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# Interview with FiveThirtyEight's Walter Hickey
- URL: https://interhacktives.mymagic.page/interview-walter-hickey/
- Published: 2014-05-07T11:15:13.000Z
- Updated: 2014-05-07T11:15:13.000Z
- Description: Walter Hickey is part of the data super-group working on the re-launched FiveThirtyEight. Joe Hall asks if it's really possible to use numbers to explore our favourite films and restaurants.
- Author: joehall
- Tags: Data, Bechedel Test, FiveThirtyEight, interview, Walter Hickey, #Migrated-1793717950415, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-11-03 14:59

**Walter Hickey** is part of the data super-group working on the re-launched [FiveThirtyEight](http://doingsomedata.tumblr.com/post/80485054709/first-impressions-of-the-new-fivethirtyeight?ref=interhacktives.mymagic.page). Before the site’s relaunch under ESPN last month, one of the biggest points of intrigue for me was how they were going to cover a topic as broad as “lifestyle” using data. Was it really possible to use numbers to explore our favourite films and restaurants? Turns out it was. and Walter was one of the people responsible:

***Could you explain a little bit about your role as “lead lifestyle writer” at FiveThirtyEight and what kind of topics you cover?***

**Walter Hickey:** That’s one of the most interesting parts about it really, that it’s so general. I mean at the moment we’re trying to figure out what’s going to be our reliable coverage. While it does kind of give us broader subjects or topics to choose from than, say, politics, sports or what not, we are actually trying to figure out a core beat for it.

The ones that most commonly come up are entertainment, food, television and films. There’s a lot of numbers work that goes into film production, its budget and how it performs at the box office. And we think that we can lend some data analysis to those kind of things. But again, it’s a cool beat because the sky’s really the limit. We have a lot of opportunity to try new things.

***Is it a challenge to find a point of focus in such a large field? It must be hard to find a starting point for a story..***

**WH:** Absolutely. It’s so ripe, there’s a lot of data available. There’s a number of databases that are out there either in the open or that we can get access to. There’s all sorts of sets that people are interested in and it’s really just trying to pick your battles to start out with. What’s something that’s feasible? What’s something we can definitely accomplish? So definitely there’s a remaining conservative about what kind of topics we pick. It’s a bit of a struggle but I think we’re doing well so far.

***How did you end up in this role?***

**WH:** In college I majored in Maths – statistics – and also did a bit of writing so I decided to jump in. Business Insider gave me an opportunity and we were able to do some cool data work there and when [FiveThirtyEight](http://fivethirtyeight.com/?ref=interhacktives.mymagic.page) began recruiting I signed on. So it’s an interesting time absolutely because there’s so much going on online when it comes to this kind of ambitious data work. So I kind of got in at the right time.

***Does writing about lifestyle give you more of a licence to be fun than you’d get with “traditional” data topics like politics or economics?***

**WH:** Oh, absolutely. It’s a really, really fun beat. You always want to remain loyal to the story and loyal to what’s going on and you don’t necessarily want to demean a lot of good work that’s going on. But we do have a lot of fun. Just today we came up with an article that was [a statistical analysis of the work of Bob Ross](http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/a-statistical-analysis-of-the-work-of-bob-ross/?ref=interhacktives.mymagic.page) who painted on public television for 10 years. So we are able to do those more fun things. It doesn’t always have to be figuring out why there’s a financial disadvantage for women in film. We can have a little bit more fun with pop culture stuff.

***A bit like the McDonald’s value for money piece you came up with recently…***

**WH:** Absolutely. [That article](http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/how-to-eat-at-mcdonalds-when-youre-monumentally-broke/?ref=interhacktives.mymagic.page) was actually written for me in college 10 years ago, that was my target audience – a broke college kid. Taco Bell’s coming up soon, I promise you that! Again, these questions we can ask like ‘[Could everybody eat in New York City on the same day?](http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/can-all-of-new-york-go-out-to-eat-in-the-same-day/?ref=interhacktives.mymagic.page)’ It’s a lot more fun, it’s not calling elections. I don’t want to say it’s stuff that doesn’t matter but it’s stuff for people who want to learn more about their lives and have this data perspective on pop culture. So it’s a pretty liberating beat.

[***The piece on women in Hollywood***](http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-dollar-and-cents-case-against-hollywoods-exclusion-of-women/?ref=interhacktives.mymagic.page) ***did really well and its findings were picked up by other news outlets. Did that take longer to produce? And is it hard to strike a balance between coming up with those long form pieces and the day-to-day stories?***

**WH:** Definitely. That was an ambitious project that took longer than the average pice. We did want to come out strong with a piece that said yes we can take this data analytical approach to the entertainment industry, still have fun and still add a lot of value. So yeah, that piece did take a little bit longer and we are definitely interested in doing more of that kind of stuff.

***I think readers are now quite used to data stories on economics or politics. But pop culture coverage largely follows the same formula it has done for years, does this present a new opportunity for you to fill a gap in the market?***

**WH:** Yeah, that’s a great observation. This kind of work thrives when it’s a business that is not necessarily using these strategies or tactics to the fullest potential. So I think that we have a lot of opportunity when it comes to entertainment and lifestyle topics for adding a lot of cool value to this kind of stuff.

***Practical question now. A lot of your work uses categorical data rather than numerical data. Is it harder to sort and analyse? Any tips or tools you’d recommend?***

**WH:** That’s a big question. It’s very much touch and go. The main thing that matters is how well do you understand the data that you’re working with, and is there a way that you can quantify this material? When we did the [Bechedel test (gender bias in Hollywood) story](http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-dollar-and-cents-case-against-hollywoods-exclusion-of-women/?ref=interhacktives.mymagic.page), one of the reasons we zeroed in on that test is because it was such an exceptional way to quantify something that is astoundingly difficult to quantify. We’ve actually had some trouble where there are stories we want to write but we just don’t feel like we have the quantifiable data quite yet. So it’s definitely just picking your battles; really thinking ‘is this feasible?’ and making sure you understand the dataset. There’s a bunch of different strategies that you can do with this kind of stuff, we’ve played around a bit with clustering. So there’s definitely an opportunity to play around with different techniques. But you’re right it is slightly different to some mainstream numbers.

***What’s it like working for a publication like FiveThirtyEight with so many other data journalists? I can imagine there’s a lot of bouncing ideas off of each other…***

**WH:** It’s extremely collaborative. We have a quantitative team, we have a graphics team, we have the writers, we have the editors and everybody really brings a lot to the table. Everything that you see on the site has been bounced around between folks and really it comes out; the highest quality stuff that we do are huge team efforts. The team’s fantastic, the experience just always blows me away. It’s definitely much more collaborative than anything I’ve worked on before. Rather than being a statistical tech support for a newspaper, it’s instead a creative process.