Reducing your risk of death

Can running and owning a dog reduce your risk of an early death?

• 8 mins

Bolivia: Can statistics help detect electoral fraud?

We look at the numbers and statistics from Bolivia’s disputed presidential election.

• 11 mins

The world’s busiest shipping lanes

Which is the busiest shipping lane in the world?

• 9 mins

Testing tomatoes

Have these saucy fruits become less healthy over time?

• 8 mins

Election Special 1/2

50,000 nurses? 40 hospitals? Corporate tax rises? Tim Harford looks at Election pledges.

• 27 mins

Tree Planting Pledges

Planting trees by numbers: UK style.

• 8 mins

Election Special (2/2)

Labour's spending plans, Conservatives claims on homelessness, the SNP's education record

• 27 mins

Koalas

Have bushfires destroyed 80% of the koala habitat in Australia?

• 8 mins

The Simpsons and maths

We explore the maths secrets of The Simpsons on their 30th anniversary.

• 8 mins

Presidential candidates and dementia

The health risks some of the frontrunners in the US presidential race face

• 8 mins

C-sections and sharks

Hospital births in China and whether it’s true 50% are delivered by caesarean section

• 8 mins

Australian Animal Deaths, Carbon Emissions, Election Mystery

How many animals have died in Australia and how many Labour voters went Conservative?

• 34 mins

WS More or Less: Bushfire mystery

Have a billion animals died in Australia’s fires? And which ones are likely to survive?

• 9 mins

Weighing the Cost of Brexit

The cost of Brexit, alligator speed and Liverpool FC's luck

• 16 mins

WS More or Less: Japan’s 99% Conviction Rate

Quantifying justice in Japan with Tim Harford.

• 8 mins

Netflix and Chill

The carbon consequence of streaming, stats on sepsis and stretching Bill Bryson to Pluto.

• 28 mins

WS More or Less: Dozy Science

How much sleep do we really need?

• 9 mins

Coronavirus, emotions and guns.

Fact checking claims about coronavirus and whether more guns equal fewer homicides.

• 28 mins

WS More or Less: Coronavirus

Fact checking claims about the spread of Coronavirus

• 8 mins

Tracking terror suspects

Costing counter-terrorism, interrogating tomatoes, the UK's reading age, politics and GDP

• 28 mins

WS More or Less: How fast are Alligators and Hippos?

Can alligators run at 50kmph? Join us in clocking alligators’ gaits.

• 10 mins

Coronavirus, jam, AI and tomatoes

Covid-19 stats, spreading jam far and wide, cooking with AI, and James Wong on vegetables

• 23 mins

WS More or Less: Coronavirus - The Numbers

An update on Covid-19 statistics, with Tim Harford.

• 8 mins

Artificial (not so) Intelligence

Is the problem with AI its lack of intelligence?

• 8 mins

More or Less: Superforecasting, wood burning stoves and the real story of Hidden Figures

Dipping into the archive for stories on the art of prediction and wood burner pollution

• 25 mins

Netflix vs the environment

Does watching 30 minutes of Netflix have the same carbon footprint as driving four miles?

• 8 mins

How much heat do you lose from your head?

Is it true that 40% of your body's heat loss comes from your head?

• 9 mins

The mystery of Iran’s coronavirus numbers

Does Iran have a lot more covid-19 cases that its figures suggest?

• 13 mins

Mitigation or Suppression: What’s best to tackle Coronavirus?

How statistical modelling can help us respond to the Coronavirus pandemic

• 9 mins

Coronavirus Special

The risks of Covid-19 for different age groups and what restrictions mean for the economy

• 27 mins

The Risk

Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter puts the risks of Covid-19 into perspective.

• 9 mins

Supermarket stockpiling, A-level results and Covid-19 gender disparity

Is the coronavirus pandemic having a different impact on men and women?

• 28 mins

Are more men dying from coronavirus?

Tim Harford and Ruth Alexander examine the statistics around the world.

• 8 mins

Coronavirus deaths, face masks and a potential baby boom

Is the coronavirus death count misleading because of delays in reporting?

• 27 mins

Should you wear a face mask?

Tim Harford looks at the debate over making your own Covid-19 protection.

• 8 mins

Superforecasting the Coronavirus

Can professional predictors help us understand the course of the coronavirus pandemic?

• 8 mins

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?

• 27 mins

Bonus Podcast: Professor John Horton Conway

Mathematician John Conway died in April as a result of Covid-19.

• 14 mins

Comparing countries' coronavirus performance

Is it helpful to ask which countries are faring better in tackling the coronavirus?

• 9 mins

Ethnic minority deaths, climate change and lockdown

Are doctors from ethnic minority backgrounds disproportionately affected by Covid-19?

• 28 mins

Climate change and birdsong

With factories closed and flights grounded, what impact will this have on climate change?

• 9 mins

Testing truth, fatality rates, obesity risk and trampolines.

Did the UK really carry out 100,000 coronavirus tests in one day?

• 27 mins

Covid-19 fatality rate

Why don't we know how dangerous Covid -19 really is?

• 8 mins

Vitamin D, explaining R and the 2 metre rule

Is Vitamin D an under-appreciated weapon in the fight against Covid-19?

• 27 mins

Social Distancing and Government Borrowing

Where do the different social distancing measurements come from?

• 9 mins

School re-opening, Germany’s Covid-19 success and statistically savvy parrots

Will re-opening some schools put children or their teachers at risk?

• 28 mins

60 Harvests and statistically savvy parrots

Can there really only be 60 harvests left in Earth's soil?

• 8 mins

Obeying lockdown, flight arrivals and is this wave of the epidemic waning?

What does the data show about whether this wave of the epidemic is waning in the UK?

• 27 mins

False negatives, testing capacity and pheasants

How accurate are the swab tests used to diagnose Covid-19?

• 27 mins

Keep your distance

Tim Harford examines how can we avoid infection spreading, while getting on with life.

• 9 mins

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?

• 27 mins

Quarantine, Test and Trace and BODMAS

Is it true that Covid-19 mostly kills people who would die soon anyway?

• 28 mins

Who Should be Quarantined?

Tim Harford finds out which countries have the highest rate of Covid-19 infection.

• 9 mins

Child Poverty, School Inequality and a Second Wave

As lockdown eases, why hasn't there been a spike in infections?

• 28 mins

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

• 9 mins

Why did the UK have such a bad Covid-19 epidemic?

Was it bad decision-making, bad advice, or bad luck?

• 28 mins

Why Trump is wrong about the USA’s coronavirus case comeback

Are cases really rising in the US or are they just testing more? Tim digs into the data.

• 9 mins

Sweden’s lockdown lite

Sweden stayed open during the pandemic – how well did it work?

• 14 mins

Covid misconceptions and US deaths

How many of us believe the myths about coronavirus?

• 8 mins

Data in the time of cholera

A journey back to the birth of epidemiology

• 8 mins

Covid in Africa

Do we have enough data to know what’s happening on the continent?

• 10 mins

Melting Antarctic ice

If all the ice in Antarctica melted, would global sea levels rise by 70 metres?

• 8 mins

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?

• 27 mins

Belarus’ contested election

Tim Harford looks at the numbers behind the widely questioned election result

• 9 mins

A-level algorithms, poker and buses

We unpick the A-level algoshambles and discover what poker teaches us about statistics.

• 28 mins

Covid plasma therapy

Claims about a Covid-19 treatment, breast cancer screening, and 18th century sex workers.

• 27 mins

Schools and coronavirus, test and trace, maths and reality

Evidence on Covid-19 risks in schools, data on contact tracing, and a philosophical query.

• 27 mins

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.

• 28 mins

Covid testing capacity, refugee numbers, and mascara

Confusing claims on lab capacity, the UK’s record on asylum, and the volume of eyelashes.

• 28 mins

The magical maths of pool testing

Could pool testing hold the key to ramping up Covid-19 testing?

• 8 mins

Covid curve queried, false positives, and the Queen’s head

How fast are coronavirus cases doubling? Plus testing confusion and a royal face-off.

• 29 mins

“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.

• 28 mins

Spreadsheet snafu, ‘Long Covid’ quantified, and the birth of probability

Missing coronavirus case data, long-term symptoms, and a big mathematical moment.

• 21 mins

A short history of probability

Gamblers, millionaires and annuities

• 8 mins

Auction Theory - Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson

This year’s Nobel memorial prize winners for economics and their work on auction theory.

• 8 mins

US election: facts or fiction

Tim Harford hears about the sheer volume of false claims made in the campaign.

• 8 mins

Asymptomatic Covid19 Cases

How many Covid19 cases are truly asymptomatic?

• 8 mins

How deadly is Covid 19?

Why there isn’t one single death rate.

• 8 mins

Vaccine numbers

How much protection will a new Covid 19 vaccine give?

• 8 mins

Inviting Covid for Dinner

If you go to a gathering of 25 people, what are the chances one of you has coronavirus?

• 9 mins

Tracking Covid 19

Which countries are doing well at keeping track of the virus? And which are not?

• 9 mins

Vaccines: how safe and who gets it?

Is it too soon to approve a vaccine for use? Plus choosing who goes first.

• 8 mins

QAnon: Child runaways and trafficking numbers debunked

Tackling statistics spread by conspiracy theorists.

• 8 mins

The economics of a Covid Christmas

What to consider when buying presents this year

• 8 mins

Numbers of the year: Part one

Tim Harford showcases statistics from 2020

• 8 mins

Numbers of the year: Part two

Tim Harford showcases statistics from 2020

• 8 mins

Ants and Algorithms

David Sumpter describes the algorithms ruling the world

• 8 mins

How effective is one dose of the vaccine?

Is the first dose of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine 52% or 90% effective?

• 29 mins

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?

• 27 mins

Counting Covid’s impact on GDP

Does GDP tell us whose economies have suffered most during Covid?

• 8 mins

Deaths at home, supermarket infections and the Cobra effect

Where are people catching Covid-19?

• 28 mins

Deaths at Home, Supermarket Infections and the Cobra Effect

Where are people catching Covid-19?

• 28 mins

The Rapid Test Row

The huge row among scientists about rapid coronavirus tests.

• 8 mins

Teachers, Test & Trace and Butterflies

Are teachers more at risk from Covid-19?

• 28 mins

Glasgow vs Rwanda

Could life expectancy in some parts of Glasgow be worse than in Rwanda?

• 8 mins

Brexit exports, cladding and are 1 in 5 disabled?

Are exports to the EU down since Brexit? Plus removing flammable building cladding.

• 28 mins

How much Covid in the World?

Counting all the virus particles in every human on the planet.

• 8 mins

Comparing death counts, Lock Down drinking and Long Covid

Is the UK’s Covid 19 death count among the worst in the world? Plus are we drinking more?

• 28 mins

Covid 19 death count: which countries are faring worst?

Tim Harford finds out if we can trust international comparisons with the available data.

• 8 mins

Why are US Covid cases falling?

From herd immunity to the weather, Tim Harford explores the theories.

• 8 mins