Risky Talk

Stats about crime, immigration, unemployment and political polls fuel political debate and drive headlines. But how are these ‘soft’ numbers really calculated? How uncertain should we be about them? And how can they be reported honestly and usefully - without losing trust?

Joining David to make sense of the stats and how to communicate them are:

• Dr Robert Cuffe, Head of Statistics at the BBC
• Ed Humpherson, Director General for Regulation at the UK Statistics Authority
• Dr Sarah Dryhurst, a psychologist at the University of Cambridge

Views to share? Get in touch on Twitter @RiskyTalkPod or email [email protected]

Risky Talk is produced by Ilan Goodman for the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication at the University of Cambridge.

Personal genetic risk information is set to be become part of everyday healthcare. But is some unhelpful, even dangerous? What psychological impact does it have on patients? And do doctors know enough about genetics to effectively guide patients and inform treatment decisions?

Joining David to discussing what genetic risks should be communicated and how, we have:

• Professor Robert Green, Director of the Genomes to People group at Harvard Medical School.
• Dr Gemma Chandratillake, Course director of the Genomic Medicine Programme at the University of Cambridge 
• Dr Saskia Sanderson, a UCL psychologist working on the impact of genetic information

With a special contribution from Jillian Hastings Ward, Chair of the participant panel for the 100,000 Genomes Project.

Views to share? Get in touch on Twitter @RiskyTalkPod or email [email protected].

Risky Talk is produced by Ilan Goodman for the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication at the University of Cambridge.

Risky Talk features conversations with the world’s top experts in risk and evidence communication addressing urgent, practical challenges: How can doctors communicate the risks and benefits of medical treatment? How should scientists communicate evidence about climate change? How can journalists make numbers meaningful to readers? How should government institutions convey important statistics?

Hosted by David Spiegelhalter (@d_spiegel)

Get in touch with us on Twitter (@RiskyTalkPod) or email ([email protected])

Produced by Ilan Goodman for the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication at the University of Cambridge.