Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter is one of the great communicators of probability and uncertainty.
His new book, The Art of Uncertainty, explains how to approach uncertainty, luck, probability and ignorance.
Tim Harford talks to Sir David about double yoked eggs, the Bay of Pigs, and his top tips for politicians who want to communicate evidence and uncertainty.
Presenter: Tim Harford
Series producer: Tom Colls
Production co-ordinator: Katie Morrison
Sound mix: John Scott
Editor: Richard Vadon
For centuries, sailors told tales of gigantic waves that they encountered at sea, and for centuries, scientists didn’t believe them.
However, over time, evidence began to pile up, which suggested that the legends of these freak waves were, in fact, true.
These waves are rare, still not well understood, and terrifying to ships and sailors because there is almost no way to detect or predict where or when they will occur.
Learn more about rogue waves, how they were discovered, and how they occur on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
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Cindy Hohl, the current president of the American Library Association, says the political temperature surrounding book bans has remained at a boiling point. Over the last year of her tenure, Hohl has witnessed librarians exit the profession due to increased stress, ridicule and public pressure to remove certain titles from their libraries–particularly those related to race and LGBTQ+ identity. Although these battles are particularly pronounced in hot spots like Florida and Texas, they're being fought in communities all over the country. In today's episode, NPR's Andrew Limbong speaks with Hohl about what librarians can and can't do to push back against this cycle of censorship and what it's like to lead through times of crisis.
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
With 25 days left until Election Day, the quadrennial October Freakout is upon us! Jon and Dan break down the tightening polls, the rival campaigns' strategies for the final push, and the reasons why it's okay to worry—but not to panic. Then, Nevada Senator Jacky Rosen joins Lovett to talk about her tight race for reelection and how she plans to pull off a win.
For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.
The problem of how to price water is a perennial conundrum. Water is an essential limited resource that everyone needs, so how do you price it so everyone can afford it while making sure that utilities have enough revenue to fix their aging systems?
Today on the show, we find out why it's so hard to price water and how a city's solution led to a threat to cut off thousands of residents from a popular welfare program.
You can read more about the fight over water prices here.
For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
From time to time there's an interview that fundamentally alters and enriches my understanding of how the world works. This is one of them. Professor of Economics at Denison University Fadhel Kaboub returns to Bad Faith to explain how developing Africa may be the key to the climate crisis as well as to the prosperity of a billion comrades on the continent -- but significant political barriers are in the way. Dr. Kaboub explains how America is failing catastrophically to stop climate change, how China shows a different path forward, and why anticapitalist global solidarity movements are necessary to save us all.