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Tim Harford explains the numbers and statistics in the news and in life.

World Service,752 episodes

Episodes

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Nate Silver: Do risk-takers run the world?
Poker player and polling analyst Nate Silver on his new book
14 Sep 2024,9 mins
Who pays when trade wars heat up?
We look at Donald Trump’s claim that tariffs are a tax on other countries
07 Sep 2024,9 mins
Where have Cuba’s people gone?
We investigate the collapse in the Caribbean island’s population.
31 Aug 2024,9 mins
Do we eat a credit card's worth of microplastic each week?
We look at whether humans really ingest five grams of microplastic on a weekly basis
24 Aug 2024,9 mins
Are companies making more money from their customers?
We investigate claims mark-ups are larger than ever
17 Aug 2024,9 mins
Is planet Earth getting greener?
Jordan Peterson says Earth has greened by 20% in 20 years. Is he right?
10 Aug 2024,9 mins
Does a language die every two weeks?
Languages are disappearing. We investigate claims of how often this happens
03 Aug 2024,9 mins
Are women 14 times more likely to die in natural disasters?
We unpick the idea that women outnumber men by 14 to 1 as casualties of natural disasters
27 Jul 2024,9 mins
Is increasing turbulence making flying more dangerous?
Exploring the link between bumpy flights and climate change.
20 Jul 2024,9 mins
Federer’s 54%: Tennis stats explained
How Federer became the best in the world winning just over half the points he played
13 Jul 2024,9 mins
The magic of trigonometry
Tim Harford interviews Matt Parker on his latest book ‘Love Triangle’
06 Jul 2024,9 mins
How a tick box doubled the US maternal mortality rates.
We investigate changes to the way the US gathers their maternal mortality statistics
29 Jun 2024,9 mins
Do ‘pig butchering’ cyber scams make as much as half Cambodia’s GDP?
We investigate the money made by an international cybercrime operations.
22 Jun 2024,9 mins
Shakespeare’s maths
Author Rob Eastaway on the numbers in Shakespeare’s writing
15 Jun 2024,9 mins
Why medical error is not the third leading cause of death in the US
Investigating how many deaths are caused by mistakes by doctors and nurses
08 Jun 2024,9 mins
Data for India
Changing India in numbers: what type of country will the next administration lead?
01 Jun 2024,9 mins
Is intermittent fasting going to kill you?
Investigating research which suggested time restricted eating increased the risk of death
25 May 2024,9 mins
Are falling marriage rates causing happiness to fall in the US?
Investigating the relationship between matrimony and melancholy.
18 May 2024,9 mins
Is reading for pleasure the single biggest factor in how well a child does in life?
What research says about the connection between reading and success in later life.
11 May 2024,9 mins
Do one in five young Americans think the holocaust is a myth?
How problems with opt-in polling can lead to controversial headlines
04 May 2024,9 mins
Has Milei fixed Argentina’s inflation problem?
What falling inflation means for Milei’s austerity plan and economic “shock” measures
27 Apr 2024,9 mins
Is misinformation being spread about a review of trans youth medicine?
Investigating claims that the Cass Review ignored 98% of valuable evidence
20 Apr 2024,9 mins
Tackling The Three-Body Problem
Is the physics in Netflix's new show accurate?
13 Apr 2024,9 mins
Is loneliness as bad for you as smoking?
The connection between being alone and an early death
06 Apr 2024,9 mins
Remembering Daniel Kahneman
Tim Harford on the great social scientist, who has died at the age of 90
30 Mar 2024,9 mins
What’s happening to Arctic ice?
Arctic ice has been in long decline. Do recent fluctuations change the story?
23 Mar 2024,9 mins
Does the Russian government really spend 40% of its budget on the military?
We investigate how much the Russian state is spending on the war in Ukraine
16 Mar 2024,9 mins
Is public speaking really our biggest fear?
Tim Harford investigates the claim that public speaking is people’s number one fear.
09 Mar 2024,9 mins
Ultramarathons: Are women faster than men?
Is it really true that in extremely long races, women run faster than men?
02 Mar 2024,9 mins
NBA basketball: Is height more important than skill?
How much does a man’s height affect his chances of becoming an NBA basketball player?
24 Feb 2024,9 mins