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I talk with Taifa Smith Butler, president of Dēmos, about how data and research can help communities build economic and political power. We explore how Dēmos works with grassroots partners to shape research questions, put economic indicators in context, and make policy information useful to the people affected by it. Taifa explains why measuring impact means looking beyond page views to the conversations, advocacy, and decisions that research supports. We also discuss the risks of losing access to federal data and what Dēmos learned when communities asked for something simpler than its interactive Power Scorecard. Throughout our conversation, we return to the work of connecting rigorous analysis with plain language, lived experience, and practical tools for change. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow this show and everything dataviz on Instagram, LinkedIn, Substack, X, and YouTube. Check out the PolicyViz website to learn more about data and data visualization. Questions? Comments? Pitch ideas? Email me at: [email protected] Hosted by Zencastr where you can record, transcribe, edit, and automatically publish your meetings, podcasts, and more.

In this My Favorite Graphs episode, I revisit the New York Times’ 2012 election visualization, 512 Paths to the White House, by Mike Bostock and Shan Carter. I walk through how its branching diagram shows the combinations of competitive states that could lead Barack Obama or Mitt Romney to victory. I explain how simple state-by-state toggles let readers test their own expectations and explore the remaining possibilities. I discuss the vertical layout, highlighting, and changing display as states are selected. What I love most is how the interaction lets each reader personalize the experience of exploring the data. Explore 512 Paths to the White House. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow this show and everything dataviz on Instagram, LinkedIn, Substack, X, and YouTube. Check out the PolicyViz website to learn more about data and data visualization. Questions? Comments? Pitch ideas? Email me at: [email protected] Hosted by Zencastr where you can record, transcribe, edit, and automatically publish your meetings, podcasts, and more.

In this episode, I talk with David Watters about making everyday work easier for nonprofits. We explore how side spreadsheets, repetitive reporting, and reliance on a few go-to people can hide the true cost of getting things done. David explains how he identifies a useful first improvement by looking at how often a problem occurs, how much friction it creates, and what it prevents people from doing. We also discuss when straightforward automation is enough and where AI can help small teams with grant writing and qualitative data analysis. Throughout our conversation, we focus on giving people more time for the work they care about and building momentum through small, visible improvements. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow this show and everything dataviz on Instagram, LinkedIn, Substack, X, and YouTube. Check out the PolicyViz website to learn more about data and data visualization. Questions? Comments? Pitch ideas? Email me at: [email protected] Hosted by Zencastr where you can record, transcribe, edit, and automatically publish your meetings, podcasts, and more.

In this My Favorite Graphs episode, I revisit Hannah Fairfield’s 2012 New York Times graphic, Driving Safety, in Fits and Starts. I explain how its connected scatter plot pairs vehicle miles driven per capita with auto fatalities per 100,000 people, connecting each year to reveal changes over time. I walk through the chart’s shifts and loops, including the energy crises of the 1970s. I discuss why connected scatter plots can be difficult to read and what makes this example work so well. Most of all, I highlight how Fairfield combines the story, annotations, and miniature highlighted charts to explain both the data and how to read the graphic. Please note, I mistakenly said the live podcast at Cluster is on Thursday, but it's actually on Wednesday, November 11! I hope you can join me! Chart: Driving Safety, in Fits and Starts Subscribe to this podcast. Follow this show and everything dataviz on Instagram, LinkedIn, Substack, X, and YouTube. Check out the PolicyViz website to learn more about data and data visualization. Questions? Comments? Pitch ideas? Email me at: [email protected] Hosted by Zencastr where you can record, transcribe, edit, and automatically publish your meetings, podcasts, and more.

In this week’s episode of the show, I talk with Mike "SullyDawg" Sullivan, the viral creator behind the cup pyramid videos that turn massive federal budget numbers into something you can actually see. Mike spent decades as a teacher and coach before a bike ride inspired his first video stacking Solo cups to explain government spending — and it took off almost overnight. We dig into why three-dimensional scale succeeds where bar charts and line graphs fail, how he sources and cross-checks the data behind every video, and the four-part formula he swears by: topic, data, energy, and visual. Mike also opens up about the physical work of stacking thousands of cups in his garage, the unpredictable swings of the social media algorithms, and what’s next for his growing platform. It’s a fun, thoughtful conversation about making enormous numbers finally make sense. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow this show and everything dataviz on Instagram, LinkedIn, Substack, X, and YouTube. Check out the PolicyViz websiteto learn more about data and data visualization. Questions? Comments? Pitch ideas? Email me at: [email protected] Hosted by Zencastr where you can record, transcribe, edit, and automatically publish your meetings, podcasts, and more.

In this My Favorite Graphs episode, I revisit a 2016 New York Times visualization comparing the convention speeches of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. I explain why highlighting phrases across miniature pages can reveal themes in qualitative data that word counts and bar charts can miss. I share how I have used a simple version of this technique in my own work and discuss tools for creating similar views. Alicia contributes a voice note about the project's development, including the highlighted Google Docs behind the finished graphics. I also discuss how pairing an overview with example quotes can help readers see the broader context of an interview, focus group, or speech. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow this show and everything dataviz on Instagram, LinkedIn, Substack, X, and YouTube. Check out the PolicyViz website to learn more about data and data visualization. Questions? Comments? Pitch ideas? Email me at: [email protected] Hosted by Zencastr where you can record, transcribe, edit, and automatically publish your meetings, podcasts, and more.

Lauren Klein joins me to talk about her new book, Data by Design, co-authored with a team of student collaborators. Over more than a decade of work, Lauren set out to place the history of data visualization in its full historical and political context, going well beyond the familiar “great men” narrative of Playfair and Snow. We talk about how she chose which historical visualizations to feature and redesign, the ethical questions that come up when working with data about the transatlantic slave trade and Indigenous mapping, and what it actually took to track down high-resolution scans of centuries-old charts. Lauren also shares what she wants readers, especially working data visualization designers, to take away: that visualization is only as powerful as how, and by whom, it's put to use. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow this show and everything dataviz on Instagram, LinkedIn, Substack, X, and YouTube. Check out the PolicyViz websiteto learn more about data and data visualization. Questions? Comments? Pitch ideas? Email me at: [email protected] Hosted by Zencastr where you can record, transcribe, edit, and automatically publish your meetings, podcasts, and more.

This week I kick off a new series on the show: My Favorite Graphs. I’m going to walk through the projects that shaped how I think about data visualization, data communication, and data storytelling. I'm starting with the Guardian's “Bussed Out: How America Moves Its Homeless,” published in December 2017, an 18-month investigation into the one-way bus tickets that US cities hand out to homeless people. There’s a special treat at the end too! My Favorite Graph: Bussed Out Subscribe to this podcast. Follow this show and everything dataviz on Instagram, LinkedIn, Substack, X, and YouTube. Check out the PolicyViz websiteto learn more about data and data visualization. Questions? Comments? Pitch ideas? Email me at: [email protected] Hosted by Zencastr where you can record, transcribe, edit, and automatically publish your meetings, podcasts, and more.

In this very special episode of the podcast, I talk with my wife, Lauren Schwabish, a speech-language pathologist who helps adults recover communication after stroke, traumatic brain injury, and other neurological conditions. We discuss person-centered care, translating medical jargon into plain language for patients and families, and the visual tools and assistive technology Lauren builds to help people with aphasia communicate — with real lessons for anyone designing data visualizations, dashboards, or reports for a broad audience. SHOW NOTES Neuro Speech Services | @NeuroSpeechServices on Instagram | National Aphasia Association | Aphasia Access | BYU Aphasia-Friendly Research Resource | Stroke Association (UK) Aphasia-Friendly Guide Subscribe to this podcast. Follow this show and everything dataviz on Instagram, LinkedIn, Substack, X, and YouTube. Check out the PolicyViz websiteto learn more about data and data visualization. Questions? Comments? Pitch ideas? Email me at: [email protected] Hosted by Zencastr where you can record, transcribe, edit, and automatically publish your meetings, podcasts, and more.

Welcome back to Season 13 of the PolicyViz Podcast! In this quick solo kickoff, I walk you through everything I have planned this season, from a full episode on accessibility in data communication to a brand-new weekly series where I talk through some of my favorite data visualizations from the last 15 years. I'll also tell you about my very first live podcast recording, happening in November in Boston as part of the IEEE VIS Conference and the new Cluster Practitioner Summit I'm co-organizing. Along the way I'll be expanding my YouTube content around Flourish, Excel, and PowerPoint, including how I'm using AI tools like Claude and Copilot in my own workflow. It's shaping up to be a busy, lucky Season 13, and I'm so glad you're along for the ride. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow this show and everything dataviz on Instagram, LinkedIn, Substack, X, and YouTube. Check out the PolicyViz websiteto learn more about data and data visualization. Questions? Comments? Pitch ideas? Email me at: [email protected] Hosted by Zencastr where you can record, transcribe, edit, and automatically publish your meetings, podcasts, and more.

Welcome to the final episode of Season #12 of the PolicyViz Podcast! Thanks so much for checking out the show this season and I hope you enjoy your summer. I’ll be back this fall with more great episodes. On this episode of the show, I’m joined by David Aerne, a freelance developer and designer based in Zurich who has spent years building a remarkable collection of open-source color tools. We dig into the difference between color models, color spaces, and gamuts, and David explains why thinking about color in three dimensions—like navigating a cylinder—can make choosing palettes so much more intuitive. We talk through several of his projects, including Color Names (a curated list of nearly 32,000 community-contributed color names), Rampensau for generating color ramps, and the playful RYB-inspired explainer that simulates how physical, “printy” colors look on screen. David shares his philosophy that we should integrate the systems that generate colors into our work, rather than freezing a static palette and losing the creativity along the way. Whether you build dashboards, design slides, or just love playing with color, this conversation will change how you think about picking your next palette. Keywords: color theory, color palettes, data visualization, color tools, HSL, HSV, RGB, color models, color spaces, open source, generative art, color ramps, design tools, JavaScript, web development, pixel art, PolicyViz Podcast, David AerneSubscribe to the PolicyViz Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Become a patron of the PolicyViz Podcast (https://patreon.com/policyviz) for as little as a buck a month Follow David Aerne on Bluesky and X (@meodai) and explore his open-source projects at elastiq.ch Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Substack, Twitter, Website, YouTube Email: [email protected]

Welcome back to the show! In this week’s episode, I chat with Christian Martinez, a faculty member at Brooklyn College and several other CUNY schools, and Shannon Joyce, a newly minted master’s graduate in psychological research—who, as we note at the top, literally graduated the day before we recorded. Christian shares how he redesigned his graduate stats and R course around NYC Open Data, building what he calls an “accidental author” process that transforms students’ weekly homework into portfolio books and, ultimately, chapters in a published student gallery. Shannon walks us through her own project exploring the relationship between mold complaints and domestic violence rates in New York City, and reflects on what it means to learn to code by asking questions you actually care about. We also dig into the NYC Open Data R package Christian and his students built together—now streamlined from 40 functions down to three and approaching 2,000 installs—and close with a lively conversation about whether open data skews too negative and what a truly positive city dataset might look like. Keywords: NYC open data, R programming, data visualization, teaching data science, open data, CUNY Brooklyn College, R package, data education, open educational resources, data storytelling, Quarto, RStudio, graduate education, data literacy, public dataSubscribe to the PolicyViz Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Become a patron of the PolicyViz Podcast (https://patreon.com/policyviz) for as little as a buck a month Find Christian Martinez and all student work at NYCOpenDataLab.org. Find Shannon Joyce on GitHub (github.com/ShannonJoyce) and LinkedIn. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Substack, Twitter, Website, YouTube Email: [email protected]

Episode #310! This week I sit down with Jennifer Roscoe and Shrishti Vaish, two of the key organizers behind Outlier 2026, the annual data visualization conference hosted by the Data Visualization Society. We talked about what it takes to pull off a fully virtual, global conference, and why going virtual this year was a strategic choice, not a compromise. Jennifer and Shrishti walked me through the conference dates (June 23–26), the brand-new pre-conference data challenge in partnership with the United Nations, and the exciting new feedback and career clinic designed to give attendees a safe space for honest critique and professional growth. We also get into the behind-the-scenes logistics: the 30-person volunteer committee, the technology stack (mostly Google Sheets, if you were wondering), and the delicate art of playing Tetris with 34 talks across a 12-hour global schedule. Whether you’re a first-time attendee or a longtime DVS community member, this episode is your guide to making the most of Outlier 2026. Keywords: data visualization, data viz, Outlier conference, Data Visualization Society, DVS, data viz conference, Jennifer Roscoe, Shrishti Vaish, virtual conference, data storytelling, dataviz community, conference planning, career clinic, information is beautiful, data challenge, United Nations data, PolicyViz podcastSubscribe to the PolicyViz Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Check out the 2026 Outlier Conference. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Substack, Twitter, Website, YouTube Email: [email protected]

I talk with Ramon Perez, Executive Director of the Digital Democracy Project this week. DDP is a nonpartisan nonprofit using secure mobile voting technology to give citizens a real-time voice in legislation. Ramon explains how the platform lets verified, registered voters weigh in on bills being debated in Congress and their state house—and then scores legislators on how closely their votes match what their districts wanted. We dig into how AI, including a RAG-powered chatbot called VoteBot, helps everyday citizens parse thousands of pages of complex legislative text. We also discuss digital security, participatory budgeting, and Ramon’s ambitious goal of expanding the platform to all 50 state legislatures by 2027. Keywords: digital democracy, mobile voting, civic tech, legislative transparency, AI in government, Ramon Perez, Digital Democracy Project, VoteBot, participatory budgeting, voter engagement, legislator accountability, PolicyViz podcast, civic engagement, govtechSubscribe to the PolicyViz Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Become a patron of the PolicyViz Podcast for as little as a buck a month Follow Ramon Perez and the Digital Democracy Project at digitaldemocracyproject.org and download the Votes (VOATZ) app to participate. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Substack, Twitter, Website, YouTube Email: [email protected]

Welcome back to the show! This week, I sit down with three co-authors of the Atlas of Macroscopes—Katy Borner, Elizabeth Record, and Todd Theriault from the Cyberinfrastructure for Network Science Center at Indiana University—to explore what a macroscope actually is and how it differs from a standard interactive visualization. We trace the 20-year journey of the Places and Spaces: Mapping Science exhibit, from two-dimensional wall maps to the 40 richly interactive pieces featured in this stunning 11×14-inch MIT Press book. Along the way, we talk about design strategies for making complex systems legible to general audiences, the role of AI in data visualization, and what it takes to grab and hold attention on a museum floor. Each guest shares a personal favorite from the book—ranging from Smelly Maps to an Appalachian opioid overdose tool to a skills-landscape explorer—and we close with a look at the exhibit’s exciting third decade, focused on visualizing intelligences. Keywordsdata visualization, macroscope, atlas of macroscopes, interactive visualization, Katy Borner, Indiana University, Places and Spaces, complex systems, information visualization, scrollytelling, AI and data visualization, opioid epidemic mapping, data communication, science exhibit, data science podcast Subscribe to the PolicyViz Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Become a patron of the PolicyViz Podcast (https://patreon.com/policyviz) for as little as a buck a month Find the Atlas of Macroscopes and explore the Places and Spaces exhibit at scimaps.org. Follow Katy Borner, Elizabeth Record, and Todd Theriault through Indiana University’s CNS Center. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Substack, Twitter, Website, YouTube Email: [email protected]