Christie Aschwanden

Christie Aschwanden is an American journalist and the former lead science writer at FiveThirtyEight. Her 2019 book GOOD TO GO: What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn From the Strange Science of Recovery, was a New York Times bestseller. She was awarded an American Association for the Advancement of Science Kavli Science Journalism Award in 2016 and serves on the board of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing.

Christie Aschwanden
Alma materUniversity of Colorado Boulder
University of California, Santa Cruz
AwardsAAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award

Early life and education

Aschwanden is the daughter of a United States Air Force fighter pilot.[1] She was a high school track star. Aschwanden studied biology at the University of Colorado Boulder, where, alongside her studies, she was a professional cyclist.[2] During her summers she interned at ScienceNOW, the web news service of the journal Science.[2] After graduating she worked as a research assistant in a laboratory in Boulder.[2] Whilst she briefly considered applying for a doctorate, she did not want to specialize.[3] During her time as a researcher Aschwanden discovered the popular-science magazine New Scientist and decided that she would like to be a science journalist.[3] She attended a science writing workshop in Santa Fe in 1996.[4] She eventually studied science communication at University of California, Santa Cruz and graduated in 1998.[5]

Career

Aschwanden is interested in the research process, and spent 2015 investigating whether science was “broken”.[6] Her investigations considered scientific misconduct and fraud, and found that whilst these cases made headlines, they were a "mere distraction" from science itself.[7][8] She has studied P-hacking, a method that involves narrowing or expanding data sets to prove a particular hypothesis.[7] Scientific results are influenced by the analytical decisions of researchers, and whilst they are usually in "good faith", they can bias the way evidence is interpreted. She went on to show that the science of nutrition wasn't clean-cut; owing to difficulties in relying on self-reported diets, and how the act of self-reporting changes how one chooses food.[9] During her investigations Aschwanden demonstrated that, to a certain p-value, eating shellfish was linked to being right handed and that eating cabbage was linked to having an innie bellybutton.[9] Her reporting was the first to reveal the statistical and reproducibility issues in sports science, in particularly, concerns over magnitude-based inference (MBI).[10] MBI is a statistical method that was developed by a group of Australian sport scientists. It has received widespread criticism for not being robust – the sample sizes are too small and the conclusions are not backed up by enough evidence.[11]

In 2013, Aschwanden proposed the Finkbeiner test, a checklist to end gender bias in journalism.[12]

GOOD TO GO: What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn From the Strange Science of Recovery, Aschwanden's first book, explored the science of exercise recovery.[13][14] It looks at the tools that have been developed to optimize recovery, including nutrition, mental health and inflammation.[15] The book made the New York Times Sports & Fitness best sellers list.[16]

She spent 2013 as a Carter Center Fellow, and 2014 as a Santa Fe Institute Journalism Fellow.[17][18] In 2019 Aschwanden was the science writer in residence at the University of Wisconsin–Madison where she spoke about the use and abuse of scientific evidence.[19] Aschwanden produces the podcast Emerging Form, which discusses the creative process.[20] She has spoken at the Aspen Ideas Festival.[21] Her writing has appeared in Runner's World, The New York Times, The Washington Post and New Scientist. She serves on the board of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing, and was formerly the lead science writer for FiveThirtyEight.[22] She has said that she liked working at FiveThirtyEight because she could create exciting infographics.[3]

Awards and honors

Selected publications
  • Aschwanden, Christie (2019). Beautiful Chickens: Portraits of Champion Breeds. Ivy Press. ISBN 978-1782407614.
  • Aschwanden, Christie (2019). Good to Go: How to Eat, Sleep and Rest Like a Champion. Pan Macmillan. ISBN 978-1509827657.

Personal life

Aschwanden is an endurance athlete.[1] She has been involved in athletics, cycling and skiing. She is a member of the Team Rossignol Nordic skiing squad. She is married and lives with her husband, Dave Aschwanden, and numerous animals in Western Colorado on a small winery.[19][29] The winery produces Chill Switch Wines.

References
  1. "Could You Find Contentment in Your Own Backyard?". Oprah.com. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  2. "Science Notes -- Summer 1998". sciencenotes.ucsc.edu. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  3. Rayapati, Nitya (2015-09-01). "The Science Wonk: An Interview with FiveThirtyEight's Christie Aschwanden". The Politic. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  4. "Santa Fe Science Writing Workshop". Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  5. "Christie Aschwanden". Runner's World. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  6. King, Ritchie (2015-08-19). "Science Isn't Broken". FiveThirtyEight. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  7. "Winners of the 2016 AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Awards | Science Journalism Awards". sjawards.aaas.org. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  8. "Giving Credence: Why is So Much Reported Science Wrong, and What Can Fix That?". Cal Alumni Association. 2015-12-15. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  9. Barry-Jester, Anna Maria (2016-01-06). "You Can't Trust What You Read About Nutrition". FiveThirtyEight. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  10. Koeze, Ella (2018-05-16). "How Shoddy Statistics Found A Home In Sports Research". FiveThirtyEight. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  11. Mannix, Liam (2019-11-15). "Cold water poured on scientific studies based on 'statistical cult'". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  12. "The Finkbeiner Test". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  13. "Good to Go". wwnorton.com. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  14. Chen, Angela (2019-02-04). "What really works when it comes to sports recovery?". The Verge. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  15. The Strange Science on Physical Recovery with Christie Aschwanden, retrieved 2019-11-15
  16. "Sports and Fitness Books - Best Sellers - March 17, 2019 - The New York Times". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-02-09.
  17. "The Carter Center Awards 2013-2014 Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism". cartercenter.org. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  18. "Christie Aschwanden | Santa Fe Institute". www.santafe.edu. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  19. "Science journalist Christie Aschwanden visits as UW–Madison Science Writer in Residence". news.wisc.edu. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  20. "Emerging Form | A Podcast About the Creative Process". Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  21. "Christie Aschwanden | Aspen Ideas". Aspen Ideas Festival. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  22. "Christie Aschwanden". FiveThirtyEight. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  23. "ASJA Awards Christie Aschwanden the 2008 Arlenes Award". Pulitzer Center. 2008-04-11. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  24. "AIBS About | AIBS 2007 Media Awards". www.aibs.org. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  25. "2012 Science in Society Journalism Award winners". www.nasw.org. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  26. "Sigma Delta Chi Awards - Society of Professional Journalists". www.spj.org. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  27. "Award Winners Online 2016". sjawards.aaas.org. Retrieved 2019-11-18.
  28. "2016 - The Winners". www.informationisbeautifulawards.com. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  29. "Christie Aschwanden". Christie Aschwanden. Retrieved 2020-02-10.
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