Political Numbers & Statistics

We in the United States are deep in the middle of a major national election, and over half of the world’s population also have elections in 2024. This is why Carry the Two is going to focus on the intersection of mathematics and democracy for our new season.

In this episode, the fifth episode of our mathematics and democracy season, we dig into political numbers and statistics. Helping Sam and Sadie do the digging is Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter, FRS, OBE, emeritus professor of statistics at the University of Cambridge, former Professor for the Public Understanding of Risk at the University of Cambridge, past Chair of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication, and current non-executive Director at the UK Statistics Authority. David discusses why it is so important to be a trustworthy communicator, the watchdog work the UK’s Office of Statistics Regulation is engaging in, and his personal manifesto for those who share political numbers and statistics.

Find our transcript here: Google Doc or .txt file

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

David Spiegelhalter

UK Statistics Authority

Art of Statistics

Art of Uncertainty

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Music by Blue Dot Sessions

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348