More or Less Podcast
Tim Harford explains - and sometimes debunks - the numbers and statistics used in political debate, the news and everyday life
Episodes to download
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Debunking the claim that migrants will get half of new homes
Wednesday
Tim Harford investigates migration and housing, Welsh literacy, and bond market drama
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The known unknowns of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Last Saturday
The data race to find out how fast Ebola is spreading
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Does a fall in the UK's healthy life expectancy mean what you think it means?
Wed 27 May 2026
Tim Harford explores healthy life expectancy, HS2 costs, VAT cuts and his marathon time
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Is the ‘loneliness epidemic’ real?
Sat 23 May 2026
We investigate if loneliness is increasing at epidemic rates
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Are refugees more likely to commit crime?
Wed 20 May 2026
Asylum seekers, nuclear power plants and fish, Sir David Attenborough and blue tit chicks
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Erdos Problem 1196: Can AI now solve maths that no human can?
Sat 16 May 2026
How a 23-year-old mathematician used AI to crack an unsolved maths problem
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Why it’s wrong to say vaping is as bad for you as smoking
Sat 9 May 2026
Vaping vs smoking: how the evidence on cancer and other health risks compare
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Does it take 15,000 litres of water to produce a kilogram of beef?
Sat 2 May 2026
How a stat about cows and water is not all it seems
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Have RFK and MAHA really changed American views on vaccines?
Sat 25 Apr 2026
Why a Politico headline overstated vaccine scepticism in the US
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Is Trump right that wind turbines are killing millions of birds?
Sat 18 Apr 2026
Investigating the scale of bird deaths caused by wind turbines
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Dr Spock’s dangerous advice on baby sleep
Sat 11 Apr 2026
How evidence eventually showed front sleeping was linked to sudden infant deaths
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How likely is ‘likely’?
Sat 4 Apr 2026
Adam Kucharski explains what people really mean when they use probability language
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Paul Ehrlich: The man who bet England wouldn’t exist by the year 2000
Sat 21 Mar 2026
Why Paul Ehrlich’s dire predictions about a population collapse failed to materialise
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Transgender women in sport: Does ‘comparable’ mean ‘equal’?
Sat 14 Mar 2026
Investigating a scientific paper analysing the strength and fitness of transgender women
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US-Israel war with Iran: Do the gulf states have enough interceptor missiles?
Sat 7 Mar 2026
What we know about missile stockpiles following the US-Israeli strikes on Iran
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Has a company really discovered a million new species?
Sat 28 Feb 2026
Investigating whether Basecamp Research found hundreds of thousands of bacteria species
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Did AI researchers let AI hallucinations into scientific papers?
Sat 21 Feb 2026
Investigating a claim that 100 made-up claims were found in AI papers
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Is an ancient charioteer the best paid sportsperson of all time?
Tue 17 Feb 2026
Did a Roman charioteer really earn the equivalent of $15 billion dollars?
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Is this Premier League striker a secret maths genius?
Sat 7 Feb 2026
Tim Harford explains the numbers and statistics in the news and in life.
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Could Europe use its financial muscle to strong-arm the US?
Sat 31 Jan 2026
Europe holds trillions of dollars of US shares and bonds - but can they use them?
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Can you get £71,000 on benefits?
Wed 28 Jan 2026
Tim Harford investigates benefits, church attacks, saunas and marathon running
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Is Greenland as big as Africa?
Sat 24 Jan 2026
Tim Harford asks if Greenland is really as vast as most maps seem to suggest
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How close is Greenland to the United States?
Wed 21 Jan 2026
Tim Harford investigates Greenland maps, climate costs, house prices and Traitors maths
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No, a study has not shown that the covid jab causes cancer
Sat 17 Jan 2026
Why a study from South Korea does not show that vaccines cause cancer
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Have more than 100 private schools been forced to close because of VAT?
Wed 14 Jan 2026
Tim Harford investigates closing schools, X users, Covid deaths and churchgoers
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Does Venezuela really have the biggest oil reserves in the world?
Sat 10 Jan 2026
We investigate if there are actually 300 billion barrels of oil in Venezuela's reserves
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The Stats of the Nation: Immigration, benefits and inequality
Fri 9 Jan 2026
Tim Harford explores the stats on some of the UK’s most potent political debates
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The Stats of the Nation: Older people, education, prisons and the weather
Thu 8 Jan 2026
Tim Harford explores the stats on pensioners, exams, justice and climate change
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The Stats of the Nation: Sex, drugs and empty homes
Wed 7 Jan 2026
Tim Harford explores the numbers that help explain fertility, pharmaceuticals and crime
