storytelling with data podcast

You'll probably make a few mistakes when learning to visualize and communicate data. That's okay! It's all a part of the learning journey and can be preferred since we often learn more from our mistakes than our successes. SWD storyteller Alex embraces her early missteps as she takes a trip down memory lane to share where she went wrong and what she learned. 

Listening time 18:11 plus intro/outro |  related links:

• Podcast episode: data viz research with Steven Franconeri

• Research article (Visual Thinking Lab): Declutter and focus

• Steve Wexler’s article: Should you use dashboards to tell stories?

• Video: sample presentation with chart animation 

• Workshops: 2023 calendar (use special code PODCAST10)

SWD storytellers Elizabeth and Mike join forces to tackle some thorny questions about connecting with your audience: how do you know if you’ve done a good job, and what if you have to deliver bad news? In light of a recent “partner up!” challenge in the SWD community, they explore the benefits of working together with colleagues, friends, strangers, and even family members, while sharing some lessons learned from their own collaborative experiences.

Listening time: 34:00 Related links:

• Website: SWD challenge

• Article: stop, collaborate and listen (to your audience)

• Workshops: 2023 calendar (use special code PODCAST10)

• Order storytelling with you

• Get sample content from Cole’s new book

Tension is a key component of story—and can be used in powerful ways to communicate in a business setting. In this episode, Cole talks tension: what it is, why you should care, and how to identify and use it in your data stories and beyond. Tune in also to hear common questions related to communicating with tension and their answers, plus related resources that will improve your next graph or presentation.

Listening time 35:00 |  related links:

• Article: a quick presentation makeover

• Article: the structure(s) of story

• Article: when tension is high, get to the point

• Book: storytelling with you

• Book: let’s practice!

• Exercise: build the tension

• Resource: big idea worksheet

• Video channel: SWD YouTube

• Video series: storytelling with cole

• Video: dashboard to data story makeover

• Video: record yourself

• Video: create a storyboard

• Video: focus attention in data viz

• Video: avoid these 5 slide mistakes

• Video: the final presentation

• Video: don’t keep me in suspense (open to premium)

• Workshops: 2023 calendar (use special code PODCAST10)

• University: instructor resources

SWD storytellers Simon and Mike offer their thoughts on how the recent advancements in AI tools may transform the way we analyze and communicate with data. They also discuss some of their favorite entries and interesting themes from the most recent SWD challenge on the quantified self.  

related links:  

• Website: SWD challenge

• A year of fitness by Evelina Judeikyte

• Number of steps in 2022 by Iris van Bussel

• Reads 2022 by Kirti Vardhan Rathore

• My 10 Years of Book Reading by Sibi Maran

• Cook more, eat less meat: Is my good resolution for 2023 being kept? by Line Ton That

• Water Usage by Rob Reid

• Personal Carbon Footprint by George-Alexandru Gavrilovici

• Meditation Tracking + Blue Sky Goals by Sarah Stern

• A Year of Disc Golf by Bryan Boyle

• By the time you finish reading this sentence… by Zen Faulkes

• Lizzy’s Goodreads by Shane Reynolds

• Order storytelling with you

• Get sample content from Cole’s new book

Have a listen to this cross-cast of Cole’s conversation with Brendan McGurgan, host of the ScaleX Insider Podcast and author of Simple Scaling: Ten Proven Principles to 10x Your Business. They discuss scaling organizations and dive deep into the topics of audience, the big idea, storyboarding, using tension to engage your audience, plus tips for improving how you present through practice.

related links:

• Follow Brendan: LinkedIn | Website | Youtube
• Book: Simple Scaling: Ten Proven Principles to 10x Your Business
• Podcast: ScaleX Insider Podcast
• Order storytelling with you
• Get sample content from Cole’s new book

Why don’t we use triangles in charts more often? Can design considerations come before we have the data? Do we take data visualization too seriously? Author, speaker, and data literacy advocate Neil Richards raises (and occasionally answers) these and other questions in his new book, Questions in Dataviz: a Data-Driven Process for Data Visualization. In this episode, Neil stops by the podcast to talk about the value of creativity, personal passion projects, experimentation in data visualization, and whether dataviz can change the world. 

related links:

• Follow Neil: Twitter | Website | Tableau Public (portfolio)
• Book: Questions in Dataviz
• Podcast: Alli Torban’s Dataviz Today 
• Project: Makeover Monday
• SWD challenge: https://community.storytellingwithdata.com/challenges
• Project: Viz for Social Good
• Project: Andy Kirk’s The Seinfeld Chronicles 
• Viz: US county hexmap
• Viz: Pet ownership in the UK
• Project: Data Visualization Society
• Project: Information is Beautiful Awards
• Get sample content & order storytelling with you: storytellingwithyou.com
• University instructor resources: storytelling with data.com/university
• SWD YouTube channel: storytellingwithdata.com/youtube

Cole shares a number of data visualization and communication questions that could be answered simply with the word, “Don’t!” From breaking axes and presenting boxplots to unfamiliar audiences, to providing unsolicited feedback to a colleague, and more—you’ll learn why generally not to take these actions, plus hear ideas on what you might do instead.

related links:

• Video: the ins & outs of boxplots
• Video: transform the teleprompter slide
• Blog post: how many words should I put on my slide?
• Blog post: unsolicited feedback
• Get sample content & order storytelling with you: storytellingwithyou.com
• Nov 17 virtual workshop: storytellingwithdata.com/workshops (use discount code: PODCAST10)
• University instructor resources: storytelling with data.com/university
• SWD YouTube channel: storytellingwithdata.com/youtube

Cole sits down with husband, Randy Knaflic, for a fun chat about her new book, storytelling with you: plan, create, and deliver a stellar presentation. They discuss why building capability and confidence presenting is especially important for those in technical roles, overcoming challenges communicating to mixed audiences, navigating the writing process, and more. Tune in to learn what jazz improvisation has in common with presenting and gain appreciation for the art of the introduction—including specific steps you can take to craft the story of you.

related links:

• Attend an upcoming storytelling with data workshop in London or virtually
• Order storytelling with you
• Get sample content from Cole’s new book

As anyone who has ever participated in a fantasy league can tell you, the most fun part of the whole experience is drafting your team. We took that idea to heart, and imagined, “What if, instead of drafting professional athletes, we did a fantasy draft of chart and graph types?” The data storytellers at SWD and premium members of our online community recently did just that, taking part in a (mostly!) friendly competition to build themselves the strongest possible roster of methods for visualizing information. What chart type was chosen first overall? Did anybody pick pie charts? And, who do YOU think wound up with the best team? Listen to find out!

related links:

• Book: Preview and pre-order the new book, storytelling with you 
• Workshop: Register for an upcoming SWD workshop 
• Interactive: The Gyllenhaal Experiment at pudding.cool
• Chart Guides and additional info: area graph | bar chart | bullet graph | bump chart | choropleth map | dot plot | heatmap | histogram | isotype chart | line graph | lollipop chart | pie chart | Sankey diagram | scatterplot | slopegraph | stacked bar chart | waffle (or square area) chart | waterfall  

How can we use beauty to convey meaning, and form to guide function, in our communications? In this episode of the SWD podcast, Dr. Vidya Setlur and Bridget Cogley explore these questions with data storyteller Mike Cisneros. In their upcoming book Functional Aesthetics for Data Visualization, Vidya (the “academic”) and Bridget (the “practitioner”) explore the relationships among what we see, how we encode information, and what we mean. You’ll hear about the “bento box” model of organizing our information; how text, tone, register, and language affects our visualizations; how our relationship to food can inform what makes a communication effective; and how to go beyond “it depends” when considering the answers to challenging questions. 

related links:

• Follow Vidya: Twitter (@vsetlur) | LinkedIn  | Tableau Research
• Follow Bridget: Twitter (@WindsCogley) | LinkedIn | TableauFit blog
• Book: Functional Aesthetics for Data Visualization
• Article: Honoring Kelly Martin, including the “Birdstrike Redoux” visualization
• Article: The Ishango bone, an early mathematical tool
• Paper: “The medium is the message” by Marshall McLuhan
• Article: “Light vision” by Margaret Livingstone (regarding isoluminance in Monet)

Book: Mind in Motion by Barbara Tversky