Tim Harford explains the numbers and statistics in the news and in life.
World Service,·753 episodes
Looking into the numbers behind claims of attacks on churches
06 Jun 2026,·9 mins
The data race to find out how fast Ebola is spreading
30 May 2026,·9 mins
We investigate if loneliness is increasing at epidemic rates
23 May 2026,·9 mins
How a 23-year-old mathematician used AI to crack an unsolved maths problem
16 May 2026,·9 mins
Vaping vs smoking: how the evidence on cancer and other health risks compare
09 May 2026,·9 mins
How a stat about cows and water is not all it seems
02 May 2026,·9 mins
Why a Politico headline overstated vaccine scepticism in the US
25 Apr 2026,·9 mins
Investigating the scale of bird deaths caused by wind turbines
18 Apr 2026,·9 mins
How evidence eventually showed front sleeping was linked to sudden infant deaths
11 Apr 2026,·9 mins
Adam Kucharski explains what people really mean when they use probability language
04 Apr 2026,·9 mins
We take a deep dive into AI’s water consumption
28 Mar 2026,·9 mins
Why Paul Ehrlich’s dire predictions about a population collapse failed to materialise
21 Mar 2026,·9 mins
Investigating a scientific paper analysing the strength and fitness of transgender women
14 Mar 2026,·9 mins
What we know about missile stockpiles following the US-Israeli strikes on Iran
07 Mar 2026,·9 mins
Investigating whether Basecamp Research found hundreds of thousands of bacteria species
28 Feb 2026,·9 mins
Investigating a claim that 100 made-up claims were found in AI papers
21 Feb 2026,·9 mins
Did a Roman charioteer really earn the equivalent of $15 billion dollars?
14 Feb 2026,·9 mins
Is Chelsea’s Liam Delap a maths genius? Or has he got a trick up his sleeve?
07 Feb 2026,·9 mins
Europe holds trillions of dollars of US shares and bonds - but can they use them?
31 Jan 2026,·9 mins
Tim Harford asks if Greenland is really as vast as most maps seem to suggest
24 Jan 2026,·9 mins
Influencers claim that this study shows that covid jabs cause cancer. That is not true
17 Jan 2026,·9 mins
We investigate if there are actually 300 billion barrels of oil in Venezuela's reserves
10 Jan 2026,·9 mins
From passenger numbers to world cup travel, we cast our eye forwards into 2026
03 Jan 2026,·9 mins
From tariffs to comets, we look back at the numbers of 2025 across the world
27 Dec 2025,·9 mins
Can the same pill cost $3 in a pharmacy and $750 in a hospital?
20 Dec 2025,·9 mins
How an important climate model was too pessimistic about the future
13 Dec 2025,·9 mins
Do US teens have 50% lower sperm and testosterone counts than 65 year old men?
06 Dec 2025,·9 mins
Richard Thaler on two of his most famous observations in behavioural economics
29 Nov 2025,·9 mins
Can data tell us if a stock market crash is coming?
22 Nov 2025,·9 mins
Bernie Sanders says vast riches have moved to the wealthiest in the US. Is he right?
15 Nov 2025,·9 mins