Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford
Pushkin Industries
4.9
(38)
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 other Friday.
36 Listeners
4.9
(38)
2 Comments
All episodes
Best episodes
Top 10 Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford Episodes
Best episodes ranked by Goodpods Users most listened
The City That Sold Itself To Wall Street
Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford
09/01/23 • 38 min
5.0
Cautionary Book Club: When Morgan Stanley offered to lease Chicago's parking meters for the princely sum of $1 billion, the City Council were convinced that they had struck gold. They hastily signed the deal. But they soon learnt that they hadn't just traded away parking revenue - they had traded away the streets themselves...
In this hybrid episode of Cautionary Tales, Tim Harford first tells the story of the Chicago parking metres fiasco of 2008. In the second half, Tim is joined by Henry Grabar, author of Paved Paradise, to discuss the lessons we can glean from Chicago's deal with Wall Street, and why parking is such an emotive issue for so many.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
09/01/23 • 38 min
7 Listeners
1 Comment
1
A Chorus of Contempt at The Sydney Opera House
Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford
09/15/23 • 40 min
5.0
1957. Jørn Utzon receives a phone call: he's just won an international competition to design a brand new opera house for the Australian city of Sydney. Utzon is unknown in the field, so this is a triumph. The young architect couldn’t have imagined what a bitter victory it would turn out to be...
The Guggenheim in Bilbao; the Burj Khalifa in Dubai; the Shard in London. These days, everyone seems to want an iconic building. But Sydney Opera House was the first, the greatest – and the most painful. It's now fifty years since the Opera House was opened. This is its origin story.
For a full list of sources, please see the show notes at timharford.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
09/15/23 • 40 min
5 Listeners
1 Comment
1
The Company That Cancelled Christmas
Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford
12/09/22 • 35 min
More than 100,000 families - many of them amongst the poorest in Britain - put money aside for Christmas gifts and other seasonal treats in a savings club called Farepak. It wasn't a bank, and it wasn't great value for money... and it went bust. Kids went without toys, and festive dinner tables were left bare.
Why would someone put their hard-earned money into such a scheme? And what does it tell us about how we often view Christmas as a time for frenzied spending?
For a full list of sources used in this episode visit Tim Harford.com
CAUTIONARY TALES RETURNS 6 JAN, 2023. HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND SEE YOU IN THE NEW YEAR.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
12/09/22 • 35 min
5 Listeners
The Inventor Who Almost Ended the World
Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford
11/11/22 • 36 min
4.0
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 to poison the air with leaded gasoline or wreck the ozone layer with CFCs - but while these dire consequences were unintended... could they have been anticipated?
For a full list of sources used in this episode visit Tim Harford.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
11/11/22 • 36 min
5 Listeners
2 Comments
2
Cautionary Tales Presents: Warfare, The Life of Anne Frank
Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford
10/14/22 • 41 min
5.0
This week, it's an episode from Warfare, a podcast from our friends at History Hit. It's 1942. The year Anne Frank and her family went into hiding during the Second World War. It was there that Anne began keeping a diary that would become one of the most recognisable testimonies of the Jewish war-time experiences. But what do we know of her life before the war? Host James Rogers explores the Franks' lives before the outbreak of war, and why this story is still so relevant today.
You can find more from Warfare at https://podfollow.com/the-world-wars.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
10/14/22 • 41 min
5 Listeners
1 Comment
1
General Ludd's Rage Against the Machines
Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford
08/18/23 • 36 min
1812. A band of "Luddites" is laying siege to a textile mill in the North of England, under cover of night. They plan to destroy the machines that are replacing their jobs. But mill owner William Cartwright is prepared: he's fortified his factory with skilled marksmen, fearsome eighteen-inch metal spikes and barrels of sulphuric acid.
Today "Luddite" is a term of mockery — a description for someone who's scared of technology. But in 1812, Luddism was no laughing matter for the likes of Cartwright. And he plans to teach the intruders a lesson.
For a full list of sources for this episode, please visit timharford.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
08/18/23 • 36 min
2 Listeners
When Parakeets Plundered New York
Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford
07/14/23 • 36 min
5.0
Cautionary Conversation: An invasive parakeet species began spreading in New York City - and the government decided to kill every last bird. Tim Harford is joined by Ben Naddaff-Hafrey, host of The Last Archive, to talk about the great parakeet panic of the 1970s and a history of anxieties about population growth.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
07/14/23 • 36 min
4 Listeners
1 Comment
1
Cautionary Conversation: The Conspiracy Theorist Who Changed His Mind
Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford
10/21/22 • 41 min
5.0
Charlie Veitch was certain that 9/11 was an inside job. The attack on the World Trade Center wasn't the work of Al-Qaeda, but an elaborate conspiracy. He became a darling of so-called "9/11 truthers" - until he actually visited Ground Zero to meet architects, engineers and the relatives of the dead. The trip changed his mind... there was no conspiracy.
His fellow "truthers" did not take Charlie's conversion well.
David McRaney (host of You Are Not So Smart and author of How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion and Persuasion) joins Tim Harford to discuss what happened to Charlie Veitch; what it tells us about those who hold strong beliefs even in the face of damning contrary evidence; and why persuasion isn't always the right answer.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
10/21/22 • 41 min
4 Listeners
3 Comments
3
The Father of Space Travel
Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford
07/28/23 • 26 min
Cautionary Conversation: Did a Nazi put America on the moon? To celebrate the launch of his mini-series on the V-2 rocket, Tim Harford sits down with Pushkin’s resident V-2 expert, Ryan Dilley. They discuss the so-called “Father of Space Travel”, Wernher von Braun, and satirist Tom Lehrer’s musical lampooning of him.
A three-part mini series on the V-2 rocket is available now for Pushkin+ subscribers. We’ll be back again on August 4th with a brand new episode of Cautionary Tales on the main feed.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
07/28/23 • 26 min
4 Listeners
"7000 horses are being flown across space..." - Cautionary Questions #2
Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford
09/29/23 • 35 min
Why are board games so popular in Germany? What’s Tim Harford’s top tip for productivity? And where do all those sound effects come from?
Tim is joined by Cautionary Tales’ very own wizard of sound Pascal Wyse, to read your emails and answer your questions.
Do you have a question for Tim? Please email any queries you might have, however big or small, to [email protected].
Please note that some emails in this episode have been edited for length.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
09/29/23 • 35 min
4 Listeners
Show more
Show more
Featured in these lists
FAQ
How many episodes does Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford have?
Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford currently has 127 episodes available.
What topics does Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford cover?
The podcast is about Society & Culture, History and Podcasts.
What is the most popular episode on Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford?
The episode title 'The City That Sold Itself To Wall Street' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford?
The average episode length on Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford is 35 minutes.
How often are episodes of Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford released?
Episodes of Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford are typically released every 7 days.
When was the first episode of Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford?
The first episode of Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford was released on Oct 22, 2019.
Show more FAQ
Show more FAQ
Comments
4.9
out of 5
38 Ratings
#13
@orderjackalope
Apr 15
1 Like
Reply
Chris M
@moorecha
Jan 29
1 Like
Reply