More or Less: Behind the Stats BBC Podcasts
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- Business
Tim Harford and the More or Less team try to make sense of the statistics which surround us. From BBC Radio 4
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98%: Is misinformation being spread about a review of trans youth medicine?
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.
But before it was even released, claims were circulating online that it ignored 98% of the evidence in reaching its conclusion.
Is that claim true?
We speak to Dr Hilary Cass, the author of the review, Professor Catherine Hewitt of York University, who analysed the scientific research, and Kamran Abbasi, editor in chief of the British Medical Journal.
Presenter: Kate Lamble
Producer: Tom Colls
Production co-ordinator: Brenda Brown
Sound Mix: James Beard
Editor: Richard Vadon -
Tackling The Three-Body Problem
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 show - and original novel - to the actual physics?
Dr Anna Lisa Varri from the University of Edinburgh explains what we can and can't say about the complex and beautiful motions of planets, stars and moons, and brings a dose of scientific facts to science fiction.
Presenter: Kate Lamble
Producer: Nathan Gower
Sound Engineer: Graham Puddifoot
Editor: Richard Vadon -
Is loneliness as bad for you as smoking?
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-Lunstad.
Presenter / series producer: Tom Colls
Reporter: Perisha Kudhail
Production co-ordinator: Brenda Brown
Sound Mix: Graham Puddifoot
Editor: Richard Vadon -
Remembering Daniel Kahneman
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 McDonald
Series producer: Tom Colls
Sound mix: Hal Haines
Production co-ordinator: Brenda Brown
Editor: Richard Vadon -
Bonus episode: Daniel Kahneman on Thinking, Fast and Slow
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.
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What's happening to Arctic ice?
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 polar climate scientist Professor Julienne Stroeve to better understand how to read the ice data.
Presenter / producer: Tom Colls
Production co-ordinator: Brenda Brown
Sound mix: Neil Churchill
Editor: Richard Vadon