Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford

By: Pushkin Industries
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  • Summary

  • 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.
    2024 iHeartMedia, Inc. © Any use of this intellectual property for text and data mining or computational analysis including as training material for artificial intelligence systems is strictly prohibited without express written consent from iHeartMedia
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Episodes
  • Darwin's Grandpa and the Art of Sex Appeal

    Darwin's Grandpa and the Art of Sex Appeal
    Nov 8 2024

    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 others. It explained a lot - but it didn't explain the peacock's brightly coloured tail feathers, which were extravagant and cumbersome. Surely such plumage made it harder for peacocks to survive?

    It so happens that the life of Darwin's own grandfather offered clues to the puzzle of the peacock's tail - if only he'd known to look there...

    For a full list of sources, see the show notes at timharford.com.

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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    41 mins
  • The Edinburgh Body Snatchers: Murder at Halloween

    The Edinburgh Body Snatchers: Murder at Halloween
    Oct 25 2024

    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 and William Hare, spotted a grim business opportunity. They began sourcing bodies - by any means possible...

    In this episode of Cautionary Tales - recorded live at the Podcast Show in London - true crime meets economics. Tim Harford's hair-raising story explores a question: what makes some markets acceptable, and others repugnant?

    For a full list of sources, see the show notes at timharford.com

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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    42 mins

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What listeners say about Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford

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Highly Recommended

A data driven look at lessons learned from both notorious and lesser known disasters. A very different way of looking at systems.

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Beyond amazing!!

thank you so much for such an interesting podcast. everything is so well done, the topics, the quality of the delivery of the ideas is completely awesome, thank you so much.

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very good podcast.

as always the podcast does not disappoint I also like the theme music for the podcast

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Thank you

Thank you for this whole podcast. I listen in the car and when I go to bed. I love this. The way you tell a story is so good. Thank you! Can you do one about a story from Maine maybe? Thank you again!!
-Alexis From Maine

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A fantastic podcast

This is one of my favorite podcasts (and I listen to many). Every episode is incredibly well researched and totally fascinating. I highly recommend it!

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One Of The Great Podcasts

Is always interesting, and informative. little to no filler while being pleasant to listen to.

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Very interesting

I liked that it was short stories and topics I wouldn’t normally consider. Quite interesting and educational for me.








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