Experts, Agencies Suggest NYC Open Data Law Lacks Resources
Six years ago, the City Council passed the Open Data Law. The groundbreaking legislation was meant to give the public access to an unprecedented amount of information — everything from taxi trip data...
View ArticleEarth’s Core, Govt Data In The Cloud, Book Club. Feb 8, 2019, Part 1
At the very center of the Earth is a solid lump of iron and nickel that might be as hot as the surface of the Sun. This solid core is thought to be why our magnetic field is as strong as it is. As the...
View ArticleRice Bunny: The Me Too Movement Comes to China
This week we’re discussing government censorship in China, #metoo and cryptocurrency.Endless Thread is hosted by Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson, and is made by WBUR.You can listen to the show at...
View ArticleBusiness Planning For Climate Change,The Digital Afterlife. May 3, 2019, Part 1
Scientists have built all sorts of models to predict the likelihood of extreme weather events. But it’s not just scientists who are interested in these models. Telecomm giant AT&T teamed up with...
View ArticleAnonymous Data, Birding Basics. July 26, 2019, Part 1
The Science Friday Book Club is buckling down to read Jennifer Ackerman’s The Genius of Birds this summer. Meanwhile, it’s vacation season, and we want you to go out and appreciate some birds in the...
View ArticleWho Has Your Data?
The documentary "The Great Hack" investigates how our personal data is collected, monetized and weaponized to sway elections. Filmmakers Karim Amer and Jehane Noujaim frame the story around the case of...
View ArticleThe Disagreement Is The Point
In hearings this week, House Democrats sought to highlight an emerging set of facts concerning the President’s conduct. On this week’s On the Media, a look at why muddying the waters remains a viable...
View ArticleNew York City Created A Task Force To Study How It Uses Algorithms. Will It...
Data is all around us. And as governments use it to make decisions that affect people's lives, some artificial intelligence experts are concerned. Governments use algorithms to determine everything...
View ArticleWho Are Your 'Quick And Deep' Friends?
A conversation with a psychologist about the importance of friends who cross racial lines—and those who don't. Want to reflect on how race has factored into your friendships? Take our survey at...
View ArticleBlindsided
As the number of COVID cases rises, why are there still so many unknowns about its reach? This week, On the Media explores the lack of government transparency — and how third parties are filling in the...
View ArticleFilling the Covid-19 Data Gaps
This week, we found ourselves asking: "what didn't federal officials know, and when didn't they know it?" We know that by late November, according to ABC News, military medical investigators had...
View ArticleA Model Scapegoat
The ways we live our lives now — most of us, anyway — is to some degree or another predicated by epidemiological models: projections of best-case, worst-case, and most-likely outcomes based on tons of...
View ArticleMixed Messages in the Heartland
During Monday's White House press briefing, President Trump asserted that, "All throughout the country, the numbers are coming down rapidly." However, the White House's own data, collected by the...
View ArticleWe're Still In The First Wave
This week, Vice President Mike Pence wrote a misleading op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, claiming that the pandemic is under control thanks to the administration's efforts. It ran with the headline,...
View Article"This is Fine"
As climate catastrophe marches apace and the nation's public health infrastructure continues to unravel, we take stock of how we got here and what it might be like to look back on this year in the...
View ArticleHow the Kennedy Campaign Used Tech and Data
Jill Lepore, professor of American history at Harvard University, staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of many books, including These Truths: A History of the United States, and her latest, If...
View Article421- You've Got Enron Mail!
Enron collapsed nearly 20 years ago, but chances are something you use today was affected by emails sent by 150 of the company's top employees. These emails — about meetings and energy markets but also...
View ArticleTrump's Sabotage of Public Data
During his presidency, Donald Trump has shown disdain for the collection of public data. During the pandemic, he's insisted that fewer tests for COVID-19 would be better for the country. His...
View ArticleAnother World Entirely
With President Trump refusing to accept the results of the election, analysts are asking if he’s trying to wage a coup. On this week’s On the Media, why so many Republicans support the president’s...
View ArticleIn Los Angeles, Latino Population Hit Hard by Latest Surge in COVID-19 Pandemic
As millions of Americans scramble to get their chance at a COVID 19 vaccine, the state of California remains a hot spot of coronavirus infections with more than 3 million residents infected with the...
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