Kal Penn, “The Big Picture” on National Geographic Channel. Photo provided by NGC.
How cool is Kal Penn? The actor (“Battle Creek,” “House,” “How I Met Your Mother,” the “Harold and Kumar” franchise) is also a Stanford grad, the former associate director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, and a university teacher. He recently hosted Discovery Channel’s “The Big Brain Theory” and now he’s crunching numbers in a new documentary series on National Geographic Channel.
In a richly produced, almost hyper-active half-hour, “The Big Picture with Kal Penn,” he tracks the data and goes to the map. First up, “Crime Inc.,” a statistical breakdown of often surprising facts about crime and cyber-crime.
“The Big Picture” premieres March 30, locally at 8 p.m. on National Geographic Channel. Money, sex, germs, sports and food are among upcoming topics for which he mines big data.
Infographics help tell the story. For instance, “drug-infested Vermont” is the first stop as he follows the data, noting an 800 percent increase in drug abuse in the state. The reasons have to do with fewer cops, lots of highways, more older citizens meaning more prescriptions floating around.
Some of the findings are stunning but lack context. The Italian Mafia makes twice as much as the Walt Disney Co. Gangs have viral marketing campaigns on social media and fully 20 percent of gangs have a website. Fremont County, Colorado, with seven state prisons, has the largest population of incarcerated in the country– 20 percent. Like yoga studios, prisons are in the category of fastest-growing businesses in the U.S. One of these maps shows every prison in the U.S., the other shows every Starbucks, he says. Can you tell which is which?
Engaging. Surprising. But the random believe-it-or-nots all add up to… more numbers.
“Just follow the data,” he says.
Cue the graphics and on to the next segment: viral epidemics. “The cutting board in your kitchen has 200 times more germs than your toilet seat…”
