Simon Rogers

We spend so much of our lives performing on social media, but the search bar is where we go to be completely honest. Drawing from two decades of Google Trends data, Simon reveals what our most private queries—from the profound (“what is love?”) to the delightfully mundane (“how to boil an egg”)—say about us. In an era where we are constantly told that technology makes us isolated and polarized, Simon presents data-driven proof that our collective baseline is actually one of shared curiosity, compassion, and a desire to improve.

Google Search is the world’s brain represented in data. Simon explores how this massive, ever-changing dataset acts as a real-time mirror of society. From predicting short-term economic movements (like unemployment spikes) before official statistics catch them, to tracking profound cultural shifts like the rise of the “sandwich generation” and the post-pandemic desire for careers that help people rather than just pay well. Simon explains how organizations, leaders, and individuals can use this “attention economy” data to understand global trends.

When natural disasters, global pandemics, or personal crises strike, human beings reliably follow a strict cognitive path: first, we seek information, and second, we take action to help. Simon breaks down search data from major world events—from hurricanes to the COVID-19 pandemic—to show how our immediate instinct is mutual aid. He shares why searches for “how to help someone with depression” and “where to donate” consistently spike in times of need, proving that we are never truly alone in our struggles.

Data on its own is just numbers; it takes a storyteller to bring it to life. Drawing on his extensive career at The Guardian, Twitter, and Google, Simon shares how to transform massive datasets into compelling, accessible narratives. He discusses the evolution of data journalism, the power of visual storytelling, and how to communicate complex information in a way that resonates with everyday people, fostering trust and transparency in an increasingly skeptical world.