The Random Sample Podcast

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Cue the music. It’s intense, and even a bit scary.

Announcer: In a world, filled with myths about maths…

Guest 1: “some people believe you either have a maths brain or you don’t”

Announcer: …comes a podcast…

Guest 2: “welcome to The Random Sample”

Announcer: Its aim – to open up the world of maths and stats to a whole new audience…

Guest 1: “there’s this Hollywood stereotype of what a mathematician is”

Announcer: But our podcast will show you that Hollywood got it wrong!

You’re looking at the script to the beginning of our trailer for Season Two of the ACEMS podcast, The Random Sample.

A bit over the top? Maybe.

But it did grab the attention of all the people attending the season launch of the podcast at the 2019 ACEMS retreat in Glenelg, SA, along with many others who found it on their podcast apps or on social media.

We first launched The Random Sample in late 2018 and had so much fun doing it, we decided to give it another go in 2019.

We also believe in the goal of the podcast, which is to open up the world of maths and stats to a whole new audience. In 2019, we felt we did this with a diverse group of hosts, guests, and topics.

Here’s a look at what we did in Season 2:

Episode 14: “Matilda to the Rescue”

Guest: Prof Kate Smith-Miles, ACEMS Chief Investigator at The University of Melbourne

Host: Tim Macuga, ACEMS Media and Communications Officer

We explore the issue of trust when it comes to the algorithms that are so much a part of our daily lives. Kate talks about her new website platform, MATILDA, which is designed to show when algorithms will work and, just as importantly, when they won’t.

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Episode 15: “Weighing Up Evidence in Criminal Courts and at a King’s Burial Site”

Guest: Prof David Balding, Director of Melbourne Integrative Genomics (MIG) and an ACEMS Associate Investigator at The University of Melbourne

Host: Prof Peter Taylor, ACEMS Director

We talk to Prof David Balding, one of Australia's top forensic statisticians, about some of the key cases he's worked on. They include providing key statistical analysis in some very high-profile murder cases, and he also helped prove that the remains found buried under a car park were those of a medieval king.

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Episode 16: MARVEL-lous Casting

Guest: Prof Matthew Roughan, ACEMS Chief Investigator at The University of Adelaide

Host: Dr Jono Tuke, ACEMS Associate Investigator at The University of Adelaide

We talk to Matt about how he used maths and ecology to try to quantify the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), the most popular movie franchise ever.

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Episode 17: A Day Can Make a Difference

Guest: Dr Rachael Quill and Dr Melissa Humphries from ACEMS at The University of Adelaide, and Dr Amie Albrecht from The University of South Australia

Host: Tim Macuga, ACEMS Media and Communications Officer

In this episode, we explore the importance and success of the first-ever Women in Maths Day events held around Australia in May 2019. We talk to three of the organisers of the biggest event held in South Australia.

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Episode 18: Model Health - Using Maths to Understand a Hospital ICU

Guest: Prof Nigel Bean, ACEMS Deputy Director and Chief Investigator, The University of Adelaide

Host: Dr Jono Tuke, ACEMS Associate Investigator at The University of Adelaide

How many beds should a new hospital have for its ICU? We explore how maths can be used to tackle this problem and others like it.

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Episode 19: Playing the Game of Maths

Guest: Anthony Harradine from Prince Alfred College in Adelaide, and Dr Anita Ponsaing, ACEMS’ Outreach Officer

Host: Prof Nigel Bean, ACEMS Deputy Director and Chief Investigator, The University of Adelaide

We introduce you to ACEMS' flagship outreach program, MathsCraft, which is designed to supplement what is already being taught in classrooms. MathsCraft allows kids to experience things like the creativity of maths, collaboration, having ideas, exploring those ideas, and coming up with new ideas and questions

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Episode 20: Talking Stats & Stories

Guest: Prof John Bailer, Chair of Statistics at Miami (Ohio) University, President of the International Statistical Institute, and co-host of the “Stats + Stories” podcast

Host: Prof Louise Ryan, ACEMS Chief Investigator at UTS

We meet the co-creator of the "Stats and Stories" podcast and explore the challenges, opportunities and importance of communicating statistics, especially in this data-driven world that we live in.

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Episode 21: A Chat with Hadley Wickham

Guest: Dr Hadley Wickham, Chief Scientist at RStudio

Host: Dr Nick Tierney, ACEMS Associate Investigator at Monash University

We chat with the man who helped with the explosion of the programming language ‘R’ through his development of some very popular open-source software.

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Episode 22: Australian Maths Tour

Guest: Dr Holly Krieger, Corfield Lecturer in Mathematics at Cambridge University

Host: Sarah Belet, ACEMS Student at Monash University

We chat with this year’s guest speaker for the AustMS/AMSI Mahler Lecture Series about her trip to Australia, her research and her outreach on YouTube.

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Episode 23: The Maths Behind Mining the Blockchain

Guest: Prof Peter Taylor, ACEMS Director

Host: Dr Emily Duane, ACEMS Chief Operating Officer

Chances are you’ve heard of bitcoin – or blockchain – or both. But what are they? How did they start? Plus, we explore what their future looks like.

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