蜜芽传媒

The puzzles you鈥檙e meant to get wrong

Alex Bellos sets Tim Harford logical conundrums designed to deceive

• 8 mins

How do you breed seventeen octillion rats?

Plus, GPs working less, the UK working less, and Wetherspoons wanting to pay less tax.

• 28 mins

Are 672 billion pounds of corn eaten in the US every year?

A lot of corn is eaten in the United States, but is it really 2.5kg per person per day?

• 10 mins

Should the government target persnuffle?

Plus, childhood obesity, birds hitting windows and Sir David Spiegelhalter鈥檚 origin story.

• 27 mins

Uncertainty, probability and double yoked eggs

Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter on his new book, The Art of Uncertainty

• 8 mins

When are numbers like a horse at a gymkhana?

Plus: the taxes of 60 very rich people, water bill spreadsheets, and is 0 a small number?

• 28 mins

Nobel prize: Why are some countries so much richer than others?

Why Acemoglu, Johnson and Robinson won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics

• 8 mins

Do US crime statistics miss out the most violent cities?

Plus: MP capital gains claims and grizzly bear berry habits

• 28 mins

Is Trump right about violent crime in Venezuela and the US?

Donald Trump says Venezuela is becoming safer than the US. Is he right?

• 10 mins

Are older drivers more dangerous?

Plus, winter fuel deaths, prison sentence maths and leaves on railway tracks.

• 28 mins

What can economics learn from sport?

From loss aversion to game theory, how sports provide evidence for economic theories

• 8 mins

Do we have enough clothes for the next six generations?

We delve into the stats on the scale of the fashion industry

• 10 mins

Did 20 million votes really go missing in the US election?

We investigate a viral graph that suggests turnout was drastically lower than in 2020

• 8 mins

Do fossil fuels get $7 trillion in subsidies?

We investigate a huge estimate for how much governments pay to support coal, gas and oil

• 8 mins

Can Elon Musk save the US Government $2 trillion?

We look at whether DOGE can successfully balance the US budget.

• 8 mins

Did one in 10 Greeks die in World War Two?

We investigate if 10 percent of the Greek population died during the second world war

• 9 mins

How many Americans live 鈥榩aycheck to paycheck鈥�?

How many Americans live 鈥榩aycheck to paycheck鈥�?

• 8 mins

Did Mussolini make the trains run on time?

Fact checking the fascist regime.

• 8 mins

Numbers of the year 2024

We ask experts about their favourite stats from 2024.

• 8 mins

Numbers of the year part 2

Our listeners favourite numbers of 2024.

• 9 mins

Do 79% of Swedish asylum seekers go on holiday to the country they fled from?

We investigate a refugee claim that is often being taken out of context.

• 8 mins

Can redheads handle 25% more pain than brunettes?

We investigate if people with red hair have a hidden pain-blocking superpower

• 8 mins

Did Trump make billions with his meme-coin?

We investigate if the US president鈥檚 crypto is really worth tens of billions of dollars.

• 8 mins

Are quantum computers already super-powerful?

We investigate what a big claim about the speed of a quantum chip really means

• 8 mins

Are black babies in the US really more likely to die under the care of white doctors?

How baby mortality statistics gave a misleading impression about racism in healthcare

• 8 mins

Has the US sent $50 million worth of condoms to Gaza?

Are Hamas bombing Israel with condoms sent by the US?

• 8 mins

Are 150 year olds getting social security payments?

Is this 鈥榯he biggest fraud in the whole of history鈥�?

• 8 mins

Has the US really given Ukraine more aid than Europe?

Donald Trump says the US has given Ukraine more aid than Europe - what does the data say?

• 8 mins

Defence Spending, Rare Earths and Trunk Truths

The numbers behind Ukraine鈥檚 rare earth worth and the UK鈥檚 defence spending ambitions

• 28 mins

Is there really $500bn of Rare Earths in Ukraine?

Trump wants access to Ukraine鈥檚 Rare Earth deposits.

• 8 mins