Communicating Data People Understand, with AJ Thurston, PhD

<p>Have you ever sat through a presentation that felt completely correct, and somehow also completely forgettable?</p><p>In this episode of the ScienceForWork podcast, host Matt Lampe, PsyD, talks with AJ Thurston, PhD, Chief of Market Research for military recruiting within the DoD Office of People Analytics and a professor of I/O psychology at George Mason University, about what it actually takes to communicate data so people understand it.</p><p>AJ makes the case that being understood is almost entirely the communicator&#39;s responsibility, not the audience&#39;s, and that simple, honest communication is a skill worth deliberately building, no matter who you&#39;re talking to.</p><p>In this conversation, AJ and Matt explore:</p><ul><li>Why the responsibility to be understood belongs to the communicator, not the audience</li><li>How to structure a message so it sticks</li><li>Why bar charts, not fancy dashboards, are often the most effective visual you can use</li><li>How to talk about correlations and effect sizes in language a non-technical audience actually finds compelling</li><li>Where AI fits as a genuine assistant in writing, coding, and data visualization, and why the underlying skill still matters</li></ul><p>More from AJ:</p><ul><li>Website: ajthurston.com</li><li>Advanced resources (expectancy charts, predictive probabilities, dominance analysis): ajthurston.com/sfw</li><li>LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ajthurston</li><li>Twitter/X: @ajthurston</li></ul><p><br></p><p>Enjoying the ScienceForWork podcast? Follow the show, leave a review, and share this episode with a friend.</p><p><br></p><p>ScienceForWork is an independent, non-profit foundation of evidence-based practitioners who want to #MakeWorkBetter.<br>ScienceForWork.com</p>