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NPR On The Media, May 13, 2011
Data doesn't always expose and explain; it can also lead us astray. OTM producer Jamie York looks at two times in the recent past when an overreliance on data has had disastrous consequences. Joe Flood, author of
The Fires
and Dennis Smith, author and veteran firefighter, tell the story of the RAND Corporation and the fires in the Bronx in the 1970s. Scott Patterson, author of
The Quants
and Michael Lewis, author of
The Big Short, explain how math and science whiz kids nearly destroyed Wall Street. (12m 36s).
For a transcript, see www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2011/05/13/03