John Allen Paulos on Who’s Counting?

Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI Radio in New York

For decades, New York Times best-selling author John Allen Paulos has enlightened readers by showing how to make sense of the numbers and probabilities behind real-world events, political calculations, and everyday personal decisions. Who’s Counting? features dozens of his insightful essays—original writings on contemporary issues like the COVID-19 pandemic, online conspiracy theories, “fake news,” and climate change. With an abiding respect for reason, a penchant for puzzles with societal implications, Paulos clarifies mathematical ideas for everyone and shows how they play a role in government, media, popular culture, and life. He argues that if we can’t critically interpret numbers and statistics, we lose one of our most basic and reliable guides to reality. Join us when author John Allen Paulos shares his research on probability, and the philosophy of science on this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large.