Georgina Sturge

Talk Data To Me

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Talk Data to Me is brought to you by host Georgina Sturge, author of the critically-acclaimed 'Bad Data: How Governments, Politicians and the Rest of Us Get Misled by Data' and 'Sum of Us: A History of the UK in Data.' Having made a career out of pointing out where the statistics we take for granted in politics and policymaking are deeply flawed, in each episode of this podcast Georgina interviews guests from government insiders to mathematicians and unravels the story, the life and the mystery behind the data that feeds our modern world.

Author

Georgina Sturge

Episodes

Why election polls are not what you think they are, with Ben Walker from Britain Elects 21.01.2026 32:51

My guest this week is Ben Walker, Senior Data Journalist atthe New Statesman and co-founder of Britain Elects – a website that aggregates election results and polls of people’s voting intentions, and which dabbles, very successfully, in election forecasting. At the 2024 general election, Ben’s model was the one that came closest to predicting the end result, an incredible achievement considering t...

The power of data visualisation, with Andy Kirk 12.01.2026 45:46

My guest this week is Andy Kirk, an independent expert indata visualisation. Andy is a prolific producer of resources on the how-tos of data viz, including the incredibly useful and beautifully crafted book ‘Data visualisation: a handbook for data-driven design.’ Anyone who’s even dipped atoe into the world of data viz online will have come across Andy and his amazing website visualisingdata.com....

Digital ID, big tech and the Dutch dilemma 08.01.2026 22:59

It's just me this week, with a story about digital ID, and the implications of relying on big American tech to deliver it. But this week the focus isn't on the UK, or at least it won't be at first - this week we're in the Netherlands. The full text of this episode also appeared as an article on the Substack page for Talk Data to Me, published on 7 January 2025. Host: Georgina Sturg...

Making sense of migration statistics, with Madeleine Sumption 08.12.2025 32:18

My guest this week is Madeleine Sumption, Director of the Migration Observatory – an independent research organisation based at the University of Oxford which many consider the UK’s most reliable and authoritative source of analysis on migration policy and statistics. Madeleine is THE voice on migration statistics in the UK, appearing regularly on TV and radio to talk through the latest numbers....

On the frontline of the trust crisis in UK statistics , with Ed Humpherson 01.12.2025 33:55

My guest this week is Ed Humpherson, head of the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR), the official watchdog for data and statistics in public policy. The OSR is an independent regulator tasked with upholding quality and transparency in UK statistics. Ed's background is in accounting and, before heading up the OSR, he worked at the National Audit Office, where he managed his work on economic and...

Are we flying blind on the economy? with Jonathan Portes 24.11.2025 33:57

My guest this week is Jonathan Portes, Professor of Economics and Public Policy at King’s College London. Prior to becoming an academic, Jonathan had already had a very substantial career in the civil service, which makes him a unique person to talk to about both the technical side of data and how it’s used in the real world by politicians. In his time at the civil service, he worked at the Treasu...