Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford

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Episodes

Date Title & Description Contributors
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
2024-10-11

  The Poet Who Toppled The British Empire

India, 1930. Sarojini Naidu is marching towards a British-controlled saltwork; behind her is a long column of protestors all dressed in white. The great campaigner for India's Independence, Gandhi, is now in jail. In his place, he's chosen Naidu to lea...
  Pushkin Industries author
2024-09-27

  Reason, Wrath and Rebellion on the High Seas

Early morning, April 1789. Captain Bligh is abruptly dragged from his cabin. Wrists bound, bayonet pressed to his chest, he and a few loyal sailors are forced into a tiny launch and set adrift on the vast Pacific Ocean. This far from land, no-one is li...
  Pushkin Industries author
2024-09-17

  Cautionary Tales Presents: You Cannot Save Me From All Things

In the beautiful mountain town of Idyllwild, a wealthy widow named Dia Abrams suddenly vanishes from her home. She leaves behind her idyllic ranch, estranged children and a messy legal battle. Two men in her life, her son and a man who claims to be he...
  Pushkin Industries author
2024-09-13

  Steel and Kindness: Clash of the Skyscrapers

Paul Starrett has just won a major building contract. If everything goes according to plan, this will be the tallest building in the world. But will everything go according to plan? This prestigious new project will have Starrett's biggest workforce ye...
  Pushkin Industries author
2024-09-13

  The Nice Guy, the Bully and the Kiss

Leo Durocher would stop at nothing to win. The baseball player-turned-manager was a skilled tactician and famously tough. But he also cheated, intimidated umpires and was violent; he was even known to beat up fans. Durocher was famous for coining the p...
  Pushkin Industries author
2024-08-30

  Tim's Tolkien Obsession & Amazon Prime's The Rings of Power

Tim Harford's life has been building up to this moment. In this Cautionary Conversation, he discusses the works of his favorite author J.R.R. Tolkien and the social science at play in Amazon Prime's series The Rings of Power. What do elves and whistleb...
  Pushkin Industries author
2024-08-16

  The Human Guinea Pigs of Camp Lazear

Young doctor Jesse Lazear has deadly Yellow Fever. He thrashes around and convulses in his sick bed, and his vomit is black. He is just 34 when he dies. Curiously, mosquito expert Lazear was researching the disease when he became ill. Some historians t...
  Pushkin Industries author