Jon Mellon on How We Study Society, Big Data, and Social Sciences

Dr. Jon Mellon is a social scientist from West Point Military Academy fascinated by how our society interacts and the tools/methods we use to understand our society. His interests are on pertinent topics like democratic elections and public opinion. He has also helped improve our collective ability to understand big data in the social sciences. The conversation focuses on what tools and mindsets we can use to understand big data sets and also the results of research which impacts our societies. Jon is an excellent communicator of science and articulates the crux of his recent investigation into instrumental variables titled, "Rain, Rain, Go Away: 192 Potential Exclusion-Restriction Violations for Studies Using Weather as an Instrumental Variable" which argues that many studies may be overvaluing the instrumental variable of weather to identify predictive correlations related to conflict, wealth, and much more. This episode is both revealing and informative. I hope that you enjoy and thank you for listening.