That's the update for now - see you later this week for my first actual update!

I have far too many ideas floating around in to-do apps, notebooks, and my head, so I'm just going to start on some thing and see where we can get.

Most of it are ideas for data tools and data stories, and some of it is just for "cleaning up the house" (organizing stuff for future projects).

That's all for now, but more is always on the way! I hope to make more of the process behind creating some of those future projects public, so feel free to follow along if you're interested!

Beyond all of these projects, I've also made a bunch of personal projects over the year that mostly live on my website.

I've had fun looking into redistricting and election results, analyzing data on what makes good vs. profitable movies, and attempting generative art.

ben-tanen.com/projects/all/

For my first gig with the Markup, I made the graphics for an investigation into the bias that is hidden within mortgage-approval algorithms. This bias contributed to applicants of color being denied up to 250% more in certain areas relative to their White counterparts.

themarkup.org/denied/2021/...

I also worked on the graphics for an investigation into how Amazon organizes products in their search results.

Surprise: Amazon favors its own brands, many of which you may not even recognize as Amazon brands.

(This story went on to win a Loeb Award in 2022!)

themarkup.org/amazons-adva...

In our follow-up investigation, we further analyzed the racial inequalities that have led to vastly different experiences for those in need of a liver transplant based on the race of the recipient.

wapo.st/465Zj0p

Outside of Spotify, I've also done some freelance work as a data and graphics journalist. My most recent work was on a pair of stories for The Washington Post & The Markup where we investigated inequalities in how livers are allocated for those in need of transplants.

wapo.st/3IiIs1k

I currently work at Spotify as a data visualization engineer and while most of my work is behind-the-scenes, I've had fun working on the more public Wrapped experience.

In 2023, I pitched and built the Sound Town story, which people generally seemed to like!

www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/a...

Really fascinating to see most of the “by Job Category” distributions as fairly clustered, but both legal and healthcare are bimodal, where their expensive but valued secondary degrees cause a big gap between those that have them and those that don’t.