More or Less Podcast
Tim Harford explains - and sometimes debunks - the numbers and statistics used in political debate, the news and everyday life
Episodes to download
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Why it鈥檚 wrong to say vaping is as bad for you as smoking
Saturday
Vaping vs smoking: how the evidence on cancer and other health risks compare
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Does it take 15,000 litres of water to produce a kilogram of beef?
Sat 2 May 2026
How a stat about cows and water is not all it seems
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Have RFK and MAHA really changed American views on vaccines?
Sat 25 Apr 2026
Why a Politico headline overstated vaccine scepticism in the US
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Is Trump right that wind turbines are killing millions of birds?
Sat 18 Apr 2026
Investigating the scale of bird deaths caused by wind turbines
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Dr Spock鈥檚 dangerous advice on baby sleep
Sat 11 Apr 2026
How evidence eventually showed front sleeping was linked to sudden infant deaths
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How likely is 鈥榣ikely鈥�?
Sat 4 Apr 2026
Adam Kucharski explains what people really mean when they use probability language
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Paul Ehrlich: The man who bet England wouldn鈥檛 exist by the year 2000
Sat 21 Mar 2026
Why Paul Ehrlich鈥檚 dire predictions about a population collapse failed to materialise
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Transgender women in sport: Does 鈥榗omparable鈥� mean 鈥榚qual鈥�?
Sat 14 Mar 2026
Investigating a scientific paper analysing the strength and fitness of transgender women
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US-Israel war with Iran: Do the gulf states have enough interceptor missiles?
Sat 7 Mar 2026
What we know about missile stockpiles following the US-Israeli strikes on Iran
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Has a company really discovered a million new species?
Sat 28 Feb 2026
Investigating whether Basecamp Research found hundreds of thousands of bacteria species
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Did AI researchers let AI hallucinations into scientific papers?
Sat 21 Feb 2026
Investigating a claim that 100 made-up claims were found in AI papers
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Is an ancient charioteer the best paid sportsperson of all time?
Tue 17 Feb 2026
Did a Roman charioteer really earn the equivalent of $15 billion dollars?
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Is this Premier League striker a secret maths genius?
Sat 7 Feb 2026
Tim Harford explains the numbers and statistics in the news and in life.
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Could Europe use its financial muscle to strong-arm the US?
Sat 31 Jan 2026
Europe holds trillions of dollars of US shares and bonds - but can they use them?
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Can you get 拢71,000 on benefits?
Wed 28 Jan 2026
Tim Harford investigates benefits, church attacks, saunas and marathon running
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Is Greenland as big as Africa?
Sat 24 Jan 2026
Tim Harford asks if Greenland is really as vast as most maps seem to suggest
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How close is Greenland to the United States?
Wed 21 Jan 2026
Tim Harford investigates Greenland maps, climate costs, house prices and Traitors maths
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No, a study has not shown that the covid jab causes cancer
Sat 17 Jan 2026
Why a study from South Korea does not show that vaccines cause cancer
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Have more than 100 private schools been forced to close because of VAT?
Wed 14 Jan 2026
Tim Harford investigates closing schools, X users, Covid deaths and churchgoers
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Does Venezuela really have the biggest oil reserves in the world?
Sat 10 Jan 2026
We investigate if there are actually 300 billion barrels of oil in Venezuela's reserves
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The Stats of the Nation: Immigration, benefits and inequality
Fri 9 Jan 2026
Tim Harford explores the stats on some of the UK鈥檚 most potent political debates
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The Stats of the Nation: Older people, education, prisons and the weather
Thu 8 Jan 2026
Tim Harford explores the stats on pensioners, exams, justice and climate change
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The Stats of the Nation: Sex, drugs and empty homes
Wed 7 Jan 2026
Tim Harford explores the numbers that help explain fertility, pharmaceuticals and crime
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The Stats of the Nation: Health
Tue 6 Jan 2026
Tim Harford explores the numbers that help explain the state of health and the NHS
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The Stats of the Nation: The Economy
Mon 5 Jan 2026
Tim Harford explores the numbers that help explain the state of the UK economy
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Numbers of the year 2026
Sat 3 Jan 2026
From passenger numbers to world cup travel, we cast our eye forwards into 2026
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Numbers of the year 2025
Sat 27 Dec 2025
From tariffs to comets, we look back at the numbers of 2025 across the world
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Were there really Three Wise Men?
Christmas Eve 2025
From counting people to measuring housework - we explore.
