What a Day – Episode Summary

Episode: What Happens When We Can’t Rely On Federal Data

Host: Jane Coaston (A), Crooked Media
Air Date: October 3, 2025

Overview

This episode of What a Day, hosted by Jane Coaston, dives deep into the repercussions of losing trust and access to federal data in the U.S. In an environment shaped by ongoing government shutdowns and active political interventions, Jane explores what is at stake when essential data collection and transparency are undermined. She interviews Denise Ross, Senior Fellow at the Federation of American Scientists and former U.S. Chief Data Scientist for the Biden Administration, to unpack the implications of data suppression, staff losses, and governmental manipulation.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Importance and Ubiquity of Federal Data

• [02:17] Denise Ross shares her “favorite federal data set”
  • The North American Bat Monitoring Database helps farmers save billions each year by tracking bats that control pest populations. Loss of such data impacts both agriculture and public health.

  “America’s farmers use billions of dollars of free services from bats because they eat harmful insects... if you want to protect the bats, you need to know where they are. And that’s what this bat monitoring database does.”
  — Denise Ross [02:26]

• Invisible Impact: Federal data influences countless areas from weather events, pollution tracking, to food assistance and infant mortality rates.

2. The Erosion of Federal Data Under the Trump Administration

• [03:16] Ross details three distinct patterns threatening data integrity:
  1. Targeting of “unfavorable” data sets: Especially those relating to gender, diversity, equity & inclusion (DEI), and climate.
     • Example: OPM’s federal workforce race & ethnicity data removed.
     • National Crime Victimization Survey pulls down gender identity metrics.
  2. Collateral damage due to loss of technical staff/contractors: The departure of specialists and dissolution of advisory committees impairs statistical reliability.
  3. Scrubbing data that damages the administration’s image:
     • Social Security performance data on call wait times removed after staff cuts.
     • Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner fired after a bad jobs report.
     • USDA cancels the "food security supplement" survey just as SNAP (food stamps) faces major cuts.

  “The end effect is that data sets are being compromised.”
  — Denise Ross [04:22]

3. Safeguards and Trust: Can We Believe What We See?

• [06:32] Jane presses on the integrity of present data
  • Despite cuts, career civil servants continue to maintain scientific standards for now.
  • The real risk: Political meddling in methodology, and the loss of oversight from advisory committees.

  "We’re certainly getting close to the edge with all of these losses... For now, experts on the outside are closely watching...the consensus right now is that the career staff on the inside are still working with a high degree of scientific integrity.”
  — Denise Ross [06:32]

4. How to Read Data Critically in a Compromised System

• [07:42] Ross distinguishes between raw (primary) government data vs. derivative analysis and interpretation
  • Take core data with a grain of salt; scrutinize heavily interpreted reports, especially those coming from within government agencies.

  “The most scrutiny right now would be worth putting on these derivative works... Reports and analyses and the interpretation of those primary data.”
  — Denise Ross [07:52]

5. Data Revisions: Healthy Practice or Cause for Alarm?

• [08:40] GDP revision example: quarter two growth adjusted from 3.3% to 3.8%
  • Revisions, as explained by Ross, are a normal and healthy part of the statistical process as more accurate data becomes available.

  “The fact that there were revisions itself doesn't concern me... But again, the fact that we are questioning this, I think speaks to the larger concerns about trust.”
  — Denise Ross [09:48]

6. What Happens If Core Federal Data Becomes Untrustworthy?

• [09:54] Potential societal consequences are dire
  • Drawing from her experience post-Hurricane Katrina, Ross illustrates how the sudden unavailability of federal data paralyzes decision-making at all levels—from public health to economic recovery.

  “If you don’t have a common base of trusted information coming from the federal government... that is not a place that we want to be as a society.”
  — Denise Ross [10:53]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the existential risk of data loss:

  “It’s not an option to lose these data. Federal data impact our lives in ways that are often invisible and also that we take for granted... our lives are going to get a lot harder in ways that we can’t even anticipate.”
  — Denise Ross [11:14]

• On political manipulation:

  “So it sounds to me like the Trump administration has decided that there’s just certain information it just doesn’t want to know, or...it doesn’t want us to know.”
  — Jane Coaston [05:56]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:02 – Opening headlines; intro to the episode’s theme
• 01:53 – Introduction of Denise Ross and the start of the main interview
• 02:17 – Practical example: How bat data impacts agriculture and health
• 03:16 – Ross outlines three waves of data erosion
• 05:56 – Discussion on trust and the reliability of current federal data
• 07:42 – How to interpret and scrutinize federal data amid decline
• 08:40 – GDP revisions and what they indicate about the system’s health
• 09:54 – Dangers of living without trustworthy government data; Katrina anecdote

Additional Segments of Interest

News & Analysis (Post-Interview)

• 15:05+ – U.S. farm bailout, trade war fallout, and the paradox of farmers harmed and bailed out by the same Trump policies.
  • Clever framing:

    “Trump takes your money with tariffs, then sells it back to you as a bailout. That’s Trumponomics.” — Jane Coaston [15:41]

• Discussion on Shutdown's Personal Toll:
  • Interview with Matt Berg (Crooked Media) about the mood and hardship among federal workers during the shutdown [22:29].
  • Describes illegal partisan messaging on federal websites, with automatic out-of-office emails blaming Democrats, possibly violating the Hatch Act.

Tone and Language

The episode is smart, acerbic, and frank. Jane’s style combines wry humor (“We have a one word question for Mike Johnson... What are you doing?”), deep curiosity, and clear urgency regarding threats to American data transparency. Denise Ross is sober, measured, and deeply informed, providing both specific examples and systemic analysis that highlight both the technical aspects and high-level societal risks.

Summary Takeaways

• The U.S. is facing a compounding crisis in federal data collection and transparency, driven by political interference, staff attrition, and deliberate suppression of inconvenient facts.
• Losing trust in government data undermines the ability to plan, govern, and respond to crises, impacting everyone from farmers to families to policymakers.
• While core data remains mostly reliable for now thanks to career civil servants, the ecosystem is fragile; dissolution of safeguards portends deeper losses ahead.
• Public scrutiny and independent expertise are critical in this climate. Listeners should be skeptical not only of what is published but especially how it is interpreted and presented by government sources.
• The stakes for democracy, governance, and daily life are high, and the show makes a clear case: robust, transparent federal data is not a partisan concern but a lifeline for society’s functioning.