04 | Sarah Zabel - Why You Should Question Every Chart You See

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 oneMentioned ResourcesIf Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future by Jill LeporeFighting Chance, Sarah Zabel's award-winning book on the science of depression.Google ScholarNational Institutes of HealthFlock camerasAbout the GuestSarah 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 siteImportant LinksConnect with Bob: Website | LinkedInBook a Strategy Session with Bob: Book a sessionLearn More About What We Do: What we doCurious Data is an original production hosted by Bob Lytle. Brought to you by Centri Analytics. Production and editing by Podcast Your Brand.