Meet Mathematics
Meet Mathematics, a safe space creator and the founder of Motivated by Mathematics.
Mathematics (Math) is a motivational speaker, licensed alcohol and drug counselor (LADC), TED Talk speaker, creative artist, and founder of MBM – Motivated by Mathematics. Since beginning his substance use recovery journey in 2016, he has transformed lived experience into a platform that inspires change, accountability, and hope.
As a partner of Vital CxNs’ Maternal Health Equity Initiative, Math led our community-based maternal health conversation series with a group of men in partnership with Bowdoin Street Health Center. We sat down with Math to learn more about his journey transforming his childhood wounds into his purpose, the power of accountability to self and community, and the story behind his name and how he lives it out.
“We have to figure out how to re-parent our wounded inner child.”
Mathematics (Math) sees his “father wound” as the origin of many parts of his life journey, including 15 years of incarceration and 32 years of addiction to alcohol and other drugs.
Originally from Cambridge, Massachusetts, Math says he “came from a good family” and grew up going to decent schools, summer camps, and enjoying hobbies like basketball. However, his mother left his father when Math was just two years old and it wasn’t until age 11 that Math reunited with his biological father, an experience that he describes as an “emotional trauma.” He says his father’s absence contributed to his battles with low self-esteem and self-centered fear, battles made harder growing up as a child of a single mother who, despite doing her best, had to work long hours, leaving Math to “raise himself” on the streets.
Math knows he is not alone growing up with these kinds of experiences: “A lot of people are walking around with a wounded inner child that is looking for acceptance, validation, and approval,” he says. “We have to figure out how to re-parent our wounded inner child.” For alcoholics and addicts, he believes, these wounds cut deeper.
That’s why Math now uses his own recovery journey to help others: “I try to give people information on how they can find solutions to their wounds. But it's up to you to put in the work, because information with application means transformation, but information with no application means no transformation.” He emphasizes the importance of lived experience in this work: “Facilitators [without first-hand experience] can tell people they can change, but when [people in recovery] see the story of someone that was actually on Mass Ave, dealing with addiction, prison, street culture, drug dealing, a deadbeat dad, and then now is doing something different, it’s [more powerful],”
“It’s up to you to put in the work, because […] information with no application means no transformation.”
Math “creates safe spaces” across mental health, parenting, and substance use recovery via support groups, morning meditations, speaking engagements, creating art, and more. While he has worked across diverse settings and populations, Math says he was initially unsure if he was “qualified” to participate in Vital CxNs’ maternal health initiative because he did not know a lot about the topic. However, at the encouragement of Vital CxNs staff, he agreed. In the end, he found learning about diverse birth options alongside a group of men, while exploring their own birth stories, upbringing, and the intergenerational nature of paternal experiences, to be incredibly rewarding.
Math holds himself to the same principles that he shares with clients and encourages his five children and two grandchildren to do the same. As he puts it, “I am not a ‘role model’ because [inauthentic] ‘roles’ are what I played in the streets. I'm a power of example, and what I do is show people the example of the power of recovery, the power of transformation, the power of having inspiration, and turning it into aspiration.”
Math’s transformation through healing and recovery is perfectly encapsulated by his name. He’s changed his name several times over the years to reflect different phases of his life, inspired by his idol Malcom X, who did the same.
“For every problem there’s a solution.”
His reason for finally landing on “Mathematics”? “[Mathematics] is not a name. It’s an attribute. An attribute is a name with a manifestation. Everything in existence revolves around mathematics and comes from mathematics, so for every problem there's a solution. I'm a ‘problem child,’ so now I try to live in the solution more than the problem.”
In addition to his family, Math’s support system includes “everyone that’s on [any kind of] transformation path” and “anybody that is creating a space for people to evolve and grow.” Furthermore, he attests powerfully, “I am also a good support network for myself because I know I wake up every day with untreated mental health and untreated alcohol and addiction, and it's up to me to hold myself accountable with no applause, nobody looking.”
To learn more about Mathematics and his work, including his book That P.A.R.T. Poetry and Rap Therapy: Turning Negative Patterns into Effective Mindsets, click here.
Written by Briana Acosta (September 2026)