In this Greatest Hits episode, Master Data Storyteller, Sam Knowles, rounds up the sharpest, most compelling, and most insightful moments from Series 8 of Data Malarkey - the podcast about using data, smarter. From AI and ethics to storytelling with data, this episode features golden snippets of conversations with:

• VW’s Nick Ratcliffe on marketing measurement

• Cambridge United FC’s Mark Bonner on the need to balance the emotional and the rational in the era of sporting analytics

• The Great Lakes Reporter of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Caitlyn Looby, on three golden rule of storytelling from science

• Oxford psychology professor, Chris Summerfield, on neuroscience and artificial intelligence - and how AI and human minds are similar AND different

• The American Enterprise Institute’s Senior Fellow, Christine Rosen, on the extinction of real-world experience

• And data-driven PR agency owner - Darryl Sparey from Hard Numbers - on data that actually drives communications impact (and not just vanity metrics)
  
  

If you’ve missed an episode, this is the perfect sampler. And if you’re a regular, enjoy the smartest, quirkiest moments of the season all in one go and revel in how the planets align and the dots join up to create cross-sector insights.

🎧 Stay tuned to hear what ties them all together: a passion for asking smarter questions and making more meaningful use of data.

In this episode of The Data Malarkey Podcast, host and Master Data Storyteller, Sam Knowles, talks with Darryl Sparey, Managing Director and Co-Founder of UK-based PR agency, Hard Numbers. A seasoned expert in communications and marketing measurement, Darryl breaks down what it really means to use data effectively in PR, how vanity metrics mislead, and why storytelling still reigns supreme.

From launching award-winning campaigns to championing smarter KPIs, Darryl brings sharp insight and plenty of playful Data Malarkey to the mic.

Take the Data Storytelling Scorecard: https://data-storytelling.scoreapp.com

🔍 Topics in this episode include:

• The rise of data-led storytelling in earned media communications and PR

• Vanity metrics vs. genuine business impact

• Lessons learned from building Hard Numbers

• What PR measurement too often gets wrong
  
  

🎯 This episode is a must-listen for marketers, comms professionals, and curious media data analysts analysts alike.

In this episode of The Data Malarkey Podcast, host and Master Data Storyteller, Sam Knowles, is joined by Christine Rosen, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and author of the 2025 book, The Extinction of Experience. They dig into what happens when real-world, face-to-face experiences are replaced by screens and algorithms.

Christine shares her unique journey from a bassoon scholarship to intellectual thought leadership, how teaching aikido shapes her thinking, and how she sees technology reshaping human behavior - for better and worse. With insight, wit, and depth, Christine challenges us to reconsider what we lose when digital convenience becomes the norm.

🔍 Topics include:

• Why boredom, handwriting, and walking matter
  
  

• What the "extinction of experience" means
  
  

• AI, screen time, and our increasingly mediated lives
  
  

• Martial arts, musical instruments, and embodied attention
  
  

• The pandemic’s role in accelerating mediation

Take the Data Storytelling Scorecard: https://data-storytelling.scoreapp.com

🧠 This one’s for anyone curious about reclaiming a genuinely human presence in an over-mediated world.