Tim Harford

Tim Harford is an economist best known for his remarkable ability to explain and communicate complex economic data in ways that are compelling and entertaining. As the FT’s Undercover Economist and host of BBC Radio 4’s More or Less he explains – and sometimes debunks – the numbers and statistics used in political debate, the news and everyday life.

This Spring, he comes to St George’s to discuss one of humanity’s greatest yet deceptively simple breakthroughs: counting. Counting the number of harvests and soldiers, births and deaths, money and trade. From the first marks scratched into clay tablets counting sheep in ancient Egypt to the algorithms driving artificial intelligence in Silicon Valley, data has quietly shaped empires, transformed medicine, fuelled financial booms, won wars and changed the fate of nations.

Drawing from his new book, The Measure of Everything, Tim will bring to life an extraordinary cast of visionaries, obsessives and revolutionaries: the medieval merchants who invented modern capitalism, the scientists who learned to predict the spread of disease, the pioneers who taught machines to think, and the dangerous ideologues who twisted data into a tool of control.

Don’t miss this guide to understanding the modern world, and how data will continue to shape the world of the future.

Every non-concessionary ticket comes with a hardback copy of Tim Harford’s The Measure of Everything (RRP £25).