Casual Inference

By Lucy D'Agostino McGowan and Ellie MurrayScience Mathematics

Casual Inference episodes

October 26 Regression to the Mean Girls | Dancing with the Stats with Grayson Weavil, Madeline Merrill, and Wesley Krieger
Follow Regression to the Mean Girls on [⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠], [⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠], or wherever you love to listen!

Grayson Weavil, Madeline Merrill, and Wesley Krieger join ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sarah Lotspeich⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Lucy D'Agostino McGowan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ with a data-driven side quest into Dancing with the Stars stats.

Check out the details here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠regressiontothemeangirls.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Follow along on instagram:
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@regressiontothemeangirls⁠⁠
49 min
October 19 Regression to the Mean Girls | Mixed Effects, Mixed Signals: Love Island Kissing Scores with Hannah Barton
Follow Regression to the Mean Girls on [⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠], [⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠], or wherever you love to listen!

Hannah Barton joins ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sarah Lotspeich⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Lucy D'Agostino McGowan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ with a data-driven side quest into Love Island Kissing Scores.

Check out the details here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠regressiontothemeangirls.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Follow along on instagram:
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@regressiontothemeangirls⁠⁠
48 min
October 12 Regression to the Mean Girls | Every Man's Causal Inference with Roger Peng
Follow Regression to the Mean Girls on [⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠], [⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠], or wherever you love to listen!

Roger Peng⁠ joins ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sarah Lotspeich⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Lucy D'Agostino McGowan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ with a data-driven side quest into becoming an accidental business man.

Check out the details here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠regressiontothemeangirls.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Follow along on instagram:
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@regressiontothemeangirls⁠⁠
38 min
October 05 Regression to the Mean Girls | The Marshmallow Test (Not That One) with Mattan Ben-Shachar
Follow Regression to the Mean Girls on [⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠], [⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠], or wherever you love to listen!

Mattan Ben-Shachar⁠ joins ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sarah Lotspeich⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Lucy D'Agostino McGowan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ with a data-driven side quest into whether different colored marshmallows taste different.
*Be sure to listen to the end for a surprising addendum!

Check out the full process here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠regressiontothemeangirls.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Follow along on instagram:
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@regressiontothemeangirls⁠⁠
44 min
September 28 Regression to the Mean Girls | Election Data Web Scraping with Emily Riederer
Follow Regression to the Mean Girls on [⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠], [⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠], or wherever you love to listen!

⁠Emily Riederer⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (Capital One) joins ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sarah Lotspeich⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Lucy D'Agostino McGowan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ with a data-driven side quest into scraping election data.

Check out the full process here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠regressiontothemeangirls.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Follow along on instagram:
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@regressiontothemeangirls⁠⁠⁠
43 min
September 21Regression to the Mean Girls | The Art of Web Scraping Art with Hadley Wickham
Follow Regression to the Mean Girls on [⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠], [⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠], or wherever you love to listen!

⁠Hadley Wickham⁠ (Posit) joins ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sarah Lotspeich⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Lucy D'Agostino McGowan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ with a data-driven side quest into building a web scraper to help acquire art.

Check out the full process here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠regressiontothemeangirls.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Links to content we chat about on the episode:
⁠⁠⁠Weston Lambert Art⁠
⁠Parallel strands between learning crochet and learning programming by Maëlle Salmon⁠

Follow along on instagram:
⁠⁠⁠@regressiontothemeangirls⁠
40 min
September 14Regression to the Mean Girls | The Comfort of Competence and the Speed of Justice, According to Law & Order
Follow Regression to the Mean Girls on [⁠Apple Podcasts⁠], [⁠Spotify⁠], or wherever you love to listen!

Christine Zhang⁠ (⁠New York Times⁠) joins ⁠⁠⁠Sarah Lotspeich⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠Lucy D'Agostino McGowan⁠⁠⁠⁠ with a data-driven side quest into the TV show Law and Order.

Check out the full analysis here: ⁠⁠⁠regressiontothemeangirls.com⁠⁠⁠

Links to content we chat about on the episode:
⁠Wrong Number newsletter⁠
⁠The Speed of Justice, According to Law & Order⁠

Follow along on instagram:
⁠@regressiontothemeangirls
1 hr 14 min
September 07Regression to the Mean Girls | The Work is Mysterious and Important: Severance Data
Follow Regression to the Mean Girls on [Apple Podcasts], [Spotify], or wherever you love to listen!

⁠Lucy D'Agostino McGowan⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠Sarah Lotspeich⁠⁠ return with a data-driven side quest into the TV show Severance. Lucy analyzes whether Milchick really uses more complicated language than his colleagues.

Check out the full analysis here: ⁠⁠regressiontothemeangirls.com⁠⁠

Links to content we chat about on the episode:
⁠⁠Lucy's Severance data R package [mdr]⁠⁠
⁠⁠Lucy's other Severance analyses⁠⁠
⁠⁠Dunnet⁠⁠
⁠⁠Radial plot of who is speaking in Severance ⁠⁠

Follow along on instagram:
@regressiontothemeangirls
43 min
August 31Regression to the Mean Girls | Romance by the Numbers: First Sparks Across Tropes
Sarah Lotspeich⁠ and ⁠Lucy D'Agostino McGowan⁠ introduce Regression to the Mean Girls, a podcast about data-driven side quests in pop culture. In this episode, Sarah analyzes 45 recent romance novels to find out how different romance tropes affect the timing of the couple’s first kiss.
Check out the full analysis here: ⁠https://regressiontothemeangirls.com/⁠

Links to content we chat about on the episode:
⁠Edward L. Kaplan and the Kaplan-Meier Survival Curve⁠
⁠Nonparametric Estimation from Incomplete Observations⁠
⁠Not just love, actually: why romance fiction is booming⁠
⁠What is the lipstick index?⁠

Follow along on instagram:
@regressiontothemeansgirls

Podcast feed: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/rttmg/
57 min
June 26, 2025Optimizing Data Workflows with Emily Riederer | Season 6 Episode 8
Emily Riederer is a Data Science Senior Manager at Credit Risk Modeling Capital One. Her website can be found here: https://www.emilyriederer.com/ Follow along on Bluesky:

Emily: ‪@emilyriederer.bsky.social‬

Ellie: @epiellie.bsky.social

Lucy: @lucystats.bsky.social

🎶 Our intro/outro music is courtesy of Joseph McDade. Edited by Cameron Bopp.
53 min

About Casual Inference

From the publisher's feed

Keep it casual with the Casual Inference podcast. Your hosts Lucy D'Agostino McGowan and Ellie Murray talk all things epidemiology, statistics, data science, causal inference, and public health.…