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RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC—When you hear “March Madness,” you probably think about this weekend’s Final Four—is it finally Gonzaga’s year or will there be a huge upset with a South Carolina win? Favored to win the whole thing right from start of the season, can Carolina pull through over Oregon? But if you’ve ever wondered about the role of science and statistics in basketball, tune into the 100th episode of the WNCU radio show, “The Measure of Everyday Life.”
Airing this Sunday at 6:30pm on 90.7FM WNCU in the Raleigh-Durham listening area, Brian Southwell, Ph.D., host of the show and leader of RTI International’s Science in the Public Sphere program, will interview guest Deborah Stroman, Ph.D., director of the Center of Sport Business at the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School, about the Basketball Analytics Summit this fall.
"We are starting to realize that research can help in the world of sports, just as research can contribute to public policy and other aspects of public life,” Southwell said. “Dr. Stroman's work is a great example of how scientists can make everyday life better."
The weekly radio show, which launched in 2015, aims to make scientific research accessible to the public. Since its inception, the show has covered many topics, including the use of wearable technology in social science, ways to reduce school dropout rates, the evolution of survey research, hazard mitigation, predatory lending, and even why people watch cat videos.
“Scientific research is not always light reading,” Southwell said. “And scientists sometimes do not present their work in a way in which the general public can understand. Social science can be incredibly interesting and relevant for all of us, though, and so it has been a pleasure to work with WNCU to put a spotlight on social science research and the people who make it happen."
The show was named one of the “Best Sociology Podcasts” by PlayerFM in 2016, and Indy Week has called the show “unexpected” and “diverse,” and notes that the show “brings big questions to radio.” Episodes air each Sunday from 6:30 – 7 p.m. and past shows can be downloaded for free through the iPhone Podcast app, iTunes, iHeartRadio, Player FM, and Libsyn.
Learn more about “The Measure of Everyday Life.” You can also join the conversation on Twitter by following @MeasureRadio.
