Stats + Stories

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.

Nancy Hagan, a senior research associate at the University of North Carolina School of Social Work, and Margaret Henderson, a human services expert, dive deep into the complexities of human trafficking. They discuss the staggering rise in cases and the misconceptions around it, emphasizing the need for a holistic understanding. The duo breaks down the AMP model of trafficking, explores the exploitation in labor trafficking, and highlights the importance of building trust with victims. Their insights aim to improve awareness and create effective interventions against this pressing societal issue.

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.

As researchers and medical professionals struggle to get a handle on the COVID-19 pandemic, journalists struggle to tell the pandemic’s story with many news outlets increasingly turning to info graphics and data visualizations to help them do so. Visualizing data for news is the focus of this episode of Stats and Stories with guest Harry Stevens. Harry Stevens joined The Washington Post as a graphics reporter in 2019. He is part of the team that won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting for its climate change-focused series. He previously worked at Axios, where he designed news graphics and worked on data-driven investigations. Stevens's journalism career has also included stints at the Hindustan Times in New Delhi, India, and the Salt Lake Tribune in Utah.

Jordi Prats, a guest on Stats + Stories, discusses the issue of sizing statistics in the clothing industry. They explore the lack of representation for larger sizes, the history and inconsistency of sizing, challenges in measuring body proportions, and varied sizing approaches in the fashion industry.

By the end of 2023 Bourbon is expected to be an almost 9 billion dollar industry. That’s a lot of mint julips and bourbons neat. But what makes bourbon so appealing, the chemistry behind this drink is the focus of this episode of Stats+Stories with guest Michael Crowder. Dr. Michael Crowder is a Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Dean of the Graduate School at Miami University. Dr. Crowder's research interests lie in bioinorganic chemistry, including metalloenzymes, antibiotic resistance, metal ion homeostasis and inhibitor design.

Stats educators are continually looking for ways to get students excited about the subject and help them understand all stats can help them do. One high school educator discovered one way to do that was to throw out a standard curriculum and connect lessons more closely to student interests. That's the focus of this episode of stats and stories with guest Dashiell Young-Saver . Young-Saver is a Texas based high school stats teacher. While teaching at a Title 1 school on the southside of San Antonio, Dash threw out his traditional AP Stats curriculum and created lessons on topics his students cared about: voter power, food deserts, the Spurs’s chance at winning the NBA title, online dating, and more. That year, more students at the school took and passed the AP exam than in the previous 16 years combined. Borrowing from his class motto of “skew the script,” Young-Saver created this website and posted his lessons online for free. Now, he leads Skew The Script’s efforts to provide relevant math lessons to classrooms across the country.

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.

It's been 70 years since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay summited Mount Everest. Since then hundreds of people attempt to climb the mountain each year. Many of those climbers are injured during their attempts. And during the 2023 climbing season 17 people died. Preparing for Everest takes years of training. Though there's disagreement among mountaineers about how to best prepare for the climb, statistics might be able to help and that's the focus of this episode of Stats and Stories with guest Moinak Bhaduri. Moinak Bhaduri develops change-detection algorithms for point processes through trend permutations and is an assistant professor with the Department of Mathematical Sciences, Bentley University. He heads the editorial board of the NextGen column of the New England Journal of Statistics in Data Science. Moinak’s research has found applications in computer science, finance, reliability and repairable systems, geoscience, and oceanography.