The Pudding

A screenshot of the winning project Benford's Law with announcement details

WINNER! Benford’s Law by @schubert-da.bsky.social

benfords-law-explainer.netlify.app

A screenshot of the winning project The Legisaltive Network Behind State Trans Laws with announcement details

WINNER! The Legislative Network Behind State Trans Laws by @cj-robinson.bsky.social

cj-robinson.github.io/trans-model-...

A screenshot from the winning project Dithering — Part 1 along with announcement text

WINNER! Dithering — Part 1 by @damarberlari.bsky.social

visualrambling.space/dithering-pa...

The Pudding Cup The Pudding's annual picks for the best visual and data-driven stories

We’re excited to announce the winners of the 2025 Pudding Cup! Our entry pool was the strongest ever with close to 100 submissions.

Show our 3 winners some love 🫶 on this thread, and check out the full details and honorable mentions at the link:

pudding.cool/pudding-cup/

There’s a secret language beneath your favorite movies, musicals, and even video games.
We visualized every motif in Wicked, Hamilton, and Les Mis to show how tiny musical ideas can build entire emotional worlds.
🔗: pudding.cool/2025/12/moti...

It's the last week to enter! Get your submissions in by Friday, Dec. 5! pudding.cool/pudding-cup/

The Pudding Cup is back for 2025! We want to see your best non-commercial visual and data-driven projects!

🗓️ Deadline: Friday, December 5, 2025 (free entry)
📢 Winners announced: the week of December 9, 2025
💸 Up to 3 winners each get $1,500

pudding.cool/pudding-cup/

How much does Congress talk about democracy? How often do they worry that democracy is eroding? @alv9n.com's latest project analyzes every congressional speech in the last 145 years.

pudding.cool/2025/11/demo...

What it’s like to walk across Massachusetts A visually-aided journal of a very long walk home.

I ruptured my achilles in January. Couch-bound for most of the winter, I read over a dozen books about walking journeys. I was inspired. Obsessed? I decided to walk across Massachusetts.

You decide how to experience my story here: pudding.cool/2025/10/walk/

Ever cry while cutting an onion? Well, now you don’t have to! Building off of chef J. Kenji López-Alt, we found the mathematically optimal way to dice an onion. *Cutting uniform pieces has not been proven to reduce crying, but you do get bragging rights.

pudding.cool/2025/08/onio...

The Pudding showing me, yet again, why it’s my favourite online publication.

New project! @yufeng.bsky.social analyzed all of the words found on NYC Streets. The data comes from from 8 million Google Street View images, which yielded 138 million snippets of text:

🔗: pudding.cool/2025/07/stre...

“Look at Mr. Frog! He’s so grumpy.”

Wait, why are so many frogs boys? @mellymeldubs.bsky.social explores how we gender animals in kids’ stories—and why it matters.

pudding.cool/2025/07/kids...

New project! What happens when strangers have to talk for 30 minutes? @alv9n.com's latest project tracks how their moods change as the conversation progresses.

🔗 pudding.cool/2025/06/hell...

30 minutes with a stranger Watch hundreds of strangers talk for 30 minutes, and track how their moods change

My latest piece for @puddingviz.bsky.social: 30 minutes with a stranger

Two years ago I made this interactive story about the loneliness epidemic: pudding.cool/2023/09/invi...

The brilliant @matthew-daniels.bsky.social turned it into a video. His touch on this piece is really quite incredible.

YouTube video by The Pudding The Loneliness Epidemic, in Data: Who Americans Spend Time With

New video on YouTube (an animated version of one of @alv9n.com's greatest hits): The Loneliness Epidemic, in Data: Who Americans Spend Time With

www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7w3...

New project: From stereotypes to breakthroughs, Hollywood's history with Asian and Asian American characters is complicated.

This AAPI Heritage Month, dive into the data that reveals whether that's changed: pudding.cool/2025/05/aapi...

Are you more likely to die on your birthday? Yes. We’ll run a study to show you how, and why.

Are you more likely to die on your birthday?

Come for the math, stay for the existential crisis.

pudding.cool/2025/04/birt...

Also this week — a pitching experience that was very worth it — my @puddingviz.bsky.social piece was on @kottke.org!

bsky.app/profile/kott...

Have you ever bought a bottle of wine based on the label alone? Yeah, us too.

Turns out, if a wine has an animal on the label that can help you predict price and quality. We looked at thousands of labels to help you find the best deals.

pudding.cool/2025/04/wine...

What if we considered samples & interpolations as connections in sonic family trees?

My project out today @puddingviz.bsky.social w/ @jaredwhalen.com @matthew-daniels.bsky.social lets you see and hear the genealogy of our popular music.

pudding.cool/2025/04/musi...

How Sonic DNA Connects Generations of Music Songs have a far more complex and concealed musical history, spanning genres, cultures, and even centuries.

"If we zoom out, we can see [...] how “In The Hall of the Mountain King” affects music across 5 generations and 833 songs" pudding.cool/2025/04/musi... via @puddingviz.bsky.social

How Sonic DNA Connects Generations of Music Songs have a far more complex and concealed musical history, spanning genres, cultures, and even centuries.

🔗 Link to the audio/visual essay on The Pudding: pudding.cool/2025/04/musi...

Family tree of samples for Hit Em Up

which can sometimes form an entire family tree!

We explore various lineages in music.

New project (with 🔊🎵!) : @luriethereal.bsky.social explores legacies of music dna, such as a 2pac bassline being a sample of sample: two generations of music created by a James Brown riff.

The Real Apologies of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City What we can learn from watching reality stars apologize

What makes a good apology? We turned to an unlikely source, reality TV, for answers. The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City (#RHOSLC) is a masterclass in how not to apologize, which offers lessons for all of us on how to get it right.

pudding.cool/2025/03/hous...

A screenshot of a survey form that reads: "In the 1980s, there was a study that produced surprising results about our predictive tendencies. We’re conducting a similar study today. Instructions: Complete the line below. What did the bird do? Your response can be up to three sentences. ...and then the bird said, 'I must go to the river.' Upon arriving," with a blank box for your response.

Answer this one-question survey, win some free merch!

pudding.cool/projects/stu...

English cows go “moo”, while French cows go “meuh”, and Korean cows go “음메”. Our newest project takes a look at how animal sounds translate across languages and cultures.

pudding.cool/2025/03/lang...