it to a place it's gonna knock
Speaker 1: it down and building distribution center. And you know, my
Speaker 1: character like loves the drive in and wants to save it.
Speaker 1: I'm a lawyer of property lawyer, so I get into
Speaker 1: the weeds. And the thing is he and I used
Speaker 1: to be high school sweethearts, so we have to um
Speaker 1: find it out. And then and then the Historic Commission
Speaker 1: they say, look, we'll give you three weeks to prove
Speaker 1: the drive in is more important to the town than
Speaker 1: the distribution center. And they say to Holden when I
Speaker 1: coast if she has to prove that it that it's
Speaker 1: more important than you have proved isn't, and then we'll
Speaker 1: judge it from there. So that's that's the setup for
Speaker 1: the movie. And it's really fun and sweet. And this film,
Speaker 1: of well, starts of just nostalgia because breaks nineteen fifties
Speaker 1: style drive in and also because there's all this memory
Speaker 1: of the relationship they had as high school sweethearts and
Speaker 1: how things have changed. And it's great. And I know
Speaker 1: my fans, the fans of the Wonder Years are definitely
Speaker 1: fans of nostalgia. So great American Family Channel November the Friday,
Speaker 1: the day after Thanksgiving, there you go, and I will
Speaker 1: be live tweeting with that broadcast. Well you know, it
Speaker 1: is the most wonderful time of the year. Yes, I
Speaker 1: prefer it starting on exactly the day that this movie
Speaker 1: is coming out, So that's what I prefer. We're a
Speaker 1: little early right now, but by the time we get there,
Speaker 1: I'm ready. I'm all in. All right, I gotta ask
Speaker 1: you about one more thing. Is this math or is
Speaker 1: this entertainment or is this both? I understand you are
Speaker 1: a judge on My Good Buddy Show. Eric stone Street
Speaker 1: Domino Masters. How did that come about? What did you
Speaker 1: learn that was so much fun? Yeah? So I heard
Speaker 1: they wanted to have a meeting with me and they
Speaker 1: sent me a video. So, first of all, Domino Stors
Speaker 1: For those who don't know, it's a show that was
Speaker 1: on Fox this past summer, still on Hulu if people
Speaker 1: want to check it out. It's a competition reality show
Speaker 1: kind of like Lego Masters, but instead of Legos, it's Dominoes.
Speaker 1: And the thing that Domino's you build these huge structures
Speaker 1: with dominoes that also chain reaction machines, so it'll be
Speaker 1: you know, a ball rolling down inclined plane and nots
Speaker 1: in new domino and then the domino things swirls around
Speaker 1: and they hit something else when the baseball back comes
Speaker 1: around and falls down or whatever. It's it's a lot
Speaker 1: of physics, a lot of math and physics. Well you
Speaker 1: don't you don't have to use numbers so much, but
Speaker 1: it's it's physics to well. Yeah, and that was actually
Speaker 1: my challenge when they when they when I had my
Speaker 1: like audition, they sent me a video of a domino
Speaker 1: structure and chain reaction machine knocking down and they wanted
Speaker 1: me to like you know, judge it and a headshine,
Speaker 1: thinking like what kind of Mathew things can I say?
Speaker 1: Like the mathemetition. I appreciate that they were what do
Speaker 1: you thousand dominos used? Because they didn't tell me how
Speaker 1: many dominoes they were became a joke with me and
Speaker 1: my son. He was like, yes, well, as a mathemetician,
Speaker 1: so we was aren't every sentence with asthmam petition? I
Speaker 1: think this book weighs a certain amount of palms. Yeah, whatever.
Speaker 1: So but I did talk about the physics of it
Speaker 1: a bit, but well, I'm not really a physics expert.
Speaker 1: I'm no math more than physics. But I studied about
Speaker 1: the angle of the dominance hid and how much faster
Speaker 1: it goes and it closer together. I read, watched all
Speaker 1: those videos and and become a camera expert, and I did.
Speaker 1: I actually even talked about math and some like how
Speaker 1: you can prove with physics of the calculus that the
Speaker 1: physics of a catapult fourty five degrees is the is
Speaker 1: the best angle for the maximum distance. So I put
Speaker 1: all that stuff in. But as you may know, in
Speaker 1: reality shows, they use like a fifth or like a
Speaker 1: tenth of what you actually say so some of made
Speaker 1: in a lot of it didn't. But yes, there was
Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of be figuring out what's
Speaker 1: the physics angle, what's the Mathew angle on this? But
Speaker 1: I also made my audition about this. I said, this
Speaker 1: was a great knockdown. You know what it was missing?
Speaker 1: It's a story. I want a beginning, in middle and
Speaker 1: the end. Just like good choreography and a dance. You
Speaker 1: want to have a sense of where the stories have
Speaker 1: a climax and then have a resolution, as opposed to
Speaker 1: just a lot of really cool things being knocked down.
Speaker 1: And that became part of the show. One of the
Speaker 1: criteria was okay, what's the story, So that became I
Speaker 1: became sort of the dual like physics slash storyteller expert,
Speaker 1: and like Vernon Davis, he was all about the art
Speaker 1: and just the aesthetic of it. That was his main focus.
Speaker 1: Then Steve Price, the other judge, of course, was he
Speaker 1: knows a lot of a dominant because he is a
Speaker 1: dominant artist. Not well, this is this is you, this
Speaker 1: is an artist, this is a mathematician. It's fascinating because
Speaker 1: I don't know someone created your left and right brains
Speaker 1: to be of equal strength, which is very strong. So
Speaker 1: thank you so much for coming to talk to me.
Speaker 1: I don't know that I fully grasped the math, but
Speaker 1: I think I pretty much did. I think we're pretty
Speaker 1: you got you got you know, six times seven equal
Speaker 1: party too that you were facts and I got, I
Speaker 1: got all that. I got all that when incid if
Speaker 1: you're a daughter, it sounds awesome. And I want to
Speaker 1: say about your darter, you said something I didn'te a
Speaker 1: chance to address, and that is you said, even if
Speaker 1: she finds something else that she likes instead, that's fine too.
Speaker 1: And yes, here's the thing about math. It trains your
Speaker 1: brain to be a problem solving brain, and it helps
Speaker 1: you to distinguish between what do I know and what
Speaker 1: do I think? What am I assuming? It is the most,
Speaker 1: to me, the most useful skill for a kid to learn.
Speaker 1: It has nothing to do with whether or not they're
Speaker 1: gonna use math in their career, because they will use
Speaker 1: math and their finances they will not. Kids who are
Speaker 1: afraid of numbers tend to be adults who avoid numbers.
Speaker 1: And you know who doesn't avoid numbers? Credit card companies,
Speaker 1: whoever is on the other end of the contract that
Speaker 1: you're about to sign all that all these details. The
Speaker 1: devil's in the details. So be good at math, feel
Speaker 1: confident about it. And then if you use it, if
Speaker 1: you love it, great, you know, because you're gonna use it,
Speaker 1: love it or don't love it, but know that you
Speaker 1: can do it though. And that's what I want for
Speaker 1: kids from you know what, I can do this and
Speaker 1: to get used to doing challenging things because when you're
Speaker 1: when you practice doing challenging things, then when another challenge comes,
Speaker 1: whatever it is, whatever category of life is in you'll
Speaker 1: learn to save yourself. Well, it's the good thing. I
Speaker 1: got me in my side because this looks tough, it's
Speaker 1: a good thing. I'm here. And that's all through on
Speaker 1: my books, these math books. Math doesn't s kiss my math.
Speaker 1: It's all sorts of this positive reinforcement and teaching kids
Speaker 1: that when things when you're struggling, that's good because that's
Speaker 1: like going to the gym for your brain and when
Speaker 1: you lift a heavy, heavyweight ear like that's when you're
Speaker 1: getting stronger. To sort of celebrate all that to tell
Speaker 1: your daughter, because I wanted her to embrace the idea
Speaker 1: of doing challenging things as a good thing on its face,
Speaker 1: like that's just by itself, just for the fact that's challenging.
Speaker 1: That is the benefit. That is one of the great
Speaker 1: things about math, makes it stronger. Awesome, Dannica, thank you
Speaker 1: so much. I so appreciate you taking the time to
Speaker 1: come on. And good luck with Christmas at the drive end.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Anica. That was incredible. Happy Holidays
Speaker 1: to you. Good luck on the movie. I know so
Speaker 1: many we'll be watching. Thank you for coming on the
Speaker 1: podcast today. I can't wait to see what you come
Speaker 1: up with next. And to you listeners, even my not
Speaker 1: still favorite ones, thank you for stopping by. If you
Speaker 1: haven't already, give us a follow on Instagram at at
Speaker 1: Off the Beat, review us on Apple podcast, tell a
Speaker 1: couple of friends about it and uh and if you
Speaker 1: do that, well, then I'll be back next Tuesday with
Speaker 1: another great guest. And probably I'll be back whether you
Speaker 1: do it or not, We'll see you next week. Off
Speaker 1: the Beat is hosted an executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner,
Speaker 1: alongside our executive producer Langley. Our senior producer is Diego Tapia.
Speaker 1: Our producers are Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris, and Emily Carr.
Speaker 1: Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary and our intern
Speaker 1: is Sammy Cats. Our theme song Bubble and Squeak, performed
Speaker 1: by the one and only Creed Breton,