In “Deciding When to Suspend a Vaccine,” Tim Harford explores why we often misjudge risk by confusing coincidence with causality, and the dilemma regulators face balancing public health with pure science. If you listen to one Podcast about COVID vaccine hesitation, listen to this ~8 min episode of More or Less by the BBC. One reason why More or Less was chosen as our Top Podcast this Spring.
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Take a Walk with these Statistical Podcasts
Whenever the weather permits, I choose to walk the 45-minutes to work along the streets of Boston. In addition to enjoying the sunshine, I have found a number of statistics-themed podcasts to listen to along the way that are insightful and enjoyable for listeners of any background. Here is a shortlist of some of my favorites:
Stats + Stories (NPR)
Stats and Stories hosted by John Bailer and Richard Campbell is “about the statistics behind the stories and the stories behind the statistics.” Weekly, 30-min episodes explore quantitative ideas in our daily lives and feature distinguished professionals and scholars presenting their research, work products, or just bubbling new ideas. Some recent topics I really enjoyed include the reproducibility crisis in biomedical research, the statistics behind aging, and ways to make forensic science more scientific.
More or Less: Behind the Statistics (BBC Radio 4)
More or Less is instantly addictive. Hosted by Tim Harford, a brilliant economist and award-winning journalist, this podcast is devoted to explaining the economic ideas behind everyday experiences. Episodes are issued several times a week and last between 10-25 minutes. The focus is on explaining, or debunking, the statistics reported in the news, political debates, or just daily life. I especially enjoyed the episode that raised awareness of the historical lack of women in clinical trials and the one that questioned the Chernobyl disaster death count (this topic hit home with me as I grew up in Ukraine).
Planet Money (NPR)
Planet Money is an “economics-for-dummies” podcast and one of my long-time favorites! Episodes are brilliant, engaging, and are just the right length (20-25 min) for an easy listen. They come out twice a week and explore complex topics on latest events in global economy in fun and accessible way. Originally launched during the financial crisis of 2008 as a series of episodes trying to make sense of the Great Recession, today Planet Money is still going strong and continues to provide insights into everyday events with an economics angle.
In addition to my three favorites above, here are some runner-ups:
Microsoft Research Podcast is a rather technical full-length podcast that comes out every week and covers the company’s investigations into new cutting-edge tech research.
The R-Podcast: Authored by Eric Nantz, a Research Scientist at Eli Lilly, this podcast helps me keep up-to-date with the latest news in the R/RStudio world.
ASA Biopharm’s Podcast is a monthly podcast that features leaders from pharmaceutical industry and regulatory agencies talking about upcoming statistical conferences and events, and discussing current issues in Biopharmaceutical statistics.
stuck in the day to day requirements of your job?
It’s easy to get stuck in the day to day requirements of your job, we’ve all gotten sucked into that pattern. What are some ways to ensure that you stay up to date on industry trends so as to keep your skill set relevant?
Investing in your Customers with MIT’s Michael Schrage
What is the one question you should be asking your customers that will completely change the way you think about your business? Similar in power to Levitt’s famous “What business are you in?” question, this new question, “The Ask” will revolutionize the way you think about customers and their value. Author Michael Schrage, a Research Fellow at the MIT Center for Digital Business, explains what “The Ask” is and, why is it so powerful? Along the way he shares examples from Apple, Dyson, McDonalds, the pharmaceutical industry and more who have reaped the benefits of how organizations can and should create value.
Customer Centric Product Development with Twitch’s June Dershewitz
Are product-centric organizations tone-deaf to customer needs and desires? How can you balance the two? June Dershewitz, Director of Analytics at Twitch (an Amazon company), explains how these mindsets are not mutually exclusive and when combined, can be incredibly powerful in driving both the bottom line and customer happiness. She offers three steps to take to adopt a similar approach, starting with setting clear, quantifiable goals, ensuring a balance between product- and customer-centric approaches to align everything with the company’s core values, and using data at each step in the innovation cycle to ensure product optimization.