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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Who pays when trade wars heat up?
Sat 7 Sep 2024
We look at Donald Trump’s claim that tariffs are a tax on other countries
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Who pays when trade wars heat up?
Sat 7 Sep 2024
We look at Donald Trump’s claim that tariffs are a tax on other countries
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Exclusions, black holes and dividing by zero
Wed 4 Sep 2024
Plus special educational needs in Wales and Ghanian nurses in the UK
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Where have Cuba’s people gone?
Sat 31 Aug 2024
We investigate the collapse in the Caribbean island’s population.
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Where have Cuba’s people gone?
Sat 31 Aug 2024
We investigate the collapse in the Caribbean island’s population
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Do we eat a credit card's worth of microplastic each week?
Sat 24 Aug 2024
We look at whether humans really ingest five grams of microplastic on a weekly basis
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Do we eat a credit card's worth of microplastic each week?
Sat 24 Aug 2024
We look at whether humans really ingest five grams of microplastic on a weekly basis
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Are companies making more money from their customers?
Sat 17 Aug 2024
We investigate claims mark-ups are larger than ever
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Are companies making more money from their customers?
Sat 17 Aug 2024
We investigate claims mark-ups are larger than ever
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Is planet Earth getting greener?
Sat 10 Aug 2024
Jordan Peterson says Earth has greened by 20% in 20 years. Is he right?
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Is planet Earth getting greener?
Sat 10 Aug 2024
Jordan Peterson says Earth has greened by 20% in 20 years. Is he right?
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Does a language die every two weeks?
Sat 3 Aug 2024
Languages are disappearing. We investigate claims of how often this happens
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Does a language die every two weeks?
Sat 3 Aug 2024
Languages are disappearing. We investigate claims of how often this happens.
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Are women 14 times more likely to die in natural disasters?
Sat 27 Jul 2024
We unpick the idea that women outnumber men by 14 to 1 as casualties of natural disasters
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Are women 14 times more likely to die in natural disasters?
Sat 27 Jul 2024
We unpick the idea that women outnumber men by 14 to 1 as casualties of natural disasters
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Is increasing turbulence making flying more dangerous?
Sat 20 Jul 2024
Exploring the link between bumpy flights and climate change.
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Is increasing turbulence making flying more dangerous?
Sat 20 Jul 2024
Exploring the link between bumpy flights and climate change
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Federer’s 54%: Tennis stats explained
Sat 13 Jul 2024
How Federer became the best in the world winning just over half the points he played
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Federer’s 54%: Tennis stats explained
Sat 13 Jul 2024
How Federer became the best in the world winning just over half the points he played
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The magic of trigonometry
Sat 6 Jul 2024
Tim Harford interviews Matt Parker on his latest book ‘Love Triangle’
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The magic of trigonometry
Sat 6 Jul 2024
Tim Harford interviews Matt Parker on his latest book ‘Love Triangle’
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Election endings, tennis and meeting men in finance
Wed 3 Jul 2024
Exit polls, election claims, and a 54% chance of winning a point in tennis
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How a tick box doubled the US maternal mortality rates.
Sat 29 Jun 2024
We investigate changes to the way the US gathers their maternal mortality statistics
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How a tick box doubled the US maternal mortality rates.
Sat 29 Jun 2024
We investigate changes to the way the US gathers their maternal mortality statistics
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Election claims and erection claims
Wed 26 Jun 2024
What did Liz Truss do to mortgage rates? Do erections use a litre of blood?
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Do ‘pig butchering’ cyber scams make as much as half Cambodia’s GDP?
Sat 22 Jun 2024
We investigate the money made by an international cybercrime operations.
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Do ‘pig butchering’ cyber scams make as much as half Cambodia’s GDP?
Sat 22 Jun 2024
We investigate the money made by an international cybercrime operation
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Worse mortgages, better readers, and potholes on the moon
Wed 19 Jun 2024
We check some of the numbers that are flying about in the election campaign
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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.
