More or Less: Behind the Stats BBC Podcasts

Are Labour right about the Liz Truss effect on mortgages? Are the Conservatives right about pensioners? Are Plaid Cymru right about spending? Are the Lib Dems right about care funding? Is Count Binface right about croissants?
Why are MRP polls coming up with such different numbers?
Do erections require a litre of blood?
Tim Harford investigates the numbers in the news.
Presenter: Tim Harford
Reporter: Kate Lamble
Producers: Simon Tulett, Nathan Gower, Beth Ashmead Latham and Debbie Richford
Series producer: Tom Colls
Production coordinator: Brenda Brown
Sound mix: Rod Farquhar
Editor: Richard Vadon

So-called “pig butchering” scams take billions of dollars from people around the globe.

But do the cyber scams run from compounds in Cambodia really take an amount of money equivalent to half that country’s GDP?

We investigate how the scale of these criminal operations has been calculated.
Presenter: Tim Harford
Reporter: Tom Colls
Production coordinator: Brenda Brown
Sound mix: Andrew Garratt
Editor: Richard Vadon

Will Conservative policies raise mortgages by £4800, as Labour claim? Are primary school kids in England the best readers in the (western) world, as the Conservatives claim? Are there more potholes in the UK than craters on the moon?
Tim Harford investigates some of the numbers in the news.
Presenter: Tim Harford
Reporter: Kate Lamble
Producers: Nathan Gower, Simon Tullet
Beth Ashmead-Latham and Debbie Richford
Production coordinator: Brenda Brown
Sound mix: James Beard
Editor: Richard Vadon

AWilliam Shakespeare might well rank as the most influential writer in the English language. But it seems he also had a knack for numbers.
Rob Eastaway, author of Much Ado about Numbers, tells Tim Harford about the simple maths that brings Shakespeare’s work to life.
Presenter: Tim Harford
Readings: Stella Harford and Jordan Dunbar
Producer: Beth Ashmead-Latham
Series producer: Tom Colls
Production coordinator: Brenda Brown
Sound mix: James Beard
Editor: Richard Vadon

What’s going on with the dodgy bar charts that political parties put on constituency campaign leaflets?
What’s the truth about tax promises?
Are 100,000 oil workers going to lose their jobs in Scotland?
Will class sizes increase in state schools if private schools increase their fees?
Tim Harford investigates some of the numbers in the news.
Presenter: Tim Harford
Reporter: Kate Lamble
Producers: Nathan Gower, Beth Ashmead-Latham, Debbie Richford
Production coordinator: Brenda Brown
Sound mix: Neil Churchill
Editor: Richard Vadon

The claim that medical error is the third leading cause of death in the US has been zooming around the internet for years.
This would mean that only heart disease and cancer killed more people than the very people trying to treat these diseases.
But there are good reasons to be suspicious about the claim.
Professor Mary Dixon-Woods, director of The Healthcare Improvement Studies Institute, or THIS Institute, at Cambridge University, explains what’s going on.
Presenter: Tim Harford
Series producer: Tom Colls
Production coordinator: Brenda Brown
Sound mix: Nigel Appleton
Editor: Richard Vadon