Stats + Stories

Retirement is a threshold - crossing a finish line of sorts. As a new emeritus professor. this is at the front of my mind. Our guest today knows and has studied, this third age of life; a beginning of all kinds of new activities personal, professional, and more. The third age of life is the focus of this episode of Stats and Short Stories with guest Dawn C. Carr. Dawn C. Carr (@DawnCCarr) is the D...

At the COVID pandemic’s seeming height, social media were filled with images and stories of people adopting pets. Individuals who might not have had time for a dog or a cat before lockdown suddenly did. Needing to walk a dog also gave people a reason to leave their homes at regular intervals. For some older adults with dogs, those regular strolls around the neighborhood may have helped keep them f...

Last academic year colleges and universities across the US struggled with whether to mandate COVID vaccinations for their students. While colleges often require vaccines, the political controversy surrounding the COVID shots made adopting a vaccine policy a complicated undertaking. But according to one study, it had a profound impact on the national COVID death toll last fall. That's the focus of...

Some important milestones have passed during the pandemic blur of the last few years. The 50th anniversary of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) was one. Created by the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act of 1970. NIOSH, one of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), was established as a “separate and independent research program to create objectiv...

New episodes of Stats+Stories return next week! The tenure track process at American universities is a grind – one shaped by the old adage to “Publish or perish.” But if a junior faculty member manages to successfully navigate the process – publishing as expected, learning to manage a classroom, participating in service – then they’re rewarded with tenure. Tenure is an almost permanent employment...

For years now, the utility of the P-value in scientific and statistical research has been under scrutiny – the debate shaped by concerns about the seeming over-reliance on p-values to decide what’s worth publishing or what’s worth pursuing. In 2016 the American Statistical Association released a statement on P-values, meant to remind readers that, “The P-values was never intended to be a substitut...

The issue of voter fraud has taken up increasing amounts of the public's imagination since the 2020 election. Spurred in part by claims from former U. S. President Donald Trump that the election was stolen from him. On their face, some of the claims of fraud seem irrational. Others however, require a bit of statistical investigation before they can be fully debunked. That’s the focus of this episo...

Since the summer of Black Lives Matter in 2020, institutions all over the U.S. have been exploring their pasts. In order to understand how they may have contributed to or helped perpetuate systemic racism. Universities, private businesses, and non-profits have all been working to try to understand what it means to be Anti-Racist. The American Statistical Association launched an Anti-Racism Task Fo...

Health research is complicated, no matter the scale or the scope. Global health research, however, brings with it particular issues. For the last decade, researchers in epidemiology have been pulled between issues related to research integrity and research fairness. Bridging the two is the focus of this episode of Stats and Stories with guest Sandra Alba and Susan Rumisha. Dr. Sandra Alba is an ep...

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...

Have you ever wondered why a search engine result for undocumented workers in North Carolina provides links to worker rights sites, while a search for illegal aliens in North Carolina would lead you to immigration concern sites? Did you know that Wikipedia entries for women have a higher recommend rate of deletion than entries for men? The heart of those questions is the focus of this episode of S...

Enjoy this reposted episode from last Spring about the history of Baseball while we take off the July 4th Holiday in the U.S. Much of the United States is buried under snow and ice, leaving many dreaming of spring. For some – that dream of spring brings with it a longing to hear the crack of a ball on a bat or the taste of peanuts in a ballpark. With the spring thaw comes baseball season and, with...

What do farmers in Kenya, fishers in the Philippines and teenagers in Boston have in common? They all need to balance risks when making decisions ranging from seed choice after considering predicted rainfall to life vest and chance of shark attacks to social distancing and emotional impacts. Understand risk is the focus of today’s episode of Stats+Stories with guest Tracey Brown.  Brown is the dir...

What does 2022 have in common with 2018 and 2026? What is special about 2023? These years include a month where work productivity will be reduced in many countries around the world. Each year will have a month when attention is split between work email and the most beautiful game. The World Cup once again draws the attention and passion of much of the world. Today’s episode focuses on the economic...

In this special episode of Stats+Stories we announce our new guest host Regina Nuzzo, a professor at Gallaudet University and freelance Science writer, who will be joining us for the next couple of months. We will also be looking back at some of our favorite interviews from the past 12 months from the likes of... Michelle Cardel - What is Nutrition Science - https://statsandstories.net/health1/wha...

Erik van Zwet (@erikvanzwet) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Data Sciences of the Leiden University Medical Center where he has been since 2009. He joined the school wanting to do more applied work in the areas of statistics and data analysis and has since published a paper in Significance Magazine which was the focus of our previous episode.

Most articles that appear in academic journals are kind of mundane in that they’re extending the work of scholars who have come before, or sometimes taking an old theory in a new direction. There are those moments however, when a piece of research holds the possibility of fundamentally remaking a field. How should those articles be handled? What’s the ethical way to review such research? That’s th...

In the United States, like many countries, middle-aged and older workers are increasingly a larger proportion of the workforce. The needs of these workers is different than those you are younger and can run the gamut from educational to health needs. That's the focus of this episode of Stats+Stories with guests Takashi‌ ‌Yamashita‌ and Phyllis A. Cummins Takashi‌ ‌Yamashita‌ ‌‌is‌ ‌an‌ ‌associate‌...

A randomized controlled trial is viewed as the golden standard in medical research, particularly as it relates to treatments or interventions. But there may be pitfalls to trusting that approach too much. That's the focus of this episode of Stats and Stories with guest Erik van Zwet. -Timestamps- What is a RCT? (1:15), What are characteristic of a well designed trial? (2:00), How did you get inter...

Cities are places where continuity and change co-exist. History shapes neighborhoods and the relationships between them, while economic forces can reshape a city’s landscape and skyline. In Washington D-C, the friction between continuity and change is ever present. The data and the research that goes into planning such a place is the focus of this episode of Stats and Stories, with guest Andrew Tr...

Conner Jackson is a Research Instructor in the Department of Biostatistics and Informatics at the Colorado School of Public Health. He serves as the chair of the Education Committee for the Center for Innovative Design and Analysis and teaches a 6-week short course about statistics and data science to bench scientists. His research focuses on the analysis of correlated data, largely in the context...

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...

Earth day was launched in 1970 in the aftermath of several environmental disasters in the publication of Rachel Carson's "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 inf...

Rosemary and John both have a passion for teaching. Their experience with classes ranges from mentored studies with a few students, to face-to-face classes with close to 100 students. Recently online classes that might be held synchronously or asynchronously with classes somewhere in between. What if you wanted to offer classes too many more students, who might be based anywhere around the world....

No matter how careful a researcher or statistician is there's the possibility that an error made exists in reported data. The trick as a reader is figuring out how to identify errors and then understand what they might mean. Learning how to be a statistical detective as a focus of this episode of Stats and Stories with guest Kristin Sainani. Kristin Sainani(née Cobb)(@KristinSainani) is a professo...