Stats + Stories

What is the best way to support people living in extreme poverty? Could unconditional cash transfers and universal basic income be viable options? How can we know if such programs will work? Today's episode of stats and stories focuses on addressing the needs of people living in extreme poverty with Miriam Laker. Dr. Miriam Laker is the Global Director of Research at GiveDirectly and a Senior Rese...

Rory McIlroy was leading the 2025 U.S. Masters golf tournament by two strokes after three rounds. So was his ultimate victory a sure thing? How predictive is a lead after three rounds of a golf tournament for victory after the 4th round? In today's episode of stats and stories, we hit the links to explore outcomes in professional golf tournaments, along with addressing whether golf handicaps make...

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 of Stats+Stories with guest Joel Greenhouse.

Every year, statistics classes are filled with math averse students who white knuckle it to the end of the semester in the hopes of getting a passing grade. And the dream of forgetting about math and statistics for a little while. But what if it didn’t have to be that way? What if instead of white knuckling it, students were actually excited about the subject; or, at the very least, not terrified...

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 claims surrounding such products can be questionable at best, the field of nutrition science is growing. Filled with researchers who are working to truly understand the science of food that is a focus of this episode of Stats and Stories with guest M...

In a commencement speech in 2016, Atul Gawande told the crowd that science is a, "commitment to a systematic way of thinking, an allegiance to a way of building knowledge and explaining the universe through testing and factual observation." In the last ten years that understanding of science has become muddied for the public. Social media has helped fuel the rise of conspiracy theories built upon...

More than 15 years ago, Thomas Friedman wrote, “I prefer the term “global weirding,” because that is what actually happens as global temperatures rise and the climate changes. The weather gets weird. The hots are expected to get hotter, the wets wetter, the dries drier and the most violent storms more numerous.” Today’s Stats+Stories episode will be a conversation about how a small shift in temper...

Earth day was launched in 1970 in the aftermath of several environmental disasters in the publication of Rachel Carson Silent Spring. It was designed to help raise awareness of environmental issues and has since grown into a global event. With this year's Earth Day taking out a particular urgency in light of the most recent UN Climate Report. But what goes into the scientific research that informs...

According to the U.S. State Department, three-fifths of global GDP, three-quarters of world trade, and 90 percent of official development assistance can be accounted for in 38 countries. Those countries are members of the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development – or OECD. Founded in 1961 and headquartered in Paris, the OECD’s goals include stimulating global economic growth by provi...

When people think of public goods, they most likely think of things like parks or schools. But official statistics are also a kind of public good. They help us understand things like housing prices, the costs of goods and the spread of disease. However, this data infrastructure is under threat around the world. The work of official statisticians and the obstacles they face, is the focus of this ep...

Lisa LaVange is the 2018 President of the American Statistical Association and she is PhD, is Professor and Associate Chair of the Department of Biostatistics { add link to dept } in the Gillings School of Global Public Health { add link to Gillings SPH } at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is also director of the department’s Collaborative Studies Coordinating Center (CSCC), o...

Chart Spark | Stats + Stories Episode 359 by The Stats + Stories Team

The use of force by police has been in the news a lot lately, in connection to everything from protests on college campuses to the death of individuals during arrests. There’s no singular, shared definition of what use of force is according to the National Institute of Justice. A local police department will set a standard, but that threshold for when an office should use force varies from place t...

The COVID pandemic has complicated everything from school to work to grocery shopping. The need to physically distance from people not in our homes has made it difficult to maintain friendships or causal relationships while being stuck at home with a significant other for months on end can make even the biggest house seem tiny. COVID’s impact on relationships and sex is the focus of this episode o...

Sports analytics is a booming industry with new technologies allowing for the parsing of ever more sophisticated statistics. Analysts can now examine the height and the force of a gymnast tumbling pass, the probability of going for it on a 4th down in football, actually working out, and the arc of the best swing for a baseball player. Analytics are also used in the conditioning of athletes, partic...

Are you ready to register for a 100-mile race that includes 60,000 feet of elevation gain? How about a 3000-mile race cycling across the United States in the race across America? These endurance competitions and events are amazing athletic achievements, and women are competing in these events in ever-increasing numbers. These amazing feats and the factors that have hindered and enhanced the partic...

Dr. Rose Marie Ward is a professor in Miami University's Department of Kinesiology & Health. She studies college student health, with a focus on both addictive/harmful behaviors (alcohol use, disordered eating, unsafe and unwanted sexual behavior) and prosocial activities (women’s leadership, life satisfaction, scholastic achievement, exercise, and athleticism).

About 5.4 million Americans live with some form of paralysis. Sometimes that's just a temporary loss of mobility, but for the Americans whose paralysis is caused by a spinal cord injury, that loss of movement is often permanent, as there's no biological way to heal an injured spinal cord. There are efforts to see if technology might be able to help these individuals regain use of their limbs, and...

Glenn Platt ​(@glennplatt) is the C. Michael Armstrong Professor of Network Technology & Management & Director of Interactive Media Studies at Miami University​​. He is interested in social media marketing, digital media and e-Commerce​​. He is also the faculty ​sponsor of the Esports team at Miami.

Artists of today are still making albums, however with so much emphasis being put on streaming charts how many of today's album streams are being made up by a few hit tracks? That distinction is the focus of today's episode of Stats and Stories with guest Chris Dalla Riva. Chris Dalla Riva is an analyst for the music streaming service Audiomack by day while spending his nights writing and recordin...

For decades, college athletes could not make any money from their sports identities. In 2021 the NCAA passed an interim name image and likeness policy which now grants athletes control over those indentities. They can now be paid for autographs, personal appearances, and endorsements. The economic impact of the NCAA name image and likeness changes are the focus of this episode of Stats+Stories wit...

The blue ice giants in our outer solar system have unusual magnetic fields, missing what we understand as traditional north-south poles. For decades, scientists have been trying to understand why while also puzzling out what the planets are made of under their atmospheres. Some have suggested the planets may experience diamond rain others that their mantles consist of a mix of slushy water and amm...

Linda J. Young is Chief Mathematical Statistician and Director of Research and Development of USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service . She oversees efforts to continually improve the methodology underpinning the Agency's collection and dissemination of data on every facet of U.S. agriculture. She works on the surveys designed to characterize agricultural activity in the US.

After Hurricane Helene left a path of destruction from Florida through North Carolina in 2024 you may not expect to see a lot of little Helene's in kindergarten rosters 6 years from now. But what names are emerging, and why? Will popular songs or singers be influencing name choices? If so, will lots of little Taylors be on our hypothetical kindergarten roster 6 years in the future. What influences...

Trees have long been imagined as the earth’s lungs inhaling carbon dioxide and exhaling the oxygen needed to support life. That life, too, is important for sustaining the earth. One scholar suggests that the animals that fill the planet’s landscapes serve as earth’s heart and arteries without them, the earth would be little more than a barren rock. The way that animals make our world is the focus...