

Stats + Stories
The Stats + Stories Team
Statistics need Stories to give them meaning. Stories need Statistics to give them credibility. Every Thursday John Bailer & Rosemary Pennington get together with a new, interesting guest to bring you the Statistics behind the Stories and the Stories behind the Statistics.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Aug 2, 2018 • 9min
Chins And Ears Are Not Information Rich | Stats + Short Stories Episode 57
Ty Tashiro (@tytashiro) is an author and relationship expert. He wrote Awkward: The Science of Why We're Socially Awkward and Why That's Awesome and The Science of Happily Ever After. His work has been featured at the New York Times, Time.com, The Atlantic.com, NPR, Sirius XM Stars radio, and VICE. He received his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Minnesota, has been an award-winning professor at the University of Maryland and University of Colorado, and has addressed TED@NYC, Harvard Business School, MIT's Media Lab, and the American Psychological Association.

Aug 2, 2018 • 29min
Are Communities Helped By Terraforming Food Deserts? | Stats + Stories Episode 56
Bonnie Ghosh-Dastidar is a senior statistician and Director of the Statistics Advisory Center at RAND Corporation. Her current research interests center on leveraging natural experiment designs to estimate the effects of neighborhood-level 'interventions' or changes on residents' health behaviors (e.g. diet, physical activity) and outcomes (e.g. obesity). Her statistical expertise is in the areas of study design, survey methods, non-response, and analysis of longitudinal and multilevel data.

Aug 2, 2018 • 29min
Abstract Art Or Modern Congressional Districts | Stats + Stories Episode 55
Gary King (@kinggary) is the Albert J. Weatherhead III University Professor and Director of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University . King focuses on innovations that span the range from statistical theory to practical application. His methods are used extensively in many fields of academia, government, consulting, and private industry. He is a founder, and inventor of the original technology for, Learning Catalytics, Crimson Hexagon, Perusall, and other firms. He is a founder, and inventor of the original technology for, Learning Catalytics, Crimson Hexagon, Perusall, and OpenScholar

Aug 2, 2018 • 29min
Jaguar Corridors, Koala Conservation And Reef Health | Stats + Stories Episode 54
Kerrie Mengersen (@KerrieMengersen) is Distinguished Professor at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, and past-President of the International Society for Bayesian Analysis (ISBA) . Her research spans Bayesian statistics, computational statistics, environmental, genetic and health statistics.

Aug 2, 2018 • 26min
Protecting Seaside Cities From Future Impacts Of Climate Change | Stats + Stories Episode 53
Peter Guttorp (@pgseattle) is a Professor at the Norwegian Computing Center in Oslo, Norway, and Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington, Seattle. He is also a vice-president of the International Statistical Institute . His research focuses on stochastic models of scientific data and their statistical analysis. He has worked in seismology, hydrology, climatology, hematology and biology.

Aug 2, 2018 • 30min
Hey, I'm Working On A Story And Can You Help Me With The Statistics? | Stats + Stories Episode 52
Rebecca Goldin ( @rebegol ) is a professor of mathematics George Mason University and the Director of STATS at Sense About Science USA . She has received several grants from the National Science Foundation to support her research in mathematics and in statistics education, as well as the Ruth I. Michler Memorial Prize from the Association of Women in Mathematics. Her work with STATS has appeared in many media sources, including NBC, CBS, NPR, CNN, and the Washington Post. She has worked with individual journalists from the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, NPR, 538, and many other media outlets, as well as run workshops for journalists and students alike. In 2014, STATS became part of Sense About Science, USA, and a major collaboration with the American Statistical Association was established. She continues to direct the effort to work with journalists to improve statistical reporting.

Aug 2, 2018 • 33min
Slavery In The Modern World | Stats + Stories Episode 51
Davina P. Durgana (@DavinaDurgana) is Assistant Professor and Senior Practitioner Faculty at SIT Graduate Institute , human rights statistician who has developed models to assess risk and vulnerability to modern slavery. She is a Report Co-Author and Senior Statistician on the Walk Free Foundation's Global Slavery Index . She is the 2016 Recipient of the American Statistical Association's Harry V. Roberts Statistical Advocate of the Year Award and a Forbes Top 30 Under 30 in Science for 2017 for her work on statistical modeling, human security theory, and human trafficking. She was a contributing author to the 2017 Chance issue (Chance Volume 30) on modern slavery

Aug 2, 2018 • 30min
Reading The Book Of Love | Stats + Stories Episode 50
Ty Tashiro (@tytashiro) is an author and relationship expert. He wrote Awkward: The Science of Why We're Socially Awkward and Why That's Awesome and The Science of Happily Ever After . His work has been featured at the New York Times, Time.com, TheAtlantic.com, NPR, Sirius XM Stars radio, and VICE. He received his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Minnesota, has been an award-winning professor at the University of Maryland and University of Colorado, and has addressed TED@NYC, Harvard Business School, MIT's Media Lab, and the American Psychological Association.

Aug 2, 2018 • 26min
Balancing Rigor And Entertainment When Telling Stories About Data | Stats + Stories Episode 49
Nick Thieme (@FurrierTranform) is a research fellow at University of California Hastings Institute for Innovation Law and freelance writer for a variety of outlets. Currently, his work focuses on AI regulation, cybersecurity, and pharmaceutical patent trolling. His writing has appeared in Slate Magazine, BuzzFeed News, and Significance Magazine. He was the 2017 AAAS Mass Media Fellow at Slate Magazine, writing about technology, science, and statistics. In particular, he wrote about the role of p-values in the replication crisis, the overblown,existential fear caused by the dangers of AI, and the
NotPetya cyberattacks in Ukraine. He is also part of an ASA team currently in the process of helping
found a new blog, aimed at undergraduates, practicing statisticians, and the general public.

Aug 2, 2018 • 28min
Were The Cancer Clusters Real? Statistical Support For Public Policy | Stats + Stories Episode 48
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.