More or Less Podcast
Tim Harford explains - and sometimes debunks - the numbers and statistics used in political debate, the news and everyday life
Episodes to download
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Factchecking claims that 400 churches were burned to the ground in France
Saturday
Looking into the numbers behind claims of attacks on churches
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The known unknowns of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Sat 30 May 2026
The data race to find out how fast Ebola is spreading
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Is the ‘loneliness epidemic’ real?
Sat 23 May 2026
We investigate if loneliness is increasing at epidemic rates
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Erdos Problem 1196: Can AI now solve maths that no human can?
Sat 16 May 2026
How a 23-year-old mathematician used AI to crack an unsolved maths problem
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Why it’s wrong to say vaping is as bad for you as smoking
Sat 9 May 2026
Vaping vs smoking: how the evidence on cancer and other health risks compare
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Does it take 15,000 litres of water to produce a kilogram of beef?
Sat 2 May 2026
How a stat about cows and water is not all it seems
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Have RFK and MAHA really changed American views on vaccines?
Sat 25 Apr 2026
Why a Politico headline overstated vaccine scepticism in the US
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Is Trump right that wind turbines are killing millions of birds?
Sat 18 Apr 2026
Investigating the scale of bird deaths caused by wind turbines
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Dr Spock’s dangerous advice on baby sleep
Sat 11 Apr 2026
How evidence eventually showed front sleeping was linked to sudden infant deaths
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How likely is ‘likely’?
Sat 4 Apr 2026
Adam Kucharski explains what people really mean when they use probability language
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Paul Ehrlich: The man who bet England wouldn’t exist by the year 2000
Sat 21 Mar 2026
Why Paul Ehrlich’s dire predictions about a population collapse failed to materialise
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Transgender women in sport: Does ‘comparable’ mean ‘equal’?
Sat 14 Mar 2026
Investigating a scientific paper analysing the strength and fitness of transgender women
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US-Israel war with Iran: Do the gulf states have enough interceptor missiles?
Sat 7 Mar 2026
What we know about missile stockpiles following the US-Israeli strikes on Iran
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Has a company really discovered a million new species?
Sat 28 Feb 2026
Investigating whether Basecamp Research found hundreds of thousands of bacteria species
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Did AI researchers let AI hallucinations into scientific papers?
Sat 21 Feb 2026
Investigating a claim that 100 made-up claims were found in AI papers
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Is an ancient charioteer the best paid sportsperson of all time?
Sat 14 Feb 2026
Did a Roman charioteer really earn the equivalent of $15 billion dollars?
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Is this Premier League striker a secret maths genius?
Sat 7 Feb 2026
Is Chelsea’s Liam Delap a maths genius? Or has he got a trick up his sleeve?
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Could Europe use its financial muscle to strong-arm the US?
Sat 31 Jan 2026
Europe holds trillions of dollars of US shares and bonds - but can they use them?
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Is Greenland as big as Africa?
Sat 24 Jan 2026
Tim Harford asks if Greenland is really as vast as most maps seem to suggest
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South Korea study does not show Covid vaccine causes cancer
Sat 17 Jan 2026
Influencers claim that this study shows that covid jabs cause cancer. That is not true
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Does Venezuela really have the biggest oil reserves in the world?
Sat 10 Jan 2026
We investigate if there are actually 300 billion barrels of oil in Venezuela's reserves
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Numbers of the year 2026
Sat 3 Jan 2026
From passenger numbers to world cup travel, we cast our eye forwards into 2026
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Numbers of the year 2025
Sat 27 Dec 2025
From tariffs to comets, we look back at the numbers of 2025 across the world
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The shocking world of US health costs
Sat 20 Dec 2025
Can the same pill cost $3 in a pharmacy and $750 in a hospital?
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RCP 8.5: Why did the climate change model get it wrong?
Sat 13 Dec 2025
How an important climate model was too pessimistic about the future
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Is RFK right about US sperm counts?
Sat 6 Dec 2025
Do US teens have 50% lower sperm and testosterone counts than 65 year old men?
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Richard Thaler and The Winner’s Curse
Sat 29 Nov 2025
Richard Thaler on two of his most famous observations in behavioural economics
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Is there a stock market crash coming?
Sat 22 Nov 2025
Can data tell us if a stock market crash is coming?
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Is RFK Jr right about China's diabetes rate?
Sat 8 Nov 2025
Investigating if 50% of people in China really have diabetes.
Unlock the history and truth behind the data with The OU
Explore how numbers shape, and sometimes mislead us, with The Open University.
When can you trust statistics?
BBC Ideas discovers three easy ways to help make sense of statistics.
