In this light talk, I give a high level view of some of my recent research in using ideas from mesh generation to lower the complexity of computing persistent homology in geomemtric settings. Because this talk is for a general audience, I will focus on three related applications (where related is interpreted loosely) that I think have the widest appeal. The applications are: (1) Winning Nobel Peace Prizes, (2)Winning Olympic Gold Medals, and (3) Finding True Love