More or Less

Tim Harford tackles the use of statistics in court, the average rise in rail fares, infinity and resolves another marital dispute about probability.

A guide to interesting, informative or just plain idiosyncratic numbers of the year. Plus, does probability really exist? Contributors: David Spiegelhalter, Professor of the Public Understanding of Risk at Cambridge University; Owen Spottiswoode, Fullfact.org; Tracey Brown from Sense about Science; Jil Matheson, UK Statistics Authority; George Monbiot; Sir Mark Walport, Director of the Wellcome Trust; Money Box presenter Paul Lewis; Sports Statistician, Robert Mastrodomenico; Dr Linda Yeuh Economics Correspondent at Bloomberg; Stand up Mathematician Matt Parker

Tim Harford on income inequality in the UK, and elsewhere. He speaks to Professor Sir Tony Atkinson of Oxford University; Stewart Lansley, author of 'The Cost of Inequality'; and Professor Donald Boudreaux of George Mason University. Also, David Spiegelhalter, the Winton Professor of the Public Understanding of Risk at Cambridge University explains why he took on what could be his riskiest venture to date - appearing on BBC One's Winter Wipeout. Plus, the magic of maths with magician and Stanford maths professor Persi Diaconis.

In the week scientists at the Large Hadron Collider announced that the most coveted prize in particle physics - the Higgs boson - may have been found, Tim Harford hears that the statistical significance is being mis-reported. Plus, the difficulties of cornering a market (especially when the commodity is a 1980s plastic doll). And, Tim Harford talks to author Keith Devlin about how Fibonacci revolutionised trade by introducing medieval businessmen to simple arithmetic.

Tim Harford on National Literacy Trust figures and the maths of supermarket price wars. Plus, he continues to scrutinise the popular statistics of the Eurozone crisis - do Italian tax payers really shell out 2 billion euros a year for their politicians to be chauffeured around? And, what are the odds of cracking six double-yolk eggs in a row?

In the week of a nationwide strike over pension changes, Tim Harford explains how the government can make public sector pensions sound generous, at the same time the unions can make them sound small. And he finds out why a Greek national statistician is under suspicion of committing crimes against numbers. Plus, is it really true that there are more Porsche Cayenne owners than tax payers declaring an income of more than 55,000 euros in Greece? Also, are affordable homes affordable? And can the whole world fit on the Isle of Wight? Tim tries to cram his studio full of Radio 4 presenters and producers to test the theory.

In a change to our usual format, we are podcasting Matthew Taylor's "Brain Culture" series. The former Number 10 strategy head looks at politics and mind control, asking if new knowledge about the human brain will allow us to make better choices or leave us open to ever more manipulation .

In a change to the usual format, we are podcasting Matthew Taylor's "Brain Culture" series. Matthew Taylor’s series “Brain Culture” continues. The former Number 10 head of strategy asks whether Britain’s education system will be changed by new insights into how human brains learn and retain knowledge.

In a change to the usual format, we are podcasting Matthew Taylor’s series “Brain Culture”. He explores how neuroscience will change society, asking how the justice system will change now that we can scan criminal brains.

In More or Less this week: Government waste, a logic puzzle, the statistics of spying, Olympic economics and the Janitor problem.

In this week's More or Less: a Euro debt odyssey, the placebo effect and 70 years of social surveys.

On this week's More or Less: Scottish independence, mobile phones and cancer, and is Tendulkar the greatest sportsman?

More or Less has the latest on salt, 'zero tolerance' policing, and how to predict the adult height of growing children.

In More or Less this week: riots, debt, disability benefit and when to buy a lotto ticket.

Tim Harford and the More or Less team unpick more numbers in the news. This week: US debt, NHS funding and the "27 club".

Investigating the public sector pay premium, statins and the 'decline effect'.

More or Less looks at child poverty, climate refugees and Sir Henry Cooper's greatest moment.

In More or Less this week: a cornucopia of wedding-related numbers. And AV explained.

Tim Harford and team look at GDP, school standards and the results of 'The Other Census'.

Tim Harford and the team examine examine tuition fees, drugs testing and inflation.

In More or Less this week: youth unemployment, Trumpton and social mobility.

Tim Harford is back with a new series of More or Less, and the numbers behind the news. Are the cuts "small"? And we introduce "The Other Census".

In this three-part series Michael Blastland lays out the history of economic ideas to understand why economics goes wrong and whether it can ever go entirely right. In the third and final programme, 'Monsters', Michael investigates another view of economics: that it is the story of people, how they think and behave.

'More or Less' creator Michael Blastland goes to Chicago to explore a machine-like view of the economy in the second part of 'The Story of Economics'.

More or Less creator Michael Blastland lays out the history of economic ideas to understand why economics goes wrong and whether it can ever go entirely right. In the first programme of a three part series, Michael travels to Athens and the site of Aristotle's Lyceum - where economics as a discipline began.

The Government says Britain's health care standards have fallen behind those of our European neighbours. And World Health Organisation figures support his claim. But do those numbers tell the whole story?

We look at street grooming, examine the new bank taxes, revisit Ambridge in the wake of Loxleygate and ask just how many guys there are named Mo(hammed).

More 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.

Tim Harford and the More or Less team explore 2010 in numbers. Happy New Year to all our listeners.

Boom. 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?

Local 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.

We 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?

Tim Harford and the More or Less team examine the micromort measure of risk and official statistics on sexual identity.

Tim 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 mathematical attempt to level the playing field at this year's Great North Run half marathon.

Who earns more: private or public employees? And are your trousers flattering you?

More 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.

How reliable are life expectancy figures? Can cycling ever be safer than driving? And, what can maths tell us about guerilla insurgencies?