Michael, Hadley, and Wes welcome Roger Peng, professor of statistics and data science at UT Austin and co-host of Not So Standard Deviations. Together they trace Roger’s journey from early R adopter to pioneering online educator and prolific podcaster. The conversation ranges from the accidental rise of “data science” as a field, to the tension between research papers and software maintenance, to what makes for meaningful, lasting creative work.

What’s Inside:

• Roger’s first analysis project and what it taught him about authorship and data
• Roger’s advice for students testing the waters in data science
• Why software has become the unifying language of modern statistics
• The origins of “data science” as a field and a label
• Reflections on Coursera, MOOCs, and opening education to the world
• What keeps a podcast (and a career) going strong after a decade-plus