Naked Statistics

Stripping the Dread from the Data

By: Charles Wheelan

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis

Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

Audie Award Finalist, Business/Educational, 2014

Once considered tedious, the field of statistics is rapidly evolving into a discipline Hal Varian, chief economist at Google, has actually called "sexy". From batting averages and political polls to game shows and medical research, the real-world application of statistics continues to grow by leaps and bounds. How can we catch schools that cheat on standardized tests? How does Netflix know which movies you'll like? What is causing the rising incidence of autism? As best-selling author Charles Wheelan shows us in Naked Statistics, the right data and a few well-chosen statistical tools can help us answer these questions and more.

For those who slept through Stats 101, this book is a lifesaver. Wheelan strips away the arcane and technical details and focuses on the underlying intuition that drives statistical analysis. He clarifies key concepts such as inference, correlation, and regression analysis, reveals how biased or careless parties can manipulate or misrepresent data, and shows us how brilliant and creative researchers are exploiting the valuable data from natural experiments to tackle thorny questions.

You’ll encounter clever Schlitz Beer marketers leveraging basic probability, an International Sausage Festival illuminating the tenets of the central limit theorem, and a head-scratching choice from the famous game show Let’s Make a Deal - and you’ll come away with insights each time. With the wit, accessibility, and sheer fun that turned Naked Economics into a best seller, Wheelan defies the odds yet again by bringing another essential, formerly unglamorous discipline to life.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2013 Charles Wheelan (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Very pleasant and informative

I gave this book five stars because it wasn’t fitting to give it less. It is a comprehensive overview of statistics replete with relevant and insightful examples.

Very digestible for statistics, limited content

I thought i wouldn't stand a complete statistics audiobook, the author makes it very entertaining, and the performance helps a lot.

I understand that getting into more complex topics would make it challenging, but O would've liked some more content..

Very recommended to statistics beginners.

Entertaining!

Great discussions on statistics with real world examples of applications. Charles Wheelan has a way of taking statistics, which most consider to be a dull subject, and making it interesting. This is not a book for learning statistics, but it is written well enough where both statistician and layman alike will find the discussions entertaining.

Get the book

Fun listen and review of material I've read from dozens of other sources.

I'd recommend if you have the visuals that go with the book. The latter part is impossible to follow without them

Makes statistics relevant and interesting

Does a good job demystifying and explaining basic statistical concepts. There are a few locations that suffer from audio format as they are math based, but they did not detract from the overall quality or performance

If you love stats you'll love this book

This book does a great job explaining the why's in statistics without delving too deep into the mathematical proofs. It's all about making stats intuitive.at the same time, it covers the most important technical methods up to multi variate regression.

it was surprisingly good

I had to get this book for my statistics class and was dreading it, but I was pleasantly surprised that it was so good. the narrator wasn't to bad either.

You have to enjoy statistics

The book provides some good examples to explain statistical concepts, like correlation, probability, standard deviation, and regression analysis. But don't expect to fully understand statistics after finishing this book. There are also mentions of numbers and calculations, which doesn't work well in an audio book. The stories about how statistics can be applied is interesting. For example, how to test whether more education means healthier lives and whether attending a prestigious university will result in higher earnings.

Great way to teach important information.

Exciting story about weird terrorists, numbers and sosages that will easily explain you all you need to know about statistics.
After this book you will reevaluate every word you hear in news.

Terrific explanations, terrific narrator.

I loved this audiobook. I have taken advanced stats courses, yet found new ways of thinking about well-worn tools. Funny, warm, and intuitive. Yay.