Statistically Insignificant

What is stats for anyway? We talk about three main things that stats is intended for, and how different philosophical approaches to statistics can change some of that. We also discuss how outdated population data affects vaccination numbers and the impact that can have on people in some areas in the mailbag segment.Support the pod on Patreon for bonus episodes, early access, and additional material: https://www.patreon.com/statisticallyinsignificantReferences:Fowler, M. (2021) 'Melbourne city

We talk about what it really means to have a biased sample, how this is different to other types of measure, and what that means for a few examples. We look at a classic case study from military history, health research, and a breathtakingly transphobic survey. Support the pod on Patreon for bonus episodes, early access, and additional material: https://www.patreon.com/statisticallyinsignificant References: M. Grandjean, McGeddon, & Moll (2021, 2016, 2005 respectively) 'Survivorship-Bias.svg' -

How do we get from a measurement on an individual to a description of the whole population? How appropriate is it to use that population-level value to describe an individual? Who is the most average person in Australia?In this episode we look at summary statistics. You probably met some in highschool so you can relive that thrilling experience with a voice over. We also look at a very silly pie chart from The Australian.Support the pod on Patreon:

What does it actually mean to be unemployed? Who determines if a landlord is a real job? We investigate the current state of labour statistics in Australia as well as some of the history of them in connection with the labour movements. Support the pod on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/statisticallyinsignificantReferences:Australian Bureau of Statistics (2018). '6102.0.55.001 - Labour Statistics: Concepts, Sources and Methods', updated 26th May 2020. Accessed 3rd October 2021,

We do a deep and masochistic dive into the Bloomberg Media's COVID resilience statistic and ask why did they choose to include things like commercial landlord profitibility. Our mailbag is a look into how the New York Times bestseller list chooses books and why Australians have little hope of getting on there. References:Lozano, R., Fullman, N., Mumford, J. E., Knight, M., Barthelemy, C. M., Abbafati, C., ... & Cárdenas, R. (2020). Measuring universal health coverage based on an index of effective

An investigation of who gets counted, and in what fashion, through case studies of the census. Shockingly, we discover that the census is and always has been a political instrument, particularly in its relationship to marginalised groups such as people with diverse genders and sexualities, or native populations under settler-colonial governments.References:Australian Bureau of Statistics (2018) '2007.0 - Census of Population and Housing: Consultation on Topics, 2021', published 3rd April. Accessed

A slightly morbid episode about mortality and life expectancy. We dig into how life expectancy is calculated, why you probably wouldn't be dead at 45 in a Medieval society, then talk about a way of considering the lethality of the COVID pandemic which doesn't just include people who were infected by the virus.Sources:UN Stats https://unstats.un.org/home/ABS data for Aboriginal people

Audio-only version of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8T1M61bwM0How effective are contraceptives? What does effectiveness of contraceptives even mean, particularly for people who use them for a long time? In this first episode of Statistically Insignificant - a "podcast" about statistics and everyday life - we explore these questions. We also talk about how vaccine effectiveness is not measured the same way.References: Polis, C. B., Bradley, S. E., Bankole, A., Onda, T., Croft, T., & Singh, S