Podcast Episodes

Death, Tax and Dishwashers

New data appears to show that double vaxxed people between 40 and 79 are getting Covid at higher rates than people who are unvaccinated, but that's not the case. It's all down to how Public Health En…

Published on 4 years, 3 months ago

Vaccine waning, hot dogs and Afghanistan

Should we be worried that the protection against Covid-19 provided by the vaccines is going down? Could it really be the case that eating a hot dog takes 36 minutes from your life? The Bank of Engla…

Published on 4 years, 3 months ago

The Bill for Afghanistan

American President Joe Biden has said the war in Afghanistan cost more than $2 trillion. Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the Centre for Strategic International Studies helps us unpick what’s includ…

Published on 4 years, 3 months ago

Covid, HGV driver shortages and protest costs

English Covid restrictions were lifted in July. Back then, some predicted that there could be as many as 6,000 hospital admissions a day by the following month. So, what happened?

The Metropolitan Pol…

Published on 4 years, 4 months ago

Reason, numbers and Mr Spock

Writer Julia Galef talks to Tim Harford about the role of numbers in helping us think more rationally, and what Star Trek’s Mr Spock can teach us about making predictions. Julia is author of The Scou…

Published on 4 years, 4 months ago

The extraordinary life of Robert Moses

Dr Robert Moses, a pioneer in African-American civil rights and mathematics education has died at the age of 86. Charmaine Cozier looks at an extraordinary life, from the courthouses of 1960s Mississ…

Published on 4 years, 4 months ago

The extraordinary life of Robert Moses

Dr Robert Moses, a pioneer in African-American civil rights and mathematics education has died at the age of 86. Charmaine Cozier looks at an extraordinary life, from the courthouses of 1960s Mississ…

Published on 4 years, 4 months ago

How good were the performances at the Tokyo Olympics?

A year later than planned, The Tokyo Olympics, have now finished. Thousands of athletes have competed in events that few thought might go ahead and there’s been record success.

This week we take a lo…

Published on 4 years, 4 months ago

How good were the performances at the Tokyo Olympics?

A year later than planned, The Tokyo Olympics, have now finished. Thousands of athletes have competed in events that few thought might go ahead and there’s been record success. This week we take a …

Published on 4 years, 4 months ago

Jab fears explained: a base rate fallacy

As some countries rapidly roll out vaccination programmes, there have been concerns that increases in infection rates amongst vaccinated groups mean vaccines are less effective than we hoped, especia…

Published on 4 years, 4 months ago