Credit scores are mysterious. Here’s some insight into them
Credit scores are pretty mysterious, but they also shape your economic destiny. It determines where you can live, what you can buy, and sometimes even what job you can get. But how do credit bureaus come up with these all-encompassing numbers?
This President's Day we turn to KUOW's newest podcast Control F where host Teo Popescu tells host Clare McGrane about the data that credit scores feed on and how little we really know about how they're calculated.
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Sources in this episode:
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- Creditworthy: A history of consumer surveillance and financial identity in America, Josh Lauer, 2024
- Credit Access in the U.S., U.S. Census Bureau, 2025
- Affordable credit poised to save consumers billions, Alex Horowitz, Pew Charitable Trusts, 2023
- WA’s new ban on medical debt in credit reports at risk of federal override, Jake Goldstein-Street, Washington State Standard, 2025
- Interview with Josh Lauer, Author of Creditworthy
- Interview with Alex Horowitz, Project Director at Pew Charitable Trusts
- Interview with Maya Lau, Host of Other People’s Pockets
- Interview with Jazmin, founder of Budget with Jazmin
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Patricia Murphy
Host
Patricia Murphy is an award-winning radio journalist who has covered justice, public health, military and veterans affairs for 20 years. She’s currently the host of KUOW’s daily news podcast, Seattle Now.
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Teo Popescu
Design, Graphics, and Data Editor
Teo is the KUOW newsroom's design, graphics, and data editor. She manages all data visualizations, graphics, illustrations, and news video projects for kuow.org and Instagram. She also leads design and development for KUOW’s interactive enterprise graphic projects. She specializes in visualizing complex bureaucratic processes and budgets.
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Clare McGrane
Senior Producer
Clare is the senior producer and co-host of Control F, a podcast about the data that shapes our daily lives. Clare and co-host Teo Popescu answer big questions about how our world works — from your personal finances to the morning weather report — by digging though data. Clare is also the show's senior producer, managing Control F's production schedule and listener engagement.
More stories from Clare McGrane »
