storytelling with data podcast

Latest Episodes:

storytelling with data podcast: #97 delivering business value with data, with Shachar Meir May 06, 2026

Show notes

In this episode of the storytelling with data podcast, Amy talks with Shahar Meir, a data executive with more than 20 years of experience leading data teams at companies including Meta and PayPal. Together, they explore what it really takes for data professionals to move beyond producing dashboards and reports to driving meaningful business outcomes.

Shahar shares why technology alone rarely solves an organization’s data challenges and outlines the four areas he sees mattering most: technology, people, process, and culture. He talks about trust in data, the importance of understanding your audience, and why the best data professionals learn to speak the language of the business rather than the language of tools.

You’ll also hear practical advice for individuals who want to increase their impact: how to better understand the business, how to frame data work in terms of outcomes, and why stepping outside your data silo can be one of the most valuable moves for your career. This is a rich conversation for anyone who wants their work with data to be more strategic, more influential, and more closely tied to real business value.

RELATED RESOURCES

Shachar’s LinkedIn | YouTube
Career unblocking mini-course: career-unblock.shacharmeir.com
$1M data professional presentation

storytelling with data podcast: #95 Structure Liberates – Why Your Data Needs a Style Guide with Maxine Graze Feb 09, 2026

Show notes

How do you ensure your data visuals are consistently effective—and on brand? In this episode, SWD data storyteller, Simon Rowe chats with Maxine Graze, Senior Data Visualization Engineer at King, about the process of building data visualization style guides. They explore why “structure liberates,” how to balance aesthetics with usability, and why stakeholder feedback is critical. Whether you're designing for dashboards or decks, you'll walk away with ideas on how to bring clarity and consistency to your data storytelling.

Related Links:

datavizstyleguide.com – Explore open-source data visualization guidelines
Better Data Visualizations by Jonathan Schwabish – The book that sparked Maxine’s journey
Storytelling with Data Resources – Tools, tips, and templates from the SWD team

storytelling with data podcast: #96 what’s the story behind your data? demystifying data equity with Heather Krause Jan 09, 2026

Show notes

What if the numbers you work with every day weren’t as neutral as you thought?

In this episode, Mike is joined by Heather Krause, founder of We All Count and longtime quantitative researcher, to unpack a powerful concept: data equity. Together, they explore how every step of a data project—from survey design to chart choices—involves hidden decisions that impact what gets measured, who is represented, and what conclusions are drawn.

Heather shares the seven stages of the data equity framework, explains why choosing a denominator isn’t as simple as it seems, and offers practical ways to apply an equity lens to dashboards, visualizations, and more. Whether you're building a data product, making policy decisions, or designing a business presentation, this conversation will help you become more accurate, efficient, and intentional in how you generate and communicate evidence.

RELATED LINKS

Learn more at weallcount.com
Explore the Before & After audiobook → Listen here

storytelling with data podcast: #94 the uncharted territory of data and music with Chris Dalla Riva Dec 04, 2025

Show notes

Chris Dalla Riva is a musician, data analyst, and the author of Uncharted Territory: What Numbers Tell Us about the Biggest Hit Songs and Ourselves. In this episode, he joins data storyteller Mike Cisneros to talk about musical myths, hidden industry incentives, chart data, and underappreciated hits, as well as the thorny questions about authenticity, categorization, and what it really means to tell an honest story with numbers.

RELATED LINKS

Uncharted Territory: What Numbers Tell Us about the Biggest Hit Songs and Ourselves | Chris Dalla Riva’s book
Can’t Get Much Higher | Chris’s newsletter
Audiomack | Music streaming service where Chris works on analytics and personalization
Max Martin Knows How to Create a #1 Hit | Chris’s The Economist article on song intros
Suno AI | Generative AI tool for music creation discussed in the authenticity segment
Follow Chris at @cdallarivam

SONGS AND ARTISTS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

“Want Ads” by Honey Cone
“House of the Rising Sun” by The Animals
“Hey Jude” by The Beatles
“Blinded by the Light” (written by Bruce Springsteen, recorded by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band)
“Dancing in the Dark” by Bruce Springsteen
“When Doves Cry” by Prince
“Believe” by Cher
“Golden” by HUNTR/X

storytelling with data podcast: #93 revisiting the magic of story Nov 16, 2025

Show notes

In this special episode of the *storytelling with data* podcast, Cole celebrates the 10-year anniversary of her best-selling book, *storytelling with data: a data visualization guide for business professionals*. She shares exciting updates about the newly released 10th Anniversary Edition—including refreshed visuals, updated examples, and new bonus content—along with an invitation to a live virtual event on December 2, 2025.To mark the occasion, Cole reads aloud Chapter 7: *Lessons in Storytelling*—a fan-favorite chapter that explores how story structure can be used to create more compelling data communications. From Red Riding Hood to Aristotle to Robert McKee, this episode blends timeless storytelling wisdom with practical techniques for structuring business presentations, building narrative flow, and engaging your audience through conflict, clarity, and repetition.Whether you're crafting a dashboard, pitching a recommendation, or designing a presentation, this episode is packed with strategies to help you move beyond showing data to telling *a story with data*.🔗 Get the 10th anniversary book: storytellingwithdata.com/SWD10🔗 Join Cole's live virtual mini-workshop (Dec 2): storytellingwithdata.com/swd10register🔗 Listen to the Before & After audiobook: rbmediaglobal.com/audiobook/9781663755681/

storytelling with data podcast: #92 Why Dashboards Die—and How to Save Them With Allison Horst Oct 03, 2025

Show notes

In this episode of the storytelling with data podcast, Simon chats with Allison Horst—developer advocate at Observable, educator, and beloved data illustrator—to explore the difference between dashboards that get used and those that don’t.

They dig into why so many data products go to waste, the importance of co-creating with your audience, and the overlooked power of early feedback. Allison reflects on her experiences helping people go from "I built this thing" to "This actually gets used"—and how teams can better collaborate to avoid dashboard graveyards.

Along the way, they talk about environmental storytelling, visual metaphors, teaching the “gray areas” of data viz, and why curiosity (not perfection) is the key to lasting impact.

Related Links:

Check out Allison's work at: https://allisonhorst.com/
Connect with and follow her on LNKD: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allison-horst/
Order SWD's latest book, Before & After https://www.storytellingwithdata.com/books

storytelling with data podcast: #91 Dashboards that Deliver with Andy Cotgreave Sep 19, 2025

Show notes

Data visualization veteran Andy Cotgreave joins host Mike Cisneros for a lively, wide-ranging conversation about the evolution of dashboards, the craft of data communication, and the future of generative AI in analytics. Andy reflects on his early career building “dashboards” in Excel for a demanding boss, how that experience shaped two bestselling books (The Big Book of Dashboards and Dashboards That Deliver), and what he’s learned from more than a decade at Tableau as an evangelist and public speaker.

They discuss the tension between efficiency and emotion in chart design, why no single chart type is ever “right,” and how semantic drift affects the way we talk about dashboards. Andy shares behind-the-scenes stories from Chart Chat, the Iron Viz competition, and his own evolution as a presenter and magician, offering tips for building confidence on stage and connecting with audiences.

Along the way, the conversation touches on the launch of Cole, Mike and Alex’ newest book, the fifth in the storytelling with data series, Before and After, upcoming in-person and on-demand learning opportunities, and the importance of community, practice, and curiosity in becoming a better data storyteller.

Related Links:

Check out Andy's Books: ⁠Dashboards That Deliver⁠ and ⁠The Big Book of Dashboards ⁠
Register for upcoming ⁠workshops and courses⁠⁠

Order Before and After⁠⁠

Follow ⁠@storywithdata⁠ | share via ⁠#SWDpodcast

storytelling with data #90: ask smart questions (rebroadcast) Aug 19, 2025

Show notes

Asking good questions can help improve our own and others’ work: both when exploring and explaining data. In this rebroadcast of episode 19, Cole covers five smart queries to pose and answer during the analytical process and five more to consider when getting ready to explain that data to others.

We’re sharing this popular episode again as we look ahead to what’s next: Before and After, the fifth book from storytelling with data, comes out September 23, 2025 — pre-order now wherever you buy books!

If you want to put these strategies into practice, join one of our upcoming 2025 sessions:

Virtual half-day workshops: August 21 and November 6
8-week online course: September 15–November 9
In-person workshop in NYC: October 14

Links:

Register for upcoming ⁠workshops and courses⁠
Pre-order Before and After
Questions? email ⁠askcole@storytellingwithdata.com⁠
Follow ⁠@storywithdata⁠ | share via ⁠#SWDpodcast

storytelling with data podcast: #89 putting the art in chart with Nadieh Bremer Jun 30, 2025

Show notes

Data storyteller Alex talks with Nadieh Bremer, an award-winning data visualization practitioner, about her new book, Chart: Designing Creative Data Visualizations from Charts to Art.

Nadieh talks about her data visualization journey, from losing passion while creating dashboards to finding joy as she pushed the boundaries of data art. During this journey, she shares her tips for becoming a freelancer, suggestions for adding creativity to your work, and discusses the difference between data viz and data art.

Tune in to learn Nadieh’s process for creating a visual and hear her advice on how to be more creative with your work.

Follow Nadieh: website | Instagram | LinkedIn
Book: Chart: designing creative data visualizations from charts to art
Nadieh’s creations that were mentioned during the episode

storytelling with data podcast: #88: swimmer, startup, storyteller with fares ksebati May 15, 2025

Show notes

In this founder series edition of the storytelling with data podcast, Randy sits down poolside in Antalya, Turkey with Fares Ksebati—CEO and founder of MySwimPro, YouTube creator, and author of Swim Like a Pro and How Not to Drown.

From humble beginnings as a walk-on college swimmer to building one of the world’s most recognized swim coaching platforms, Fares shares the behind-the-scenes journey of scaling a global remote company, navigating the tech startup ecosystem, and staying relentlessly curious along the way.
They talk about what it means to democratize swimming, using storytelling to build product and community, and how AI and human connection will shape the future of sport.

Fares opens up about teaching his mom to swim at 62, launching MySwimPro with zero funding, and the lessons learned from crashing his app right after being named App of the Year by Apple. It’s a candid, inspiring conversation about growth—personal, professional, and everything in between.

Check out Fares’s work:

swim like a pro

the best swimming app myswimpro.com

YouTube: MySwimPro
LinkedIn: Fares Ksebati

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