What kind of state does the UK find itself in as we start 2026? That’s the question Tim Harford and the More or Less team is trying to answer in a series of five special programmes.
In the third episode, we’re searching for answers to these questions:
Are there really 700,000 empty homes that could be used to solve the housing crisis?
Does the NHS pay less for drugs than health services in other countries?
Is violent crime going up or down?
Is the UK in the midst of a fertility crisis?
Get in touch if you’ve seen a number in the news you think we should take a look at: moreorless@bbc.co.uk
Contributors:
Dr Huseyin Naci, Associate Professor and Director the Pharmaceutical Policy Lab at the London School of Economics
Professor Jennifer Dowd, deputy director of the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science at the University of Oxford
Credits:
Presenter: Tim Harford
Reporters: Lizzy McNeill and Nathan Gower
Producers: Katie Solleveld and Charlotte McDonald
Series producer: Tom Colls
Production co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele
Sound mix: Sarah Hockley and James Beard
Editor: Richard Vadon
Hester Kaplan, the daughter of Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Justin Kaplan, knew her father was an esteemed writer and researcher, but she didn’t quite know him personally. After the elder Kaplan died in 2014, Hester began to discover her father, unexpectedly, through his famous biographical account of Mark Twain. In today’s episode, Kaplan speaks with Here and Now’s Tiziana Dearing about the power of biography, and how her memoir Twice Born recounts the stories of a man – and a family – still alive in the margins.
To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday
When you're in a grocery store nowadays, chances are your data is being collected. From a swipe of the loyalty card to the purchase of an ice cream pint, your data tells stores what you like, how much they should stock, and more.
But what if that data meant a grocer could charge you a different price than another shopper?
Sensing the dangers of tyranny by the majority, John C. Calhoun developed the doctrine of the concurrent majority which served to limit the powers of government.
Palantir is one of the world’s most valuable companies, analyzing data for businesses, but also for U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies. The Philosopher in the Valley, a new book by Michael Steinberger, is a portrait of the company’s CEO, Alex Karp. In today’s episode, Steinberger speaks with NPR’s Steve Inskeep about Palantir’s operations at the nexus of technology and national security, Karp’s liberal arts background, and the CEO’s unusual lifestyle.
To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday
We note that the airwaves yesterday were filled with desperate efforts to distract from the Venezuela story by focusing instead on Greenland or the Epstein files. What's happening here? Could it be that this is the way the media are trying to protect their friends in politics? Give a listen.
The US's bombing of Caracas reiterates three key foundations of American foreign policy: the Constitution is dead, democracy is irrelevant, and the "rule of law" doesn't matter.
On Jan. 3, the Trump administration launched an operation that ended with the capture of President Nicolás Maduro, who is now in New York City on narcoterrorism and weapons charges. “We’re going to run it, essentially, until such time as a proper transition can take place,” Trump said.
Mr. Trump’s policy here is strange for a number of reasons: The U.S. is suffering from a fentanyl crisis, but Venezuela is not known as a fentanyl producer. Venezuela’s oil reserves are not the path to geopolitical power that they might have been in the 1970s. Mr. Maduro was a brutal and corrupt dictator, but Mr. Trump has left his No. 2 in charge. And Mr. Trump ran for office promising fewer foreign entanglements — not more.
So why Venezuela, and why now? That’s the question we look at in this conversation.
Jonathan Blitzer is a staff writer at The New Yorker. He has profiled Stephen Miller and has been following the U.S. military’s drug boat strikes in the Caribbean, as well as the Trump administration’s evolving agenda in Latin America. He’s also the author of the book “Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis.
This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Jack McCordick. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, with Mary Marge Locker and Kate Sinclair. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Aman Sahota. Our executive producer is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Marie Cascione, Annie Galvin, Rollin Hu, Kristin Lin, Emma Kehlbeck, Marina King and Jan Kobal. Original music by Pat McCusker. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The director of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser.
