Here are some of the things I do and think about doing about other than math...
Writing
Some published writings:
Shared Spiritual Rhythms (Syntrek)
Formative Spaces for Postdocs: Opportunities in the Liminal (Emerging Scholars Network)
An Invitation to Formative Reading Groups (Emerging Scholars Network)
Maturity & Risk (Carver Connections)
What Grace Does Sabbath Hold? (Campus Calling)
Three and a half collections of my own poetry:
A creative response to roadtripping across America in 2020:
A collection of my own short stories:
I maintained a math & poetry blog for a while.
I'm currently reading (as of 2/4):
Eloheh, Randy & Edith Woodley
Living Simply, St. John Chrysostom
Fooled by Randomness, Nassim Nicholas Taleb
My top three books by year since 2019. Feel free to reach out if you want to chat about any of these!
Justice
I'm very compelled by many forms of justice; personally I mostly operate in environmental, economic, and educational justice spaces.
Some initiatives I've been a part of are:
Book-Cycle - I founded the Warwick University branch.
Berkeley Connect - I have a very high value for academic and personal mentorship, especially in support of students from underrepresented minorities and first-generation students. I was part of a mentoring program called Berkeley Connect from 2016-2018, which shared exactly these foci. You can read about one event we ran in this article (the last quote is from me!)
The Cost of Knowledge - I will not submit to or referee articles for any Elsevier journals.
Foster The City - my wife and I were advocates from Fall 2018-Spring 2020.
Lazarus at the Gate - I worked through this economic justice course in Lent 2018; my wife and I led groups in Lent 2020, 2021, 2023 (website, guide, newer).
Faith
I'm an apprentice of Jesus, always happy to talk about faith or whatever worldview you hold!
I've attended and have deep affection for these churches across the world:
North Devon Vineyard
Jubilee Church St. Louis (current)
I've been involved with the following faith groups and conversations:
Faith & Reasons (Berkeley)
ACMS (USA)
The Carver Project (St. Louis)
IV GFM (USA)
Veritas Forum (USA)
TLD
With some friends and partner organisations I'm working on building discipleship pathways to support our capacity to communally live lives that are:
creative
cumulative
committed
These pathways are wrapped up in an umbrella project called Together Living Differently (TLD) - more information can be found here. Go ahead and get in touch with me if you'd like to discuss this kind of stuff!
Music
I spent a lot of my time growing up listening to and playing music. I'm self-taught on a number of mostly stringed instruments - bass, guitar, synth, mandolin,...
I'm involved with Jubilee Worship Collective in St. Louis. We recently recorded this song (still pending).
My current bass rig:
Live shots (i)
Here's a brief description of my setup focusing on my use of the HX Stomp. My main presets are available here (pending).
Sabbath
My household practices a weekly sabbath, a twenty-four hour period of rest, connection, unhurrying, and wholeness. I'd love to talk more with you about it if you're interested, or you can find some more resources through TLD.
Throughout 2023 (and beyond?) I'm organising a roughly monthly blog project called 80Sabbaths that examines rest practices from different cultural, ethnic, and faith contexts. Here's the website.
Mixology
I'm a fairly serious dabbler in mixology, bartending, or really most things relating to craft cocktails.
Here are my go-to drinks and some original creations.
I wrote a short intro to making cocktails for a friend. Might be helpful!
I've tried my hand at making gin, various liqueurs, cocktail bitters, kombucha,... with varying levels of success! Always happy to share my experiences and best practices I've identified.
Running
I enjoy/endure running various distances. I'm not especially fast but I like the habit of goalsetting and training. Here are some of my personal bests:
5k- 25:34
STL Bubble Run Jun '225 mile- 46:00
STL St. Patrick's Day Mar '2210k- 55:12
STL Go! Apr '22Half marathon- 2:11:02
STL Go! Apr '23Marathon- ??
STL Go! Apr '24?
Miscellany
I was a student at the Park Community School in Barnstaple, Devon. In 2015, alumni were asked to write something "inspirational" so I gave it a try.
I suggest searching for always.hungry.truth in this.
My academic family tree at the Mathematics Genealogy Project.
I have Erdős number 4 via Erdős - Diaconis - Eisenbud - Beheshti - BW.
I coexist with two one two quirky cats; the black cat in the video, Gus, passed away unexpectedly over thanksgiving 2021. We adopted Bruno in January 2022.
Every higher education institution I've been affiliated with has the bear as its mascot.
A friend asked me for recommendations when visiting London and so I started a list of recommendations for places I've spent time in (very much in progress).