Episode 19: Kristian Lum - Lifelong curiosity and Criminal Justice Reform through data

Show Notes: 

• Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG) (1:40) 
• The contagious nature of imprisonment paper (1:50) 
• Value of community colleges (6:30) 
• Professor Dan Balaguy at Sierra College (7:20) 
• Professor Richard Stong at Rice University - Combinatorics (8:30)  
• Coming to an understanding of one’s career and curiosity (10:20)  
• How can we make the public more data literate (i.e., numeracy)? (12:15) 
  • Maintain a healthy skepticism of numbers - think more critically (see Seth Godin’s thoughts)  
• Data can encode discrimination and bias (16:10) 
  • Predictive policing algorithms - Kristian’s paper
  • Be reflective about where patterns in data come from 
• Importance of uncertainty (20:00) 
• HRDAG ‘casualty estimations’ (21:10) 
  • Humanize the data (22:00) 
• Describing how systematic things can be (23:50) 
• Taking chances (e.g., Tim Ferriss guidance on cold emailing) (24:50) 
• Where do you get your confidence and energy (26:50) 
• Maintaining beginner’s mindset - blur disciplinary lines (28:20) 
• “The most beautiful experience we have is the mysterious” -Einstein (29:20) 
• How do you grapple with the outrage of injustice? 
• Those with data skills need to get involved with criminal justice reform (36:20) 
  • Volunteer with public defenders - make sure you are a low barrier to people if you volunteer 
  • Talk with the people closest to the problem - human-centered approach
  • Find ways that your unique skills can help 
• How do you maintain your energy? (39:50) 
• Morning routine (40:30) 
• Lightning Round (43:10) 
  • Book: Harry Potter 
  • Passion: sowing costumes 
  • What is making your heart sing now? Her daughter 
  • Screwed up: partial differential equations 
• Further reading and getting involved in criminal justice reform 
  • Pod Save the People podcast (38:30) 
  • https://theappeal.org/ news source (39:00) 
  • Ear Hustle podcast 
  • Organizations leading the way  
• Were to find Kristian online: 
  • Twitter: @KLdivergence (https://twitter.com/KLdivergence) 
• 'Five-Cut Fridays’ series  
  • Kristian’s list