The Art of Uncertainty – David Spiegelhalter’s Guide to Risk and Luck | How To Academy

Mon, 21 October 2024

6:00 pm - 7:15 pm GMT

The Art of Uncertainty – David Spiegelhalter’s Guide to Risk and Luck

In Conversation With Robin Ince

Cambridge Professor and national treasure David Spiegelhalter knows that life is uncertain. How can we manage risk and ignorance – and what does it really mean, mathematically, to be lucky?

We live in a world where uncertainty is inevitable. How should we deal with what we don’t know? And what role do chance, luck and coincidence play in our lives?

Cambridge statistician and beloved broadcaster David Spiegelhalter has spent his career dissecting data in order to understand risks and assess the chances of what might happen in the future. Now he returns to How To Academy to give us a window onto how we can all do this better.

He will take us through the principles of probability, showing how it can help us think more analytically about everything from medical advice to pandemics and climate change forecasts, and explores how we can update our beliefs about the future in the face of constantly changing experience.

Along the way, he will explain why roughly 40% of football results come down to luck rather than talent, how the National Risk Register assesses near-term risks to the United Kingdom, and why we can be so confident that two properly shuffled packs of cards have never, ever been in the exact same order.

Drawing on a wide range of captivating real-world examples, this is an essential guide to navigating uncertainty while also having the humility to admit what we do not know.

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Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter

Statistician and Broadcaster

Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter FRS OBE is Chair of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication in the Centre for Mathematical Sciences at the University of Cambridge. His bestselling book,The Art of Statistics, has been published in 11 languages. His current roles are as Non-Executive Director, UK Statistics Authority; Mathematical Futures expert board of the Royal Society; Member of the Statistics Expert Group for the Infected Blood Inquiry, 2019 – 2024; and Advisor; NHS Maternity and Neonatal Outcomes Group.

Robin Ince

Comedian, Actor and Writer

Robin Ince is a comedian, actor and writer. The Guardian once declared him a ‘becardiganed polymath’ which seems about right. He is the author of several acclaimed books, including The Importance of Being Interested and I’m a Joke and So Are You.

With Professor Brian Cox, he created and presents the award-winning BBC Radio 4 show The Infinite Monkey Cage, which ranks among the most popular science podcasts worldwide. He also won Celebrity Mastermind but forgot that calcium was the dominant element of chalk. After being diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 52, he finally has an excuse.