Stats + Stories

Stats + Short Stories 046: Playing a risky game

With Special Guest: David Banks

David Banks is a statistician at Duke University. He is a fellow of the American Statistical Association and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, and a former editor of the Journal of the American Statistical Association and Statistics and Public Policy. His major areas of research include risk analysis, syndromic surveillance, agent-based models, dynamic text networks, and computational advertising.

Stats + Stories 045: Thankful for a bountiful harvest - how bountiful was it and who produced it?

With Special Guest: Linda Young

Linda J. Young is Chief Mathematical Statistician and Director of Research and Development of USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. She oversees efforts to continually improve the methodology underpinning the Agency’s collection and dissemination of data on every facet of U.S. agriculture. She works on the surveys designed to characterize agricultural activity in the US.

Stats + Short Stories 044: Growing Surveys-Building an Agricultural Census

With Special Guest: Linda J. Young

Linda J. Young is Chief Mathematical Statistician and Director of Research and Development of USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. She oversees efforts to continually improve the methodology underpinning the Agency’s collection and dissemination of data on every facet of U.S. agriculture. She works on the surveys designed to characterize agricultural activity in the US.

Stats + Stories 043: Why don't people like my graphs?

With Special Guest: Alberto Cairo

Alberto Cairo (@albertocairo) is the Knight Chair in Visual Journalism at the University of Miami. He's also director of the visualization program at UM's Center for Computational Science. He's the author of The Functional Art: An Introduction to Information Graphics and Visualization and The Truthful Art: Data, Charts, and Maps for Communication. He also writes regularly about visualization in his personal blog. He has been director of visualization at news publications in Spain (El Mundo) and Brazil (Globo magazines,) and he's currently a consultant for companies such as Google and Microsoft. Cairo also organizes two annual conferences, the Digital Humanities + Data Journalism Symposium, and VizUM.

Stats + Short Stories 042: Truth, function, beauty, insight and enlightment:goals for successful visualization

With Special Guest: Alberto Cairo

Alberto Cairo (@albertocairo) is the Knight Chair in Visual Journalism at the University of Miami. He's also director of the visualization program at UM's Center for Computational Science. He's the author of The Functional Art: An Introduction to Information Graphics and Visualization and The Truthful Art: Data, Charts, and Maps for Communication. He also writes regularly about visualization in his personal blog. He has been director of visualization at news publications in Spain (El Mundo) and Brazil (Globo magazines,) and he's currently a consultant for companies such as Google and Microsoft. Cairo also organizes two annual conferences, the Digital Humanities + Data Journalism Symposium, and VizUM.

Stats + Stories 041: Stats of Cool Cats: Emotions, Mood Management and Cat Videos

With Special Guest: Jessica Gall Myrick

Jessica G. Myrick (@jessmyrick) is an associate professor of media studies at the Bellisario College of Communications at Penn State University. Her research focuses on the role of emotions in shaping our responses to various types of media messages. Myrick’s research has touched on topics ranging from skin cancer prevention campaigns and climate change appeals to the effects of incivility in responses to political Facebook posts and why we watch cat videos, and it has been featured in news outlets around the globe.

Stats + Short Stories 040: A Journalist Checks His Numbers

With Special Guest: Alan Schwarz

​Alan Schwarz (@alanschwarz) is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist best known for his reportage of public health issues for The New York Times. His 130-article series on concussions in sports is roundly credited with exposing the seriousness of head injuries in the National Football League and all youth athletics. His work was profiled in several films and was a finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, journalism's highest honor. A subsequent series on A.D.H.D. and other psychiatric disorders in children led to his writing "A.D.H.D. NATION: Children, Doctors, Big Pharma and the Making of an American Epidemic." He was awarded the 2013 ASA Award for Excellence in Statistical Reporting in recognition of his outstanding work.

Stats + Stories 039: The Numbers Behind Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE)

With Special Guest: Alan Schwarz

​Alan Schwarz (@alanschwarz) is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist best known for his reportage of public health issues for The New York Times. His 130-article series on concussions in sports is roundly credited with exposing the seriousness of head injuries in the National Football League and all youth athletics. His work was profiled in several films and was a finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, journalism's highest honor. A subsequent series on A.D.H.D. and other psychiatric disorders in children led to his writing "A.D.H.D. NATION: Children, Doctors, Big Pharma and the Making of an American Epidemic." He was awarded the 2013 ASA Award for Excellence in Statistical Reporting in recognition of his outstanding work.

Stats + Stories 038: Describing and Measuring an $18 Trillion Economy

With Special Guest: Dr. Brian Moyer

Dr. Brian Moyer is director of the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. BEA, made up entirely of career civil servants, is an impartial producer of official statistics on the U.S. economy. Its statistics are used by businesses, policymakers and households to inform their decision-making. BEA is part of the U.S. Commerce Department.

Stats + Stories 037: Epidemic Trials and Tribulations

With Special Guest: Dr. Susan Ellenberg

Dr. Susan Ellenberg is Professor of Biostatistics, Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy. Her primary area of research and applications is the design, conduct and analysis of clinical trials. Prior to her appointment at Penn, she held appointments at the FDA and NIH. She was the ​Chair of the International Prize in Statistics Foundation that will be awarded at the World Statistics Congress in July 2017.