Brittany Kaiser, a data rights activist and co-founder of Own Your Data Foundation, a nonprofit that teaches people of all ages about data intelligence sat down with Bryan Tyler Cohen on his podcast, “No Lie" in late December 2020. Kaiser is best known for being the whistle blower who exposed her former company Cambridge Analytica’s abuse of data in world-wide elections such as Brexit and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential election. Today, she fights for more technology-first legislation while also teaching people how to protect their data through her nonprofit.

The most successful data analysts are able to take key data and weave it into a story to convey their point to stakeholders. This is often called a “data story” and is used by analysts who are presenting to an audience who may not understand the intricacies of data. They do this by presenting their findings visually – which is easier for most people to comprehend.  Often time this is through graphs, charts, or other visualization tools like infographics. But is a data story really that important in the world of statistics?

Brigham Young University is exploring how statistics coincide with sports in their newest data class taught by Zach Knowlton, a Senior Data Scientist at Progressive Leasing and now an Adjunct Professor at the university.

In an article by InformationWeek back in 2018, Sr. Data Scientist Sophie Searcy stated, “Given the critical role data scientists play in how data is used (or misused), it’s imperative that we fairly represent everyone impacted by our work, which is to say, all of us. In order to ensure that this happens, the data science industry must be absolutely committed to hiring and developing diverse talent.” She went on to state, “when blacks make up 13% of the US population but represent just 1% of hires at our leading tech companies (look no further than Google and Amazon for examples), something’s wrong.”