More or Less: Behind the Stats
960 episodes - English - Latest episode: 5 days ago - ★★★★★ - 740 ratingsTim Harford and the More or Less team try to make sense of the statistics which surround us. From BBC Radio 4
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Episodes
Big numbers
January 07, 2011 14:00 - 27 minutes - 25.3 MBMore or Less examines this week's claims and counter-claims about VAT, exposes some seriously sloppy reporting and - finally - reveals the truth about Jack the "psychic" monkey.
2010 in numbers
December 31, 2010 14:00 - 27 minutes - 25.6 MBTim Harford and the More or Less team explore 2010 in numbers. Happy New Year to all our listeners.
What the Dickens?
December 24, 2010 14:00 - 27 minutes - 25.2 MBBoom. Bust. Bah humbug. Tim Harford narrates 'A More or Less Christmas Carol' in which British Bank plc boss Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the ghosts of banking past, present and future. Will he heed their warnings?
Council of despair
December 17, 2010 14:00 - 28 minutes - 26.2 MBLocal government budgets are being cut. More or Less looks at how the pie is sliced and finds everything depends on Wokingham (yes, really). Plus: we take a look at inflation and consult the magic More or Less monkey.
Degrees of Debt
December 10, 2010 15:28 - 27 minutes - 25.6 MBWe look at the numbers behind the increase in the cap on undergraduate tuition fees in England. Are the changes fair and progressive? Are they dropping future students into a deep hole of debt? Or are they both?
Gay Britain
October 01, 2010 12:35 - 27 minutes - 25.3 MBTim Harford and the More or Less team examine the micromort measure of risk and official statistics on sexual identity.
How welfare works
September 24, 2010 12:35 - 27 minutes - 25.6 MBTim Harford and the More or Less team examine more numbers in the news. This week: Claiming benefits has been described by the Chancellor as - for some - a "lifestyle choice". What does the evidence tell us about how incentives work in the welfare system?; The numbers of some of Britain's best-loved birds are declining. Fast. Many think cats are to blame. Are they right?; Why the Prime Minister's salary has become a convenient unit of measurement; And we bring you the results of our mathemat...
Who earns more?
September 17, 2010 13:00 - 27 minutes - 25.2 MBWho earns more: private or public employees? And are your trousers flattering you?
Back to school
September 10, 2010 12:40 - 28 minutes - 25.7 MBMore or Less looks at how maths is taught in schools today and it asks what the population of the world be if WWI had never happened.
03 Sep 2010
September 03, 2010 11:48 - 27 minutes - 25.5 MBHow reliable are life expectancy figures? Can cycling ever be safer than driving? And, what can maths tell us about guerilla insurgencies?