More or Less: Behind the Stats Podcast
Tim Harford and the More or Less team try to make sense of the statistics which surround us. From BBC Radio 4
Episodes to download
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Could you be hit by a falling satellite?
Saturday
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?
Wednesday
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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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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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
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Warren Buffett’s brilliant bets
Sat 10 May 2025
How retiring Berkshire Hathaway boss Warren Buffett made his money and made a point
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Bonus episode: The Autism Curve
Mon 5 May 2025
The first episode of a new BBC series investigating the steep rise in autism diagnoses.
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Donald Trump: 100 days fact-check
Sat 3 May 2025
Working out the reality behind President Trump’s claims on immigration, fentanyl and eggs
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Are 80% of women really only attracted to 20% of men?
Sat 26 Apr 2025
Dispelling an incel myth that featured in the Netflix drama Adolescence
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The pioneers of proof
Sat 19 Apr 2025
Professor Adam Kucharski on his new book, Proof: The Uncertain Science of Certainty
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How much is a human life worth?
Sat 12 Apr 2025
The Price of Life author Jenny Kleeman on the cost of making and taking a life
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The mistake in Trump’s tariff formula
Wed 9 Apr 2025
Plus, counting bobbies, freezing tax and electrocuting redheads
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Trump tariffs: All about the deficits
Fri 4 Apr 2025
Explaining the maths and economics of the US ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs
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Is one in four people in the UK disabled?
Wed 2 Apr 2025
Plus, what has Canada done to Donald Trump? Is Rachel Reeves chasing the model?
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What’s Trump’s problem with Canada?
Sat 29 Mar 2025
Does the US subsidise Canada $200 billion a year and why does Trump call them nasty?
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Could a 2% wealth tax raise £24bn?
Wed 26 Mar 2025
Plus did trillions disappear from UK pensions? Why does the UK have a lot of old housing?
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What are the chances of an asteroid hitting earth in 2032?
Sat 22 Mar 2025
Why the likelihood of planetary impact changed as asteroid 2024 YR4 approached.
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Why are more people claiming disability benefits?
Wed 19 Mar 2025
Plus, UK vs Russia on free speech and the collapse of the Labour Force Survey
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How did lockdown impact children?
Mon 17 Mar 2025
Five years on, Tim Harford looks at the data on the effect of lockdown
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What is an IQ map and can we trust them?
Sat 15 Mar 2025
We investigate maps that suggest extremely low average IQs in developing countries
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DOGE, apples and irregular migrants
Wed 12 Mar 2025
Fact-checking government efficiency claims in the US.
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Is there really $500bn of Rare Earths in Ukraine?
Sat 8 Mar 2025
Trump wants access to Ukraine’s Rare Earth deposits.
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Defence Spending, Rare Earths and Trunk Truths
Wed 5 Mar 2025
The numbers behind Ukraine’s rare earth worth and the UK’s defence spending ambitions
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Has the US really given Ukraine more aid than Europe?
Sat 1 Mar 2025
Donald Trump says the US has given Ukraine more aid than Europe - what does the data say?
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Are 150 year olds getting social security payments?
Sat 22 Feb 2025
Is this ‘the biggest fraud in the whole of history’?
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Has the US sent $50 million worth of condoms to Gaza?
Sat 15 Feb 2025
Are Hamas bombing Israel with condoms sent by the US?
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Are black babies in the US really more likely to die under the care of white doctors?
Sat 8 Feb 2025
How baby mortality statistics gave a misleading impression about racism in healthcare
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Are quantum computers already super-powerful?
Sat 1 Feb 2025
We investigate what a big claim about the speed of a quantum chip really means
