Lucy D'Agostino McGowan and Ellie Murray

Casual Inference

Science EN ↓ 68 episodes

Keep it casual with the Casual Inference podcast. Your hosts Lucy D'Agostino McGowan and Ellie Murray talk all things epidemiology, statistics, data science, causal inference, and public health. Sponsored by the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Author

Lucy D'Agostino McGowan and Ellie Murray

Category

Science

Podcast website

casualinfer.libsyn.com

Latest episode

Jun 26, 2025

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Episodes

Randomized Controlled Trials: Efficacy versus Effectiveness, Safety vs Safetiness | Season 4 Episode 6 28.02.2023

Lucy D'Agostino McGowan and Ellie Murray chat about randomized controlled trials, thinking about efficacy vs effectiveness and saftey vs safetiness. ✍️ Frank Harrell's blog post "Randomized Clinical Trials Do Not Mimic Clinical Practice, Thank Goodness" Follow along on Twitter: The American Journal of Epidemiology:  @AmJEpi Ellie:  @EpiEllie Lucy:  @LucyStats 🎶  Our intro/outro music is courtesy...

The Value of Instrumental Variables with Maria Glymour | Season 4 Episode 5 10.12.2022

Lucy D'Agostino McGowan and Ellie Murray chat with Maria Glymour, Professor of Epidemiology & Biostatstics at UCSF and incoming chair of the Department of Epidemiology at Boston University. Maria successfully convinces Ellie and Lucy that instrumental variables can be very useful in epidemiology.  Follow up: ✍️ Andrew Heiss's blog post on marginal and conditional effects for GLMMs Follow along on...

Methods chat about personalized medicine and positivity in causal inference | Season 4 Episode 4 30.11.2022

Lucy D'Agostino McGowan and Ellie Murray chat about critiquing methods research, average treatment effects, and positivity violations! Follow along on Twitter: The American Journal of Epidemiology:  @AmJEpi Ellie:  @EpiEllie Lucy:  @LucyStats 🎶  Our intro/outro music is courtesy of   Joseph McDade

Hot takes and logistic regression love with Travis Gerke | Season 4 Episode 3 16.11.2022

Lucy D'Agostino McGowan and Ellie Murray chat with Travis Gerke, Director of Data Science at The Prostate Cancer Clinical Trials Consortium (PCCTC). This episode has lots of hot takes and lots of love for logistic regression! Follow along on Twitter: Travis Gerke: @travisgerke The American Journal of Epidemiology:  @AmJEpi Ellie:  @EpiEllie Lucy:  @LucyStats 🎶  Our intro/outro music is courtesy o...

Counterfactual Thinking: Biomarkers, Napster, and Ice-T | Season 4 Episode 2 04.11.2022

Lucy D'Agostino McGowan and Ellie Murray chat about counterfactuals! Follow along on Twitter: The American Journal of Epidemiology:  @AmJEpi Ellie:  @EpiEllie Lucy:  @LucyStats 🎶  Our intro/outro music is courtesy of   Joseph McDade Edited by Quinn Rose:   aspiringrobot.com

Population and Biomedical Data Science with Enrique Schisterman | Season 4 Episode 1 13.10.2022

In this episode Ellie Murray and Lucy D'Agostino McGowan chat with Enrique Schisterman, Perelman Professor and Chair of the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Informatics at the University of Pennsylvania, about the future of epidemiology. Follow along on Twitter: Enrique: @eschisterman1 The American Journal of Epidemiology:  @AmJEpi Ellie:  @EpiEllie Lucy:  @LucyStats 🎶  Our intro/ou...

What is the value of a p-value with Charlie Poole and Chuck Scales | Season 3 Episode 13 03.05.2022

In this episode we play the audio from a recent panel discussion co-sponsored by UNC TraCS, Duke University and Wake Forest U CTSA Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Research Design (BERD) Cores. The panelists were Charles Poole (Associate Professor of Epidemiology, UNC) Lucy D'Agostino McGowan, and Charles Scales (Associate Professor of Surgery, Duke University) and it was facilitated by Marcella Bo...

It Depends with Sander Greenland | Season 3 Episode 12 18.04.2022

In this episode Lucy D'Agostino McGowan and Ellie Murray chat with Sander Greenland, Emeritus Professor of Epidemiology and Statistics at UCLA. Follow along on Twitter: The American Journal of Epidemiology:  @AmJEpi Ellie:  @EpiEllie Lucy:  @LucyStats 🎶  Our intro/outro music is courtesy of   Joseph McDade Edited by Quinn Rose: aspiringrobot.com

The Intersection of Industrial Engineering and Causal Inference with Toyya Pujol | Season 3 Episode 11 05.04.2022

In this episode Lucy D'Agostino McGowan and Ellie Murray chat with Toyya Pujol, Operations Researcher at RAND Corporation. Follow along on Twitter: Toyya: @toyyapujol The American Journal of Epidemiology:  @AmJEpi Ellie:  @EpiEllie Lucy:  @LucyStats  

The Intersection of Machine Learning and Causal Inference with Maggie Makar | Season 3 Episode 10 14.03.2022

In this episode Lucy D'Agostino McGowan and Ellie Murray chat with Maggie Makar , Presidential postdoctoral fellow and assistant professor in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan. Follow along on Twitter: Maggie: @Maggiemakar The American Journal of Epidemiology:  @AmJEpi Ellie:  @EpiEllie Lucy:  @LucyStats Slide link : https://bit.ly/3DnQai5 🎶  Our intro/outro music is...

Artificial Intelligence, Personalized Medicine, and Causal Bounds with Judea Pearl | Season 3 Episode 9 28.02.2022

In this episode Lucy D'Agostino McGowan and Ellie Murray chat with Judea Pearl , Chancellor professor of computer science and statistics at the University of California, Los Angeles. 📄 Judea's recent papers 📖 Book of Why Follow along on Twitter: Judea: @yudapearl The American Journal of Epidemiology:  @AmJEpi Ellie:  @EpiEllie Lucy:  @LucyStats Slide link : https://bit.ly/3DnQai5 🎶  Our intro/o...

The history of John Snow, Cholera, and Cookies with Chris Schaich | Season 3 Episode 8 14.02.2022

In this episode Lucy D'Agostino McGowan and Ellie Murray chat with #EpiCookieChallenge winner, Chris Schaich about the epidemiologist John Snow. Dr. Schaich is an assistant professor at Wake Forest School of Medicine in the Hypertension and Vascular Research Center. Follow along on Twitter: Chris: @Chris_Schaich The American Journal of Epidemiology:  @AmJEpi Ellie:  @EpiEllie Lucy:  @LucyStats Sli...

Asking questions that matter, getting answers that help | Season 3 Episode 7 05.12.2021

  In this episode Lucy D'Agostino McGowan and Ellie Murray chat about their Spotify Wrapped for Casual Inference, and Ellie Murray talks about causal inference for complex data with the University of Minnesota's epidemiology department. Follow along on Twitter: The American Journal of Epidemiology:  @AmJEpi Ellie:  @EpiEllie Lucy:  @LucyStats Slide link : https://bit.ly/3DnQai5 Transcript (auto-ge...

A Casual Look at Causal Inference History | Season 3 Episode 6 22.11.2021

In this episode Lucy D'Agostino McGowan and Ellie Murray chat about the history of causal inference, tracing the origins across disciplines from statistics to economics, epidemiology, and computer science, discussing contributions from Rubin, Robins, Pearl, and more! Follow along on Twitter: The American Journal of Epidemiology:  @AmJEpi Ellie:  @EpiEllie Lucy:  @LucyStats 🎶  Our intro/outro musi...

Hanging out in the data science trough of disillusionment with Hilary Parker | Season 3 Episode 5 08.11.2021

In this episode Lucy D'Agostino McGowan and Ellie Murray chat with Hilary Parker about design thinking for data analysis, the Dunning-Kruger effect, and the potential data behind baby Yoda. Follow along on Twitter: Hilary: @hspter The American Journal of Epidemiology:  @AmJEpi Ellie:  @EpiEllie Lucy:  @LucyStats 🎶  Our intro/outro music is courtesy of   Joseph McDade .

Metascience with Noah Haber | Season 3 Episode 4 25.10.2021

In this episode Lucy D'Agostino McGowan and Ellie Murray chat with Noah Haber about metascience, causal language in the literature, and more! 🥇 Causal Inference Nobel Prize Press Releas e 📝 Causal and Associational Linking Language From Observational Research and Health Evaluation Literature in Practice: A systematic language evaluation 📝 What Should Researchers Expect When They Replicate Studi...

Solving Optimization Problems in Healthcare and Disney Theme Parks with Len Testa | Season 3 Episode 3 11.10.2021

In this episode Lucy D'Agostino McGowan and Ellie Murray chat with Len Testa, president of TouringPlans , about solving optimization problems in travel and healthcare. 📦 Lucy's R package with touringplans data Len's slide on model choices: Follow along on Twitter: Len: @LenTesta The American Journal of Epidemiology:  @AmJEpi Ellie:  @EpiEllie Lucy:  @LucyStats 🎶  Our intro/outro music is courtes...

Causal Inference and Network Science for Public Health with Ashley Buchanan | Season 3 Episode 2 27.09.2021

In this episode Lucy D'Agostino McGowan and Ellie Murray chat with Ashley Buchanan about causal inference with a focus on networks. Dr. Buchanan is an assistant professor of Biostatistics in the Department of Pharmacy Practice at the University of Rhode Island. 🔗 Dr. Buchanan's website Follow along on Twitter: The American Journal of Epidemiology:  @AmJEpi Ellie:  @EpiEllie Lucy:  @LucyStats 🎶 ...

Coronavirus Rapid Tests Sensitivity, Specificity, Messaging, and Use Cases | Season 3 Episode 1 13.09.2021

In this episode Ellie Murray and Lucy D'Agostino McGowan do a series recap and then discuss sensitivity, specificity, and appropriate messaging in the context of coronavirus rapid tests. 📝 Evaluation of the Abbott BinaxNOW rapid antigen test for SARS-CoV-2 infection in children: Implications for screening in a school setting 📝 NY Times article: One in 5,000 🐦 Kareem Carr's tweet about omitted v...

Our Michael Jordan Episode | Season 2 Episode 5 02.03.2021

In this 23rd episode of Casual Inference Ellie Murray and Lucy D'Agostino McGowan chat about fixed vs random effect, complete a statistics challenge, and talk about DAGs. 🐦 Tweet from @jtc475 about fixed vs random effects terminology 🎲 This is Statistics March Randomness Challenge 📝 Lucy, Kyra, and Ellie's paper "Quantifying Uncertainty in Infectious Disease Mechanistic Models" PeDAGogy Here ar...

Health Policy with Julia Raifman | Season 2 Episode 4 08.02.2021

In this episode Ellie Murray and Lucy D'Agostino McGowan chat with Julia Raifman about health policy, a recent study on unemployment insurance and food insecurity, and anti racism in academia. Dr. Raifman is an assistant professor of Health Law, Policy, and Management at Boston University. Her research focuses on how health and social policies drive population health and health disparities. 📝 Geo...

Celebrating 100 years with a look forwards and back with the D'Agostinos | Season 2 Episode 3 21.01.2021

In this episode Ellie Murray and Lucy D'Agostino McGowan chat with Ralph D'Agostino Sr. and Ralph D'Agostino Jr. about their careers in statistics, looking back at how things have developed and forward at where they see the world of statistics and epidemiology going. We're excited to kick off the 100th year of the American Journal of Epidemiology with this episode. Ralph D'Agostino Sr. is a profes...

The Most Ambitious Crossover | Season 2 Episode 2 15.12.2020

In honor of the Society for Epidemiologic Research 2020 Meeting, the hosts of four epidemiology podcasts came together to record the first ever "crossover event" to talk about their experiences recording our shows and what podcasting can bring to the table for the field of epidemiology. Join the hosts of Epidemiology Counts (Bryan James), SERiousEPi (Matt Fox, Hailey Banack), Casual Inference (Luc...

Happy Anniversary to Us! | Season 2 Episode 1 13.11.2020

Ellie Murray and Lucy D'Agostino McGowan chat about ecological studies, the new Pfizer vaccine interim analysis, and more! 📈 Vanderbilt University Department of Health Policy's COVID-19 Deaths in Tennessee and Adoption of Mask Requirements (h/t Peter Rebeiro )  📈 The original masks v no masks graph 🗞 Pfizer's press release about the interim analysis for their vaccine trial 📓 Pfizer's vaccine tr...

Why Everyone is Excited About Causal Inference These Days with Roger Peng | Episode 18 30.10.2020

Ellie Murray and Lucy D'Agostino McGowan chat about communicating uncertainty, how air pollution policy is determined, and whether causal inference is a fad with Dr. Roger Peng from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Follow along on Twitter: The American Journal of Epidemiology:  @AmJEpi Ellie:  @EpiEllie Lucy:  @LucyStats Roger: @rdpeng 🎶  Our intro/outro music is courtesy of   Jos...

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