We live in a world where data is everywhere – informing if not governing our lives. But this wealth of data didn’t just turn up overnight. Tim Harford talks to academics Chris Wiggins and Matthew Jones, whose new book How Data Happened aims to explain how the world we know today has been shaped by not just technological developments but battles around how emerging sources of data should be utilised.

A short history of data

Tim Harford and the More or Less team try to make sense of the statistics which surround us. From BBC Radio 4

Business

Investing

Careers

Management & Marketing

Business News

Shopping

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

Leaflets, taxes, oil workers and classrooms

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

Why medical error is not the third leading cause of death in the US

Were there any suspicious claims in the election debate between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer? Do the claims in Reform UK’s policy documents on excess deaths and climate change make sense? Can the Conservatives and Labour raise £6bn a year by cracking down on tax avoidance and evasion? And do all the humans on earth weigh more than all of the ants? Presenter: Tim Harford
Reporters: Kate Lamble and Nathan Gower
Producer: Beth Ashmead-Latham
Series producer: Tom Colls
Production coordinator: Brenda Brown
Editor: Richard Vadon

Debate, Reform, tax evasion and ants

India’s election has been running since 19 April. With results imminent on 4th June, More or Less talks with Chennai based data communicator Rukmini S. She founded Data for India, a new website designed to make socioeconomic data on India easier to find and understand. She talks us through the changing trends to help give a better picture of the type of country the winning party will govern. Producers: Bethan Ashmead and Nathan Gower
Sound Engineer:  Nigel Appleton
Production Coordinator: Brenda Brown
Editor: Richard Vadon

Data for India

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said that the UK economy is growing faster than Germany, France and the US, while Labour says the typical household in the UK is worse off by £5,883 since 2019. Are these claims fair? We give some needed context.  Net migration has fallen - we talk to someone who predicted it would - Dr Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford.  Is Taylor Swift about to add £1 bn to the British economy as some media outlets have claimed? The answer is ‘No’.  Why are our prisons full? We ask Cassia Rowland from the Institute for Government.  Presenter: Tim Harford 
Producers: Charlotte McDonald, Nathan Gower, Bethan Ashmead Latham and Ellie House
Series producer: Tom Colls 
Sound mix: Neil Churchill 
Production coordinator: Brenda Brown 
Editor: Richard Vadon

A short history of data

Download our free app to listen on your phone