Casual Inference

Latest Episodes:

Regression to the Mean Girls | Every Man's Causal Inference with Roger Peng Oct 12, 2026

Show notes

Follow Regression to the Mean Girls on [⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠], [⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠], or wherever you love to listen!

Roger Peng⁠ joins ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sarah Lotspeich⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Lucy D'Agostino McGowan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ with a data-driven side quest into becoming an accidental business man.

Check out the details here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠regressiontothemeangirls.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Follow along on instagram:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@regressiontothemeangirls⁠⁠

Regression to the Mean Girls | The Marshmallow Test (Not That One) with Mattan Ben-Shachar Oct 05, 2026

Show notes

Follow Regression to the Mean Girls on [⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠], [⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠], or wherever you love to listen!

Mattan Ben-Shachar⁠ joins ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sarah Lotspeich⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Lucy D'Agostino McGowan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ with a data-driven side quest into whether different colored marshmallows taste different.

*Be sure to listen to the end for a surprising addendum!

Check out the full process here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠regressiontothemeangirls.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Follow along on instagram:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@regressiontothemeangirls⁠⁠

Regression to the Mean Girls | Election Data Web Scraping with Emily Riederer Sep 28, 2026

Show notes

Follow Regression to the Mean Girls on [⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠], [⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠], or wherever you love to listen!

⁠Emily Riederer⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (Capital One) joins ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sarah Lotspeich⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Lucy D'Agostino McGowan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ with a data-driven side quest into scraping election data.

Check out the full process here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠regressiontothemeangirls.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Follow along on instagram:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@regressiontothemeangirls⁠⁠⁠

Regression to the Mean Girls | The Art of Web Scraping Art with Hadley Wickham Sep 21, 2026

Show notes

Follow Regression to the Mean Girls on [⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠], [⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠], or wherever you love to listen!

⁠Hadley Wickham⁠ (Posit) joins ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sarah Lotspeich⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Lucy D'Agostino McGowan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ with a data-driven side quest into building a web scraper to help acquire art.

Check out the full process here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠regressiontothemeangirls.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Links to content we chat about on the episode:

Follow along on instagram:

⁠⁠⁠@regressiontothemeangirls⁠

Regression to the Mean Girls | The Comfort of Competence and the Speed of Justice, According to Law & Order Sep 14, 2026

Show notes

Follow Regression to the Mean Girls on [⁠Apple Podcasts⁠], [⁠Spotify⁠], or wherever you love to listen!

Christine Zhang⁠ (⁠New York Times⁠) joins ⁠⁠⁠Sarah Lotspeich⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠Lucy D'Agostino McGowan⁠⁠⁠⁠ with a data-driven side quest into the TV show Law and Order.

Check out the full analysis here: ⁠⁠⁠regressiontothemeangirls.com⁠⁠⁠

Links to content we chat about on the episode:

Follow along on instagram:

⁠@regressiontothemeangirls

Regression to the Mean Girls | The Work is Mysterious and Important: Severance Data Sep 07, 2026

Show notes

Follow Regression to the Mean Girls on [Apple Podcasts], [Spotify], or wherever you love to listen!

⁠Lucy D'Agostino McGowan⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠Sarah Lotspeich⁠⁠ return with a data-driven side quest into the TV show Severance. Lucy analyzes whether Milchick really uses more complicated language than his colleagues.

Check out the full analysis here: ⁠⁠regressiontothemeangirls.com⁠⁠

Links to content we chat about on the episode:

Follow along on instagram:

@regressiontothemeangirls

Regression to the Mean Girls | Romance by the Numbers: First Sparks Across Tropes Aug 31, 2026

Show notes

Sarah Lotspeich⁠ and ⁠Lucy D'Agostino McGowan⁠ introduce Regression to the Mean Girls, a podcast about data-driven side quests in pop culture. In this episode, Sarah analyzes 45 recent romance novels to find out how different romance tropes affect the timing of the couple’s first kiss.

Check out the full analysis here: ⁠https://regressiontothemeangirls.com/⁠

Links to content we chat about on the episode:

Follow along on instagram:

@regressiontothemeansgirls

Podcast feed: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/rttmg/

Optimizing Data Workflows with Emily Riederer | Season 6 Episode 8 Jun 26, 2025

Show notes

Emily Riederer is a Data Science Senior Manager at Credit Risk Modeling Capital One. Her website can be found here: https://www.emilyriederer.com/ Follow along on Bluesky:

🎶 Our intro/outro music is courtesy of Joseph McDade. Edited by Cameron Bopp.

Combining Data & Making Effects Generalizable with Carly Brantner | Season 6 Episode 7 Jun 17, 2025

Show notes

Carly Brantner is an assistant professor of Biostatistics & Bioinformatics at Duke University and Duke Clinical Research Institute.

Resources from this episode:

multicate: R package for estimating conditional average treatment effects across one or more studies using machine learning methods
PCORnet® Front Door: Access point for potential investigators, patient groups, and other stakeholders to connect with PCORnet and get support for potential research studies
Patient-Centered Outcomes Data Repository (PDOCR): De-identified data from 24 (and counting) PCORI-funded studies

Follow along on Bluesky:

🎶 Our intro/outro music is courtesy of Joseph McDade. Edited by Cameron Bopp.

The Art of Clarity with Andrew Heiss | Season 6 Episode 6 May 29, 2025

Show notes

Andrew Heiss is an assistant professor in the Department of Public Management and Policy at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University.

Vincent's "What is your estimand" section in his {marginaleffects} book: https://marginaleffects.com/chapters/challenge.html#sec-goals_estimand
Article on defining estimands: https://doi.org/10.1177/00031224211004187
Andrew's marginal effects post: https://www.andrewheiss.com/blog/2022/05/20/marginalia/
Andrew's post on "fixed effects" and mariginal effects across different disciplines: https://www.andrewheiss.com/blog/2022/11/29/conditional-marginal-marginaleffects/

Follow along on Bluesky:

🎶 Our intro/outro music is courtesy of Joseph McDade. Edited by Cameron Bopp.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected