More or Less Podcast
Tim Harford explains - and sometimes debunks - the numbers and statistics used in political debate, the news and everyday life.
Episodes to download
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Are abortion numbers rising in the US?
Wed 6 Aug 2025
Looking at the data behind abortion in a post Dobbs America.
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Does a single AI query use a bottle of water?
Wed 6 Aug 2025
We investigate how much water and power are used by artificial intelligence
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Are abortion numbers rising in the US?
Sat 2 Aug 2025
Looking at the data behind abortion in a post Dobbs America.
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Are abortion numbers rising in the US?
Fri 1 Aug 2025
Looking at the data behind abortion in a post Dobbs America.
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Does a single AI query use a bottle of water?
Sat 26 Jul 2025
We investigate how much water and power are used by artificial intelligence
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Are one in six children living through war?
Sat 19 Jul 2025
A Unicef event said one in six children are living though war. What does that really mean?
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Are one in six children living through war?
Sat 19 Jul 2025
A Unicef event said one in six children are living though war. What does that really mean?
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Why Manchester United can afford to play badly
Sat 12 Jul 2025
How a successful football club doesn’t always require a winning team
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Why Manchester United can afford to play badly
Sat 12 Jul 2025
How a successful football club doesn’t always require a winning team
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Can drinking one less bottle of coke a day halve obesity?
Wed 9 Jul 2025
Plus, the UK’s expensive electricity, church counts and babies in the City of London
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The economics of war: Vikings, Conquistadors and Vietnam
Sat 5 Jul 2025
Economist and author Duncan Weldon on his new book Blood and Treasure
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The economics of war: Vikings, Conquistadors and Vietnam
Sat 5 Jul 2025
Economist and author Duncan Weldon on his new book Blood and Treasure
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Is the UK seeing a Christian revival?
Wed 2 Jul 2025
Plus: PIP claims, immigrant returns and spotting golf balls on the moon.
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Has Russia suffered a million casualties in the Ukraine war?
Sat 28 Jun 2025
Making sense of the numbers around the Russian dead and wounded.
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Has Russia suffered a million casualties in the Ukraine war?
Sat 28 Jun 2025
Making sense of the numbers around the Russian dead and wounded.
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Why is data on grooming gangs so bad?
Wed 25 Jun 2025
Plus, nuclear enrichment numbers, Curtice on Curtis and Viking economics
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How to spot a suspicious statistic
Sat 21 Jun 2025
Professor Alex Edmans on his book, May Contain Lies
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How to spot a suspicious statistic
Sat 21 Jun 2025
Professor Alex Edmans on his book, May Contain Lies
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Are 4% of young women in the UK on OnlyFans?
Wed 18 Jun 2025
Plus, asylum seeker hotel bill, Scottish water use and 1950s childcare claim
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Could you be hit by a falling satellite?
Sat 14 Jun 2025
Investigating if 100,000 satellites could be orbiting earth in five years’ time
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Could you be hit by a falling satellite?
Sat 14 Jun 2025
Investigating if 100,000 satellites could be orbiting earth in five years’ time
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How do you make something 10-times more lethal?
Wed 11 Jun 2025
Plus, the Sycamore Gap tree, pensioner-worker ratios and yoga v fishers
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Is the world’s population being miscounted?
Sat 7 Jun 2025
Investigating if the global population is really 2 billion higher than previously thought
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Is the world’s population being miscounted?
Sat 7 Jun 2025
Investigating if the global population is really 2 billion higher than previously thought
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Does the average American have fewer than three friends?
Wed 4 Jun 2025
Plus, skilled migrants, preventing Alzheimer’s and Robert Prevost on God and probability
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Factchecking the Trump administration’s Autism claims
Sat 31 May 2025
Why has the rate of autism risen so dramatically in the last 30 years?
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Factchecking the Trump administration’s Autism claims
Sat 31 May 2025
Why has the rate of autism risen so dramatically in the last 30 years?
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Is the UN underestimating the global fall in fertility?
Sat 24 May 2025
How one graph shows the conservative side of the United Nations’ population estimates
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Is the UN underestimating the global fall in fertility?
Sat 24 May 2025
How one graph shows the conservative side of the United Nations’ population estimates
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How dead is the internet?
Sat 17 May 2025
We investigate the claim that bots make up 50% of internet traffic
Unlock the history and truth behind the data with The OU
Explore how numbers shape, and sometimes mislead us, with The Open University.
When can you trust statistics?
BBC Ideas discovers three easy ways to help make sense of statistics.
