R Weekly Highlights

After an unexpected break we are back with a new episode of R Weekly Highlights! If you thought the easiest way to create pivot tables was in Excel, the a new package just might change your perspective. Plus how you can pull the strings for a multi-agent LLM workflow with the new puppeteeR package.

Episode Links 

• This week's curator: Batool Almarzouq - @batoolmm.bsky.social (Bluesky) & @batool664 (X/Twitter)
• perspectiveR: Interactive Pivot Tables and Charts from R
• puppeteeR - orchestrate multiple LLM agents into coordinated workflows
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2026-W16

Supplement Resources
 

• Perspective upstream library https://perspective-dev.github.io
• You can just build your own programming language https://brodrigues.co/posts/2026-04-03-tproject.html
• {gglite} https://pkg.yihui.org/gglite/

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 flea and his giant - Mega Man X: Maverick Rising - Chuck Dietz - https://maverick.ocremix.org/music.php

Choice is good, but sometimes you may want a little help! Our first two highlights showcase approaches you can take to inform your next LLM for analyses and open-source license. Plus how to make your mark(s) within your version control history. 


Episode Links 

• This week's curator: Sam Parmar - @[email protected] (Mastodon) & @parmsam_ (X/Twitter)
• How to choose the best LLM using R and vitals
• Pick a License, Not Any License
• Git commits: please mark your stitches!
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2026-W09

Supplement Resources

• rollama - R wrapper to Ollama https://jbgruber.github.io/rollama/
• Opps, Git! How to recover from common mistakes workshop https://r-posts.com/oops-git-how-to-recover-from-common-mistakes-workshop/

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

• Seven Pipes to Heaven - Super Mario Land - Nostalvania - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR03256
• You Are Not Confined - Final Fantasy 9 - Sonicade - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01064

A glimpse into the R Consortium Submissions Working Group's recent successes and future work, and a new way to view those nested lists from a familiar face making his return to blogging! 


Episode Links 

• This week's curator: Batool Almarzouq - @batoolmm.bsky.social (Bluesky) & @batool664 (X/Twitter)
• Submissions Working Group: 2026 Plans and 2025 Success
• Viewing Nested Lists with xfun::tabset()
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2026-W08

Supplement Resources

• R Consortium Submissions Pilot 4 https://rpodcast.quarto.pub/submissions-wg-pilot-4/
• R-Podcast Episode 18 (Yihui Xie Returns) https://r-podcast.org/024-rstudioconf-yihui-xie/
• litedown: R Markdown Reimagined https://yihui.org/litedown

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 Toadstool Mix - Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening - Reuben Spiers, Gamer of the Winds - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR04064

A prominent leader at the intersection of data science and data engineering across multiple languages shares her insights, how a recent Git workshop tailored for data science de-mystifies common pitfalls, and for the second straight episode a new transpiler bringing dplyr syntax to databases (quite literally). 
Episode Links 

• This week's curator: Jon Carroll - @[email protected] (Mastodon) & @jonocarroll.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy (Bluesky) & @carroll_jono (X/Twitter)
• The Test Set Pod - Column selectors, data quality, and learning in public (Episode link)
• Git & GitHub: Practical Version Control for Data Work
• dplyr comes to duckdb
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2026-W06

Supplement Resources
 

• Risk Conference 2026 Agenda (Mike is presenting!) https://rconsortium.github.io/Risk_website/program.html
• libdplyr https://github.com/mrchypark/libdplyr

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 Woods Inglewood - Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening - BenCousins - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00853
• Aerobotics - Mega Man 8 - Just Coffee - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR03323

The way LLMs can be a little stubborn when interpreting data visualizations, bringing new meaning to digging for your data and learning along the way, and the latest addition to the futureverse that seems too good to be true, but it is real! Plus an amazing Shiny app tailored made for this very podcast. 


Episode Links 

• This week's curator: Jonathan Kitt - @jonathankitt.bsky.social (Bluesky)
• LLMs interpret plots well, until expectations interfere
• Students, software, and soil flux
• futurize: Parallelize Common Functions via a "Magic" Touch
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2026-W05

Supplement Resources
 

• {bluffbench} https://simonpcouch.github.io/bluffbench/
• {neonSoilFlux}: An R package for continuous sensor-based estimation of soil CO2 fluxes https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/2041-210x.70216
• Building an R Weekly Highlights Podcast Assistant! https://jokasan.github.io/r-weekly_chatbot/

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

• Sunken Secrets - Super Mario 64 - Fishy - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02909
• Serenity & Grace - Chrono Cross -timaeus222 - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR04143

The inside story of how Claude Code with the proper scope provided a massive boost to drafting hundreds of pull requests, and debunking the myth on settling for compromises when prioritizing accessibility principles as demonstrated by a prominent leader in the visualization space. Plus we address candid feedback on last week's discussion on the tinyshinyserver package. 


Episode Links 

• This week's curator: Jon Calder - @[email protected] (Mastodon) & @jonmcalder (X/Twitter)
• Semi-automating 200 Pull Requests with Claude Code
• How to create a more accessible line chart
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2026-W04

Supplement Resources
 

• Risk Conference hosted by the R Consortium (February 18-19, 2026) https://rconsortium.github.io/Risk_website/

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

• Divinity - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - Nostalvania - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR03442

It's a new year of R Weekly Highlights! In this episode we learn of the positive intellectual diversity impacting R and Python communities, a great starting point to create your first RAG-powered knowledge store, and a new package enters the Shiny ecosystem that is certainly not tiny in its ambitions.

Episode Links 

• This week's curator: Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon) & @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) & @theRcast (X/Twitter)
• R + Python: From polyglot to pluralism: A very targeted recap on posit::conf(2025) and a broader reflection on how the best design and devtools ideas from R and python have influenced each others' stacks for the better
• Retrieval-Augmented Generation: Setting up a Knowledge Store in R
• {tinyshinyserver} 0.1.0: Tiny 'shiny' Server - Lightweight Multi-App 'shiny' Proxy
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2026-W03

Supplement Resources

• tinyshinyserver GitHub repository: https://github.com/lab1702/tinyshinyserver
• Yann Tourman's R Weekly episode length analysis https://bsky.app/profile/yannco.bsky.social/post/3mbarm75kik2j

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

• We're the Fugawe Forest - Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - XPRTNovice feat. Weisty - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR03597
• Zelda's Graceful Nightmare - 25YEARLEGEND: A Legend of Zelda Indie Game Composer Tribute - Matheus Manente - https://zelda25.ocremix.org/index.html

A retrospective that showcases favourite data visualisation projects and insights from 2025, a practical guide offering R package maintainers methods to gauge how their package is being used, and an R package release introducing additional helper functions that extend dplyr::mutate() for generating columns with useful rowwise and list-column operations. 


Episode Links 

• This week's curator: Batool Almarzouq - @batoolmm.bsky.social (Bluesky) & @batool664 (X/Twitter)
• My year in data visualisation
• How to Assess Usage of your Package
• {mutagen} 0.5.0: Extensions to dplyr's mutate
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2025-W51

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

• Watermelon Flava - Breath of Fire 3 - Joshua Morse, posu yan - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01411
• On Wings of Steel - After Burner - Juan Medrano - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR03405

How the recent frontier LLM model releases compare for successfully generating R code, our take on the new Test Set data science podcast, and a surprising entry in the world of languages equipped for data science. 


Episode Links 

• This week's curator: Sam Parmar - @[email protected] (Mastodon) & @parmsam_ (X/Twitter)
• 2025-12-05 AI Newsletter
• The Test Set: Now on YouTube + a look at what’s next
• Haskell IS a Great Language for Data Science
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2025-W50

Supplement Resources

• Add links discussed in the episode (in place of this sentence)
• How well do LLMs generate R code (Shiny app) https://skaltman-model-eval-app.share.connect.posit.cloud/
• Python is not a great language for data science (Claus Wilke) Part 1 https://blog.genesmindsmachines.com/p/python-is-not-a-great-language-for
• DataHaskell https://www.datahaskell.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

• Marble Dash - Sonic the Hedgehog - Joshua Morris - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01365
• The Belmont Chill - Super Castlevania IV - Blak_Omen - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01195

Prepare to deploy multiple LLM-powered agents for your next (secret) missions with mini007, a new contender to the high-performance linter tools with blazing performance that doesn't seem possible (but it is), and a usethis-like manager for your projects needing unified branding across deliverables. 


Episode Links 

• This week's curator: Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon) & @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) & @theRcast (X/Twitter)
• mini007 - A Lightweight Framework for Multi-Agent Orchestration in R
• Jarl: just another R linter
• {rbranding} 0.1.0: Manage Branding and Accessibility of R Projects
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2025-W48

Supplement Resources
 

• Add links discussed in the episode (in place of this sentence)
• I wrote this talk with an LLM (Hadley Wickham UseR! 2025 Keynote) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctc2kx3LxG8
• mini007 GitHub repository https://github.com/feddelegrand7/mini007
• Jarl: Just Another R Linter documentation https://jarl.etiennebacher.com
• rbranding documentation site https://epiforesite.github.io/rbranding

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
• Vamo alla Django - Final Fantasy IX Worlds Apart - AndyP feat. Fishy, Dan Bryant - https://ff9.ocremix.org