Harvard Data Science Review Podcast

Dr. Heather Levites, a plastic surgeon, and Nini Hu, a fashion designer, discuss the integration of data science in the beauty and fashion industries. They explore AI in plastic surgery, personalized fittings, ideal age for facial appearance, challenges in finding the right bra size, and potential improvements in data science for beauty and fashion.

With the 2022 U.S. midterms right around the corner, this month’s podcast is all about elections. Who is going to win and why? In today's episode, we talk to four experts about their predictions for the upcoming midterm elections in November and how these elections might impact the presidential race in 2024.  Our guests are: Caroline Carlson, Senior Data Science Analyst at Dynata and Analyst for Decision Desk HQ Ryan Enos, Professor of Government and Director of the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University and co-author of Predicting the 2020 Presidential Election for HDSR Allan Lichtman, Distinguished Professor of History at American University and author of The Keys to the White House: Forecast for 2020 for HDSR.  Scott Tranter, Founder and  CEO of Øptimus Analytics and Decision Desk HQ and co-author of Forecasting the 2020 U.S. Elections with Decision Desk HQ: Methodology for Modern American Electoral Dynamics for HDSR.  

Today we discuss the most important element of our lives: our health. We do so by diving into personalized medicine, or more specifically, personalized (N-of-1) trials  – clinical trials in which a single patient is the entire trial. For this episode, we invited two editors of Harvard Data Science Review’s special issue on N-of-1 trials and data science to help us examine all aspects of these clinical trials designed for a population of one person. Our guests: Dr. Karina Davidson, Senior Vice President of Research and Dean of Academic Affairs at Northwell Health Ken Cheung, Professor of Biostatistics at Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University

The effects of drinking is a constant news headline. Every month or so, there seems to be a new study released that weighs the benefits and risks of drinking alcohol. Is some level of alcohol good for your health or should everyone completely avoid drinking? On today’s episode we invited two experts with differing views on alcohol consumption to help us examine the data and decide. Our guests: Emmanuela Gakidou, Professor of Health Metrics Sciences and Senior Director of Organizational Development and Training at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington.   Eric Rimm, Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition and Director of the Program in Cardiovascular Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School.   

For today’s episode we embark on part two of our discussion on the U.S. Census.  Protecting the data privacy of survey respondents has always been a central consideration for the U.S Census Bureau, and throughout its history, many methods have been developed and implemented. For the 2020 Census, the Bureau adopted a new form of privacy protection—differential privacy which was received with mixed reaction. To further understand why the Census Bureau adopted this new form of privacy protection and to help explore the concerns raised about differential privacy, we invited two experts who represent both sides of the debate and who each contributed to the Harvard Data Science Review special issue on the 2020 U.S. Census.  Our guests are: John Abowd, Associate Director for Research and Methodology, Chief Scientist at the U.S. Census Bureau, and author of the The 2020 Census Disclosure Avoidance System TopDown Algorithm for HDSR. danah boyd, founder and president of Data & Society, Principal Researcher at Microsoft, Visiting Professor at New York University, and author of Differential Perspectives: Epistemic Disconnects Surrounding the U.S. Census Bureau’s Use of Differential Privacy for HDSR.     

While most Americans have heard of the U.S. Census and understand that it is designed to count every resident in the United States every 10 years, many may not realize that the Census’s role goes far beyond the allocation of seats in Congress.  For this episode, we invited the three co-editors of Harvard Data Science Review’s special issue on the U.S. Census to help us explore what the Census is, what it’s used for, and how the data it collects should remain both private and useful.   Our guests are: Erica Groshen, former Commissioner of Labor Statistics and Head of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Ruobin Gong, Assistant Professor of Statistics at Rutgers University Salil Vadhan, Professor of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at Harvard University  

In this episode we dive into the data on refugees and immigration. American public opinion seems very divided on these issues, but is it really? Is the U.S. more or less welcoming to refugees and immigrants than other parts of the world? How has disinformation influenced politics? Will the U.S. Southern Border, Ukraine, and other potential refugee crises affect the upcoming political elections in the U.S.? We bring in two experts to help discuss: Professor Katharine Donato holds the Donald G. Herzberg Chair in International Migration at Georgetown University and is Director of the Institute for the Study of International Migration in the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Professor Donato is also a co-author of the HDSR article: Misinformation About COVID-19 and Venezuelan Migration: Trends in Twitter Conversation During a Pandemic Scott Tranter, Senior Vice President, Data Science and Engineering at Dynata and Co-Founder of Øptimus Analytics, which was acquired by Dynata in 2021. He is also an investor in Decision Desk HQ, which provides election results data to news outlets, political campaigns, and businesses.  

In this episode we discuss the hotly debated topic of marijuana legalization. While 18 states have legalized recreational marijuana and the United States House of Representatives just passed a landmark marijuana legalization bill, cannabis is still an illegal substance under federal law in the United States.  With the help of two experts, we dive into the data behind the arguments for and against the legalization of marijauna. Our guests: Dr. Silvia Martins, MD, PhD, Director of the Substance Use Epidemiology Unit, Department of Epidemiology at Columbia University. Lt. Diane Goldstein, Executive Director of Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP) and law enforcement veteran having worked in investigations, crisis negotiation, and gang enforcement for 21 years.

In this discussion, Abraham (Avi) Loeb, Harvard's leading astrophysicist and author, dives into the search for extraterrestrial evidence through rigorous data collection, emphasizing the value of reproducible instruments. Nick Pope, former UK Ministry of Defence official, shares insights on the gap between military investigations and scientific methods concerning UFO sightings. They explore the importance of corroborated data versus eyewitness accounts, the innovative Galileo Project, and whether humanity should actively announce its presence in the cosmos.

Recommender systems have become omnipresent in our everyday lives exemplified by Netflix telling us what movies to watch, to Amazon suggesting which books we should read, to Instacart promoting specific brands we must buy. We are constantly being influenced and seduced by these algorithms and the humans who designed them. On this month’s HDSR podcast we examine the pros and cons of recommender systems as well as the art, passion, and creativity that can be lost when we rely too heavily on them.  Our expert guests are Dr. Pearl Pu, the leading data scientist on recommender systems and a senior scientist at the Faculty of Information and Communication Sciences at EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland, and film-maker Brandt Andersen whose most recent film, Refugee about a Syrian doctor’s escape from her war torn country, was short-listed for an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short in 2020.