In our research for our PowerPoint presentation episode, we learned about William Playfair, and the world hasn't been the same since. Loyal listeners will recall that, among other things, Playfair invented (yes, INVENTED) the bar chart, the line chart and the pie chart.

For most people, that "among other things" would be pretty insignificant. But not for William Playfair. Not only did he birth data visualization into the world, William claimed to have introduced the semaphore telegraph to England, blackmailed a Scottish lord, and participated in the storming of the Bastille. Not bad for a day's work.

In honor of this Scottish Rogue of the Enlightenment, we're releasing the first song from our upcoming musical about the life of Playfair, where he contemplates the potential love of his life, Alexa Bisoap. This one's a keeper.

For those interested in learning more about Playfair, Cara Giaimo wrote this piece on Atlas Obscura in 2016: The Scottish Scoundrel Who Changed How We See Data

For even more, Bruce Berkowitz published a book about Playfair earlier this year, available on Amazon.com. Good stuff!