In the latest episode of Data Malarkey – the podcast about using data, smarter – Master Data Storyteller, Sam Knowles, introduces the highlights from a cracking season of six, highly-diverse episodes that make up our eighth season so far.
Each episode showcases how data – when paired with empathy and curiosity – can shed light on how we live, work, and think.
How AI thinks: Chris Summerfield on human brains and machine algorithms
Oxford University Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, Chris Summerfield, offers a clear-eyed view of artificial intelligence. His central message? AI models like GPT don’t think in exactly the same way as humans, but the ways they process information reveal something important about cognition. By drawing parallels between computational models and neural networks, Summerfield argues that we can use AI not only as a tool, but as a lens to better understand ourselves. It’s not a race between brains and machines, but a mirror held up to the human mind.
“The Extinction of Experience” – Christine Rosen on how to reclaim humanity
Christine Rosen is a Senior Fellow at the Washington D.C.-based think tank, the American Enterprise Institute, and the author of the 2025 book The Extinction of Experience. In our discussion, she reflects on what we lose when we outsource so much of life to screens. Her concerns aren’t alarmist but rather grounded in the evidence, the science, the data: we are at risk of forgetting how to be present, how to be bored, how to be human. During the pandemic, digital mediation became the norm and many of us didn’t turn back. Rosen challenges us to reconsider convenience, to embrace slow, analogue, in-person moments, and to notice what’s quietly slipping away.
Rebuilding trust in science: Caitlyn Looby on storytelling, soil, and public understanding
Climate scientist-turned-journalist Caitlyn Looby – today the Great Lakes Reporter of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – shares her perspective that data alone won’t rebuild public trust in science; stories will. She champions a more relational, grounded approach to science communication, where local context and emotional clarity count as much as evidence. Her reflections on community-engaged science and the importance of two-way listening are especially timely in a world of growing misinformation and polarisation. She’s the author of an excellent article on this topic in the Royal Society of Arts’ RSA Journal – linked here.
Turning data into desirability: Nick Ratcliffe on automotive customer experience
Volkswagen’s Nick Ratcliffe discusses how a clear, focused use of customer data helped the company (and its many car brands, from VW to Audi, Skoda to Cupra) move beyond transactional metrics to something deeper: emotional engagement. Recorded live at the DataComms 2025 conference, this episode shows how insight-driven storytelling can power large-scale behavioural change, accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles and reshaping perceptions of value and trust.
Football, data, and the beautiful balance: Cambridge United’s Mark Bonner on intuition and insight
Cambridge United FC’s Director of Football, Mark Bonner, explains how football can be both a numbers game and a human one. He emphasises the role of data in informing decisions, but never in replacing the gut, the hunch, the intangible understanding that comes from experience. This is a love letter to the emotional intelligence at the heart of sports management and leadership.
Measuring what matters in PR: Darryl Sparey on comms metrics and making data sing
Darryl Sparey, co-founder of data-driven PR agency Hard Numbers, closed Season Eight of Data Malarkey with a practical challenge: stop reporting activity (outputs) and start measuring impact (outcomes). His agency tracks every journalist interaction in a CRM – HubSpot, since you asked – operates without timesheets, and guarantees results. Sparey argues that PR must adopt a commercial mindset and treat data not as admin but as accountability.
The thread that binds Season Eight
Whether tackling AI, attention, trust, brand experience, football, or PR metrics, Season Eight of the Data Malarkey podcast consistently returns to one idea: that data only becomes meaningful when it is grounded in purpose, perception, and persuasion.
This Greatest Hits episode gives you a couple of amuses bouches from each episode to whet your appetite for the individual conversations – ICYM them. It also joins the dots between very different domains to show – as we so often do on the pod – that there’s more that joins the smartest users of data together than keeps them apart.
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The first version of this blog was written by ChatGPT, using transcripts of the episodes.