More or Less

What does a 'guess the weight of the ox' competition tells us about a bloated and dysfunctional financial system? We find out in the Parable of the Ox written by John Kay of the Financial Times. The tale is told with the help of economics writer James Surowiecki as well as John Kay himself. It also features a brand new composition from the New Radiophonic Workshop.

A special review of the year through the interesting, informative and idiosyncratic numbers of 2012.

Explore the impact of the 80-20 finance ratio on economic recovery, the search for the Higgs boson at CERN, the scarcity of openly gay footballers in English leagues, the retirement age crisis in Brazil, the significance of number 17 in sudoku, and election campaign spending in the US, UK, and Canada.

Investigating misleading handgun death statistics, exploring the mathematics behind juggling tricks, and delving into the numerical representation of juggling patterns

Exploring US gun crime statistics, death registration delays, chocolate's impact on intelligence, median age of first-time homebuyers, deer collision risks, and the mathematics of juggling in an entertaining and informative podcast episode.

This week: What is ‘rare’? When we say something is rare what do we mean? Lightning strikes which typically kill three people a year in the UK are often described as rare but how do we square that with a condition like motor neurone disease which is also described as rare yet kills 1500 people a year in the UK. Also we speak to Nassim Taleb about his book Anti-fragile.

Why was the estimate, in 2003, for Eastern Europeans coming to the UK so wrong? Which is better when communicating information words or numbers? Nassim Taleb explains anti-fragility And we'll debunk the oft quoted 'you're never more than 6ft from a rat'

Exploring the challenges in measuring economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa with Ghana's GDP revision. Speculation on the Duchess of Cambridge having twins due to severe morning sickness, linking it to the probability of twins based on data from Norway, Denmark, and Sweden.

In light of the Royal pregnancy Tim Harford asks what severe morning sickness tells us about the chances of having twins. Yan Wong helps him look at the figures. We disentangle the Chancellor' Autumn Statement and ask: where is the economy really at? As Nigeria prepares to revise its GDP statistics with an expected jump of 40-60%, we ask how reliable are African GDP statistics? Another Daily Telegraph headline comes under scrutiny. And we return to our Lego tower and look at how Lego can be used to teach maths with Eugenia Cheng of Sheffiled University.

Former England batsman Kevin Pietersen's batting average is questioned in relation to his importance in the team. The podcast also delves into the mathematical debate on whether zero is an even number, showcasing varying opinions among school children.