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 Friday.
    2025 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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Social Sciences World
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Episodes
  • How Trump is Getting the Game Theory Wrong from Risky Business

    How Trump is Getting the Game Theory Wrong from Risky Business
    Mar 10 2025

    Today we’re sharing an episode from another Pushkin Industries show that we think you’ll enjoy: How Trump is Getting the Game Theory Wrong from Risky Business.

    This week, Nate and Maria discuss Trump’s tariffs and analyze his strategy from a game theory perspective. They get into the difference between zero-sum and cooperative games, speculate on how Trump would act in the dictator game, and discuss the rationality of revenge. Then, they talk about the reboot of the infamous Fyre Festival, and why con artists so rarely reform.

    For more from Nate and Maria, subscribe to their newsletters:

    The Leap from Maria Konnikova

    Silver Bulletin from Nate Silver

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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    40 mins
  • Would You Trust a Gangster Nanny? - Cautionary Questions with Rachel Botsman

    Would You Trust a Gangster Nanny? - Cautionary Questions with Rachel Botsman
    Mar 7 2025

    Do we trust our fitness trackers too much? How do fraudsters gain our faith? Why do people trust podcasters? And would you trust a drug dealing nanny with a tambourine? Tim Harford is joined by trust expert Rachel Botsman to answer your questions.

    Rachel lectures in trust at Oxford University and her new audiobook How To Trust and Be Trusted is available via Pushkin.fm and wherever audiobooks are sold.

    We love hearing from you, so please keep your questions coming: tales@pushkin.fm.

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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    41 mins
  • Lights, Camera, Tax Break

    Lights, Camera, Tax Break
    Feb 28 2025

    When Ernest Borgnine gets his big break in Hollywood, he can hardly believe his luck. But soon he discovers his supposed star vehicle, Marty, is not the dream gig he thought it was.

    In this episode of Cautionary Tales, recorded live at the Bristol Festival of Economics, Tim Harford examines what happens when the murky world of tax avoidance collides with the glitz and glamour of Hollywood.

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

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

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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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