More or Less Episodes Episode guide
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Do 29,000 coffee pods really go to landfill every minute?
We explore the environmental consequences of our thirst for coffee
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Florence Nightingale and how she visualised data
Tim Harford discusses the power of the nurse statistician鈥檚 groundbreaking diagrams
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Spreadsheet disasters
The long and costly history of spreadsheet mistakes
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Hannah Fry on using shopping data to detect ovarian cancer
The mathematician discusses a study that suggests loyalty card data could signal cancer.
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Are wild mammals only 4% of the mammal population?
We examine a study that says humans and livestock dominate mammal life on Earth
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Does toilet paper cause 15% of global deforestation?
We investigate the impact of our use of toilet paper on the world鈥檚 forests.
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How we shook the world of very large numbers
How an edition of More or Less influenced the naming of enormous numbers
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Can China's data on Covid deaths be trusted?
Is China under-reporting data on Covid related deaths?
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Irish pubs - a global numbers game
Are there more Irish pubs in Ireland than in all other countries combined?
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What are the numbers of 2022?
Tim Harford and guests on the numbers that help tell the big stories of the year.
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Qatar World Cup: The pressure of penalties
We analyse World Cup penalty data to ask what boosts the chance of scoring from the spot
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Why is data so important in determining how we live?
Tim Harford on how good policies depend on the availability of reliable statistics
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World Cup in Qatar: How many migrant workers have died?
Examining the wildly varying estimates of deaths in the run-up to the tournament in Qatar
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When do food shortages become a famine?
With Somalia in crisis, we ask how data is used to officially declare a famine
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A $220 billion World Cup?
Has hosting the Fifa football World Cup really cost Qatar $220bn?
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Improving the numbers in the news
Tim Harford discusses the role statistics should play in the reporting of the news
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Lula鈥檚 'zero deforestation' plan for the Amazon
How much of the rainforest has been lost? And can Brazil鈥檚 new president save it?
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Can China鈥檚 GDP data be trusted?
Are China鈥檚 most recent figures for economic growth wrong?
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Do half of new books really sell fewer than twelve copies?
We look into a claim that 50% of new books in the US sell just a handful of copies.
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Ben Bernanke and the magic of banking
Tim Harford explains the work of this year鈥檚 Nobel Economics Prize winners
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Catching chess cheats with data
A cheating scandal is rocking the world of chess - and data is at its heart
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Nasa鈥檚 asteroid collision: How many asteroids are really out there?
As Nasa rams an asteroid to try and alter its course, how many are yet to be discovered?
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Ukraine鈥檚 progress in numbers
We ask how much progress Ukraine has really made in recapturing territory from Russia.
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How bad is fashion for the environment?
Does fashion really account for 10% of greenhouse gas emissions?
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Is a third of Pakistan really under water?
We investigate a widely reported claim as Pakistan deals with devastating flooding
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Can we use maths to beat the robots?
Why improving how we teach and think about maths could help us keep an edge over machines
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Kenya鈥檚 Election Rounding Error
Official figures didn鈥檛 add up - but due to rounding, not fraud
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The numbers behind 'natural' birth control
We examine online claims about the effectiveness of 鈥渘atural鈥� birth control methods
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Is opinion polling broken?
Following some high profile slip-ups in recent US elections, is opinion polling broken?
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Debunking the Liverpool FC conspiracy theory
We debunk spurious rumours that Liverpool FC use asthma medication to enhance performance
