![Hollerith punch card - podcast episode cover](http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/3000x3000/p0b1vllh.jpg)
Episode description
Data is a hugely profitable commodity - if you know how to process it. Tim Harford tells the story of Herman Hollerith, and how his 19th-century machine for processing census data laid the foundations for some of the world's most valuable companies.