Behind the Data

Oceans of numbers come pouring out at us each day about the big tech companies -- whether it's spending on AI, iPhone sales, Tesla stocks ... or, lawsuits against SpaceX by Cards Against Humanity? -- senior tech correspondent Rani Molla is on the case. We talk with her about how to make sense of all the numbers coming our way, the power of zooming out and getting the (literal and figurative!) big picture, and why her comparative literature degree has been a surprisingly huge asset in her numbers-centric work. Also, we find out about what the heck Elon is up to (at least with respect to some of his goings-on!).Rani's articles that use satellite images:"Before and after: Aerial photos show what being Elon Musk's neighbor can do to your land," Sherwood News"Tesla's massive pileup: Tesla's unsold inventory is creating stockpiles you can see from space," Sherwood NewsResources mentioned:Tesla's Form 10-K for 2024Flourish data visualization platformRead more of Rani's great work on Sherwood News here and follow her on Bluesky here!Read more about Andrea here and on Instagram. And check out our partner show, the Daily Tech News Show!

Welcome to Season 2 of Behind the Data! We're going to explore brand new topics through the powerful lens of data, find common ground on some issues that are really dividing us, and even gaze into the night sky and the deep seas -- join us for an adventure, and then some, and walk away with a brand new way of looking at the world through the shared language of data. This season you can expect episodes on misinformation, political attitudes, happiness, ALS, tech, and more.Behind the Data is hosted by Andrea Jones-Rooy, Roger Chang is our producer, and we are proudly part of the Daily Tech News Show network!

How do we know what career/path/decision is right for us? How can data science help? In this special season 1 finale, we are joined by Megan Hellerer, career coach to luminaries such as AOC, as well as the author of Directional Living: A Transformational Guide to Fulfillment in Work and Life to discuss why traditional career advice doesn't work, why instead we should treat our daily decisions and behaviors like data to be studied, and how, once we collect that data, to conduct hypothesis tests to find further clues about what a uniquely fulfilling life might look like for each of us.I've always believed that data is not just some third-party abstract thing, but rather can be very personal and impactful on our own lives, and no one makes this case more strongly -- or more urgently or compellingly -- than Megan. In fact, she reminds us that sometimes the most important data we need is already right under our noses; we just need to know to look for it -- and (the really hard part) be willing to learn from it.Get your copy of Directional Living here, learn more about Megan here, and follow her on Instagram @meganhellerer!Find out more about your host here and on Instagram @jonesrooy.We will return for season 2 in early 2025. In the meantime, if you've enjoyed Behind the Data, please share it with any friends and family you think also might enjoy it! And don't forget to follow the Daily Tech News Show as well.

Is democracy in decline around the world? This is a major question on many of our minds, and luckily for us there are very smart, thoughtful people working on tracking (as well as explaining, understanding, and predicting!) exactly this. We are joined by professor Brigitte Seim, who is a project manager for the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) dataset, which is one of the biggest and most elaborate efforts to track democracy around the world to date. We discuss how to think about turning something as abstract and unwieldy as "democracy" into a number, how to make sense of and learn from those numbers, and about her own research on the growing importance of measuring toxic political speech online to understanding the health of democracy.This is a great episode for anyone who cares about democracy or regime type broadly, but also for anyone interested in the beautiful art and science of measurement (one of my favorite topics ever!), as well as for anyone interested in learning about a dataset that is a great place to start if you're looking for some data to practice and work with in your own curiosity-based data science journey. Enjoy!Learn more on Brigitte here and check out her prolific research here. Read about and explore the Varieties of Democracy dataset at v-dem.net.Learn more about Andrea here and on Instagram at @jonesrooy.

Approximately ten billion different narratives about what happened in the recent US presidential election have emerged since said election. But how many of these narratives can be substantiated by data? How can we tell?Political scientist Seth Masket joins us to discuss how to make thoughtful inferences from this data, how and why to be skeptical of evidence-free opinions, and the importance (just like in the last episode!!) of being thoughtful about whether our narratives are based on data or we (or others who are trying to persuade us of something) are simply trying to pick data to support our narrative(s). Stick around until the end to hear how polls did and Seth's thoughts on why everything feels so politically bad these days.Follow and read more by Seth:His substack: smotus.substack.comHis podcast: powerflour.substack.comHis personal website: sethmasket.comFollow Andrea at jonesrooy.com and on Instagram at @jonesrooy.

Dr. Steven Novella, clinical neurologist and host of The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe podcast joins us to share how he collects and analyzes data when he works with patients (there is so much more going on than I realized!) as well as how AI can hopefully improve the practice of medicine if we get it right. It's a longer episode than usual, but I hope you'll agree it's well worth it. Follow Steve:https://www.theskepticsguide.org/https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/https://theness.com/neurologicablog/Follow Andrea:https://www.jonesrooy.com/ and @jonesrooy on socials.

Science journalist and athlete Christie Aschwanden takes us inside the not-so-scientific world of the fitness and health data that's tracked by various apps we probably own and/or are tempted to buy, and she helps us more carefully discern what's actually useful to follow and what we're better off ignoring. Plus -- an existentially (and scientifically!) important discussion about the power of uncertainty (and why it doesn't have to feel bad).Christie's Scientific American podcast is Uncertain. Her book is Good to Go: What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn About the Strange Science of Recovery. You can read more about her and by here on her website.Follow AJR, your host, at @jonesrooy on Instagram and find out more here.

When we think of data and movies the first (and maybe only) thing that comes to mind for many of us is movie reviews. But there is so much more we can learn about movies and ourselves if we just think outside the box a little bit and apply data and scientific thinking in creative ways. We talk with Walt Hickey, author of the book You Are What You Watch: How TV and Movies Affect Everything, about all kinds of exciting applications of data to track how movies affect us physically and emotionally, the value of exporting (and importing) culture internationally, whether superpowers predict evilness, how the plots of many movies have changed over time, why we like what we like, and how movies can change our entire life trajectory. Plus, prepare to learn why we should all watch Titanic again, as well as maybe consider (gasp) ignoring reviews of movies altogether.Relevant materials and links mentioned:Buy Walt's bookSubscribe to NumlockCheck out Sherwood NewsMore about WaltFollow Walt on  XMore on Andrea here and on Instagram.