Episode 272 - The Data Drought with Kyle Polich
From Squaring the Strange by Ben Radford, Celestia Ward and Pascual Romero
January 31, 2026 · 1h 26m · Episode 272
About this episode
The episode discusses the challenges of data collection and trust, featuring guest Kyle Polich from Data Skeptic.
First, we discuss media coverage of Minneapolis, and also fake news among schools of tropical fish. Then Kyle Polich of "Data Skeptic" joins us to talk about a topic we've had simmering for a bit. What is going on with the data?? First, what is data, and can it ever really be neutral -- and even if it is, will the public ever trust it? Data on some topics, like public health studies on American gun violence, have been suppressed for years, while the past twelve months or so have seen a huge decrease in state-funded data collection. Between climate science, the EPA, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the CDC, there are several high-profile examples we look at. How will this play out? Kyle brings nuance to how data is collected an analyzed, and also reassures us that statisticians and data analysts are hearty folk, highly employable in the private sector . . . already, we see many contributing their time and talents to alternatives to the CDC and becoming "data preservationists." And there are things you, too, can do to help us get through this data drought.
People in this episode
Hosts: Ben Radford, Celestia Ward, Pascual Romero
Guest: Kyle Polich
Topics covered
- data collection
- media coverage
- public health
- gun violence
- climate science
- data trust
- data analysis
Keywords
- data drought
- fake news
- public health studies
- data preservationists
- statisticians
- data analysis
- gun violence
- climate science
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Data Skeptic, CDC, EPA, Bureau of Labor Statistics
Places: Minneapolis
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