Stats + Stories

When reporters cover mass shootings news outlets often struggle to find ways to cover the event that won’t inspire others to do the same thing. Something similar follows in the wake of a suicide. Journalists don’t always cover suicides in their communities but when they do one of the concerns is whether that coverage might lead to a spike in suicides after the story is out. The media’s influence on the actions of individuals is a chronic concern for researchers in a number of fields and is a focus of this episode of Stats and Stories with guest Joel Greenhouse Joel B. Greenhouse, Ph.D., is Professor of Statistics at Carnegie Mellon University, and Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry and Epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh. He is an elected Fellow of the American Statistical Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and an elected Member of the International Statistical Institute. Why did you study 13 Reasons Why? (1:23) What data did you use in this? (2:20) How did you choose the age ranges? (7:40) Editing the episode (9:45) What’re the limitations of this research (10:56) Correlation/causation issues? (13:21) Any outrageous stories about your work? (15:02) Most surprising result of your work? (16:15) Contagion with suicide (18:24) How would you follow this study up? (20:23)

When you think about science’s contribution to society, do you think first about new inventions with an immediate economic benefit? What about scientific advances that deliver enormous societal or environmental benefits—but whose economic value may not be immediate or easily measured? How can these latter advances be evaluated? What is the role of governments in recognizing and promoting these advances? On “Stats + Stories,” co-hosts John Bailer and Rosemary Pennington welcome Baroness Alexandra Freeman, a crossbench member of the United Kingdom House of Lords and principal of Hertford College, Oxford (Oxford University), to discuss how science policy might better reflect the full range of impacts science provides—and the important role science communication plays in making those impacts understood. @RoyalStatisticalSociety

Research suggests that more than half of Americans could benefit from taking a GLP-1 RA medication. The drugs were originally designed to help manage type two diabetes, but in 2024, the Food and Drug Administration approved one GLP-1, Semaglutide, for weight loss. With that approval came a spike in prescriptions for the drugs, and a spike in calls related to GLP-1s to poison control centers. That's the focus of this episode of Stats and Stories with guests Jordan and Robert Miller. Jordan Miller is a post-baccalaureate student, double majoring in statistics and data science and mathematics at UT San Antonio. Robert Miller is a specialist in poison information with the South Texas Poison Center at UT San Antonio.

An entire industry has grown up around nutrition and health. People pushing everything from shakes, to meal kits, to special diets. While some of the claims surrounding such products can be questionable at best, the field of nutrition science is growing. Filled with researchers who are working to truly understand the science of food that is a focus of this episode of Stats and Stories with guest Michelle Cardel. Dr. Cardel is an obesity and nutrition scientist, registered dietitian, the Director of Global Clinical Research & Nutrition at WW International, Inc. (formerly Weight Watchers) and a faculty member at the University of Florida (UF) College of Medicine, where she is also an Associate Director for the Center for Integrative Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases. Her research is focused on three areas, assessing the effects of psychosocial factors, including low social status and food insecurity, on eating behavior and obesity-related disease, the development and implementation of effective healthy lifestyle interventions with a focus on underserved populations, and improving gender equity within academia.

Women regularly hold leadership roles in stats departments at universities and in major statistical organizations, but it wasn't so long ago that women had to fight to be included. At one point, women faculty had to climb through the windows of the faculty club at Berkeley to attend meetings there; the stories of the struggles of women to be accepted in the profession aren't always visible. But one scholar is working to ensure those stories aren't forgotten. That's the focus of this episode of Stats and Stories with guest Amanda Golbeck.  Amanda Golbeck is the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Public Health at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, where she's also a professor of biostatistics. Golbeck's known for her work on health numeracy, demography, and human intervention trials, but she's also known for her work on statistical narrative and for the biographies she's written. In 2025, Golbeck published Florence Nightingale David: A Passionate Probabilist, Statistician, Historian, and Leader, and in 2017, Equivalence: Elizabeth L. Scott at Berkeley. In 2016, Golbeck received the Elizabeth L. Scott Award from the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies for her outstanding efforts in enhancing the status of women and minorities, fostering new leadership opportunities for women and men, promoting diversity at all levels, and advocating for a more inclusive, open, and supportive atmosphere in the statistical sciences.