In the Vox podcast In a Nutshell, hosts Jara Majerus and Antonia Leise take a deep dive into the university's most interesting, strange, and exciting research. Every two weeks, they invite Radboud researchers to talk about their favourite topics – explained in bite-sized episodes. In today's episode, Antonia talks with Sanne van der Ven about everyone’s favourite subject – math.

Why are we afraid of math? Can you make peace with the school subjects you hate? And how important are feelings and attitudes towards a subject when it comes to doing well? (Spoiler alert: very.)

Everyone has that one subject in school (or at university) they don’t like – and in today’s episode, Antonia is tackling precisely that: the subjects we dislike and the disciplines we are bad in. Or, at least, feel like we are. Together with guest Sanne van der Ven, Antonia explores the interplay of cognition, emotions and school performance. And, more importantly, how to (at least somewhat) overcome it.

Sanne van der Ven is an assistant professor at the Behavioural Science Institute (BSI). She explores children’s differences in subjects like mathematics, reading and spelling and how cognition and emotions can factor into school performance.

Would you like to learn more about math anxiety and the science behind it? Then follow Sanne’s advise and have a take at this YouTube documentary about dyscalculia (in Dutch).