More or Less

Alex de Vries-Gao, researcher estimating AI's electricity and water use, and Nathan Gower, the reporter who investigated the claims. They unpack misreported figures, explain the difference between water withdrawal and consumption, and trace how hardware, data centres and power plants drive water needs. They also discuss geographic hotspots and why location shapes environmental impact.

A look back at Paul Ehrlich’s dire 1960s prediction of mass famine and his claim England might not exist by 2000. Discussion of how insect-ecology thinking was applied to humans. Exploration of why food production and calorie availability rose instead of collapsing. Examination of fertility trends, human innovation and the Green Revolution that changed the trajectory.

Professor Alun Williams, sports scientist at Manchester Metropolitan University, explains physiological sex differences and critiques the evidence. Tom Colls, investigative reporter, unpacks the systematic review and its limits. They discuss hormone therapy effects, problems with unmatched studies, cross-sectional versus longitudinal evidence, and the need for better long-term research.

Kelly Grieco, senior fellow at the Stimson Center with missile and regional security expertise, joins to explain the missile showdown in the Gulf. She breaks down why ballistic missiles are hard to stop. She outlines interceptor use rates, inventory estimates and production constraints. She contrasts ballistic threats with swarmy drones and what that means for long-term defense.

Rob Finn, research scientist at the European Bioinformatics Institute who manages large biological databases, breaks down what the claim actually counts. He talks about microscopic bacteria rather than animals, how environmental DNA is collected and sequenced, and how genomes are reconstructed and grouped by genetic similarity. He assesses whether a million microbial species is a plausible data-driven figure.

Alex Tui, CTO and co-founder of GPTZero, who investigates AI-generated text and fabricated citations. He explains how AI hallucinations can create fake references in top conference papers. The conversation covers how these were detected, why they matter for trust and reproducibility, and surprising patterns like biased or oddly named fake authors.

Mary Beard, Professor of Classics at Cambridge who makes Roman history accessible, explores the claim that charioteer Gaius Appuleius Diocles was the richest sportsperson ever. She examines how the $15 billion figure was calculated. Short, lively conversations probe why direct money comparisons across millennia can mislead and how to place Diocles’ winnings in Roman context.

Rob Eastaway, author and maths communicator known for mental-maths tricks, shows how a cube-root stunt works and why it looks like wizardry. He walks through spotting first and last digits using small-cube patterns. He also discusses why Premier League goals have risen, linking changes like longer ball-in-play time to scoring trends.

Toby Nangle, Financial Times markets and data journalist, breaks down Europe’s holdings of US shares and bonds. He explains the headline $12.6 trillion number, how custodial holdings differ from European ownership, and what portion is US government debt. Then he explores whether selling assets could sway US policy and why such moves could hurt both sides.

Tom Coles, the programme’s self-styled sauna correspondent, Lizzy McNeill, a sharp fact-checker, and Joe Shalam, policy director at the Centre for Social Justice, unpack the £71,000 benefits claim. They examine how the figure is built, compare household versus individual income, probe incentives and disability rules, and also check related factoids about crime stats, GDP slips and a sauna temperature quirk.