Data Skeptic

Updated: 09 Oct 2025 • 586 episodes
dataskeptic.com

The Data Skeptic Podcast features interviews and discussion of topics related to data science, statistics, machine learning, artificial intelligence and the like, all from the perspective of applying critical thinking and the scientific method to evaluate the veracity of claims and efficacy of approaches.

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In this episode, we speak with Ashmi Banerjee, a doctoral candidate at the Technical University of Munich, about her pioneering research on AI-powered recommender systems in tourism. Ashmi illuminates how these systems can address exposure bias while promoting more sustainable tourism practices through innovative appro

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In this episode of Data Skeptic's Recommender Systems series, host Kyle Polich interviews Dr. Kunal Mukherjee, a postdoctoral research associate at Virginia Tech, about the paper "Z-REx: Human-Interpretable GNN Explanations for Real Estate Recommendations" The discussion explores how the post-COVID real estate landscap

32 min
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08 Sep 2025 • EN

Why Am I Seeing This?

In this episode of Data Skeptic, we explore the challenges of studying social media recommender systems when exposure data isn't accessible. Our guests Sabrina Guidotti, Gregor Donabauer, and Dimitri Ognibene introduce their innovative "recommender neutral user model" for inferring the influence of opaque algorithms.

49 min
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30 Aug 2025 • EN

Eco-aware GNN Recommenders

In this episode of Data Skeptic, we dive into eco-friendly AI with Antonio Purificato, a PhD student from Sapienza University of Rome. Antonio discusses his research on "EcoAware Graph Neural Networks for Sustainable Recommendations" and explores how we can measure and reduce the environmental impact of recommender sys

44 min
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Kyle reveals the next season's topic will be "Recommender Systems".  Asaf shares insights on how network science contributes to the recommender system field.

17 min
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Kyle and Asaf discuss a project in which we link former guests of the podcast based on their co-authorship of academic papers. 

34 min
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