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Explore Explain is a long-form podcast and video series hosted by Andy Kirk and launched early 2020. It goes deep behind the scenes of data visualisation projects. Each episode is structured around a conversation with visualisation designers, developers, or data journalists to explore the design story behind a single visualisation or a related major project. Guests explain the thought-process behind and share insights about the myriad little decisions that underpin the finished works they produce. Audiences will gain an appreciation of the what, the why and the how, learning about the hidden problems and challenges, the breakthroughs and the eureka moments. You'll learn about the things that were done and the things that were not done, the pressures and frustrations as well as successes and failures. Each season comprises nine episodes and always seeks to include guests representing a diverse cast of talented practitioners from across the field and around the world, showcasing a wide variety of different types of visualisation work. Every episode is published as both an audio interview as well as an enhanced video conversation, enriched by detailed visuals that illuminate the discussions. Visit the Youtube channel to see all the recordings, including shorter highlight episodes. To read more about each episode, and browse through the full archive of conversations, visit the Podcast page on Andy Kirk's Visualising Data website. Explore Explain is a Bethany Andrew production.

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S6E5 - Chaz Hutton

2026/02/04

Welcome to episode 5 of season 6 of Explore Explain, a long-form video and podcast series all about data visualisation design. I am delighted to welcome Chaz Hutton, currently based in the UK, who is a man with many creative hats and talents, but it is his role as a cartoonist that we're focusing on in this show. We explore five distinct pieces of his brilliant work that help to illustrate (pun intended) themes of his inspiring craft that we, as data visualisation practitioners, can maybe learn to bring into ours. As well as listening to this show, you can watch the video of this conversation. Head over to Youtube and visit the Explore Explain channel.

S6E4 - Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic & Mike Cisneros

2025/11/26

Welcome to episode 4 of season 6 of Explore Explain, a long-form video and podcast series all about data visualisation design. I am delighted to welcome Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic, Founder & CEO of Storytelling With Data, and Mike Cisneros, a Data Storyteller and colleague of Cole's, both based in the US. In this episode we explore the story behind their new book, also co-authored with Alex Velez, titled 'Before & After', showcasing 20 case studies of data visualisation makeover designs. As well as listening to this show, you can watch the video of this conversation. Head over to Youtube and visit the Explore Explain channel.

S6E3 - Liuhuaying Yang

2025/10/24

Welcome to episode 3 of season 6 of Explore Explain, a long-form video and podcast series all about data visualisation design. In this latest episode, I am delighted to welcome Liuhuaying Yang, a Data Visualisation Designer who works at the Complexity Science Hub Research Center in Vienna, Austria. We explore the story behind Liuhuaying's unique data visualisation 'Not My Name', which explores the process and components of translating Chinese names into Pinyin. As well as listening to this show, you can watch the video of this conversation. Head over to Youtube and visit the Explore Explain channel.

S6E2 - Dr Anna Lombardi

2025/09/11

Welcome to episode 2 of season 6 of Explore Explain, a long-form video and podcast series all about data visualisation design. In this latest episode, I am delighted to welcome Dr Anna Lombardi, Climate Data Visualiser for Copernicus ECMWF, who is based in the UK. We explore the story behind Anna's extensive data visualisation and design contributions to the 'The European State of the Climate 2024', which offers a detailed overview of climate conditions in Europe and the Arctic region in 2024, based on the close collaboration of 100 scientists and experts across the world. As well as listening to this show, you can watch the video of this conversation. Head over to Youtube and visit the Explore Explain channel.

S6E1 - SPECIAL GUEST PANEL - Data Viz Freelancing

2025/02/12

Welcome to episode 1 of season 6 of Explore Explain, a long-form video and podcast series all about data visualisation design. This episode is taken from a recorded webinar held on 27th January 2025 titled ‘Data Viz Freelancing’ and featuring a panel of guests including: Julie Brunet - Data Designer and Creative Director for Nightingale MagazineTiziana Alocci - Data Artist, LecturerObinna Iwuji - Content and Business Development ManagerAnne-Marie Dufour - Data Visualization Designer & DeveloperVivian Andreozzi - Information Designer and Data Analyst Steven Nijman, Data Journalist and Storytelling Specialist, was unfortunately unable to join due to illness. With contributions from the audience we explore the pleasures and pitfalls of working professionally as a freelancer in the data visualisation field. The panellists offer valuable insight about their experiences, motivations, and advice about ways of working, with plenty of tips and tactics along the way. Non-freelancers are always quite intrigued by what freelancers do and, similarly, freelancers are always intrigued by what other freelancers do. In this conversation we try to satisfy both dimensions of interest! As well as listening to this show, you can watch the video of this conversation. Head over to Youtube and visit the Explore Explain channel.

S5E9 - Alan Smith

2025/01/17

Welcome to episode 9 of season 5 of Explore Explain, a long-form video and podcast series all about data visualisation design. In this latest episode, I am delighted to welcome Alan Smith, Head of Visual and Data Journalism at the Financial Times in London. We explore the story behind a unique project Alan worked on titled the 'FT Money Machine': faithfully recreating an analogue computer - built in 1949 by Bill Phillips designed to model the flow of an Economy using water and pumps - but translating it to be experienced in VR, with the FT's first application built for the Apple Vision Pro. As well as listening to this show, you can watch the video of this conversation. Head over to Youtube and visit the Explore Explain channel.

S5E8 - SPECIAL GUEST PANEL - The State of Data Viz (Part II)

2024/12/12

Welcome to episode 8 of season 5 of Explore Explain, a long-form video and podcast series all about data visualisation design. This episode is the second of a two-part special taken from a recorded webinar held on 4th December 2024 titled ‘The State of Data Viz’ and featuring a panel of guests including: Evelina Parrou, Founder & Creative Director at Parabole StudioRasagy Sharma, Senior Design Manager for DataLabs at Capital One Joe Sharpe, Co-Founder of Applied WorksJuuso Koponen, Co-Founder of Koponen+Hildén Lisa Charlotte Muth, Data Vis Writer at Datawrapper...as well as invaluable co-hosting by Obinna Iwuji With contributions from the audience, in this second-part episode - 'the research and the resources' - we explore the current state of the data viz field, where its come from, and where its heading in relation to academic developments, tools and technology, and the resources available for people to develop and participate in this field. As well as listening to this show, you can watch the video of this conversation. Head over to Youtube and visit the Explore Explain channel.

S5E7 - SPECIAL GUEST PANEL - The State of Data Viz (Part I)

2024/12/12

Welcome to episode 7 of season 5 of Explore Explain, a long-form video and podcast series all about data visualisation design. This episode is the first of a two-part special taken from a recorded webinar held on 4th December 2024 titled ‘The State of Data Viz’ and featuring a panel of guests including: Evelina Parrou, Founder & Creative Director at Parabole StudioRasagy Sharma, Senior Design Manager for DataLabs at Capital One Joe Sharpe, Co-Founder of Applied WorksJuuso Koponen, Co-Founder of Koponen+Hildén Lisa Charlotte Muth, Data Vis Writer at Datawrapper ...as well as invaluable co-hosting by Obinna Iwuji With contributions from the audience, in this first-part episode - 'the practice and the people' - we explore the current state of the data viz field, where its come from, and where its heading in relation to trends in the type of work being created, the professions that exist, and the people who make up the data viz community. As well as listening to this show, you can watch the video of this conversation. Head over to Youtube and visit the Explore Explain channel.

S5E6 - Michael Brenner, Sarah Slobin & Jon Schwabish

2024/10/29

Welcome to episode 6 of season 5 of Explore Explain, a long-form video and podcast series all about data visualisation design. In this latest episode, I am delighted to welcome Michael Brenner (Head of Creative at Data4Change), Sarah Slobin (Visual Editor, Reuters), and Jon Schwabish (Senior Fellow, Urban Institute). In a show I've titled ‘The Tools of Our Trade’ we explore the substantial matter of data visualisation technology, explaining how we feel about the current state of data viz tools and how they assist us as data visualisation professionals. We look at how today’s tool landscape has been shaped over time, which options we most value, and the capabilities we feel are possibly lacking. As well as listening to this show, you can watch the video of this conversation. Head over to Youtube and visit the Explore Explain channel.

S5E5 - Kat Greenbrook

2024/10/07

Welcome to episode 5 of season 5 of Explore Explain, a long-form video and podcast series all about data visualisation design. I am delighted to welcome Kat Greenbrook, Data Storyteller, Author, and founder of Rogue Penguin based in Wellington, New Zealand. In this episode, we discussed Kat's life as a freelancer, starting with learning more about her career background leading up to discovering data visualisation and then the process of switching her path towards being an independent professional. We explore the story of her wonderful first, self-published book, 'The Data Storyteller's Handbook', as well as the design thinking behind an exquisite data physicalisation project concerning her 'Plastic Footprint'. As well as listening to this show, you can watch the video of this conversation. Head over to Youtube and visit the Explore Explain channel.

S5E4 - Dominikus Baur & Alice Thudt

2024/07/17

Welcome to episode 4 of season 5 of Explore Explain, a long-form video and podcast series all about data visualisation design. In this latest episode, I am delighted to welcome Dominikus Baur, Data Visualization Designer & Engineer, and Alice Thudt, Data Visualization Designer, who are based in Munich, Germany. We explore the story behind a project titled 'Full Of Themselves: An analysis of title drops in movies' which analyses and visualises all instances in a movie when one of the characters says the title of the movie. I've been wanting to explore this curiosity myself and so I'm delighted that they've done this and absolute love what they have accomplished! As well as listening to this show, you can watch the video of this conversation. Head over to Youtube and visit the Explore Explain channel.

S5E3 - Natalie Erdem

2024/06/13

Welcome to episode 3 of season 5 of Explore Explain, a long-form video and podcast series all about data visualisation design. In this latest episode I am delighted to welcome Natalie Erdem, Managing Partner and Product Manager at TWO-N, based in New York City. We explore the story behind TWO-N's development of the MSNBC Election Big Board, the dynamic visualisation tool used by National Political Correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC, Steve Kornacki during the live broadcast of the 2018 US mid-terms and subsequent elections. As well as listening to this show, you can watch the video of this conversation. Head over to Youtube and visit the Explore Explain channel.

S5E2 - Jess Carr

2024/05/10

Welcome to episode 2 of season 5 of Explore Explain, a long-form video and podcast series all about data visualisation design. In this latest episode, I am delighted to welcome Jess Carr, a UI/UX Engineer at GSK based in Bath, UK. We explore the story behind a passion project Jess worked on to visualise analysis of the (spoiler: declining) use of text on the front covers of Vogue magazine over the last 22 years, titled 'Since When Does Vogue Hate Text?'. This project was a winner of 'The Pudding Cup' 2023 gold prize so it's a great piece to dissect! As well as listening to this show, you can watch the video of this conversation. Head over to Youtube and visit the Explore Explain channel.

S5E1 - Rebecca Conroy & Duncan Swain

2024/04/26

Welcome to episode 1 of season 5 of Explore Explain, a long-form video and podcast series all about data visualisation design. For this season opener, I am delighted to welcome Rebecca Conroy, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, and Duncan Swain, Co-Founder and Creative Partner, from Beyond Words, a design studio based in London, UK. We explore Rebecca and Duncan's career backgrounds, the origin story behind the founding of their studio, and how their subsequent creative and commercial journey over the past decade has been built upon a culture shaped by strong values. As well as listening to this show, you can watch the video of this conversation. Head over to Youtube and visit the Explore Explain channel.

S4E9 - Chloe Whiteaker & Marie Patino

2024/01/16

Welcome to episode 9 of season 4 of Explore Explain, a long-form video and podcast series all about data visualisation design. In this season finale, I am delighted to welcome Chloe Whiteaker, Data Visualization Team Leader, and Marie Patino, Graphics Reporter, from Bloomberg News in New York. We explore the story behind their unique data visualisation project analysing the staggering wealth of a pop-music phenomenon: "Taylor Swift Vaults Into Billionaire Ranks with Blockbuster Eras Tour". As well as listening to this show, you can watch the video of this conversation. Head over to Youtube and visit the Explore Explain channel.