Analyzing Risky or Not – Braden Williams

I was curious as to the relative riskiness of Professor Ben and Dr. Don on the podcast Risky or Not¹. Realizing this was an eminently solvable problem – I wrote a python script to pull the podcasts RSS feed, parse the episode descriptions, and determine the frequency with which Dr. Don and Prof. Ben agreed about riskiness, and who dissented towards risky more frequently?

The analysis indicates that Prof. Ben is more risk averse than Dr. Don.

The chart depicts the cumulative disagreements in risk assessment between the hosts over time. The lines track the instances when each host has declared different items or situations as risky or not, with a specific focus on the ‘Prof. Ben Risky Diff’ line, which represents the cumulative number of episodes where Prof. Ben has considered something risky while Dr. Don has not. This disparity highlights the differing approaches and perspectives each host brings to the podcast, offering listeners insight into the nuances of risk assessment in their discussions. The chart serves as a visual representation of the evolving debate and the dynamic interplay of opinions between the two experts.

The pie chart provided illustrates the “Disagreement Rate” between the hosts. The larger blue section, accounting for 92.5% of the chart, indicates the proportion of episodes where both hosts, reached the same conclusion about an item’s riskiness, denoted as “False” for disagreement. In contrast, the smaller red section represents just 7.5% of the pie, showing the relatively infrequent occurrence of episodes where the hosts had differing opinions on the riskiness of an item, labeled as “True” for disagreement.

The pie chart represents the “Risky Disagree Rate” between Prof. Ben and Dr. Don It illustrates the division of episodes in which the hosts disagreed on the riskiness of the topic being discussed. In 62.5% of the cases where there was a disagreement, Prof. Ben assessed the situation as risky, whereas Dr. Don considered it risky in the remaining 37.5%. This suggests that Prof. Ben tends to be more conservative or cautious in his risk assessments compared to Dr. Don.

Episodes with Diagreement

“Risky or Not” is a podcast where food safety experts Professor Ben Chapman and Dr. Don Schaffner tackle everyday items and behaviors, providing definitive answers to the burning question: Is it risky or not? Each episode dives into the nuanced details of potential hazards, separating fact from fear with expert analysis and a touch of humor. ↩︎