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The PolicyViz PodcastAuthor: The PolicyViz Podcast
Learn how to be a great data communicator and visualizer with host Jon Schwabish. Hear from experts in the fields of data science, data visualization, and presentation skills to improve how you and your organization collect, analyze, and communicate your data in better, more efficient, and more effective ways. Language: en Genres: Business, Education, How To Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Mike "SullyDawg" Sullivan: Explaining Trillion-Dollar Budgets with Solo Cups
Episode 318
Tuesday, 6 October, 2026
In this week’s episode of the show, I talk with Mike "SullyDawg" Sullivan, the viral creator behind the cup pyramid videos that turn massive federal budget numbers into something you can actually see. Mike spent decades as a teacher and coach before a bike ride inspired his first video stacking Solo cups to explain government spending — and it took off almost overnight. We dig into why three-dimensional scale succeeds where bar charts and line graphs fail, how he sources and cross-checks the data behind every video, and the four-part formula he swears by: topic, data, energy, and visual. Mike also opens up about the physical work of stacking thousands of cups in his garage, the unpredictable swings of the social media algorithms, and what’s next for his growing platform. It’s a fun, thoughtful conversation about making enormous numbers finally make sense.Subscribe to this podcast. Follow this show and everything dataviz on Instagram, LinkedIn, Substack, X, and YouTube. Check out the PolicyViz websiteto learn more about data and data visualization.Questions? Comments? Pitch ideas? Email me at: jon@policyviz.comHosted by Zencastr where you can record, transcribe, edit, and automatically publish your meetings, podcasts, and more.
