In this interview, Jim Kwik asks Danica McKellar how math can serve as a mental‑fitness exercise. They discuss the problem of "digital dementia"—the loss of basic numeracy due to reliance on calculators and smartphones—and argue that regular, intentional math practice is akin to going to the gym for the brain. McKellar explains how doing math builds confidence, especially for children, and how that confidence creates a competence‑confidence loop that transfers to other life challenges. They emphasize rebranding math from a feared subject to a fun, empowering tool, offering practical daily opportunities (e.g., splitting a check, moving decimal places) to practice. McKellar promotes her series of math books for kids and adults, highlighting "Math Doesn't Suck" as a practical guide. The conversation ends with a call‑to‑action: viewers are encouraged to share a screenshot of the episode, tag Kwik and McKellar, and can win a signed copy of one of her books.
Chapters
Welcome back, Kwik Brains. So here's your question for you today. How can you use math to increase your mental fitness? You know, people are always talking about physical fitness. They wanna be stronger, they want more energy, they wanna be more flexible, more agile, more physically fit. Well, what about being more mentally fit? And one of the greatest exercises you could do, when people are gonna be like either loving me or hating me when I'm about to say this, is math. And we're in studio right now and we're geeking out. Over math. We have in the studio again Danica McKellar, New York Times bestselling author, actress, and many of you remember her from The Wonder Years, which is such fond memories. And we're talking about state. We're talking about geeking out over math, the subject that most people have a fear of numbers, but specifically, what a great exercise it is. So many people are suffering from digital dementia where they're so dependent on their smart devices, they pick up their calculators to do simple math.
That's true.
They're getting flabby up here.
Digital dementia, I love that name. Yeah, it's people don't know phone numbers anymore, including me. I mean, I think I know 3 people's phone numbers in my life. It's weird because you don't have to. Yeah, no, and mental fitness is so important as you get older as well.
Problem solving.
Problem solving. They say doing, you know, you gotta do crossword puzzles, or they say even things like ballroom dance, something to keep your brain active. Math is a great tool. It's another great tool, and I encourage kids, even through my books, people say— people have said to me so many times, do I really need math, though? It's like, well, first of all, yes, if you want to be savvy in your finances, which we did another episode on. And second of all, just doing math is like going to the gym for your brain.
Yeah.
And especially when you're a kid, you have to be in math class anyway. So you might as well take advantage of it to get good at it and gain that confidence that comes from feeling smart, which is one of the best gifts you can give yourself. And nobody can give that to you. Nobody can take it away. And even as an adult, You can give that to yourself, that mental fitness of just getting confident, getting confident with your brain, getting confident in math. My books are mostly written for kids, but a lot of adults will use, especially Math Doesn't Suck, which has the more practical decimals and fractions and things in it, the stuff that comes up day to day most often.
That helps us with our inner kid.
Yeah, of course.
A lot of us have baggage, which we've talked about.
Right. One of the major stumbling blocks that people run up against with math is just fears about it, right? So that's why my books are super fun and they're silly, but at the end of the day, you are working out your brain, and that's the important thing.
And that gives you confidence. I love what you said, 'cause I haven't heard that before, but it's confidence that you get, like no one can give it to you, but no one can take it away from you either.
That's right, that's right.
And you give it to yourself through the pride of doing difficult things.
That's right, absolutely.
And math is, for a lot of people, that's the thing that they're avoiding.
Yeah, and so it's mental fitness. It's also this, mental and just emotional resilience.
Mm-hmm.
Because when you find yourself up against a math problem that you don't think you can do or any topic in math you think is above you and you kind of struggle your way through it and then you succeed, you've now taught yourself that you're stronger and smarter than you thought. And whether you're a child, where they're more impressionable at that age, of course, it's even more important. But even as an adult, you teach yourself that, you know what? Hey, I'm better at this than I thought. And I can do things that I thought I couldn't do, which means that even outside of math, when you come up against some sort of obstacle, you start developing that skill of overcoming obstacles so that you get to the point and you say to yourself, well, it's a good thing I've got me on my side because that looks hard. It's a good thing I'm here.
Yeah.
That's what you want to get to. Granted, it's easier to get to that when you're a child because you're training your brain at a younger age. But I swear, it does not matter how old you are. Find yourself a challenge. And I happen to recommend math because I've made my challenges fun.
Right.
So when you're doing them, it feels more like playtime. Even still, it is math and you will get stronger mentally by practicing it.
That's powerful.
It is. It's such a great tool. And it's something that even for me, the idea of writing a book, I remember being very daunting. I'd been an actress my whole life. Writing a book, I was like, well, look, I love math and I love entertainment. So I want to write entertaining math books. But the idea of writing this book that was a few hundred pages long. It was like, do I know how to do this? And overcoming that and seeing it through to the end was so powerful for me. Because then I got to call myself an author. It was really exciting. And I was in my 30s. I mean, it's never too late to impress yourself.
And when you could do something you never thought was possible, then you're like, what else can I do that I thought was impossible?
Totally. Totally. So when life presents you with some sort of challenge, and we all get presented with all different kinds of challenges. I am divorced. And so you know right there, wow, I went through a time in my life that was very, very challenging and unexpected. So you become more able to handle all of life when you have that confidence that comes from feeling capable. And you can grow that. You can develop it. You can do that. It's not something you have or don't have like you like to say. It's something you do. And what's an easy way of doing it?
Math.
Math happens to be one of many ways. It's my favorite. It's a great way to get that mental and emotional strength.
And so a really easy takeaway, I would imagine, is because we're presented with math every day, but most people avoid it. So this term digital dementia in healthcare that's getting very popular, it's like we're so dependent on our smart devices. Like, I went to dinner the other night. It was 10 of us, and half of the party took out their calculators on their phone to divide the check by 10.
Oh, wow. Right?
I know, I know. And so opportunities where math presents itself—
You move the decimal place over one.
Exactly. But so here's the thing, is like there's opportunities every day for us to do a little bit of math. Just like when I encourage people, you know, most people, yeah, I don't wanna memorize 500 phone numbers, but we've lost the ability to remember one.
Right.
And so using the exercise and—
Practicing.
Exactly. And then it shows up in other areas because, as you said, the confidence comes from the competence.
Yep.
You know, in psychology, they call it the competence-confidence loop. The more competent you get at something like math, the more confident you get, and the more competent you're gonna practice and everything.
Right, so when you feel confident in something, you'll tend to do it more because you're like, You're not afraid of it, and it makes you feel good about yourself. Exactly. And then you get more, yeah, yeah.
So overcoming where your struggles could become strengths, and I think universally, a huge part of the population would say, yeah, I struggled with math growing up.
Right, but it's one thing to practice it on a check. It's another thing to make sure that, and if you feel confident enough to do that, great, but rebrand math in your mind. Rebrand it.
What do you mean?
So it's not your old childhood demon anymore. It's this thing that makes you powerful. And how do you get to that? One of the ways is by doing math in a different context. I can provide one different context. It's one thing to try. My books make math very fun and I shake it up so it doesn't feel like that. There are probably other ones out there as well, but rebrand it in your mind. Redefine it. What place does it hold in your life? Now, it's something that makes you powerful now.
Yeah.
That's what it is now.
If you haven't listened to the episode we did on wonder, adding wonder to your learning in your life, we talk about the power of emotions and play and how sometimes we get, you know, we don't get older necessarily. We don't stop playing because we grow older. It's like we grow older because we stop playing.
Right.
And I feel like math is a wonderful opportunity. So even doing simple math, you know, exercises could exercise your brain. You don't look at—
Absolutely.
You don't look at the weights or the treadmill and like, oh, I hate those things. They're an opportunity to be able to grow. Well, you might say that. Yes.
You might say, oh, I don't do that.
And nonetheless, they're opportunities for us to grow.
Right.
And be more physically fit.
You go to the gym, oh, I don't want to go, and you go and you feel so good after you went to the gym. Like, I'm so glad I went to the— why do I not want to go to the gym? Because that was great. And then same thing with math. Exercise your brain, feel smart, and get addicted to that feeling.
Activate your math superpowers to get mentally fit. And problem solving is incredible too, because, you know, we had Quincy Jones at our event. I asked him about his problems. He's like, I have no problems, I only have puzzles. And because it's a puzzle, it's fun, it's a challenge.
Yes, that's a rebranding of problems.
So I think that math right now could be opportunity, it could be play, it also could be an opportunity to grow and succeed and build your confidence.
It can be all those things, or it can be the thing that drags you down and makes you feel like an insecure child. It can be any of the things that— all of the above. It's all about where you want to put it in your— how determined are you to make it something that empowers you? There are ways of doing it.
And it always comes down to a decision.
That's right.
Ultimately.
Yeah.
Danica, thank you so much. How do people find the books?
They're available on Amazon, barnesandnoble.com, all sorts of places. If you go to mckellarmath.com, you'll see all the books. I've got a big slider button, so depending on the age of your child or if you're an adult, it'll show you all the different books that would be most relevant. And then it also gives other options for how to buy the books as well.
Amazing. As always, everybody, in this episode, I want you to take a screenshot of it. Just take a screenshot of this video, tag Danica, tag myself, and share your big takeaway. Like, what are you going to do now that you had this conversation? What's one thing you could do to build your mathematical superpowers, your mathematical intelligence? And I'll share some of my favorites. And also, we're going to give away a signed copy of one of Danica's books also.
Awesome.
As a thank you for sharing it. Thanks for being here.
