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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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1,133 episodes
Updated Saturday

Episodes1133

Newest first

Aug 6, 2025 · 8 min
Does a single AI query use a bottle of water?
We investigate how much water and power are used by artificial intelligence
Aug 2, 2025 · 8 min
Are abortion numbers rising in the US?
Looking at the data behind abortion in a post Dobbs America.
Aug 2, 2025 · 8 min
Are abortion numbers rising in the US?
Looking at the data behind abortion in a post Dobbs America.
Jul 27, 2025 · 8 min
The messy history behind the modern calendar
Why is May, May? We explain the genesis of the modern calendar
Jul 19, 2025 · 8 min
Are one in six children living through war?
A Unicef event said one in six children are living though war. What does that really mean?
Jul 12, 2025 · 8 min
Why Manchester United can afford to play badly
How a successful football club doesn’t always require a winning team
Jul 9, 2025 · 26 min
Can drinking one less bottle of coke a day halve obesity?
Plus, the UK’s expensive electricity, church counts and babies in the City of London.
Jul 5, 2025 · 8 min
The economics of war: Vikings, Conquistadors and Vietnam
Economist and author Duncan Weldon on his new book Blood and Treasure
Jul 2, 2025 · 28 min
Is the UK seeing a Christian revival?
Plus: PIP claims, immigrant returns and spotting golf balls on the moon.
Jun 28, 2025 · 8 min
Has Russia suffered a million casualties in the Ukraine war?
Making sense of the numbers around the Russian dead and wounded.
Jun 25, 2025 · 28 min
Why is data on grooming gangs so bad?
Plus, nuclear enrichment numbers, Curtice on Curtis and Viking economics.
Jun 21, 2025 · 8 min
How to spot a suspicious statistic
Professor Alex Edmans on his book, May Contain Lies
Jun 18, 2025 · 28 min
Are 4% of young women in the UK on OnlyFans?
Plus, asylum seeker hotel bill, Scottish water use and 1950s childcare claim.
Jun 14, 2025 · 9 min
Could you be hit by a falling satellite?
Investigating if 100,000 satellites could be orbiting earth in five years’ time
Jun 11, 2025 · 28 min
How do you make something 10-times more lethal?
Plus, the Sycamore Gap tree, pensioner-worker ratios and yoga v fishers.
Jun 7, 2025 · 8 min
Is the world’s population being miscounted?
Investigating if the global population is really 2 billion higher than previously thought
Jun 4, 2025 · 28 min
Does the average American have fewer than three friends?
Plus, skilled migrants, preventing Alzheimer’s and Robert Prevost on God and probability.
May 31, 2025 · 9 min
Factchecking the Trump administration’s Autism claims
Why has the rate of autism risen so dramatically in the last 30 years?
May 24, 2025 · 8 min
Is the UN underestimating the global fall in fertility?
How one graph shows the conservative side of the United Nations’ population estimates
May 17, 2025 · 8 min
How dead is the internet?
We investigate the claim that bots make up 50% of internet traffic