Tim Harford explains the numbers and statistics in the news and in life.
Radio 4,·682 episodes
Tim Harford investigates migration and housing, Welsh literacy, and bond market drama
03 Jun 2026,·28 mins
The data race to find out how fast Ebola is spreading
30 May 2026,·8 mins
Tim Harford explores healthy life expectancy, HS2 costs, VAT cuts and his marathon time
27 May 2026,·28 mins
We investigate if loneliness is increasing at epidemic rates
23 May 2026,·8 mins
Asylum seekers, nuclear power plants and fish, Sir David Attenborough and blue tit chicks
20 May 2026,·28 mins
How a 23-year-old mathematician used AI to crack an unsolved maths problem
16 May 2026,·8 mins
Vaping vs smoking: how the evidence on cancer and other health risks compare
09 May 2026,·8 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,·8 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,·8 mins
Adam Kucharski explains what people really mean when they use probability language
04 Apr 2026,·8 mins
We take a deep dive into AI’s water consumption
28 Mar 2026,·8 mins
Why Paul Ehrlich’s dire predictions about a population collapse failed to materialise
21 Mar 2026,·8 mins
Investigating a scientific paper analysing the strength and fitness of transgender women
14 Mar 2026,·8 mins
What we know about missile stockpiles following the US-Israeli strikes on Iran
07 Mar 2026,·8 mins
Investigating whether Basecamp Research found hundreds of thousands of bacteria species
28 Feb 2026,·8 mins
Investigating a claim that 100 made-up claims were found in AI papers
21 Feb 2026,·8 mins
Did a Roman charioteer really earn the equivalent of $15 billion dollars?
17 Feb 2026,·8 mins
07 Feb 2026,·8 mins
Europe holds trillions of dollars of US shares and bonds - but can they use them?
31 Jan 2026,·8 mins
Tim Harford investigates benefits, church attacks, saunas and marathon running
28 Jan 2026,·28 mins
Tim Harford asks if Greenland is really as vast as most maps seem to suggest
24 Jan 2026,·8 mins
Tim Harford investigates Greenland maps, climate costs, house prices and Traitors maths
21 Jan 2026,·29 mins
Why a study from South Korea does not show that vaccines cause cancer
17 Jan 2026,·8 mins
Tim Harford investigates closing schools, X users, Covid deaths and churchgoers
14 Jan 2026,·28 mins
We investigate if there are actually 300 billion barrels of oil in Venezuela's reserves
10 Jan 2026,·8 mins
Tim Harford explores the stats on some of the UK’s most potent political debates
09 Jan 2026,·28 mins
Tim Harford explores the stats on pensioners, exams, justice and climate change
08 Jan 2026,·28 mins
Tim Harford explores the numbers that help explain fertility, pharmaceuticals and crime
07 Jan 2026,·29 mins