in this talk we discuss the proof of a conjecture made by ron evans on the relationship between the eighth symmetric moment of the classical kloosterman sum and the fourier coefficients of the newform of level 6 and weight 6. rather than delve deeply into any particular technical part of the proof, we will emphasize the fascinating way in which ideas from analysis, geometry, galois representations, automorphic forms, and combinatorics interact in the course of the proof.