More or Less: Behind the Stats

The podcast delves into the high rates of cannabis use and beer consumption in Palau, questioning the validity of statistics. It compares the per capita beer consumption and cannabis usage in Palau with other countries. The challenges of surveying small populations like Palau and the significance of a five sigma threshold in physics experiments are also explored.

What is the highest-earning film ever if you adjust for inflation? And are birthdays killing us?

How fat could the global population become? Plus, Angela Saini considers whether statistics could settle the disputed result of the world title fight between boxers Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley. This programme was first broadcast on the BBC World Service.

Is the likelihood of bumping into your boss on holiday greater than you think? Angela Saini and the More or Less team assess the probabilities of some of life's great coincidences. This edition of More or Less was first broadcast on the BBC World Service.

Tim Harford interviews Daniel Kahneman, a psychologist who won the Nobel Prize in Economics. The author of Thinking, Fast and Slow describes the common mistakes people make with statistics.

How many images of Queen Elizabeth II have ever been created? And is Facebook really worth more than twice as much as every company on the Nigerian Stock Exchange?

Is there any evidence to support the Beecroft Review's recommended changes to employment law? Plus: hard-working Greeks, infidelity, and Ben Goldacre on publication bias.

It’s a very commonly-held belief that men are less faithful than women But it takes two to tango. So can this be mathematically possible? And we answer a cry for help from an Australian listener who wants to be “a bit more average”.

Earlier in the year we found out that Greeks put in more working hours than Germans. But the Germans are more efficient. So that got us thinking: who works the longest hours in the world?

Explore the government's identification of troubled families and the misrepresentation of deprivation as troublemaking. Discover a unique fare structure for public transportation and the surprising discussion on cat reproduction rates. Delve into the potential cat population explosion and NHS staffing debate. Compare the employee numbers of various global organizations and their civilian staff inclusion.