Join master data storyteller, Sam Knowles, for an enlightening conversation with Sir John Curtice, professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde and senior research fellow at the National Centre for Social Research. As we navigate 2024 which has been dubbed "the ultimate election year," Sir John shares his insights on polling accuracy, pol…

In this episode of the Data Malarkey podcast, we join master data storyteller Sam Knowles, in conversation with Cristina de Balanzo, PhD, Founder and Board Director at Walnut Unlimited, as she delves into the fusion of neuroscience, behavioural science, and strategic insights to unlock human behaviour. In this engaging discussion, Cristina shares p…

In this episode of the Data Malarkey podcast, master data storyteller Sam Knowles is joined by Mike Ellicock, Founder and Chief Executive of The Plain Numbers Project. Plain Numbers says of its purpose: “We enable clear communication of numbers everywhere so that people can better understand the choices they face in life.” This matters, because abo…

In this episode of the Data Malarkey podcast, master data storyteller Sam Knowles is joined by Ylann Schemm, Vice President for Corporate Responsibility at the leading academic publisher, Elsevier, home to almost 3,000 academic journals, specialising in scientific, technical, and medical content. Elsevier describes itself as “an information analyti…

Using data smarter is an attitude of mind. It’s characterised by those who choose to communicate simply, clearly, and effectively, by making sense of the signals and cutting out the noise. Above all, it’s about empathy, humanity, and appreciating the likely data tolerance of your audience. After our fifth collection of six great guests, it’s a wrap…

In this episode of the Data Malarkey podcast, data storyteller Sam Knowles is joined by Sir Simon Baron-Cohen, Professor of Developmental Psychopathology at the University of Cambridge, where he also runs the Autism Research Centre. Simon has been working in the field of autism for approaching 40 years and is one of the world’s leading authorities …

In this episode of the Data Malarkey podcast, data storyteller Sam Knowles is joined by John Hibbs, the Co-Founder of CoEfficient, a company that helps organisations grow from the human perspective. It does this by gathering genuinely useful feedback from those who work for an organisation and then deploying this intelligence in the most productive…

In this episode of the Data Malarkey podcast, data storyteller Sam Knowles is joined by Ian Whittaker, one of the leading financial and commercial analysts covering the media and advertising sector. Ian is the managing director and owner of Liberty Sky Advisors, has twice been the City AM Analyst of the Year – first in 2014 and again in 2019 – and …

In this episode of the Data Malarkey podcast, your host Sam Knowles is joined by Sorin Patilinet, Senior Director of Marketing Effectiveness at Mars. Sorin is also known as the Marketing Engineer. Our conversation was recorded remotely, via the medium of Riverside.fm, on 4 April 2024. Thanks to Joe Hickey for production support. Podcast artwork by …

In this episode of the Data Malarkey podcast, your host Sam Knowles is joined by Olivia Jensen, Director of the Institute for the Public Understanding of Risk (IPUR) based at the National University of Singapore. Our conversation was recorded remotely, via the medium of Riverside.fm, on 13 March 2024. Thanks to Joe Hickey for production support. Po…

In this episode of the Data Malarkey podcast, your host Sam Knowles is joined by one of the world’s finest data storytellers, David Spiegelhalter, the statistician and public communicator of his generation. Although he claims to have been retired for five years, the Emeritus Professor of Statistics from Cambridge University is working harder than e…

After our fourth collection of six great guests, it’s a wrap for Season Four of Data Malarkey – the podcast about using data smarter. Your host, master data storyteller Dr Sam Knowles, picks out common themes and chooses his highlights from a lively series of conversations – recorded remotely, via the medium of Riverside.fm, between July and Decemb…

In this episode of the Data Malarkey podcast, data storyteller Sam Knowles is joined by Mike Bell, the first data visualiser to feature in almost 30 episodes of the podcast. Mike is the Founder and Owner of a thriving new business called Mike Bell Maps which describes itself as “Tube maps of bands and other stuff”. Our conversation was recorded rem…

In this episode of the Data Malarkey podcast, data storyteller Sam Knowles is joined by Ian Makgill, the Founder of Spend Network. Ian and his company are on a mission to improve the global public sector procurement market. Spend Network’s website boldly claims that it can help users to “Unlock the $13 trillion global procurement market through the…

In this episode of the Data Malarkey podcast, data storyteller Sam Knowles welcomes Kieran Maguire, an acclaimed expert in football finance. Kieran’s a chartered accountant, academic, author, and podcaster. For the past decade, he’s been a lecturer in football finance at the University of Liverpool’s Management School. He often appears in print and…

In this episode of the Data Malarkey podcast, data storyteller Sam Knowles welcomes John McFall, a master of logistics and Founder of the business SupplyChainWise. Logistics – a term that originated in the military – is defined as: “the process of coordinating and moving resources – people, materials, inventory, and equipment – from one location to…

In this episode of the Data Malarkey podcast, data storyteller Sam Knowles is joined by Mark Montgomery, Vice President and International Head of Integrated Insights at Novartis, a role he’s held for the past three years. Mark has a rich and varied career in pharma, having served as the Global Head of Commercial Analytics and Insights at GSK before…

In this episode of the Data Malarkey podcast, data storyteller Sam Knowles is joined by Tracey Brown, the director of Sense About Science, a role she’s held since its founding in 2002. Scientific evidence can be a powerful tool for insight, accountability, and change. Yet in public life – particularly in politics and the media – debate often revolv…

After our third set of six great guests, it’s a wrap for Season Three of Data Malarkey – the podcast about using data smarter. Your host, master data storyteller Sam Knowles, picks out common themes and chooses his highlights from a lively series of conversations – recorded remotely, via the medium of Riverside.fm, between April and September 2023.…

In this episode of the Data Malarkey podcast, data storyteller Sam Knowles is joined by serial entrepreneur, business simplifier, and podcaster, Alexis Kingsbury. Alexis is the co-founder of AirManual, a company that helps businesses document their processes, onboarding, and training so that employees can take on new responsibilities and deliver hi…

In this episode of the Data Malarkey podcast, data storyteller Sam Knowles is joined by Shai Reichert, Co-Founder of XDS – a US-based business also known as the Experience Design Studio. Shai has almost 20 years’ experience working in web development, user and customer experience. He has held senior roles on both the client side (for Comcast and Ro…

In this episode of the Data Malarkey podcast, data storyteller Sam Knowles talks to Andrew Cooper, President and Senior Advisor at Yonder Consulting. A research, data, and insights man through and through, Andrew founded the market research company Populus more than 20 years ago, which helped to reinvent the way polling is done in the wake of the 2…

In this episode of the Data Malarkey podcast, data storyteller Sam Knowles meets Professor Angela Gallop, CBE, the forensic scientists’ forensic scientist. Over the past four decades, the teams she’s led have solved some of the most complex, difficult, and intransigent cold cases in British criminal history: Rachel Nickell on Wimbledon Common, Robe…

In this episode of the Data Malarkey podcast, data storyteller Sam Knowles meets Sabrina Shadie, a multi-award winning ethics and equity change maker; a diversity and inclusion advocate; and, a resilience champion. Sabrina’s the founder of the D’Rose Development Consultancy, a company that aims to simplify ethics and equality regulations so that ca…

In this episode of the Data Malarkey podcast, data storyteller Sam Knowles is joined by Les Guessing, a 360-degree creative and marketer. Les is an Emmy Award-winning copywriter, video virtuoso, and self-professed data fool. He describes himself as a creative director “with a passion (some would say ‘personality disorder’) for using aspects of data…

After our second set of six great guests, it’s a wrap for Season Two of Data Malarkey – the podcast about using data smarter. Your host, master data storyteller Sam Knowles, picks out common themes and chooses his highlights from a lively series of conversations – recorded remotely, via the medium of Riverside.fm, between March and May 2023. Thanks…

In this episode of the Data Malarkey podcast, data storyteller Sam Knowles is joined by Jean-Baptiste Bouzige, the CEO of Ekimetrics. The company describes itself as “a pioneering leader in data science and AI-powered solutions for sustainable business performance”. Jean-Baptiste is one of the founders of Ekimetrics, a business he launched in 2006 …

It’s fair to say that one of the markets that has become most complex and least transparent in the digital age has been advertising. The market was described in 2016 by Marc Pritchard – the Chief Brand Officer of Procter & Gamble, both the world’s biggest consumer goods business and the world’s highest-spending advertiser – as “murky at best, fraud…

In this episode of the Data Malarkey podcast, data storyteller Sam Knowles talks to Elizabeth Press, the creator and owner of D3M Labs – “the Data-Driven Decision Making Blog”. Elizabeth is an experienced data leader, having held data and business intelligence leadership roles with a variety of different businesses in Europe, particularly Berlin, i…

In this episode of the Data Malarkey podcast, data storyteller Sam Knowles talks to Sam Michelson, Founder & CEO of Five Blocks – a technology and a consulting firm specialising in digital reputation management. He and his team of more than 50 truly do make smarter use of data to understand what the world says and thinks about companies, brands, an…

In this episode of the Data Malarkey podcast, data storyteller Sam Knowles talks to Tim Jobson, a consultant gastroenterologist at the Somerset NHS Foundation Trust in South West England. Tim truly is a product of Oxbridge, having studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge for three years and then Medicine at Oxford for a further three. He went on to ta…

To kick-off the second season of Data Malarkey, Sam Knowles talks to one of the all-time greats of academic psychology – Steven Pinker, the Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. An experimental psychologist interested in all aspects of language, mind, and human nature, Steve is one of the most important public intellectual…

After six great guests, it’s a wrap for Season One of Data Malarkey – the podcast about using data smarter. Your host, master data storyteller Sam Knowles, picks out common themes and chooses his highlights from a lively series of conversations with his mixed bag of academics, marketers, a leading voice in clearing down space junk, and a coach help…

In this episode of the Data Malarkey podcast, data storyteller Sam Knowles talks to Anastasia Dedyukhina, the founder and Chief Inspiration Officer of Consciously Digital. Consciously Digital is a coaching, training and development company – it’s more than that; it’s a movement – that’s looking to build a world in which technology brings out the be…

Join us as we record one final podcast. This is our final episode and we would like to thank everyone for helping us along the way. It’s been a crazy ride. See you around…

In this episode of the Data Malarkey podcast, data storyteller Sam Knowles talks to Mark Evans, one of the most successful marketers of his generation. Mark worked for ten years at Mars, rising to be Brand Director of Petcare Europe, before spells at 118118 Media UK and HSBC. In 2012, Mark joined leading UK insurance business Direct Line Group wher…

In this episode of the Data Malarkey podcast, data storyteller Sam Knowles talks to Laetitia Zinetti, Regional Vice President for Southern Europe of software company DoubleVerify. The company is on a mission to build a better advertising industry, helping brands to improve the effectiveness of their online ad spend, giving them clarity and confiden…

In this episode of the Data Malarkey podcast, data storyteller Sam Knowles talks to Katherine Courtney, Chair of the Steering Board of GNOSIS, the Global Network on Sustainability In Space. Katherine has had a significant career in business, public life, and public service. After a decade in telecoms and communication, Katherine had a series of hig…

In the second episode of the Data Malarkey podcast, data storyteller Sam Knowles talks with Professor Rusi Jaspal. Rusi is the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Exchange – and a Professor of Psychology – at the University of Brighton. He’s in charge of both the REF and the KEF – the university’s preparations for the UK Government’s sev…

In the first episode of the Data Malarkey podcast, data storyteller Sam Knowles talks with Professor Ana Adi, Head of the Department of Corporate Communications, and Vice President of Quadriga University of Applied Sciences in Berlin. Ana describes herself as a “digital humanist”, whose work focuses on online strategic communications. This includes…

Welcome to the pilot episode of Data Malarkey – the podcast about using data smarter. Data Malarkey is a new, fortnightly podcast hosted by master data storyteller, Sam Knowles. In each episode, Sam talks to leaders and leading thinkers in data storytelling. Guests will be from many and various different fields and categories – business, academia, …