In the 21st, century, data—our data—is mined and processed for profit, power, and political gain. It isn't hopeless, suggests Jer Thorp, who asks a crucial question: How do we stop passively inhabiting data, and instead become active citizens of it? Threading a data story through hippo attacks, glaciers, and school gymnasiums, around colossal rice piles, and over active minefields, Thorp reminds us that the future of data is still wide open, that there are ways to transcend facts and figures to engage more viscerally with it.