Control F

Sports gambling ads are proliferating: In stadiums, on TV broadcasts and on apps across the internet. The multi-billion dollar industry has exploded in the past five years. So what happens when that momentum is translated into gambling on politics, culture, and even war? Clare tells Teo about the meteoric rise of sports gambling, and the way it’s changing norms about betting on real world events.  We want to answer your questions about how our world works! Click here to submit a question using our online form, or email the team at ControlF@kuow.org Support the show by supporting our home, KUOW Public Radio in Seattle. Sources in this episode: US Sports Betting Revenue & Handle, Legal Sports Report #Sponsored: A Systematic Literature Review and Theoretical Framework of Gambling Sponsorship Research, Journal of Advertising The effect of television advertising on gambling behaviour: a quasi-experimental study during the 2022 Qatar FIFA World Cup, Addictive Behavior Reports The Financial Consequences of Legalized Sports Gambling, Conference on Economics and Computation Sports betting legalization: How we got here, ESPN Attorney General Mayes Charges Kalshi With Illegal Gambling Operation, Election Wagering in Arizona, Arizona office of the Attorney General Nevada Gaming Control Board Granted TRO Against Kalshi, Nevada Gaming Control Board Interview with Luke Burbank, co-host of TBTL Interview with Victor Matheson, professor of economics, editor of the Journal of Sports Economics Interview with Chris Louis, professor at the Boston University School of Public Health Superbowl advertisement for Fanatics Sportsbook, featuring Kendall Jenner Fans were stunned by this NFL wild card weekend, a breakdown, Jomboy Media See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Only 11 percent of rental units in the United States allow “big” dogs – but what does that mean? Is a labrador a big dog? How about a pit bull? And why does your landlord care so much, anyway? Inspired by the story of one dog who ran afoul of an HOA rule, Clare tells Teo why so many dogs end up booted from loving homes to shelters and how advocates are trying to stop it.  We want to answer your questions about how our world works! Click here to submit a question using our online form, or email the team at ControlF@kuow.org Support the show by supporting our home, KUOW Public Radio in Seattle. Sources in this episode: Data on dog weights from Washington State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital Data analysis on pet restrictions in housing from the Pet Inclusive Housing Initiative, based on Smart Apartment Data 2025 State of Shelter Pet Adoption Report, The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement Pets & Housing Data 2025 Edition, Pet-Inclusive Housing Initiative  Interview with Dr. Jessica Bell, Veterinarian and professor at Washington State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine Interview with Alexandra Alvarado, American Apartment Owner’s Association Interview with Ross Barker, lead of the Pet Inclusive Housing Initiative Interview with Tor Berg, Poochie’s dad See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Someone who has to survive without a regular place to sleep at night is vulnerable to danger, illness, and the more insidious harm of being shunned. One way to quantify the harm caused by homelessness is to understand how many people are experiencing it. How do we do that? We try to count them, and one city is leading the charge on a new approach. Teo tells Clare how it could change our view of our unhoused neighbors.  We want to answer your questions about how our world works! Click here to submit a question using our online form, or email the team at ControlF@kuow.org Support the show by supporting our home, KUOW Public Radio in Seattle. Sources in this episode: Annual Homelessness Assessment Report, Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2024 Full Point-in-Time Counts, Housing, Infrastructure, and Communities Canada Point-in-Time Count Underway, King County Regional Homelessness Authority Point-in-Time Count presentation, King County Regional Homelessness Authority Evaluation of Respondent-Driven Sampling prevalence estimators using real-world reported network degree, Lisa Avery and Michael Rotondi, Sage Journal  Point-in-Time Count: Volunteer training, Texas Homeless Network, 2020 Point-in-Time Count standards and methodologies training, Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2018  Interview with Maria Arnes, PIT volunteer, 2026  Interview with Jack Almquist, University of Washington, 2026 Interview with William Towey, King County Regional Homelessness Authority, 2026 Interview with Ann Oliva, National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2025 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1964, then-President Lyndon B. Johnson declared war on poverty. Johnson wanted to lift the nation’s poor into a better life, via programs like food stamps, Medicare and Medicaid. But more than 60 years later, our country is still grappling with how to alleviate the challenges of poverty – including how we measure it. In this episode, Teo explains how the Federal Poverty Line is calculated and what it has to do with Jello.  We want to answer your questions about how our world works! Click here to submit a question using our online form, or email the team at ControlF@kuow.org Support the show by supporting our home, KUOW Public Radio in Seattle. Sources in this episode: U.S. Census Bureau Timeline of Poverty Measure, 2014 How the U.S. Census Bureau Measures Poverty, 2022 What does living at the poverty line look like?, USA Facts, 2023 Poverty Guidelines vs Poverty Thresholds, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Poverty Line Matrix, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2026 Remembering Mollie Orshansky — The Developer of the Poverty Thresholds, Society Security Administration, 2008 Relatively Deprived, New Yorker, 2006 Mollie Orshansky, Statistician, Dies at 91, The New York Times, 2007 Mollie Orshansky: Inventor of the Poverty Line, NPR, 2007 Thrifty Food Plan, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2021 Thrifty Food Plan: Better planning and accountability could help ensure quality of future reevaluations, U.S. Government Accountability Office Report to Congressional Requesters, 2022 Family Food Plans and Food Costs, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1962 The Indians in the Lobby, Season 3, Episode 8, The West Wing, 2001 NPR audience call out on SNAP benefits, 2025 Legacies of the War on Poverty, The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political & Social Science, 2024 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The United States spends more on health care than any other country on earth. Most health care products in the U.S. cost at least twice what other countries pay, sometimes up to ten times as much. And everyday Americans are often left footing the bill, grappling with sky-high premiums and medical debt. Clare tells Teo how the forces in our health care system keep costs high, and what you can do about the (possibly giant) number at the bottom of your next medical bill.  We want to answer your questions about how our world works! Click here to submit a question using our online form, or email the team at ControlF@kuow.org Support the show by supporting our home, KUOW Public Radio in Seattle. Sources in this episode: The Insane Things Hospitals Can Charge You for When you Give Birth, Vice, 2018 Health Care Costs and Affordability, Kaiser Family Foundation, 2025 Health costs associated with pregnancy, childbirth, and infant care, Peterson-KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation) Health System Tracker, 2025 Utah Dad Posts Hospital Bill With Nearly $40 Fee for Skin-to-Skin Contact After Son's Birth, ABC News, 2016 As Americans Struggled, Health Insurers Made a Record-Breaking $71.3 Billion in Profits, Wendell Potter on Substack, 2025 Health Care Debt In The U.S.: The Broad Consequences Of Medical And Dental Bills, Kaiser Family Foundation, 2022 The Marshall Allen Project Cost Data from the British Columbia Ministry of Health Interview with Gerard Anderson, Johns Hopkins Professor of Health Policy and Management Trump struck deals with 16 drug companies. But they're still raising prices this year, NPR, 2026 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When a storm rolls through your area, odds are you’ll have days of warning and hour-by-hour information about what to expect. That accuracy is thanks to a global data network that turns real-time measurements into forecasts that can stretch weeks. But it wasn’t always this way.  Clare tells Teo how weather went from a guessing game to a precise science, saving lives in the process.  Have a question about how our world works? Want to know more about weather forecasting? Email the Control F team at controlf@kuow.org  Support the show by supporting our home, KUOW Public Radio in Seattle. Sources in this episode: Archival copies of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on October 12 and October 13, 1962 Why an ‘exact date’ weather forecast headline isn’t what it seems, Met Office of the United Kingdom, 2023 How Reliable Are Weather Forecasts?, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Operational Weather Forecasting, Peter Michael Inness and Steve Dorling, 2013 A Deadly Wind: The 1962 Columbus Day Storm, John Dodge, 2018 Interview with Reid Wolcott, warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service, Seattle Interview with Ted Buehner (a.k.a. Tornado Ted), meteorologist at the National Weather Service (retired) Interview with Cliff Mass, meteorologist and forecasting researcher at the University of Washington See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Your credit score is your economic destiny. It determines where you can live, what you can buy, and sometimes even what job you can get. But how do credit bureaus come up with these all-encompassing numbers? Teo tells Clare about the data that credit scores feed on, and how little we really know about how they're calculated. Have a question about how our world works? Want to know more about credit scores? Email the Control F team at controlf@kuow.org Support the show by supporting our home, KUOW Public Radio in Seattle. Sources in this episode: Creditworthy: A history of consumer surveillance and financial identity in America, Josh Lauer, 2024 Credit Access in the U.S., U.S. Census Bureau, 2025 Affordable credit poised to save consumers billions, Alex Horowitz, Pew Charitable Trusts, 2023  WA’s new ban on medical debt in credit reports at risk of federal override, Jake Goldstein-Street, Washington State Standard, 2025 Interview with Josh Lauer, Author of Creditworthy  Interview with Alex Horowitz, Project Director at Pew Charitable Trusts Interview with Maya Lau, Host of Other People’s Pockets  Interview with Jazmin, founder of Budget with Jazmin See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Control F is a podcast about data — hard, fuzzy, surprising, and sometimes unreliable data — and all the ways it influences our daily lives. In each episode, we dig deep on a topic and search through research, algorithms, and assumptions to bring you insights on how stuff works. In a world ruled by numbers, Control F reads between the (spreadsheet) lines to find the bigger story. Control F launches on January 14, with new episodes every other week. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.