Amber Thomas

Amber Thomas is a former journalist-engineer at The Pudding. She is a data-lover, story-teller, and pro question asker. She spends time away from her keyboard exploring the outdoors around Seattle and hanging upside down in aerial silks. You can follow her on the socials or check out her website. She has worked on 27 stories to date. Explore them all below.

Stories

Not all nudes are the same. We looked at how names for 6,816 makeup foundations can reveal bias in the beauty industry.

March 2021
Need a cute animal fix? Here’s a menagerie of live-streams from your favorite zoos and aquariums all in one place.

November 2020
Using 50 years of data, we explored economic mobility and determined just how rigid the middle class really is.

August 2020
Using baby name data, we found the names that could be at risk of becomming future "Karens" in 10, 20, and 30 years.

June 2020
What happens when you combine music, a monkey, Joe Rogan, and probability? You get this experiment.

April 2020
When it comes to sanitizing lyrics, where does Kidz Bop draw the line? (This was pre-WAP though; now all bets are off.)

April 2020
These are the cities where you’ll need your umbrella, ella, ella, eh, eh, eh. Seattle may be less rainy than you think.

February 2020
Do authors write where they know? We calculated the distance between where authors lived and where their books were set.

February 2020
Everything’s bigger in Texas, even the number of exported adoptable dogs. Here’s where the dogs in your state are from.

October 2019
Our 2019 hipster summer reading list will introduce you to an artisanal selection of obscure books before they’re cool.

June 2019
Billie Jean is not my lover, but it’s one of the names we tracked for this project. Here’s how often names are in songs.

May 2019
We looked at 19 years of covers to see if Vogue represents women of all shades. You can guess how this went.

April 2019
Do high school basketball stars live up to the hype? Here’s how many find success in the NBA.

March 2019
School dress codes send the wrong messages about womens’ and girls’ bodies. An analysis of 481 policies shows why.

February 2019
Because you just can’t get enough of them, we found every boy band to chart the Hot 100 since 1980.

November 2018
We went there. A data investigation into the travesty that is women’s pockets.

August 2018
No TMI here, just 20,759 people describing their experiences with contraception... and us charting it.

July 2018
Fenty is a champion for makeup inclusivity, but how do other brands compare? We charted their foundation skin tones.

June 2018
We baked the most average chocolate chip cookie. Recipes written by computers — what could go wrong?

May 2018
In a love letter to NYC and Seattle, we pinpoint the types of businesses that distinguish one neighborhood from another.

March 2018
We can all agree that drain hair is gross. But it’s a thin line between love and hate for more than 3,000 other topics.

December 2017
What is black and white and red all over? The racial gap between a newspaper’s staff and the community it covers.

October 2017
In 2017, we mapped the cities and places with the worst access to abortion based on driving times.

September 2017
Men "gallop" and women "giggle," at least according to the gendered tropes found in 2,000 scripts.

August 2017
I’m dining solo, I’m dining solo, solo (Jason Derulo voice). We looked at the dining habits and companions of Americans.

July 2017
What’s best for animals in aquariums? We look to the past & present to gauge the future of captive whales and dolphins.

July 2017
Hurricanes, bankruptcies, and the World Series are all said to spark baby booms.But is there any truth to these tales?

May 2017

Amber Thomas

Stories

Not all nudes are the same. We looked at how names for 6,816 makeup foundations can reveal bias in the beauty industry.

Need a cute animal fix? Here’s a menagerie of live-streams from your favorite zoos and aquariums all in one place.

Using 50 years of data, we explored economic mobility and determined just how rigid the middle class really is.

Using baby name data, we found the names that could be at risk of becomming future "Karens" in 10, 20, and 30 years.

What happens when you combine music, a monkey, Joe Rogan, and probability? You get this experiment.

When it comes to sanitizing lyrics, where does Kidz Bop draw the line? (This was pre-WAP though; now all bets are off.)

These are the cities where you’ll need your umbrella, ella, ella, eh, eh, eh. Seattle may be less rainy than you think.

Do authors write where they know? We calculated the distance between where authors lived and where their books were set.

Everything’s bigger in Texas, even the number of exported adoptable dogs. Here’s where the dogs in your state are from.

Our 2019 hipster summer reading list will introduce you to an artisanal selection of obscure books before they’re cool.

Billie Jean is not my lover, but it’s one of the names we tracked for this project. Here’s how often names are in songs.

We looked at 19 years of covers to see if Vogue represents women of all shades. You can guess how this went.

Do high school basketball stars live up to the hype? Here’s how many find success in the NBA.

School dress codes send the wrong messages about womens’ and girls’ bodies. An analysis of 481 policies shows why.

Because you just can’t get enough of them, we found every boy band to chart the Hot 100 since 1980.

We went there. A data investigation into the travesty that is women’s pockets.

No TMI here, just 20,759 people describing their experiences with contraception... and us charting it.

Fenty is a champion for makeup inclusivity, but how do other brands compare? We charted their foundation skin tones.

We baked the most average chocolate chip cookie. Recipes written by computers — what could go wrong?

In a love letter to NYC and Seattle, we pinpoint the types of businesses that distinguish one neighborhood from another.

We can all agree that drain hair is gross. But it’s a thin line between love and hate for more than 3,000 other topics.

What is black and white and red all over? The racial gap between a newspaper’s staff and the community it covers.

In 2017, we mapped the cities and places with the worst access to abortion based on driving times.

Men "gallop" and women "giggle," at least according to the gendered tropes found in 2,000 scripts.

I’m dining solo, I’m dining solo, solo (Jason Derulo voice). We looked at the dining habits and companions of Americans.

What’s best for animals in aquariums? We look to the past & present to gauge the future of captive whales and dolphins.

Hurricanes, bankruptcies, and the World Series are all said to spark baby booms.But is there any truth to these tales?