The Secret Life of Numbers
Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
Episodes
Silent Data and Spotify: How Music is Recommended to You
19 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How does Spotify recommend music to you? What can your music tastes tell us about your personality traits? What is the Napoleon Dynamite Effect? All o...
Herd Immunity
12 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What is herd immunity? How do individual choices affect population health? Can we eradicate infectious disease? Join Levannia and Lindsay as they wrap...
Vaccine Efficacy Versus Effectiveness
05 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How well do vaccines work? How do we measure vaccine efficacy and effectiveness? What are some common vaccine myths? Join Levannia and Lindsay as they...
Rnaught: The Reproductive Number of a Virus
29 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Since the COVID 19 pandemic, epidemiology and virology terms have entered our everyday language, but what do they really mean? What’s the reproducti...
Fast Fashion
22 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How many times do you wear an item of clothing before letting it go? Can old clothing be recycled into new? Is renting clothing the secret to solving ...
Is It Too Late? Limiting Climate Warming to 1.5 Degrees
15 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In November 2021, The United Nations Climate Change conference was held in Glasgow, Scotland. Parties from all over the world descended on the confere...
Word Salad: Jargon and Readability Scores
07 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Are you ever confused by jargon? Does it sometimes feel like you are reading or listening to an alien language? How accessible is your own writing? In...
Peer Review, Impact Factor, and Predatory Journals, Oh My! How Scientists Communicate Their Findings
01 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
So you completed a research project… now what? Or are you curious about what the fuss is with publishing research? What is a journal’s impact fact...
Two Sides of the Same Coin: Qualitative versus Quantitative Research
25 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What’s the difference between qualitative and quantitative research? How can we achieve research rigor without testing for statistical significance?...
Inflation, Interest Rates, and the Cost of Living
18 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Have you been feeling the pinch from the rising cost of living? Are you wondering why it seems like everything is getting more expensive? What is infl...
Unequal Pay for Equal Work: The Gender Pay Gap in Data Science and Medicine
27 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We hear a lot of back and forth about whether or not the gender pay gap is real. Can differences in earning between men and women be explained by diff...
The True Cost of the 12 Days of Christmas
20 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Is a partridge in a pear tree on your Christmas list this year? What about 5 golden rings? Have you ever wondered what the true cost of the 12 days of...
Advice from an Obituary: 8 Cups of Water
13 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Sometimes advice comes from the most unexpected of places... like in the case of the age old adage to drink 8 cups of water a day. Where did this advi...
Working 9-5: What's the Deal with the 8 Hour Work Day?
06 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How many hours did you work today? Is your work part of your identity? Or are you feeling the pressure from the never-ending grind of hustle culture? ...
Sleep When You're Dead? Why We Need 8 Hours of Sleep
29 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How much sleep did you get last night? Can you catch up on sleep? Is the world set up for early birds to succeed? Welcome to the first episode of our ...
Looking for 5 BossBabes to Join Our Podcast and Work From Anywhere
22 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Have you recently received a message from someone you barely remember from high school asking if you want to join their ~business opportunity~? Or hav...
100 Companies Produce 71% of Global Carbon Dioxide Emissions
15 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Feeling anxious about the climate crisis? Are you wondering who is really responsible for greenhouse gas emissions? Does individual responsibility mat...
Only 9% of Plastic is Recycled
08 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Do you ever wonder what happens to plastic after you drop it in the blue recycling bin? Are you a little skeptical that recycling actually makes a dif...
So You're Thinking About Going Zero Waste...
01 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Have you ever wondered what the Zero in Zero waste really means? Is it possible to only produce a mason jar’s worth of trash annually? Are you feeli...
I Ain’t Afraid of No Ghosts!
25 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Have you ever seen a ghost? Are you a ghost believer or skeptic? Or are you just looking to get into the Halloween spirit? This episode is for you! We...
Welcome to Season 2: Answering Your Burning Questions!
08 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back! Season 2 is coming this October and there are lots of exciting episodes to come. Listen to this bonus episode to get a taste for what is...
Tiger King: A Case Study In Data Science
02 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What does Joe Exotic have to do with data science? Is your neighbour keeping a tiger in their apartment? Is captivity equivalent to conservation? This...
What The Floss?
26 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Have you ever wondered what all the fuss is about with flossing? Or are you curious whether anything bad would happen if you just… stopped flossing?...
Toothbrushing: Only Brush The Teeth You Want To Keep
19 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Are you curious about how toothpaste works? Wondering what all the fuss is about with fluoride? Or have you seen the trend of charcoal toothpaste and ...
4/5 Dentists Recommend This Podcast
12 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Do ⅘ dentists REALLY recommend Colgate? Is this a marketing gimmick or a real study? What does the 5th dentist know that we don’t? Welcome to the ...
10,000 Steps a Day: How Much Sitting Is Too Much Sitting?
05 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Did you get your 10,000 steps in today? Is this a marketing gimmick or the secret to good health? Is sitting REALLY the new smoking? Join Levannia and...
Balance: Understanding the Debt-to-Income Ratio
28 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Wondering what a debt-to-income ratio is? Or are you unsure about how it is used? Can money buy happiness? Welcome to the third and final episode of o...
Credit Cards: A Story of Transactors and Revolvers
21 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What does Victoria’s Secret have to do with credit cards? Who are the transactors and revolvers? What is sticky debt? Welcome to the second episode ...
The Duality of Compound Interest
14 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Have you ever wondered how the interest on your student loan is calculated? Or are you curious about how much that house is REALLY going to cost once ...
WTF is SPF: What Does SPF 30 Really Mean?
07 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What do sunscreen and Star Trek have in common? Have you ever wondered what SPF really stands for? Are you unsure what all the fuss is about with chem...
This Podcast Kills 99.9% of Germs
31 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
For better or worse, we are all too familiar with hand sanitizer and disinfection nowadays. But have you ever read the label on your hand sanitizer? D...
Welcome to The Secret Life of Numbers
14 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to The Secret Life of Numbers Podcast, the podcast where we dissect everyday numbers and statistics to uncover the stories behind them. During...