The Data Journalism Podcast

It’s a different kind of podcast this week: Simon and Alberto talk about Alberto’s latest book, The Art of Insight, why data journalism is still a dream job and our approaches to working with numbers to tell stories. Find out what books got us here - and what we care about most, when it comes to data storytelling. The ⁠music this week⁠ , made with ⁠TwoTone⁠ , is based on snowfall in Central Park f...

Attila Bátorfy is a data journalist operating in Viktor Orbán's Hungary, heading up ATLO and pioneering the field in the country as a teacher and practitioner. Find out why he believes Hungary is the country to watch for data storytelling. Music by ⁠TwoTone⁠ , based on data about rising Hungary's falling population. You can hear the ⁠full (long) track here⁠ .

The Guardian's Pamela Duncan and Ashley Kirk join Simon to talk about how data journalism has changed since he was there, how the news organisation works today and what is coming next. Music by TwoTone , based on data from this story about rising surface temperatures. You can hear the full (long) track here .

Alan Smith is a rare breed: he leads the FT's team of data reporters and designers, but has a background in the stuffy world of official statistics as former head of digital content at the UK's Office for National Statistics. Alan is also author of  How Charts Work , a handbook on designing with data using the FT's principles. He chats with Simon and Alberto about his approach to data...

This week we meet data journalist Eunice Magwambo , whose team has trained over 2,000 journalists in data journalism and visualisation and is part of a new movement of talented data reporters in the region. She talks about how data journalism in Africa is different, the appetite for data-led stories and the importance of sharing those visuals. You can find more of Eunice's work here .

Recorded live at the International Journalism Fesitival in Perugia, Italy on April 21, 2023. This panel brought together some great practitioners producing award-winning data journalism in small newsrooms and sometimes on their own. Moderated by Simon, the panel includes: Yvette Cabrera , Center for Public Integrity Miguel Angel Dobrich , Dobcast, Uruguay Yao-Hua Law , Macaranga, Malaysia Sisi Wei...

It's a different kind of episode! Live from the 2023 International Journalism Festival in Perugia, this session features co-host Simon plus the following great speakers: Tara Kelly, data editor at the European Journalism Centre Sondre Solstad is  The Economist ’s Senior Data Journalist Moderated by Lars Boering, director of the EJC The session looks at how data journalists work, who they colla...

How do you judge data journalism in 2023? The Sigma Data Journalism Awards is the only global award for the field and this episode sees Simon and Alberto chatting with  Gina Chua ,  Aron Pilhofer ,  Kuek Ser Kuang Keng  and  Marianne Bouchart  to discuss the state of data journalism today, the point of the awards and what's happening next. The music is based on daily entries for the awards thi...

Rani Molla is a senior correspondent at Vox Media, reporting for Recode on the intersection between work, technology and the future. She uses data to tell stories every day, whether it's about our return to the office (or lack of), the impacts of AI on our world or the rise of burnout. In the latest episode of the pod, we chat about how she uses data to tell stories, her favourite tools and wh...

RJ Andrews is the founder of data design studio Info We Trust and author of a new series of books delving into the deep history of of data visualisation and storytelling. In this episode of the pod, he talks about three significant parts of the history of data visuals: Florence Nightingale, Emma Willard and Étienne-Jules Marey. While Nightingale created powerful visuals that changed how we underst...

Jen Christiansen is the author of Building Science Graphics (published by A K Peters/CRC Press) and a senior graphics editor at Scientific American . In this episode of the pod, she talks about her approach to visualising scientific stories and to graphics, based on her long career in the field. "For any scientist to  have their work in the lab or in the field and be worthwhile, you need to c...

Harry Enten (@ forecasterenten on Twitter) is one of the most-high-profile data journalists in the world. He explains the numbers every day on CNN - whether it's election polling, sports or even his original passion: meterology, specifically snowstorms . "I definitely see myself as a storyteller," says Enten and he chats with Alberto and Simon about his approach to making the numbers understandabl...

Nigel Holmes is a graphic designer, author, and theorist, who focuses on information graphics and information design. He's also the author of a new book, Joyful Infographics , a personal journey through visual design. Alberto and Simon chat with Nigel about why humanity and fun is so vital in graphics. The music this week , made with TwoTone , is is based on honey production in the US, from 1998 t...

Nathan Yau is behind one of the world's most influential data journalism and visualisation websites: Flowing Data . A statistician, Nathan started the site as a resource for students but it has become a go-to destination to find out the latest in data journalism. We discuss why dataviz matters, how to learn R and the quiz of the week. The music this week , made with TwoTone , is the percentage of...

Amanda Cox is Head of Special Data Projects at USAFacts, an unrivaled source of public data in the US. She's also an established data journalist and former editor of the NYT's Upshot data journalism section. As the winner of multiple awards, she's been referred to as the " Michael Phelps of infographics ". She chats with Simon and Alberto about her career, how she feels about treemaps and how to p...

The Axios team have spearheaded ' smart brevity ', but how does that apply to data journalism and data visualisation? Alberto and Simon chat with the team that makes it happen: Danielle Alberti , Jacque Schrag and Will Chase about how they work and what makes a project 'Axios'.  You can check out the midterms project the team worked on with Google Trends data here .  Here are some more p...

Archie Tse is the Graphics Director at The New York Times. He has been at The Times since 1995, and he has pioneered graphics reporting, often in person - especially after 9/11, traveling to Iraq to cover the US invasion, and reporting on the capture of Saddam Hussein. He is even credited by some with being an early adopter of identifying Republicans with the colour red and Democrats with the colo...

One of the most successful published data journalists in the world today, David McCandless has a new book out: Beautiful News . His work is innovative, newsy, current and incredibly popular with readers — but sometimes controversial with what he calls the "chart police".  Alberto and Simon chat with David about why he gets such Marmite-type reactions to his work, how Hans Rosling opened our e...

Election reporting has become one of the most important journalism beats in America as we barrel towards the midterm elections. How can data journalism help? Jessica Huseman has become the face of election reporting in America. Editorial Director at Votebeat , she also owns the data journalism training organistion Friendly State News and previously worked at ProPublica on the Electionland project....

Anatoliy Bondarenko is Data editor at Texty.org.ua , an award-winning news and data site in Ukraine, from where he joins Alberto and Simon to discuss his life in a war zone as a data journalist. His team's work to analyse misinformation has won a Sigma data journalism award for best News Application and they are still producing great data journalism today, even as the country is under attack.&nbsp...

How do you make data journalism that matters to people about where they live? In the latest Data Journalism Podcast , Alberto and Simon explore local data journalism with two of the leading practitioners of the field. MaryJo Webster is the data editor for the Star Tribune in Minneapolis and has devoted herself to training data journalists . Ben Welsh is the editor of the Data and Graphics Departme...

Scott Klein leads the teams at ProPublica that work at the intersection of journalism and technology. His teams have been recognized with a Peabody Award, several Online Journalism Awards for General Excellence, Malofiej International Infographics Award medals, the Data Journalism Award Jurors Choice Award, as well as Society for News Design Awards of Excellence, including one special recognition...

Matt Daniels and Caitlyn Ralph are just two of the team behind The Pudding , a visual collective of great visual data journalism - where you can find great longform data journalism such as this hunt for the internet’s oldest image , this guide to why women’s pockets are inferior and how many times a character says “cool” in Community . And The Pudding crew also have a commercial arm too: Polygraph...

Eva Constantaras is a data journalist with Internews and Lighthouse Reports who works around the world to establish data journalism units to tell public interest stories. She has worked with data journalists in Afghanistan, Myanmar and many other places around the world where numbers can make a difference. Eva chats on the podcast about data journalism in failing states and her process to help rep...

Angeliki Kastanis is a data journalist at The Associated Press and an expert on the US Census.  They talk with Alberto and Simon about what the 2020 Census data released so far told us, offers tips and tricks for getting the most out of it for reporters - and even working as a Census enumerator.  Key links: censusreporter , AP Census Hub The music this week is based on the US Census (dat...