Tim Harford investigates some of the numbers in the news. This week:
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey says it was easier to deport illegal migrants to Europe when we were in the EU. Is that true?
Did the governor of the Bank of England get his numbers wrong on the UK’s ageing population?
Why is the price of beef up by 25% in a year?
Is it possible to prove that MPs are using AI to write their speeches?
If you’ve seen a number you think we should take a look at, email the team: moreorless@bbc.co.uk
Presenter: Tim Harford
Reporter: Lizzy McNeill
Producers: Nathan Gower and Nicholas Barrett
Series producer: Tom Colls
Production co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele
Sound mix: Gareth Jones
Editor: Richard Vadon
Headstrong: Women Porters, Blackness, and Modernity in Accra(U Pennsylvania Press, 2025) explores the experiences of women porters, called kayayei, in Accra, Ghana. Drawing on a decade of fieldwork, anthropologist Laurian R. Bowles shows how kayayei navigate precarity, bringing into sharp relief how racialization, rooted in histories of colonialism and enslavement, undergirds capital accumulation in Ghana.
Bowles's ethnographic storytelling follows these women through their work as human transporters at Ghanaian markets. In creatively reappropriating public spaces as private sanctuaries, and in reimagining expected social relations through the cultivation of liberatory same-sex intimacies, kayayei develop ways to cope with the demands of their arduous labor while refusing narratives of victimhood projected on African women. Bowles's analysis of the emotional labor of the gig economy in Africa shows how the infrastructure anxieties of a modernizing city intersect with the complexities of blackness in a racially homogeneous nation, uncovering how antiblackness emerges in everyday public discourse, development agendas, and privately expressed anxieties about labor, gender, and sexual politics in Accra. Illustrating how race, sexuality, and gender manifest in daily life, Bowles centers kayayei, often perceived to be obstacles to progress and modernity, at the forefront for understanding urban Ghana's aspirations and anxieties about what it means to be a modern African country.
Grounded in African feminist theory and Black feminist ethnography, Headstrong uses women's narratives as the central analytic for understanding the look and feel of modernity in Accra, challenging long-standing notions of gender, race, and desire in Africa.
Laurian Bowles is the Vann Professor of Racial Justice and Associate Professor & Chair of the Anthropology Department at Davidson College.
Jessie Cohen earned her Ph.D. in African History from Columbia University and is Assistant Editor at the New Books Network
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the brutal war has cost millions of lives. But President Donald Trump has consistently said that he could easily end the war. We think by that he probably meant charm Russian President Vladimir Putin into making a deal. Weirdly enough, efforts to cozy up to Russia have not actually stopped Putin from doing anything. Not only has Russia continued to bomb Ukraine, but it is now sending drones into Poland. But maybe, just maybe, Vladimir Putin has reached the end of Trump's patience. To find out what the hell is going on, we spoke to Tommy Vietor, co-host of Crooked Media's "Pod Save the World."
And in headlines, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer gets testy with Trump after the president cancels a meeting with him in a Truth Social post, former Vice President Kamala Harris makes the rounds to promote her shockingly blunt new book, and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt says anyone who intentionally stopped the escalator Trump was on at the UN, needs to be "fired and investigated immediately."
Sushi is surging in America, specifically grocery store sushi… because convenience is king.
Oura just hit a $11B valuation selling their tech rings… and it’s thanks to women and soldiers.
Oklo stock has risen 1,500% in the last year… even though it has zero revenue (it’s nuclear!)
Plus, Ben Stiller is launching a soda brand… and Chick-fil-A is too?
$META $KRUS $SPY
Want more business storytelling from us? Check out the latest episode of our new weekly deepdive show: The untold origin story of… Saturday Night Live 📺
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About Us: The daily pop-biz news show making today’s top stories your business. Formerly known as Robinhood Snacks, The Best One Yet is hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell.
On Monday, the Trump administration linked the use of Tylenol with rising autism rates, but science doesn’t support that claim. Guest host Sydney Lupkin talks to autism researcher Helen Tager-Flusberg about how autism is studied, the findings from decades of research, and what people–especially those who are pregnant–should do when they experience pain or fever. Plus, we dig into guidance behind using leucovorin to treat autism.
Interested in more science behind the headlines? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.
Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.
Over three different trips during the war, this doctor saw the chaos of blast injuries in northern Gaza give way to gunshot wounds suffered at aid-distribution sites in the south.
Guest: Dr. Mohammed "Adeel" Khaleel, minimally invasive and complex spinal surgeon with Texas Metroplex Institute for Sports Medicine & Orthopedic Surgery.
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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.
Storming the Bastille. Facing off with tanks. Canceling a streaming subscription.
We’re talking protests, boycotts, insurrections, and demonstrations. Scholar, professor, and actual real life Revolutionologist Dr. Jack Goldstone lays out the whys – and the hows. What revolts have been the gold standard? How has social media impacted social change? What happens when you install the wrong new leader? Does non-violent protest work? And how does one go about orchestrating big social change? Also: defining facism, antifacism, anti-antifacism, and dusting off your guitar.
The Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe is known as Shakespeare’s greatest rival. But in his new book Dark Renaissance, historian Stephen Greenblatt makes the case that Marlowe paved the way for Shakespeare. In today’s episode, Greenblatt joins NPR’s Ari Shapiro for a conversation about what made Marlowe a “lost soul,” how the playwright navigated a world of intense censorship, and evidence that points to his role as a spy.
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
Faced with declining enrollment, public school districts across the country are rethinking how many schools they can run. Fewer students often means less government funding, forcing schools to cut services. Yet school closures can disrupt communities and have negative effects on learning. On today’s show, the tough calculus parents and schools confront.
