Miami U. Prof Emeritus, podcaster: Stats+Stories, co-author: Statistics Behind the Headlines, @johnbailer.bsky.social, www.linkedin.com/in/a-john-bailer
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Articles by John Bailer
English Premier League: Do 40 points always save you from relegation?
How many points does a team need to survive in English top-flight football? The rule of thumb is that 40 points guarantees safety – but as several Premier League teams fought relegation at the end of the 2025-26, this belief was tested. So, what should they be striving for this season? Enter the statisticians… The final week of the 2025-2026 English Premier League (EPL) season was dramatic, culminating in a nail-biting ‘Survival Sunday’.
Tariffs and deregulation: A US equities perspective
Donald Trump’s trade tariffs are widely expected by the market to be inflationary. But are tariffs more of a bargaining tool for ‘dealmaker’ Trump than a strong inflationary force? Could deglobalisation keep inflation higher than during the last decade? Policy uncertainty could potentially cause an economic slowdown in the short term; however, Trump’s deregulatory stance could provide a boost to the US economy as well as the banking and energy sectors.
Enter the Stats+Stories Data Visualization Competition
The Stats+Stories podcast is ringing in 300 episodes and 10 years of programs—and it is celebrating with a data viz contest! Top 5 entries will be featured publicly and in partnership with Nightingale and Chance magazine and the overall winner will be invited to be a guest on the Stats+Stories podcast. Here’s how you can participate. What is it? Stats+Stories is sponsoring a data visualization competition that tells a story about the podcast.
Magnitude and context
The United States recently reached a negative COVID-19 milestone – more than 1 Million deaths. I started to think about writing this blog post last December when the count was ‘only’ 800,000. How do we understand, appreciate and communicate large numbers? Quantitative literacy can include many different components.
Statistician reacting to Statisticians (and others) reacting to the news: A meta-post with reading recommendations
Writers from both inside and outside statistics have taught me a great deal about thinking about data, data analysis, statistics, measurement AND about communicating statistics to the public. I have been inspired, and my thinking has been shaped by these contributions. I want to share some recommendations in this post. John Allen Paulos (1995) – A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper. This book includes sections with stories illustrating math principles including some probability and statistics ideas.
Stats + Stories: Official Statistics in Asia and the Pacific
By Rosemary Pennington & John Bailer & Richard Campbell • 12 minutes ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. The data official statistical offices collect and generate are of vital importance to the work of national governments and international organizations.
Stats + Stories: Risk Assessment Biases
By Rosemary Pennington & John Bailer & Richard Campbell • 17 minutes ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. Protestors have taken to streets across the U-S this summer in order to fight back against what they see as an unjust criminal justice system – one that treats People of Color in prejudicial and violent ways.
Stats + Stories: Statistical Summer Transportation Safety
By Rosemary Pennington & John Bailer & Richard Campbell • 18 minutes ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. What comes to mind at the start of summer? Backyard barbecues, quality time spent, and long drive. Transportation safety is the topic of this episode of Stats+Stories with guest Joel Greenhouse.
Stats + Stories: Pets During Quarantine
By Rosemary Campbell & John Bailer & Richard Campbell • 27 minutes ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. Social media is always awash in pet videos and images, but since the COVID lockdowns it seems as though there is even more pet content to be found online as cats invade video conferences and dogs beg for even more walks. There are sometimes even calls in spaces such as Twitter for people to share pet images when someone’s having a bad day.
Stats + Stories: '13 Reasons Why' Association with Youth Suicide
By Rosemary Pennington & John Bailer & Richard Campbell • 33 minutes ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. When reporters cover mass shootings news outlets often struggle to find ways to cover the event that won’t inspire others to do the same thing. Something similar follows in the wake of a suicide.
Stats + Stories: Big Data Policing
By Rosemary Pennington & John Bailer & Richard Campbell • 7 minutes ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. Across the country, protesters are taking to the streets to fight against police brutality and systemic racism. The use of force by police departments as well as the seeming militarization of many has been a concern of activists for some time.
Stats + Stories: A Better Way to Test for Coronavirus
By Rosemary Pennington & John Bailer & Richard Campbell • 4 minutes ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. As the COVID-19 death toll continues to rise researchers and public health professionals around the world are working to understand just how prevalent the disease is. News stories of the last several months have talked about contact tracing and featured images of drive-through COVID testing.
Stats + Stories: Kid's Questions for a Statistician
By Latoya Jennings-Lopez • 25 minutes ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. Latoya Jennings-Lopez hosts this special episode of Stats+Stories with the children of Howard W. Bishop middle school. Listen to Alyana and Collin ask our host John Bailer and other special guest Wendy Martinez about their careers in Statistics, and how young people can get involved early.
Stats + Stories: Kid's Questions for a Statistician
By Latoya Jennings-Lopez & John Bailer • 16 minutes ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. Latoya Jennings-Lopez hosts this special episode of Stats+Stories with the children of Howard W. Bishop middle school. Listen to Alyana and Collin ask our host John Bailer and other special guest Wendy Martinez about their careers in Statistics, and how young people can get involved early.
Stats + Stories: The Lady with the Lamp
By Rosemary Pennington • 49 minutes ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. This year marks the 200th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth. Widely regarded as one of the progenitors of modern nursing, Nightingale was also influential in the field of statistics. In 1858 she was the first woman elected to the Royal Statistical Society and was made an honorary member of the American Statistical Association in 1874.
Stats + Stories: The Lady with the Lamp
By Rosemary Pennington & John Bailer • 8 minutes ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. This year marks the 200th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth. Widely regarded as one of the progenitors of modern nursing, Nightingale was also influential in the field of statistics. In 1858 she was the first woman elected to the Royal Statistical Society and was made an honorary member of the American Statistical Association in 1874.
Stats + Stories: The Decade of Statistics
By Rosemary Pennington • 54 minutes ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. Most of the time statisticians go about their work without much fanfare. They crunch numbers and interpret data in the hopes that the information will help people better understand their world. The work of statisticians can be helpful to policymakers and even influence their approach to problem-solving, that is when they know what the statistical research on the topic says.
Stats + Stories: The Decade of Statistics
By Rosemary Pennington & John Bailer • 10 minutes ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. Most of the time statisticians go about their work without much fanfare. They crunch numbers and interpret data in the hopes that the information will help people better understand their world.
Stats + Stories: The Problem with Plastics
By Rosemary Pennington & John Bailer & Richard Campbell • 15 minutes ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. Almost every week it seems there’s a new story out about the horrors of plastic pollution. Sometimes focused on its impact on wildlife, others zeroing in on the ways we collectively contribute to some 8 million pieces of plastic that find their way into our oceans every single day.
Stats + Stories: The Problem with Plastics
By & • 3 minutes ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. Almost every week it seems there’s a new story out about the horrors of plastic pollution. Sometimes focused on its impact on wildlife, others zeroing in on the ways we collectively contribute to some 8 million pieces of plastic that find their way into our oceans every single day.
Stats + Stories: Observing Extreme Environmental Events
By & • 53 minutes ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. Stories about historic rain and flooding in the US Midwest, catastrophic wildfires in Australia, and massively destructive hurricanes in the Caribbean can make it seems as though the weather is out of control. It can also spawn arguments about how much of this is part of the normal ebb and flow of the earth’s life cycle, and how much of it is actually the result of a changing climate.
Stats + Stories: Observing Extreme Environmental Events
By Rosemary Pennington & Richard Campbell & John Bailer • 10 minutes ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. Stories about historic rain and flooding in the US Midwest, catastrophic wildfires in Australia, and massively destructive hurricanes in the Caribbean can make it seems as though the weather is out of control.
Stats + Stories: Statistics Are A Human Right
By & • 58 minutes ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. Did you know that younger adults report feeling lonelier than older adults? Are you curious about why life expectancy is flatlining? Or why the number of trees on your street affects the price of your home in the UK? If so, there’s a wealth of data to help you understand these and other issues. Much of that data is collected by the National Statistical Agencies in countries around the world.
Stats + Stories: Statistics Are A Human Right
By Rosemary Pennington & John Bailer & Richard Campbell • 14 minutes ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. Did you know that younger adults report feeling lonelier than older adults? Are you curious about why life expectancy is flatlining? Or why the number of trees on your street affects the price of your home in the UK? If so, there’s a wealth of data to help you understand these and other issues.
Stats + Stories: Coronavirus Visualizations
By John Bailer & Richard Campbell • Mar 28, 2020 WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. Social distancing, frequent handwashing, remote work and shelter in place are new norms during the COVID-19 pandemic. ideas that may be ghosts of algebra class past, such as exponential growth and doubling-times of confirmed cases are now subjects of daily discussion.
Stats + Stories: Reporting on the Census
By & • 17 minutes ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. For the last few years Stats and Stories has brought you interviews with researchers focused on the ins and outs of the 2020 census. We have talked with the former director of the US Census Bureau, John Thompson, about what it takes to pull the census off, as well as organizers of Newscounts, a project designed to improve the reporting on the U.S. census.
Stats + Stories: Reporting on the Census
By Rosemary Pennington & John Bailer & Richard Campbell • 3 minutes ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. For the last few years Stats and Stories has brought you interviews with researchers focused on the ins and outs of the 2020 census.
Stats + Stories: The Science of Sex
By Rosemary Pennington • 1 hour ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. There’s a lot of bad information out there about sex. Fueled in part by sociocultural framings of certain behaviors and by the way media portrays particular sex acts. If you couple that with something that sex is just something people are just uncomfortable talking about it can be hard to find good information. Enter sex research; the focus of this episode of Stats and Stories.
Stats + Stories: The Science of Sex
By Rosemary Pennington & John Bailer • 17 minutes ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. There’s a lot of bad information out there about sex. Fueled in part by sociocultural framings of certain behaviors and by the way media portrays particular sex acts. If you couple that with something that sex is just something people are just uncomfortable talking about it can be hard to find good information.
Stats + Stories: The Philosophy of Biostatistics
By John Bailer • 40 minutes ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. You may have a philosophy of life, but few of us are likely to have a philosophy of biostatistics.
Stats + Stories: The Philosophy of Biostatistics
By John Bailer & Richard Campbell • 9 minutes ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. You may have a philosophy of life, but few of us are likely to have a philosophy of biostatistics.
Stats + Stories: The 2020 Census: A Bellwether for the Future
By Rosemary Pennington • 6 minutes ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. For the last several years the US Census Bureau has been gearing up for its count of the American population. Researchers have been working out sampling strategies as well as what types of questions Americans will be asked.
Stats + Stories: The 2020 Census: A Bellwether for the Future
By Rosemary Pennington & John Bailer • 11 minutes ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. For the last several years the US Census Bureau has been gearing up for its count of the American population. Researchers have been working out sampling strategies as well as what types of questions Americans will be asked.
Stats + Stories: The Stats Behind Your Medical Care
By John Bailer & Richard Campbell • 8 hours ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. At some point in your life you or someone you love will have an illness that you hope will be addressed with a medical treatment. The decision to use this treatment will be based on medical research, you hope.
Stats + Stories: The Stats Behind Your Medical Care
By John Bailer • 2 minutes ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. At some point in your life you or someone you love will have an illness that you hope will be addressed with a medical treatment. The decision to use this treatment will be based on medical research, you hope.
Stats + Stories: The Stats Of The Decade
By Rosemary Pennington & Richard Campbell & John Bailer • 13 minutes ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. It seems like everyone and their brother is announcing their picks for book of the year, album of the year, or movie of the year, and the movie is Star Wars. The Royal Statistical Society has just announced its Statistics of the Year.
Stats + Stories: The Stats Of The Decade
By & • 18 minutes ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. It seems like everyone and their brother is announcing their picks for book of the year, album of the year, or movie of the year, and the movie is Star Wars. The Royal Statistical Society has just announced its Statistics of the Year. They range from statistics about poverty or life expectancy, to those centered upon environmental issues and car crashes.
Stats + Stories: How to Make Data Journalism Better
By & • 53 minutes ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. Data journalism is defined as the process by which we get a strong story from numbers. In this episode of Stats and Stories, John Bailer, Chair of Miami University’s Department of Statistics is by Richard Campbell and by Rosemary Pennington, both of the Department of Media, Journalism and Film. Their guest is Simon Rogers, a leading voice in the world of data journalism.
Stats + Stories: How to Make Data Journalism Better
By John Bailer & Richard Campbell & Rosemary Pennington • 8 hours ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. Data journalism is defined as the process by which we get a strong story from numbers. In this episode of Stats and Stories, John Bailer, Chair of Miami University’s Department of Statistics is by Richard Campbell and by Rosemary Pennington, both of the Department of Media, Journalism and Film.
Stats + Stories: Data Is The New Punk
WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. We swim in a virtual stew of data. From voting data, to health data, to crime data, there’s likely a number somewhere that, with a little crunching, can get you a better understanding of your community. The task of crunching those numbers and making them intelligible for a broad audience is the focus of this episode of Stats and Stories.
Stats + Stories: Data Is The New Punk
WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. We swim in a virtual stew of data. From voting data, to health data, to crime data, there’s likely a number somewhere that, with a little crunching, can get you a better understanding of your community. The task of crunching those numbers and making them intelligible for a broad audience is the focus of this episode of Stats and Stories.
Stats + Stories: What Do Seinfeld, The Tonight Show And Stats + Stories Have In Common? (Repost)
By Bob Long & John Bailer & Richard Campbell • 21 hours ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. Variety magazine tells us there’s only one TV executive who’s has the chance to work in one capacity or another with all six of the hosts of NBC’s Tonight Show, from Steve Allen all the way up to Jimmy Fallon.
Stats + Stories: What Do Seinfeld, The Tonight Show And Stats + Stories Have In Common? (Repost)
By & • 1 hour ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. Variety magazine tells us there’s only one TV executive who’s has the chance to work in one capacity or another with all six of the hosts of NBC’s Tonight Show, from Steve Allen all the way up to Jimmy Fallon.
Stats + Stories: Why's It So Hard To Count the Unemployed?
By Rosemary Pennington & Richard Campbell & John Bailer • 5 minutes ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. Official statistics and a very simple question will be the start of this episode Stats and Short Stories, where we explore the statistics behind the stories and the stories behind the statistics.
Stats + Stories: Why's It So Hard To Count the Unemployed?
By & • 25 minutes ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. Official statistics and a very simple question will be the start of this episode Stats and Short Stories, where we explore the statistics behind the stories and the stories behind the statistics. John Bailer, Chair of the Department of Statistics at Miami University, is joined by regular panelists Rosemary Pennington and Richard Campbell, both of the Department of Media, Journalism and Film.
Stats + Stories: The Importance of Official Statistics
By Rosemary Pennington & Richard Campbell & John Bailer • 7 minutes ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. There are things we think of as fundamental building blocks of our society. Some of them are easily quantifiable, and others not so much. Measuring society is the focus of this episode of Stats and Stories.
Stats + Stories: From the Royal Statistical Conference
By & • 37 minutes ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. This episode features a number of interviews from the recent Royal Statistical Society International Conference from last month. Today's guests include, Iain Flint of G’s Growers talking about the IceCAM project, which helps to minimise food waste by adapting the growing programmes of iceberg lettuces according to weather predictions.
Stats + Stories: From the Royal Statistical Conference
By Rosemary Pennington & John Bailer & Richard Campbell • 7 minutes ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. This episode features a number of interviews from the recent Royal Statistical Society International Conference from last month. Today's guests include, Iain Flint of G’s Growers talking about the IceCAM project, which helps to minimise food waste by adapting the growing programmes of iceberg lettuces according to weather predictions.
Stats + Stories: Past, Present and Future of Statistics
By John Bailer & Rosemary Pennington & Richard Campbell • 8 minutes ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. This in Stats and Stories shot episodes, John Bailer from the Department of Statistics at Miami University is joined by Rosemary Pennington and Richard Campbell from the Departments of Media, Journalism and Film and guest Xiao-Li Meng.
Stats + Stories: Past, Present and Future of Statistics
By & • 7 minutes ago WYSO is partnering with Stats and Stories, a podcast produced at Miami University. This in Stats and Stories shot episodes, John Bailer from the Department of Statistics at Miami University is joined by Rosemary Pennington and Richard Campbell from the Departments of Media, Journalism and Film and guest Xiao-Li Meng. Meng is the Whipple V.N. Jones Professor of Statistics at Harvard University and also the Editor in Chief of the recently launched Harvard Science Review.
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