Behind the Data

By: Andrea Jones-Rooy
  • Summary

  • Data is all around us, but we spend very little time talking about where it comes from. Each week data scientist Andrea Jones-Rooy, Ph.D. brings you a story about one of the many types of datasets powering our lives. From political polls to measures of democracy, from tracking happiness to powering generative AI, join us on a journey to understand where these datasets that shape our lives actually come from, how to interpret them, and how we can use them to better understand our world.

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

    Copyright Andrea Jones-Rooy
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Episodes
  • How Doctors Use Your Data (and How AI Can Help)
    Nov 18 2024

    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.


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

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    1 hr and 9 mins
  • The (Often) False Promise of Personal Fitness Data
    Nov 11 2024

    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.


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

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    40 mins
  • How Movies and TV Affect Us
    Nov 4 2024

    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 book
    • Subscribe to Numlock
    • Check out Sherwood News
    • More about Walt
    • Follow Walt on X


    More on Andrea here and on Instagram.




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

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    39 mins

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