The PolicyViz Podcast wraps up 2024 with David Keyes, author of the new book, R for the Rest of Us: A Statistics-Free Introduction! We not only talk about how you can get started in R using David’s book, but also building data and data visualization workflows with R, RMarkdown, and Quarto. We also talk about how to create consistent visualizations …

I’ve been super excited for this episode of the podcast for a while! This week, I speak with John Medina, author of one of my favorite books on the brain—Brain Rules! John and I talk about brain science generally and also dive into some specific aspects that are particularly important to the work of any data communicator: the importance of capturin…

Dr. Laura Sikola, a cognitive linguist and communications expert, visits the podcast to talk about how to be a better presenter and communicator. Laura’s work focuses on how to have better presence, telling stories, and connecting with your audiences. We talk about communication challenges like the “expert’s curse” and how developing your “executiv…

I’m so excited to welcome Ellen Lupton to the PolicyViz Podcast! Ellen Lupton is a designer, writer, and educator. The all-new edition of her bestselling book Thinking with Type launched in March 2024. Other books include Design Is Storytelling, Graphic Design Thinking, Health Design Thinking, and Extra Bold: A Feminist, Inclusive, Anti-Racist, Non…

In this week’s episode, I interview Natalia Kisileva about her transition from engineering to data visualization and her work in data art and physicalization. We discuss her great Substack newsletter “Flowers and Numbers” and how she shifted her focus to data art, fostering community-building efforts, after the pandemic. Natalia emphasizes making d…

In this episode of the PolicyViz Podcast, I talk with Zach Bowders on the intricacies of data visualization, the impact of dashboards on decision-making, and the fine line between plagiarism and inspiration. We discuss the importance of context-driven visualization choices over rigid adherence to traditional formats and highlight the need for flexi…

On this week’s episode, I talk with Jessica Calarco about her book “Holding It Together: How Women Became America’s Safety Net” and the role of qualitative data in research and data visualization. Calarco, a sociologist from UW Madison, discusses her research on family life inequalities and the shift to a “DIY society,” where individuals, particula…

Welcome to Season 11 of the PolicyViz Podcast! After a relaxing summer full of travel and reading and fun, I’m ready to kick off a whole new season of the show. To kick off this season, I’m excited to be joined by Federica Fragapane, an independent designer known for her intricate and beautiful data visualizations. Our conversation delves into her …

In this final episode of the season, I welcome Nancy Organ to the show to discuss her new book Data Visualization for People of All Ages. Nancy’s book aims to make dataviz accessible to everyday readers. Our conversation highlights the importance of not altering data simply for aesthetics but to facilitate understanding. We also explore balancing c…

Georgia Lupi joins the show to discuss her work in data visualization, her journey from Accurat to Pentagram, and how she takes a human-centric perspective to working with and communicating data. Our conversation also focuses on her new book, “This is Me and Only Me.” The book encourages kids to observe and collect data to understand emotions and h…

Nicole Lachenmeier and Darjan Hil’s new book, Visualizing Complexity: Modular Information Design Handbook, focuses on deconstructing data encodings into fundamental elements to create effective visualizations. They take an exciting and hands-on approach to data visualization design for their own work and how they teach design to others. In this wee…

Nathan Yau’s Flowing Data website was one of the first data visualization websites I discovered in my own data journey. With his new book, Visualize This, now out, I thought it would be a great opportunity to talk with Nathan about his work, his book, and how his own approach to data has evolved over the last several years. Keywords: data visualiza…

Welcome to a solo episode! In this special episode of the podcast, I talk about the recen Tableau Customer conference in San Diego, which drew over 9,000 participants. I reflect on various aspects of the conference, including its diverse sessions that ranged from showcasing new Tableau features and case studies to hands-on workshops and discussions…

You know Enrico Bertini, right? Writer, teacher, co-host of the Data Stories podcast, Enrico does it all. Now at Northeastern University, I invited Enrico to the show to talk about his research, great Substack newsletter, and for views on the evolving landscape of data visualization on social media. In our discussion, Enrico emphasized the signific…

On this week’s episode of the podcast, I speak to author and teacher Nick Desbarats about his new book, Practical Charts: The Essential Guide to Creating Clear, Compelling Charts for Reports and Presentations. Our conversation covers choosing appropriate chart types, emphasizing simplicity and clarity, and understanding when to use different format…

In this week’s episode of the PolicyViz Podcast, I interview Rahul Bhargava from Northeastern University on the topic of data physicalization. We discuss the role of community engagement and societal impact in communicating data and including different people and communities. Our conversation touches upon teaching combined majors at Northeastern an…

Amanda Makulec is the current Executive Director of the Data Visualization Society (DVS), and in this week’s episode of the PolicyViz Podcast, we discuss her journey and the DVS’s evolution as it approaches its fifth anniversary. Amanda shares her experience starting as a volunteer all the way to leading the entire organization. With her second ter…

In this week’s episode, I chat with Dietmar Offenhuber about his new book, Autographic Design and the concept of autographic data analysis. Dietmar stresses the significance of recognizing the material origins of data and the influence of extraneous variables. He advocates for a qualitative approach that pays attention to data traces, which can unc…

In this week’s episode of the podcast, I welcome author, speaker, and professor Alberto Cairo to the show. We discuss his most recent book, The Art of Insight, and our conversation extends to acquiring reliable data and challenges people across the world face in creating useful and accessible data visualizations. We also discuss the current state o…

In this week’s episode, we delve into the pivotal role of visual clarity in scientific research. Join me and Professor of Clinical Epidemiology Maarten Boers as we discuss his new book, Data Visualization for Biomedical Scientists. If you are at all interested in being a better science communicator—and especially if you are interested in publishing…

On this week’s episode of the podcast, we dive into the transformative work of Neighborhood Nexus, led by Tommy Pierce. This civic data intermediary is making waves in Georgia by harnessing the power of data to create a lasting social impact. Here are the highlights of our discussion on how Neighborhood Nexus is revolutionizing the nonprofit sector…

On this week’s episode of the show, I talk with Nate Braun, author of several Python books, all having to do with sports. Nate shares his journey from having a background in economics to writing books on sports data analysis and visualization using Python. Despite not initially being skilled in coding, Braun was inspired by his work in environmenta…

Happy New Year and welcome back to the PolicyViz Podcast! In this first episode of 2024, I welcome welcome Sheila Pontis and Michael Babwahsingh, authors of the new book Information Design Unbound. They delve into the heart of information design, sharing their experiences in creating a pivotal resource for both students and professionals. This epis…

It's the final episode of 2023! I hope you have a great holiday season and a happy new year! Gulrez is a father of three beautiful kids and works as a Data Science Leader in his day job. He has almost two decades of experience under his belt and has a knack for turning boring numbers into captivating stories. When he's not busy working, you can fin…

William Gray is the guy behind Floor Charts, the website and Twitter feed that documents all things graphic in the US Congress. During the day, Bill oversees the strategic communications efforts at R Street and manages its growing Communications team, including overseeing the public relations, digital and events units. He joined the organization in…

Andrea Pacini is the author of the best-selling book Confident Presenter, a presentation coach and Head of Ideas on Stage UK. He specializes in working with business owners, leaders and their teams who want to become more confident presenters. Since 2010 Ideas on Stage has worked with thousands of clients around the world, including organizations l…

Tomas Pueyo is the author of Uncharted Territories, a newsletter where he tries to deeply understand how the world works to understand where it's going and nudge it in the right direction. He became world viral with his COVID articles, notably The Hammer and the Dance. He has 75,000 readers, and 300,000 on Twitter. Before Uncharted Territories, he …

Running your own data literacy and data consulting shop is no easy task. And helping customers not only build better visualizations and dashboards, but helping them create a better (or new) data culture is even harder. But Serena Roberts and her team at Moxy Analytics has been fighting that good fight for a few years now. Serena and I talk about wh…

Creating data visualizations in the physical world is not a new phenomenon. Humans have been drawing on walls, tallying money and crops, and carving on stone tablets for thousands of years. Today, though the practice of data visualization is largely done in the digital world, there is an exciting area of working in the physical space--the real worl…

Welcome back to a whole new season of the PolicyViz Podcast! I'm excited to bring you a whole new exciting slate of guests this year covering a huge array of data visualization and data communication strategies, technologies, and techniques. Maureen Stone (Tableau Research) has been involved with Tableau since 2004, when she was asked to design the…

Nigel Holmes is a British/American graphic designer, author, and theorist, who focuses on information graphics and information design. Graduating from Royal College of Art in London in 1966, Holmes ran his own successful graphic design practice in England. From 1966 to 1977, he worked as a freelance illustrator and graphic designer for clients such…

Joe Sharpe has been founder and creative director at Applied Works since 2005, a design studio using data visualisation, user-centred design and storytelling to create digital tools and products that drive positive change. Joe also teaches on the BA Graphic Design degree at Kingston School of Art, running an elective pathway for second and third ye…

Jonathon Reilly is an innovative and results-driven executive with over 20 years of experience in product management, business development, and operations. As the Co-Founder and COO of Akkio, he has helped create an easy-to-use AI platform that empowers users to build and deploy AI solutions to data problems in minutes. Prior to founding Akkio, Jon…

On this week's episode of the PolicyViz podcast, I chat with Susan Schulten and Georges Hattab, authors of the new books on dataviz luminaries Emma Willard and Etienne-Jules Marey. We talk about these two creators and their impacts on the data visualization field today. Susan Schulten is Distinguished University Professor of History at the Universi…

Micah is a mathematician who likes to use pictures to understand things. He runs a website, hockeyviz.com, where he stores pictures about hockey. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia with his wife and his two children. Episode Notes Micah | Twitter | Site Bubble physics Python Beautiful Soup svgwrite Matplotlib Line-width illusion Related Episodes Epis…

Jeremy is the author of American Inequality, a biweekly newsletter that uses data visualization to highlight U.S. inequality topics and to drive change in communities. His work has been published in TIME, Bloomberg, and the LA Times. He was a dual-degree masters student at MIT Sloan and the Harvard Kennedy School and was formerly a macro policy str…

Tristan is a Data Visualization Freelancer who likes to combine different techniques to find the best way to represent data. He regularly creates tools and videos to help people build their next projects or level up their skills. Tristan is the 2017 Iron Viz Champion, and current Tableau Visionary. Episode Notes Tristan | Web | Twitter | YouTube Fi…

Gabrielle Ione Hickmon (b. 1994) is a Black woman from a middle place—Ypsilanti, MI. Her lab is a place where clay and words meet. She is interested in body memory, waiting rooms, layovers, circles, Black imaginaries, and ocular proof. Her work includes essays, ethnographic research, and coil-built ceramics. She won Bronze in the Leisure, Games, & …

Jen Christiansen is the author of Building Science Graphics: An Illustrated Guide to Communicating Science through Diagrams and Visualizations (CRC Press) and senior graphics editor at Scientific American, where she art directs and produces illustrated explanatory diagrams and data visualizations. Episode Notes Jen | Web | Book | Book site Scientif…

Kirk Munroe is a business analytics and performance management expert. He has held leadership roles in product management, marketing, sales enablement, and customer success in analytics software companies including, Cognos, IBM, Kinaxis, Tableau, and Salesforce. Kirk has a passion for coaching and mentoring people to make better decisions through s…

Ellie Balk is an artist obsessed with color, pattern, data and mathematics. She creates large scale data visualization public artworks using paint, glass, sound and most recently ceramics. Community engagement and interaction is at the core of her work. Ellie lives in Brooklyn, while working internationally. Her public artwork can be experienced ac…

Stefanie Posavec is a designer, artist, and author whose practice focuses on finding new, experimental approaches to communicating data and information. This work has been exhibited internationally at major galleries including the V&A, the Design Museum, Somerset House, and the Wellcome Collection (London), the Centre Pompidou (Paris), and MoMA (Ne…

Lilach Manheim Laurio leads the Data Experience Center of Excellence at Visa, where she helps data practitioners across the company to elevate the quality of their data products, and improve their skills in data visualization and data experience design. Lilach’s data visualization work blends together a background in art history, library science, a…

Vidya Setlur is the director of Tableau Research. She leads an interdisciplinary team of research scientists in areas including data visualization, multimodal interaction, statistics, applied ML, and NLP. She earned her doctorate in Computer Graphics in 2005 at Northwestern University. Prior to joining Tableau, she worked as a principal research sc…

Edith Young is an artist, designer, and writer from New York. Princeton Architectural Press published her first book, Color Scheme: An Irreverent History of Art and Pop Culture Through Color Palettes, in 2021. This is the final podcast episode of 2022! I hope you have a wonderful, safe, and healthy holiday season. I look forward to good things comi…

Ethan Mollick is an Associate Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he studies and teaches innovation and entrepreneurship. He is also the author of The Unicorn’s Shadow: Combating the Dangerous Myths that Hold Back Startups, Founders, and Investors. His papers have been published in top management journals and ha…

Max Kuhn is a software engineer at RStudio. He is currently working on improving R’s modeling capabilities and maintains about 30 packages, including caret. He was a Senior Director of Nonclinical Statistics at Pfizer Global R&D in Connecticut. He was applying models in the pharmaceutical and diagnostic industries for over 18 years. Max has a Ph.D.…

Abby Covert is an information architect, writer and community organizer with two decades of experience helping people make sense of messes. In addition to being an active mentor to those new to sensemaking, she has also served the design community as President of the Information Architecture Institute, co-chair of Information Architecture Summit, a…

Julia Silge is a data scientist and software engineer at RStudio PBC where she works on open source modeling tools. She is an author, an international keynote speaker, and a real-world practitioner focusing on data analysis and machine learning. Julia loves text analysis, making beautiful charts, and communicating about technical topics with divers…

Pieta Blakely, PhD helps mission-based organizations measure their impact so that they can do what they do well. She started her nonprofit career as a teacher in workforce development and adult basic education. It was important work and she was worried that they didn’t really know if they were doing it well. In the process of trying to answer that …