Can everything that counts, be counted? Qualitative and quantitative analysis explored
Release Date: 11/10/2025
Information as experience - Interview with Professor Andrew Dillon
The Collators
Mark and Howard sit down with Prof. Andrew Dillon (UT Austin) to ask what information really is and why the answer starts with people, not machines. Andrew maps the triangle of data, people and technology and argues that information is an experience, not a spreadsheet. A discussion of the lure of AI, why judgement still matters, and how we might regulate misinformation the way we regulate food; to nourish and not poison the public. Shownotes, transcript and more available from https://thecollators.com
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Mystics and Statistics - Why is prediction hard?
The Collators
In this episode, Mark and Howard explore why forecasting is so often wrong and what prediction really requires. From homicides to the stock market, prediction sounds simple until the future fights back. Statistics and logic can take you far, but judgement, context, and humility do the rest.
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Virtually Real - What is real?
The Collators
In this episode of The Collators, Mark and Howard explore the promises and pitfalls of virtual reality. Not as a gaming gimmick, but as a tool for intelligence, analysis, and decision-making. From Minority Report-style data walls to simple post-it notes, they ask whether VR and data visualisation actually help us see the world more clearly, or just distract us with prettier illusions. Transcript, shownotes and more are available from
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Challenge Everything - AI, Raves and Nuclear Subs - Interview with Mike Hawkes, digital inventor.
The Collators
From Tandy Radioshack to nuclear submarines, this episode traces an extraordinary journey through the intersections of technology, curiosity, and courage. Mark and Howard talk with Mike Hawkes, a technologist, inventor, and pioneer of secure digital systems whose career began in fixing computers in a local store and ended up influencing the security architecture behind global online transactions that we all use. This is a very human story, with ebbs and flows of good and bad. Innovation, hard work and opportunity, but also cybercrime, litigation and loss. Shownotes, transcript and more at...
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OMG, TMI - How much information is too much?
The Collators
In this episode of The Collators, Mark and Howard dig into the firehose of the digital age. From the days of cereal-box reading and limited TV channels to today’s infinite scroll of TikTok, Twitter, and AI-generated content, how has the internet reshaped the way we process and perhaps fail to really think about the information we receive. Visit us at
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Can everything that counts, be counted? Qualitative and quantitative analysis explored
The Collators
From crime scenes to classrooms, boardrooms to briefing papers, the tension between numbers and narratives runs through every profession that tries to make sense of the world. Mark and Howard ask whether everything that counts can, in fact, be counted. What happens when we mistake measurement for meaning? Why do humans crave certainty even when the evidence is uncertain? And how do analysts, scientists, and policymakers balance data with judgement? Shownotes, transcript and more available from https://thecollators.com
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The CIA, Rebel Alliance and pandas - An inteview with Carmen Medina
The Collators
In this special episode of The Collators, Mark and Howard speak with Carmen Medina, former Deputy Director of Intelligence at the CIA and one of the most respected reformers in modern intelligence analysis. Carmen’s career spanned three decades at the heart of U.S. intelligence, leading analytic teams through the end of the Cold War, the information revolution, and the challenges of a world where secrets collide with the open internet. Together, they explore: - What it means to think critically inside large institutions. - How bias and diversity of thought shape intelligence work. - The...
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Patterns and Trends - What is a Pattern?
The Collators
Musical spreadsheets, a string of car thefts, and a chance observation spark a question at the heart of this episode: what exactly is a pattern, and how do we recognise one? Mark and Howard explore Florence Nightingale’s statistical diagrams to modern AI pattern recognition, exploring how humans find meaning in data and how sometimes, meaning finds us. They discuss the risks of seeing structure where none exists, the value of curiosity, and why luck and lateral thinking still matter in an age of algorithms. Shownotes and more available from
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One house; Many rooms - What is analysis?
The Collators
Reflective, sometimes funny and occasionally heretical, this episode pulls together the threads of the series so far. Revealing how all analysis hinges on one thing: how we think, and sometimes, how it can sometimes drift into ritual rather than insight. What does it mean to analyse? Where did modern analytical thinking come from? And why do so many disciplines: intelligence, academia, business use the same word but mean entirely different things? Shownotes and more available from Follow us on YouTube at
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Proof Positive - What is evidence?
The Collators
From courtrooms to laboratories, from policing to public policy, “evidence” is a term loaded with assumptions. But what do we really mean when we say something is evidence? Who gets to decide? Not just in the courts, but in real life too? Mark and Howard ask: What is evidence? From courtrooms to science labs to public policy, they explore how this powerful word shapes truth, trust, and decision-making. Transcript, shownotes and more are available from
info_outlineFrom crime scenes to classrooms, boardrooms to briefing papers, the tension between numbers and narratives runs through every profession that tries to make sense of the world.
Mark and Howard ask whether everything that counts can, in fact, be counted. What happens when we mistake measurement for meaning? Why do humans crave certainty even when the evidence is uncertain? And how do analysts, scientists, and policymakers balance data with judgement?
Shownotes, transcript and more available from https://thecollators.com