
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


"Religion Makes People More Generous"- according to The Daily Telegraph's interpretation of a new BBC poll on charitable giving. Tim Harford investigates whether there is a link between practising a religion and whether we give. Plus: Big data - the hype says it will help deliver everything from increased corporate profits to better healthcare but are we being blinded to basic statistical lessons learned over the past two hundred years? And it feels like a huge coincidence, but you only need 23 people to have a better than even chance of meeting someone with the same birthday. This is the birthday paradox, and the best place to look for proof is the World Cup, where 32 squads of 23 players provide an ideal data-set. Alex Bellos crunches the numbers for us.
By BBC Radio 44.7
770770 ratings
"Religion Makes People More Generous"- according to The Daily Telegraph's interpretation of a new BBC poll on charitable giving. Tim Harford investigates whether there is a link between practising a religion and whether we give. Plus: Big data - the hype says it will help deliver everything from increased corporate profits to better healthcare but are we being blinded to basic statistical lessons learned over the past two hundred years? And it feels like a huge coincidence, but you only need 23 people to have a better than even chance of meeting someone with the same birthday. This is the birthday paradox, and the best place to look for proof is the World Cup, where 32 squads of 23 players provide an ideal data-set. Alex Bellos crunches the numbers for us.

7,683 Listeners

377 Listeners

522 Listeners

1,065 Listeners

304 Listeners

5,476 Listeners

2,110 Listeners

2,078 Listeners

487 Listeners

350 Listeners

403 Listeners

425 Listeners

826 Listeners

238 Listeners

333 Listeners

76 Listeners

473 Listeners

364 Listeners

234 Listeners

125 Listeners

332 Listeners

3,222 Listeners

66 Listeners

845 Listeners

535 Listeners

622 Listeners

120 Listeners

348 Listeners

262 Listeners

61 Listeners

75 Listeners

68 Listeners

2 Listeners