20. The Confidence Trick

At thirty-one, mathematician Chris McKinlay is looking for love. But if it’s all a numbers game, his are not adding up. Could he be the problem? Or is something else getting in the way? Producer: Lauren Armstrong Carter Sound Designer: Jon Nicholls Story Editor: John Yorke 

Best-selling author Matthew Syed explores the ideas that shape our lives with stories of seeing the world differently.In this taster from the series, Matthew explores the beauty that can be found in the process of decay.Search for Sideways on BBC Sounds to hear more. 

What separates struggling artists from successful ones? Looking to creative geniuses like Mozart, Edison and Monet, video creator Jon Youshaei explains why aiming to be prolific — despite flops and failures along the way — is the key to unlocking your creative success.Learn more ...  Show more

Enron—the seventh-largest company in the U.S.—filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on 2nd December, 2001, marking the dramatic end of a business empire once hailed as unstoppable.  What once looked like a financial juggernaut turned out to be a house of cards built on illusory profit ...  Show more

Tim Harford looks at some of the numbers in the news and in life. This week:Is church-going making a comeback in the UK?Is it true that every day, 1000 people begin claiming personal independence payments, or PIP?When the government talks about how it “returns” illegal immigrants ...  Show more

Barry Minkow was a teenage entrepreneur who founded the carpet-cleaning company ZZZZ Best in the 1980s and became a Wall Street sensation- until it was revealed to be one of the biggest Ponzi schemes of its time. Minkow fabricated fake restoration projects and used forged documen ...  Show more