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Podcast episodes

Check latest episodes from Regression to the Mean Girls podcast

Election Data Web Scraping with Emily Riederer

2026/09/28

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

The Art of Web Scraping Art with Hadley Wickham

2026/09/21

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

The Comfort of Competence and the Speed of Justice, According to Law & Order, with Christine Zhang

2026/09/14

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

The Work Is Mysterious and Important: Severance Data

2026/09/07

⁠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

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