Show overview
More or Less has been publishing since 2010, and across the 16 years since has built a catalogue of 1,103 episodes. That works out to roughly 280 hours of audio in total. Releases follow a weekly cadence.
Episodes typically run under ten minutes — most land between 9 min and 28 min — with run-times ranging widely across the catalogue. None of the episodes are flagged explicit by the publisher. It is catalogued as a EN-language Science show.
The show is actively publishing — the most recent episode landed 4 weeks ago, with 40 episodes already out so far this year. Published by BBC.
From the publisher
Tim Harford explains - and sometimes debunks - the numbers and statistics used in political debate, the news and everyday life
Latest Episodes
View all 1,103 episodesThe messy history behind the modern calendar
Benefits vs minimum wage: Which pays more?
Is the US worse than North Korea for malnutrition deaths?
Does Europe suffer more heat deaths than the US?
Andrew Ross Sorkin: What can the Great Crash of 1929 tell us about today?
Education, Education, Education (and immigration)
Factchecking claims that 400 churches were burned to the ground in France
Debunking the claim that migrants will get half of new homes
The known unknowns of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Does a fall in the UK's healthy life expectancy mean what you think it means?
Is the ‘loneliness epidemic’ real?
Are refugees more likely to commit crime?
Erdos Problem 1196: Can AI now solve maths that no human can?
Why it’s wrong to say vaping is as bad for you as smoking
Does it take 15,000 litres of water to produce a kilogram of beef?
Have RFK and MAHA really changed American views on vaccines?
Is Trump right that wind turbines are killing millions of birds?
Dr Spock’s dangerous advice on baby sleep
How likely is ‘likely’?
When you’re listening to the news, you will often hear words that are meant to communicate the probability of something happening. A terrorist attack is “a realistic possibility”, the spread of a certain strain of virus is “highly likely", the relegation of your favourite football team is “possible”.But when you hear these terms, do you really know what kind of probabilities they’re trying to convey? Do you know how likely “likely” is? Or what probability “probable” is meant to get across?In some cases, it seems you probably don't.Professor Adam Kucharski, author of Proof, the Uncertain Science of Certainty, designed a quiz to work out the actual probabilities of the language we use to convey risks.The data he got back shows how sometimes these words mean very different things to different people.If you want to try the quiz for yourself, head over to https://probability.kucharski.io/Email the More or Less team: [email protected] CREDITS:Presenter: Charlotte McDonald Series producer: Tom Colls Production co-ordinator: Brenda Brown Sound mix: Gareth Jones Editor: Richard Vadon
How much water does AI consume?
As Artificial Intelligence continues to expand rapidly, some people have raised concerns about its potential environmental impact - in particular its use of water, which is used to cool both data centres and the power generators that supply them with electricity.One recent book on AI contained the alarming prediction that AI could consume between 4 and 6 trillion litres a year by 2027. Could this eye-popping figure be right? If not, what is the correct figure, and is it a big number?The devil, as ever, is in the detail, and with the help of expert Alex de Vries-Gao, the More or Loss team has taken a deep dive to get to the truth about AI and water consumption.If you’ve seen a number in the news and you think More or Less should take a look, email the team on [email protected]: Charlotte McDonald Producer / Reporter: Nathan Gower Series Producer: Tom Colls Programme Coordinator: Brenda Brown Sound Mix: Dave O’Neil Editor: Richard Vadon