Make Me Data Literate

Michael Franklin is a Software Engineer at the Centre for Population Genomics, and a former student of mine. This was a really interesting chat that roamed all over the place! Have a listen.

This is an infuriating interview with Polly Hemming, Senior Researcher at The Australia Institute. Polly is amazing, but the interview is infuriating because of the outright deceit practiced in the field of Climate Data and Carbon Credits. I kept wanting to stop the interview to scream and throw things. An enlightening, fascinating, and enraging conversation!

"Particularly in the Indigenous context, We're really keen to unpack this notion of research objectivity or independence. To make the point that the person who's doing the evaluation/data analysis really brings their own social and cultural baggage to that question. So on that basis we're trying to make the case that it's important for Indigenous people to be leading that work. That argument is di...

This is a great chat about critical thinking and the importance of scepticism in Data Science, and the importance of data and scientific literacy around the world. Check it out!

An amazing conversation with Neuroscientist Associate Professor Nic Price from Monash University, who has a lot to say about the way we teach science, how we can understand the brain, and how we need to get comfortable with uncertainty. Check it out!

An amazing chat that ranged over the power of data storytelling, the impact of scientific fraud, and how to stay positive in the face of environmental catastrophe, Professor Euan Ritchie is a remarkable science communicator, an Ecologist, and a seriously lovely human being. "Data is power and knowledge, and if we have good data it gives us opportunities to make better decisions, and make choices b...

"The first thing I think [about graphs] is: what story am I supposed to believe when I see this? What are they trying to make me think? And then immediately, once you understand 'oh they want me to think that it's really big, or it's going down really quick, this pattern is abnormal…' then I immediately think 'what other stories also fit that data?'"

"So economics calls itself the science of the efficient allocation of resources. It tells itself that we help answer the question of what to produce, when to produce, and for whom to produce… but there's nothing in economics that says we shouldn't collect more tax and have a health system that's as good as the Nordic countries. There's nothing in economics that says that we should cut taxes for hi...

"It's actually interesting to observe the things people are trying to do with data as a way of assessing our civilisational maturity."

"The pandemic has shown us that we can act quickly and dramatically for other people, with a positive outcome. We saw a problem, we thought 'oh no, we have to do something about this problem, let's change the way we behave'… that's what we need for climate change."

It's this really tense balance between the side that treats data as if it's almost reality itself, it's so accurate and precise, and empirical, that it's almost like you're holding the real world in your hand… on the other hand you have the overly sceptical side which is basically someone who has been burnt in the past, like they looked at the background and history of some data and found it was f...

Mel is a data advocate, designer, storyteller, maker and founder of Nook Studios. This episode is a fascinating look at the case for Open Data, Government Transparency, and accessible Data Story Telling. “I think there’s a lot of work to be done and there’s a lot more impetus now, because the public have that awareness… Continue reading Mel Flanagan on Open Data and Data St...

“I love that the thing that I work on is actually so consequential to better decision making, to solving real world problems. To understanding and evaluating forces in our world. I just love that I’m part of a way of making a difference that has applications in so many settings.” “How do we start to… Continue reading Ellen Broad talks Cybernetics, Data Science, and Li...

A fascinating conversation with Government Statistician Dr Owen Churches. How government data collection can shape policy and change our understanding of the world. "It's worth spending time thinking about the problems, and struggling with them a little bit. The closer you get to the data, the less clear things should be."

Alan Duffy talks Data Literacy and Astronomy. "We are so keen to get into problem solving mode and we don't spend enough considered time checking and cleaning the data, because that's not as much fun as training a machine learning algorithm and seeing what it comes out with. "

An amazing conversation with Juliette O'Brien, founder and maintainer of covid19data.com.au - one of the most important sources of Australian Covid19 data and graphs since the very beginning of the pandemic.

Make Me Data Literate kicks off with an interview with Professor Adrian Esterman, Epidemiologist and Biostatistician. One of the big problems with experts, whether economic experts or any other sort of science expert, is that they have a lot of trouble bringing their conversation down to the level of the general public. It's not their fault, it's what they're taught.