The Data Journalism Podcast

Charts as Political Theater

Not since Ross Perot’s famous TV presentations using cardboard charts have we had a national figure who uses data visualization props quite like Donald Trump. This week, Philip Bump joins Scott and Simon to talk about Trump’s use of data, and how politicians more generally approach information visuals. Plus, they discuss Philip’s background, how he measures success as a solo blogger, and the future of AI in data journalism. Philip Bump was a columnist at the Washington Post [https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/philip-bump/] for more than a decade, where he wrote the newsletter “How To Read This Chart.” Since leaving the Post, he’s continued to cover data in all kinds of interesting ways on his blog, pbump.net [http://pbump.net]. His 2023 book, The Aftermath [https://www.pbump.com/], covered the future of power as the baby boom generation recedes. Work mentioned in the episode: * 9/12 rallies visualization [https://web.archive.org/web/20120306052421/http://pbump.net/912.html] * Monty Hall problem simulator [https://pbump.net/montyhall/] (more info on the Monty Hall problem here [https://web.archive.org/web/20130121183432/http://marilynvossavant.com/game-show-problem/]) * “How Trumpworld inflates the perceived danger of the left” [https://www.pbump.net/o/how-trumpworld-inflates-the-perceived-danger-of-the-left/] * Ross Perot using charts on C-SPAN [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaFUSLaQUHo] * Philip’s coverage of Trump’s Hurricane Dorian chart [https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/09/05/trumps-insistence-that-his-incorrect-alabama-tweet-was-correct-tips-into-orwellian/] * Philip’s coverage of Trump’s immigration chart from May 2024 [https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/05/23/look-trumps-misleading-inaccurate-graph-us-immigration/] and October 2024 [https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/10/24/trump-biden-immigration/] * Trump and Stephen Moore presentation on BLS data [https://www.c-span.org/program/white-house-event/president-trump-gives-remarks-on-the-economy/663941] * Axios interview with Trump on Covid numbers [https://www.axios.com/2020/08/04/trump-coronavirus-under-control] ⁠⁠⁠The⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠music this episode⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠ made with⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠TwoTone⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://datavized.github.io/twotone/], represents votership in US presidential elections since 1856. The Data Journalism Podcast is produced by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. Do you have a new data-driven story or project coming up? Tell us about it at datajournalismpodcast@gmail.com, and we might feature it on the show. Subscribe to make sure you never miss an episode!

Roundtable: The shifting data landscape

Data analysis is at an inflection point, with new technologies entering the field, and increasingly more practitioners working outside of journalism. This week, Alberto, Simon and Scott reflect on how they got into data journalism, and what’s changed over the years. They discuss how each of their career paths took them into newsrooms — and then out of them again — and identify key takeaways for those looking to get into data visualization today. ⁠⁠⁠The⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠music this episode⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠ made with⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠TwoTone⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://datavized.github.io/twotone/], represents Google searches for the word "webmaster" over time. The Data Journalism Podcast is produced by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. Do you have a new data-driven story or project coming up? Tell us about it at datajournalismpodcast@gmail.com [datajournalismpodcast@gmail.com], and we might feature it on the show. Subscribe to make sure you never miss an episode!

Outlier 2025: Dispatch from the data visualization community

Outlier [https://www.outlierconf.com/] is a one-of-a-kind conference, held annually by the Data Visualization Society. This year it was hosted at the University of Miami, where our very own Alberto gave the closing keynote. In this special episode, Scott and Simon chat with Alberto about the conference, his keynote, and the state of the data visualization industry today. Check out Alberto's presentation here [https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/8sav88zl1e8wz4a9tkpbi/Outlier_2025_AnInformationDesignerEthos_Shorter.pdf] to learn more about his keynote. The⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠music this episode⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠ made with⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠TwoTone⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://datavized.github.io/twotone/], represents Google searches for the word “outlier” over time. The Data Journalism Podcast is produced by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. Do you have a new data-driven story or project coming up? Tell us about it at datajournalismpodcast@gmail.com [datajournalismpodcast@gmail.com], and we might feature it on the show. Subscribe to make sure you never miss an episode!

Finding Ourselves in Historic Data

“40 Acres and a Lie [https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/06/40-acres-reconstruction-freedmen-bureau-stolen-land/]” tells the true story behind the Civil War–era “40 acres and a mule” program. It was the result of over two years of painstaking research by Alexia Fernández Campbell [https://news.bgov.com/author/alexia-fern%C3%A1ndez-campbell-24343177], April Simpson [https://www.linkedin.com/in/aprilsimpson/] and Pratheek Rebala [https://www.propublica.org/people/pratheek-rebala]. The project won a Sigma Award and a Philip Meyer Data Journalism Award, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in explanatory reporting. Alexia, April and Pratheek join Alberto, Scott and Simon to share their research process in detail. They explain how they used historical data to identify breaking news, and how genealogical tools helped them find living descendants of those impacted by the program. The⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠music this episode⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠ made with⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠TwoTone⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://datavized.github.io/twotone/], represents historical US Census data on ethnicity over time. The Data Journalism Podcast is produced by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. Subscribe to make sure you never miss an episode!

Datapocalypse! Are we losing our public data?

Cheryl Phillips [https://journalism.stanford.edu/people/cheryl-phillips] is Hearst Professional in Residence at Stanford University’s journalism program, and founder of Big Local News [https://biglocalnews.org/], which empowers journalists with data – and has twice been on Pulitzer prize winning news teams. Now she has devoted herself to empowering journalists with access to the data they need to tell great stories. She joins Alberto, Scott and Simon to discuss the state of public data in the US in 2025, and what her team is doing about it. ⁠⁠⁠The⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠music this episode⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://drive.google.com/file/d/11pTqJdMlfDlRnAksMewWAh-Lt6biCYVG/view?usp=sharing],⁠ made with⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠TwoTone⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://datavized.github.io/twotone/], represents the Dow Jones Industrial Index in the week before we recorded this podcast. See if you can guess what happens to it at the end.  The Data Journalism Podcast is edited by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. Subscribe to make sure you never miss an episode. Key links from this episode: * New York Times: “How Tariffs Work [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/business/economy/what-are-tariffs.html]” * Reuters: “Tariffs don’t all act the same [https://www.reuters.com/graphics/USA-TRUMP/TARIFFS-GRAPHIC/klvymmdrwvg/]” * Washington Post: “Trump’s reversal actually increased tariff rates [https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/04/10/trump-tariff-rate-china-imports/]”. This one also used data from the Budget Lab at Yale University [https://budgetlab.yale.edu/research/fiscal-and-economic-effects-revised-april-9-tariffs] * Data Rescue Project [https://www.datarescueproject.org/] * Data Liberation Project [https://www.data-liberation-project.org/] * Data.gov Archive [https://lil.law.harvard.edu/blog/2025/02/06/announcing-data-gov-archive/]