More or Less: Behind the Stats Podcast
Tim Harford and the More or Less team try to make sense of the statistics which surround us. From ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4
Episodes to download
-
Nobel prize: Why are some countries so much richer than others?
Saturday
Why Acemoglu, Johnson and Robinson won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics
-
When are numbers like a horse at a gymkhana?
Wednesday
Plus: the taxes of 60 very rich people, water bill spreadsheets, and is 0 a small number?
-
Uncertainty, probability and double yoked eggs
Sat 12 Oct 2024
Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter on his new book, The Art of Uncertainty
-
Should the government target persnuffle?
Wed 9 Oct 2024
Plus, childhood obesity, birds hitting windows and Sir David Spiegelhalter’s origin story.
-
Are 672 billion pounds of corn eaten in the US every year?
Sat 5 Oct 2024
A lot of corn is eaten in the United States, but is it really 2.5kg per person per day?
-
How do you breed seventeen octillion rats?
Wed 2 Oct 2024
Plus, GPs working less, the UK working less, and Wetherspoons wanting to pay less tax.
-
The puzzles you’re meant to get wrong
Sat 28 Sep 2024
Alex Bellos sets Tim Harford logical conundrums designed to deceive
-
Could the winter fuel cut cost more than it saves?
Wed 25 Sep 2024
Plus, ONS transgender stats, early-onset cancer, and puzzles you’re meant to get wrong
-
Do 85% of the world’s population practice a religion?
Sat 21 Sep 2024
Counting religions across the globe – is the world getting more religious or less?
-
How do you count millionaires?
Wed 18 Sep 2024
Plus, asylum seeker costs, private school bets and Baumol's cost disease
-
Nate Silver: Do risk-takers run the world?
Sat 14 Sep 2024
Poker player and polling analyst Nate Silver on his new book
-
How long does it take to turn around an oil tanker?
Wed 11 Sep 2024
Plus, Migrants vs Pensioners and Ed Miliband’s energy auction claim
-
Who pays when trade wars heat up?
Sat 7 Sep 2024
We look at Donald Trump’s claim that tariffs are a tax on other countries
-
Exclusions, black holes and dividing by zero
Wed 4 Sep 2024
Plus special educational needs in Wales and Ghanian nurses in the UK
-
Where have Cuba’s people gone?
Sat 31 Aug 2024
We investigate the collapse in the Caribbean island’s population
-
Do we eat a credit card's worth of microplastic each week?
Sat 24 Aug 2024
We look at whether humans really ingest five grams of microplastic on a weekly basis
-
Are companies making more money from their customers?
Sat 17 Aug 2024
We investigate claims mark-ups are larger than ever
-
Is planet Earth getting greener?
Sat 10 Aug 2024
Jordan Peterson says Earth has greened by 20% in 20 years. Is he right?
-
Does a language die every two weeks?
Sat 3 Aug 2024
Languages are disappearing. We investigate claims of how often this happens.
-
Are women 14 times more likely to die in natural disasters?
Sat 27 Jul 2024
We unpick the idea that women outnumber men by 14 to 1 as casualties of natural disasters
-
Is increasing turbulence making flying more dangerous?
Sat 20 Jul 2024
Exploring the link between bumpy flights and climate change
-
Federer’s 54%: Tennis stats explained
Sat 13 Jul 2024
How Federer became the best in the world winning just over half the points he played
-
The magic of trigonometry
Sat 6 Jul 2024
Tim Harford interviews Matt Parker on his latest book ‘Love Triangle’
-
Election endings, tennis and meeting men in finance
Wed 3 Jul 2024
Exit polls, election claims, and a 54% chance of winning a point in tennis
-
How a tick box doubled the US maternal mortality rates.
Sat 29 Jun 2024
We investigate changes to the way the US gathers their maternal mortality statistics
-
Election claims and erection claims
Wed 26 Jun 2024
What did Liz Truss do to mortgage rates? Do erections use a litre of blood?
-
Do ‘pig butchering’ cyber scams make as much as half Cambodia’s GDP?
Sat 22 Jun 2024
We investigate the money made by an international cybercrime operation
-
Worse mortgages, better readers, and potholes on the moon
Wed 19 Jun 2024
We check some of the numbers that are flying about in the election campaign
-
-
Leaflets, taxes, oil workers and classrooms
Wed 12 Jun 2024
We look at bad graphs, oil rig extrapolations and pupil populations