R Weekly Highlights

After a massive backlog issue sprint, the foundational {knitr} gains terrific updates to supercharge SQL code chunks. The R Project moves to an open source platform for asynchronous communication, and a key technique for bringing the user's perspective on error messages when you test your R package. 

Episode Links 

• This week's curator: Batool Almarzouq - @batoolmm.bsky.social (Bluesky) & @batool664 (X/Twitter)
• The knitr SQL Engine Grows Up
• Zulip Chat for the R Project
• Snapshotting error messages
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2026-W40

Supplement Resources

• A Four-Day {knitr} Issue/PR Backlog Sprint https://yihui.org/en/2026/09/knitr-backlog
• Zulip R-Project signup https://r-project.zulipchat.com
• A Practical Introduction To Reproducible R with Nix & {rix} https://b-rodrigues.github.io/r_pharma_26/#/title-slide

Supporting the show

• Use the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedback
• R-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.
• A new way to think about value: https://value4value.info
• Get in touch with us on social media
  • Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)
  • Mike Thomas: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) 

Music credits powered by OCRemix

• Brinstar Bonsai Garden - Super Metroid - Red Tailed Fox - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01473
• Dark World Jazz - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - Gux - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00156

Have you found a rogue line of rm(list=ls()) in your R scripts? Then we have a terrific update to a package to find those environment issues and much more. Plus a candid take on the lifecycle of spreadsheet-creating packages, and how to take matters to your "R" hands when faced with a perplexing reviewer comment. Mike and I also share our takeaways from an eventful posit::conf(2026)! 


Episode Links 

• This week's curator: Colin Fay - @[email protected] (Mastodon) & @colinfay.bsky.social (Bluesky) & [@_ColinFay]](https://twitter.com/_ColinFay) (X/Twitter)
• Release: sessioncheck 0.2
• Ghosts of spreadsheets past
• Observed power tells you nothing
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2026-W39

Supplement Resources

• {sessioncheck} https://sessioncheck.djnavarro.net/
• Why Every R Package Wrapping External Tools Needs a sitrep() Function https://drmowinckels.io/blog/2026/sitrep-functions/
• Marimo https://docs.marimo.io

Supporting the show

• Use the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedback
• R-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.
• A new way to think about value: https://value4value.info
• Get in touch with us on social media
  • Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)
  • Mike Thomas: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) 

Music credits powered by OCRemix

• A View from the Top (of Shinra HQ) - Final Fantasy VII Remake - TheManPF, Andre Beller, jnWake, Kev Ragone, Michelle Dreyband, newmajoe, Ronin Op F - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR04777
• Hotel Rhumba (I Want to Go Home) - Earthbound - The Pancake Chef - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00526

A data-driven investigation on how September is a dangerous month for bikers in Wisconsin, a novel look at the distribution of castles across the globe, and the fundamentals behind an influential analysis method commonly used in experimental designs.


Episode Links 

• This week's curator: Jonathan Kitt - @jonathankitt.bsky.social (Bluesky)
• Madison bike crashes peak in September
• An Atlas of Stone
• Repeated measures ANOVA in R
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2026-W37

Supplement Resources 

• Madison Bikes https://www.madisonbikes.org
• Tidy Tuesday Castlemap dataset https://github.com/rfordatascience/tidytuesday/tree/main/data/2026/2026-09-01
• Deepali's GitHub repository https://github.com/deepdk 
• {rstatix}: Pipe-friendly Framework for Basic Statistical Tests in R https://rpkgs.datanovia.com/rstatix/

Supporting the show

• Use the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedback
• R-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.
• A new way to think about value: https://value4value.info
• Get in touch with us on social media
  • Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)
  • Mike Thomas: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) 

Music credits powered by OCRemix

• Relm's Weepy Loop - Final Fantasy 6 - MkVaff - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00178
• Cammy's London Drizzle - Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers - MkVaff - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00453

The newest linter on the R block gains a bold new feature in version 0.6.0, and a new package documentation framework altdown enters the world. 

Episode Links 

• This week's curator: Jon Calder - @[email protected] (Mastodon) & @jonmcalder (X/Twitter)
• Jarl 0.6.0: A fast R linter
• A new take on documentation sites for R packages
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2026-W36

Supplement Resources

• Ark: An R kernel https://github.com/posit-dev/ark
• Arf: Alternative R Frontend https://github.com/eitsupi/arf

Supporting the show

• Use the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedback
• R-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.
• A new way to think about value: https://value4value.info
• Get in touch with us on social media
  • Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)
  • Mike Thomas: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) 

Music credits powered by OCRemix

• Super Buck II - Super Mario Brothers 2 - Estradasphere - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00577

A collection of techniques to unlock creativity for your next visualisation, a look at the exciting present and future of the futurize transpiler package, and how to avoid an all-to-common pitfall managing database connections in mirai daemons.

Episode Links 

• This week's curator: Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon) & @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) & @theRcast (X/Twitter)
• Why creativity matters in data visualisation
• useR! 2026: Futurize - Tearing Down Parallelization Barriers in R with Transpilers
• Tricky Parts of Async Mirai Magic
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2026-W35

Supplement Resources

• When creativity meets code slides and abstract https://nrennie.rbind.io/talks/ross-ihaka-lecture/
• When creativity meets code recording https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAiyiE8Pm8s
• {futurize} documentation https://futurize.futureverse.org
• UseR! 2026 {futurize} slides https://henrikbengtsson.github.io/talk-user2026-futurize/
• {mirai} documentation https://mirai.r-lib.org

Supporting the show

• Use the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedback
• R-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.
• A new way to think about value: https://value4value.info
• Get in touch with us on social media
  • Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)
  • Mike Thomas: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) 

Music credits powered by OCRemix

• Warriors of Light - Final Fantasy - Darangen - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01339
• Ice Cap Zone (Pulse Mix) - Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - MkVaff - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR04400

A collection of tips to ensure reproducibility for R-based clinical submissions, a modern architecture lands in R-Universe, and going beyond the built-in mtcars set to educate students with NYC Open Data. 


Episode Links 

• This week's curator: Sam Parmar - @[email protected] (Mastodon) & @parmsam_ (X/Twitter)
• Making R Submissions Reviewable for FDA
• Windows ARM64 comes to R-universe
• The Journey of {nycOpenData}: From Classroom to Community
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2026-W33

Supplement Resources

• R Consortium Submissions Working Group https://rconsortium.github.io/submissions-wg
• SimpleEnglish Agent skill https://github.com/AminBlg/SimpleEnglish
• New R tooling https://r-devs.com/

Supporting the show

• Use the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedback
• R-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.
• A new way to think about value: https://value4value.info
• Get in touch with us on social media
  • Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)
  • Mike Thomas: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) 

Music credits powered by OCRemix

• Chillout - Mega Man 2 - sedure - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01175
• Brushwork - Mario Paint - Fratto, Wiesty, The OC Jazz Collective - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR04389

Orchestrating multiple package quality checking frameworks all within a single R package, and how learning in the world of AI has fundamentally shifted once you get over that initial hump (inspired by a quick quote from one of your hosts). 

Episode Links 

• This week's curator: Batool Almarzouq - @batoolmm.bsky.social (Bluesky) & @batool664 (X/Twitter)
• rsonar: The R equivalent of SonarQube - centralizes code quality analysis into a single interactive report
• Cognitive Courage: The Real Bottleneck to Learning AI Tools - Learning a new AI workflow no longer means studying it first. The platform you work in is the platform you learn in, and the only thing between you and your first skill is the nerve to say ‘I don’t know – show me.’
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2026-W32

Supplement Resources

• {rsonar} documentation https://ddotta.github.io/rsonar/
• {rsonar} examples repository https://github.com/ddotta/rsonar-examples
• {rsonar} presentation (French) https://ddotta.github.io/rsonar_presentation/#/title-slide
• R Weekly Highlights episode 232 https://serve.podhome.fm/episodepage/r-weekly-highlights/232

Supporting the show

• Use the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedback
• R-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.
• A new way to think about value: https://value4value.info
• Get in touch with us on social media
  • Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)
  • Mike Thomas: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) 

Music credits powered by OCRemix

• Lost in a Nightmare - Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - Palpable - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR03001

The value of community and sustainability in full view at UserR 2026, a new tool ready to equip reproducibility and more for command-line utilities built with R, and the conclusion to LLM-prompting black magic that draws upon the awesome glue package. 

Episode Links 

• This week's curator: Colin Fay - @[email protected] (Mastodon) & @colinfay.bsky.social (Bluesky) & [@_ColinFay]](https://twitter.com/_ColinFay) (X/Twitter)
• What Makes R Strong: Reflections from useR! 2026
• ir 0.1.0: self-describing R scripts and Quarto documents
• Building our own glue with R
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2026-W31

Supplement Resources

• Matrix operators in R https://019b2dbc-0ac6-3185-aa9f-0bea50e3da6d.share.connect.posit.cloud/matrix-operators.html
• {golem} 1.0.0 is here https://golemverse.org/news/golem-1.0.0-release-on-cran/
• Package Tools with ir https://r-lib.github.io/ir/tools.html

Supporting the show

• Use the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedback
• R-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.
• A new way to think about value: https://value4value.info
• Get in touch with us on social media
  • Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)
  • Mike Thomas: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) 

Music credits powered by OCRemix

• Snow Cone Heaven - Ice Climber - Mazedude - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01176
• Salut Voisin! - Final Fantasy IV - Colorado Weeks, Aeroprism - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR04553

The first wave of 2026 R Consortium technical grants has arrived, how the new ggchord2 can round out your next process visualizations, and a clever take on supplementing your prompts with R objects. 


Episode Links 

• This week's curator: Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon) & @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) & @theRcast (X/Twitter)
• R Consortium Awards First Round of 2026 Technical Grants
• Chord diagrams in R with ggchord2
• R Blackmagic for LLM Prompting
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2026-W30

Supplement Resources

• igvShiny demo app https://gladkia-igvshiny-demo.share.connect.posit.cloud/
• ggchord2: Chord diagrams with ggplot2 https://nrennie.gitlab.io/ggchord2/
• Generic Functions: The Underrated R Technique Fixing Your Worst Problems https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p00um9ezh74

Supporting the show

• Use the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedback
• R-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.
• A new way to think about value: https://value4value.info
• Get in touch with us on social media
  • Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter) 
  • Mike Thomas: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) 

Music credits powered by OCRemix

• The Unnamed Frontier - Metroid II: Return of Samus - Pyro Paper Planes, Viking Guitar - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02892
• Super Buck II - Super Mario Brothers 2 - Estradasphere - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00577

An exciting new way to search and discover R packages wrapping novel technology, how the new checktor package finds the key issues standard checks will miss, and yes, you can play Doom in R (what?)

Episode Links 

• This week's curator: Ryo Nakagawara - @[email protected] (Mastodon) & @rbyryo.bsky.social (Bluesky) & @R_by_Ryo) (X/Twitter)
• Searching the R Ecosystem by Function, Not Package Name
• The Check Passed. The Reviewer Didn’t.
• {rdoom} is a playable version of Doom for R.
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2026-W29

Supplement Resources

• The Warehouse https://rwarehouse.netlify.app/
• Warehouse GitHub repository https://github.com/kylieainslie/warehouse
• checktor https://r-pkg.thecoatlessprofessor.com/checktor/
• tigerfb Interactive Framebuffer for R https://github.com/coolbutuseless/tigerfb

Supporting the show

• Use the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedback
• R-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.
• A new way to think about value: https://value4value.info
• Get in touch with us on social media
  • Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)
  • Mike Thomas: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) 

Music credits powered by OCRemix

• On Wings of Steel - After Burner - Juan Medrano - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR03405
• Black Genesis - Final Fantasy 6 - Brandon Strader, Rexy - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02796