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PSI Conference 2023: Keynote 1 - From John Graunt to Next Slide Please: What a 17th Century haberdasher can teach us about data, risk and the public.

12 June 2023

Timandra Harkness

In plague-ridden London, self-taught haberdasher John Graunt used the weekly Bills of Mortality as his data, discovered patterns in the human tragedy, and invented analytical tools we still use today. His work got him membership of the new Royal Society, but the 'Christopher Columbus’ of statistics died in poverty after losing everything in the Great Fire of London. What can his work - and his eventful life story – teach us today about gathering and analysing data, and sharing that knowledge with the public?

Timandra Harkness is a writer, broadcaster and presenter.  Her book Big Data: does size matter? published by Bloomsbury Sigma in 2016, came out in an updated paperback edition in June 2017. She is currently writing her second non-fiction book for Harper Collins.  Timandra is a regular on BBC Radio, writing and presenting BBC Radio 4’s FutureProofing and other series including How To Disagree, Steelmanning and Political School. BBC documentaries include Data, Data Everywhere, Divided Nation, What Has Sat-Nav Done To Our Brains, and Five Knots. She was also resident reporter on all 8 seasons of social psychology series The Human Zoo.  Since winning the Independent newspaper's column-writing competition, she has written for many publications including the Telegraph, Guardian, Sunday Times, Unherd, BBC Focus magazine, WIRED, Men's Health and Significance (the journal of the Royal Statistical Society).  Timandra chairs and speaks at public events for clients including Cheltenham Science Festival, the Royal Society, the British Council, the Royal Geographical Society, the RSA, the Institute of Ideas, the British Library, Wellcome Collection and many others.   After performing improvised & stand up comedy, & touring with a tented circus, she formed the first comedy science double-act in the UK with neuroscientist Dr. Helen Pilcher. Since then she has written and performed scientific and mathematical comedy from Adelaide (Australia) to Pittsburgh PA.  In 2010 she co-wrote & performed Your Days Are Numbered: The Maths of Death, with stand-up mathematician Matt Parker. They performed the show to average audiences of 100.3 and 4 star reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe, then toured it in the UK and Australia.  Timandra's science comedy since then includes cabaret, gameshows, and solo live show Brainsex (with Socrates the rat).  Timandra has a BA in Film and Drama with Art & Art History, a BSc in Mathematics & Statistics, and is a Graduate Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society.   For more details, please see www.timandraharkness.com. 

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