Matt Stiles

Matt Stiles appears in the following:

The State Of The Cancer Nation

Friday, April 17, 2015

While a cure for cancer remains elusive, we already know how to keep many cases of the disease from developing in the first place.

People can reduce cancer risks by keeping a healthful weight and avoiding cigarettes.

But smoking, obesity and other major cancer risk factors remain common, and they ...

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In Korea, Spam Isn't Junk Meat — It's A Treat

Wednesday, April 08, 2015

The advertisement begins with a breezy acoustic-guitar jingle and a young woman peering into soft light. Its message is clear: The product you're about to see is special.

It's called Spam.

Not the unsolicited email, but the canned, processed pork product introduced during the 1930s. South Koreans eat ...

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Your Questions About The American Health Care Act

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

In recent months, NPR staff has published a series of questions-and-answer stories related to the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Now we've compiled them into an interactive so you can explore answers that are most relevant to you.

There are nearly 80 questions, ranging from who's eligible ...

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Census Aims To Bring Statistics Home With A New Mobile App

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

The U.S. Census Bureau keeps a vast and valuable store of anonymous statistics about Americans — their demographics, their neighborhoods, their professions, their households, and more.

Now the agency's putting that information in the palm of your hand.

The bureau on Tuesday announced the release of dwellr, a ...

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You've Tracked Down Hundreds Of Accessible Playgrounds. Help Us Find More!

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

When NPR launched a national guide to accessible playgrounds two weeks ago, we knew it wasn't perfect.

It's not perfect because there isn't an official, comprehensive database of playgrounds with components designed for kids with special needs available to use as a source.

So we asked you, our ...

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Read The Most Important Bits From NYC's Stop-And-Frisk Ruling

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Judge Shira Scheindlin has earned a reputation as an outspoken defender of civil liberties and a recurring foil for the New York City police. In her ruling in the closely watched stop-and-frisk case, Scheindlin criticized the police, and said the department discriminated against blacks and Latinos. She also said ...

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6 Questions For The Man Who Tracks Texas Trends

Wednesday, July 03, 2013

All this week, NPR is taking a look at the demographic changes that could reshape the political landscape in Texas over the next decade — and what that could mean for the rest of the country.

Few know Texas' population as well as its official demographer, Lloyd ...

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Democrats Face The Two States Of Texas: Urban And Rural

Tuesday, July 02, 2013

All this week, NPR is taking a look at the demographic changes that could reshape the political landscape in Texas over the next decade — and what that could mean for the rest of the country.

Texas is a large, diverse state with broad regional differences in population and ...

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The ZIP Code Turns 50 Today; Here Are 9 That Stand Out

Monday, July 01, 2013

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Zone Improvement Plan, the network of ZIP codes we use for everything from mail delivery to credit card security.

The U.S. Postal Service began using the five-digit codes on July 1, 1963, hoping they would improve the efficiency and speed of ...

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Read The Rulings: Inside The Same-Sex Marriage Decisions

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Matt Stiles is data editor on NPR's News Applications team. Follow him on Twitter at @stiles. Erica Ryan (@ericalryan) is a digital news editor.

Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

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5 Things To Know About America's Fastest-Growing Counties

Thursday, June 13, 2013

The U.S. Census Bureau released its list of the nation's 100 fastest-growing counties Thursday, and here's what we learned: They're mainly clustered in the South and West, and their rapid population gains are fueled by a wide variety of economic and cultural factors including the energy boom, military realignment, ...

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A Guide To Tech Terms In The NSA Story

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

The details remain murky about the NSA's foreign surveillance programs targeting communications and Internet records collected by American companies. So, too, are the terms associated with some of the stories. What, exactly, is "metadata"? What does an "algorithm" do? We've tried to explain a few of these terms ...

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Census: Smartphones Bridging Digital Divide

Monday, June 10, 2013

Smartphones appear to be increasing the rates in which blacks and Hispanics access the Internet, helping reduce disparities with whites and Asians, a government report said Monday.

The U.S. Census Bureau survey was the first time the agency asked respondents about whether they used smartphones to go online, ...

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Stunning Satellite Images Show A Changing Globe

Thursday, May 09, 2013

Google has released a stunning cache of satellite images that show how the globe has changed in recent decades. Thursday's announcement came from the search giant's official blog:

"Working with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), NASA and TIME, we're releasing more than a ...

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Census: Black Voting Rate Topped Rate For Whites In 2012

Wednesday, May 08, 2013

Black voters showed up at the polls at higher rates than whites in last year's presidential election, driving the rate of minority participation to historic levels, a new government report shows.

While voting and turnout rates from 2012 were known soon after President Obama's re-election, the survey by the ...

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Interactive: Compare Your Commute To The Nation's Longest

Tuesday, March 05, 2013

Are you a "mega-commuter"?

That's a term used by the U.S. Census Bureau to describe people who commute at least 90 minutes and 50 miles to work. Nearly 600,000 Americans spend that much time in vehicles, carpool lanes, and trains and buses each day, according to the bureau.

This interactive ...

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Data Journalism

Friday, June 29, 2012

The immense amounts of data collected by local, state and federal government agencies can be an incredibly valuable trove for enterprising journalists.  It can also be a pointless slog. NPR's StateImpact project database reporting coordinator Matt Stiles and computational journalism professor at Duke Sarah Cohen explain how they find good stories in a sea of government data.  

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