Kim Gilliam, ASA Marketing and Communications Coordinator and Practical Significance Producer

Big news, podcast listeners: Practical Significance, the ASA’s new monthly podcast, can join Stats + Stories on your playlist. Released on January 6, Practical Significance endeavors to inspire listeners with compelling stories from statistics and data science. We’ll feature a diverse and engaging lineup of ASA members who will share their passions, professional initiatives, and aspirations—a deep dive into the work they love and where it’s taken them.

The show is hosted by ASA executive director, Ron Wasserstein, and director of strategic initiatives and outreach, Donna LaLonde. The hosts are excited to sit behind the mic, ask the big questions, and communicate our member stories.

“Podcasts are an extraordinarily popular and effective means for communicating. They provide the opportunity to eavesdrop, as it were, on conversations about important topics with experts in those fields,” says Wasserstein. “We’ll be engaging with people whose careers and actions shed light on why statistics has great practical significance—and anyone who knows me, knows I love to talk. And I really love to talk with interesting people about things they care about.”

Regarding the platform, LaLonde shares, “I’m curious and want to learn about a lot of different subjects and podcasts help satisfy my curiosity and desire to learn. Some are serious and very structured, others are informal and much more conversational, but all provide insights into topics and often inspire me to dig deeper into a subject.” She adds, “Practical Significance is our opportunity, and we hope yours, to learn more about our amazing community. We plan to talk about work and accomplishments but also about pastimes and pursuits outside of work.” 

The inaugural episode, Practical Significance—Episode 1 | Making Meaningful Statistics: An Interview with ASA President Rob Santos, was released in January. Santos shares compelling details about his work at the Urban Institute, outlines several goals and initiatives he plans to tackle during his tenure as association president, and offers an intriguing story about his passion outside the profession. We invite you to listen on Spotify and, if you like what you hear, share the podcast with a colleague.

Follow Practical Significance on Twitter @TheASAPodcast.