The magic of trigonometry

Tim Harford interviews Matt Parker on his latest book ‘Love Triangle’

• 9 mins

Federer’s 54%: Tennis stats explained

How Federer became the best in the world winning just over half the points he played

• 8 mins

Is increasing turbulence making flying more dangerous?

Exploring the link between bumpy flights and climate change

• 10 mins

Are women 14 times more likely to die in natural disasters?

We unpick the idea that women outnumber men by 14 to 1 as casualties of natural disasters

• 12 mins

Does a language die every two weeks?

Languages are disappearing. We investigate claims of how often this happens.

• 9 mins

Is planet Earth getting greener?

Jordan Peterson says Earth has greened by 20% in 20 years. Is he right?

• 10 mins

Are companies making more money from their customers?

We investigate claims mark-ups are larger than ever

• 8 mins

Do we eat a credit card's worth of microplastic each week?

We look at whether humans really ingest five grams of microplastic on a weekly basis

• 8 mins

Where have Cuba’s people gone?

We investigate the collapse in the Caribbean island’s population

• 9 mins

Exclusions, black holes and dividing by zero

Plus special educational needs in Wales and Ghanian nurses in the UK

• 28 mins

Who pays when trade wars heat up?

We look at Donald Trump’s claim that tariffs are a tax on other countries

• 8 mins

How long does it take to turn around an oil tanker?

Plus, Migrants vs Pensioners and Ed Miliband’s energy auction claim

• 27 mins

Nate Silver: Do risk-takers run the world?

Poker player and polling analyst Nate Silver on his new book

• 8 mins

How do you count millionaires?

Plus, asylum seeker costs, private school bets and Baumol's cost disease

• 28 mins

Do 85% of the world’s population practice a religion?

Counting religions across the globe – is the world getting more religious or less?

• 10 mins

Could the winter fuel cut cost more than it saves?

Plus, ONS transgender stats, early-onset cancer, and puzzles you’re meant to get wrong

• 28 mins

The puzzles you’re meant to get wrong

Alex Bellos sets Tim Harford logical conundrums designed to deceive

• 8 mins

How do you breed seventeen octillion rats?

Plus, GPs working less, the UK working less, and Wetherspoons wanting to pay less tax.

• 28 mins

Are 672 billion pounds of corn eaten in the US every year?

A lot of corn is eaten in the United States, but is it really 2.5kg per person per day?

• 10 mins

Should the government target persnuffle?

Plus, childhood obesity, birds hitting windows and Sir David Spiegelhalter’s origin story.

• 27 mins

Uncertainty, probability and double yoked eggs

Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter on his new book, The Art of Uncertainty

• 8 mins

When are numbers like a horse at a gymkhana?

Plus: the taxes of 60 very rich people, water bill spreadsheets, and is 0 a small number?

• 28 mins

Nobel prize: Why are some countries so much richer than others?

Why Acemoglu, Johnson and Robinson won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics

• 8 mins

Do US crime statistics miss out the most violent cities?

Plus: MP capital gains claims and grizzly bear berry habits

• 28 mins

Is Trump right about violent crime in Venezuela and the US?

Donald Trump says Venezuela is becoming safer than the US. Is he right?

• 10 mins

Are older drivers more dangerous?

Plus, winter fuel deaths, prison sentence maths and leaves on railway tracks.

• 28 mins

What can economics learn from sport?

From loss aversion to game theory, how sports provide evidence for economic theories

• 8 mins

Do we have enough clothes for the next six generations?

We delve into the stats on the scale of the fashion industry

• 10 mins

Did 20 million votes really go missing in the US election?

We investigate a viral graph that suggests turnout was drastically lower than in 2020

• 8 mins

Do fossil fuels get $7 trillion in subsidies?

We investigate a huge estimate for how much governments pay to support coal, gas and oil

• 8 mins