Stories
Long-form data narratives. Each story is a sequence of curated chart moments with editorial context — scroll to read.
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The productivity converged. The time didn't.
The rich world shortened the working year for 150 years, then the US stopped and Europe didn't. Americans now work 454 hours a year more than Germans — and the reason isn't what almost everyone assumes.
The denominator problem
Global maternal mortality looks like it stalled after 2015. It didn't — that was COVID. What's really happening is stranger: every income group is improving, and the world average barely moves.
Malaria: the stall nobody expected
For fifteen years the world drove malaria down with a $5 net. Then, around 2019, the cheapest win in global health stopped winning. This is what the data shows.
The Vibecession
In the summer of 2022, recession was almost as big in the news as it had been when the economy actually cratered in 2020. This time, nothing broke.
What the unemployment rate doesn't say
By the headline measure, the U.S. labor market in 2026 looks fully healed. The series underneath tell a more textured story.
The Mauna Loa Curve
On a volcano in Hawaii, a single instrument has measured atmospheric CO₂ every day since 1958. This is what it has recorded.
COVID through the FRED lens
Eight weeks in 2020, every dial on the dashboard moved at once. Five years on, none of the lines are where they were in February.