5. The Choice
Uncharted with Hannah Fry
BBC
4.8 • 609 Ratings
🗓️ 25 September 2023
⏱️ 15 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How well do you make decisions?
It’s never easy, but today John Carter is faced with an agonising choice and has just 60 minutes to make the right call. One path could lead to glory, while the other might result in death.
Hannah Fry tells a tale of risk, decision making, and the single graph that changed it all.
Episode Producer: Lauren Armstrong-Carter Sound Design: Jon Nicholls Story Editor: John Yorke
A series for Radio 4 by BBC Science in Cardiff.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.8 | John Carter has a big decision to make. |
| 0:09.1 | The most important race of the season is in just a few hours. |
| 0:13.3 | Millions will be watching, including potential sponsors. |
| 0:17.6 | And if they win, it could bring in major prize money. |
| 0:21.6 | There's just one problem. |
| 0:23.6 | In seven of the last 24 races, the engine in Carter's racing car has failed. |
| 0:29.6 | A blowout live on TV would jeopardize everything. |
| 0:34.6 | Sponsors could pull out. The car could be ruined. Even the driver's life could be at stake. |
| 0:41.1 | So, to race or withdraw, the decision is down to John Carter. And the story that unfolds is about a choice |
| 0:50.5 | with life or death consequences and a single graph that could have changed the course |
| 0:56.5 | of history. |
| 0:59.5 | I'm Hannah Fry, a mathematician who studies patterns in human behaviour. |
| 1:04.3 | And from BBC Radio 4, this is uncharted, tales of data and discovery. |
| 1:10.4 | This is a series about how numbers and graphs can help you to map the invisible, |
| 1:15.3 | about how plots can be rich with hidden depths and unheard stories, |
| 1:19.4 | and about how sometimes, if you know where to look, |
| 1:22.6 | there is mystery and drama and intrigue to be found, |
| 1:26.6 | all concealed within a few lines on a page. |
| 1:32.8 | Today's story begins far away from any racetrack, and some time before John Carter was faced with his big decision. |
| 1:41.8 | Over in Utah, a group of engineers are hard at work, trying to piece together |
| 1:46.6 | exactly what had happened in the seven previous engine blowouts from 24 races that season. |
... |
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