More or Less Podcast
Tim Harford explains - and sometimes debunks - the numbers and statistics used in political debate, the news and everyday life
Episodes to download
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Does toilet paper cause 15% of global deforestation?
Sat 21 Jan 2023
We investigate the impact of our use of toilet paper on the world鈥檚 forests.
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How we shook the world of very large numbers
Sat 14 Jan 2023
How an edition of More or Less influenced the naming of enormous numbers
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A&E delays and deaths, religious identity in N Ireland and naming the monster numbers
Wed 11 Jan 2023
How many people may be dying because of treatment delays in the NHS?
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Can China's data on Covid deaths be trusted?
Sat 7 Jan 2023
Is China under-reporting data on Covid related deaths?
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Irish pubs - a global numbers game
Sat 31 Dec 2022
Are there more Irish pubs in Ireland than in all other countries combined?
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What are the numbers of 2022?
Christmas Eve 2022
Tim Harford and guests on the numbers that help tell the big stories of the year.
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Qatar World Cup: The pressure of penalties
Sat 17 Dec 2022
We analyse World Cup penalty data to ask what boosts the chance of scoring from the spot
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Why is data so important in determining how we live?
Sat 10 Dec 2022
Tim Harford on how good policies depend on the availability of reliable statistics
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World Cup in Qatar: How many migrant workers have died?
Sat 3 Dec 2022
Examining the wildly varying estimates of deaths in the run-up to the tournament in Qatar
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When do food shortages become a famine?
Sat 26 Nov 2022
With Somalia in crisis, we ask how data is used to officially declare a famine
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A $220 billion World Cup?
Sat 19 Nov 2022
Has hosting the Fifa football World Cup really cost Qatar $220bn?
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Improving the numbers in the news
Sat 12 Nov 2022
Tim Harford discusses the role statistics should play in the reporting of the news
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Lula鈥檚 'zero deforestation' plan for the Amazon
Sat 5 Nov 2022
How much of the rainforest has been lost? And can Brazil鈥檚 new president save it?
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Can China鈥檚 GDP data be trusted?
Sat 29 Oct 2022
Are China鈥檚 most recent figures for economic growth wrong?
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Do half of new books really sell fewer than twelve copies?
Sat 22 Oct 2022
We look into a claim that 50% of new books in the US sell just a handful of copies.
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Ben Bernanke and the magic of banking
Sat 15 Oct 2022
Tim Harford explains the work of this year鈥檚 Nobel Economics Prize winners
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Catching chess cheats with data
Sat 8 Oct 2022
A cheating scandal is rocking the world of chess - and data is at its heart
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Nasa鈥檚 asteroid collision: How many asteroids are really out there?
Sat 1 Oct 2022
As Nasa rams an asteroid to try and alter its course, how many are yet to be discovered?
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Ukraine鈥檚 progress in numbers
Sat 24 Sep 2022
We ask how much progress Ukraine has really made in recapturing territory from Russia.
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How bad is fashion for the environment?
Sat 17 Sep 2022
Does fashion really account for 10% of greenhouse gas emissions?
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Is a third of Pakistan really under water?
Sat 10 Sep 2022
We investigate a widely reported claim as Pakistan deals with devastating flooding
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Can we use maths to beat the robots?
Sat 3 Sep 2022
Why improving how we teach and think about maths could help us keep an edge over machines
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Kenya鈥檚 Election Rounding Error
Sat 27 Aug 2022
Official figures didn鈥檛 add up - but due to rounding, not fraud
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The numbers behind 'natural' birth control
Sat 20 Aug 2022
We examine online claims about the effectiveness of 鈥渘atural鈥� birth control methods
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Is opinion polling broken?
Sat 13 Aug 2022
Following some high profile slip-ups in recent US elections, is opinion polling broken?
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Debunking the Liverpool FC conspiracy theory
Sat 6 Aug 2022
We debunk spurious rumours that Liverpool FC use asthma medication to enhance performance
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How our world measures up
Sat 30 Jul 2022
From ancient tally bones to a jar of peanut butter, a look at the history of measurement
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Does the World Athletics Championships have a false start problem?
Sat 23 Jul 2022
We examine the rules and tech of false starts after the disqualification of Devon Allen.
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Is Uganda about to become a middle income country?
Sat 16 Jul 2022
We assess President Museveni鈥檚 claim that Uganda is nearing a higher economic status.
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Does it take 10,000 litres of water to make a pair of jeans?
Sat 9 Jul 2022
The numbers behind water use and denim production
Unlock the history and truth behind the data with The OU
Explore how numbers shape, and sometimes mislead us, with The Open University.
When can you trust statistics?
91福利社 Ideas discovers three easy ways to help make sense of statistics.
