Philip Bump is a former columnist for The Washington Post. Prior to that he led politics coverage for The Atlantic Wire. In the past, he worked as a designer at Adobe Systems.
Look, I'm not happy about that joke either. But sometimes the creative process floats one over the plate and you just have to take a swing at it, earning a bloop single. Anyway, this week's theme is snow, which doesn't have anything to do
I'm mixing it up a bit this week, presenting charts and data visualizations and maps and so on but with a contrived theme: Things for which I am thankful. See, on Thursday it was Thanksgiving, a holiday when people give thanks for things? So what I'm
In this week's newsletter, we have some music — specifically, the innovative way in which Tracklib illustrates the art of sampling. I also look at new data on ICE detentions (sigh) and the gold rush on naming generations that occurred a few decades ago. There is also a photo
This week's newsletter looks at how we use maps. I review a new book on the subject, interview a mapmaker and show how maps can reshape our assumptions about borders. It's all topped off with what I think is maybe the most effective visualization I'
Chapter 1 It's (almost) all about TV There was an election this week, I assume you heard, one in which the people who were unhappy last year became happy and vice versa. If you're one of the current happy ones, congratulations. If you're not
Chapter 1 What is it that happens when first we practice to deceive? I forget. If you are anything like me, you tuned into cable news coverage of the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021 and thought to yourself, "Hmm, this is bad." Well, that's just
Chapter 1 A geography of American worship The story of the Tower of Babel, you will recall, involves God stymieing the construction of a heavens-destined building by fragmenting human language into all of its current iterations. Hard to build a tower when the foreman speaks French and the workers speak
Prologue About that picture As you are likely aware, this newsletter is the resurrection of one that I wrote for years while I was at The Washington Post. That means that I am adjusting my muscle memory slightly, adapting how I did it to how I am doing it. The
Chapter 1 So, uh, what have you been up to? The last time anyone received an issue of "How To Read This Chart," President Trump hadn't yet deployed the military to D.C., the Mets were only a game-and-a-half out of first and I, Philip Bump,
News
I have decided to revive How To Read This Chart, my modestly popular data-visualization newsletter that captivated an exceptionally small, beautiful part of the world from late 2021 until mid-2025. The first new newsletter (new²sletter) will arrive soon, so subscribe if you haven't already to receive it!