S2E12 Statistics: Tim Harford on Making Sense of the World

Statistics have always been an area of intrigue for us all, but most people have no more than a passing interest - we enjoy the newspaper top lines, but that’s about it. The pandemic has changed that. We now sit on tenterhooks awaiting the next wave of stats to be released by the government, to help us get a better sense of this tumultuous situation. Today’s guest is Tim Harford, aka the Undercover Economist, and he’s recently released a book under the title ‘How To Make The World Add Up’ in the UK, and ‘The Data Detective’ in the US. He explores the important role statistics plays in informing our view of the world, and why people need to think wisely about the type of data they trust and give their time to. In this episode we discover the importance of cultivating curiosity in your writing, we learn why it’s ok for your characters to do something out of character, and we find out why you should avoid leaving distracting plot points in your stories. Behind The Spine is the audio accompaniment to The Writing Salon - you can sign up to the newsletter here.