Stats + Stories

Welcome to Stats+Stories today we are trying something a bit different, with Major League Baseball’s opening day just hours away from the release of this episode we thought we would go back into the vault and throw some old school Stats+Stories baseball episodes at you. The first of which is as far back as you can go into the Stats+Stories archive, our first episode with former host Bob Long former panelist Richard Campbell, and guest Jim Albert who helped usher the show into what it has become today. So without further ado here is episode one, “Baseball and Statistics” with Jim Albert. The second episode features Terence Moore. Moore, who has worked at Atlanta Journal Constitution, CNN, ESPN and other notable outlets had a lot to say about “Reporting On Sports In The Digital Era” so I’ll let him take it away with episode 18. Last but certainly not least, we have a much more modern episode of the show which ironically happens to be about the oldest “Numbers Behind America’s Pastime”. Christopher Phillips joined us in episode 177 to discuss the entirety of baseball history from the first big league reporter from the early 1900s to the moneyball craze over a century later. Thank you again for listening to this bundled episode of Stats+Stories and send any feedback on the format and what you thought about this episode to our email statsandstories@miamioh.edu and enjoy this final trip to the vault.

Communicating clearly about data can be difficult but it’s also crucial if you want audiences to understand your work. Whether it’s through writing or speaking telling a compelling story about data can make it less abstract. That’s the focus of this episode of Stats+Stories with guest Sara Stoudt. Sara Stoudt is an applied statistician at Bucknell University with research interests in ecology and the communication of statistics. Follow her on Twitter (@sastoudt) and check out her recent book with Deborah Nolan, Communicating with Data: The Art of Writing for Data Science.

Learn about the health benefits of riding an electric bike in this episode with guest Helaine Alessio. Topics include the rise of eBikes as a new exercise trend, the impact on energy expenditure and heart rate, the transformative benefits for novice riders, and changing perceptions of physical activity with the increasing popularity of e-bikes.

Dr Altea Lorenzo-Arribas is a socio-economic statistician at Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland (BioSS) working in collaboration with researchers at the Scottish Environment, Food and Agriculture Research Institutions. She is an elected council member of the Royal Statistical Society and secretary of the History of Statistics Section, as well as a member of the Women Committee of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, and the Spanish Biostatistics Network (Biostatnet). She is passionate about uncovering the hidden stories of women in the history of statistics, and firmly believes in the need for a more equal, diverse and inclusive discipline.

Long after Harry Nilsson said, “one is the loneliest number,” and after Bob Seger sang about feeling like a number, music streaming services are using data to help of discover new music that connects to our frequent plays and preferences. Dr. Kobi Abayomi helps break that all down in this episode of Stats+Stories. Dr. Kobi Abayomi is the Head of Science for Gumbel Demand Acceleration - a Software as a Service (SaaS) company for digital media. Dr. Abayomi was the first and founding Senior Vice President of Data Science at Warner Music Group (WMG). He has led data science groups at Barnes & Noble Education and Warner Media; as a consultant, he has worked with the United Nations Development Programme, The World Bank, The Innocence Project, and the NYC Department of Education. He also serves on the Data Science Advisory Council at Seton Hall University, where he holds an appointment in the Mathematics & Computer Science Department. He serves on the Advisory Council at the Ivan Allen College at the Georgia Institute of Technology, the Faculty Council at Barnes & Noble Education, and the Advisory Council for Modal Education.

How do you learn about what’s going on in the world? Did a news headline grab your attention? Did a news story report on recent research? What do you need to know to be a critical consumer of the news you read? If you are looking to start developing your data self-defense and critical news consumption skills, this book is for you! It reflects a long-term collaboration between a statistician and a journalist to shed light on the statistics behind the stories and the stories behind the statistics. The only prerequisite for enjoying this book is an interest in developing the skills and insights for better understanding news stories that incorporate quantitative information.

Data storyteller RJ Andrews, creator of books on information graphics, discusses creating high-stakes solutions with visual metaphors. Topics include exploring the careers of data graphic visionaries, unique infographics, and the evolution of tools in image production.

Dr. Liesel Sharabi, an expert in data science of love, discusses matchmaking algorithms in online dating. Topics include ELO scores measuring desirability, challenges of measuring attraction online, and the influence of AI on matchmaking platforms.

Remember the pressure of taking a test when the teacher was glaring at you, daring your eyes to roam. Cheating was not a temptation unless your were desperate and willing to risk the everpresent teacher catching you. However, the offering of online classes exploded in recent years. So what happens when you’re testing during online classes that’s the focus of this episode of Stats+Stories with guest Dr. Helaine Alessio. Dr. Helaine Alessio, FACSM is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Kinesiology, Nutrition, and Health at Miami University and is a past President of the MWACSM and a fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine. She teaches Exercise Science-related courses and has received university commendations for her teaching. She has been funded by NIH, private foundations, and corporations to support research, teaching, and service projects. She has published 2 books, 13 book chapters, and 56 journal articles, as well as national and international peer reviewed blogs, infographics, and NPR broadcasts. She is listed in the top 2% of Exercise Scientists cited in the world by Stanford University researchers. Her work on academic integrity includes co-editing a special edition of a journal on the topic that was the most widely published for the Journal of Excellence in College Teaching.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics the number of people prosecuted for human trafficking offenses has more than doubled between 2011 and 2021. The National Human Trafficking hotline reports that it has identified more than 82,000 instances of human trafficking involving close to 165,000 victims. Researching human trafficking is the focus of this episode of Stats+Stories with our guests Nancy Hagan and Margaret Henderson. Nancy Hagan is currently a senior research associate at the University of North Carolina School of Social Work with a long history of engaging in both social science research and community centered programming. She came to UNC having served as a policy analyst on the North Carolina Human Trafficking Commission, and prior to that as a senior research analyst on Project No Rest, a UNC-based, federally funded five year initiative designed to create awareness and response to human trafficking across North Carolina. She has also held faculty positions at North Carolina State University. For almost two decades, Nancy allied with others to design, direct, and deliver programming to underserved rural residents of North Carolina, with a focus on working alongside stakeholders from immigrant and farmworker communities. Through this work, she developed expertise around the issue of human trafficking, both sex and labor. She continues to work alongside vulnerable communities to address exploitation in her current role at the UNC School of Social Work. Margaret Henderson is an expert on facilitation and human services, specifically in cultivating resources and strategies to reduce rates of elder abuse and human trafficking. As a faculty member, her current work primarily includes facilitating public meetings and assisting local governments to address human trafficking and elder abuse. As a former director of the Public Intersection Project, she worked on research and communication strategies that strengthen cross-sector working relationships for more effective public problem-solving. In facilitation work, she specialized in the practical implications of managing cross-organizational collaborations, community programs, and nonprofit organizations.