More or Less

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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1,133 episodes
Updated Saturday

Episodes1133

Newest first

May 31, 2019 · 27 min
Hay Festival Special
What does it mean to say that the UK is the fifth largest economy in the world?
May 27, 2019 · 10 min
WS More or Less: Florence Nightingale – recognising the nurse statistician
How collecting data about the dead led the famous nurse to promote better sanitation.
May 24, 2019 · 24 min
Eurovision and fact-checking Naomi Wolf
The stats behind making a successful song, plus misunderstanding Victorian court records.
May 20, 2019 · 9 min
Making music out of Money
A musical interpretation of a chart depicting the yield-curve of American bonds.
May 17, 2019 · 27 min
Heart deaths, Organised crime and Gender data gaps
Are more people dying from coronary disease? Plus how we need more economic data on women
May 13, 2019 · 15 min
Sex Every Seven Seconds
We revisit some classic topics from past years
May 10, 2019 · 27 min
Sex, coal, missing people and mice
Are we having less sex? And what happened to coal? (These items are unrelated.)
May 6, 2019 · 10 min
Avengers - Should we reverse the snap?
Exploring the economic impact of losing half the world’s population
May 3, 2019 · 23 min
Nurses, flatmates and cats
We look into sobering statistics about nurses and some curious claims about house-sharing
Apr 29, 2019 · 9 min
Bernie Sanders and the cost of having a baby
Did Bernie Sanders get the cost of giving birth right?
Apr 26, 2019 · 27 min
Hottest Easter, Insects, Scottish villages
Should we be surprised Easter Monday was the hottest recorded?
Apr 19, 2019 · 8 min
The economic impact of mega sporting events
Major sports events and the benefits to the local economy.
Apr 15, 2019 · 8 min
Where is Scotland’s highest village?
A battle is brewing in the Southern Scottish uplands between two rival villages.
Apr 8, 2019 · 8 min
Rounding up the weed killer cancer conundrum
We examine the cancer-causing potential of the weed killer glyphosate
Apr 2, 2019 · 10 min
Chess cheats and the GOAT
What a statistical analysis of chess moves can teach us about this ancient game.
Mar 25, 2019 · 8 min
Is Mansa Musa the richest person of all time?
Is the West African king, Mansa Musa, the richest person who ever lived?
Mar 25, 2019 · 8 min
Is Mansa Musa the richest person of all time?
Is the West African king, Mansa Musa, the richest person who ever lived?
Mar 18, 2019 · 8 min
Day light saving time and heart attacks
Does the sudden loss of an hour of sleep raise the risk of having a heart attack?
Mar 9, 2019 · 9 min
The gender gap in tech
Are women really less likely than men to be hired for jobs in tech?
Mar 4, 2019 · 12 min
Insectageddon
Could insects go extinct in one hundred years?