Approximately ten billion different narratives about what happened in the recent US presidential election have emerged since said election. But how many of these narratives can be substantiated by data? How can we tell?

Political scientist Seth Masket joins us to discuss how to make thoughtful inferences from this data, how and why to be skeptical of evidence-free opinions, and the importance (just like in the last episode!!) of being thoughtful about whether our narratives are based on data or we (or others who are trying to persuade us of something) are simply trying to pick data to support our narrative(s). Stick around until the end to hear how polls did and Seth's thoughts on why everything feels so politically bad these days.

Follow and read more by Seth:

• His substack: smotus.substack.com
• His podcast: powerflour.substack.com
• His personal website: sethmasket.com

Follow Andrea at jonesrooy.com and on Instagram at @jonesrooy.

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Dr. Steven Novella, clinical neurologist and host of The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe podcast joins us to share how he collects and analyzes data when he works with patients (there is so much more going on than I realized!) as well as how AI can hopefully improve the practice of medicine if we get it right. It's a longer episode than usual, but I hope you'll agree it's well worth it.

Follow Steve:

https://www.theskepticsguide.org/

https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/

https://theness.com/neurologicablog/

Follow Andrea:

https://www.jonesrooy.com/ and @jonesrooy on socials.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Science journalist and athlete Christie Aschwanden takes us inside the not-so-scientific world of the fitness and health data that's tracked by various apps we probably own and/or are tempted to buy, and she helps us more carefully discern what's actually useful to follow and what we're better off ignoring. Plus -- an existentially (and scientifically!) important discussion about the power of uncertainty (and why it doesn't have to feel bad).

Christie's Scientific American podcast is Uncertain. Her book is Good to Go: What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn About the Strange Science of Recovery. You can read more about her and by here on her website.

Follow AJR, your host, at @jonesrooy on Instagram and find out more here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.