Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford

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Episodes

Date Title & Description Contributors
2025-01-17

  Frozen in a Burning 747 (Tenerife Air Disaster 2)

Two airplanes have just collided on the runway at Tenerife Airport. While no one on the Amsterdam-bound KLM plane survives the resulting fireball, 71 Pan-Am passengers and crew make it off their plane. But could it have been more? Why did so many Pan-A...
  Pushkin Industries author
2025-01-10

  Cleared For Take-Off? (Tenerife Air Disaster 1)

“Evacuate the airport, we’ve planted bombs,” a terrorist tells the telephone operator at the airport in Gran Canaria, in 1977. By the end of that day, 583 people will have lost their lives – but not to a bomb explosion.The planes are diverted to the ne...
  Pushkin Industries author
2025-01-03

  Do NOT Pass GO! (Classic)

Cautionary Tales returns with new episodes on January 10th. Lizzie J. Magie (played by Helena Bonham Carter) should be celebrated as the inventor of what would become Monopoly. But, even though she had a patent, her role in creating the smash hit board...
  Pushkin Industries author
2024-12-20

  Demonizing Dungeons & Dragons (Classic)

When James Dallas Egbert III was reported missing from his college dorm in 1979, one of America's most flamboyant private detectives was summoned to solve the case. "Dallas" faced the same problems as many teenagers, but P.I. William Dear stoked fears ...
  Pushkin Industries author
2024-12-06

  Captain Coward and the Blame Game

Off the coast of an Italian island, an enormous cruise ship - seventeen floors high, three soccer pitches long - is tilting noticeably to one side. The local mayor is horrified: there are thousands of people on board the Costa Concordia, and it's only ...
  Pushkin Industries author
2024-12-02

  Get Happier, Help Others: Some Good Ideas About Giving

It's the season of giving: colorful paper and shiny bows, sure, and charitable giving, too. In this special episode, Jacob Goldstein, the host of What's Your Problem, gets smart about donating. Did you know that spending money on others makes you happ...
  Pushkin Industries author
2024-11-22

  RoboPod and the Perpetual Money Machine - Cautionary Questions 2

Take the Cautionary Tales listener survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HCHGGZ3 What really drove the 2008 financial crash? What’s a shadow bank? And what’s the connection between NIMBYs and BANANAs? Tim Harford and Jacob Goldstein answer more o...
  Pushkin Industries author
2024-11-08

  Darwin's Grandpa and the Art of Sex Appeal

Take the Cautionary Tales listener survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HCHGGZ3 Charles Darwin was stumped by peacocks. According to his theory of evolution, some creatures were better equipped to survive in their particular environment than oth...
  Pushkin Industries author
2024-10-25

  The Edinburgh Body Snatchers: Murder at Halloween

Take the Cautionary Tales listener survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HCHGGZ3 In 1827, Edinburgh, Scotland was a world centre for anatomical study, but there was a shortage of cadavers for medical students to dissect. Two men, William Burke an...
  Pushkin Industries author
2024-10-14

  Cautionary Tales Presents: Death Fraud and Other Risky Business

Tim Harford joined Nate Silver and Maria Konnikova on their podcast Risky Business to discuss two of history’s most compelling swindlers: Sam Israel III and John Law. We hope you enjoy this episode of Risky Business. It's available wherever you listen ...
  Pushkin Industries author