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Casual Inference

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Rating
★★★★★
4.6
from
111 reviews
This podcast has
74 episodes
Language
English
Date created
2019/11/01
Latest episode
2026/10/05
Average duration
53 min.
Release period
59 days

Description

Keep it casual with the Casual Inference podcast. Your hosts Lucy D'Agostino McGowan and Ellie Murray talk all things epidemiology, statistics, data science, causal inference, and public health. Sponsored by the American Journal of Epidemiology.

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Regression to the Mean Girls | The Marshmallow Test (Not That One) with Mattan Ben-Shachar
2026/10/05
Follow Regression to the Mean Girls on [⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠], [⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠], or wherever you love to listen! Mattan Ben-Shachar⁠ joins ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sarah Lotspeich⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Lucy D'Agostino McGowan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ with a data-driven side quest into whether different colored marshmallows taste different.  *Be sure to listen to the end for a surprising addendum! Check out the full process here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠regressiontothemeangirls.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow along on instagram:  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@regressiontothemeangirls⁠⁠
Regression to the Mean Girls | Election Data Web Scraping with Emily Riederer
2026/09/28
Follow Regression to the Mean Girls on [⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠], [⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠], or wherever you love to listen! ⁠Emily Riederer⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (Capital One) joins ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sarah Lotspeich⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Lucy D'Agostino McGowan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ with a data-driven side quest into scraping election data.  Check out the full process here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠regressiontothemeangirls.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow along on instagram:  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@regressiontothemeangirls⁠⁠⁠
Regression to the Mean Girls | The Art of Web Scraping Art with Hadley Wickham
2026/09/21
Follow Regression to the Mean Girls on [⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠], [⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠], or wherever you love to listen! ⁠Hadley Wickham⁠ (Posit) joins ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sarah Lotspeich⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Lucy D'Agostino McGowan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ with a data-driven side quest into building a web scraper to help acquire art.  Check out the full process here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠regressiontothemeangirls.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Links to content we chat about on the episode: ⁠⁠⁠Weston Lambert Art⁠⁠Parallel strands between learning crochet and learning programming by Maëlle Salmon⁠ Follow along on instagram:  ⁠⁠⁠@regressiontothemeangirls⁠
Regression to the Mean Girls | The Comfort of Competence and the Speed of Justice, According to Law & Order
2026/09/14
Follow Regression to the Mean Girls on [⁠Apple Podcasts⁠], [⁠Spotify⁠], or wherever you love to listen! Christine Zhang⁠ (⁠New York Times⁠) joins ⁠⁠⁠Sarah Lotspeich⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠Lucy D'Agostino McGowan⁠⁠⁠⁠ with a data-driven side quest into the TV show Law and Order.  Check out the full analysis here: ⁠⁠⁠regressiontothemeangirls.com⁠⁠⁠ Links to content we chat about on the episode: ⁠Wrong Number newsletter⁠⁠The Speed of Justice, According to Law & Order⁠ Follow along on instagram:  ⁠@regressiontothemeangirls
Regression to the Mean Girls | The Work is Mysterious and Important: Severance Data
2026/09/07
Follow Regression to the Mean Girls on [Apple Podcasts], [Spotify], or wherever you love to listen! ⁠Lucy D'Agostino McGowan⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠Sarah Lotspeich⁠⁠ return with a data-driven side quest into the TV show Severance. Lucy analyzes whether Milchick really uses more complicated language than his colleagues. Check out the full analysis here: ⁠⁠regressiontothemeangirls.com⁠⁠ Links to content we chat about on the episode: ⁠⁠Lucy's Severance data R package [mdr]⁠⁠⁠⁠Lucy's other Severance analyses⁠⁠⁠⁠Dunnet⁠⁠⁠⁠Radial plot of who is speaking in Severance ⁠⁠ Follow along on instagram:  @regressiontothemeangirls
Regression to the Mean Girls | Romance by the Numbers: First Sparks Across Tropes
2026/08/31
Sarah Lotspeich⁠ and ⁠Lucy D'Agostino McGowan⁠ introduce Regression to the Mean Girls, a podcast about data-driven side quests in pop culture. In this episode, Sarah analyzes 45 recent romance novels to find out how different romance tropes affect the timing of the couple’s first kiss. Check out the full analysis here: ⁠https://regressiontothemeangirls.com/⁠ Links to content we chat about on the episode: ⁠Edward L. Kaplan and the Kaplan-Meier Survival Curve⁠⁠Nonparametric Estimation from Incomplete Observations⁠⁠Not just love, actually: why romance fiction is booming⁠⁠What is the lipstick index?⁠ Follow along on instagram: @regressiontothemeansgirls Podcast feed: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/rttmg/
Optimizing Data Workflows with Emily Riederer | Season 6 Episode 8
2025/06/26
Emily Riederer is a Data Science Senior Manager at Credit Risk Modeling Capital One. Her website can be found here: https://www.emilyriederer.com/   Follow along on Bluesky: Emily: ‪@emilyriederer.bsky.social‬ Ellie: @epiellie.bsky.social Lucy: @lucystats.bsky.social   🎶 Our intro/outro music is courtesy of Joseph McDade. Edited by Cameron Bopp.
Combining Data & Making Effects Generalizable with Carly Brantner | Season 6 Episode 7
2025/06/17
Carly Brantner is an assistant professor of Biostatistics & Bioinformatics at Duke University and Duke Clinical Research Institute. Resources from this episode: multicate: R package for estimating conditional average treatment effects across one or more studies using machine learning methods PCORnet® Front Door: Access point for potential investigators, patient groups, and other stakeholders to connect with PCORnet and get support for potential research studies Patient-Centered Outcomes Data Repository (PDOCR): De-identified data from 24 (and counting) PCORI-funded studies Follow along on Bluesky: Carly: @carlybrantner.bsky.social Ellie: @epiellie.bsky.social Lucy: @lucystats.bsky.social   🎶 Our intro/outro music is courtesy of Joseph McDade. Edited by Cameron Bopp.
The Art of Clarity with Andrew Heiss | Season 6 Episode 6
2025/05/29
Andrew Heiss is an assistant professor in the Department of Public Management and Policy at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University. Vincent's "What is your estimand" section in his {marginaleffects} book: https://marginaleffects.com/chapters/challenge.html#sec-goals_estimand Article on defining estimands: https://doi.org/10.1177/00031224211004187 Andrew's marginal effects post: https://www.andrewheiss.com/blog/2022/05/20/marginalia/ Andrew's post on "fixed effects" and mariginal effects across different disciplines: https://www.andrewheiss.com/blog/2022/11/29/conditional-marginal-marginaleffects/ Follow along on Bluesky: Andrew: @andrew.heiss.phd Ellie: @epiellie.bsky.social Lucy: @lucystats.bsky.social   🎶 Our intro/outro music is courtesy of Joseph McDade. Edited by Cameron Bopp.
Study Critique: What Went Wrong and How We'd Do It Differently | Season 6 Episode 5
2025/05/08
In this episode Lucy and Ellie dig into a recently publicized paper, "Vaccination and Neurodevelopmental Disorders: A Study of Nine-Year-Old Children Enrolled in Medicaid", which has gained attention after being promoted by RFK Jr. as evidence that vaccines cause autism.    Ellie breaks down her Substack critique of the study. Together, she and Lucy discuss the methodological flaws and what a better version of this study might look like.   Vaccination and Neurodevelopmental Disorders: A Study of Nine-Year-Old Children Enrolled in Medicaid: https://publichealthpolicyjournal.com/vaccination-and-neurodevelopmental-disorders-a-study-of-nine-year-old-children-enrolled-in-medicaid/ RFK Jr is promoting a new study claiming "vaccines cause autism" but it doesn't add up. Literally [Ellie's substack]: https://epiellie.substack.com/p/rfk-jr-is-promoting-a-new-study-claiming   Follow along on Bluesky: Ellie: @epiellie.bsky.social Lucy: @lucystats.bsky.social   🎶 Our intro/outro music is courtesy of Joseph McDade. Edited by Cameron Bopp.
From Model to Meaning with Vincent Arel-Bundock | Season 6 Episode 4
2025/04/24
Vincent Arel-Bundock is a professor at the Université de Montréal, where he studies comparative and international political economy. Vincent's website: https://arelbundock.com/ Vincent's book "Model to Meaning: How to Interpret Statistical Models With marginaleffects for R and Python": https://marginaleffects.com/     Follow along on Bluesky: Vincent: @vincentab.bsky.social Ellie: @epiellie.bsky.social Lucy: @lucystats.bsky.social     🎶 Our intro/outro music is courtesy of Joseph McDade. Edited by Cameron Bopp.
Propensity Scores, R Packages, and Practical Advice with Noah Greifer | Season 6 Episode 3
2025/04/10
Noah Greifer is a statistical consultant and programmer at Harvard University. Episode notes: WeightIt package: https://ngreifer.github.io/WeightIt/ MatchIt package: https://kosukeimai.github.io/MatchIt/ Noah's awesome Stack Exchange post: https://stats.stackexchange.com/a/544958 Follow along on Bluesky: Noah: @noahgreifer.bsky.social Ellie: @EpiEllie.bsky.social Lucy: @LucyStats.bsky.social 🎶 Our intro/outro music is courtesy of Joseph McDade. Edited by Cameron Bopp.
Causal Assumptions and Large Language Models | Season 6 Episode 2
2025/03/27
Lucy and Ellie chat about large language models, chat interfaces, and causal inference. Do LLMs Act as Repositories of Causal Knowledge?: https://arxiv.org/html/2412.10635v1 Follow along on Twitter: The American Journal of Epidemiology: @AmJEpi Ellie: @EpiEllie Lucy: @LucyStats 🎶 Our intro/outro music is courtesy of Joseph McDade. Edited by Cameron Bopp.
Data Integration for Impact with Len Testa | Season 6 Episode 1
2025/02/28
Lucy chats with Len Testa about a recent analysis he did which combined over 150 publicly available data sources to answer a question about the affordability of Disney World. Len's Deep Dive Post on the Touring Plans Blog [Blog Post] Wall Street Journal Artcile, "Even Disney Is Worried About the High Cost of a Disney Vacation" [Article] Follow along on Bluesky: Len: @lentesta.bsky.social Ellie: @EpiEllie.bsky.social Lucy: @LucyStats.bsky.social 🎶 Our intro/outro music is courtesy of Joseph McDade
Starting the Conversation on Models with Alyssa Bilinski | Season 5 Episode 11
2024/07/10
Alyssa Bilinski, Peterson Family Assistant Professor of Health Policy, and Assistant Professor of Biostatistics, at Brown University School of Public Health. Her research focuses on developing novel methods for policy evaluation and applying these to identify interventions that most efficiently improve population health and well-being. Episode notes: PNAS paper: https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2302528120 Shuo Feng's pre-print: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.08.24305335v1 Our uncertainty paper: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33475686/ Follow along on Twitter: Alyssa: @ambilinski The American Journal of Epidemiology: @AmJEpi Ellie: @EpiEllie Lucy: @LucyStats 🎶 Our intro/outro music is courtesy of Joseph McDade Edited by Cameron Bopp

Podcast reviews

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4.6 out of 5
111 reviews
★★★★☆
Complemental 2025/08/19
Best causal inference podcast
My only wish is for more input from sciences outside biology and from the computer science side of causal inference research. A lot is being done well...
★★★★☆
Megjhart 2025/07/02
Great content
I absolutely love the content of this podcast. Everything about it. I just listened to the optimizing data workflows episode and the tone and use of f...
★★★★★
kkflo00177 2025/04/28
Casual voices = casual infer!
Two things. First and most importantly, this is among the very best, most fun, most useful podcasts I’ve found. Thank you both for the time and work t...
★★★☆☆
MelFierros 2024/08/12
Vocal Fry
Love the concept, the hosts are very knowledgeable. However, it’s so difficult to focus on what the topics are when the voices quite literally make my...
★★★★★
Bill Jesdale 2024/06/12
Thoughtful yet Approachable Dive
Casual Inference is a thoughtful yet approachable dive into contemporary issues in epi, I recommend it to my students, and the faculty here love to ta...
★★★★★
Grschunchibdseyv 2024/06/05
Modern science of making sense from greasy data
Drs. Murray and D’Agostino-Gowan provide the content that reflects the state of the art in the relatively recent interdisciplinary area of scientific ...
★★★☆☆
NickiMina 2024/02/23
Great conceptually but vocal fry undermines experience as a listener
Highly interested in the episodes and guests but unfortunately find it grating to listen to. Many people do not have natural speaking voices that are ...
★★★★★
breggurns 2023/08/31
Excellent podcast!
I would highly recommend this podcast to anyone interested in Epi/Biostats! Excellent job, this is quickly becoming one of my favorite listens while d...
★★★★★
Pete Amer 2023/07/23
Great podcast
This is a really fun and informative podcast on causal inference and data science. The hosts both are great at communicating topics in research design...
★★★★★
Dylan_Pete 2023/04/11
Great Podcast!
I love this podcast. Lucy and Ellie help me find joy in learning causal inference and enjoy their sense of humor!
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