Outlier Editor

The big list of data visualisation resources 2025

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by

Alastair Otter
in ,

By Alastair Otter

Every year I update update my list of favourite data-related resources (podcasts, newsletters, websites and guides). The core of the list remains relatively stable across years but publications do come and go and podcasts go silent.

When I first started this list it was mostly focused on journalism-related data resources. Over time this has shifted towards the broader data and visualisation community.

This is an opinionated list, not a comprehensive one. There is as much not on this list as there is on. If there are things that you feel are egregious omissions please let me know (email at the end) so I can take a look.

First up …

Favourite blogs & publications

Are blogs coming back? It feels like they may be though I think they’re probably called ‘Substacks’ now. Either way there are some fine resources out there like:

  • Nightingale is the newly revamped Data Visualisation Society website to go alongside the Nightingale magazine
  • Flowing Data by Nathan Yau ought to be at the top of every data visualisation practitioner’s reading list. Awesome ideas, regularly
  • Chartable by Datawrapper is chock-full of great tips and deep dives into things like colour and accessibility and more
  • PolicyViz by Jon Schwabish is a great companion to his equally good books
  • ChartR was recently bought by Sherwood News but still does a great newsletter with chart ideas
  • Effective Data Storytelling by Brent Dykes is the companion blog to his excellent book of the same name
  • Codera‘s blog (and companion newsletter) mostly features SA-focused charts that are great for sparking ideas

Must-read newsletters

A mix of newsletters covering data sources, story ideas, techniques and examples of data journalism.

  • Data is Plural by Jeremy Singer-Vine, a weekly newsletter with interesting datasets. You can also catch up on previous datasets with the Data is Plural datasets spreadsheet
  • How to speak Data by Andy Cotgreave is a monthly newsletter covering everything from AI and data to chart disasters on TV
  • Off the Charts by The Economist (you now need to be a subscriber, but it’s almost worth the cost of a subscription alone)
  • Quantum of Sollazzo by Giuseppe Sollazzo, a long-time favourite
  • How to Read this Chart by The Washington Post is extremely accessible reading on chart-making
  • Tools for Reporters by Samantha Sunne is not strictly data or viz but a great resource
  • Data Elixir — Data science-y newsletter, more technical often but also covers a broad range of skill and interest levels
  • Journalism AI — From the Journalism AI project at the LSE
  • FILWD by Enrico Bertini is one of my favourite newsletters, mostly because it delves into the academic side of data visualisation and unearths hard to find research papers on the subject. But it does tend to be more technical
  • The Upshot by The New York Times, great inspiration for data-based stories
  • Latinometrics is charts about Latin America

Listen-up podcasts

There are relatively few data-related podcasts I listen to regularly. It may be that I’m missing some but many of the podcasts I used to listen to seem to have slowed down production or even stopped.

Outside of purely data-related podcasts there are tons of fantastic video podcasts I do listen to regularly:

  • Lenny’s Podcast is aimed at product managers, but there is so much more that makes this an almost essential listen for me.
  • Syntax is still my go-to for (mostly) Javascript-related shows, but broad enough to spark a ton of ideas.
  • Developer Voices with Kris Jenkins is a quirky, deep-dive into tech that very often produces unexpected insight, like the DuckDB episode which is super-relevant to data work.

Tutorials & Guides

Inspiration

What am I missing? Drop me an email with something that you think ought to be on this list: alastair@theoutlier.co.za