Your watch says you slept badly. Your phone says your screen time is up. A school app says your grade is slipping, and your feed somehow knows the next thing you’ll watch. But how much of “you” do those numbers really capture?
On this episode of Teen Scientist, host Aryash Shyam talks with Dr. Victor Lee, a professor in the Stanford Graduate School of Education, about how data quietly shapes the way we see ourselves, our schools, and the world around us.
Dr. Lee explains why data is never simply “found”, it is made, through human choices about what to count, what to ignore, and what story a number is supposed to tell. He and Aryash dig into sleep scores, step counts, grades, recommendation feeds, wearable trackers, and the famous 10,000-step goal that began as a marketing slogan, and explain why data literacy, learning to question a number before you trust it, may be one of the most important skills of the AI age.
Teen Scientist with host Aryash Shyam brings you groundbreaking innovation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines, entirely from a teenage perspective. Catch it the first Thursday of every month from 6:00 to 6:30 PM following All Things Considered.
(Original air-date: 10/1/26)
