Methods

Methods is about how we know what we know. Each week, Brooke Borel, author of The Chicago Guide to Fact-Checking, interviews someone who examines facts for a living, including journalists, scientists, historians, judges, translators, and more. Picking one of the guest’s projects—an investigative article, a book, a scientific discovery—we’ll dig into how they did it. What was their process? How did they investigate the evidence? What stories, pitfalls, and dead ends didn’t make it into the published work? How sure are they? And what level of uncertainty should we all be comfortable with when it comes to calling something a fact?

Episode 12: Bad Algorithms

Data scientist and "Weapons of Math Destruction" author Cathy O’Neil on the dark side of big data. 

12-27
33:27

Episode 11: Social Data

BuzzFeed data reporter Lam Thuy Vo on the illuminating and obscuring nature of social media data. 

12-27
28:19

Episode 10: Dead and Pre-Dead

New York Times obituary writer Margalit Fox on the art and science of writing what she calls “flash biographies.”

12-14
32:09

Episode 9: Future Tech

Zach and Kelly Weinersmith on how to predict our future technologies and their new book "Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That'll Improve and/or Ruin Everything"

11-29
34:02

Episode 8: Gun Country

Journalist Melinda Wenner Moyer on the research linking guns and crime. 

11-15
31:33

Episode 7: Science Doesn’t Understand

Julie Rehmeyer is a math and science journalist and author of “Through the Shadowlands: A Science Writer’s Odyssey into an Illness Science Doesn’t Understand.”

11-01
31:39

Episode 6: Big Chicken

Journalist Maryn McKenna on uncovering a story about the secretive meat industry.

10-18
30:29

Episode 5: Forecasting

Statistician Nate Silver on baseball and the 2016 election, recorded live at CAVEAT.

10-04
37:00

Episode 4: Hurricane Season

Climate scientist Kate Marvel on whether climate change is to blame for Harvey, Irma, and Jose.

09-19
29:51

Episode 3: A Climate Change Lawsuit

Vice News Tonight reporter Arielle Duhaime-Ross on an unprecedented legal case over climate change.

08-01
27:14

Episode 2: Talking with Dolphins

Marine mammal expert Diana Reiss explains how scientists get in the heads of other species.

08-01
29:38

Episode 1: Conspiracy Theorists

Author Jon Ronson on how journalists should cover Alex Jones.

08-01
29:20

Methods Trailer

Methods is a new podcast about how we know what we know, and why the way we get there matters. Coming soon to a podcast app near you!

07-25
01:44

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