

More or Less: Behind the Stats
BBC Radio 4
Tim Harford and the More or Less team try to make sense of the statistics which surround us. From BBC Radio 4
Episodes
Mentioned books

Aug 16, 2019 • 9min
Mice and mind blowing maths
Re-inserting a caveat and discussing a really cool numbers trick.

Aug 9, 2019 • 9min
Immigrant Crime Rate in the US
Do immigrants commit more crime than native-born Americans in the United States?

Aug 2, 2019 • 9min
The spread of fact-checking in Africa
With misinformation so easy to spread, how can it be stopped or challenged?

Jul 26, 2019 • 9min
Pregnancy prohibitions – the evidence
Taking a statistical look at what expectant mothers should avoid.

Jul 19, 2019 • 9min
Missing women from drug trials
How medical testing on just men causes problems.

Jul 19, 2019 • 9min
Zimbabwe’s economy: Are sanctions to blame?
We look at politicians’ claims that sanctions are to blame for Zimbabwe’s difficulties.

Jul 5, 2019 • 9min
Two World Cups: Football and Cricket
On this week’s More or Less, Ruth Alexander looks at the numbers involved with the two world cups that are going on at the moment. Are more men than women watching the Women’s World Cup and how accurate is the Cricket World Cup rule of thumb that suggests if you double the score after 30 overs you get a good estimate of the final innings total?Producer: Richard VadonImage: Cricket World Cup Trophy 2019
Credit: Getty Images/ Gareth Copley-IDI

Jun 28, 2019 • 10min
Is nuclear power actually safer than you think?
We questioned the death count of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in last week’s More or Less podcast. In the end, Professor Jim Smith of Portsmouth University came up with an estimate of 15,000 deaths. But we wondered how deadly nuclear power is overall when compared to other energy sources? Dr Hannah Ritchie of the University of Oxford joins Charlotte McDonald to explore.Image:Chernobyl nuclear plant, October 1st 1986
Credit: Getty Images

Jun 21, 2019 • 15min
Questioning the Chernobyl disaster death count
The recent TV miniseries ‘Chernobyl’ has stirred up debate online about the accuracy of its portrayal of the explosion at a nuclear power plant in the former Soviet state of Ukraine. We fact-check the programme and try and explain why it so hard to say how many people will die because of the Chernobyl disaster.Image: Chernobyl nuclear power plant a few weeks after the disaster.
Credit: Getty Images

Jun 14, 2019 • 9min
WS More or Less: Dealing with the Numbers of Cancer
How one woman used statistics to help cope with cancer.