The Stats + Stories Team

Stats + Stories

Statistics need Stories to give them meaning. Stories need Statistics to give them credibility. Every Thursday John Bailer & Rosemary Pennington get together with a new, interesting guest to bring you the Statistics behind the Stories and the Stories behind the Statistics.

Author

The Stats + Stories Team

Category

Education

Podcast website

statsandstories.net

Latest episode

Jul 9, 2026

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Episodes

Teaching Statistics | Stats + Stories Episode 131 19.03.2020

Gail Burrill is currently an Academic Specialist in the Program for Mathematics Education at Michigan State University. She was a secondary teacher and department chair in suburban Milwaukee, Wisconsin for over 28 years. She is the Immediate Past President of the International Association for Statistical Education, served as President of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and as Direc...

Florence Nightingale and Coronavirus | Stats + Stories Episode 130 12.03.2020

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 Data Science. Her research focuses on, “developing and applying statistical methods for the analysis of network data as well as microbiome data.” Specific topics include infectious diseases on networks, dynamic networks and microbiome of the airplane c...

White Hat Bias | Stats + Stories Episode 129 05.03.2020

David B. Allison is the current dean, distinguished professor, and provost professor at the Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington. Prior to Indiana University, Allison was a distinguished professor, Quetelet Endowed Professor, and director of the NIH-funded Nutrition Obesity Research Center (NORC) at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Allison has published more than 50...

Reporting on the Census | Stats + Stories Episode 128 27.02.2020

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 received the American Statistical Association's Excellence in Statistical Reporting Award for covering the Census Bureau and the Trump administration's push for a citizenship question. Check out his work on NPR and follow him on Twitter.

The Math Behind Prescription Drugs | Stats + Stories Episode 127 21.02.2020

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 Business Analytics. In his last 10 years at Lilly, he formed the Advanced Analytics Hub for which he was the Scientific Leader and ultimately the Distinguished Research Fellow. He retired from Lilly at the end of 2017. Since his retirement, he has formed...

The Science of Sex | Stats + Stories Episode 126 13.02.2020

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

Rage Against the Machine Learning | Stats + Stories Episode 125 06.02.2020

Cynthia Rudin is a professor of computer science, electrical and computer engineering, and statistical science at Duke University. Previously, Prof. Rudin held positions at MIT, Columbia, and NYU. Her degrees are from the University at Buffalo and Princeton University. She is a three-time winner of the INFORMS Innovative Applications in Analytics Award. She has served on committees for INFORMS, th...

The Philosophy of Biostatistics | Stats + Stories Episode 124 30.01.2020

Dr. Harrell is the founding chair of the Vanderbilt Biostatistics department. Since 2003 he has been Professor of Biostatistics, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and was the department chairman from 2003-2017. He is Expert Statistical Advisor for the Office of Biostatistics for FDA CDER. He is Associate Editor of Statistics in Medicine, a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for Scienc...

The 2020 Census: A Bellwether for the Future | Stats + Stories Episode 123 23.01.2020

Robert Santos is vice president & chief methodologist at the Urban Institute as well as President-Elect of American Statistical Association. He has over 40 years of experience designing research and evaluation studies as well as sample surveys. His expertise includes quantitative and qualitative research design, sampling, survey operations, and statistical analysis; specialty areas include Hispani...

Communicating Uncertainty | Stats + Stories Episode 122 16.01.2020

Check out John's appearance on The Random Sample - https://acems.org.au/podcast/episode-20-stats-and-stories Louise Ryan is an Australian biostatistician, a distinguished professor of statistics in the School of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney, She is known for her work applying statistics to cancer and risk assessment in environmental health. Louise is also the Editor...

The Stats Behind Your Medical Care | Stats + Stories Episode 121 09.01.2020

Dr. Harrell received his PhD in Biostatistics from UNC in 1979. Since 2003 he has been Professor of Biostatistics, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and was the department chairman from 2003-2017. He is Expert Statistical Advisor for the Office of Biostatistics for FDA CDER. He is Associate Editor of Statistics in Medicine, a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for Science Translationa...

The Stats of the Decade | Stats + Stories Episode 120 02.01.2020

Iain Wilton directs the Royal Statistical Society’s policy, public affairs and external relations work. His team’s responsibilities include the production of our member newsletter, Significance magazine and the RSS’s policy briefing papers for MPs and peers. Iain’s team also organises the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Statistics as well as the RSS Statistical Ambassador network and our annual S...

How to Make Data Journalism Better | Stats + Stories Episode 119 19.12.2019

Simon Rogers is an award-winning data journalist, writer and speaker. Author of ‘Facts are Sacred‘, published by Faber & Faber in the UK, China and South Korea. He has also written a range of infographics for children books from Candlewick. Data editor on the News Lab team at Google, based in San Francisco, he is director of the Data Journalism Awards and teaches Data Journalism at Medill-Northwes...

Data is the New Punk | Stats + Stories Episode 118 12.12.2019

Simon Rogers is an award-winning data journalist, writer and speaker. Author of ‘Facts are Sacred‘, published by Faber & Faber in the UK, China and South Korea. He has also written a range of infographics for children books from Candlewick. Data editor on the News Lab team at Google, based in San Francisco, he is director of the Data Journalism Awards and teaches Data Journalism at Medill-Northwes...

What Do Seinfeld, The Tonight Show And Stats+Stories Have In Common? | Stats+Stories (REPOST) 05.12.2019

Rick Ludwin was hired by NBC Entertainment in 1979 and made director of variety shows there in 1980. He then became vice president for specials and variety programs in 1983; senior VP for specials, variety programs and late-night in 1989; and executive VP for NBC’s late-night and prime time series in 2005. In its 57 years, The Tonight Show has had five permanent hosts, and Rick has been the boss o...

Germs on a Plane | Stats + Stories Live! 21.11.2019

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 Data Science. Her research focuses on, “developing and applying statistical methods for the analysis of network data as well as microbiome data.” Specific topics include infectious diseases on networks, dynamic networks and microbiome of the airplane c...

Making ASA Initiatives Stick | Stats + Stories Live! 14.11.2019

Wendy Martinez has been serving as the Director of the Mathematical Statistics Research Center at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for six years. Prior to this, she served in several research positions throughout the Department of Defense. She held the position of Science and Technology Program Officer at the Office of Naval Research, where she established a research portfolio comprised of aca...

Why's It So Hard To Count the Unemployed? | Stats + Short Stories Episode 117 07.11.2019

Chaitra Nagaraja is Associate Professor of Statistics at the Gabelli School of Business at Fordham University. Prior to joining Fordham, she was a researcher at the U.S. Census Bureau. She combined her various research interests with her love of history in a new book, Measuring Society, which explores the history and measurement of official statistics.

The Importance of Official Statistics | Stats + Stories Episode 116 31.10.2019

Chaitra Nagaraja is Associate Professor of Statistics at the Gabelli School of Business at Fordham University. Prior to joining Fordham, she was a researcher at the U.S. Census Bureau. She combined her various research interests with her love of history in a new book, Measuring Society, which explores the history and measurement of official statistics.

From the Royal Statistical Conference | A Stats + Stories Special Part 2 24.10.2019

This episode features a number of interviews from the recent Royal Statistical Society International Conference from last month. Today's guests include, Amy-Jayne McKnight who is discussing the challenges associated with genomic data. We consider how data is captured, processed, and then analysed and AJ outlines the challenges presented by sources of variability. Then, Lancaster University’s Harry...

From the Royal Statistical Conference | A Stats + Stories Special Episode 17.10.2019

This episode features a number of interviews from the recent Royal Statistical Society International Conference from last month. Today's guests include, Iain Flint of G’s Growers talking about the IceCAM project, which helps to minimise food waste by adapting the growing programmes of iceberg lettuces according to weather predictions. We also have James Tucker, head of the Quality Centre and Metho...

Getting Introduced to Programming at a Young Age | Stats + Stories Episode 114 10.10.2019

Wendy Martinez has been serving as the Director of the Mathematical Statistics Research Center at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for six years. Prior to this, she served in several research positions throughout the Department of Defense. She held the position of Science and Technology Program Officer at the Office of Naval Research, where she established a research portfolio comprised of aca...

Past, Present and Future of Statistics | Stats + Stories Episode 114 03.10.2019

Xiao-Li Meng, the Whipple V. N. Jones Professor of Statistics, and the Founding Editor-in-Chief of Harvard Data Science Review, is well known for his depth and breadth in research, his innovation and passion in pedagogy, his vision and effectiveness in administration, as well as for his engaging and entertaining style as a speaker and writer. Meng was named the best statistician under the age of 4...

How the Bureau of Labor Statistics Gets its Data | Stats + Stories Episode 113 26.09.2019

Wendy Martinez has been serving as the Director of the Mathematical Statistics Research Center at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for six years. Prior to this, she served in several research positions throughout the Department of Defense. She held the position of Science and Technology Program Officer at the Office of Naval Research, where she established a research portfolio comprised of aca...

Introducing The Harvard Data Science Review | Stats + Stories Episode 112 19.09.2019

Xiao-Li Meng, the Whipple V. N. Jones Professor of Statistics, and the Founding Editor-in-Chief of Harvard Data Science Review, is well known for his depth and breadth in research, his innovation and passion in pedagogy, his vision and effectiveness in administration, as well as for his engaging and entertaining style as a speaker and writer. Meng was named the best statistician under the age of 4...

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