News

Curious Data

Data powers our world, but superior data is what drives genuinely better AI decisions.

Hosted by data entrepreneur, Navy veteran, and political adviser Robert Lytle, Curious Data explores how to locate, safely vet, and analyze information so you can make confident choices backed by research rather than gut instinct.

The show brings together data practitioners, corporate executives, campaign strategists, activists, and news observers for personal, fluff-free conversations focused on teaching.

Join Robert Lytle every week as he uncovers hidden data gems, challenges popular assumptions, and explores how human curiosity keeps us ahead of AI.

Learn more: https://www.centri-analytics.com/

Latest Episodes:

08 | Steve Woll - How to Read Data Like a Navy Forecaster Oct 16, 2026

Show notes

When anyone can buy the same AI, what still gives one side the edge?

Steve Woll spent the last eighteen years of his Navy career turning weather and ocean data into decisions that ships and lives depended on. Now a consultant and an independent candidate for Congress in Virginia, he joins Bob to work through how data actually creates advantage, and where that advantage is quietly shifting.

They get into the split between physics-based forecasting and AI pattern recognition, the post-war pact that makes even rivals share their weather data, why a military model cannot afford to hallucinate the way a chatbot can, and the one problem worse than bad data: data that goes missing.

It is really a conversation about where the human edge goes once the machines catch up. Listen now.

Timestamped Highlights

[00:03:27] A zoology and computer science major at Duke, decades before anyone called it data science.
[00:10:39] What a Navy meteorology officer actually works with, and why it all comes back to physics.
[00:12:15] The hardest part of forecasting: merging a dozen kinds of data into one picture.
[00:13:15] The post-war pact that makes even rivals hand over their weather data.
[00:14:49] Why the military shares some of its data openly and quietly keeps the rest.
[00:16:41] Cray supercomputers, and who really had the best forecasting on the planet.
[00:18:00] Two forecasting systems now run side by side: physics equations and AI pattern recognition.
[00:19:16] Why a weather model cannot afford to hallucinate the way a chatbot can.
[00:21:23] When anyone can buy the same AI, what happens to a nation’s data edge?
[00:30:41] The worst thing for a data analyst is not bad data. It is missing data.
[00:49:13] Why human curiosity may hold the last edge over the machines.

Mentioned Resources

About the Guest

Steve Woll is a retired U.S. Navy officer who finished his career as a Commander. He was surface warfare qualified and spent the last eighteen years in uniform as a Special Duty Officer for Meteorology and Oceanography, turning weather and ocean data into operational decisions. Raised in Pittsburgh, he studied zoology and computer science at Duke University and began his career in environmental science computer modeling before joining the Navy through Officer Candidate School. Today, he consults with data-intensive organizations, has worked extensively with NOAA, and is running for U.S. Congress as an independent in Virginia's 3rd District.

🔗 LinkedIn | Website

Important Links

Connect with Bob: Website | LinkedIn

Book a Strategy Session with Bob: Book a session

Learn More About What We Do: What we do

Curious Data is an original production hosted by Bob Lytle. Brought to you by Centri Analytics. Production and editing by Podcast Your Brand.

07 | Matt Konwiser - Are You the Hidden Reason AI Wastes So Much? Oct 13, 2026

Show notes

What if the biggest source of AI waste is not the data centers, but the rest of us?

Bob sits down with AI architect, technologist, and ethicist Matt Konwiser for a conversation about the gap between how loudly we argue about AI and how little we actually understand it.

They get into why governance keeps falling behind, what the real water and energy numbers behind a data center actually say, and why the fights over slop, disinformation, and trust may come down to individual choices more than policy.

It is a first-principles look at using a powerful technology wisely, from someone who builds with it every day. Listen now.

Timestamped Highlights

[00:04:53] Thirty years in tech, and the throughline that led Matt to AI governance.
[00:06:16] Why Matt says almost no company is truly dealing with AI governance.
[00:07:25] The schoolyard speed limit that explains what ethics really is.
[00:09:12] How Matt turns a daily news habit into a public voice, with nothing scheduled.
[00:11:57] The zero-trust lesson from cybersecurity.
[00:13:23] AGI and RSI in plain terms, and why together they are new territory.
[00:16:26] The February to September swing that split two allies.
[00:19:51] Is everything AI now, and have people stopped caring?
[00:24:43] The line between useful AI and the slop quietly draining resources.
[00:37:13] The water math behind a single data center, and what the headline number hides.
[00:42:11] Jensen Huang’s blunt rule for anyone building something that is not safe.
[00:46:11] What if the smartest AI simply refused to do our wasteful work?
[00:51:27] Matt’s closing case for hope about AI and humanity.

Mentioned Resources

Environmental Cost of Artificial Intelligence: Carbon, Water and Land Footprints

About the Guest

Matt Konwiser is a Field CTO at IBM and a longtime technologist whose work spans telecommunications, cybersecurity, data, and artificial intelligence. Over three decades he has advised executive teams on how to actually put new technology to work, and today he is one of the more direct public voices on AI governance and ethics. He also serves on the AI Advisory Council of the Global Technology Industry Association, advises a carbon-first marketing startup, and co-hosts the AI Diatribe podcast. The views he shares here are his own.

🔗 LinkedIn | AI Diatribe

Important Links

Connect with Bob: Website | LinkedIn

Book a Strategy Session with Bob: Book a session

Learn More About What We Do: What we do

Curious Data is an original production hosted by Bob Lytle. Brought to you by Centri Analytics. Production and editing by Podcast Your Brand.

06 | Whitfield Harrington - How to Keep Human Judgment in an AI World Oct 07, 2026

Show notes

What if the real edge in a data-driven world is the one thing data can't give you?

Bob sat down expecting a conversation about facts and figures. Whitfield Harrington, a Chicago pastor and independent Senate candidate, redirected it to the thing that decides what those facts actually mean: wisdom.

They get into why AI can calculate but never discern, what the Strategic Petroleum Reserve says about American preparedness, how the healthcare middleman quietly drives up costs, and why an independent believes the real solutions live in the middle.

It is a rare conversation that treats data as the start of the story, not the end. Listen now.

Timestamped Highlights

[00:04:08] The civil rights history Whitfield did not learn until 11th grade
[00:10:05] How a small-town no-name reached an international audience
[00:16:12] Why "who wins, a lion or a crocodile" reframes every political fight
[00:18:14] What a Sesame Street memory taught him about propaganda
[00:26:20] Why wisdom beats knowledge when the stakes are highest
[00:30:44] The one thing a faster computer chip will still never have
[00:32:51] What military chatter reveals about America's oil vulnerability
[00:38:49] How many days of oil America actually has in reserve
[00:43:48] The middleman quietly driving up the cost of your care
[00:45:52] The $75 doctor membership that points to a different kind of healthcare
[00:58:55] What "renovate the American dream" actually means

Mentioned Resources

About the Guest

Whitfield Harrington is a Chicago pastor, musician, author, and independent candidate for the U.S. Senate in Illinois. Born the 20th of 21 children in Belzoni, Mississippi, he grew up in a family shaped by faith and the civil rights movement, where his father served as a pastor and chairman of the Humphreys County NAACP. He moved to Chicago in 2013 and built a ministry that now reaches people across states, countries, and continents, known for teaching on dream interpretation and spiritual discernment. Drawing on that background and a career in the financial industry, he is running as an independent under a plan he calls Renovate the American Dream, arguing that the real solutions live in the middle.

🔗 Website | YouTube

Important Links

Connect with Bob: Website | LinkedIn

Book a Strategy Session with Bob: Book a session

Learn More About What We Do: What we do

Curious Data is an original production hosted by Bob Lytle. Brought to you by Centri Analytics. Production and editing by Podcast Your Brand.

05 | Alejandro Reskala - How to Prove You Are Really You Sep 30, 2026

Show notes

What happens to our decisions when we can no longer trust that our data, or the people behind it, are real?

Bob sits down with Alejandro Reskala, a technology executive who has spent his career on one deceptively simple question: how do you know the data in front of you belongs to the person you think it does?

It was meant to be about credit bureaus. It became something bigger. Alejandro traces a line from video games and medical imaging to credit scoring in 15 to 20 countries, then lands on the problem facing every AI system. If a machine cannot verify where data came from, how can it make a decision worth standing behind?

This one gets into identity, fraud, watermarking, and whether trust is what decides how far AI can go. Listen now.

Timestamped Highlights

00:04:08 The check readers Alejandro coded in assembler, before databases were normal
00:05:35 From owning every game console to building augmented reality that reached NASA
00:07:10 The Black Swan, 9/11, and the collapse that redirected a career
00:08:08 The job offer built on trust, not experience
00:09:21 The biggest myth about credit bureaus, and why it will not die
00:13:39 Is scoring your credit the same as reading a medical scan? Bob presses the analogy
00:14:16 Before you can pull Bob’s file, you have to prove the file is Bob’s
00:21:33 Inside the work of building credit bureaus in 15 to 20 countries
00:23:57 The case that a credit bureau is closer to a human right than a hassle
00:25:43 Move countries and your credit history vanishes. Why that still is not solved
00:31:15 Two Bob Lytles, one misspelled name, and the cost of guessing wrong
00:35:43 The fraud problem growing fastest, and who is impersonating whom
00:40:20 Why matching the data still does not prove you are you
00:43:34 Why data provenance just became a must, not a nice-to-have
00:45:16 Should we stop AI? Alejandro calls it a rhetorical question
00:49:15 How anyone can lie with data, and the toothpaste that proves it

Mentioned Resources

About the Guest

Alejandro Reskala is a technology executive who builds the systems that decide whether data can be trusted. He most recently served as Vice President, International and Regional Chief Information Officer for Canada, Latin America, and the Caribbean at TransUnion, and a former Chief Information Officer of the credit bureau in Mexico. His career runs from digital image processing and early augmented reality work in Seattle to building credit bureaus in 15 to 20 countries. Today, his focus is identity, entity resolution, and the growing problem of proving where data actually comes from.

🔗 LinkedIn

Important Links

Connect with Bob: Website | LinkedIn

Book a Strategy Session with Bob: Book a session

Learn More About What We Do: What we do

Curious Data is an original production hosted by Bob Lytle. Brought to you by Centri Analytics. Production and editing by Podcast Your Brand.

04 | Sarah Zabel - Why You Should Question Every Chart You See Sep 27, 2026

Show notes

When anyone can collect your data, who gets to decide whether they should?

Sarah Zabel spent 31 years in the Air Force and retired a two-star general in cyber and communications. She learned early that being able to gather data never settles whether you should.

She and Bob get into surveillance and the guardrails that keep it honest, how to read a statistic without getting played, and why she phones the researchers behind a study before she trusts it. Along the way: what it takes to think clearly in a partisan age.

The tools are new. The questions are old. And the answers shape how free we stay. Listen now.

Timestamped Highlights

[00:05:40] Two majors at the Academy, and why the pilot track was off the table

[00:07:20] The programming job in Japan that was really early analytics

[00:11:18] The one rule she keeps returning to about what data lets you do

[00:11:58] The line the Department of Defense is not allowed to cross

[00:14:48] Why the technology is new but the questions never are

[00:17:49] The forgotten 1960s data company that predicted our present

[00:23:58] Government is not a business, but it should be one thing

[00:29:24] The detail missing from Air Force records that reframes a heated debate

[00:44:16] The free tool that cracked open her hardest research question

[00:48:03] How she interrogates a headline-grabbing study before believing it

[00:51:21] Data, analysis, presentation: three levels most people blur into one

Mentioned Resources

If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future by Jill Lepore

Fighting Chance, Sarah Zabel's award-winning book on the science of depression.

Google Scholar

National Institutes of Health

Flock cameras

About the Guest

Sarah Zabel is a retired U.S. Air Force major general and a 31-year veteran of the communications and cyber field, with assignments ranging from the National Security Agency to Vice Director of the Defense Information Systems Agency. A computer scientist by training, she is the author of Fighting Chance, an award-winning book on the science of depression, and is running as an independent candidate for U.S. Congress in Idaho's First District.

🔗 Website: Zabel for Congress | Author site

Important Links

Connect with Bob: Website | LinkedIn

Book a Strategy Session with Bob: Book a session

Learn More About What We Do: What we do

Curious Data is an original production hosted by Bob Lytle. Brought to you by Centri Analytics. Production and editing by Podcast Your Brand.

03 | Michael Bridgford - The $300,000 Job AI Now Does in Minutes Sep 23, 2026

Show notes

Can the numbers tell you when it is time to bet on a long shot?

Michael Bridgford spent his early career crunching data as an investment banking analyst at William Blair. Now he is running for Congress as an independent in what may be the tightest district in the country. Bob asks the obvious question. What did the data actually say?

They dig into the numbers behind the decision, a House margin of two votes, a district once decided by six, and a voter base where independents outnumber both parties. Along the way they get into AI reshaping finance, why Iowa ranks second in the nation for data centers, and the counterintuitive research on how long a representative should really stay.

It is a conversation about reading the odds before you act, and what the numbers reveal about a system most people feel is broken. Listen now.

Timestamped Highlights

[00:01:17] From a farm in the middle of nowhere to a career in finance
[00:02:54] A 23-year-old analyst, 100-hour weeks, and a deal that involved Warren Buffett
[00:04:28] How AI now does in minutes what a $300,000 analyst used to do
[00:05:56] What government owes workers as AI reshapes the economy
[00:07:44] The state AI law that is already on the books next door
[00:10:48] Why attention has become more valuable than money in politics
[00:15:02] The data point on Iowa data centers that surprised even the candidate
[00:18:43] The numbers that made a long shot look like the right bet
[00:22:25] A district decided by six votes, and why that changes the math
[00:33:31] The case for term limits, starting with a 10 percent approval rating
[00:39:18] A 50-year study on congressional seniority that defies common sense
[00:45:14] The Gallup number that says nearly half the country is up for grabs

Mentioned Resources

William Blair, the investment firm where Michael began his career
Claude, the AI assistant referenced on automating analyst work
Gallup, the source for the independent voter figure

About the Guest

Michael Bridgford grew up on a family farm near the Quad Cities and built a career in finance, starting as an investment banking analyst at William Blair before moving into investments, sales, and distribution across the country. He lived in Chicago, Texas, and California before returning to the Quad Cities area, where he lives with his family. He is now running for Congress as an independent in Iowa, his first run for public office, making the case that the numbers point to a rare opening for a candidate outside the two parties.

🔗 Website | LinkedIn

Important Links

Connect with Bob: Website | LinkedIn

Book a Strategy Session with Bob: Book a session

Learn More About What We Do: What we do

Curious Data is an original production hosted by Bob Lytle. Brought to you by Centri Analytics. Production and editing by Podcast Your Brand.

02 | Craig Simpson - Why Telcos Could Rival Big Tech in AI Sep 23, 2026

Show notes

What if the smartest thing you bring to data is not an answer, but a better question?

Craig Simpson has spent 15 years at IDC learning to pull signal from messy, incomplete data. He left South Africa at 18, finished two degrees by correspondence while working full time, and kept walking away from the classroom for the real world.

In this episode, he and Bob get into why AI is often very wrong, why first-party human conversations still beat anything you can scrape, and how curiosity separates a real analyst from someone staring at a spreadsheet. Then the conversation takes a turn into wildlife, drones, and using data to fight rhino poaching across Southern Africa.

It is a case for the human edge in a world racing to automate it. Listen now.

Timestamped Highlights

[00:05:45] The backwards career path: leaving university at 18 to build a life abroad
[00:07:07] Finishing two degrees by correspondence while working full time
[00:12:49] Why anyone who claims to know exactly where a market is heading is lying
[00:15:39] First-party data vs the AI prompt, and why one always comes up short
[00:18:11] The trait that separates a real analyst from someone staring at numbers
[00:21:19] Why AI is often very, very wrong, and who has to catch it
[00:23:18] Beyond connectivity: why telcos could compete with the hyperscalers
[00:24:23] 6G being built with AI baked in from the start
[00:27:47] Why the future data war moves to the skies above us
[00:28:59] How the mobile phone, and now Starlink, changed everything in Africa
[00:30:36] A live, unplanned data test: how many Africans have a smartphone
[00:34:22] Using data and drones to fight rhino poaching
[00:36:00] Why shutting down all tourism is not how you save the wildlife
[00:40:40] What triggered the massive 2010 poaching spike
[00:43:35] The family ledger Craig has kept every day for 20-plus years

Mentioned Resources

IDC (International Data Corporation)

Starlink

Pew Research

About the Guest

Craig Simpson is a Research Director in IDC's Data & Analytics group, based in Prague and originally from Cape Town, South Africa. He has spent more than 15 years at IDC across multiple stints in technology market research, with a current focus on telecom operators and IT services. He left university early to build his career abroad, later finishing his studies by correspondence, and he brings a first-principles, endlessly curious approach to data. Outside of work, he supports wildlife and anti-poaching efforts across Africa, using data to help balance conservation and tourism.

🔗 LinkedIn | Website

Important Links

Connect with Bob: Website | LinkedIn

Book a Strategy Session with Bob: Book a session

Learn More About What We Do: What we do

Curious Data is an original production hosted by Bob Lytle. Brought to you by Centri Analytics. Production and editing by Podcast Your Brand.

01 | Curiosity Is the Human Edge AI Cannot Copy Sep 23, 2026

Show notes

If AI can run a million tests a minute, what is the one thing only a human can do?

Bob Lytle sold his last company, took a pause, and came back with a question worth building a show around. If artificial intelligence is only as good as the data behind it, who decides which data to trust?

In this first episode, Bob shares why he built Curious Data, the three promises he is making to listeners, and the idea at the center of it all. Everybody is already a data analyst. He traces a career that runs from jingle producer to credit bureaus to political data, and lands on the one skill AI cannot replicate.

Curiosity is what turns messy information into better decisions, and it is the reason humans stay in charge. Listen now.

Timestamped Highlights

[00:00:00] Why Bob hit pause after selling his company, and what he built next
[00:01:39] The three promises behind every Curious Data episode
[00:02:18] Data or gut: how to actually back up a decision
[00:04:27] The listeners who marvel at the internet yet still cannot tell what is true
[00:04:49] Where the phrase curious data came from, and the 10,000 hours idea behind it
[00:06:09] The question a curious kid asks that a machine never will
[00:06:31] The one thing that keeps humans in charge, no matter how fast AI gets
[00:08:16] From jingle producer to Navy veteran
[00:09:52] Musical data, credit scores, vote totals: why data is like air
[00:10:54] The three challenges Bob wants you to hold him to

Mentioned Resources

Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hours idea

Important Links

Connect with Bob: Website | LinkedIn

Book a Strategy Session with Bob: Book a session

Learn More About What We Do: What we do

Curious Data is an original production hosted by Bob Lytle. Brought to you by Centri Analytics. Production and editing by Podcast Your Brand.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Curious Data

Timestamped Highlights

Mentioned Resources

About the Guest

Important Links

Timestamped Highlights

Mentioned Resources

About the Guest

Important Links

Timestamped Highlights

Mentioned Resources

About the Guest

Important Links

Timestamped Highlights

Mentioned Resources

About the Guest

Important Links

Timestamped Highlights

Mentioned Resources

About the Guest

Important Links

Timestamped Highlights

Mentioned Resources

About the Guest

Important Links

Timestamped Highlights

Mentioned Resources

About the Guest

Important Links

Timestamped Highlights

Mentioned Resources

Important Links

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected