Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford
Pushkin Industries
Outreach Signals
Publishing Details
Contact & Outreach
About This Podcast
We tell our children unsettling fairy tales to teach them valuable lessons, but these Cautionary Tales are for the education of the grown ups – and they are all true. Tim Harford (Financial Times, BBC, author of “The Data Detective”) brings you stories of awful human error, tragic catastrophes, and hilarious fiascos. They'll delight you, scare you, but also make you wiser. New episodes every Friday.
Podcasting 2.0 Features
Explore Statistics
Recent Episodes
S7E24 The Dunning Canoe-ger Effect
When John Darwin walks into a shop in London, it causes an instant stir. After all, John Darwin has been dead for five years. He claims to have amnesia, but everyone - from the police and the media…
S7 Presenting...This is History: A Dynasty to Die For
This episode comes to you from the new series of This is History, the podcast which tells the story of the Plantagenet Dynasty. Historian Dan Jones takes you through 300 years of calamities, wars and…
S7E23 How Civilizations Die - with Paul Cooper
As Governor of Britannia, Magnus Maximus has a huge army at his disposal, which is just what he needs to secure the Roman imperial throne. But perhaps the impressive general should have looked into…
S7E22 Can You Make a Sherman Tank Float?
It’s D-Day and the Allies are about to invade Nazi-occupied France. For the landings to succeed, American soldiers on Omaha Beach will have to break through some formidable coastal defences -…
S7E21 The Inventor who Almost Ended the World (Classic)
Thomas Midgley's inventions caused his own death, hastened the deaths of millions of people around the world, and very nearly extinguished all life on land. Midgley and his employers didn't set out…
S7 From Drilled: The Carbon Gold Rush
We usually bring you failures of the past, but today we're sharing an episode from someone who uncovers failures as they happen. Amy Westervelt is an award-winning investigative climate journalist…
S7E20 Angels, Gold and Lust: John Dee and the Philosopher's Stone (Part 2)
Part Two: When Tudor polymath John Dee meets a man who claims he can speak with angels, his path to understanding the universe suddenly becomes clear. At their instruction, the pair begin searching…
S7E19 The Queen's Astrologer: The Price of Prophecy (Part 1)
In Tudor England, the line between mathematics and the mystic arts is vanishingly thin. Straddling both worlds is John Dee, a brilliant scholar and astrologer whose intellect grants him access to the…
S7E18 Beware Tech Tycoons with Piranha Tanks - with Katie Prescott
Mike Lynch was often lauded as Britain's answer to Bill Gates. Born into a working-class family, Lynch's incredible intellect and passion for computers led him to become a billionaire tech…
S7E17 Finding Grace in a Burger Bun: An Incrediburgible Quest
Dick and Mac are content with their lives: they enjoy making burgers by day and stargazing by night. Ray Kroc is a workaholic chasing success at any cost. When the brothers' relaxed approach to…
S7E16 Run, Switzer, Run: The Women who Broke the Marathon Taboo (Classic)
Tim is running the London Marathon on the 26th of April. To give him a week off to finish training, we're playing this running-themed classic from the archives. If you would like to donate to Teenage…
S7E15 The Lovestruck Explorer's Deadly Guessing Game
In 1860, police officer Robert O'Hara Burke plans an expedition to map the mysterious blank in the centre of Australia. Joining him is scientist William Wills, and a ragtag team of hires. Burke falls…
S7 The Refugee Who Led a Software Revolution - with Ben Walter
Millionaire-making tech start-ups are most often associated with Silicon Valley. But this software revolution begins on a woman’s kitchen table in rural Britain in the 1960s. Steve Shirley faced…
S7E14 The Mad Mystic and the Last Battle on English Soil - with Ian Breckon
As the Victorian era dawns, modernisation erodes the old ways of life and poverty rises. In the unrest, an unlikely hero emerges, capturing the imagination of the countryside's working class. He…
S7E13 The Sightseeing Flight and the Invisible Mountain
In November 1979, Flight 901 departs New Zealand on a sightseeing journey over Antarctica, heading directly towards a volcano. When the plane vanishes, investigators are left with a mystery: how…
S7E12 Presenting: Drug Story - On Xanax and Anxiety
This episode comes to you from the new podcast Drug Story, which investigates the origins, workings and cautionary tales behind today's medical interventions. In this episode, host Thomas Goetz…
S7E11 "And it went click" - Dawn of the Working Dead
Robert Propst is more than an inventor: he is a visionary, an innovator dreaming up how to make the perfect office workstation. When he reveals his bold design for a creative, flexible 'cockpit of…
S7E10 Explosives or Sugar? The Deadly Art of Distraction in Putin’s Russia - with Helena Merriman
In 1999, a series of bombs explode in Russian apartments, killing hundreds and spreading panic. No one knows who is behind it. But when one device is spotted before it detonates, troubling questions…
S7E9 Flight of the Fantasist: The Race Around the World - Part 2
Donald Crowhurst is a brilliant inventor with a failing business. When he hears about the Golden Globe Race offering publicity and cash to the fastest to sail around the world, it feels like the…
S7E8 The Philosopher and the Handyman: The Race Around the World - Part 1
Who will be the first to sail non-stop around the world? In 1968, The Sunday Times announces a trophy and a cash prize for the winner, and the Golden Globe Race is on. Leading the charge are Robin…
Frequently Asked Questions
Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford has published 220 episodes since October 2019, covering topics in History, Society & Culture.
Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford is currently highly active with new episodes weekly. Average episode length is 37m.
Sign up on Grep.FM to access contact details for Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford, including email and social media links.
Similar Podcasts
Sword and Scale
Sword and Scale
105 episodes
Revisionist History
Pushkin Industries
202 episodes
Radiolab
WNYC Studios
655 episodes
The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe
The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe
489 episodes
True Crime Garage
TRUE CRIME GARAGE
937 episodes
Stuff You Missed in History Class
iHeartPodcasts
2,709 episodes