Tim Harford explains the numbers and statistics in the news and in life.
Radio 4,·684 episodes
Investigating if 100 million sharks are killed by fishing nets every year.
06 Sep 2025,·8 mins
We look at claims that fully autonomous cars are 5 or ten times safer
30 Aug 2025,·8 mins
We investigate if air conditioning is set too cold for women.
23 Aug 2025,·8 mins
Did the Mediterranean experience a 1-in-216,000,000,000-year sea temperature anomaly?
16 Aug 2025,·8 mins
The US president fired Erika McEntarfer over job numbers. What’s the potential fallout?
09 Aug 2025,·8 mins
Looking at the data behind abortion in a post Dobbs America.
06 Aug 2025,·8 mins
We investigate how much water and power are used by artificial intelligence
A Unicef event said one in six children are living though war. What does that really mean?
19 Jul 2025,·8 mins
How a successful football club doesn’t always require a winning team
12 Jul 2025,·8 mins
Plus, the UK’s expensive electricity, church counts and babies in the City of London
09 Jul 2025,·26 mins
Economist and author Duncan Weldon on his new book Blood and Treasure
05 Jul 2025,·8 mins
Plus: PIP claims, immigrant returns and spotting golf balls on the moon.
02 Jul 2025,·28 mins
Making sense of the numbers around the Russian dead and wounded.
28 Jun 2025,·8 mins
Plus, nuclear enrichment numbers, Curtice on Curtis and Viking economics
25 Jun 2025,·28 mins
Professor Alex Edmans on his book, May Contain Lies
21 Jun 2025,·8 mins
Plus, asylum seeker hotel bill, Scottish water use and 1950s childcare claim
18 Jun 2025,·28 mins
Investigating if 100,000 satellites could be orbiting earth in five years’ time
14 Jun 2025,·9 mins
Plus, the Sycamore Gap tree, pensioner-worker ratios and yoga v fishers
11 Jun 2025,·28 mins
Investigating if the global population is really 2 billion higher than previously thought
07 Jun 2025,·8 mins
Plus, skilled migrants, preventing Alzheimer’s and Robert Prevost on God and probability
04 Jun 2025,·28 mins
Why has the rate of autism risen so dramatically in the last 30 years?
31 May 2025,·9 mins
How one graph shows the conservative side of the United Nations’ population estimates
24 May 2025,·8 mins
We investigate the claim that bots make up 50% of internet traffic
17 May 2025,·8 mins
How retiring Berkshire Hathaway boss Warren Buffett made his money and made a point
10 May 2025,·8 mins
The first episode of a new BBC series investigating the steep rise in autism diagnoses.
05 May 2025,·15 mins
Working out the reality behind President Trump’s claims on immigration, fentanyl and eggs
03 May 2025,·9 mins
Dispelling an incel myth that featured in the Netflix drama Adolescence
26 Apr 2025,·8 mins
Professor Adam Kucharski on his new book, Proof: The Uncertain Science of Certainty
19 Apr 2025,·8 mins
The Price of Life author Jenny Kleeman on the cost of making and taking a life
12 Apr 2025,·8 mins
Plus, counting bobbies, freezing tax and electrocuting redheads
09 Apr 2025,·29 mins
