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Bad Data

11 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 2 years ago - ★★★★★ - 5 ratings

A weekly tour of bad data storytelling, stories about data that's bad, and other things involving "data" and "bad."

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Episodes

Book Burning Bonanza

December 13, 2021 17:00 - 18 minutes - 12.9 MB

Earlier this week, someone asked me if I would help get the word out about a book they thought should be banned from our public school libraries. “Pornographic,” I believe was the accusation. I didn’t endorse the message, but it did leave me wondering: what makes a book bannable? And what impact do all of these cries for censoring books actually have? Links to resources: American Library Association (ALA) ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) Banned Books Lists, 2001-2020 Support the...

Battle Station: Omicron

November 29, 2021 17:00 - 13 minutes - 9.54 MB

If you happened to have listened to the episode last week, I was talking about when to take our masks off. You may remember me saying something like “these assumptions may change” or “take them off after your entire household is vaccinated.” Well...assumptions changed. Let's go visit Battle Station: Omicron. Support the show Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Can We Take Off Our Masks?

November 22, 2021 20:00 - 19 minutes - 13.1 MB

After a year and a half of shutdowns, quarantines, and other public drama, we're still waiting for a collective answer to the question that affects us the most in our daily lives: When can I take off this mask? Bad Data doesn't have a definitive answer for you on that one, but can provide at least one person's assumptions and position on when. Support the show Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hot Tub Data Time Machine

November 15, 2021 14:00 - 18 minutes - 12.8 MB

Take a brief trip through history as we look back 1, 10, 50, and 100 years at how diseases, vaccines, politics, and technology have evolved and impacted our lives. "The past does not repeat itself, but it rhymes." -Mark TwainSupport the show Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The 1776 Project PAC Money Airdrop (clean)

October 30, 2021 18:00 - 17 minutes - 12.1 MB

(NOTE: this is a clean / non-explicit version of the original Episode 6.) Among the thousands of various local government positions up for grabs, nearly 400,000 students are at risk of having their school boards turned upside-down by one political action committee. Don’t believe me? Let’s follow the money.Support the show Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The 1776 Project PAC Money Airdrop

October 29, 2021 20:00 - 18 minutes - 12.6 MB

Among the thousands of various local government positions up for grabs, nearly 400,000 students are at risk of having their school boards turned upside-down by one political action committee. Don’t believe me? Let’s follow the money.Support the show Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Death Data

October 22, 2021 17:00 - 12 minutes - 8.79 MB

There is so much data orbiting each of us. And it all carries on a life of its own, propelled by some kind of digital momentum. But your absolute final piece of data - your cause of death - is riddled with errors...and always has been. Why? Support the show Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Thought Exercise

October 01, 2021 16:00 - 10 minutes - 7.14 MB

This week's (shorter-than-usual) episode walks through some quick mental math on what "normal" looks like in a year, what that costs us in dollars and souls, and what we earn in return. As always, check out the Bad Data dashboards at: https://baddatapod.com/category/dashboardsSupport the show Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Boosters, with Dr. De Simone

September 24, 2021 19:00 - 20 minutes - 14.3 MB

This week, the FDA and CDC both approved third booster shots for the Pfizer COVID vaccine (Comirnaty). They did it in different ways, though, with slightly different schedules for who should be eligible. Bad Data hosts a conversation with Dr. J.J. De Simone, a statistician and data scientist, about what it all means. Support the show Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bad Data Engineering

September 17, 2021 12:00 - 17 minutes - 12 MB

Behind every sexy data journalist making fancy infographics, supporting every data scientist and their mystical machine learning algorithms, there is an underappreciated data engineer. Somebody that keeps the data-lights on at night. In this episode, we explore the messy underbelly of public COVID data dashboards and try to compare what's going on between school districts in Kansas, California, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, and others. (hot tip: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ) Resource Links: Johnson County, KS ...

Relative > Absolute

September 10, 2021 16:00 - 21 minutes - 14.6 MB

This week, we look at the COVID numbers in the Johnson County, KS school districts and try to understand what they mean. Also: look! Jason made a podcast! Links to resources from this episode: Blue Valley School District COVID dashboard Johnson County, KS school district COVID dashboard Support the show Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.