The Pudding

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...

The Middle Ages Follow hundreds of kids as they navigate their treacherous middle school years.

Do you think middle school sucks? You’re not alone. @alv9n.com uses a survey of millions of students to show how our brains and our sense of belonging change in middle school.

💻 pudding.cool/2025/02/midd...
📽️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4zL...

We want to know: what's YOUR fav piece from us?! 👀

By sheer numbers it's the Spotify bot, but we really don't pay too much attention to audience analytics. You don't get the full picture of impact through quantitative measures alone. 😜

The Pudding Ideas debated in culture, explained with visual essays We wield original #data 📈, primary research, and interactivity. Read all 150+ projects at https://pudding.cool

Check out our YouTube channel. Russell live coded a project from start to finish and live coded the making of our website in Svelte. The videos might be a bit dated because code bases change so
rapidly, but they should give you a feel for how we code.

m.youtube.com/@thepudding/...

How to recreate our charts without code Video tutorials: You don't need to know how to code to make cool charts! Here's how to do it.

New video tutorials! You don't need to be a developer to make cool charts — here's how to recreate some of our latest graphics without using any code.

pudding.cool/process/no-c...

Is the Love Song Dying? We categorized songs in the Billboard Top 10 to see if love songs are on the decline.

And check out the project here: pudding.cool/2024/11/love...

Is the love song dying? Here's what the data says Is the love song dying? NPR's Juana Summers speaks David Mora and Michelle Jia about their recent essay in The Pudding, which set out to answer that question.

Listen to authors David Mora and Michelle Jia talk more about their recent project, "Is the love song dying?", on @npr.org's All Things Considered.

www.npr.org/2025/01/24/n...

What Makes an Album the Greatest of All Time? Examining 30 years of Rolling Stone’s “Greatest Albums of All Time” Rankings

Rolling Stone just released their top albums of the 21st Century with Beyonce’s Lemonade at #1. Last year, we looked at what could influence these rankings: popularity, original release
medium, streaming availability, and the judge’s gender and age.

pudding.cool/2024/03/grea...

Batting by the Numbers The evolution of baseball’s perfect lineup

Today the baseball world mourns leadoff legend Rickey Henderson, MLB’s leader in stolen bases, runs scored, & leadoff homers. Per our analysis, if he played today he would’ve likely batted 5th instead of 1st, potentially robbing us of his greatness.

pudding.cool/2024/09/line...