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BBC Radio 4

Tim Harford explains - and sometimes debunks - the numbers and statistics used in political debate, the news and everyday life.

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20 episodes
Updated Saturday

Episodes20

Newest first

Saturday · 8 min
Would you take £50,000 or a 50/50 chance of £1m?
How to understand risk-averse financial decision making.
Thursday · 29 min
The mistake in Trump’s tariff formula
Also, counting bobbies, freezing tax and electrocuting redheads
July 25 · 8 min
Is crime in London ‘through the roof’?
How does violent crime in London compare to other global cities?
July 18 · 8 min
How much luck do you need to win the World Cup?
Investigating the role of random chance in football
July 11 · 8 min
Does playing tennis make you live 9.7 years longer?
Should we all take up tennis? We delve into the evidence on its life-extending powers.
July 8 · 28 min
Does the average teacher really earn £54,000?
Tim Harford investigates teacher pay, Russian soldier deaths and card-shuffling maths.
July 4 · 8 min
Does a full moon make crime rates go up?
Holding the moon to account for its role in crime rates
July 1 · 28 min
Examining the numbers behind Andy Burnham’s ‘Manchester Miracle’
Tim Harford examines ‘Manchesterism’, hot cities, whales and CO2, and prime numbers.
June 24 · 28 min
Benefits v minimum wage: Which pays more?
Tim Harford examines benefits v work, dangerous temperatures and the World Cup draw.
June 20 · 8 min
Is the US worse than North Korea for malnutrition deaths?
Why have malnutrition deaths shot up in the US since 2012?
June 17 · 28 min
Does Europe suffer more heat deaths than the US?
Tim Harford investigates heat deaths, the carbon footprint of eggs, and ironing out Wales.
June 13 · 8 min
Andrew Ross Sorkin: What can the Great Crash of 1929 tell us about today?
The financial journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin on the numbers behind the 1929 crash
June 10 · 28 min
Education, Education, Education (and Immigration)
Tim Harford investigates migrants and jobs, VAT and private schools, and a hard maths exam
June 6 · 8 min
Factchecking claims that 400 churches were burned to the ground in France
Looking into the numbers behind claims of attacks on churches
June 3 · 28 min
Debunking the claim that migrants will get half of new homes
Tim Harford investigates migration and housing, Welsh literacy, and bond market drama.
May 30 · 8 min
The known unknowns of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
The data race to find out how fast Ebola is spreading
May 27 · 28 min
Does a fall in the UK's healthy life expectancy mean what you think it means?
Tim Harford explores healthy life expectancy, HS2 costs, VAT cuts and his marathon time.
May 23 · 8 min
Is the ‘loneliness epidemic’ real?
We investigate if loneliness is increasing at epidemic rates
May 20 · 28 min
Are refugees more likely to commit crime?
Asylum seekers and crime, nuclear fish, the Quiet Revival and Sir David Attenborough.
May 16 · 8 min
Erdos Problem 1196: Can AI now solve maths that no human can?
How a 23-year-old mathematician used AI to crack an unsolved maths problem