This Is How I Manufacture the Math Monthly Journal

Based on the supplied transcript. Punctuation and paragraph breaks have been added, and repeated fillers and false starts have been reduced for readability. Unclear speech is marked where needed. The speaker’s commentary is retained.

Uh-uh. This is the cover. All right, so this is how we make the book here. Still waking up.

You have to do the inside score so that you fold the paper for the integrity of the spine, to offset the tension. I have two inner pieces here. Need a glue strip. It’s centered.

It’s about 200 to 250 pages, depending on the month. Strong adhesive.

The purpose of the inner piece of paper is so that there’s an additional score for folding the book to offset the tension that might otherwise pull on the bind.

If you can see here, there’s this score right along the spine. You see it when it reflects. That would be where you crease. These two papers here are adhered, so that ensures a smooth opening.

A smooth—what do you call it? Crease? Smooth inner, outer crease? The opposite of a crease. I don’t know. Now I’ve got to put the—difficult.

Now I’ve got the inside of the book. I’ve got to take a quarter inch off the spine area. I could omit that by changing the margins, but I haven’t had enough orders yet to make it worth my while to change the margins because I just started this. A quarter inch should be enough.

Now she goes into the sleeve here. Make sure all the margins look good beforehand. It’s still a prototype. This is the first prototype, so I’m still working on the measurements to make sure they’re perfect.

As long as when I chop—yeah, I’m going to have to take half an inch off.

For those of you who are engineers, to optimize input, output, and time flow, I will be changing the margins on this so I don’t have to do a pre-cut. I’ll put the paper right in there, and I can chop off the front part. I just have to change the margins of the document for that.

What’s up, guys? This is a stationary video for my Math Monthly members to see how this book is made. Then I’ve got to give my dog a bath and haircut.

All right, now that looks good. Here’s the pre-bound book. I’ve got to thermally bind it now. Now I’ve got to do a thermal binding.

Tiger, you missed last night’s linear algebra with differential equations for engineers book. We did a very unique problem.

There’s a little curling, and that should go away when I chop it. If not, I either have to flatten the paper beforehand or use a thicker paper, which I have.

You wish. What up, y’all? Now I put the—

Tiger Lily, wait until you see the recap. I’m going to do a recap today. I’m putting a little recap playlist together for the book we went through last night.

I use parchment paper to prevent the ink on the paper from getting heated and the glue from touching the binder.

I’m waiting for the thermal binder to heat up. It’s basically a flat piece of metal that gets hot. You put the book on the binder—the spine. You put the spine on it, and it melts the glue strip.

Afterward, you’ve got to press it down really hard to get all the papers to hit the glue. Then they create that 90-degree trough.

It’s ready. Then I’ve got to press and squeeze it. They don’t call it “hot off the press” for no reason. I’m squeezing it and pressing it. I’ll show you.

Yeah, there are a lot of stupid people out there. [Unclear speech.] I can’t help stupid people.

I don’t have any interest in listening to anything anyone has to say who doesn’t have at least a master’s-degree-level understanding of mathematics and physics because they’re just liars. So, who’s the LARPer?

It takes only about one minute for this glue to dry. It dries really quickly.

That’s a great idea, Tiger Lily. We’ll do that. This month will be Thanksgiving. That’s a great addition. We’ll look at the relation of Thanksgiving to mathematical discoveries and physics discoveries.

I’m sure there’s some person out there, something related to it. We’ll find it. We’ll add that.

Give that one more second. Self-erasing.

All right, here’s the uncut book. See the bind here? The glue is coming out there. I’ve got to cut all this off. It’s still a little warm.

Let me show you this. Now you need sacrificial paper here to prevent any ripping or tearing upon the cut.

I’m using a pretty rudimentary tool, but it does the job for now. This is going to be 7.75, I believe, when the cut is done.

Okay. [Unclear speech about the elevator.] Now, the spines are the tricky part.

The book is 11 inches long currently, so we’re going to take a quarter inch off the top and the bottom. Then 7.75 by 10.5 inches will be the dimensions of the book.

I’ve got to keep the flat, 90-degree-angle parts against the wall here. This is where the elevator is the most important. This prevents the spine from getting squashed because that glue is still warm.

Even after it’s warm, that glue is sensitive. You’ve got to keep it away from the spine so it doesn’t hit the spine. Then you get your spirit fingers there.

Now we take another quarter inch off and flip it around.

You can see this jagged tear here. That’s why you need the sacrificial paper. Otherwise, the actual book—

The sacrificial paper can be reconstituted for business cards. If you have kids around, they could do arts and crafts with it. You can save it for whatever. You can make Christmas cards with it.

It’s cut down to a certain size, so you could use it for cards. I’ve got the printers, so I could save these and make my own Christmas cards. Spiffing, guys.

All right, here we are. No book is complete without a mother-effing STEM major bookmark.

I’ve got to groom my dog today, so I’ve got to get all of this cleaned up. She’s going to be groomed right here on this table. I’ve got to trim this here. I suppose—going to fit or not?

You guys pirate digital content; this is what we do to your head. Put you on the chopping block.

It’s a prototype, so I’m still putting the dimensions together.

If I want to get really fancy with the spices, I could do a round-corner cut. But since I’m going to laminate this, it’s got round corners already, so that’s no big deal.

If you don’t flatten the bookmark, it’ll warp after it comes out. Not quite hot enough. Now it’s good. Let’s see the finished product.

I’m going to have to use a thicker cover because of the curls with the ink. I have some thicker paper. Also, if you notice, the margins here need to be shifted a little bit, and these margins need to be shifted a little bit.

This tells me everything I need to know. This is the first prototype. [Unclear phrase.]

This is November 3rd, so 11/3/26. First prototype packaging. [Unclear phrase.] STEM major—I’m going to change that to PLEM, by the way.

All right, kids. There’s the first prototype. As you can see, it looks awesome. There’s just a slight discrepancy with the margins. I’ve got to correct them.

This will be the first prototype. It’ll sit on my shelf until I make the second prototype.

This is a quick video to show my members of Math Monthly what they’re going to receive each month and how that works.

This is a book we wrote live together: advanced mathematics and physics problem-solving from a wide variety of textbooks, looking into unsolved problems, tapping into even original research, and a whole lot more.

We did this whole thing live together, and then I put it together like this. Each month will have a different color. Each month will have a different theme. This month is the “figuring it out” theme. We were doing this over the summer, but—

Anyway, that’s the finished product. I just have to tweak the margins, and we’re good to go.

If you sign up this month, this is the book you’ll get. Next month, you’ll get this month’s book if you sign up. Then you’ll get every one of these each month afterward.

Y’all have a good morning. I’ve got to clean this off, groom my dog, and get to the gym. I have to have two implants put in my mouth this week, so I’m preparing for that.

I’ll be uploading the recap playlist of yesterday’s session, where we did linear algebra with engineering—sorry, linear algebra with differential equations for engineers—by Gustafson. What was the name? Gustafson? Gustav? Gustafa—Gustafson? Gus—Gustafson? Gustaf-whatever. You guys will see.

Professor Jonathan D. Tullis demonstrates the assembly of the first physical Math Monthly journal prototype. The video follows the production process and identifies adjustments needed before making the next version.

Preparing the Cover & Spine

The cover and inner paper pieces are scored to create folding points near the spine. Professor Tullis explains that these folds are intended to support smoother opening and reduce tension on the binding. An adhesive strip is positioned before the printed pages are inserted.

Adjusting the Page Layout

The prototype requires preliminary trimming near the spine. He plans to adjust the document margins so future copies can be assembled with fewer cutting steps, improving the production workflow.

Thermal Binding

A thermal binder heats the adhesive along the spine. Parchment paper is used as a protective barrier, and the book is pressed to help the page edges contact the adhesive. The demonstration then moves to cooling and trimming.

Trimming & Finishing

The stated finished dimensions for this prototype are approximately 7.75 × 10.5 inches. Sacrificial paper protects the book during cutting, while a support described as an “elevator” helps prevent the spine from being compressed. A laminated STEM major bookmark is also prepared.

Lessons from the First Prototype

The completed prototype reveals two main improvements: using a thicker cover to address curling and shifting the page margins. The video records the prototype date as November 3, 2026. The page count is described as approximately 200–250 pages, depending on the month.

The Monthly Journal

The journal brings together material developed during live sessions, including mathematics and physics problems from different textbooks, exploration of unsolved problems, and research discussions. Professor Tullis describes plans for different cover colors and themes each month.