Big medical datasets pose a serious problem. Thousands of patients? health records are an enormous risk to personal privacy. But they also contain an enormous opportunity ? they could show us how to provide better treatments or more effective health policies.
A system called OpenSAFELY has been designed to solve this problem, with the help of a computer code ?robot?.
Professor Ben Goldacre, director of the Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science at the University of Oxford, explains how it works.
Presenter: Tim Harford
Producer: Tom Colls
Production co-ordinator: Janet Staples
Sound mix: Hal Haines
Editor: Charlotte McDonald
It's Indicators of the Week — our weekly look under the hood of our global economy. Today we look at why cocoa prices are soaring, whether India's electoral bonds are bad for democracy and how a typo sent Lyft shares (briefly) soaring.
Over the last few decades, the share of spending subjected to a normal budget process has been very small. Fixing it should be a high priority in Congress. Romina Boccia explains the high stakes for acting sooner versus later.
An essay in New York Magazine that tells the story of a 40something writer and the mental breakdown that leads her to want to divorce her husband tells the entire story of 21st century elite and pop culture singlehandedly. It's called "The Lure of Divorce," and we devote most of the podcast today to explaining its inadvertent importance as a cultural document that defines our time. Give a listen.
Today's episode features two thrillers that unravel in the darkened halls of historic houses. First, NPR's Scott Simon speaks with C.L. Miller about The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder, a whodunnit amongst antique collectors trapped in an English manor under very bizarre circumstances. Then, NPR's Mary Louise Kelly asks Tracy Sierra about her debut novel, Nightwatching, and how the author's own New England home inspired this terrifying tale about a mother hiding from an intruder during a blizzard.
To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday
Joe Biden goes on offense, Nikki Haley calls Donald Trump unhinged, and Trump's hush money case gets a court date while his Georgia case gets complicated. Later, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz sits down with Tommy to talk about how much you can get done when Democrats have full control of the legislature.
For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.
In 2023, The Federal Reserve and other banking regulators announced they were making changes to how they grade banks on servicing local communities. This all stems from a 1977 law called the Community Reinvestment Act, which was designed to encourage banks to better meet the needs of moderate and low-income borrowers. However, major banking trade groups weren't too excited about the new rules and filed a lawsuit against the banking regulators last week.
Today on the show, we explain the history of racist housing policies in the United States and how that history informs the banks' fight with the government today.
For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
The approval rate for green card applications is remarkably low. David Bier explains in a new paper how to improve the backlogged process of welcoming new people to the United States.
In this episode, Cal Thomas joins Mark Bauerlein to discuss his new book “A Watchman in the Night: What I’ve Seen Over 50 Years Reporting on America.”
Music by Frederic Chopin licensed via Creative Commons. Tracks reorganized, duplicated, and edited.
