WS More or Less: Numbers of the Year Part 1
The numbers that made 2018.
Episodes
More or Less: Behind the Stats
Tim Harford and the More or Less team try to make sense of the statistics which surround us. From BBC Radio 4
Episodes
WS More or Less: Mission Impossible - Quantifiying Santa
What to look out for on Christmas Eve.
WS More or Less: Dam Lies and Statistics
Are mega-dams really sustainable?
WS More or Less: Sex and Heart Attacks
Are women more likely to die from a heart attack than men?
WS More or Less: Are 90% of War Fatalities Civilians?
Xavier Zapata examines what the data tells us about the deadly impact of war on civilians
WS More or Less: When’s a Kilogram Not a Kilogram?
Updating the kilogram.
WS More or Less: Do Assassinations Work?
How likely are assassination attempts on heads of state to succeed?
WS More or Less: Vaccines - The importance of the herd and social media
What proportion of a population needs to be vaccinated to stop a disease spreading?
WS More or Less: Foreign Aid: Who’s the most generous?
In foreign aid terms what’s the best way of measuring how generous a country is?
WS More or Less: Paul Romer and William Nordhaus’ Big Ideas
The economists tackling climate change and growth.
Loneliness, School Funding, Same-Sex Divorce
New figures reveal that same-sex divorce rates are much higher among women than among men. The pattern is the same in Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the UK. Everywhere where there are statistics on same-sex divorce it is the same sex doing the bulk of the divorcing. Tim Harford discusses why this may be with Marina Ashdade, economist at Canada’s Vancouver School of Economics and author of Dirty Money, a book which applies economic ideas to the study of sex and love. Producer: Ruth ...
WS More or Less: Why are Lesbians More Likely to Divorce than Gay Men?
New figures reveal that same-sex divorce rates are much higher among women than among men. The pattern is the same in Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the UK. Everywhere where there are statistics on same-sex divorce it is the same sex doing the bulk of the divorcing. Tim Harford discusses why this may be with Marina Ashdade, economist at Canada’s Vancouver School of Economics and author of “Dirty Money”, a book which applies economic ideas to the study of sex and love. Producer: Rut...
Loneliness; School Funding; Same-Sex Divorce.
This week BBC Radio 4’s All in the Mind programme announced the results of The Loneliness Experiment. It was a large survey conducted by the programme in collaboration with the Wellcome Collection. The largest survey into the issue of loneliness to date, said All in the Mind, while the accompanying BBC press release reported that “The survey results indicate that 16-24 year olds experience loneliness more often and more intensely than any other age group. 40% of respondents aged 16-24 reported f...
WS More of Less: Surviving the Battle of Britain
Were Spitfire pilots killed after an average of four weeks in the World War Two battle?
Surviving the Battle of Britain; the World Cup and Domestic Violence; Buckfast and Arrests in Scotland
Tim Harford on Spitfire pilots, and whether football triggers violence in the home.
WS More or Less: Trump and the Puerto Rico Death Toll
How can we calculate excess mortality after a natural disaster?
How Many Schoolchildren are Carers? Shareholder Income, and Museum Visitors Vs Football Fans
Tim Harford on child carers, shareholder income, football vs museums and dangerous sports
WS More or Less: DNA - Are You More Chimp or Neanderthal?
What is the difference between 96% similarity or sharing 20% of our DNA?
Male suicide, school ratings, are female tennis players treated unfairly by umpires?
Tim Harford with statistics on suicide, good schools and sexism in tennis. Plus goats
WS More or Less: The Safest Car in the World?
A listener asks whether his Volvo is the safest car on the road?
Heart Age Calculator; Danish Sperm Imports; Counting Goats
Tim Harford questions the usefulness of a popular heart age calculator.
WS: More or Less - How well do you understand your world?
Tim Harford talks to Bobby Duffy about why we are often wrong about a lot of basic facts
African Trade Tariffs; Alcohol Safe Limits; President Trump's Popularity
Tim Harford fact checks EU trade deals with Africa, and whether one drink is one too many
BONUS PODCAST: Economics with Subtitles - Coffins Full of Car Keys
BONUS PODCAST: For the rest of August, in addition to More or Less you’ll get a brand new podcast, Economics with Subtitles. It’s your everyday guide to economics and why you should care. In this edition, Ayeisha and Steve make sense of interest rates. Why did they lead to coffins full of car getting sent to the US Federal Reserve? What factors affect what you have to pay on your loans? And what do your film choices say about why you decide to borrow? Producers: Simon Maybin & Phoebe Keane P...
WS: More or Less - Automated fact-checking
Computer programmes are being developed to combat fake news.
A no-frills life, automated fact-checking and Lord-of-the-Rings maths
What would have been the most efficient way to get to Mordor?
BONUS PODCAST: Economics with Subtitles - How Condoms Can Cost a Week’s Wages
BONUS PODCAST: For the rest of August, in addition to More or Less you’ll get a brand new podcast, Economics with Subtitles. It’s your everyday guide to economics and why you should care. In this show, Ayeisha and Steve make sense of inflation. They’ll explain how hyperinflation is affecting how Venezuelans have sex, why you can’t afford a ticket to see your favourite band in concert anymore and why a sale on sofas isn’t always a good thing. Producers: Simon Maybin & Phoebe Keane Presenters:...
WS More or Less: Are Wildfires Really Burning More Land?
Are Wildfires in the United States and Southern Europe burning more land than before?
BONUS PODCAST: Economics with Subtitles - Bracelets for Bullets
BONUS PODCAST: For the rest of August, in addition to More or Less you’ll get a brand new podcast, Economics with Subtitles. It’s your everyday guide to economics and why you should care. In this show, Ayeisha and Steve explore government debt. Why did an anonymous mother send her bracelet to the government to be turned into a bullet? How are you lending the government money without even realising? And when should you be worried about how much debt the government is in? Producers: Simon Maybin &...
Numbers Behind a Tweetstorm
How do you get a hashtag to trend around the world?