More or Less: Behind the Stats BBC Podcasts

Veronica Carlin is a data scientist who loves romantic comedies. But she had a hunch about those movies, that there aren’t many women like her, women in STEM - science, technology, engineering and maths – taking the lead roles. So she set out on a maths quest to find out what’s what.
Presenter: Kate Lamble
Series Producer: Tom Colls
Editor: Richard Vadon
Sound Engineer: Graham Puddifoot
(Picture: A young couple with a heart-shaped balloon on the street
Credit: Cultura RM Exclusive/Spark Photographic / Getty)

We check out suspect stats on boozing Brits and fishy figures on fishing fleets in the South China Sea.
With the help of Professor John Holmes from the University of Sheffield's School of Medicine and Population Health and Simon Funge-Smith, a senior fishery officer at the FAO.
Presenter and producer: Charlotte McDonald
Series Producer: Tom Colls
Editor: Richard Vadon
Sound Engineer: Graham Puddifoot

Are we alone in the universe – and if not, how many other civilisations might there be? Remarkable images and data sent back to Earth by the James Webb telescope have given a new impetus to a well-worn debate. We ask how far mathematics – and in particular a famous equation called the Drake Equation – can be used to answer one of the most fundamental questions we face. Paul Connolly investigates with the help of Catherine Heymans, Astronomer Royal for Scotland and Professor at the University of Edinburgh and Bill Diamond, President and CEO of the SETI Institute in California.
Presenter: Paul Connolly
Producers: Paul Connolly and Jon Bithrey
Editor: Richard Vadon
Production Co-ordinator: Katie Morrison
Sound Engineer: David Crackles
(Image: : A cluster of young stars, surrounded by clouds of interstellar gas and dust, in a nebula, located in the constellation Carina. Credit: Reuters)

The cultural importance of gold in India as a symbol of wealth, prosperity and safety is well known – but how much do Indians actually own? Reporter Perisha Kudhail looks at a widely circulated claim about Indian women owning 11% of the world’s gold, with the help of Delhi based journalist Mridu Bhandari and Joshua Saul, CEO of the Pure Gold Company.

Presenter: Ben Carter
Reporter and Producer: Perisha Kudhail
Series Producer: Jon Bithrey
Editor: Richard Vadon
Sound Engineer: James Beard
(Image: A saleswoman shows gold bangles to a customer at a jewellery showroom in Kolkata. Credit: Reuters/Rupak De Chowdhuri/File Photo)

Conventional histories of mathematics are dominated by well-known names like Pythagoras, Leibniz or Newton. But to concentrate solely on figures from Europe gives us only a patchwork understanding of the rich and varied history of mathematical achievement around the world. Tim Harford speaks to Dr Kate Kitagawa, co-author of ‘The Secret Lives of Numbers’ to explore the long history of mathematical advances and innovation across civilisations and centuries, from the female mathematician at court in imperial China to the pioneers in the mathematical powerhouses of the Middle East in the first millennium AD.
Presenter: Tim Harford
Producer: Jon Bithrey
Editor: Richard Vadon
Sound Engineer: James Beard
(Picture: Statue of Al Khwarizmi, a ninth century mathematician
Credit: Mel Longhurst/VW Pics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Do you notice fewer insect splats on windscreens than you used to? There’s a study in the UK trying to measure this ‘windscreen phenomenon’, as it’s become known. We hear more about the study and whether we can draw conclusions about insect numbers in general, from reporter Perisha Kudhail, Dr Lawrence Ball from the Kent Wildlife Trust and Professor Lynn Dicks from the University of Cambridge.
Presenter: Ben Carter
Reporter/Producer: Perisha Kudhail
Series Producer: Jon Bithrey
Editor: Richard Vadon
Sound Engineer: Graham Puddifoot
(Photo: Dead insects on a windshield
Credit: shanecotee / Getty)