Stats + Stories

The spread of misinformation is of increasing interest to researchers around the world. It’s been tied to the 2016 and 2020 US elections, Brexit, the COVID pandemic, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Some have called the glut of misinformation a pandemic in its own right. A researcher at Cambridge University suggests that, as with other pandemics, the solution just might be a vaccine. That’s the focus of this episode of Stats and Stories with guest Sander van der Linden.

Van der Linden is Professor of Social Psychology in Society in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge and Director of the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab. His research interests center around the psychology of human judgment, communication, and decision-making. In particular, he’s interested in the influence and persuasion process and how people gain resistance to persuasion (by misinformation) through psychological inoculation. That’s the focus of his new book, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects Our Minds and How to Build Immunity.

Pop stars are often involved in raising the visibility of public health issues. Elton John is one obvious example for his work on HIV/AIDS. Rarely, though are pop-stars involved in gathering public health stats. Ugandan pop star Bebe Cool is the exception and his work to combat tuberculosis is a focus of this episode of Stats and Stories.

Sandra Alba is an epidemiologist at KIT Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam. She trained as a medical statistician in the UK and soon after moved to Tanzania to complete a PhD program on access to malaria treatment. For the past 15 years, she has applied statistical and epidemiological methods to evaluate public health programs in low- and middle-income countries. Her research focuses on data quality and good epidemiological practice - specifically the interplay between research integrity and fairness in multi-disciplinary international research collaborations.

Dr. Amera Khan is the Technical Officer at Stop TB Partnership in Switzerland whose goal is to reach TB-affected people and communities wherever they are to create innovative and new solutions for affected populations.

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in early March left many wondering whether the global financial system was on the precipice of a 2008 style meltdown. Just as the waters seemed to calm after that, UBS stepped in to buy Credit Suisse as that bank collapsed and as we record this regional First Republic Bank seemed to be teetering. The risks inherent to and the regulation of banking is the focus of this episode of Stats and Stories with guest Dr. John Liechty.

Dr. Liechty is a Professor at the Smeal College of Business, with a courtesy appointment as a Professor of Statistics at the Eberly College of Science. He is interested in the creation of public goods and the role that universities can play in these efforts. Past initiatives include leading an effort that resulted in a provision in the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 that creates a new Office in the U.S. Treasury, the Office of Financial Research, which has the mandate to provide better data and analytic tools to the regulatory community in order to safeguard the U.S. financial system.

The close reading of texts is a methodology that's often used in humanities disciplines, as scholars seek to understand what meanings and ideas a text is designed to communicate. While such close readings have historically been done sans technology, the use of computational methods in textual analysis is a growing area of inquiry. It's also the focus of this episode of Stats and Stories with guest Collin Jennings.

Collin Jennings is an Assistant Professor of English at Miami University. His work explores how computational methods produce new perspectives on the language and literature of the past. His book Enlightenment Links: Theories of Mind and Media and Eighteenth-Century Britain is expected from Stanford University Press in Spring 2024.

In the latest episode of Stats+Stories, we put out a call for YOU the Stats + Stories audience to participate in our 300th episode. We have put out a data set containing various information on over 280 episodes of Stats+Stories recorded over the past decade, which we want you to use to create visualizations and tell a story with our data!

statsandstories.net/contest

You can submit your entries by filling out the form below. Static displays, dynamic dashboards, and insightful analyses are all invited to enter (the more unique the better). All entries must be submitted by June 30th at 12:00 AM EST. The finalist will be selected and announced the day after and fan voting will take place until August 31st at 11:59 PM EST. The winner will be featured on the 300th episode of Stats+Stories and will receive a copy of John and Rosemary’s new book “Statistics Behind the Headlines”, as well as some Stats+Stories swag.

Residents of East Palestine, Ohio continue to worry about the health of their community after a Norfolk Southern train derailment. The train was carrying toxic chemicals and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources says more than 45,000 Animals have died as a result of the derailment. Residents are concerned that chemicals that leaked from the train and that entered the atmosphere as a result of a derailment related fire have made their land and their water unsafe. Ohio authorities though say East Palestine water is safe to drink. news coverage of the crisis is the focus of this episode of Stats+Stories.

According to AARP, 70% of Americans who live to be 65 will need long term care at some point, though what kind of long term care depends upon an individual's physical, emotional, and mental health. A project at Miami University has been studying long term care and that's the focus of this episode of Stats and Stories with guest Bob Applebaum.

Dr. Robert Applebaum is Professor of Gerontology in the Department of Sociology and Gerontology and Director of Ohio Long-Term Care Project at the Scripps Gerontology Center, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. He holds degrees from Ohio University (BA), the Ohio State University (MSW), and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (Ph.D.). He has been involved in the development and evaluation of long-term care programs across the United States for more than thirty years. he has worked with more than 25 states on innovations in long-term care service delivery, and completed a series of state and national studies on long-term services and supports.

Ty Tashiro (@tytashiro) is an author and relationship expert. He wrote Awkward: The Science of Why We're Socially Awkward and Why That's Awesome and The Science of Happily Ever After . His work has been featured at the New York Times, Time.com, TheAtlantic.com, NPR, Sirius XM Stars radio, and VICE. He received his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Minnesota, has been an award-winning professor at the University of Maryland and University of Colorado, and has addressed TED@NYC, Harvard Business School, MIT's Media Lab, and the American Psychological Association.

Sir David Spiegelhalter (@d_spiegel) is the Chair of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication and has dedicated his work to improving the way that quantitative evidence is used in society. He is the former President of the Royal Statistical Society as well as a three-time former guest on Stats and Stories.

Romantic comedies are rife with plucky heroines. Small bookstore owners are being pushed out by big corporations, runaway brides, and Perpetual bridesmaids. But where are the scientists, microbiologists and engineers, and statisticians? One researcher went looking for them, which is the focus of this episode of Stats+Stories with guest Veronica Carlan. 

Veronica Carlan @carlan_veronica is the Lead Learning and Development Specialist at Elder Research. Her professional background is a non-linear mix of analysis, data science, research, and college math and statistics teaching. She is currently focused on helping individuals and organizations grow in technical, data-centered areas through strategic learning and development (L&D) visions and targeted, effective learning strategies that focus on personal enrichment. Part of these strategies involves depicting data science in a relatable way by demonstrating how people use statistical and probabilistic reasoning in everyday life.

Native communities around the world are looking for ways to maintain their culture and their language. Meanwhile, some colleges and universities in the U.S. are trying to come to terms with the fact that their campuses are located on what were once tribal lands. The Myaamia Center at Miami University is a partnership between the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma and the university which works to preserve the Myaamia culture and language while also exposing undergraduate and graduate students to those efforts. The Center's work is the focus of this episode of stats and stories with guest Haley Shea.

Haley Shea (kiišikohkwa) is a member of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma. She obtained a PhD in Counseling Psychology at Iowa State University after her undergraduate career at Miami University. Today, she is a Research Associate at the Myaamia Center and a Visiting Assistant Professor in Educational Psychology at Miami University. In her role at the Myaamia Center, she is currently the co-chair of the Neepwaayoni Acquisition and Assessment Team (NAAT), examining the many factors that have contributed to positive outcomes (e.g. community engagement, attendance at tribal events, sense of belongingness, etc.) within the Myaamia community.