Stats + Stories

Carnegie the Statistician | Stats + Stories Episode 216

27 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Gilded Age in the U.S. is perhaps best known for the great men who rose to prominence at the time. Men such as John D. Rockefeller and JP Morgan, ...

Monetizing the Metaverse | Stats + Short Stories Episode 215

20 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On a recent episode of Stats+Stories, Timandra Harkness talked with us about the rise of today’s data economy. On today’s episode of Stats and Sho...

What is Nutrition Science | Stats + Stories Episode 214

13 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

An entire industry has grown up around nutrition and health. People pushing everything from shakes, to meal kits, to special diets. While some of the ...

The Data Economy | Stats + Stories Episode 213

06 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Do you remember the first time you saw a prompt in social media asking about a product you were searching for on some other online platform? How about...

A Not So Standard Podcast | Stats + Stories Episode 212

16 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Our lives are increasingly shaped by statistics and data. However, they remain concepts that can be difficult for broad audiences to understand. A num...

Collecting Human Rights Statistics | Stats + Stories Episode 211

10 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

When we talk about human rights we often focus on qualitative narratives; the tales of struggles faced by refugees, of rights denied to individuals du...

Covid By Numbers | Stats + Stories Episode 210

02 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

There's so much data out there about COVID-19 it can be hard to make sense of it all. Over the last year, a couple of statisticians have been working ...

Inoculating Your Mind | Stats + Stories Episode 209

18 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The information age has been rife with more misinformation than any other time in human history. With the dissemination and spread of fakes news is at...

Conspiracy Dissemination Dilemma | Stats + Stories Episode 208

11 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Social media are complicated. With some research suggesting they're important spaces for digital community building and other scholars pointing out ho...

A Chance for Good | Stats + Stories Episode 207

04 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

There's a lot of conversation happening about the ethical uses of data and statistics how much weight should we put on numbers at all? How thoroughly ...

No One is Poisoning Your Kids' Candy, Trust the Numbers | Stats + Stories Episode 206

28 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The costumes are ready and the annual opportunity to go out and harass your neighbors to get candy is once again upon us. Yes, it's time for Halloween...

The Right to Be Left Alone | Stats + Stories Episode 205

21 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With the ubiquity of technology in our lives have come concerns over privacy, security, and surveillance. These are particularly potent in relation to...

Wealth Inequality Escalation | Stats + Stories Episode 204

15 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The issue of income inequality is one Americans continually wrestle with the COVID 19 pandemic bringing to light how housing, health, and general well...

The Ocean Health Index | Stats + Stories Episode 203

07 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The health of the world's oceans is a growing concern but measuring ocean health is a complicated undertaking. Some people studying the issue focus on...

The Sports Statistic of the Year | Stats + Stories Episode 202

30 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The COVID pandemic put many Sports on hold during 2020, but with the industry roaring back with the 2021 Summer Olympics as well as World Cup qualifie...

Making Newsrooms More Data Friendly | Stats + Stories Episode 201 (from the RSS 2021 Conference)

23 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Newsrooms all over the world are embracing data journalism – looking for unique and thoughtful ways to use data to tell stories about their communit...

#MemeMedianMode Contest Winner! | Stats + Stories Episode 200

16 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

At Stats+Stories we're lucky to have listeners who put up with John's bad jokes and our general shenanigans. In fact, you've listened to 199 discussio...

Stats on the Timeline | Stats + Stories Episode 199.75 (from the RSS 2021 Conference)

09 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Twitter can be cacophonous at times – one a given day, serious analysis of the situation in Afghanistan, news stories about climate change, and Parr...

Glass Ceilings in Academia | Stats + Stories Episode 199.5

02 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The tenure track process at American universities is a grind – one shaped by the old adage to “Publish or perish.” But if a junior faculty membe...

Comparing and Contrasting Professions | Stats + Short Stories Episode 199.25

25 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Talking about statistics with my journalism colleagues is the basis of what brings this show together. But speaking about, and communicating statistic...

Understanding "Civic Statistics" | Stats + Stories Episode 199

19 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Being able to read and write is necessary to be successful in work, at home, and in civic life. Do parallel skills associated with critical reasoning ...

Communicating Statistics Effectively | Stats and Stories at JSM 2019 (Repost)

12 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In honor of this year's Joint Statistical Meetings, this week's episode is a repost of a conversation John Bailer and Brain Tarran, of Significance M...

Sounding Human When Talking About Statistics | Stats + Stories Episode 198

05 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Communicating statistics effectively can be a difficult task it can sometimes be hard to know how much information someone needs in order to understan...

The "Key" to a Successful Kickstarter | Stats + Stories Episode 197

29 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

About 20 years ago, most people would have been unfamiliar with the term crowdfunding. Now, when it comes to the arts, you can crowdfund anything from...

Record Linkage | Stats + Stories Episode 196

22 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Our lives are framed by numbers tracking our performance in school, our financial health, and our physical and emotional wellbeing. While this informa...

Building Back Better | Stats + Stories Episode 195

15 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Over the course of the last year, statistics have framed our lives in very obvious ways. From COVID cases to unemployment rates, stats have helped us ...

To P, or Not to P, That is the Question | Stats + Stories Episode 194

08 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For years now, the utility of the P-value in scientific and statistical research has been under scrutiny – the debate shaped by concerns about the s...

A Longitudinal Legacy | Stats + Stories Episode 193

01 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Every two years the International Prize in Statistics is given out to recognize an individual or team for major contributions to the field of statisti...

The Wonders of Astrostatistics | Stats + Stories Episode 192

24 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The universe seems unbelievably vast, a sky filled with countless stars and worlds. Well, maybe not so countless as there’s a whole field devoted to...

#MemeMedianMode Contest

10 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Enter with your meme for a chance to appear on the show. All entries are submitted through Twitter through the official Stats+Stories account (https:/...

STATCOM | Stats + Stories Episode 191

03 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Where are the best locations for food pantries? What are the patterns and use of a crisis call center? How can services be improved for the senior pop...

Big Data Soup | Stats + Stories Episode 190

27 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Big data, though not new, is often talked about as though it is. It’s become something of a buzzword associated with everything from politics to rec...

The Impact of Remote Learning | Stats + Stories Episode 189

20 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Parents, educators, and activists have all raised concerns about the impact of COVID on the educational experience of students. For high school studen...

Understanding What Causes Data Bias | Stats + Stories Episode 188

13 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Our modern understanding of big data and the increasingly sophisticated tools we have for analyzing them have opened up whole new worlds for explorati...

The COVID Decade | Stats + Stories Episode 187

06 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

It’s been a little over a year of lockdowns, curfews, online schooling, mask wearing, worry and grief. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought with it an ...

Coding in the Classroom | Stats + Stories Episode 186

29 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Data science is becoming an ever more visible and important part of our lives with universities around the US, working to create or strengthen data sc...

COVID-19 Vaccine Safety and Risk | Stats + Stories Episode 185

22 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Last week the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced a pause on the distribution and use of Jo...

The Data Privacy Landscape is Changing | Stats + Stories Episode 183

15 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Privacy is becoming an ever more potent concern as we grapple with the reality that our phones, computers, and our browser histories are filled with d...

Collaboration is the Best of Statistics | Stats + Stories Episode 183

08 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The best thing about being a statistician,” he said, “is that you get to play in everyone's backyard.” That famous quote by John Tukey is optimi...

The Probability of the Next Terrorist Attack | Stats + Stories Episode 182

01 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

When planning for potential disasters, we often focus on hurricanes that might ravage coastal areas or tornados and droughts that strike rural parts o...

How Where You Live Affects Your Health | Stats + Stories Episode 181

25 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

After over a year of being stuck in our houses. A lot of us are appreciating the outdoors on our planet a little bit more healthy environment and more...

An Anti-Racist Approach to Data Science | Stats + Short Stories Episode 180

18 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Individuals and institutions around the United States are grappling with the history of racism in the country as well as the ways they themselves have...

Migration Math | Stats + Short Stories Episode 179

11 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As COVID has ravaged the globe, it's overshadowed another ongoing global story of migration, according to new data from the International Organization...

Cautionary Tales | Stats + Short Stories Episode 178

04 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Everyone has a podcast nowadays. Whether it's about sports, politics or features some of the most fascinating discussions on the current state of stat...

The Numbers Behind America’s Pastime | Stats + Stories Episode 177

25 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Much of the United States is buried under snow and ice, leaving many dreaming of spring. For some – that dream of spring brings with it a longing to...

Everything Makes Sense with Statistics, Right? | Stats + Stories Episode 176

18 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Our lives are framed, every day by data and statistics, though we may not always be aware of that fact. Helping us make sense of this universe of data...

Love, Sex and the Pandemic | Stats + Stories Episode 175

11 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The COVID pandemic has complicated everything from school to work to grocery shopping. The need to physically distance from people not in our homes ha...

Lying With Statistics | Stats + Stories Episode 174

04 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

If the last year’s done anything, it’s made clear how important statistics and data can be to our understanding of the world. It’s not just stat...

The Recent (Regrettable) Rise of Race Science | Stats + Stories Episode 173

28 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Race science, the belief that there are inherent biological differences between human races, has been “repeatedly debunked” in the words of the Gu...

Making Decisions During the Pandemic | Stats + Stories Episode 172

21 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Risk is a tricky thing. We like to think we understand it but when it gets down to brass tacks it can be harder to wrap your brain around things like ...

Sports Data in the U.K. | Stats + Stories Episode 171

14 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

What are the odds of your favorite team's victory, how much should they spend on a big name player, we discuss this other topics this on today's episo...

Octopus: A New Way To Publish | Stats + Stories Episode 170

07 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Scientific publications drive science, well that's stating the obvious, isn't it, but the form and way it's processed is historic. It's historic in th...

The Statistics of the (Stay-at-Home) Year | Stats + Stories Episode 169

31 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This has been a year for numbers. COVID states have been a collective obsession. Vote percentages surprising. Hours spent online ... unending. The Roy...

How We Understand Uncertainty | Stats + Stories Episode 168

17 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Communicating risk is difficult at any time but during a pandemic, communicating risk well can be what keeps a disease from spreading, as one public h...

Statisticians for Society | Stats + Stories Episode 167

10 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Data can be powerful and persuasive rhetorical tools for nonprofits as they explain the work they day and ask for monetary support from various entiti...

The Last Legs of Local Journalism | Stats + Stories Episode 166

03 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Cities and small towns across America once woke up to their local newspaper on their doorstep. Over the last several decades, though, those newspapers...

The Women of Hull House | Stats + Short Stories Episode 165

19 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Of all places to look for statistics, who’d have thought a settlement house would be a place that you would find insight into data of their communit...

Monitoring Health Data | Stats + Stories Episode 164

12 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

When an individual is admitted to a hospital they are quite often hooked up to a pan plea of monitoring devices all designed to help the doctors and n...

What it's Like Reporting on Statistics for the BBC | Stats + Stories Episode 163

05 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Being able to effectively communicate data is becoming an increasingly important part of a journalists job, so much so that news outlets are expanding...

Can You Still Predict Elections? | Stats + Stories Episode 162

29 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

With the 2020 U-S presidential election all but upon us, media are rife with prognostications about which way voters are going to swing. Will reliably...

Teaching Statistics After Apartheid | Stats + Stories Episode 161

22 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Delia North is the Dean and Head of the School of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science at University of KwaZulu Natal. She has over 25 years’...

2020 Census Concerns | Stats + Stories Episode 160

15 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The US Census Bureau is conducting its annual count of the American population this year. Concerns have emerged about this particular census and these...

Planning for a Pandemic | Stats + Stories Episode 159

08 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

There are a lot of facts and figures to sift through when it comes to the COVID 19 pandemic – there are death rates and infection rates to consider,...

Crime Statistics | Stats + Stories Episode 158

01 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

If you’ve been following the news much then you may have noticed reporters beginning to explore how COVID is impacting crime rates around the count...

Big Data and Big Laughs | Stats + Stories Episode 157

24 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Statistics is generally a field not known for its humor, at least to the broad public. Which is a shame because humor is a way to make complicated sub...

How to Understand the World Better With Statistics | Stats + Stories Episode 156

17 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We live at a curious moment, when data and information from a variety of sources overwhelm our senses and when there are people who are working to man...

Statisticians React to the News | Stats + Stories Episode 155

10 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

There's a lot of statistical information shared every day in news stories. Everything from COVID cases to economic data is Quantified help us better ...

19th Century Data Visualization | Stats + Stories Episode 154

03 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Alison Hedley has a PhD in Communication and Culture and holds a SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada) postdoctoral fello...

Teaching Better | Stats + Stories Episode 153

27 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Recent COVID-forced move to online instruction for both K through 12 and higher-ed has come an intense discussion of best teaching practices in digita...

News Deserts | Stats + Stories Episode 152

20 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Journalism in the United States is imagined as a public good, an institution that aids in the maintenance of democracy as it holds people in power acc...

The State of Human Rights in the Pandemic | Stats + Stories Episode 151

13 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Almost every day we seem to get new data about the COVID crisis. Whether it’s infection rates, death rates, testing rates, false-negative rates, the...

Messaging Medicine | Stats + Stories Episode 150

06 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The work of health researchers is vitally important to the safety and well-being of people around the world, with the COVID-19 crisis making that all ...

Measuring Performance | Stats + Stories Episode 149

30 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The use of statistics to improve processes and business industry government and academia is the focus of this episode of Stats and Stories with Deming...

Official Statistics in Asia and the Pacific | Stats + Stories Episode 148

23 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The data official statistical offices collect and generate are of vital importance to the work of national governments and international organizations...

Risk Assessment Biases | Stats + Stories Episode 147

16 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Protestors have taken to streets across the U-S this summer in order to fight back against what they see as an unjust criminal justice system – one ...

Statistical Summer Transportation Safety | Stats + Short Stories Episode 146

09 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What comes to mind at the start of summer? Backyard barbecues, quality time spent, and long drive. Transportation safety is the topic of this episode ...

Pets During Quarantine | Stats + Stories Episode 145

02 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Social media is always awash in pet videos and images, but since the COVID lockdowns it seems as though there is even more pet content to be found onl...

'13 Reasons Why' Association with Youth Suicide | Stats + Stories Episode 144

25 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

When reporters cover mass shootings news outlets often struggle to find ways to cover the event that won’t inspire others to do the same thing. Some...

Big Data Policing | Stats + Stories Episode 143

18 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Across the country, protesters are taking to the streets to fight against police brutality and systemic racism. The use of force by police departments...

The Most-Viewed Washington Post Article Ever | Stats + Stories Episode 142

11 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

As researchers and medical professionals struggle to get a handle on the COVID-19 pandemic, journalists struggle to tell the pandemic’s story with m...

A Better Way to Test for Coronavirus | Stats + Stories Episode 141

04 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

As the COVID 19 death toll continues to rise, researchers and public health professionals around the world are working to understand just how prevalen...

Celebrating The Statistics Of The Beautiful Game | Stats + Stories Episode 59 (Repost)

28 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Luke Bornn (@LukeBornn) is currently Vice President, Strategy and Analytics for the Sacramento Kings . Prior to joining the Kings, Bornn served as Hea...

Kid’s Questions for a Statistician | Stats + Stories Episode 140

21 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Latoya Jennings-Lopez hosts this special episode of Stats+Stories with the children of Howard W. Bishop middle school. Listen to Alyana and Collin ask...

The Lady with the Lamp | Stats + Stories Episode 139

14 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Lynn McDonald is a professor emerita at the University of Guelph. McDonald’s career has focused on enduring contributions as a scholar and social ac...

The Decade of Statistics | Stats + Stories Episode 138

07 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Steve Pierson is director of science policy for the American Statistical Association where he works to raise the profile of statistics in policymaking...

Birds of Probability | Stats + Stories Episode 137

30 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Amalia Bastos is a biologist and photographer who is currently a Ph.D candidate at The University of Auckland. She is part of the Animal Minds lab and...

The Problem with Plastics | Stats + Stories Episode 136

23 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Roland Geyer is Professor at UCSB’s Bren School of Environmental Science and Management. Prior to joining the Bren School he held research positions...

Observing Extreme Environmental Events | Stats + Stories Episode 135

16 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Dan Cooley is a Professor or Statistics at Colorado State University and is a past member and chair of the ASA’s Advisory Committee on Climate Chang...

How To Be An Ethical Data Journalist | Stats + Stories Episode 134

09 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Bekah McBride is a science writer and communications specialist who has worked with both companies and universities to turn data and research into app...

Statistics are a Human Right | Stats + Stories Episode 132

02 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

John Pullinger is the current president of International Association for Official Statistics (IAOS) and finished his five-year term as United Kingdom ...

Coronavirus Visualizations | Stats + Stories Episode 132

26 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Amanda Makulec is the Senior Data Visualization Lead at Excella and holds a Masters of Public Health from the Boston University School of Public Healt...

Teaching Statistics | Stats + Stories Episode 131

19 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Gail Burrill is currently an Academic Specialist in the Program for Mathematics Education at Michigan State University. She was a secondary teacher an...

Florence Nightingale and Coronavirus | Stats + Stories Episode 130

12 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Vicki Hertzberg is a Professor at Emory University in the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, where she has founded and directs the Center for Da...

White Hat Bias | Stats + Stories Episode 129

05 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

David B. Allison is the current dean, distinguished professor, and provost professor at the Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington. Pr...

Reporting on the Census | Stats + Stories Episode 128

27 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Hansi Lo Wang is a national correspondent for NPR based in New York City. He reports on the people, power and money behind the 2020 census. Wang recei...

The Math Behind Prescription Drugs | Stats + Stories Episode 127

21 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Dr. Stephen Ruberg was in the pharma industry for 38 years where he worked in all phases of drug development and commercialization – from R&D to Bus...

The Science of Sex | Stats + Stories Episode 126

13 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The Science of Sex | Stats + Stories Episode 126 by The Stats + Stories Team

Rage Against the Machine Learning | Stats + Stories Episode 125

06 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Cynthia Rudin is a professor of computer science, electrical and computer engineering, and statistical science at Duke University. Previously, Prof. R...

The Philosophy of Biostatistics | Stats + Stories Episode 124

30 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Dr. Harrell is the founding chair of the Vanderbilt Biostatistics department. Since 2003 he has been Professor of Biostatistics, Vanderbilt University...

The 2020 Census: A Bellwether for the Future | Stats + Stories Episode 123

23 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Robert Santos is vice president & chief methodologist at the Urban Institute as well as President-Elect of American Statistical Association. He has ov...