Best-selling economist, Tim Harford (Brasenose, 1992)

Tim Harford shares his prize-winning economic insights, explaining why you can’t buy a decent used car and why you should exercise caution with big data. The author of the million-selling The Undercover Economist talks about the numbers of everyday life and his journalistic career, including writing for the Financial Times and presenting More or Less on BBC Radio 4. In this podcast interview, the Economics Commentator of the Year for 2014 describes how his interest in economics developed unexpectedly. After his state school education, Harford studied PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics) at Brasenose College in Oxford due to a timetabling clash at an Open Day. Harford later wanted to drop Economics, but continued with the subject because of advice from his tutor. A Master’s in Economics followed, and today he maintains his links with the University of Oxford as he is a Visiting Fellow at Nuffield College.