Stats + Stories

Statistical literacy was described by Iddo Gal as "the ability to interpret, critically, evaluate and communicate about statistical information and messages". With that in mind, get ready to take a journey on all the ways our guests are promoting statistical literacy in this episode of Stats+Stories. Glickman/Lesser Interview Starts at 27:42 Pedro Campos is the Deputy Director of the International...

The costumes are ready and the annual opportunity to go out and harass your neighbors to get candy is once again upon us. Yes, it's time for Halloween. And along with Halloween comes the worry, the concern the fear that in fact, someone will be poisoning my kid’s candy. This is something that has lived with us for decades and we have someone today that will help us investigate this mystery on this...

Data visualizations are everywhere, showing up in social media, in the news, and on company websites. With this onslaught, it can be hard to know what visualizations to trust. Learning how to navigate bad graphs and charts is a focus of this episode of Stats and Stories with guest Nathan Yau. Yau is the author of several books on data visualization, including Visualize This and a number of other w...

When American comedian and actor Betty White died, fans lamented the fact that she had just missed making it to her 100th birthday. They felt she’d been robbed of achieving a significant life moment. Some researchers think that this century could see more people making it to that moment and beyond. That’s the focus of this episode of Stats and Stories with guest Michael Pearce. Michael Pearce is a...

Fall is admissions season at universities across the United States. As colleges work to recruit a new class, a new working paper suggests that politics might impact where students decide to go to school. That’s the focus of this episode of Stats and Stories, with guest Riley Acton. Riley Acton is an assistant professor of economics at Miami University where she specializes in the economics of educ...

The international prize in statistics is awarded every two years by a collaboration among five leading international statistics organizations: the American Statistical Association, the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, the International Biometric Society, the International Statistical Institute, and the Royal Statistical Society. The prize recognizes a major achievement by an individual or tea...

Matthew Shearing is a private sector consultant working globally in partnership with the public, private and not-for-profit sectors on improving official statistics and other data systems, Monitoring and Evaluation, and embedding official statistics standards in wider international development. David Stern is a Mathematical Scientist and Educator. He is a former lecturer in the School of Mathemati...

Have you ever wondered if what you eat is aging you, or whether women in red really are sexier? In addition to turning to Reddit for the answers to those questions, you can now tune into a new podcast. Normal Curves focuses on sexy science and serious statistics, and it's the focus of this episode of Stats and Stories with guests Regina Nuzzo and Kristin Sainani Regina Nuzzo is an award-winning sc...

A statistician walks into a bar, and a comedy and art show begins. Creative work for scholars can extend beyond novel research and application. In today's episode of stats and stories, we see how the intersection between interest in statistics and art, as well as the intersection of statistics and comedy, with Dr Greg Matthews. Dr. Matthews is Associate Professor of Statistics and Director of the...

John Bailer is “the stats guy” and co-creator of Stats+Stories. He is also University Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Statistics at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He is currently President-elect of the International Statistical Institute and previously served on the previously on the ASA Board of Directors. His scholarly interests include the design and analysis of enviro...

Have you ever wondered if people actually hate Coldplay? Do you want statistical proof that Game of Thrones did not stick the landing in its finale? Have you wondered whether you’re actually seeing Nicholas Cage in more movies? Well, you’re in luck there’s a newsletter for that, and it’s the focus of this episode of Stats and Stories with guest Daniel Parris Daniel Parris is a data scientist and j...

What is a median? How about an interquartile range? Don’t even get me started on how to define a p-value. These statistical concepts are hard to grasp for your average statistics student, but imagining how these types of definitions translate into American Sign Language is a whole other ballgame. That is the focus of this episode of Stats+Stories with special guest Dr. Regina Nuzzo. Dr. Regina Nuz...

The National Association of science writers has about 2000 members, even as the field of science journalism has been experiencing a contraction. In her 2025 Nieman lab prediction for journalism, Siri Carpenter suggested that, given the challenges the world faces, it might be time that newsrooms embrace "science as a thread that runs through every beat." Science journalism is the focus of this epis...

The health of the world's oceans is a growing concern but measuring ocean health is a complicated undertaking. Some people studying the issue focus on pollution, while others look at the health of corals or marine mammals. One project attempts to take a comprehensive picture of the health of oceans in order to provide information about Oceanic vital signs to stakeholders. The Ocean Health Index is...

The Amazon has been imagined as a pristine wilderness, one in need of protection from development. This framing has often treated the Amazon as a place without history, practically untouched before the arrival of colonizers in South America. Statistics is helping show the history is much more complicated than that and it’s the focus of this episode of Stats and Stories with guest Dani Gamerman. Ga...

Early in the COVID pandemic, as we figured out how to live our lives solely at home, news stories began to be filled with stories about COVID’s spread and reproduction rates. Soon, social media were filled with amateur epidemiologists trying to make sense of those rates and sometimes making a mess of it. A series of articles in Significance examined the discourse around reproduction rates during C...

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...