About

Hi! I’m Josh Starmer and welcome to StatQuest! StatQuest started out as an attempt to explain statistics to my former co-workers – who were all genetics researchers at UNC-Chapel Hill. They did amazing experiments, but they didn’t always know what to do with the data they generated. That was my job. But I wanted them to understand that what I did wasn’t magic – it was actually quite simple. It only seemed hard because it was wrapped up in confusing terminology and typically communicated using equations. I found that if I stripped away the terminology and communicated the concepts using pictures, it became easy to understand.

Over time I made more and more StatQuests and now it’s my passion on YouTube.

What people are saying about StatQuest!!!

“StatQuest is by far my favorite resource because of the extremely clever delivery of the content (and not to mention the awesome song introductions!)” – Lara Ozkan, winner of the Yale Science and Engineering Award

200 thoughts on “About

  1. hi,
    thanks for the great videos, I just discovered u! helpful and fun. BAM!!!

    I’m trying to look around here, and I feel a good index page of ALL posts (video + code for each) could be very helpful, or may be you have one and I just didn’t find it 🙂

    the “video index” page is missing a lot of stuff, that you can find only by scanning through the main home page. but the main home page is only organaize by date of posting, not by subject, and is very difficult to search.

    many videos that appear in main home page I can’t see in the video index page,
    and it is also difficult to fine the code sections of many of the videos

    your site is a Treasure Box! a good index page of ALL posts (video + code for each) would help us really make good use of it! (and if I just missed it and it exists… I sorry 🙂 please guide me how to…

    thanks a lot!

  2. Just let you know you’ve taken online learning to the next level. I understand all the methods better than I did. I think now I can explain them to my grandmother just like Albert Einstein’s quote “You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother.”

    Many thanks Josh

    • Thank you so much!!! I’m very happy to hear that my videos are so helpful. I have a lot of fun making them, but you telling me how much they have helped you learn about statistics – that makes it more than just fun. It’s meaningful.

  3. Your videos are really easy to understand . I usually start watching one when I eat lunch . You can understand how easy it is and how entertaining it is . It’s a lot of work making such video and great thanks to your efforts .

  4. Time for another big thank you and praise for your wonderful wit and teaching. I just went through the edgeR and DESeq videos and for dessert the t-SNE…great for the day after Thanksgiving…the series is terrific…

  5. Hi,

    Thank you for your videos, ability to explain material so clearly is a gift.

    I would add two companion videos (or pdf? mathjax in html page?) for each topic with

    a) math with derivations at undergraduate level (Lebesgue measure would probably be too deep, on the other hand, you can explain things really well, couple of videos about Lebesgue with lots of examples could be an interesting challenges and I believe, there will be a lot of people how would be grateful?)
    b) workout of the topic in python numpy/scipy or R

    I noticed that you do have some R and some math in the videos, but this is a bit too casual. Those additions would make your website self contained, that would be useful for autodidacts. But I do understand, that this would be a huge work and keep you probably busy for next couple of years, so may be it is too much to ask.
    Just an idea to consider

    once more, thank you very much, your videos are really good

    • Thanks so much for all of the ideas! I plan on doing StatQuest for as long as I can make videos – so, who knows? Maybe one day I’ll get around to this. I like the idea of people being able to go as deep as they want to go to learn about statistics and machine learning.

  6. Hi Josh, watched your youtube video on Benjamin Hochberg method and it’s pretty damn amazing (bam!) because it helped me to finally understand the algorithm. I really can’t wait to watch ALLLLL the remaining videos during my upcoming holidays. Keep rocking and keep doing what you’re doing, you make stats really sexy 😉

  7. I Was creating a capstone project for the final term. Your videos helped a lot. Your teaching method is really amazing. Thanks a lot.. From an Indian living in Canada.. BAM!!!

  8. Hello Josh,

    You are doing a great job BAM..
    The videos are very useful to understand the concept. The great thing about you is that you are sharing your knowledge without any cost i like that. If you need any help on creating the videos i can help you and contribute.

  9. Hey Josh!

    I would like to thank you in person for your Machine Learning videos. (BAM)
    Thanks to you, I got AA from Machine Learning course. (TRIPLE BAM)
    If I get a job, I promise I’ll buy your songs.

  10. Hi Josh,

    I know you don’t just walk up to Chez Panisse and ask for their souffle recipe, but can you, by chance, give us a peek into how you make your videos? That is, what techniques and software do you use to produce the mathematically accurate but visually pleasing diagrams, illustrations and animations? I’m a high school biology teacher hoping to do the same some day.

    • I’ll pull back the curtain and tell you that I started using PowerPoint and iMovie. I just drew everything by hand, except for a few graphs, here and there, drawn in R (a programming language for statistics). Then PowerPoint started crashing and causing a lot of other problems, so I moved to Keynote, a free Apple program (like iMovie). Keynote is way better than PowerPoint and it has a nice, built in equation editor, which is useful, but I avoid it as much as I can. If I make writing equations hard, then that forces me to use pictures to tell the story instead – and that’s what StatQuest is all about – using pictures to explain what is going on. The equations should only be there for very specific things.
      Anyway, long story short: there’s nothing special about the tools I use.

    • Awesome! I think I looked at that conference, or something like it, but was worried that it was geared towards people who teach statistics in a classroom. I don’t “officially” teach statistics. I just make videos as a fun thing to do in my spare time. When I’m at work I do biostatistics and computational stuff as a research collaborator. – so I was worried that I wouldn’t fit in with that group. But maybe one day I will. More likely, I’ll come to Norway to go hiking. I’ve heard it is amazing and always wanted to go.

      • -I just make videos as a fun thing to do in my spare time.
        How awesome isn’t that! Well, I will go to USCOTS this year to peel oranges 🙂 And if you plan a trip to Norway, you must let me know! Looking forward to more of your lovely videos!

  11. Hey Josh, do you think you could maybe make a video explaining covariance? I didn’t see any on your channel, and think it’d be very helpful!

  12. Hi, I recently found your videos on youtube and this website. I really like them. You deliver the materials in the way to be very easy to understand. I am now starting to study about single cell analysis. However, I am confused what materials I have to start with. Could you please give me lists of materials I should learn about single cell analysis? Thank you very much

  13. Hi Josh,

    First of all, I can’t thank you enough for your videos. It has made my life a lot easier. BA-BAM!!

    Secondly, do you think you could maybe make a video on time-series forecasting concepts like random-walk, serial correlation, stationarity, and ARIMA. I have been struggling to understand it for quite some time.

    Thanks!

  14. Hello Dr. Josh,

    I have become a fan of yours as well as statistics after visiting your channel. Is there any link to download slides you show in your video? A hard copy in hand would be very much helpful while watching your videos. Thank you.

  15. Had some questions related to the Adaboost example. After the first stump using Patient Weight (176), when we want to identify the second stump using the new sample data set (and weights 1/8), should we consider all the records with patient weight as 167 as 1 to find the average weights to be used in the Patient Weight stump?
    If I use only 1 instance of 167, the average weights come out to be (140.5, 161.5, 169.5 & 188.5). The Gini for Chest Pain and Patient Weight > 169.5 comes out to be equal. Which variable to use for the stump? Is the approach correct or am I missing something?

    Would appreciate a reply and let me know if more details are needed.

    Thanks

  16. Hi Josh,

    Just a quick question on your excellent PCA video (https://youtu.be/FgakZw6K1QQ?t=637) you show that the eigenvector for PC1 can be described by 4 parts Gene 1 and 1 part Gene 2. Does the direction matter? That is, can the eigenvector also be described as -4 parts Gene 1 and -1 part Gene 2?

    Ultimately, I’m guessing it doesn’t matter, as the data will still be separated on the final PCA plot relative to each other (just flipped?)

    Thanks for any advice, keep up the amazing videos.

    Jem

    • Direction does not matter. This means that the results can flip, just like you predict. I’ve seen this happen using different PCA functions applied to the same dataset.

  17. Hi Josh,

    I am very thankful to you. The way you explain complex things is a God Gift to you.
    I am Also a teacher and i am trying to adapt your teaching methodology.

    BAAAAAM!!! Double BAM!!!!!!!!!!! Triple BAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    DUH!!!!!!!!!

    Love you Man…… Keep it up.

    Thanks,
    Ark

  18. I don’t know how to say it properly so i’ll just be straight forward (germans are like that): I love you and your videos! Just amazing how you are able to explain

      • Thank you so much on your you tube videos.I’m from Croatia,Europe.Hope you’ll have more and more explanation how to ‘explain data’. What do you think about ‘k-nearest’ method ? Some people told me:’It is just enough to know ‘Regression concept’ and ‘Logistic regression’ and you can’t make mistake… thanks a lot one more time..greetings from Croatia..Srdjan

  19. BAM BAM BAM ! You are the MAN ! Thank you so much for this great service. Wish we could clone you in other subjects and make everything easy and fun to understand.

  20. Dear Josh,

    Thank you so much for your youtube series. Although I am a professional data analyst / scientist with a statistical background these series really helped me to move to the next level. Truly understanding what’s going on ‘under the hood’ is not only greatly satisfying, but also a lot of fun.

    Please keep making videos :).

    Kind Regards,

    Ernst

  21. Dear Josh,

    I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Mathematics and recently really interested in Data Science. I was taking an ML course that follows ESLII book. Rather than the math part, the notations and lingo in the book are quite different. Luckily, I came across some of your videos on Youtube, and I should say you are great at teaching! I appreciate your efforts! BAM!

    Best Regards,

  22. Sometimes more is more, and less is less,
    The more I read, the more I stress,
    The less I learn, the less I invest,
    Look no farther, my friend,
    ‘for here is StatQuest,
    Josh Starmer, you da muthaf***in BEST!

  23. I just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to create these videos. I am a graduate student and refer to your videos from time to time. Your explanations make statistics so easy to understand.

    Thank you!

  24. Hi! Wondering if we can buy a compilation of your songs? I would love to sing along and drive my kids and their friends crazy while sharing my love for statistics and re-inforcing that math is SUPER COOL!!!

    • Sure, but YouTube doesn’t let me edit my videos once I post them. But if you find a mistake, I can mention it in a pinned comment below the video and people will see that.

  25. Josh, I like your youtube video.. It is great and simple to understand what the models are doing. I enjoy to watch. I am wondering how you did the slides? How can I find you slides? The slides are very helpful and excellent. thanks

    Jerry

    • I make the slides in Keynote, however, I’m making PDF study guides to go along with the videos. If you have any topic that you would like a PDF study guide for, let me know.

  26. Hi,

    Just discovered your StatQuest videos while following courses on stats/ML and omics data treatment during our local COVID-19 containment period.
    Thank you for the effort, because I could grasp concepts I was allergic to !

    Pity, I did not know this, when I came to visit UNC at Chapel Hill last february (2020).
    I did visit some labs and facilities, but not yours !…

    Thierry

  27. Thank you very much for making these videos. The concepts are very clearly explained.
    Couple of questions –
    1. Do you have any plans to provide python codes for some of these ML models ?
    2. I really would love to learn a few forecasting techniques; may be just 4-5 videos explaining the concepts ver briefly. Do you have any plans for these in the near future?

    Thank you again for explaining the concepts so clearly; I think your way of explaining the concepts with visuals is immensely helpful.

  28. Thank you very much for these incredible jobs
    I have a question concerning the software you used to prepare the explaining videos???

  29. I teach business analytics in a business school and lots of my students do not have strong prior knowledge in maths and stats. These students have gone through a basic stats course (not under my purview) but sad to say I am not confident that they have learnt much.

    So your text (An Introduction to Statistical Learning with Applications in R) seems ideal for my situation.
    I am considering using this as my main text in the course. Do you have any advice on how I can best make use of your materials.
    Questions:
    1) Why provide PDF of the book and at the same time sell your book on Amazon? I bet most of us will just download your PDF version—its free!?? Anyway, I will support your work by purchasing the ebook for the course, when I finally get the approval to use it.

    2) In your view, is teaching Statistical Methods (i.e., a calculus-based statistics course that contains the use of derivatives and integrals for learning statistics and linear regression analysis) useful to business students? Actually I find it very challenging. I would think my students are like your colleagues in Genetic lab. That’s why I think your book and materials come in handy.

    3) Another challenge I have is to link the application of Statistics to real-world problems. Many of my students can solve classroom exercises and problems, but they have difficulty identifying the kind of concepts/techniques to apply when comfronting with vaguely-structured real world problems/issues/situations that lack spoon-fed information. Picking your brains to learn if you have experience/materials/approaches to address this challenge.

    Thanks + BAM!!!
    James

  30. Hello Josh, I just stumbled on your Youtube channel while trying hard to understand Linear Regression & Gradient Descent and then i listened to your songs. DOUBLE BAM !!

    Well done man, i really hope you have fun doing all of the things you do and asides inspiring to keep working hard at understanding Data Science, you’ve opened my eyes to the fact that there’s enough time to be very good at Data Science (PhD), make amazing Youtube videos and also make good music.

    Thank you 🙂

  31. Hi Josh,
    I watched your videos on the Quantiles and Percentiles and then Q-Q Plots. I wanted to generate a QQ plot on my own like you did. So I took a sample of 15 data points. But I don’t know how to calculate the quantiles of those 15 samples. So I would really appreciate if you could please share your values (dataset) of those 15 jeans used in the Q-Q plot video and explain me how you arrived at 0.6,1.1, and 1.9 values for the first 3 data points (jeans). It would be wonderful if you share the R code as well.
    Thanks,
    Dicky

  32. Hi, the contact form does not load on my computer. My question is: do you have a StatQuest on Poisson Regression? If not, can you make one?
    Thank you for your videos.
    All the best

  33. Single mom of a toddler, working full-time online, and trying to gain more skills for me. I appreciate how easy to understand you made it to be. Thank you for your efforts.

  34. Hi Josh,

    A couple of days I ago posed my comment about your Q-Q plot video and asked if you could please share the data values of those 15 genes so I can understand how you calculated them based on the first 3 quantile values you mentioned in the video. I also requested you to please explain how you calculated them. However, for some reason my post has disappeared. I would really appreciate if you could please share those 15 data values of genes and explain how to calculate those quantiles.

    Thanks,
    Dicky

  35. Hi Josh,
    thanks your great job, your videos are so useful and exciting, your way of thinking is so logical.
    Do you plant to make videos about record linkage? Recently I should work whit that methodology and I find it so interesting, I am glad to see your interpretation of record linkage.

  36. BAM! Amazing materials….when should we expect a video on Bayesian Network or PGM (probabilistic graphical model)?

    Thanks 🙂

  37. Hi Josh,

    I just wanted to express my appreciation to you for making those videos. I really like the way you explain those complicated concepts. I always find myself going to your channel first whenever I want to review or pick up some new concepts (TRIPLE BAM!!!). Do you plan to cover some time series forecasting (both traditional and machine learning approach) in the future?

    Thanks
    M.

  38. Hi Josh,

    you’re a great teacher and I am glad that I’have discovered your channel on youtube.

    Go on with your amazing videos!

    Best regards

    Konrad

  39. The best channel to learn machine learning and statistics.
    We believe that if you could write a book, it would revolutionize the statistics and machine learning area!
    The world needs a Professor like you.

  40. Hey Josh,

    Thanks for amazing videos.
    Your videos helped me get a good understanding of many ML topics.
    I will buy your songs when I get a job. 🙂

    BAM!

    Best,
    Glen

  41. Hi Josh,

    What an amazing work you are doing. Concepts that I thought I understood you were able to put into new and much clearer perspective. And you do it in a fun way, with great visuals and step by step explanations. Extraordinary ! It made me appreciate statistics and the art of explaining it even more.

    A big tip of the hat to you ! If there was such a thing as Oscars for Statistics, you’d be the Meryl Streep of it 🙂

    Infinite BAM: Beyond All Mastery !!

    Greetings from Brussels,
    Dieter

  42. Thank you for your work. Your videos and posts have helped me many times in data analysis! 🙂

    I would like to ask for advice.
    I’d like to analyze the gene expression data between samples (RNASeq).
    I have a dataset (from a database) as a matrix where raw read counts was first quantile-normalized, then normalized by the RUVg function (batch correction). I have doubts whether the comparison of gene expression between samples after quantile-normalized is correct or should I have data in TPM?

    Regards,
    Gosia

  43. Hi, Josh!

    Do you have any plans to create a video over data snooping? I know what it is, but you have a significant knack for creating concise videos and I think that you would contribute greatly to many people’s understanding about data snooping if you’d make one because you’re totally awesome!

    Thank you for all of the things that you do!

  44. {{stats term}} search on Google – Lame…
    ‘{{stats term}} + StatQuest’ search on YouTube – Bam!

    Lame jokes aside, thank you so much for creating these videos and helping demystifying many of the concepts.

  45. Hi Josh, your videos are amazing and so intuitive! You’re saving my stats life! Just wish I had found your channel sooner. Thanks a million and stay well!

  46. Oh hey! Big fan of stats quest! I always felt I should be able to understand this stuff but never could following stuff online and felt quite dumb! Then I found stats quest while researching machine learning and bam! I can understand this stuff and I feel smart again.

    Thank you stats quest! Big love!

  47. Hi Josh,
    If possible please create a StatQuest and Study guide for Probability. Mainly to prepare for Data Scientist interview @Google, Microsoft, Amazon like companies.

    Thanks!

  48. Dear Josh Starmer,

    I’m a hybrid researcher, Doing my experimental stuff and coding also. I have a hard time to understand how the VSN (varianceStabilizingTransformation). But still i tried and i failed. I am looking around in the internet but i could not find how it is been done for the biological data. like the way, you broke down DESEQ. If it is possible can you please make a video about this.

  49. Hi Josh Starmer, I’m a computer science student living in France. Your videos are amazing. You’re a gifted tutor and I would have hoped that more professors would have your pedagogical approach to teaching different “complexed” subjects. You’ve succeeded where must teachers have historically failed. Thanks U.

  50. Great Job! Thank you very much Dr. Josh Starmer. Thank you so much for your time and efforts. Really you’re Scientist. I’m proud of you. Go Ahread!

  51. Thank you Josh Starmer for providing videos on YouTube channel !.

    You and your team have great explaining skill. The way you create video and explain it are awesome.
    Keep doing good work and enable participants.

    If possible, you should also start showing code snippet .

    • I’m sorry you’re having trouble buying a hat! Unfortunately I have no idea what the problem might be. Perhaps contact Spreadshop directly? tiny bam. 🙁

  52. Hi Josh, thanks for made statistic such an easy and fun topic. I ‘ve always struggle with statistics , it has never been my strong point, but thanks to your videos I’ve managed to get a good grasp on many concepts. Your explanations are very intuitive and clarifying . Keep on posting videos,
    BAM!!

    Best,

    Isra

  53. You are a great guy ! I’m Brazilian and you are helping me so much. You speak so clear all the concepts…you are so focused and funny, clever….You’ve created a super material ! Tks so much !!!!

    I put this in my Facebook…:

    Este é o melhor website, conteúdo, didática objetiva, simplicidade, utilidade e gentileza/capricho que pude receber em minha vida.
    Fico tão agradecido e fã deste autor, que o mínimo que pude fazer foi compartilhar aqui. É sobre o que amo estudar, ciência de dados. É um privilégio poder assistir seus vídeos.

  54. Hello!
    I want to say thanks for for great videos, its just amazing balance of fun and serious knowledge.
    Thank you!
    BAM!

  55. Hi Josh, thank you for all your great work and videos!!
    Without those, I couldn’t pass any class of stat. You’re the saviour of my study, infinite BAM!

  56. Greeting for Chile, You are the best, You are very welcome Chile, beautiful landscapes and vinyards wait for you

    I learned a lot from you!! I am very thanfuy from you, you made the imposible to understand, posible!!

  57. Hi Josh,

    Do you think AI has a chance in music generation? I’ve tried couple of solutions like Junkbox and Magenta, but they seem too far being helpful on making music. I’m interested in this topic. As I know you are a music lower and can tell more about that?

    • One of the first programs I wrote was to generate music. It was “interesting”. I’m sure AI is better now than before, but I think the thing that AI will really do is help get people started. It might create a cool beat that you could tweak a little bit and then layer with other stuff. This will make music creation faster and a little easier. And then there will be a backlash and we’ll all just listen to acoustic music! 🙂

  58. Hi, Josh! Greetings from Brazil!

    I just started learning Data Science and Machine Learning and I’m addicted at StatQuest!

    Your videos are absurdly clears, simples and didactic, without leaving any key concept with no explanation.

    You are an inspiration for all of us.

    Thank you very much to share all of your knowledge, be sure that that’s changing peoples lifes.

  59. Hi, Josh. You likely don’t remember me, but, if you are Frank Starmer’s son, I think our lines crossed on some graph a long time ago (say, half a century) in Durham, NC. In the late 1960’s, my wife and I (with child-on-lap as we did in those days) were driving on the S side of Duke Park on Knox St., approaching N Roxboro when we heard intense screams from children. By the time we turned around to investigate, two youngsters were coming out of the grove onto the sidewalk. The younger was a boy (you?) covered by angry yellow jackets that refused to be removed by the flailing of the older girl (your sister?). Now being on that side of the road, my wife instinctively (foolishly?) exited and began wiping the insects off (I’ll give her a B). By the time I got out and circled the car, a teen-age boy showed up, shed his shirt and began beating the bees off with it. We were thinking of calling 911, but no cell phones existed in those days. The boy told us that he knew the kids, – neighbors of his, and directed us to either Acadia or Glendale nearby. He told us that the kids’ dad was a doctor who worked at Duke. I seem to remember him saying that the dad’s name was Frank Starmer, and he hustled them inside there. (We never heard how that scary incident turned out.) But, it did relate to yet another crossing of lines on the grid, one even older. There was a Frank Starmer who was in the science club (1959 senior class at Grimsley, Greensboro) and playing piano with the “Mad Lads” (don’t blame me, I didn’t make up that name). That was the same year I was taking physics/chemistry/math classes and playing alto sax with the dance/concert/marching bands, leading eventually to a career with Monsanto Company, RTP, NC (which is why we ended up in Durham for fifty years). Now retired and 82 years old (+/- 1 sigma), we are happily living on a tiny “farm” back near Greensboro (a shadow of our farmer selves), enjoying our horses, goats, chickens, fruit trees, berry vines, and veggie garden, but always cautiously watching out for stinging insects. BAM! Bet you weren’t expecting this. Please convey our greetings to your parents. By the way, “Mr. cello player”, my cousin, Susan Caviness, played that same instrument with the GHS orchestra in ’59 and later taught it, and my dad was the NC champion blue grass fiddler in 1956. Also, I taught electrical classes at the community college for 25 years. But, for now we are enjoying good health and a busy life in the sweet countryside, way out in the tails of the curve. Al & Patsy

  60. As I approach my 60th year, your site and videos have helped me prove it is never too late to learn! I now understand Neural Networks having been trying for several years – having found your content!! Thanks for your great work.

  61. Hi Josh,
    Thank you for putting in the time and effort to such a wonderful collection of academic content in way that is easily understandable.
    I am really grateful and appreciate your work.
    It had helped me a lot.
    I have already ordered your book from amazon and looking forward to reading it

    Thanks a lot!

  62. This is one of the best content I have come across. So well structured and concepts are explained so simply. Thank you so much for the effort and thoughts you put into this.

  63. Hello Josh
    I am very excited with this simple explained contents. Really I gain alot and I hope I re apply your concepts in my education journey with undergraduates. Thanks!
    Best greetings from Yemen.

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