We give a self-contained presentation of results related to the Kadison-Singer problem, which was recently solved by Marcus, Spielman, and Srivastava [35]. This problem connects with an unusually large number of research areas including: operator algebras (pure states), set theory (ultrafilters), operator theory (paving), random matrix theory, linear and multilinear algebra, algebraic combinatorics (real stable polynomials), algebraic curves, frame theory, harmonic analysis (Fourier frames), and functional analysis. arXiv:1702.04578v2 [math.FA]