What does it really mean to “count everyone”—and who decides how data shapes our democracy?
In this episode, we uncover the politics, complexities, and human stories behind the U.S. Census with Danah Boyd.

Topics Covered

• The evolving purpose and interpretation of the U.S. Census
• Data legitimacy and the social fabric around statistics
• Online manipulation and attempts to disrupt the 2020 Census
• The invisible infrastructure and complex processes of demographic data
• Geographies, census blocks, and mapping America
• Political battles over counting citizens vs. residents
• Jenga metaphor for U.S. agencies’ fragility
• AI’s dependency on civic data and community knowledge
• Concept collapse and the shifting meaning of “political”
• Hope in civil servants and the future of collective action

• Read danah boyd’s book, *Data Are Made, Not Found:*
  • https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/D/bo277581183.html
• Submit a public comment on the proposed 2030 Census residence rules by November 2nd: https://handsoffourcens.us/

• Website: https://www.danah.org
• Blog (Apophenia): https://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/
• Newsletter: https://made-not-found-by-danah-boyd.ghost.io/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danahboyd/
• Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/zephoria.bsky.social

Episode Chapters

00:04 Introduction, framing the census as more than just counting
01:14 Danah Boyd’s background and origin story
03:03 Founding Data & Society and joining the Commerce Department’s Data Advisory Council
04:40 Entering the Census Bureau and studying data legitimacy
06:21 Discovering toxic online forums targeting the 2020 census
09:20 Attending census meetings and understanding the phases of data-making
12:29 Census blocks, the creation of geographies, and mapping
17:39 The challenges of counting everyone and errors in data
20:33 The 2020 Presidential Memorandum and battles over who counts
25:51 New residence rules, Congress’s responsibility, and high-stakes policy debates
27:34 The Jenga metaphor for agency fragility and infrastructure
30:15 Census data and AI: foundational roles and vulnerabilities
33:01 Data legitimacy: social fabric, trust, and the politics of information
35:50 Vocabulary breakdown: “political” and the perception of civil servants
39:30 Hope in civil servants, future action, and collective responsibility
43:43 Appreciation for the census, the new book, and closing thoughts