56 - Nothing But the Facts! with USAFacts.org President, Poppy MacDonald

Are we living through a "crisis of facts"? Poppy MacDonald, President of USA Facts.org, a non-profit, non-partisan civic initiative aimed at making verified government numbers more available, and understandable, joins Bill Curtis and Jane Albrecht to discuss “Nothing but the facts!” and how data might be the one thing that brings our divisive country together. Poppy is leading an effort to help Americans ground their democratic debate in real, backed up facts.

Episode Timestamps:

2:22 How did Poppy meet Steve Ballmer, and begin working with USA-Facts.org?
4:26 Is this a long-term plan?
6:25 Diving into USAFacts.org and living through a crisis of facts.
8:00 Talk about Steve Ballmer and the conflicting views of facts
9:40 Meeting with government in DC and even schools about facts.
10:30 Being committed to data and how it will bring us together
12:21 Data and Covid
14:04 Who are the sources for data and covid
16:08 How many people are on your USA Facts Team and on Partisanship?
17:00 Are reports reviewed by the team? 
19:45 Stats and facts on Covid
20:26 Pandemic Job loss stats and facts
21:44 How do you choose what to report?
22:56 Covid death stats and age demo
24:30 Stats and data that is out of date
26:48 Diving into the 2020 report
31:17 Believing in misinformation

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Hosted by: Bill Curtis, Ed Larson and Jane Albrecht

Produced by: AJ Moseley

Edited and Sound Engineering by: Joey Salvia

Theme Music by: Celleste and Eric Dick

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