A is for AI-generated music and AWESOME dataviz on wildfires and your electricity bills (not awesome)

Hello Storybenchers!

Happy Friday, Benchies! 🍂 Remember how we said it was fall LAST week? Here’s a little known fact for ya; turns out summer’s official last day is Sept 23 (or 24 depending who you ask), who knew!? Anyways, now that it’s OFFICIALLY sweater season, we’re talking all things autumn, and for a lot of Bostonians, fall means one thing: moving. (Allston Christmas, anyone? 🚪🛏️) This week, we’ll be talking Boston housing (or lack thereof), utility bills (as if housing wasn’t $$$ enough) and as always, so much awesome dataviz!

Let’s dive in 😎

Here is our featured content this week:

🎶Al is transforming music faster than we think.

It’s hard to turn on the news these days without reading something about how artificial intelligence is changing the face of one industry or another — and the music world is no exception. AI-generated music tools, such as those developed by companies like Suno, are making waves in the creative process — with consequences both exciting and controversial. Such a shift raises questions about authorship, copyright and the future of musical identity — it’s a lot to process. Namira Haris is breaking it down for us, informed by her interview with the Washington Post's Yan Wu (former Husky and current opinion graphics reporter and front-end developer) to discuss her experiences with AI tools, thoughts on how AI impacts creativity and advice for those covering this rapidly evolving field. Check out Wu’s latest immersive journalism story, “Why Musicians Are Smart to Embrace AI,” and learn more about her thoughts on AI and creativity here!

👀 Visualizing organic carbon in near real time – A step-by-step guide

Marco Hernandez has worked in graphics for more than 20 years. His resume includes Reuters, La Nación, The South China Morning Post and the New York Times – and it shows. In this amazing step-by-step guide, he breaks down exactly how he used forecast models from NASA’s Global Modeling and Assimilation Office Research Site to visualize the organic carbon released into the atmosphere during wildfires that ravaged the West Coast. Take a peek!​

Cool Stuff Corner: What are we reading?

⚡How does your state generate electricity?

As temperatures drop, we’re entering the season of space heaters, wool sweaters and cozy coffee shop afternoons. Or for those of us paying for utilities, ‘tis the season of skyrocketing utility bills 🙄. But have you ever wondered where that electricity comes from!? For those curious folks among us, here’s a New York Times piece you won’t want to miss. We’re nerding out at the dataviz they used 😍 🤓

💲Reality check calculator 💲

Speaking of cost of living… Anyone who lives in Boston (or who's tried to live in Boston) knows that rents inch up (or jump up, depending on your landlord) every year, and the typical home sells for over $700,000. On top of that, student loans and credit card debt linger like a black cloud of doom over us all, and in case we weren't having fun yet, inflation and economic uncertainty often derail even the best-laid plans to save or invest. What’s a millennial or Gen Z-er to do!?? Well, the Globe takes a stab at answering that question, providing a nifty tool to help you determine how much you need to earn and save to reach basic financial milestones today… Give it a whirl! 

🏠‘People are leaving’: Massachusetts has lost 110,000 residents since COVID began. Is life better out there?

And finally, in keeping with this week’s theme of life in Boston – specifically the affordability (or lack thereof) in our beloved city –  here’s an interesting read, also by the Globe, on something we all seem to have felt since covid. Despite what it might seem like on Storrow Drive at 8 a.m., 3 p.m., or really any time these days … the data doesn't lie; people are leaving Boston. Boston Globe business enterprise reporter Janelle Nanos blends personal narratives, photos and, of course, some seriously cool dataviz to illustrate Mass’s mass exodus. On top of poignant storytelling, we ❤️ this article for its inclusion of an interactive map that allows you to toggle through move-ins and -outs by zip code – see for yourself which ones now have more of the former than the latter!  

📰Catch Nathan Griffiths' takeaways from his career journey experimenting with different mediums

Here’s an interesting #ICYMI from earlier this year 👀 Pavithra Rajesh and Kelly Chan sat down with multimedia journalism jack-of-all-trades Nathan Griffiths to chat about strategies for visual journalism and the wider impacts of innovative forms of storytelling. For the storytelling lovers among us (isn’t that all of us by now?) this is a must-read. Griffiths’s career thus far includes prominent newsrooms including The New York Times, AP, The South China Morning Post and more. In short, he’s the unicorn 🦄 many of us aspire to be, with expertise in information technology as well as journalism, which he approaches through an innovative lens. Today, Griffiths is a data journalist for the Vancouver Sun, working at the forefront of the newsroom’s visual and graphic efforts. A recent favorite project of his involved transforming data from the 2023 British Columbia Adolescent Health Survey on the mental health of nonbinary youth into a data-driven comic. For more on that project and the industry at large, take a peek!

That's all we've got for this week! Thanks for reading, and let us know if there's anything you'd like to see in these newsletters or in our coverage at [email protected].

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