Michael Blastland is a writer and broadcaster. For nearly twenty years, he was a BBC current-affairs presenter and producer, devising programmes including More or Less on Radio 4 – about numbers in public argument - of which he was also the first producer (with Andrew Dilnot the original presenter). He can still be heard as an occasional presenter on BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service.
He has written four books, including The Tiger that Isn’t, a guide to numbers in the news and politics. His other books are about risk, about his son’s autism, and, most recently, The Hidden Half – How the World Conceals its Secrets, about uncertainty.
He teaches, advises and presents widely, in schools, to business, government and academia. Current health-related roles include advisor to a large meta-analysis of the potential adverse effects of statins, and to the ‘Behaviour Change By Design’ research programme into nudge-type interventions for public health. He is also a board member of the Cambridge-based Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication.
