Are Labour right about employment? Are the Conservatives right about cutting NHS managers? Are the Lib Dems right about share buyback? Are Reform UK right about their tax plans? How do they make the exit poll so accurate? What are the odds of m

How a tick box doubled the US maternal mortality rates.

8 days ago 11m 5s

he US has been portrayed as in the grip of a maternal mortality crisis. In contrast to most other developed nations, the rate of maternal deaths in the US has been going up since the early 2000s. But why? With the help of Saloni Dattani, a

Election claims and erection claims

11 days ago 31m 57s

Are Labour right about the Liz Truss effect on mortgages? Are the Conservatives right about pensioners? Are Plaid Cymru right about spending? Are the Lib Dems right about care funding? Is Count Binface right about croissants?Why are MRP polls c

Do ‘pig butchering’ cyber scams make as much as half Cambodia’s GDP?

15 days ago 11m 34s

So-called “pig butchering” scams take billions of dollars from people around the globe.But do the cyber scams run from compounds in Cambodia really take an amount of money equivalent to half that country’s GDP?We investigate how the scale

Worse mortgages, better readers, and potholes on the moon

18 days ago 34m 49s

Will Conservative policies raise mortgages by £4800, as Labour claim? Are primary school kids in England the best readers in the (western) world, as the Conservatives claim? Are there more potholes in the UK than craters on the moon? Tim Harfor

Shakespeare’s maths

22 days ago 11m 55s

AWilliam Shakespeare might well rank as the most influential writer in the English language. But it seems he also had a knack for numbers. Rob Eastaway, author of Much Ado about Numbers, tells Tim Harford about the simple maths that brings Shak

Leaflets, taxes, oil workers and classrooms

25 days ago 31m 53s

What’s going on with the dodgy bar charts that political parties put on constituency campaign leaflets?What’s the truth about tax promises?Are 100,000 oil workers going to lose their jobs in Scotland?Will class sizes increase in state schools i

Why medical error is not the third leading cause of death in the US

29 days ago 11m 36s

The claim that medical error is the third leading cause of death in the US has been zooming around the internet for years. This would mean that only heart disease and cancer killed more people than the very people trying to treat these diseases

Debate, Reform, tax evasion and ants

Jun 5th, 2024 33m 18s

Were there any suspicious claims in the election debate between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer?Do the claims in Reform UK’s policy documents on excess deaths and climate change make sense?Can the Conservatives and Labour raise £6bn a year by crac

Data for India

Jun 1st, 2024 11m 11s

India’s election has been running since 19 April. With results imminent on 4th June, More or Less talks with Chennai based data communicator Rukmini S. She founded Data for India, a new website designed to make socioeconomic data on India easie

UK growth, prisons and Swiftonomics

May 29th, 2024 32m 23s

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said that the UK economy is growing faster than Germany, France and the US, while Labour says the typical household in the UK is worse off by £5,883 since 2019. Are these claims fair? We give some needed context.

Is intermittent fasting going to kill you?

May 25th, 2024 12m 19s

News stories earlier in the year appeared to suggest that time restricted eating – where you consume all your meals in an 8 hour time window – was associated with a 91% increase in the risk of death from cardiovascular disease. But is this true

MP misconduct, NHS waiting lists and gold (gold)

May 22nd, 2024 32m 43s

Is it going to take 685 years to clear NHS waiting lists in England?Are 10 per cent of MPs under investigation for sexual misconduct?How does gold effect the UKs export figures?What does it mean to say that a woman has 120% chance of getting pr

Are falling marriage rates causing happiness to fall in the US?

May 18th, 2024 12m 6s

It’s long been known that marriage is associated with happiness in survey data. But are falling marriage rates in the US dragging down the mood of the whole nation? We investigate the statistical relationships with Professor Sam Peltzman from t

Is reading for pleasure the single biggest factor in how well a child does in life?

May 11th, 2024 12m 40s

If a child loves reading, how big a difference does that make to their future success? In a much-repeated claim, often sourced to a 2002 OECD report, it is suggested that it makes the biggest difference there is – that reading for pleasure is t

Do one in five young Americans think the holocaust is a myth?

May 4th, 2024 12m 4s

Polling by YouGov made headlines around the world when it suggested 20% of young adults in the US thought the holocaust was a myth.But polling experts at the Pew Research Centre thought the result might not be accurate, due to problems with the

Has Milei fixed Argentina’s inflation problem?

Apr 26th, 2024 11m 23s

Libertarian populist Javier Milei won the presidential election in Argentina on a promise austerity and economic “shock” measures for the ailing economy. Just a few months in, some are hailing the falling rate of inflation as showing those meas

98%: Is misinformation being spread about a review of trans youth medicine?

Apr 20th, 2024 14m 13s

The Cass Review is an independent report on the state of gender identity services for under-18s in England’s NHS.It found children had been let down by a lack of research and "remarkably weak" evidence on medical interventions in gender care.B

Tackling The Three-Body Problem

Apr 13th, 2024 10m 58s

Netflix has a big new show named after and inspired by a classic problem in astrophysics, 'The Three Body Problem', where predicting the course and orbits of three or more celestial bodies proves near impossible.But how faithful is the Netflix

Is loneliness as bad for you as smoking?

Apr 6th, 2024 11m 23s

Is loneliness as bad for you as smoking 15 cigarettes per day? That’s the claim circulating on social media.We trace this stat back to its source and speak the scientist behind the original research on which it is based, Professor Julianne Holt

Remembering Daniel Kahneman

Mar 30th, 2024 9m 41s

Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel prize-winning behavioural economist and More or Less hero, has died at the age of 90. Tim Harford explains his ideas and influence. Presenter: Charlotte McDonaldSeries producer: Tom CollsSound mix: Hal HainesProduct

Bonus episode: Daniel Kahneman on Thinking, Fast and Slow

Mar 28th, 2024 9m 20s

In an episode of More or Less from 2012, Daniel Kahneman – the Nobel prize-winning behavioural economist who has died at the age of 90 – explains the big ideas in his book Thinking, Fast and Slow.

What's happening to Arctic ice?

Mar 25th, 2024 10m 32s

The area of ice covering the Arctic ocean has been in a state of long decline, as climate change takes effect. But recent fluctuations in the ice have been seized on by climate change sceptics, who say it tells a different story.We speak to pol

Does the Russian government really spend 40% of its budget on the military?

Mar 16th, 2024 10m 36s

According to the head of the British military, the Russian government spends 40% of its budget on its war machine. But is it true? With the help of Professor Bettina Renz from Nottingham University and Dr Richard Connolly from The Royal Unit

Is public speaking really our biggest fear?

Mar 9th, 2024 10m 59s

For over 50 years it’s been widely reported that speaking before a group is people’s number one fear. But is it really true? With the help of Dr Karen Kangas Dwyer, a former Professor in the School of Communication at the University of Nebras