NPR, as part of their series about discrimination in America , talked about how it is difficult to obtain a diverse research sample when your diverse research sample doesn't trust scientists. This story by Rob Stein is about public outreach attempts in order to gather a representative sample for a large scale genetic research study. The story is also about how historical occurrences of research violations live on in the memory of the affected communities. The National Institutes for Health is trying to collect a robust, diverse sampling of Americans as part of the All of Us initiative. NIH wants to build a giant, representative database of Americans and information about their health and genetics. As of the air date for this story, African Americans were underepresented in the sample, and the reason behind this is historical. Due to terrible violation of African American research participant rights (Tuskeegee, Henrietta Lacks), many African Americans are unwilling to partic...

This video provides an example of mode when it reveals survey data about the most common for of birth control used by married women or women who live with their partners. Before revealing the answer, they have strangers sitting in a produce department of a grocery store discussing their best guess for the answer? Huh? Well, at least you get to listen to strangers awkwardly talking about pulling out in front of a bunch of vegetables. I think that traditionally aged college students are a little surprised by the modal response: Sterilization. This opens up the opportunity to talk about the sampling: They could only survey women who are electing to use birth control (so, not trying to get pregnant) AND in a long term relationship, so a more permanent form of family planning is probably more attractive.