Podcast Episodes

Obeying lockdown, flight arrivals and is this wave of the epidemic waning?

More than 35,000 people in the UK have now officially died from Covid-19, but what does the data show about whether this wave of the epidemic is waning? We ask who respects lockdown, who breaks it, a…

Published on 5 years, 7 months ago

60 Harvests and statistically savvy parrots

A listener asks if there can really only be 60 harvests left in Earth's soil. Are we heading for an agricultural Armageddon? Plus we meet the parrots who are the first animals, outside humans and gre…

Published on 5 years, 7 months ago

School re-opening, Germany’s Covid-19 success and statistically savvy parrots

Risk expert David Spiegelhalter discusses whether re-opening some schools could be dangerous for children or their teachers. We ask what’s behind Germany’s success in containing the number of deaths …

Published on 5 years, 7 months ago

Social Distancing and Government Borrowing

As lockdowns start to lift, many countries are relying on social distancing to continue to slow the spread of coronavirus. The UK says we should stay 2 metres apart, the World Health Organisation rec…

Published on 5 years, 7 months ago

Vitamin D, explaining R and the 2 metre rule

R is one of the most important numbers of the pandemic. But what is it? And how is it estimated? We return to the topic of testing and ask again whether the governments numbers add up. As the governm…

Published on 5 years, 7 months ago

Covid-19 fatality rate

The question of just how dangerous Covid-19 really is, is absolutely crucial. If a large number of those who are infected go on to die, there could be dreadful consequences if we relaxed the lockdown…

Published on 5 years, 7 months ago

Testing truth, fatality rates, obesity risk and trampolines.

The Health Minister Matt Hancock promised the UK would carry out 100,000 coronavirus tests a day by the end of April. He claims he succeeded. Did he? The question of just how dangerous the new cor…

Published on 5 years, 7 months ago

Climate change and birdsong

With much of the world’s population staying indoors, there are fewer cars on the roads, planes in the skies and workplaces and factories open. Will this have an impact on climate change?

Plus as the …

Published on 5 years, 7 months ago

Ethnic minority deaths, climate change and lockdown

We continue our mission to use numbers to make sense of the world - pandemic or no pandemic. Are doctors from ethnic minority backgrounds disproportionately affected by Covid-19? Was the lockdown the…

Published on 5 years, 8 months ago

Comparing countries' coronavirus performance

Many articles in the media compare countries with one another - who’s faring better or worse in the fight against coronavirus? But is this helpful - or, in fact, fair?

Tim Harford and Ruth Alexander …

Published on 5 years, 8 months ago