#27 “An ecology of people telling it how it is”: an interview with Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter
Episode published: 08/10/20
In episode #27, David Spiegelhalter joins Dan Aspel to talk about a frenetic six months of risk communication, the pitfalls of “number theatre”, why nobody should be “following the science”, why he’s glad he to be rid of “killer bacon sandwiches” and how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the relationship between scientists, media and government. You can read more about David (and find details of his book “The Art of Statistics”) here: http://www.statslab.cam.ac.uk/~david/ ; his podcast “Risky Talk” can be found here: https://riskytalk.libsyn.com/
00:00 – Introduction
01:03 – “Risky Talk”
05:29 – A history with the Isaac Newton Institute
08:50 – COVID, and becoming a household name
10:56 – Recent interactions between science and the media
13:10 – “Following the science” (or not)
16:10 – Demands, stress, ranting and “number theatre”
17:10 – Blame and speculation
18:30 – No more “killer bacon sandwiches”
20:18 – The fear factor
22:50 – The “privileging” of COVID and its knock-on effects
24:55 – “an ecology of people that want to tell it like it is”
27:23 – The Art of Statistics
31:50 – Retirement, walking and stained glass panels
David Spiegelhalter shares his thoughts on a frenetic six months of risk communication, the pitfalls of “number theatre”, why nobody should be “following the science”
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