Shortly after 91裸聊视频淢ath in Drag91裸聊视频� hit the shelves in book stores across North America, author Kyne Santos found herself in a New York City elevator with renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.

91裸聊视频淚 was just, like, fangirling so hard,91裸聊视频� she said in a recent video interview about last week91裸聊视频檚 chance meeting, Rubik91裸聊视频檚 cube earrings dangling from her lobes. 91裸聊视频淎nd you know what91裸聊视频檚 crazy? He knew who I was.91裸聊视频�

Of course he did. She91裸聊视频檚 Kyne.

Santos was a contestant on the first season of the television show Canada91裸聊视频檚 Drag Race, but she91裸聊视频檚 perhaps more widely known on TikTok, where she guides 1.5 million followers into a glittering world of mathematics. In her videos, and now with her book, she reveals the wonders of infinities and imaginary numbers, showing that math is a mind-bending universe that pushes the limits of our imagination 91裸聊视频� just like drag.

91裸聊视频淢ath is really about creativity,91裸聊视频� she said from her home in Kitchener, Ont. 91裸聊视频淪ometimes in math, we question our assumptions, we rewrite our definitions, we rethink our frameworks. And really, it is a lot like drag because they91裸聊视频檙e both creative, we do them both for fun, and they both operate in metaphors and abstraction, and tearing down stereotypes and frameworks and rebuilding them from the ground up.91裸聊视频�

Santos has always been good at math, but she fell in love with it participating in high school math competitions, she said, where the questions were less about computing an answer than about taking apart ideas and figuring out why something is true. She said competitions showed her that math went beyond memorizing formulas.

91裸聊视频淭he way that we91裸聊视频檙e teaching math to kids is 91裸聊视频� a lot like teaching art to kids by having them paint a fence,91裸聊视频� she said. 91裸聊视频淭hey91裸聊视频檙e not going to walk away from that thinking, 91裸聊视频業 love art.91裸聊视频�91裸聊视频�

During high school was also when she fell in love with drag. She experimented with makeup and launched a YouTube channel giving beauty tutorials, and eventually evolved into Kyne, the drag queen.

91裸聊视频淚 saw RuPaul91裸聊视频檚 Drag Race for the first time and I saw that these queens were just creative, sensitive souls like I was who played with makeup, and extended it into hair pieces and costumes and wigs and song and dance, just everything that I love,91裸聊视频� she said.

She was at the University of Waterloo doing an undergraduate math degree when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and she used her time in lockdown to make her first TikTok video about math, in full drag. Recording a video as Kyne, she said, was a way to invite her audience into a creative, more open state of mind 91裸聊视频� the same state she hopes they91裸聊视频檒l use with mathematics.

It seems to have worked: the videos took off.

Released March 5, 91裸聊视频淢ath in Drag91裸聊视频� blends Kyne91裸聊视频檚 personal history with accessible explorations of higher-level mathematical concepts. In one chapter, she writes about her father91裸聊视频檚 death, and uses a story about his fastidiousness with money to explain exponential growth. In another, she writes about the homophobia drag queens face for pushing gender boundaries, linking it to mathematical concepts that break the rules, like a graph that seems to allow dividing by zero, which, according to the average calculator, is strictly forbidden.

The history of mathematics has a lot to teach people who support anti-LGTBQ hate and protest drag shows, she said.

For example, the concept of zero was wildly controversial before it assumed its rightful spot on the number line. The idea forced mathematicians, scientists, philosophers 91裸聊视频� even the Catholic Church 91裸聊视频� to re-examine their idea of what a number is and could be.

91裸聊视频淲hy can91裸聊视频檛 we do that with drag? Why can91裸聊视频檛 we do that with everything?91裸聊视频� she said. 91裸聊视频淲hen we encounter new things in the wild, instead of saying, 91裸聊视频楾hat doesn91裸聊视频檛 fit the definition,91裸聊视频� we should just change the definitions, and we should rewrite the frameworks to include other types of people.91裸聊视频�

Santos was selected to be part of the first season of Canada91裸聊视频檚 Drag Race 91裸聊视频� a reality competition for drag queens, based on the American version of Rupaul91裸聊视频檚 Drag Race 91裸聊视频� which aired in 2020. She was sent home after the second episode, but she said the experience taught her to trust herself and lean into her strengths, like teaching about math.

She admires the British mathematician Eugenia Cheng, whose book 91裸聊视频淗ow to Bake Pi91裸聊视频� uses dessert recipes to explain an abstract branch of math called category theory. She also admires RuPaul, who is credited with helping to bring drag mainstream.

91裸聊视频淚 think that what RuPaul has done has opened up the doors for queens like me to do different things in drag, like put out a book and be on television,91裸聊视频� Santos said. 91裸聊视频淚 really respect her hustle.91裸聊视频�

She91裸聊视频檚 set to begin a cross-Canada tour for 91裸聊视频淢ath in Drag91裸聊视频� next month. She also wants to keep teaching, perhaps beyond TikTok, and maybe go to graduate school.

And after that elevator ride last week, she may even be a guest on deGrasse Tyson91裸聊视频檚 podcast.

91裸聊视频淚 love doing what I do. I love educating people. I love doing the TikTok videos,91裸聊视频� she said. 91裸聊视频淚f I could just do this forever, I91裸聊视频檇 be so happy with that.91裸聊视频�