R Weekly Highlights

Applying novel statistical and visualization techniques to predict war duration, why there is more than meets the statistical eye behind a classical model benchmarking statistic, and celebrating a major milestone for pioneers in open science with R.
Episode Links
This week's curator: Colin Fay - @[email protected] (Mastodon) & @colinfay.bsky.social (Bluesky) & [@_ColinFay]](https://twitter.com/_ColinFay) (X/Twitter)
Durations of wars by @ellis2013nz
Learning Data Science: Why a High R^2 Can Be Misleading
15 Years of rOpenSci, and We're Just Getting Started
Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2026-W21

Supplement Resources
Correlates of war data set: https://correlatesofwar.org/data-sets/cow-war/
tidymodels https://www.tidymodels.org/
Donation to rOpenSci https://ropensci.org/donate/
Upcoming rOpenSci events https://ropensci.org/events/
Software peer review https://ropensci.org/software-review/
R Pharma Hangouts recordings https://rinpharma.com/docs/hangout/recordings

Supporting the show
Use the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedback
R-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.
A new way to think about value: https://value4value.info
Get in touch with us on social mediaEric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)
Mike Thomas: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter)

Music credits powered by OCRemix
The Quick and the Blue - Mega Man 2 - The Megas - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02090
Serenity & Grace - Chrono Cross - timaeus222 - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR04143

A massive milestone for the language that eventually led to the R we know and love, plus a comprehensive look at two popular workflow frameworks across the R and Python ecosystems.

Episode Links
This week's curator: Jon Calder - @[email protected] (Mastodon) & @jonmcalder (X/Twitter)
S at 50
Comparing R's {targets} and dbt for Data Engineering
Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2026-W20

Supplement Resources
Fifty years of S poster https://blog.r-project.org/post/S-at-50/s_at_50_poster.jpg
Quarto 2: Parsing and Source Maps https://opensource.posit.co/blog/2026-05-07_quarto-2-parsing/
Beyond Feasibility: Learning from FDA’s Response to WebAssembly and Container-Based Submissions https://r-consortium.org/posts/beyond-feasibility-learning-from-fdas-response-to-webassembly-and-container-based-submissions/

Supporting the show
Use the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedback
R-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.
A new way to think about value: https://value4value.info
Get in touch with us on social mediaEric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)
Mike Thomas: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter)

Music credits powered by OCRemix
J-Type - Tetris - Nostalvania - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR04401

If Shiny wasn't awesome enough, a new toolkit is bringing the awesome to new heights! Plus a handful of ggplot2 functions that can immediate impact common visualization operations, and knitr gains support for a much-hyped typesetting format for the static document crowd.

Episode Links
This week's curator: Eric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon) & @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) & @theRcast (X/Twitter)
Announcing shiny.webawesome: a web UI package for R/Shiny
Five ggplot2 functions I wish I’d known about earlier
Preliminary Support for Typst in knitr
Issue available at rweekly.org/2026-W19

Supplement Resources
Add links discussed in the episode (in place of this sentence)
{shiny.webawesome} documentation https://www.shiny-webawesome.org
Web Awesome: The Web's Open Source Design System https://webawesome.com
{lemon} Freshen up your ggplots https://github.com/stefanedwards/lemon
ligt.js Miscellaneous lightweight tools and utilities in JavaScript https://github.com/yihui/lite.js/blob/main/js/pages.js
R 4.6.0 binary transition https://github.com/eddelbuettel/R-4.6.0-binary-transition
Exploring and Learning Quantum Computing Part 1 https://www.kenkoonwong.com/blog/qc1/
Mike's talk "Fully Reproducible Model Validation Reports Using Docker, R, Quarto, {renv} and {targets}" https://youtube.com/watch?v=hRIbxv516hY

Supporting the show
Use the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedback
R-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.
A new way to think about value: https://value4value.info
Get in touch with us on social mediaEric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)
Mike Thomas: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter)

Music credits powered by OCRemix
Moonlight Vibin - Megaman X5 - DCT - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02053
Countdown to Infinity - Megaman X: Maverick Rising - WillRocky - https://maverick.ocremix.org/music.php

How the new logrittr package gives you a peek behind the tidy pipelines of dplyr, and a fascinating glimpse into the universe of seeds going far beyond a favorite 80's song.

Episode Links
This week's curator: Jonathan Kitt - @jonathankitt.bsky.social (Bluesky)
logrittr: A Verbose Pipe Operator for Logging dplyr Pipelines
Generating universes within universes with a single seed
Working Smarter in R: Tips, Tricks & Real-World Lessons
Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2026-W18
Supplement Resources
tidylog https://github.com/elbersb/tidylog/
logrittr documentation https://guillaumepressiat.github.io/logrittr/
Fine-grained control of RNG seeds in R https://blog.djnavarro.net/posts/2023-12-27_seedcatcher

Supporting the show
Use the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedback
R-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.
A new way to think about value: https://value4value.info
Get in touch with us on social mediaEric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)
Mike Thomas: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter)

Music credits powered by OCRemix
Passing Breeze (Lounge Suite) - OutRun - Remorse - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00875

After an unexpected break we are back with a new episode of R Weekly Highlights! If you thought the easiest way to create pivot tables was in Excel, the a new package just might change your perspective. Plus how you can pull the strings for a multi-agent LLM workflow with the new puppeteeR package.

Episode Links
This week's curator: Batool Almarzouq - @batoolmm.bsky.social (Bluesky) & @batool664 (X/Twitter)
perspectiveR: Interactive Pivot Tables and Charts from R
puppeteeR - orchestrate multiple LLM agents into coordinated workflows
Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2026-W16

Supplement Resources

Perspective upstream library https://perspective-dev.github.io
You can just build your own programming language https://brodrigues.co/posts/2026-04-03-tproject.html
{gglite} https://pkg.yihui.org/gglite/

Supporting the show

Use the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedback
R-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.
A new way to think about value: https://value4value.info
Get in touch with us on social mediaEric Nantz: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)
Mike Thomas: @[email protected] (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter)

Music credits powered by OCRemix
A flea and his giant - Mega Man X: Maverick Rising - Chuck Dietz - https://maverick.ocremix.org/music.php