Following an upgrade to some Python libraries, I found that problems with plotting from Matplotlib causing Python to crash were recurring (previously reported here). When called from Excel with pyxll this was also causing instant crashes of Excel.
I eventually found the problem was with the latest version of Freetype, and after downgrading to release 2.10.4, and then upgrading Scipy to the latest version, everything went back to working normally again.
The procedure to downgrade to a specific package using Conda is:
conda install freetype==2.10.4
Newton Excel Bach, not (just) an Excel Blog 
Have you sent a ticket about the matter? Great find.
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The same issue is reported at:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/69786885/after-conda-update-python-kernel-crashes-when-matplotlib-is-used
and that links to Github at:
https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/issues/21511
That’s where I found the solution of downgrading Freetype. I wasn’t planning to report it again, but as the issue is marked as closed and is still causing problems, perhaps I should.
What do you think?
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Also see:
https://codegrepr.com/question/after-conda-update-python-kernel-crashes-when-matplotlib-is-used/
from February this year.
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