Stats + Stories

Stats + Stories

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

Stat Significant | Stats + Stories Episode 369

August 14, 2025 • 29 mins
Have you ever wondered if people actually hate Coldplay? Do you want statistical proof that Game of Thrones did not stick the landing in its finale? Have you wondered whether you’re actually seeing Nicholas Cage in more movies? Well, you’re in luck there’s a newsletter for that, and it’s the focus of this episode of Stats and Stories with guest Daniel Parris Daniel Parris is a data scientist and journalist who writes about the int...
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Signing Statistics | Stats + Stories Episode 239 (REPOST)

July 31, 2025 • 27 mins
What is a median? How about an interquartile range? Don’t even get me started on how to define a p-value. These statistical concepts are hard to grasp for your average statistics student, but imagining how these types of definitions translate into American Sign Language is a whole other ballgame. That is the focus of this episode of Stats+Stories with special guest Dr. Regina Nuzzo. Dr. Regina Nuzzo is a freelance science writer a...
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Excellence in Statistical Reporting | Stats + Stories Episode 368

July 24, 2025 • 54 mins
The National Association of science writers has about 2000 members, even as the field of science journalism has been experiencing a contraction. In her 2025 Nieman lab prediction for journalism, Siri Carpenter suggested that, given the challenges the world faces, it might be time that newsrooms embrace "science as a thread that runs through every beat." Science journalism is the focus of this episode of Stats and Stories, with gues...
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The Ocean Health Index | Stats + Stories Episode 203 (REPOST)

July 17, 2025 • 27 mins
The health of the world's oceans is a growing concern but measuring ocean health is a complicated undertaking. Some people studying the issue focus on pollution, while others look at the health of corals or marine mammals. One project attempts to take a comprehensive picture of the health of oceans in order to provide information about Oceanic vital signs to stakeholders. The Ocean Health Index is the focus of this episode of Stats...
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Amazonian Ancient Earthworks | Stats + Stories Episode 367

July 10, 2025 • 27 mins
The Amazon has been imagined as a pristine wilderness, one in need of protection from development. This framing has often treated the Amazon as a place without history, practically untouched before the arrival of colonizers in South America. Statistics is helping show the history is much more complicated than that and it’s the focus of this episode of Stats and Stories with guest Dani Gamerman. Gamerman is Emeritus Professor at Fe...
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Days of R COVID Lives | Stats + Stories Episode 366

June 26, 2025 • 30 mins
Early in the COVID pandemic, as we figured out how to live our lives solely at home, news stories began to be filled with stories about COVID’s spread and reproduction rates. Soon, social media were filled with amateur epidemiologists trying to make sense of those rates and sometimes making a mess of it. A series of articles in Significance examined the discourse around reproduction rates during COVID, and it’s the focus of this ep...
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Measuring the Impact of Universal Basic Income | Stats + Stories Episode 287 (REPOST)

June 19, 2025 • 28 mins
What is the best way to support people living in extreme poverty? Could unconditional cash transfers and universal basic income be viable options? How can we know if such programs will work? Today's episode of stats and stories focuses on addressing the needs of people living in extreme poverty with Miriam Laker. Dr. Miriam Laker is the Global Director of Research at GiveDirectly and a Senior Research Scientist and Epidemiologist ...
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Fair Play on the Fairway | Stats + Stories Episode 365

June 12, 2025 • 28 mins
Rory McIlroy was leading the 2025 U.S. Masters golf tournament by two strokes after three rounds. So was his ultimate victory a sure thing? How predictive is a lead after three rounds of a golf tournament for victory after the 4th round? In today's episode of stats and stories, we hit the links to explore outcomes in professional golf tournaments, along with addressing whether golf handicaps make for fair comparisons between golfer...
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Statistical Summer Transportation Safety | Stats + Short Stories Episode 146 (REPOST)

May 29, 2025 • 7 mins
What comes to mind at the start of summer? Backyard barbecues, quality time spent, and long drive. Transportation safety is the topic of this episode of Stats+Stories with guest Joel Greenhouse.
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Statistical Literacy | Stats + Stories Episode 364

May 22, 2025 • 49 mins
Every year, statistics classes are filled with math averse students who white knuckle it to the end of the semester in the hopes of getting a passing grade. And the dream of forgetting about math and statistics for a little while. But what if it didn’t have to be that way? What if instead of white knuckling it, students were actually excited about the subject; or, at the very least, not terrified of it? Two professors has been deve...
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What is Nutrition Science | Stats + Stories Episode 214 (REPOST)

May 15, 2025 • 25 mins
An entire industry has grown up around nutrition and health. People pushing everything from shakes, to meal kits, to special diets. While some of the claims surrounding such products can be questionable at best, the field of nutrition science is growing. Filled with researchers who are working to truly understand the science of food that is a focus of this episode of Stats and Stories with guest Michelle Cardel. Dr. Cardel is an o...
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Explaining Science | Stats + Stories Episode 363

May 8, 2025 • 28 mins
In a commencement speech in 2016, Atul Gawande told the crowd that science is a, "commitment to a systematic way of thinking, an allegiance to a way of building knowledge and explaining the universe through testing and factual observation." In the last ten years that understanding of science has become muddied for the public. Social media has helped fuel the rise of conspiracy theories built upon so-called alternative facts as peop...
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Global Weirding | Stats + Stories Episode 362

April 24, 2025 • 29 mins
More than 15 years ago, Thomas Friedman wrote, “I prefer the term “global weirding,” because that is what actually happens as global temperatures rise and the climate changes. The weather gets weird. The hots are expected to get hotter, the wets wetter, the dries drier and the most violent storms more numerous.” Today’s Stats+Stories episode will be a conversation about how a small shift in temperatures can lead to large changes in...
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Ecological and Environmental Stats for Earth Day | Stats + Stories Episode 228 (REPOST)

April 17, 2025 • 27 mins
Earth day was launched in 1970 in the aftermath of several environmental disasters in the publication of Rachel Carson Silent Spring. It was designed to help raise awareness of environmental issues and has since grown into a global event. With this year's Earth Day taking out a particular urgency in light of the most recent UN Climate Report. But what goes into the scientific research that informs some this activism? What statistic...
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The OECD: Characterizing Global Economic Trends | Stats + Stories Episode 361

April 10, 2025 • 29 mins
According to the U.S. State Department, three-fifths of global GDP, three-quarters of world trade, and 90 percent of official development assistance can be accounted for in 38 countries. Those countries are members of the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development – or OECD. Founded in 1961 and headquartered in Paris, the OECD’s goals include stimulating global economic growth by providing a forum for intergovernmental ...
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Counting on Official Statistics | Stats+Stories Episode 360

March 26, 2025 • 28 mins
When people think of public goods, they most likely think of things like parks or schools. But official statistics are also a kind of public good. They help us understand things like housing prices, the costs of goods and the spread of disease. However, this data infrastructure is under threat around the world. The work of official statisticians and the obstacles they face, is the focus of this episode of Stats and Stories with gue...
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Why Should You Care If A Statistical Agency is Being Reorganized? | Stats + Stories Episode 75 (REPOST)

March 18, 2025 • 29 mins
Lisa LaVange is the 2018 President of the American Statistical Association and she is PhD, is Professor and Associate Chair of the Department of Biostatistics { add link to dept } in the Gillings School of Global Public Health { add link to Gillings SPH } at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is also director of the department’s Collaborative Studies Coordinating Center (CSCC), overseeing faculty, staff, and stude...
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Chart Spark | Stats + Stories Episode 359

March 5, 2025 • 27 mins
Chart Spark | Stats + Stories Episode 359 by The Stats + Stories Team
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Tracking Police Violence | Stats + Stories Episode 358

February 17, 2025 • 27 mins
The use of force by police has been in the news a lot lately, in connection to everything from protests on college campuses to the death of individuals during arrests. There’s no singular, shared definition of what use of force is according to the National Institute of Justice. A local police department will set a standard, but that threshold for when an office should use force varies from place to place. Having no standard set of ...
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Love, Sex and the Pandemic | Stats + Stories Episode 175 (REPOST)

February 12, 2025 • 26 mins
The COVID pandemic has complicated everything from school to work to grocery shopping. The need to physically distance from people not in our homes has made it difficult to maintain friendships or causal relationships while being stuck at home with a significant other for months on end can make even the biggest house seem tiny. COVID’s impact on relationships and sex is the focus of this episode of Stats and Stories with guest Debb...
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