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
  • Demonizing Dungeons & Dragons (Classic)

    Demonizing Dungeons & Dragons (Classic)
    Dec 20 2024

    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 that he might have fallen under the evil spell of a mysterious and sinister game: Dungeons & Dragons...

    Tim Harford returns with brand new episodes of Cautionary Tales on January 10th. In the meantime, Merry Christmas from the Cautionary Tales team!

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

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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    38 mins
  • Captain Coward and the Blame Game

    Captain Coward and the Blame Game
    Dec 6 2024

    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 a matter of time before the ship capsizes altogether. How did a routine trip go so terribly wrong? And why is the captain nowhere to be found?

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

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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    37 mins
  • Get Happier, Help Others: Some Good Ideas About Giving

    Get Happier, Help Others: Some Good Ideas About Giving
    Dec 2 2024

    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 happier than spending money on yourself? Or that altruistic nerds have discovered four of the most impactful charities in the world (per dollar spent)? Have you ever wondered how poker players think about giving?

    Dr. Laurie Santos from The Happiness Lab, Elie Hassenfeld of GiveWell, and Nate Silver and Maria Konnikova from Risky Business talk about how to maximize your giving – and why you’ll be happy you did.

    Link to donate: https://givingmultiplier.org/happinesslab

    Listen to The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos

    Listen to Risky Business

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

Featured Article: The Best History Podcasts of All Time


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Featured Article The Best History Podcasts of All Time

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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