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03-Jan-2026
More or Less - Numbers of the year 2026
From passenger numbers to world cup travel, we cast our eye forwards into 2026
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31-Dec-2025
More or Less - Numbers of the Year 2025
A plethora of interesting numbers you may not know about.
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27-Dec-2025
More or Less - Numbers of the year 2025
From tariffs to comets, we look back at the numbers of 2025 across the world
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24-Dec-2025
More or Less - Were there really Three Wise Men?
From counting people to measuring housework - we explore.
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20-Dec-2025
More or Less - The shocking world of US health costs
Can the same pill cost $3 in a pharmacy and $750 in a hospital?
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18-Dec-2025
More or Less - Do we really have ‘superflu’?
The NHS is warning of an unprecedented flu season - we check.
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13-Dec-2025
More or Less - RCP 8.5: Why did the climate change model get it wrong?
How an important climate model was too pessimistic about the future
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06-Dec-2025
More or Less - Is RFK right about US sperm counts?
Do US teens have 50% lower sperm and testosterone counts than 65 year old men?
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29-Nov-2025
More or Less - Richard Thaler and The Winner’s Curse
Richard Thaler on two of his most famous observations in behavioural economics
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22-Nov-2025
More or Less - Is there a stock market crash coming?
Can data tell us if a stock market crash is coming?
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15-Nov-2025
More or Less - Has there been a $50 trillion wealth transfer to the richest Americans?
Bernie Sanders says vast riches have moved to the wealthiest in the US. Is he right?
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08-Nov-2025
More or Less - Is RFK Jr right about China's diabetes rate?
Investigating if 50% of people in China really have diabetes.
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01-Nov-2025
More or Less - Halloween special: How many people did the real Dracula impale?
Looking at the math's behind the myth
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25-Oct-2025
More or Less - Is your housework split sexist?
Corinne Low explains the economics of women, men and housework
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18-Oct-2025
More or Less - Nobel economics prize 2025: What's the big idea?
Tim Harford explains the ideas behind the winners of the economics Nobel Prize.
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15-Oct-2025
More or Less - Are millions of people getting Motability cars for anxiety and ADHD?
Farm tax, ADHD benefits, Movember claim and Tim’s marathon.
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11-Oct-2025
More or Less - Are 72% of prison inmates in Switzerland foreign?
Donald Trump says three quarters of Swiss prisoners are not Swiss. Is he right?
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08-Oct-2025
More or Less - Does half the UK get more in benefits than they pay in tax?
UK benefits, Zack Polanski’s billionaire claim and Gen Z job interviews.
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04-Oct-2025
More or Less - Is the world getting less miserable?
Exploring global polling data that suggests people in more countries are "thriving"
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01-Oct-2025
More or Less - Has Donald Trump ended seven 'unendable' wars?
Trump’s peace deals, Labour’s GDP claim and university league tables
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27-Sep-2025
More or Less - The Case of the Missing US Data
Why does it matter that US government datasets are being deleted and discontinued?
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24-Sep-2025
More or Less - Was it easier to deport migrants to France before Brexit?
Migrant returns, ageing mistakes, beef prices and AI MP speeches.
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20-Sep-2025
More or Less - Is JD Vance right about left-wing violence?
Following the murder of Charlie Kirk, what is the data on political violence in the US?
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17-Sep-2025
More or Less - Is it true that out-of-work benefits have almost doubled?
Out-of-work benefits, French pensioners, surprising salmon and the truth about senses.
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13-Sep-2025
More or Less - Will the world really be 50 million workers short by 2030?
Is Nvidia boss Jensen Huang right about a looming labour shortfall?
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10-Sep-2025
More or Less - Are Afghan nationals more likely to be convicted of sexual offences?
National debt, Afghan crime, menopause retirement and literal snail pace.
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06-Sep-2025
More or Less - Do 11,000 sharks die every hour?
Investigating if 100 million sharks are killed by fishing nets every year.
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30-Aug-2025
More or Less - Are self-driving cars safer than cars with drivers?
We look at claims that fully autonomous cars are 5 or ten times safer
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23-Aug-2025
More or Less - Do women feel the cold more than men?
We investigate if air conditioning is set too cold for women.
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16-Aug-2025
More or Less - How weird was the Med Sea heatwave?
Did the Mediterranean experience a 1-in-216,000,000,000-year sea temperature anomaly?
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09-Aug-2025
More or Less - Why it matters that Trump fired data chief
The US president fired Erika McEntarfer over job numbers. What’s the potential fallout?
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02-Aug-2025
More or Less - Are abortion numbers rising in the US?
Looking at the data behind abortion in a post Dobbs America.
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26-Jul-2025
More or Less - Does a single AI query use a bottle of water?
We investigate how much water and power are used by artificial intelligence.
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19-Jul-2025
More or Less - 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?
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12-Jul-2025
More or Less - Why Manchester United can afford to play badly
How a successful football club doesn’t always require a winning team
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09-Jul-2025
More or Less - 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.
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05-Jul-2025
More or Less - The economics of war: Vikings, Conquistadors and Vietnam
Economist and author Duncan Weldon on his new book Blood and Treasure
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02-Jul-2025
More or Less - Is the UK seeing a Christian revival?
Plus: PIP claims, immigrant returns and spotting golf balls on the moon.
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28-Jun-2025
More or Less - Has Russia suffered a million casualties in the Ukraine war?
Making sense of the numbers around the Russian dead and wounded.
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25-Jun-2025
More or Less - Why is data on grooming gangs so bad?
Plus, nuclear enrichment numbers, Curtice on Curtis and Viking economics.
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21-Jun-2025
More or Less - How to spot a suspicious statistic
Professor Alex Edmans on his book, May Contain Lies
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18-Jun-2025
More or Less - Are 4% of young women in the UK on OnlyFans?
Plus, asylum seeker hotel bill, Scottish water use and 1950s childcare claim.
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14-Jun-2025
More or Less - Could you be hit by a falling satellite?
Investigating if 100,000 satellites could be orbiting earth in five years’ time
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11-Jun-2025
More or Less - How do you make something 10-times more lethal?
Plus, the Sycamore Gap tree, pensioner-worker ratios and yoga v fishers.
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07-Jun-2025
More or Less - Is the world’s population being miscounted?
Investigating if the global population is really 2 billion higher than previously thought
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04-Jun-2025
More or Less - Does the average American have fewer than three friends?
Plus, skilled migrants, preventing Alzheimer’s and Robert Prevost on God and probability.
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31-May-2025
More or Less - Factchecking the Trump administration’s Autism claims
Why has the rate of autism risen so dramatically in the last 30 years?
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24-May-2025
More or Less - Is the UN underestimating the global fall in fertility?
How one graph shows the conservative side of the United Nations’ population estimates
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17-May-2025
More or Less - How dead is the internet?
We investigate the claim that bots make up 50% of internet traffic
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10-May-2025
More or Less - Warren Buffett’s brilliant bets
How retiring Berkshire Hathaway boss Warren Buffett made his money and made a point
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07-May-2025
More or Less - Donald Trump: 100 days fact-check
Working out the reality behind President Trump’s claims on immigration, fentanyl and eggs
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26-Apr-2025
More or Less - Are 80% of women really only attracted to 20% of men?
Dispelling an incel myth that featured in the Netflix drama Adolescence
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19-Apr-2025
More or Less - The pioneers of proof
Professor Adam Kucharski on his new book, Proof: The Uncertain Science of Certainty
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12-Apr-2025
More or Less - How much is a human life worth?
The Price of Life author Jenny Kleeman on the cost of making and taking a life
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09-Apr-2025
More or Less - The mistake in Trump’s tariff formula
Also, counting bobbies, freezing tax and electrocuting redheads
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08-Apr-2025
More or Less - Trump tariffs: All about the deficits
Explaining the maths and economics of the US ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs
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02-Apr-2025
More or Less - Is one in four people in the UK disabled?
Plus, what has Canada done to Donald Trump? Is Rachel Reeves chasing the model?
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29-Mar-2025
More or Less - What’s Trump’s problem with Canada?
Does the US subsidise Canada $200 billion a year and why does Trump call them nasty?
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26-Mar-2025
More or Less - Could a 2% wealth tax raise £24bn?
Plus, did trillions disappear from UK pensions? Why does the UK have a lot of old housing?
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22-Mar-2025
More or Less - What are the chances of an asteroid hitting earth in 2032?
Why the likelihood of planetary impact changed as asteroid 2024 YR4 approached.
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19-Mar-2025
More or Less - Why are more people claiming disability benefits?
Plus, UK v Russia on free speech and the collapse of the Labour Force Survey.
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17-Mar-2025
More or Less - How did lockdown impact children?
Five years on, Tim Harford looks at the data on the effect of lockdown.
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15-Mar-2025
More or Less - What is an IQ map and can we trust them?
We investigate maps that suggest extremely low average IQs in developing countries
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12-Mar-2025
More or Less - DOGE, apples and irregular migrants
Fact-checking government efficiency claims in the US.
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08-Mar-2025
More or Less - Is there really $500bn of Rare Earths in Ukraine?
Trump wants access to Ukraine’s Rare Earth deposits.
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05-Mar-2025
More or Less - Defence Spending, Rare Earths and Trunk Truths
The numbers behind Ukraine’s rare earth worth and the UK’s defence spending ambitions.
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01-Mar-2025
More or Less - Has the US really given Ukraine more aid than Europe?
Donald Trump says the US has given Ukraine more aid than Europe - what does the data say?
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22-Feb-2025
More or Less - Are 150 year olds getting social security payments?
Is this ‘the biggest fraud in the whole of history'?
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17-Feb-2025
More or Less - Has the US sent $50 million worth of condoms to Gaza?
Are Hamas bombing Israel with condoms sent by the US?
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08-Feb-2025
More or Less - Are black babies in the US really more likely to die under the care of white doctors?
How baby mortality statistics gave a misleading impression about racism in healthcare
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01-Feb-2025
More or Less - Are quantum computers already super-powerful?
We investigate what a big claim about the speed of a quantum chip really means.
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25-Jan-2025
More or Less - Did Trump make billions with his meme-coin?
We investigate if the US president’s crypto is really worth tens of billions of dollars.
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18-Jan-2025
More or Less - Can redheads handle 25% more pain than brunettes?
We investigate if people with red hair have a hidden pain-blocking superpower
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11-Jan-2025
More or Less - Do 79% of Swedish asylum seekers go on holiday to the country they fled from?
We investigate a refugee claim that is often being taken out of context.
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05-Jan-2025
More or Less - Numbers of the year: Part two
Our listeners' favourite numbers of 2024
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28-Dec-2024
More or Less - Numbers of the year 2024
We ask experts about their favourite stats from 2024.
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21-Dec-2024
More or Less - Did Mussolini make the trains run on time?
Fact checking the fascist regime.
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14-Dec-2024
More or Less - How many Americans live ‘paycheck to paycheck’?
How many Americans live ‘paycheck to paycheck’?
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07-Dec-2024
More or Less - Did one in 10 Greeks die in World War Two?
We investigate if 10 percent of the Greek population died during the second world war
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30-Nov-2024
More or Less - Can Elon Musk save the US Government $2 trillion?
We look at whether DOGE can successfully balance the US budget.
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23-Nov-2024
More or Less - More or Less
Tim Harford explains the numbers and statistics in the news and in life.
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16-Nov-2024
More or Less - 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
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09-Nov-2024
More or Less - Do we have enough clothes for the next six generations?
We delve into the stats on the scale of the fashion industry
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02-Nov-2024
More or Less - What can economics learn from sport?
From loss aversion to game theory, how sports provide evidence for economic theories
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30-Oct-2024
More or Less - Are older drivers more dangerous?
Plus, winter fuel deaths, prison sentence maths and leaves on railway tracks.
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26-Oct-2024
More or Less - Is Trump right about violent crime in Venezuela and the US?
Donald Trump says Venezuela is becoming safer than the US. Is he right?
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23-Oct-2024
More or Less - Do US crime statistics miss out the most violent cities?
Plus: MP capital gains claims and grizzly bear berry habits.
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19-Oct-2024
More or Less - Nobel Prize: Why are some countries so much richer than others?
Why Acemoglu, Johnson and Robinson won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics
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16-Oct-2024
More or Less - 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?
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12-Oct-2024
More or Less - Uncertainty, probability and double yoked eggs
Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter on his new book, The Art of Uncertainty
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09-Oct-2024
More or Less - Should the government target persnuffle?
Plus, childhood obesity, birds hitting windows and Sir David Spiegelhalter’s origin story.
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05-Oct-2024
More or Less - 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?
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02-Oct-2024
More or Less - How do you breed seventeen octillion rats?
Plus, GPs working less, the UK working less, and Wetherspoons wanting to pay less tax.
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28-Sep-2024
More or Less - The puzzles you’re meant to get wrong
Alex Bellos sets Tim Harford logical conundrums designed to deceive
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25-Sep-2024
More or Less - 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.
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21-Sep-2024
More or Less - Do 85% of the world’s population practice a religion?
Counting religions across the globe – is the world getting more religious or less?
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18-Sep-2024
More or Less - How do you count millionaires?
Plus, asylum seeker costs, private school bets and Baumol's cost disease
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14-Sep-2024
More or Less - Nate Silver: Do risk-takers run the world?
Poker player and polling analyst Nate Silver on his new book
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11-Sep-2024
More or Less - How long does it take to turn around an oil tanker?
Plus migrants v pensioners and Ed Miliband’s energy auction claim.
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07-Sep-2024
More or Less - Who pays when trade wars heat up?
We look at Donald Trump’s claim that tariffs are a tax on other countries
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04-Sep-2024
More or Less - Exclusions, black holes and dividing by zero
Plus special educational needs in Wales and Ghanian nurses in the UK.
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31-Aug-2024
More or Less - Where have Cuba’s people gone?
We investigate the collapse in the Caribbean island’s population.
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24-Aug-2024
More or Less - 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
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17-Aug-2024
More or Less - Are companies making more money from their customers?
We investigate claims mark-ups are larger than ever
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10-Aug-2024
More or Less - Is planet Earth getting greener?
Jordan Peterson says Earth has greened by 20% in 20 years. Is he right?
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03-Aug-2024
More or Less - Does a language die every two weeks?
Languages are disappearing. We investigate claims of how often this happens
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27-Jul-2024
More or Less - 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
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20-Jul-2024
More or Less - Is increasing turbulence making flying more dangerous?
Exploring the link between bumpy flights and climate change.
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13-Jul-2024
More or Less - Federer’s 54%: Tennis stats explained
How Federer became the best in the world winning just over half the points he played
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06-Jul-2024
More or Less - The magic of trigonometry
Tim Harford interviews Matt Parker on his latest book ‘Love Triangle’
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03-Jul-2024
More or Less - Election endings, tennis, and meeting men in finance
Exit polls, election claims, and a 54% chance of winning a point in tennis,
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29-Jun-2024
More or Less - How a tick box doubled the US maternal mortality rates.
We investigate changes to the way the US gathers their maternal mortality statistics
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26-Jun-2024
More or Less - Election claims and erection claims
What did Liz Truss do to mortgage rates? Do erections use a litre of blood?
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22-Jun-2024
More or Less - Do ‘pig butchering’ cyber scams make as much as half Cambodia’s GDP?
We investigate the money made by an international cybercrime operations.
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19-Jun-2024
More or Less - Worse mortgages, better readers, and potholes on the moon
We check some of the numbers that are flying about in the election campaign.
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15-Jun-2024
More or Less - Shakespeare’s maths
Author Rob Eastaway on the numbers in Shakespeare’s writing
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12-Jun-2024
More or Less - Leaflets, taxes, oil workers and classrooms
We look at bad graphs, oil rig extrapolations and pupil populations.
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08-Jun-2024
More or Less - Why medical error is not the third leading cause of death in the US
Investigating how many deaths are caused by mistakes by doctors and nurses
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05-Jun-2024
More or Less - Debate, Reform, tax evasion and ants
Fact-checking the leaders' debate, tax evasion savings and the weight of ants.
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01-Jun-2024
More or Less - Data for India
Changing India in numbers: what type of country will the next administration lead?
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29-May-2024
More or Less - UK growth, prisons and Swiftonomics
Is the UK economy growing faster than Germany, France and the US?
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25-May-2024
More or Less - Is intermittent fasting going to kill you?
Investigating research which suggested time restricted eating increased the risk of death
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22-May-2024
More or Less - MP misconduct, NHS waiting lists and gold (gold)
Will it take 685 years to clear the NHS waiting list? Are 10% of MPs under investigation?
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18-May-2024
More or Less - Are falling marriage rates causing happiness to fall in the US?
Investigating the relationship between matrimony and melancholy.
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11-May-2024
More or Less - Is reading for pleasure the single biggest factor in how well a child does in life?
What research says about the connection between reading and success in later life.
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04-May-2024
More or Less - Do one in five young Americans think the holocaust is a myth?
How problems with opt-in polling can lead to controversial headlines
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29-Apr-2024
More or Less - Has Milei fixed Argentina’s inflation problem?
What falling inflation means for Milei’s austerity plan and economic “shock” measures
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20-Apr-2024
More or Less - 98%: Is misinformation being spread about a review of trans youth medicine?
Investigating claims that the Cass Review ignored valuable evidence
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13-Apr-2024
More or Less - Tackling The Three-Body Problem
Is the physics in Netflix's new show accurate?
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06-Apr-2024
More or Less - Is loneliness as bad for you as smoking?
The connection between being alone and an early death
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30-Mar-2024
More or Less - Remembering Daniel Kahneman
Tim Harford on the great social scientist, who has died at the age of 90
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23-Mar-2024
More or Less - What’s happening to arctic ice?
Arctic ice has been in long decline. Do recent fluctuations change the story?
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16-Mar-2024
More or Less - Does the Russian government really spend 40% of its budget on the military?
We investigate how much the Russian state is spending on the war in Ukraine.
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09-Mar-2024
More or Less - Is public speaking really our biggest fear?
Tim Harford investigates the claim that public speaking is people’s number one fear.
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02-Mar-2024
More or Less - Ultramarathons: Are women faster than men?
Is it really true that in extremely long races, women run faster than men?
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28-Feb-2024
More or Less - School spending, excess deaths and billions of animals at Heathrow
Is school funding at record levels? Did 6.5bn creatures come to the UK by plane last year?
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24-Feb-2024
More or Less - NBA basketball: Is height more important than skill?
How much does a man’s height affect his chances of becoming an NBA basketball player?
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21-Feb-2024
More or Less - Per capita GDP, MP claims and the entire EU budget
What does per capita GDP tell us? How much did the EU spend on Covid recovery?
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17-Feb-2024
More or Less - The digital ‘robots’ unlocking medical data
Ben Goldacre on OpenSAFELY, protecting patient privacy while analysing health data
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14-Feb-2024
More or Less - Debt, students, shark and chips
What is the government’s rule on debt? Do 90% of chip shops sell shark and chips?
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10-Feb-2024
More or Less - The global gender split in young people’s politics
Tim Harford investigates the growing political divergence between young men and women.
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07-Feb-2024
More or Less - Council tax weirdness: Hartlepool vs Westminster
Council tax comparisons, migration calculations and the carbon footprint of home-grown veg
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03-Feb-2024
More or Less - A pocket-size history of the calculator
Tim Harford explores the history of calculators from clockwork to the Kashio brothers
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31-Jan-2024
More or Less - Measles, Traitors and the cost of Brexit
Is measles spreading? How much is Brexit costing? How good are they at traitor guessing?
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27-Jan-2024
More or Less - Is Oxfam right about the world’s richest and poorest people?
We investigate how Oxfam use wealth stats to illustrate global inequality
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24-Jan-2024
More or Less - Shopping, shipping and wind chill-ing
We investigate the cost of a weekly shop and explore the workings of wind chill.
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20-Jan-2024
More or Less - Are there more possible games of chess than atoms in the universe?
We investigate how the vast possibilities in chess compare to the vastness of the universe
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17-Jan-2024
More or Less - Life expectancy, inheritance tax and the NHS vs winter
How long will we live? Who pays inheritance tax? How did the NHS perform this winter?
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13-Jan-2024
More or Less - Do we see 10,000 adverts per day?
We investigate the claim that each of us sees thousands of adverts every single day
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10-Jan-2024
More or Less - Deaths, taxes and missing cats
We investigate claims about gun crime, the UK tax burden, and the number of missing cats.
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06-Jan-2024
More or Less - How much money do the ‘Ndrangheta mafia make?
We investigate whether one criminal group could have a turnover of billions of dollars
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30-Dec-2023
More or Less - Numbers of the year 2023
Hand-picked stats that tell you something interesting about the world
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23-Dec-2023
More or Less - Can chocolate be better than salad?
We investigate a nutritional conundrum – can chocolate ever be better for you than salad?
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16-Dec-2023
More or Less - China’s missing numbers
How the Chinese state make inconvenient statistics disappear
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09-Dec-2023
More or Less - Does endurance sport harm your heart?
We investigate the connection between high levels of exercise and arrhythmia
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02-Dec-2023
More or Less - Will there be a billion climate refugees?
We investigate if floods, droughts and storms will cause mass international migration
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25-Nov-2023
More or Less - A boy meets girl meets stats story
A data scientist takes on rom com films to see how women in STEM are represented
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18-Nov-2023
More or Less - Are women in the UK the biggest binge drinkers in the world?
Checking out stats on boozing Brits and fishing fleets in the South China Sea.
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11-Nov-2023
More or Less - Can maths prove the existence of aliens?
We look a famous equation which tries to explain whether life exists in outer space
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04-Nov-2023
More or Less - Do Indian women own 11% of the world’s gold?
The cultural importance of gold is well known – but how much do Indians actually own?
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29-Oct-2023
More or Less - The Overlooked Mathematicians of History
Exploring the global history of mathematics
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22-Oct-2023
More or Less - What do windscreen splats tell us about insect decline?
We ask whether the ‘windscreen phenomenon’ suggests falling numbers of insects
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15-Oct-2023
More or Less - Greedy jobs and the gender pay gap
Tim Harford discusses the work of Nobel Economics prize winner Claudia Goldin
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09-Oct-2023
More or Less - Are half the words in English from French?
We ask whether almost half the words in the English language are of French origin.
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04-Oct-2023
More or Less - Vaccine claims, Alzheimer's treatment and Tim's Parkrun times
We debunk claims about excess deaths and the vaccine made by YouTuber John Campbell.
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30-Sep-2023
More or Less - Is the UK really ahead in cutting carbon emissions?
As the UK changes course in its path to net zero, how does it compare with other nations?
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27-Sep-2023
More or Less - NHS consultant pay, net zero claims and Scotland's ferry woes
Are consultants in England really paid an average of £120,000 a year?
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23-Sep-2023
More or Less - Which city has the longest canals?
We dive into the world of waterways after a listener asked who has the longest canals.
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20-Sep-2023
More or Less - Social housing, NHS workforce and Liz Truss debt claims
Have the Tories really built a record number of social rent homes since 2010?
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16-Sep-2023
More or Less - How to approach the world through numbers
Professor David Sumpter talks to Tim Harford about his new book
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13-Sep-2023
More or Less - Skin cancer, London rents and your great-great-great-granddaughter
Is it true that 1 in 4 men and 1 in 5 women in the UK will get skin cancer?
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09-Sep-2023
More or Less - Did 35,000 Americans die building the Panama Canal?
We fact check a claim made by Donald Trump about the world famous canal
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06-Sep-2023
More or Less - Covid deaths, North Sea gas and Chloe Kelly's World Cup penalty
Covid-related deaths are rising in England and Wales, we investigate the figures.
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02-Sep-2023
More or Less - What percentage of our brain do we actually use?
Do we have access to some or all of our brain-power?
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30-Aug-2023
More or Less - HS2 and electric cars, UK vs China emissions & massive maths errors
Can you really buy an electric car for everybody in the UK for the cost of HS2?
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26-Aug-2023
More or Less - How safe is the release of Fukushima nuclear plant water?
We ask whether there are any risks posed by the release into the Pacific Ocean
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19-Aug-2023
More or Less - How many butterflies are there in the world?
The world’s butterfly population doesn’t seem to be online – so what is it?
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12-Aug-2023
More or Less - Why is it so hard to predict the outcome of competitions like the Premier League?
What variables do we look at when we try to predict the outcome of a sports competition?
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05-Aug-2023
More or Less - Are the media exaggerating how hot it is in the Mediterranean?
A look at how accurately media report on the weather – especially recent heatwaves.
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29-Jul-2023
More or Less - Data, extreme weather and climate change
The role data plays in climate attribution - and why we don’t always have it
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22-Jul-2023
More or Less - Ukraine war: A new way of calculating Russian deaths
How Russian journalists are using probate records to estimate fatalities
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15-Jul-2023
More or Less - Are more adult nappies sold in Japan than baby ones?
We examine a claim related to the perception of Japan as an ageing society.
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08-Jul-2023
More or Less - Does it take 10,000 litres of water to make a pair of jeans?
The numbers behind water use and denim production.
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05-Jul-2023
More or Less - Immigration: A More or Less Special Programme
Who is coming to the UK - and how do we count them?
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01-Jul-2023
More or Less - Will there be just 6 grandchildren for every 100 South Koreans?
We look at the numbers around South Korea’s birth rate and the reasons why it’s so low.
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28-Jun-2023
More or Less - Halving inflation, Scottish tidal power and have 1 in 3 women had an abortion?
Will Rishi Sunak's pledge to halve inflation happen?
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24-Jun-2023
More or Less - US National Debt: is $32 trillion a big number?
How concerned should we be about how much the US government borrows?
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21-Jun-2023
More or Less - Mortgages, birth rates and does space contribute 18% to UK GDP?
Who will be most affected by mortgage rate increases?
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17-Jun-2023
More or Less - Is breastfeeding the key to exam success?
We look at a new UK study that links being breastfed as a baby with academic achievement.
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14-Jun-2023
More or Less - Counting Hunger in India
Is it true that hunger has worsened in India?
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14-Jun-2023
More or Less - Electric vehicles, 600 million bottles and does oral sex cause cancer?
Is the weight of electric vehicles a risk to infrastructure?
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07-Jun-2023
More or Less - Lib Dem ambulance claims, affordable rent and goat meat
Did 120 people a day in England die last year whilst waiting for an ambulance?
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03-Jun-2023
More or Less - A short history of data
How the evolution of data over centuries has shaped today’s world
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31-May-2023
More or Less - Food prices, net migration and beef about beef
Does Britain really have the most affordable food in Europe?
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27-May-2023
More or Less - Are young people more single than ever before?
How to define and measure being single – and are dating apps to blame?
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24-May-2023
More or Less - NHS waiting lists, voter ID, and measuring divorce
A fall in those waiting longest for NHS treatment in England isn't telling the whole story
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20-May-2023
More or Less - Detecting bad science with data
Uncovering fraud, malpractice and incompetence in science
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13-May-2023
More or Less - Do 94% of marriages in Portugal really end in divorce?
We examine a social media post that claims to outline rates of divorce across the world.
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06-May-2023
More or Less - Why is life expectancy falling in the USA?
We ask why average life expectancy in America is falling so quickly.
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29-Apr-2023
More or Less - How much is the Coronation crown worth?
King Charles will be anointed with the St Edward’s Crown – but what is its true value?
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22-Apr-2023
More or Less - The Pentagon Leaks and Fox News
Why did Tucker Carlson say far more Ukrainian troops than Russian are dying in the war?
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15-Apr-2023
More or Less - How accurate is baby's due date?
This week we investigate how a baby's due date is calculated
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08-Apr-2023
More or Less - How to better understand and explain numbers
Professor Oliver Johnson discusses the use of statistics in the pandemic and in life.
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01-Apr-2023
More or Less - A groundbreaking new proof for Pythagoras’ Theorem?
Two high school students say they’ve discovered a new trigonometric proof for the theorem
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25-Mar-2023
More or Less - Covid vaccines and false claims about miscarriage
We debunk viral claims that incorrectly link covid-19 vaccines with a risk of miscarriage
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18-Mar-2023
More or Less - Silicon Valley Bank: a very modern bank run
How do bank runs happen?
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11-Mar-2023
More or Less - Do fungi kill three times as many people as malaria?
We investigate the claim that fungal infections are a much bigger killer than malaria.
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06-Mar-2023
More or Less - UK v European energy prices, falling excess deaths, and is five grams of cocaine a lot?
We debunk a claim that the UK has by far the highest energy prices in Europe.
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25-Feb-2023
More or Less - Do 29,000 coffee pods really go to landfill every minute?
We explore the environmental consequences of our thirst for coffee
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22-Feb-2023
More or Less - Reoffending rates, Welsh taxes and the menopause
Tim Harford and team fact check a government claim about falling reoffending rates.
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18-Feb-2023
More or Less - Florence Nightingale and how she visualised data
Tim Harford discusses the power of the nurse statistician’s groundbreaking diagrams
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15-Feb-2023
More or Less - Nurses' pay, ambulance times and forgotten female economists
We look at how much nurses in the UK are paid compared with those in Europe.
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11-Feb-2023
More or Less - Spreadsheet disasters
The long and costly history of spreadsheet mistakes
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08-Feb-2023
More or Less - The IMF and the UK economy, NHS staff shortages and British v English
How much should we trust the IMF’s forecasts for the UK?
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04-Feb-2023
More or Less - Hannah Fry on using shopping data to detect ovarian cancer
The mathematician discusses a study that suggests loyalty card data could signal cancer.
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01-Feb-2023
More or Less - Brexit and trade; pensioner millionaires; and Hannah Fry on loyalty cards and cancer
We examine a claim that the UK’s trade with the EU has increased since Brexit.
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28-Jan-2023
More or Less - Are wild mammals only 4% of the mammal population?
We examine a study that says humans and livestock dominate mammal life on Earth
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25-Jan-2023
More or Less - Coffee with the Chancellor, inflation measures, GP numbers and toilet paper
We fact check Jeremy Hunt’s pledge to halve inflation
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21-Jan-2023
More or Less - Does toilet paper cause 15% of global deforestation?
We investigate the impact of our use of toilet paper on the world’s forests.
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18-Jan-2023
More or Less - Ambulance response times, teacher pay and Irish pubs
How long are people really waiting when they call 999 for an ambulance?
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14-Jan-2023
More or Less - How we shook the world of very large numbers
How an edition of More or Less influenced the naming of enormous numbers
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11-Jan-2023
More or Less - A&E delays and deaths, religious identity in N Ireland and naming the monster numbers
How many people may be dying because of treatment delays in the NHS?
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07-Jan-2023
More or Less - Can China's data on covid deaths be trusted?
Is China under-reporting data on Covid related deaths?
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31-Dec-2022
More or Less - Irish pubs - a global numbers game
Are there more Irish pubs in Ireland than in all other countries combined?
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24-Dec-2022
More or Less - What are the numbers of 2022?
Tim Harford and guests on the numbers that help tell the big stories of the year.
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17-Dec-2022
More or Less - Qatar World Cup: the pressure of penalties
We analyse World Cup penalty data to ask what boosts the chance of scoring from the spot
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12-Dec-2022
More or Less - Why is data so important in determining how we live?
Tim Harford on how good policies depend on the availability of reliable statistics
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03-Dec-2022
More or Less - The World Cup: how many migrant workers have died?
Examining the wildly varying estimates of deaths in the run-up to the tournament in Qatar
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26-Nov-2022
More or Less - When do food shortages become a famine?
With Somalia in crisis, we ask how data is used to officially declare a famine
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19-Nov-2022
More or Less - A $220 billion World Cup?
Has hosting the Fifa football World Cup really cost Qatar $220bn?
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12-Nov-2022
More or Less - Improving the numbers in the news
Tim Harford discusses the role statistics should play in the reporting of the news
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05-Nov-2022
More or Less - Lula’s 'zero deforestation' plan for the Amazon
How much of the rainforest has been lost? And can Brazil’s new president save it?
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29-Oct-2022
More or Less - Can China’s GDP data be trusted?
Are China’s most recent figures for economic growth wrong?
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22-Oct-2022
More or Less - Do half of new books really sell fewer than twelve copies?
We look into a claim that 50% of new books in the US sell just a handful of copies.
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19-Oct-2022
More or Less - Ben Bernanke and the magic of banking
Tim Harford explains the work of this year’s Nobel Economics Prize winners
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08-Oct-2022
More or Less - Catching Chess Cheats with Data
A cheating scandal is rocking the world of chess - and data is at its heart
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05-Oct-2022
More or Less - Teens and antidepressants, stamp duty savings and earthquake probabilities
We debunk a claim that a third of British teenagers have been prescribed antidepressants.
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01-Oct-2022
More or Less - Nasa’s asteroid collision: How many asteroids are really out there?
As Nasa rams an asteroid to try and alter its course, how many are yet to be discovered?
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28-Sep-2022
More or Less - Mini-budget, TV audience for the Queen’s funeral and 0.5 on the Richter scale
Did 4.1 billion people really watch the Queen’s funeral?
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24-Sep-2022
More or Less - Ukraine’s progress in numbers
We ask how much progress Ukraine has really made in recapturing territory from Russia.
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21-Sep-2022
More or Less - The size of Ukraine’s offensive, weak pound and how much do women really exercise?
We ask how much progress Ukraine has really made in recapturing territory from Russia.
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17-Sep-2022
More or Less - How bad is fashion for the environment?
Does fashion really account for 10% of greenhouse gas emissions?
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14-Sep-2022
More or Less - Energy crisis plan, imperial measures survey, gardens v national parks
How much will the UK government’s plan to limit energy price rises end up costing?
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10-Sep-2022
More or Less - Is a third of Pakistan really under water?
We investigate a widely reported claim as Pakistan deals with devastating flooding
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07-Sep-2022
More or Less - Pakistan flooding, UK power prices and Boris’s broadband claim
The scale of the disaster is huge, but is a third of Pakistan really under water?
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05-Sep-2022
More or Less - Can we use maths to beat the robots?
Why improving how we teach and think about maths could help us keep an edge over machines
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05-Sep-2022
More or Less - Energy prices, excess deaths and Wales v England in counting
Is there an easy way to cut soaring energy bills?
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27-Aug-2022
More or Less - Kenya’s Election Rounding Error
Official figures didn’t add up - but due to rounding, not fraud
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20-Aug-2022
More or Less - The numbers behind “natural” birth control
We examine online claims about the effectiveness of “natural” birth control methods
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13-Aug-2022
More or Less - Is opinion polling broken?
Following some high profile slip-ups in recent US elections, is opinion polling broken?
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06-Aug-2022
More or Less - 06/08/2022 GMT
Tim Harford explains the numbers and statistics in the news and in life.
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30-Jul-2022
More or Less - How our world measures up
From ancient tally bones to a jar of peanut butter, a look at the history of measurement
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23-Jul-2022
More or Less - Does the World Athletics Championships have a false start problem?
We examine the rules and tech of false starts after the disqualification of Devon Allen.
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16-Jul-2022
More or Less - Is Uganda about to become a middle income country?
We assess President Museveni’s claim that Uganda is nearing a higher economic status.
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09-Jul-2022
More or Less - Does it take 10,000 litres of water to make a pair of jeans?
The numbers behind water use and denim production
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02-Jul-2022
More or Less - How many American women will have an abortion in their lifetime?
In the wake of the historic overturning of Roe vs Wade, we look at the statistics.
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29-Jun-2022
More or Less - Covid climb, childcare costs and why can't the French count properly?
How accurately are official figures picking up the new covid wave?
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25-Jun-2022
More or Less - Ed Sheeran and the mathematics of musical coincidences
Ed Sheeran thinks that musical coincidences will always happen… but do the numbers agree?
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22-Jun-2022
More or Less - Rail strikes, tyre pollution and sex statistics
Do rail workers really earn £13,000 a year more than nurses?
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18-Jun-2022
More or Less - How often do people have sex?
Looking at sex and statistics in Japan and America.
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15-Jun-2022
More or Less - Maternity litigation, stars, bees and windowless planes
Are damages for maternity mistakes now more than wages for maternity nurses and doctors?
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11-Jun-2022
More or Less - Hannah Fry: Understanding the numbers of cancer
The maths professor on the choices she and others have faced after a cancer diagnosis
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08-Jun-2022
More or Less - Employment puzzle, pyramids and triplets
The UK has a low unemployment rate but lots of people not working – how come?
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04-Jun-2022
More or Less - Are girls starting puberty earlier?
We look into a claim that the age of girls’ puberty is falling rapidly
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01-Jun-2022
More or Less - Jubilee costs, fuel poverty and imperial measures
We debunk a claim the government is spending £38,000 per household on the jubilee.
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28-May-2022
More or Less - Noisy Decisions
The world’s most famous psychologist on how 'noise' impacts our decision making
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25-May-2022
More or Less - Germany’s excess deaths, Eurovision and teacher shortages
Did Germany really fare worse than the UK in the pandemic?
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21-May-2022
More or Less - Are just 100 companies responsible for 71% of global emissions?
Looking at numbers on green house gas emissions and stress.
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14-May-2022
More or Less - Did the WHO get some of its excess death estimates wrong?
We look at the World Health Organisation’s latest estimates of the pandemic’s death toll
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07-May-2022
More or Less - Have the oceans become 30% more acidic?
Tim Harford asks how we measure the health of our oceans
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30-Apr-2022
More or Less - Sweden’s polarising pandemic response
Has Sweden’s pandemic response been a triumph or a disaster…or something in-between?
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23-Apr-2022
More or Less - Understanding India through Data
What can data tell us about a country of 1.4 billion people?
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16-Apr-2022
More or Less - Subitising and simplifying: how to better explain numbers
How can we clearly explain complex numbers to the public without losing their meaning?
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09-Apr-2022
More or Less - Did tea-drinking cut deaths in the Industrial Revolution?
How tea became an accidental lifesaver in 18th Century England.
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02-Apr-2022
More or Less - Will the war in Ukraine cause a global wheat shortage?
How much of the worlds wheat comes from Ukraine and Russia
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27-Mar-2022
More or Less - Why has Hong Kong’s Covid wave been so bad?
What’s behind one of the worst Covid death rates ever?
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21-Mar-2022
More or Less - Pizza and Nuclear War
How good negotiation can help us split pizzas fairly and also avoid Nuclear War.
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14-Mar-2022
More or Less - Does the UK take in more refugees than other European countries?
Fact checking Boris Johnson’s claim
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07-Mar-2022
More or Less - Numbers in Ukraine and low seas in Chagos
Troop and casualty numbers in Ukraine
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02-Mar-2022
More or Less - Troop and Casualty Numbers in Ukraine
How reliable are the figures coming out of the conflict in Ukraine?
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28-Feb-2022
More or Less - Did lockdowns save any lives?
Did lockdowns actually save any lives?
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23-Feb-2022
More or Less - Vaccinating children, lockdowns, and ebikes
Jabs for five- to 11-year-olds, lockdown effectiveness, and being green on two wheels.
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21-Feb-2022
More or Less - Hospitalisation rates for children with Covid
What does the data tell us?
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16-Feb-2022
More or Less - Questioning claims about Covid and children
How likely are children to end up in hospital because of Covid? And how many have died?
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13-Feb-2022
More or Less - Testosterone and sport
Trans women’s participation in elite sport
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11-Feb-2022
More or Less - The prime minister in statistical bother
Boris Johnson has been ticked off for misleading Parliament on jobs and on crime.
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09-Feb-2022
More or Less - The prime minister in statistical bother
Boris Johnson has been ticked off for misleading Parliament on jobs and on crime.
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06-Feb-2022
More or Less - Placebo: Can you fool your brain?
Looking at the power of expectations
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02-Feb-2022
More or Less - Does the UK have the fastest growing economy in the G7?
How fast is our economy growing? And what is happening with Omicron reinfections?
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30-Jan-2022
More or Less - Fertility rates: baby boom or bust?
Fertility rates around the world
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26-Jan-2022
More or Less - Should you follow the 5 second rule? And does inflation hit the poorest harder?
Does inflation hit poor households harder and how many people have died of Covid?
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23-Jan-2022
More or Less - Are female patients more likely to die if the surgeon is male?
Should women be worried about having a male surgeon?
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19-Jan-2022
More or Less - Are women 32% more likely to die after operation by a male surgeon?
Surgery death risks, Test and Trace costs in the UK and Germany, and podcast plans.
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16-Jan-2022
More or Less - QAnon: Did 365,348 children go missing in the US in 2020?
Fact checking a QAnon claim.
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12-Jan-2022
More or Less - Omicron, pandemic birth rates and boosters
An Omicron update, pandemic birth rates and the booster drive.
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09-Jan-2022
More or Less - How much plastic is in the Ocean and can Mr Beast make a difference?
Looking at Mark Rober and Mr Beast’s plastics pledge.
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02-Jan-2022
More or Less - Will the population of Nigeria be larger than Europe’s?
Will Nigeria’s population really reach 600million?
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27-Dec-2021
More or Less - Numbers of 2021
The most significant numbers of the year
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19-Dec-2021
More or Less - The psychological economics of gift giving
How to buy gifts people actually want.
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12-Dec-2021
More or Less - Does catching covid give you more immunity than being vaccinated?
Infection vs injection: Could prior infection provide 27 times more protection?
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06-Dec-2021
More or Less - Does wearing a mask halve your chances of getting Covid-19?
Is it true wearing a mask reduces Covid-19 incidence by 53%?
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28-Nov-2021
More or Less - Simpson’s Paradox: How to make vaccinated death figures misleading
A tricky statistical phenomenon at play.
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21-Nov-2021
More or Less - A TikTok tale
How a well-meaning TikTok disrupted 4,600 studies.
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14-Nov-2021
More or Less - The carbon cost of breakfast at COP26
Can a vegan croissant really be worse for the environment than a bacon roll?
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07-Nov-2021
More or Less - Same data, opposite results. Can we trust research?
Why the same data can produce different conclusions.
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31-Oct-2021
More or Less - The art of counting
Tim Harford talks to author Deborah Stone about her book which explores counting
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24-Oct-2021
More or Less - The numbers behind Squid Game
Could you survive a round in Squid Game, and how many have watched it?
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17-Oct-2021
More or Less - The prize-winning economics of migration and the minimum wage
A look at the work of this year’s winners of the most prestigious prize in economics.
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10-Oct-2021
More or Less - Vaccinating the world
How countries’ vaccination rates measure up – and the trickiness of comparing them.
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06-Oct-2021
More or Less - Twenty years of More or Less
A look back at our origins, plus the usual mix of numerical nous and statistical savvy.
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03-Oct-2021
More or Less - The Gender Pay Gap
Can Machiavelli help women get a better deal in the workplace?
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29-Sep-2021
More or Less - Is it easy being green?
Expensive electricity, inadequate insulation, and a tale of tumbling trees.
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26-Sep-2021
More or Less - Has the number of periods a woman has in her lifetime quadrupled?
A claim about how many periods a woman has and a suspicious stat on single-use face masks
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22-Sep-2021
More or Less - Covid trends, face mask use, and the universal credit cut
Coronavirus checked, mask use measured, and a minister's claim questioned.
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20-Sep-2021
More or Less - How many holes are there in a drinking straw?
Tim Harford talks to Jordan Ellenberg about the pandemic, geometry and drinking straws
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20-Sep-2021
More or Less - Is immunity from vaccines waning?
How worried should we be about declining antibodies? Plus life-threatening hotdogs.
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20-Sep-2021
More or Less - The bill for Afghanistan
Did the war in Afghanistan cost the US $2 trillion?
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20-Sep-2021
More or Less - Reason, numbers and Mr Spock
What role do numbers play in helping us think more rationally?
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20-Sep-2021
More or Less - Death, Tax and Dishwashers
Why is estimating the number of unvaccinated people so tricky? And how deadly is 2021?
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20-Sep-2021
More or Less - Vaccine waning, hot dogs and Afghanistan
How worried should we be about antibodies? Plus food that shortens life.
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20-Sep-2021
More or Less - Covid, HGV driver shortages and protest costs
Has Brexit caused a fall in lorry drivers? Plus policing Extinction Rebellion.
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24-Jul-2021
More or Less - The Rise of Delta
Where’s this new Variant spreading and what can be done to stop it?
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19-Jul-2021
More or Less - The Freedom Day Gamble
Tim Harford and the team try to work out how long Covid cases will continue to rise.
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17-Jul-2021
More or Less - Long Covid and Vaccinating Children
The world watches as the UK lifts its remaining Covid restrictions
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10-Jul-2021
More or Less - Are there 40 million Nigerians on Twitter?
Recent reports have claimed that Nigeria has 40 million Twitter users – but is this true?
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03-Jul-2021
More or Less - Is Ivermectin a Covid ‘wonder drug’?
What do we know about the efficacy of Ivermectin as a treatment for Covid-19?
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30-Jun-2021
More or Less - Scotland cases, flood risk and taxing the poor
Covid-19 cases are on the rise in Scotland, plus will your town be under water by 2030?
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26-Jun-2021
More or Less - Maths and the Mayflower
Are there really 35 million descendants of the Mayflower alive today?
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23-Jun-2021
More or Less - Delta cases, blue tits and that one-in-two cancer claim
Should we worry about the Delta variant? Plus how much do blue tits eat?
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19-Jun-2021
More or Less - The origins of Covid
How similar are the Covid strains?
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16-Jun-2021
More or Less - Covid deaths, outdoor swimming and care homes
The global death toll has reached a grim milestone. Plus the UK’s low ranking waters.
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12-Jun-2021
More or Less - The doubling of life-expectancy
The story of how data helped extend our lives
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09-Jun-2021
More or Less - Third wave fears, smart motorways and bra sizes
Should we worry about Covid-19 cases rising? Plus are smart motorways safe?
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05-Jun-2021
More or Less - Wales Vaccine Success
How to distribute jabs efficiently; plus adding 28 to 47
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02-Jun-2021
More or Less - Bolton vaccines, Yorkshire versus Scotland and the average gamer
Were tens of thousands of people getting their jab in Bolton every single day?
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29-May-2021
More or Less - The Seaspiracy “virtually empty ocean” claim
Why it’s unlikely our oceans will be virtually empty by 2048.
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26-May-2021
More or Less - Wales jab success, Eurovision and living with your parents
How to vaccinate a country quickly, plus the UK’s singing contest woes.
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23-May-2021
More or Less - The medical trial that proved Trump wrong
The Recovery Trial identified drugs that helped save lives.
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15-May-2021
More or Less - Explaining maths without Numbers
Tim Harford speaks to mathematician Milo Beckman.
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09-May-2021
More or Less - Finding Mexico City’s real death toll
How two data detectives revealed the pandemic’s impact.
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02-May-2021
More or Less - Bayes: the clergyman whose maths changed the world
How an obscure theory came into fashion.
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25-Apr-2021
More or Less - Will 2021 have more Covid deaths than 2020?
We ask if this year’s global death toll will surpass 1.8 million.
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17-Apr-2021
More or Less - How many swimming pools full of vaccine do we need
Adding together the doses for everyone on the planet.
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11-Apr-2021
More or Less - Clot risks: The Pill versus the vaccine
AstraZeneca’s clot controversy turns attention on the contraceptive pill.
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04-Apr-2021
More or Less - Too fast for Minecraft?
Gamers raise suspicions over speed run times - are they right?
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28-Mar-2021
More or Less - In praise of Covid Data
How we came to expect dashboards full of statistics.
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21-Mar-2021
More or Less - Deciding when to suspend a vaccine
Weighing up the risk of unproven side effects with stopping Covid-19
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14-Mar-2021
More or Less - The truth about obesity and Covid 19
Are countries with higher obesity rates suffering from more deaths?
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07-Mar-2021
More or Less - Sainthood and Cup draws
Your chances of becoming a saint, plus football odds.
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28-Feb-2021
More or Less - Why are US Covid cases falling?
From herd immunity to the weather, Tim Harford explores the theories
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21-Feb-2021
More or Less - Covid 19 death count: which countries are faring worst?
Tim Harford finds out if we can trust international comparisons.
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17-Feb-2021
More or Less - Comparing death counts, Lock Down drinking and Long Covid
Is the UK’s Covid-19 death count among the worst in the world?
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14-Feb-2021
More or Less - How much Covid in the world?
Counting all the virus particles in every human on the planet.
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10-Feb-2021
More or Less - Brexit exports, cladding and are 1 in 5 disabled?
Are exports to the EU down since Brexit? Plus removing flammable building cladding.
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07-Feb-2021
More or Less - Glasgow vs Rwanda
Could life expectancy in some parts of Glasgow be worse than in Rwanda?
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03-Feb-2021
More or Less - Teachers, Test & Trace and Butterflies
Are teachers more at risk from Covid-19?
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31-Jan-2021
More or Less - The Rapid Test row
The huge row among scientists about rapid coronavirus tests.
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27-Jan-2021
More or Less - Deaths at Home, Supermarket Infections and the Cobra Effect
Where are people catching Covid-19?
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25-Jan-2021
More or Less - Counting Covid’s impact on GDP
Which countries have done worse, and what can GDP tell us?
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20-Jan-2021
More or Less - Will the vaccine bring back normal life? GDP and Fishing
If we vaccinate the top four priority groups by February, how much will things change?
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17-Jan-2021
More or Less - How effective is one dose?
Calculating the protection given by the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine
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13-Jan-2021
More or Less - How effective is one dose of the vaccine?
Is the first dose of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine 52% or 90% effective?
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10-Jan-2021
More or Less - Ants and Algorithms
David Sumpter describes the algorithms ruling the world
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03-Jan-2021
More or Less - Numbers of the Year Part 2
Tim Harford showcases statistics from 2020
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27-Dec-2020
More or Less - Numbers of the Year Part 1
Tim Harford showcases statistics from 2020
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19-Dec-2020
More or Less - The economics of a Covid Christmas
What to consider when buying presents this year
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12-Dec-2020
More or Less - QAnon: Child runaways and trafficking numbers debunked
Tackling statistics spread by conspiracy theorists.
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05-Dec-2020
More or Less - Vaccines: how safe and who gets it?
Is it too soon to approve for use? Plus choosing who goes first.
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28-Nov-2020
More or Less - Tracking Covid 19
Which countries are doing well at keeping track of the virus?
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22-Nov-2020
More or Less - Inviting Covid for Dinner
If you go to a gathering of 25 people, what are the chances one of you has coronavirus?
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14-Nov-2020
More or Less - Vaccine numbers
How much protection will a new Covid-19 vaccine give?
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08-Nov-2020
More or Less - How deadly is Covid 19?
Why there isn’t one single death rate.
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31-Oct-2020
More or Less - Asymptomatic Covid19 Cases.
How many Covid19 cases are truly asymptomatic?
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24-Oct-2020
More or Less - US election: facts or fiction
Tim Harford hears about the sheer volume of false claims made in the campaign.
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18-Oct-2020
More or Less - Auction Theory - Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson
This year’s Nobel memorial prize winners for economics and their work on auction theory.
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10-Oct-2020
More or Less - A short history of probability
Gamblers, millionaires and annuities
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07-Oct-2020
More or Less - Spreadsheet snafu, ‘Long Covid’ quantified, and the birth of probability
Missing coronavirus case data, long-term symptoms, and a big mathematical moment.
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03-Oct-2020
More or Less - Trump’s misleading 'fact' about the Covid-19 death count in the US
We examine a suspect stat from the US and an eye-popping claim about volumising mascara.
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30-Sep-2020
More or Less - 'Record' Covid cases, Trump on the death count, and ant pheromones
Case counts in perspective, a suspect stat from the US, and life lessons from insects.
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27-Sep-2020
More or Less - Caffeine and pregnancy
Do coffee and pregnancy mix?
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23-Sep-2020
More or Less - Covid curve queried, false positives, and the Queen’s head
How fast are coronavirus cases doubling? Plus testing confusion and a royal face-off.
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19-Sep-2020
More or Less - The magical maths of pool testing
Could pool testing hold the key to ramping up Covid-19 testing?
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16-Sep-2020
More or Less - Covid testing capacity, refugee numbers, and mascara
Confusing claims on lab capacity, the UK’s record on asylum, and the volume of eyelashes.
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12-Sep-2020
More or Less - Sex workers in the 18th century and jellyfish
Did one in five women in 18th century London made a living selling sex?
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09-Sep-2020
More or Less - Covid cases rising, a guide to life’s risks, and racing jelly-fish
How worrying is the UK’s jump in cases? Plus balancing risks and the speed of jelly-fish.
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05-Sep-2020
More or Less - Breast cancer screening
Could screening for breast cancer from the age of 40 save lives?
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02-Sep-2020
More or Less - Schools and coronavirus, test and trace, maths and reality
Evidence on Covid-19 risks in schools, data on contact tracing, and a philosophical query.
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29-Aug-2020
More or Less - Is Trump right about blood plasma therapy?
Is convalescent plasma therapy effective for treating Covid-19?
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26-Aug-2020
More or Less - Covid plasma therapy
Claims about a Covid-19 treatment, breast cancer screening, and 18th century sex workers.
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23-Aug-2020
More or Less - Obesity and poker
Tim Harford looks at Covid-19 and obesity. Plus, what poker teaches us about statistics.
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19-Aug-2020
More or Less - A-level algorithms, poker and buses
We unpick the A-level algoshambles and discover what poker teaches us about statistics.
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16-Aug-2020
More or Less - Belarus’ Contested Election
Tim Harford looks at the numbers behind the widely questioned election result.
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12-Aug-2020
More or Less - Hawaiian Pizza, Obesity and a Second Wave?
Covid-19 cases are rising in the UK, is it a sign of a second wave of the virus?
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09-Aug-2020
More or Less - Melting Antarctic ice
If all the ice in Antarctica melted, would global sea levels rise by 70 metres?
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02-Aug-2020
More or Less - Covid in Africa
Do we have enough data to know what’s happening on the continent?
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26-Jul-2020
More or Less - Data in the time of cholera
A journey back to the birth of epidemiology
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19-Jul-2020
More or Less - Covid misconceptions and US deaths
How many of us believe the myths about coronavirus?
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12-Jul-2020
More or Less - Sweden’s lockdown lite
Sweden stayed open during the pandemic – how well did it work?
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05-Jul-2020
More or Less - Why Trump is wrong about the USA’s coronavirus case comeback
The data behind the rise in coronavirus cases in the US
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01-Jul-2020
More or Less - Why Did the UK Have Such a Bad Covid-19 Epidemic?
Bad decision-making, bad advice, or bad luck?
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28-Jun-2020
More or Less - A new Covid-19 drug and a second wave
Tim Harford looks into why protests haven’t led to a spike in Covid-19 cases
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24-Jun-2020
More or Less - 24/06/2020
As lockdown eases, why hasn't there been a spike in infections?
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21-Jun-2020
More or Less - Who Should be Quarantined?
Tim Harford finds out which countries have the highest rate of Covid-19 infection.
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17-Jun-2020
More or Less - Quarantine, Test and Trace and BODMAS
Is it true that Covid-19 mostly kills people who would die soon anyway?
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13-Jun-2020
More or Less - Spanish coronavirus figures and pangolins
Are pangolins the most trafficked animal in the world?
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10-Jun-2020
More or Less - Antibody tests, early lockdown advice and European deaths
Are more people are dying of Covid-19 in the UK than all the EU countries put together?
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07-Jun-2020
More or Less - Keep your distance
Tim Harford examines how can we avoid infection spreading, while getting on with life.
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03-Jun-2020
More or Less - False negatives, testing capacity and pheasants
How accurate are the swab tests used to diagnose Covid-19?
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31-May-2020
More or Less - Coronavirus baby boom and vitamin D
Are we going to have a coronavirus baby boom?
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27-May-2020
More or Less - Obeying lockdown, flight arrivals, and is this wave of the epidemic waning?
Does the data show this wave of the epidemic is waning in the UK?
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24-May-2020
More or Less - 60 Harvests and statistically savvy parrots
Can there really only be 60 harvests left in Earth's soil?
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20-May-2020
More or Less - School re-opening, Germany’s Covid success and statistically savvy parrots
Will re-opening some schools put children or their teachers at risk?
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17-May-2020
More or Less - Social distancing and government borrowing
Where do the different social distancing measurements come from?
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13-May-2020
More or Less - Vitamin D, explaining R and the 2 metre rule
Is Vitamin D an under-appreciated weapon in the fight against Covid-19?
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10-May-2020
More or Less - Covid-19 fatality rate
Why don't we know how dangerous Covid -19 really is?
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06-May-2020
More or Less - Testing truth, fatality rates, obesity risk and trampolines.
Did the UK really carry out 100,000 coronavirus tests in one day?
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03-May-2020
More or Less - Climate change and birdsong
With factories closed and flights grounded, what impact will this have on climate change?
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29-Apr-2020
More or Less - Ethnic minority deaths, climate change and lockdown
Are doctors from ethnic minority backgrounds disproportionately affected by Covid-19?
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26-Apr-2020
More or Less - Comparing countries' coronavirus performance
Is it helpful to ask which countries are faring better in tackling the coronavirus?
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22-Apr-2020
More or Less - Comparing countries, the risk to NHS staff, and birdsong
We compare Covid-19 rates around the world. When is the UK going to be past the worst?
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19-Apr-2020
More or Less - Superforecasting the Coronavirus
Can professional predictors help us understand the course of the coronavirus pandemic?
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12-Apr-2020
More or Less - Should you wear a face mask?
Tim Harford looks at the debate over making your own Covid-19 protection.
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08-Apr-2020
More or Less - Coronavirus deaths, facemasks and a potential baby boom
Is the coronavirus death count misleading because of delays in reporting?
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05-Apr-2020
More or Less - Are more men dying from coronavirus?
Tim Harford and Ruth Alexander examine the statistics around the world.
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31-Mar-2020
More or Less - Supermarket stockpiling, A-level results and Covid-19 gender disparity
Is the coronavirus pandemic having a different impact on men and women?
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29-Mar-2020
More or Less - Covid-19: The risks
Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter puts the risks of Covid-19 into perspective
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25-Mar-2020
More or Less - Coronavirus special
The risks of Covid-19 for different age groups and what restrictions mean for the economy
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23-Mar-2020
More or Less - Mitigation or suppression: What’s best to tackle coronavirus?
How statistical modelling can help us respond to the Coronavirus pandemic
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16-Mar-2020
More or Less - The mystery of Iran’s coronavirus numbers
Does Iran have a lot more covid-19 cases that its figures suggest?
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09-Mar-2020
More or Less - How much heat do you lose from your head?
Is it true that 40% of your body's heat loss comes from your head?
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03-Mar-2020
More or Less - Netflix v the environment
Does watching 30 minutes of Netflix have the same carbon footprint as driving four miles?
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24-Feb-2020
More or Less - Artificial (not so) Intelligence
Is the problem with AI its lack of intelligence?
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17-Feb-2020
More or Less - Coronavirus: The numbers
An update on Covid-19 statistics, with Tim Harford
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14-Feb-2020
More or Less - Coronavirus, Jam, AI and Tomatoes
Covid-19 stats, spreading jam far and wide, cooking with AI, plus James Wong on vegetables
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10-Feb-2020
More or Less - How fast are alligators and hippos?
Can alligators run at 50kmph? Join us in clocking alligators’ gaits
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07-Feb-2020
More or Less - Tracking Terror Suspects
Costing counter-terrorism, interrogating tomatoes, the UK's reading age, politics and GDP
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03-Feb-2020
More or Less - Coronavirus
Fact checking claims about the spread of Coronavirus.
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31-Jan-2020
More or Less - Coronavirus, emotions and guns
Numbers that matter in measuring outbreaks, smelly stats around scent and more.
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27-Jan-2020
More or Less - Dozy science
How much sleep do we really need?
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24-Jan-2020
More or Less - Netflix and Chill
The carbon consequence of streaming, stats on sepsis and stretching Bill Bryson to Pluto
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20-Jan-2020
More or Less - Japan’s 99% conviction rate
Quantifying justice in Japan
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17-Jan-2020
More or Less - 17/01/2020
Quantifying justice in Japan, the cost of Brexit, alligator speed and Liverpool FC's luck
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13-Jan-2020
More or Less - Bushfire mystery
Have a billion animals died in Australia’s fires?
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10-Jan-2020
More or Less - Australian Animal Deaths, Carbon Emissions, Election Mystery
How many animals have died in Australia and how many Labour voters went Conservative?
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04-Jan-2020
More or Less - C-sections and sharks
Hospital births in China and whether it’s true 50% are delivered by caesarean section
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28-Dec-2019
More or Less - Presidential candidates and dementia
The health risks some of the frontrunners in the US presidential race face.
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21-Dec-2019
More or Less - The Simpsons and maths
Exploring the maths secrets of The Simpsons.
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14-Dec-2019
More or Less - Koalas
Have bushfires destroyed 80% of the koala habitat in Australia?
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10-Dec-2019
More or Less - Election Special (2/2)
Labour spending plans, Conservative claims on homelessness, the SNP's education record.
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07-Dec-2019
More or Less - Tree planting pledges
Planting trees by numbers: UK style
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03-Dec-2019
More or Less - Election Special. 1/2
50,000 nurses? 40 hospitals? Corporate tax rises? Tim Harford looks at Election pledges.
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30-Nov-2019
More or Less - Testing tomatoes
Have these saucy fruits become less healthy over time?
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23-Nov-2019
More or Less - The world’s busiest shipping lanes
Which is the busiest shipping lane in the world?
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16-Nov-2019
More or Less - Bolivia: Can statistics help detect electoral fraud?
We look at the numbers and statistics from Bolivia’s disputed presidential election.
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09-Nov-2019
More or Less - Reducing your risk of death
Can running and owning a dog reduce your risk of an early death?
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02-Nov-2019
More or Less - Unbelievable: The forgotten rape data
How shelved data from rape cases in America is helping the police catch criminals now.
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28-Oct-2019
More or Less - Edith Abbott and crime statistics
Social worker and economist Edith Abbott and her contribution to crime statistics.
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21-Oct-2019
More or Less - Esther Duflo and women in economics
Discussing Esther Duflo, Abhijit Banjeree and Michael Kremer’s Nobel Prize in Economics.
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14-Oct-2019
More or Less - Aid to Ukraine and being struck by lightning
Dissecting President Trump’s aid to Ukraine claims.
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07-Oct-2019
More or Less - Does San Francisco have more rough sleepers than Britain?
Is it true that there are more rough sleepers in San Francisco than in Britain?
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04-Oct-2019
More or Less - New hospitals promised, Aid to Ukraine, Bacon sandwiches
Dissecting the government’s hospitals announcement and President Trump’s Ukraine claims.
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30-Sep-2019
More or Less - Who fought in World War I and the American Civil War?
Were a third of those that fought for Britain in WW1 black or Asian?
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27-Sep-2019
More or Less - Austerity Deaths, C-Sections and being struck by lightning.
Has Austerity caused 120 thousand deaths in the UK and does God hate men?
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23-Sep-2019
More or Less - Peaty v Bolt: Which is the greatest world record?
Using statistics to compare world records in athletics and swimming
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20-Sep-2019
More or Less - Dementia, inflation and shark deaths
Health risks for presidential hopefuls, falling inflation, shark deaths and salary claims
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17-Sep-2019
More or Less - Cape Town murders
Are eight people a day murdered in Cape Town and is that number unusually high?
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17-Sep-2019
More or Less - Maternal deaths, taxi driver earnings and statistical pop music
Are black women five times more likely to die in childbirth? Plus making pop music.
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10-Sep-2019
More or Less - Deforestation in Brazil
Has it increased significantly since President Bolsonaro took office in January?
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09-Sep-2019
More or Less - Climate deaths, Austerity, Pet food
Challenging the idea of six billion deaths due to climate change; plus what pets eat.
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03-Sep-2019
More or Less - Amazon forest fires
Are they really 85 percent worse than last year?
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31-Aug-2019
More or Less - Amazon fires, State pension, American burgers
Are forest fires in Brazil the worst in recent times? What is the state pension worth?
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30-Aug-2019
More or Less - Ethiopia’s 350m trees in a day
Were millions of trees planted in just one day in Ethiopia?
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30-Aug-2019
More or Less - Exam grades, Chernobyl, Ethiopian trees
Was your A-level grade correct? Plus were 350m trees planted in one day in Ethiopia?
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20-Aug-2019
More or Less - Mice and mind blowing maths
Re-inserting a caveat and discussing a really cool numbers trick.
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13-Aug-2019
More or Less - Immigrant crime rate in the US
Do immigrants commit more crime than native-born Americans in the United States?
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06-Aug-2019
More or Less - The spread of fact-checking in Africa
With misinformation so easy to spread, how can it be stopped or challenged?
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30-Jul-2019
More or Less - Pregnancy prohibitions – the evidence
Taking a statistical look at what expectant mothers should avoid
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24-Jul-2019
More or Less - Missing women from drug trials
How medical testing on just men causes problems.
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24-Jul-2019
More or Less - Zimbabwe’s economy: Are sanctions to blame?
We look at politicians’ claims that sanctions are to blame for Zimbabwe’s difficulties.
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24-Jul-2019
More or Less - Is nuclear power actually safer than you think?
We compare how deadly different forms of power generation are.
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24-Jul-2019
More or Less - Questioning the Chernobyl disaster death count
We fact check the recent TV drama Chernobyl
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24-Jul-2019
More or Less - Are married women flipping miserable?
Questioning the claim that unmarried women without children are the happiest
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