e147. Big Fun with Charts, Data, and Analytics!

Charts Rock! Charts are Big Fun! Seriously! Don’t you just love a good chart? Ok, maybe you don’t think you do. In fact, you might even be thinking to yourself, why is a pop culture podcast talking about charts? Well, that’s because charts are incredibly popular in modern culture. We rely on them. We see them every day in business documents, news stories and even Internet memes. A large percentage of the information we take in comes from some kind of chart. They’re so much a part of our lives that we almost don’t notice them. Except, sometimes we do! And when we notice them, it’s usually because we love them. On today’s episode we want to talk about why they’re so ubiquitous, why we need them, and what makes a chart good or bad. It’s time for Big Fun With Charts! Ok, maybe you’re not initially as excited about this as we are. That’s ok… it gives us the chance to convince you that you should be. On this week’s episode, Katya and Mav are joined by returning cognitive psychologist Stephanie Siler and new guests — comics scholar Andrew Deman and data science technologist Michael Higgins — to talk about how charts are used in academia, science, news, media, business, and every day life. What makes a chart good or bad? How do they affect our view on information and our very understanding of reality? How do charts shape our understanding of gender, race, class, politics, and all the other cultural topics we normally cover about on this show? Listen to this week’s episode and let us know your thoughts in the comments below. Citations and Links: * This episode’s Call for Comments* The Claremont Run research project (Andrew’s project)* “Feeling Seen” by Nielsen Global Media (Mike’s project)* “Spurious Correlations” by Tyler Vigen* The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media* “Analyzing the Gender Representation of 34,476 Comic Book Characters” by Amanda Shendruk* Super Graphic: A Visual Guide to the Comic Book Universe by Tim Leong* Dataclysm: Love, Sex, Race, and Identity–What Our Online Lives Tell Us about Our Offline Selves by Christian Rudder* everything by Edward Tufte * Thank you to Maximilian’s thoughtForm Music for our theme* Follow Mike on Twitter: @sui66iy* Follow Andrew’s on Twitter: @ClaremontRun* Also hear Andrew on Three Panel Contrast and