Formula 1 racing risk
More or Less
BBC
4.6 • 3.7K Ratings
🗓️ 23 September 2013
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
'I accept every time I get in my car, there's a 20% chance I could die'. It's a line from the Formula 1 hit film, Rush. Spoken by racing driver Niki Lauda's character. Formula 1 was certainly a dangerous sport during the 1970s, but was it really that dangerous? Tim Harford and Hannah Barnes look at the data. Plus, is it true that it takes 1,000 years for a plastic bag to degrade? It's a popular claim, but More or Less finds the environmental facts about plastic bags are much less certain than that statistic suggests. This edition was first broadcast on the BBC World Service.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Thank you for downloading from the BBC. |
| 0:03.0 | The details of our complete range of podcasts and our terms of use go to |
| 0:08.0 | BBCWorldService.com slash podcasts. |
| 0:13.0 | This is the short edition of Morales. |
| 0:15.0 | First broadcast on the BBC World Service. |
| 0:18.0 | Hello and welcome to more or less on the BBC World Service, |
| 0:22.0 | the programme which makes sense of numbers in the news and in life. |
| 0:26.0 | I'm Tim Harford. |
| 0:28.0 | This week we look at some questionable claims about plastic bags. |
| 0:32.0 | We all use plastic bags. I do everyone does. |
| 0:35.0 | I think everybody feels that maybe we use too many plastic bags. |
| 0:38.0 | You might use them for 20 minutes walking back from the shops, |
| 0:41.0 | but they take a thousand years to degrade. |
| 0:44.0 | But first, more or less, team member Hannah Barnes has been on a trip to the cinema. |
| 0:49.0 | Yes, Tim, I finally took on board everything that you've been saying about work, life, balance. |
| 0:54.0 | I fancied seeing that new high-octane film Rush featuring the incredibly handsome, |
| 0:59.0 | I mean talented Chris Hemsworth as British Formula One driver James Hunt |
| 1:04.0 | and Daniel Bruehl as his Austrian rival Nicky Louder. |
| 1:08.0 | It's set during the 1976 season and features plenty of this. |
| 1:20.0 | But also some questionable statistical claims. |
| 1:24.0 | Each year, two of us die. |
| 1:32.0 | Daniel Bruehl playing Formula One great Nicky Louder there. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.