28 min listen
WS MoreOrLess: Global Footprint
ratings:
Length:
10 minutes
Released:
Jun 13, 2015
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
Global Footprint We’re often told that we consume so much that we need one and a half planets. It comes from the Global Footprint Network a think-tank that has pioneered ecological foot-printing but what does that number even mean, and is it helpful? Chocolate makes you thinner We tell the story behind the chocolate experiment designed to deliberately fool the press. Concerned about the amount of pseudo-science surrounding diet and nutrition, John Bohannon and Peter Onneken ran a trial and had the results published in an online journal, sent out a press release. While the results were correct the trial wasn’t very robust but this didn’t stop the story that chocolate made you thinner running in newspapers, magazines and on TV around the world. Peter and John had fooled the press and they made a documentary about it. But the experiment has sparked a debate about whether it was ethical to fool the press in this way and whether the whole project was just self-serving.
Released:
Jun 13, 2015
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
How useful is GDP?: Tim Harford and team look at GDP, school standards and the results of 'The Other Census'. by More or Less: Behind the Stats