A behind-the-scenes look at how I did this piece: buttondown.com/charthead/ar...

How much does Congress talk about democracy? How often do they worry that democracy is eroding? @alv9n.com's latest project analyzes every congressional speech in the last 145 years. pudding.cool/2025/11/demo...

My latest piece for @puddingviz.bsky.social: In pursuit of democracy pudding.cool/2025/11/demo...

top tier data viz defector.com/name-a-28-ye...

On Wednesday, the GOP-controlled House Appropriations Committee voted 34-28 along party lines to advance a funding bill that calls for excluding people living in the states without legal status from #2030Census results that the 14th Amendment says must include “whole number of persons in each state”

Wu's lopsided victory came despite being outmatched in fund-raising. Kraft spent roughly $260 for every vote earned in the prelim. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/09/10/m... via @daigofuji.bsky.social

This is chilling.

Remember, if you encounter what seems like an implausible survey finding, ask: 1. Were survey respondents selected randomly or was this an opt-in poll? 2. Could the results, especially for young adults, be driven by bogus respondents? Keep this post in mind: www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/... 🧪

Our desire to be serious and be taken seriously sometimes gets in the way of something even more important. Scarry understood the power of using fun to explain things that are complicated. This is how we can learn from that today. simonrogers.net/2025/09/01/h...

I'm completely obsessed with this art treatment. www.washingtonpost.com/sports/inter...

On the left: Nate Cavanagh, a 28-year-old DOGE staffer and college dropout. On the right: Mohammad Halimi, a 53-year-old exiled Afghan scholar. This is the story of how DOGE targeted Halimi on social media. Then the Taliban took his family. 🧵

Great. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

The Parable of the Good Samaritan, if it ended halfway through.

"We need a government-wide changelog." - yes. strong cosign and thanks @flowingdata.com for the shoutout to my lil Census tracker flowingdata.com/2025/08/20/t...

An incompetent, egotistical, uncurious administration. www.propublica.org/article/rfk-...

Do you want a bullhorn? Or do you want a whisper? Miriam Tinberg is a great follow for smart, empathetic, and grounded conversations on the internet and we’re lucky to have her on our team. Stay tuned for more!

The horizontal cuts are bad. Onion fonts are good. pudding.cool/2025/08/onio...

A cruel, irresponsible, undemocratic, incompetent administration. projects.propublica.org/venezuelan-i...

We followed 260 migrants in Costa Rica—weekly—for 3 months. Findings: • Stressors like economic precarity and family separation predicted spikes in psychological distress • Distress quickly somatized: headaches, digestive issues, sleep disturbances • Effects were immediate and reversible

Just had a chill thinking about a PHP cron job that still might be running from my time at the Boston Globe... in 2012.

No respect for democracy, in maps www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

Such a classic Matt Daniels project

Texas Republicans have unveiled a more extreme new gerrymander that targets 5 Dems by diluting Latino & Black voting power. Trump won 30 of 38 seats by >10 points & 27 seats by >15 points. All GOP seats likely stay safe, & none that Trump won by <20 got bluer davesredistricting.org/join/b82658a...

📄 RESEARCH: Justification, tone, and willingness to compromise can make a real difference in the quality of a conversation. Adjusting these factors can help foster healthy democratic interactions in online debate, but not necessarily change minds. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

As many parts of the US brace for a sweltering week, our latest uncovers a critical and often overlooked intersection of climate change and correctional policy: The dangerous heat crisis within US prisons www.reuters.com/graphics/USA...

Just did a much-needed migration off Substack and to Buttondown: buttondown.com/charthead It was genuinely WAY easier and smoother than I expected using this guide: docs.buttondown.com/substack

If empathy is your goal, it's not useful to put people on a stage to perform diametrically opposed identities.

This piece is stunning. www.reuters.com/graphics/USA...

“I was threatened with being referred to the FBI... They also threatened to stain my record so I would never get a job again. They also threatened with an extended detention if I didn’t give them the passwords to the student information or to my district files."

Arrests spiked after Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem ordered ICE to meet an arrest quota so they can get to 1 million a year. www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

🚨 come work with me !!! 🚨 we are looking for someone who can help tell our story and fund our amazing reporting

Complete this sentence: "..then the rabbit said ‘I must go to the river.’ Upon arriving..." OK now read this fantastic data story. pudding.cool/2025/07/kids...

New case study up on my redesigned website! Full process of building a custom #datavisualization tool: brainstorming and prototyping to refining the UX through cross-functional teamwork and creative problem-solving! Inspired by @alv9n.com's great project walkthroughs!

Most people think that talking to a stranger would suck. But when thousands did it in this experiment, they got happier. Watch this wildly inventive data visualization and storytelling by @alv9n.com pudding.cool/2025/06/hell...

Trump announced that the U.S. had bombed Iran while this week's Economist / YouGov Poll was in the field — which let us look at shifting views in real time. After Trump's announcement, Democrats became less supportive of bombing Iran, and Republicans much more supportive:

Slides for my #IRE25 presentation on using LLMs to extract data from documents: go.umd.edu/ire25-ai

This is a good moment to recognize @thecity.nyc, a nonprofit newsroom that covers stuff that other organizations (even really large ones that are based in New York City) often miss www.nytimes.com/2025/06/17/n...

Really amazing piece by @alv9n.com on the importance of cross-group socializing. As an introvert basically I never want this conclusion to be true, but I find it to be the case almost every time I venture out of my bubble. pudding.cool/2025/06/hell...

New project! What happens when strangers have to talk for 30 minutes? @alv9n.com's latest project tracks how their moods change as the conversation progresses. 🔗 pudding.cool/2025/06/hell...

My latest piece for @puddingviz.bsky.social: 30 minutes with a stranger

Beautiful work by @alv9n.com on conversations and interactions between strangers, with signature anecdote to aggregate transitions and a closing personal note pudding.cool/2025/06/hell...

My latest piece for @puddingviz.bsky.social: 30 minutes with a stranger

This is why visual news judgment is so important.

Friday’s @nytimes.com front page

Two years ago I made this interactive story about the loneliness epidemic: pudding.cool/2023/09/invi... The brilliant @matthew-daniels.bsky.social turned it into a video. His touch on this piece is really quite incredible.

Every story about Musk should mention that his DOGE work is killing hundreds of thousands of people. Read the methodology sections in this dashboard. His work was akin to turning off water from fire hydrants. www.impactcounter.com/dashboard?vi...

Eric Roberts and @joefigs.bsky.social led a groundbreaking new study on Medicaid and Medicare, out today in NEJM. I’m lucky to have been a part of it. Medicare saves lives. But is it enough to save lives of the most vulnerable Americans? The study suggests no; Medicaid still matters. (1/11)

In reading this piece, I'm realizing Trump and his cronies don't understand how someone could devote their lives to discovery, or how someone could devote their lives to improving other people's lives. Don't let bullies undermine our sense of wonder and empathy. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/o...

I love this. Math is so cool. pudding.cool/2025/04/birt...

Congestion pricing made everything better. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...