The Method to Our Madness

Content note: This episode includes a discussion of sexual assault and gender-based violence. It also contains some explicit language. 

How do you study something as sensitive as sexual assault, and do it ethically? In Episode 23, Stacey and William talk with Dr. Alison Cares, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Central Florida who researches gender-based violence on college campuses. Alison explains how she recruits survivors through surveys, flyers and Reddit threads. She describes how informed consent and empowerment models protect participants, and why IRBs and grant reviewers sometimes underestimate how resilient survivors are. She also explains why campus climate surveys can produce very different numbers, like Cornell’s widely reported 35%, depending on how assault is defined and over what period. The conversation then turns to prevention: what bystander intervention can and can’t do, why community-level change matters, and why teaching consent has to start early.

Mentioned in this episode:

A summary of this episode can be found here. 

The podcast music was written and produced by Stacey Merola. The podcast artwork was created by Zoe Targino. 

What can a research librarian find that a search engine, or an AI tool, can't? In this episode, Stacey Merola and William Pate talk with Matthew Von Hendy, a research librarian and the founder of Green Heron Information Services, about where library science and evaluation meet.

Matthew worked at science and technology libraries in the DC area, including EPA, NASA and the National Academies, before he started consulting for evaluators in 2012. He tells stories from that work, like tracking down an obscure federal survey question about limited-English speakers and finding hard-to-locate survey items on fish consumption. He also explains what makes a literature search work: the reference interview, structured protocols like PRISMA, and the persistence it takes to find gray literature such as dissertations, government reports and patents.

The conversation also covers:

This episode is for evaluators, researchers and anyone who has ever wondered whether their search missed something important.

Learn more about Matthew's work at www.greenheroninformation.com.

A summary of the episode can be found here. 

The podcast music was written and produced by Stacey Merola. The podcast artwork was created by Zoe Targino. 

Can AI really handle coding qualitative data, or is it just a shortcut that costs you in the end? In this episode, Stacey and Bill sit down with Dr. Asher Beckwitt, a researcher with 26 years of experience across 5,000 qualitative and mixed-methods studies, to unpack where AI genuinely helps with qualitative data analysis, and where it falls short. Asher walks through choosing compliant, privacy-safe AI tools, why human verification of AI outputs is non-negotiable, and how to document AI use for transparency and IRB compliance (including the often-overlooked step of fully deleting data from AI systems). They also break down the differences between grounded theory, thematic analysis, and phenomenology, and where AI fits (or doesn't) in each.  A must-listen for researchers weighing AI tools against methodological rigor in their qualitative research projects. 

This episode also touches a fish consumption study Asher led for a tribal nation using community-based participatory research methods. This was a separate, non-AI project worth a listen on its own.

Dr. Asher Beckwitt can be reached at [email protected] or www.asherconsult.com.

A summary of this episode can be found here. 

The podcast music was written and produced by Stacey Merola. The podcast artwork was created by Zoe Targino. 

In this episode, Stacey and Bill talk with Joan Wagner about how systems engineering and industrial engineering (IE) work together. The former includes defining and verifying requirements, while the later involves optimizing processes and efficiency.

Highlights include:

Episode notes can be found here. 

The podcast music was written and produced by Stacey Merola. The podcast artwork was created by Zoe Targino. 

What do mixed methods interrupted time series designs, business development, and moose have in common? More than you might think.

In this episode of The Method to Our Madness, we explore the power of mixed methods interrupted time series designs and how they help researchers and evaluators understand change over time. We also share insights from the world of business development, including the challenges and opportunities of building partnerships, pursuing new work, and growing a business. Along the way, we take an unexpected detour into the world of moose, because sometimes the most memorable conversations happen when data, strategy, and wildlife collide.

Whether you're interested in research methods, professional growth, or simply enjoy hearing smart people wander off on a tangent, this episode offers practical insights, candid reflections, and a few moose stories you didn't know you needed.

Podcast music written and produced by Stacey Merola. Podcast artwork was created by Zoe Targino. 

What if your logic model is too simple to capture how your program actually works? Hosts Dr. Stacey Merola, and Bill Pate sit down with Dr. Bernadette Wright to explore knowledge mapping. A knowledge map is a visual approach that uses circles and arrows to show the interconnected web of causes and effects behind real-world outcomes, instead of forcing everything into a rigid input-output framework.

Dr. Wright walks through how knowledge maps are built (often with 20-25+ interconnected concepts), why multiple reviewers matter, and how the process helps teams surface feedback loops, catch oversimplified solutions, and get aligned on what's actually driving results. The conversation also covers popular mapping tools, how the approach compares to traditional logic models, and where generative AI might fit into the future of concept mapping.

A must-listen for evaluators, researchers, and program leaders who want a clearer picture of complexity.

An example of a knowledge map can be found here. Source: Strategic Knowledge Mapping: The Co-Creation of Useful Knowledge

A summary of the episode can be found here. 

The podcast music was written and produced by Stacey Merola. The podcast artwork was created by Zoe Targino. 

Dr. Stacey Merola and Bill Pate sit down with Dr. Toks Fashola, research professor at American University, to unpack what it really means to do culturally responsive program evaluation. Dr. Fashola breaks down how spurious variables can quietly become confounding ones by using everyday examples like parking tickets in Baltimore and medication adherence in diabetes care and explains why understanding a community's history and context is essential to getting evaluation right. Drawing on her own experience with an after-school program in Baltimore, she makes the case for treating stakeholders as co-designers rather than subjects, and for asking whether disappointing results point to a flawed program rather than a flawed population. The conversation touches on the work of Jean Piaget and Maria Montessori as early models of culturally responsive practice and closes with a bigger idea: that done well, evaluation isn't just a technical exercise — it's a path toward social justice and mutual learning for evaluators and communities alike.

Additional notes from this episode can be found here. 

The podcast music was written and produced by Stacey Merola. The podcast artwork was created by Zoe Targino. 

What if the most tedious parts of your research workflow could shrink from months to minutes? In this episode, hosts Stacey Merola and William Pate sit down with Ron Wilson, Assistant Graduate Program Director for the GIS program at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, to explore how AI is reshaping the way researchers and educators work. Ron shares how AI went from helping him stress-test research ideas to slashing coding time, generating synthetic datasets, and building classroom visualizations in 20 minutes flat. But it's not all hype — Ron also gets candid about responsible AI use, the importance of prompt engineering, and why treating AI as a tool rather than a revolution is the key to getting real results. Whether you're a data professional, educator, or just AI-curious, this episode is packed with practical insight.

Links to additional information

For a summary of this episode, check out the notes here. 

Learn more about the UMBC GIS graduate program here, including their GIS Master of Professional Studies which is a two-year (18 credits) program designed for early-to-mid-career professionals seeking a more foundational knowledge of GI that goes beyond learning the basics of technology or application of analytical tools. 

For more information about this topic, check out the UMBC Mic’d Up Podcast where they recently released an episode on GIS and AI. 

The podcast music was written and produced by Stacey Merola. The podcast artwork was created by Zoe Targino.

What does it mean to be “DOGEd”?

In this powerful episode of The Method to Our Madness Podcast, hosts Stacey and Bill sit down with sociologist Tara Fannon, Ph.D. to unpack the human impact behind the 2025 federal funding cuts—and the often-overlooked fallout for government contractors.

Drawing from her GovCon Stories Project, Tara shares insights from a mixed-methods study of 92 surveyed contractors and in-depth interviews with 20 individuals affected by sudden layoffs. What emerges is a deeply personal look at job loss in a sector once seen as stable: stories of disrupted identities, financial strain, lost healthcare, and the emotional toll of feeling invisible and disposable. 

This episode goes beyond the headlines to explore:

Despite the challenges, this conversation also highlights resilience. Many impacted professionals remain committed to public-service values while reimagining what equitable and sustainable work could look like in the future. 

If you care about workforce equity, the future of government contracting, or the human stories behind economic disruption, this episode is a must-listen.

A downloadable summary of the episode can be found here: Episode 14 notes

If you are interested in finding out more about services provided by Mind the Movement, their website can be found here: Mind the Movement

Podcast music written and produced by Stacey Merola. Podcast artwork created by Zoe Targino.