More or Less: Behind the Stats

Guest Joshua Lewis, a post-doctoral researcher, sheds light on the inaccuracies of the 50% global food waste claim. He introduces a new value system 'Valetta' for Scrabble tiles, prompting a discussion on updating the game's values with changing language. John Chew, Co-President of the North American SCRABBLE Players Association, shares his thoughts on the proposed changes.

What does a 'guess the weight of the ox' competition tells us about a bloated and dysfunctional financial system? We find out in the Parable of the Ox written by John Kay of the Financial Times. The tale is told with the help of economics writer James Surowiecki as well as John Kay himself. It also features a brand new composition from the New Radiophonic Workshop.

What does a 'guess the weight of the ox' competition tells us about a bloated and dysfunctional financial system? We find out in the Parable of the Ox written by John Kay of the Financial Times. The tale is told with the help of economics writer James Surowiecki as well as John Kay himself. It also features a brand new composition from the New Radiophonic Workshop.

A special review of the year through the interesting, informative and idiosyncratic numbers of 2012.

Explore the impact of the 80-20 finance ratio on economic recovery, the search for the Higgs boson at CERN, the scarcity of openly gay footballers in English leagues, the retirement age crisis in Brazil, the significance of number 17 in sudoku, and election campaign spending in the US, UK, and Canada.

Investigating misleading handgun death statistics, exploring the mathematics behind juggling tricks, and delving into the numerical representation of juggling patterns

Exploring US gun crime statistics, death registration delays, chocolate's impact on intelligence, median age of first-time homebuyers, deer collision risks, and the mathematics of juggling in an entertaining and informative podcast episode.

This week: What is ‘rare’? When we say something is rare what do we mean? Lightning strikes which typically kill three people a year in the UK are often described as rare but how do we square that with a condition like motor neurone disease which is also described as rare yet kills 1500 people a year in the UK. Also we speak to Nassim Taleb about his book Anti-fragile.

Why was the estimate, in 2003, for Eastern Europeans coming to the UK so wrong? Which is better when communicating information words or numbers? Nassim Taleb explains anti-fragility And we'll debunk the oft quoted 'you're never more than 6ft from a rat'

Exploring the challenges in measuring economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa with Ghana's GDP revision. Speculation on the Duchess of Cambridge having twins due to severe morning sickness, linking it to the probability of twins based on data from Norway, Denmark, and Sweden.