Data Nation

Today on Data Nation, guests John Della Volpe and Scott Tranter join us to discuss the approaching 2024 U.S. presidential election. Together, we’ll explore the many factors at play in the 2024 election from discussing the role of Gen Z voters and the use of social media in campaigning to the importance of swing state voters. Our guests bring fascinating insights with John Della Volpe, the Director of polling at the Harvard Kennedy ...

With Election Day nearing, this episode explores the relationships between polling and election digitalization with experts Andrew Gelman, a statistician and political scientist at Columbia University, and Brendan Lind, the founder of Human Agency - a company specializing in creating digital footprints for companies and individuals. 

Co-hosts Liberty Vittert and Munth...

Why are they using more electric cars in Norway than in the US? What are the underlying mechanisms that drive technological change, and how can we influence them? What is ‘soft technology’ and what role can it play in lowering carbon emissions? In the season 2 finale of Data Nation, IDSS professor Jessika Trancik explains how her lab attempts to measure and model a technology’s real or potential impact, beneficial or harmful, on pe...

When Maxwell Frost was elected to Congress, he struggled to find housing in DC. Today he advocates for stronger consumer protections and authors legislation to level the playing field between renters and landlords. Frost joins Data Nation along with Catherine D’Ignazio, an Urban Science and Planning professor at MIT, to talk about the challenges renters and home buyers face, how algorithmic technology perpetuates discrimination, an...

As an MIT professor and tech entrepreneur, Devavrat Shah has seen firsthand how AI tools can impact research, business, and careers. While some have dire warnings about the scale of harm AI can cause, Shah is optimistic. He joins the Data Nation podcast to dispel some doom and gloom, unpack ways that people are already using AI to make change for the better, and to examine how future benefits can emerge with regulation and educatio...

Facing the tough decisions of a serious health threat brings the need for information and analysis into a sharp and personal focus. Computer scientist Regina Barzilay was an expert in natural language processing when she joined MIT; her cancer diagnosis led her to collaborations in healthcare, where she has advanced imaging, prediction, drug discovery, and clinical AI. She joins Munther Dahleh and Liberty Vittert to talk about issu...

The term “election fraud” is on the verge of making a comeback with the approach of the 2024 presidential election. Liberty Vittert and Munther Dahleh speak to MIT political scientist and MIT Election Lab director Charles Stewart to get to the bottom of modern-day election fraud. When are voting errors significant? How has voting evolved throughout American history? What effect did the COVID pandemic have on our elections? What do ...

Liberty Vittert and Munther Dahleh dive into the world of augmented and virtual reality this month with Professor Fox Harrell.  Harrell is Professor of Digital Media & AI in both the Comparative Media Studies Program and the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT.  Is the world ready for what’s coming? Will augmented reality and virtual reality be a force for good or for evil, and what can you do to prepare ...

In this episode of Data Nation, we’re talking all about anesthesia and sleep with Dr. Emery Brown. Dr. Brown is a Professor in IDSS and Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT, as well as Professor of Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Data Nation is hosted by Professor Liberty Vittert and Dr. Munther Dahleh, the head of MIT’s Institute for Data, Systems, a...

A Native American man gets pulled over for driving a nice car, a black man is arrested in front of his family for a crime he didn’t commit – innocent people are at risk because of racial profiling. But to stop profiling, you have to first identify it, and that’s not as easy as it seems. Liberty and Scott are going deep into data in this episode, investigating how data is used against marginalized communities, and how it should be u...

Artificial intelligence – it’s not the easiest thing to trust when it comes to our healthcare. I mean, will AI replace our doctors in the future? There’s a lot of uncertainty about algorithms deciding our medical fate, so Liberty and Scott are getting the truth on AI’s role in healthcare. They go to the experts to explore the problems behind biased algorithms and faulty diagnoses, and discover if AI will cause harm to patients or i...

Depending on who you are, when someone brings up the metaverse, you either get really excited, or you have no clue what they’re talking about. Or both! Liberty and Scott have each found themselves in one of these boats. So they’re diving deep into the data to find out what in the world the metaverse actually is, what it’s not, and if it’s going to be a thing that helps society flourish, or if it will be our demise. They talk with e...

“Shh! Google is listening,” your mom points at her Alexa. You roll your eyes, but you know there’s some truth to it. Your data is being tracked. The question is, where’s it going, what are they doing with it, and how are they getting it? Liberty and Scott are investigating just how dangerous the data economy really is and if people truly need to be worried. They look for answers from MIT professor and former scientist at Facebook D...

It’s a killer that’s been swept under the rug. The leading cause of death for 18–45-year-olds in America is opioid overdose, and deaths are only increasing. Liberty and Scott want to know, why is this decades-old epidemic still taking so many lives? They’re getting the facts on the opioid crisis, looking at the local community and financial perspectives to get the truth. They go to the experts to explore the local community perspec...

You apply for an apartment, and they ask for your credit score. You shudder. Perhaps for a good reason, it’s possible that credit scores are more sinister than we realized. Liberty and Scott are getting to the bottom of credit scores to find just how antagonistic credit scores are to people from underserved communities seeking quality housing. They look for answers from Prof. Munther Dahleh, Director of MIT IDSS, and Yuri Beckelman...

2016 and 2020 ー not exactly our smoothest years in American election history. Mention them to anyone and you’ll likely enter an intense conversation about which side spewed misinformation to unfairly win each election. Misinformation was certainly out there, but did it actually sway these elections? Liberty and Scott investigate if misinformation is a weapon we need to be worried about, or if it’s the new norm of political tools. T...

Fans argue that analytics are ruining sports. Professional teams say they aren’t. And sports bettors are finding that data may be their new secret weapon. Liberty and Scott investigate if tracking data in sports will eventually ruin the game. They’re going to the co-founder of the MIT Sports Lab  Anette “Peko” Hosoi, and president of the New England Revolution Brian Bilello to find out what the future of sports analytics is and how...

We face a lot of overwhelming challenges today in America–systemic racism, data privacy, misinformation. These are big problems, and there are a lot of opinions and ideas on how to fix them. Scholars and industry experts often disagree on how to find solutions. So, how can we find the right way to move forward? We let the data speak for itself. Join hosts Liberty Vittert and Scott Tranter as they gather data and get the facts about...