Statistically True with Kareem Carr

Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast

MS NOW, Chris Hayes

Msnbc, The Chris Hayes Podcast, Government, Politics, Chris Hayes, Why Is This Happening?, Withpod, Versant, Ms Now, News, Society & Culture, Versant Media

4.6 • 9.1K Ratings

🗓️ 14 December 2021

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Statistics plays a role in virtually every facet of our lives. And throughout the pandemic, we’ve heard more stats than ever before, whether through headlines about Covid infection rates or vaccine effectiveness. But how are these figures calculated? How do we know when data is manipulated for nefarious reasons, and when it represents some true thing out there in the world? Lucky for us, Harvard Phd student Kareem Carr joined WITHpod for a heady conversation to break that and more down. Earlier in 2021, he shook up Twitter with a post about 2+2 equaling five, a thread aimed at provoking some meditations on the nature of mathematical truth. He joins to discuss that, the importance of neutral AI algorithms, why statistics are anti-racist and why it’s essential to have a healthy level of skepticism of numbers. Sidenote: we’re approaching our holiday WITHpod Mailbag. Email us at withpod@gmail.com to share what you love about the podcast and what’s on your mind. Sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts to listen to this show and other MS podcasts without ads. You'll also get exclusive bonus content from this and other shows. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Transcript

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0:00.0	If we do a mathematical analysis on data,
0:03.3	are we doing knowledge generation?
0:05.2	And are there circumstances on which we might not?
0:08.8	One of the weak points in generating knowledge from data
0:12.0	is if our assumptions are not accurate,
0:14.3	or assumptions about physical reality or not accurate.
0:17.5	That's basically why I started thinking really deeply
0:20.8	about mathematical systems and the extent to which they represent reality.
0:26.7	Hello and welcome to Wise is happening with me, your host, Chris Hayes.
0:32.4	One of the strange features of the pandemic era
0:38.2	is how much time we spend looking at charts and numbers.
0:41.5	It's become just, you know, the curve, the epidemiological curve.
0:46.2	The cases go up or they go down, they never go flat.
0:49.1	They're always going up or down.
0:50.6	They kind of like dominate our visual field.
0:52.5	I don't know, particularly me in my line of work.
0:54.6	I think about it a lot.
0:55.4	I look at it a lot.
0:56.5	And I'm constantly sorting through numbers and statistics,
0:59.2	the rankings of which states are more vaccinated,
1:02.1	which percentage of hospitalization cases
1:04.7	are vaccinated people versus unvaccinated.
	...

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