I'm Alan Alda and this is clear and vivid conversations about connecting and communicating. And I think there's something rather wonderful about playing a game together

because you're actually sharing a space and exploring in a way each other's

consciousness. It's a bit like a dance when you play a game with somebody and

just as the same way as we sat around the campfire telling stories as a way of sharing our

inner worlds and exploring the inner worlds of the other. I think is maybe one of the motivations for why Gaines are so popular.

That's Marcus Dusotoy, professor of the public understanding of science at Oxford University.

He's a renowned mathematician. He's also an author, playwright, actor, TV presenter, trumpet player, and avid gamer.

It's his passion for both the power and wonder of mathematics that underlies everything he does,

including his latest book, Around the World in 80 Games.

I'm really interested in talking with you today because I think mathematics is probably one of the most amazing discoveries of the human mind and it left me out. I can do arithmetic and I love geometry as I get into the

higher reaches of algebra I start to gain altitude to leave the atmosphere and I'm not even in a low Earth orbit with

trigonometry. So you're talking to somebody way away on the outskirts of

familiarity with what you've devoted your life to, but you've devoted

your life also to communicating to people like me, so I'm fascinated to hear from you.

Well in a way you see I think mathematics is all about communication because for me it is

primarily a language and it's a language that we've discovered, created to understand the universe around us.

And I think that's what's so exciting that whatever you're interested in there probably is some

mathematics lurking behind it. It seems to give you so much pleasure. Yeah. And a good

example is your latest book around the world in 80 games because you do that same thing

of applying your knowledge of mathematics to the simple almost trivial seeming thing of a game.

I mean I think everyone loves playing games for fun and enjoyment and you know what that

actually motivates a lot of my mathematics. Although my mathematics might ultimately lead to

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