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Quantitude
Quantitude
Author: Greg Hancock & Patrick Curran
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© 2025 Quantitude
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A podcast dedicated to all things quantitative, ranging from the relevant to the highly irrelevant. Co-hosts Patrick Curran and Greg Hancock talk about serious statistical topics, but without taking themselves too seriously. Think: CarTalk hi-jacked by the two grumpy old guys from the Muppets, grousing about quantitative methods, statistics, and data analysis, all presented to you with the production value of a 6th grade school project. But in a good way.
183 Episodes
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In this In The Wild episode, Patrick and Greg turn their Quantitude loose on college admission essays, in particular whether or not they should be used to make such high-stakes decisions, and they discuss what issues would need to be addressed in order to answer that question. Stay in contact with Quantitude! Web page: quantitudepod.org TwitterX: @quantitudepod YouTube: @quantitudepod Merch: redbubble.com
In this week's episode Patrick and Greg have fun exploring the questionably valid but always high stakes role of the grade point average, of GPA. They consider the different ways in which grades can be assigned, what they may or may not actually represent, and how they have become increasingly inflated over time. Along the way, they also discuss not being agnostic, math vs. sociology, avoiding homework, eye patches, participation credit, revenge committee assignments, trust falls, bad dermato...
In this week's episode Patrick and Greg talk about latent transition analysis, which embeds latent class analysis within a longitudinal context, allowing us to explore, as well as to formally test, patterns of individual change in latent class membership over time. Along the way they also mention: identity crises, the crossword puzzler, the nihilist, here comes the asteroid, deck chairs and floating doors, grizzled 25-year-olds, burying the lede, victory yells, Pepsi vs. Coke, magic wiping cl...
In this week's episode Greg and Patrick discuss the amazing world of the empirical bootstrap. They start with inferential testing using business as usual, describe where that quickly runs into problems, and explore where bootstrapping does and, importantly, does not help move us forward. Along the way they also discuss midnight in Bangkok, the awe of a 747, the Wright Brothers, what's your point, sampling a crappy sample, indulging neurons, Guinness beer, just go faster, what does Tukey know,...
In this In The Wild episode, Greg and Patrick turn their Quantitude loose on the ever-present SAT, in particular the premise that it is biased and should be banned. They also talk about what issues would need to be addressed in order to evaluate whether or not that's a reasonable claim. Stay in contact with Quantitude! Web page: quantitudepod.org TwitterX: @quantitudepod YouTube: @quantitudepod Merch: redbubble.com
In this week's episode, Patrick and Greg have a lovely conversation with Jeremy Miles, a quantitative methodologist who has worked in both academic and industry settings. Jeremy draws on his own extensive experiences to describe what an industry job is like and how one can prepare to move into this type of position. Along the way they also discuss sub-conning expertise, mystery companies, Americans’ mispronunciations, Quantitude International, avoiding math, statistics vs. biostatistics, figh...
In this week's episode, as we head into the academic job season, Patrick and Greg offer some well-meaning advice about one of the most important aspects of an on-site interview, the academic job talk. Along the way they also mention the changing of the cactus needles, Colon Blow, big pumpkin, cutting out job ads, the job talk bagel bar, waiting for Wisconsin, y-hat forever, hold my beer, hello Cleveland, toilet inspirations, Olympic ice skating hook, cat with a stopwatch, showing your stomach...
In this week's In The Wild episode, Patrick and Greg turn their Quantitude loose on the premise that birth order has a causal impact on the very person who you are. They discuss what questions they would raise and what issues they would need to have addressed in order to fully evaluate whether or not this is a reasonable claim. Stay in contact with Quantitude! Web page: quantitudepod.org TwitterX: @quantitudepod YouTube: @quantitudepod Merch: redbubble.com
In this week's episode, Greg and Patrick explore the very cool yet often overlooked suite of non-parametric statistical tests. They talk about their strengths and weaknesses and how these might be profitably used in practice. Along the way they also discuss science fairs, spaghetti bridges, don't take this the wrong way, jazz hamster, the Bernoulli Principle, everyone wins, glitter is not science, Speed Racer, George Russell being a baby, ppphhhhbbbbt, Miles Davis, and the conch shell. ...
In this week's special In The Wild episode, Patrick and Greg turn their Quantitude loose on the premise that National Public Radio is liberally biased, talking about what issues we would need to have addressed in order for us to be able to evaluate whether or not that's a reasonable claim. Stay in contact with Quantitude! Web page: quantitudepod.org TwitterX: @quantitudepod YouTube: @quantitudepod Merch: redbubble.com
In this week's episode, the first of Season 7, Greg and Patrick argue about whether the number seven is a propitious or an inauspicious omen for the new season. They then explore ways we can spice up our relationship in hopes of avoiding the Seven Year Itch. Along the way they also discuss t-shirt wearing dogs, Mickey Mantle, the seven deadly sins, Akira Kurosawa, the Boeing triple-seven, menage-a-pods, unwritten books, El Duderino, mmmmmmaybe, I see dead people, ROYGBIV, Ozzy Man, dodg...
In this week's episode, the last of Season 6, Patrick and Greg pull back the curtain and reveal how the Quantitude sausage is actually made. Their motivation is to share their own joys and challenges in making a podcast in the hope that others might consider doing this themselves, whether it be for simple self-satisfaction or for using it as a free speech platform in a time when other avenues of communication are feeling increasingly compromised. Along the way they also discuss baring y...
In this week's episode Greg and Patrick explore the extremely clever yet inexplicably underused method of dominance analysis which offers a set of techniques for determining the relative importance of predictors in a regression model. Along the way they also discuss giving compliments, looking tired, Indy vs. F1, chicken paprikas, Gustav Holst, Fozzie Bear, not paying attention while recording, Lewis Hamilton pin-ups, Lando Calrissian, equation forts, being appallingly cool, making no sense a...
In this week's episode Patrick and Greg have some serious fun with song lyrics they misunderstood at some point in their personal lives. They then use this as a thinly veiled excuse to explore some very basic statistical things that they have also misunderstood at some point in their professional lives. Along the way they discuss over-engineered front ends, mumbling, Scaramouche, mondegreens, Tony Danza, Bingo Jed, word salad, containers, sitting next to Kurt Cobain, kicking cats, tiddles, ea...
In today’s episode Patrick and Greg talk about outcomes that are count variables: when you need to worry about them and what you can do about them within your analytical models. Along the way they also mention: Bela Lugosi, Vlad the Impaler, Patrick the Poker, Count Chocula, Count von Count, drunken bar brawls, secret distributions, K!, bio breaks, second favorite child, Animal Farm, Cliff’s notes, A’s in band, and more equal zeros. Stay in contact with Quantitude! Web page: quantitud...
In this week's episode Greg and Patrick explore both the challenges and the opportunities of age-period-cohort analysis when trying to understand the complexities of human behavior over time. Along the way they also discuss bachelor night, Dave Brubeck, pay phones, street lights, global nuclear war, lazy thinking, I'm not a crook, biking to grandmas, HMS Pinafore, the Beatles, aggressive mice, trash snakes, and getting high at A-Basin. Stay in contact with Quantitude! Web page: quantitudepo...
In this week's episode Greg and Patrick shine a flashlight on correspondence analysis and find that this is an extraordinarily cool yet often neglected method similar to factor analysis but applied to nominal contingency tables. Along the way they also discuss online personality tests, marital therapy, modern antibiotics, the Newlywed Game, grand slams, the advantages of being flexible, disrespecting nominal variables, formally apologizing to linguists, Winnie the Pooh, VH1's Pop-Up Video, th...
In this week’s episode Greg and Patrick talk about loglinear models as a clever method to deconstruct the potential dependencies among two or more categorical variables. Along the way, they also discuss Children of the Corn, Mr. Magoo glasses, tighty whities, Fogo de Chão, blinded by hand soap, logarithms as drug mules, Euler Euler Euler, conspiracy boards and red yarn, M&M colors, depth perception problems, and apologies to Mrs. Johnson Stay in contact with Quantitude! Web page: quanti...
In this week's episode Greg and Patrick invoke the very personal interpretation of modern art as a framework for thinking about the exceedingly cool topic of rotation in exploratory factor analysis. Along the way they also discuss Venice Beach, haystacks, drug fronts, being insufferable, ignoramuses, .22's and stop signs, weak pivots, honking factors, pooping out matrices, the Gulf of America, twitchy eyeballs, big fat zeros, obliquity, and Extortomax. Stay in contact with Quanti...
In this week's episode Greg and Patrick talk about group coding approaches, like dummy variables and effect code variables, for helping to analyze group differences within the larger general linear model. Along they way they also discuss hacking up a lung, made for audio faces, walking pneumonia, putting Vicks VapoRub on your feet, cards in your spokes, confusing rental cars, crash test dummies, what is your quest, 25-cent Nyquil night, Bonferroni glasses, the Romans, and Nyquil haze. S...




great episode. really appreciated the coverage of standard error. one missed opportunity, imho, was slapping a prior on that likelihood to get a posterior, and thus connecting to Bayesian stats
great episode. could have been connected to Bayesian stats better
you managed to explain visual path tracing in audio-only setting. Amazing, thanks!
hit it with a bigger MC hammer - love it. on a more serious note, this episode was great at making me think deeper about logistic regression.
Amazing episode. Convergence to impossible solutions does happen. Hosts gave a couple of great solutions for dealing with it
I learn something new from every episode, and the light hearted atmosphere makes it so easy. Thanks!
making it easier to identify the bodies... love it