When facts cause friction: Tim Harford joins us for a special This is Money podcast on fake news and why statistics can be emotive

This is Money Podcast

This is Money

Business News, Business, Investing, News

4.1 • 650 Ratings

🗓️ 29 December 2017

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Facts are either right or wrong, right?

...wrong?

In this special episode of the This is Money podcast Tim Harford, presenter of the BBC series More or Less and all-round Undercover Economist makes a second guest appearance.

We talk about facts and stats - checking them, debunking them, reporting them, baffling with them, battling over them.

But that's just the start.

Tim argues that we think of facts as being either the truth or lies, but that actually factual claims can form part of our identity.

We talk about the importance of factual claims made by those in positions of power - but also of trying to keep some facts out of the political domain altogether.

We also discuss the impact of social media on the way in which we consume news and facts. And whether we're too dependent on numbers altogether.

Don't believe us? You'll have to listen and see.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Money, brought to you in partnership with NS&I premium bonds, making saving that little bit more exciting.
0:09.6	Welcome to This Is Money podcast in partnership with NS&I, your weekly roundup of the top personal finance, consumer and business stories that editor,
0:17.0	Simon Lambertner's team have been covering on their award-winning website. I'm your host, Georgie Frost.
0:21.8	And with me today is personal finance editor Rachel Rickard Strauss
0:25.1	and special guests, the undercover economist, Tim Harford.
0:28.6	In last week's show, we explored in more detail, his book and podcast,
0:32.1	50 Things That Made the Modern Economy,
0:33.9	but Tim also contributes to BBC Radio 4's more or less podcast, which tries to make
0:39.0	sense of the statistics that surround us. In an era of fake news, it's more important than ever
0:45.0	to get the facts. Or is it, what do the numbers really measure? What kind of truth, if any,
0:51.1	do they capture? And what is agnotology? But we start with Boris Johnson.
0:57.6	Do we have to, really? Mr Johnson is wrong. But it seems that nothing will persuade him to stop these
1:05.8	false claims. It doesn't seem to matter who fact-checks the number and who says it's wrong. The current and former chair of the UK Statistics Authority?
1:14.3	They say it's wrong.
1:15.4	Heaton Shah, the Executive Director of the Royal Statistical Society.
1:18.8	He says it's wrong.
1:19.8	The Institute for Fiscal Studies.
1:21.7	They say it's wrong.
1:22.7	The Office for Budget Responsibility has produced figures that show it's wrong,
1:27.1	which means that the official
1:28.7	position of the UK government seems to be that Boris Johnson is wrong.
1:34.2	Very warm welcome, Rachel. A very warm welcome, Tim. Firstly, Tim. Why was Boris wrong? Go on,
	...

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