You're listening to a program from BBC Radio 4.

Dear more or less subscriber, Tim Halford has recently recorded a brand new series for

BBC Radio 4 called Pop Up Economics, in which he tells a live audience short stories about

people and ideas in economics. We thought you might like it.

So here's the first episode. If you want to hear the rest of the series,

please subscribe to the Pop Up Economics podcast at bbc.co.uk slash radio 4.

You made very good time, Tim.

I came with my bike and I was wearing electrically heated pants.

What? Innovation works in mysterious ways.

Come on in. I'll tell you all about it.

Thank you very much.

Okay. Oh gosh, me. Right. Is everybody ready for some economics?

Yes. Excellent. Good. I want to talk to you about innovation.

And that means I need to talk to you about two men.

It also means I need to talk to you about British cycling.

It's been a pretty good year, right?

Just to focus on the velodrome, the Olympic team.

Did anybody keep track of how many gold medals we won?

A lot. A lot. Yeah. Well, I like precision. That's right.

Just to be a little more specific, the score was team GB, seven gold medals,

the entire rest of the world, three gold medals.

That's pretty good. That's pretty good going.

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