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

Radio 4,685 episodes

Episodes

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Employment puzzle, pyramids and triplets
The UK has a low unemployment rate but lots of people not working – how come?
08 Jun 2022,28 mins
Are girls starting puberty earlier?
We look into a claim that the age of girls’ puberty is falling rapidly
04 Jun 2022,8 mins
Jubilee costs, fuel poverty and imperial measures
We debunk a claim the government is spending £38,000 per household on the Jubilee
01 Jun 2022,28 mins
Noisy Decisions
The world’s most famous psychologist on how 'noise' impacts our decision making
28 May 2022,8 mins
Are young people more single than ever before?
How to define and measure being single – and are dating apps to blame?
27 May 2022,8 mins
Germany’s excess deaths, Eurovision and teacher shortages
Did Germany really fare worse than the UK in the pandemic?
25 May 2022,29 mins
Are just 100 companies responsible for 71% of global emissions and how stressed are South Africans?
Looking at numbers on green house gas emissions and stress
21 May 2022,8 mins
Did the WHO get some of its excess death estimates wrong?
We look at the World Health Organisation’s latest estimates of the pandemic’s death toll
14 May 2022,8 mins
Have the oceans become 30% more acidic?
Tim Harford asks how we measure the health of our oceans
07 May 2022,8 mins
Sweden’s polarising pandemic response
Has Sweden’s pandemic response been a triumph or a disaster…or something in-between?
30 Apr 2022,8 mins
Understanding India through Data
What can data tell us about a country of 1.4 billion people?
23 Apr 2022,8 mins
Subitising and simplifying: how to better explain numbers
How can we clearly explain complex numbers to the public without losing their meaning?
15 Apr 2022,8 mins
Did tea-drinking cut deaths in the Industrial Revolution?
How tea became an accidental lifesaver in 18th Century England.
09 Apr 2022,8 mins
Will the war in Ukraine cause a global wheat shortage?
How much of the worlds wheat comes from Ukraine and Russia
02 Apr 2022,8 mins
Pizza and Nuclear War
How good negotiation can help us split pizzas fairly and also avoid Nuclear War
20 Mar 2022,8 mins
Does the UK take in more refugees than other European countries?
Fact checking Boris Johnson’s claim.
13 Mar 2022,11 mins
Numbers in Ukraine and low seas in Chagos
Troop and casualty numbers in Ukraine
06 Mar 2022,8 mins
Troop and Casualty Numbers in Ukraine
How reliable are the figures coming out of the conflict in Ukraine?
02 Mar 2022,29 mins
Did lockdowns save any lives?
Did lockdowns actually save any lives?
27 Feb 2022,8 mins
Vaccinating children, lockdowns, and ebikes
Jabs for five to 11-year-olds, lockdown effectiveness, and being green on two wheels
23 Feb 2022,28 mins
Hospitalisation rates for children with Covid
Do 1 in 100 children who catch Covid end up hospitalised?
20 Feb 2022,8 mins
Questioning claims about Covid and children
How likely are children to end up in hospital because of Covid? And how many have died?
16 Feb 2022,29 mins
Testosterone and sport
Trans women’s participation in elite sport
13 Feb 2022,8 mins
The prime minister in statistical bother
Boris Johnson has been ticked off for misleading Parliament on jobs and on crime.
09 Feb 2022,28 mins
Can you fool your brain?
Looking at the power of expectations
06 Feb 2022,8 mins
Does the UK have the fastest growing economy in the G7?
How fast is our economy growing? And what is happening with Omicron reinfections?
02 Feb 2022,28 mins
Fertility rates: baby boom or bust?
Fertility rates around the world
30 Jan 2022,8 mins
Should you follow the 5 second rule? And does inflation hit the poorest harder?
Does inflation hit poor households harder and how many people have died of Covid?
26 Jan 2022,28 mins
Are female patients more likely to die if the surgeon is male?
Should women be worried about having a male surgeon?
23 Jan 2022,10 mins
Are women 32% more likely to die after operation by a male surgeon?
Surgery death risks, Test and Trace costs in the UK and Germany, and podcast plans
19 Jan 2022,28 mins