Tim Harford

speaker

476 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2026 last heard 20 Jul

Tim Harford’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.

Appearances

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After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal · Britain's Worst Airship Disaster · 20 Jul 2026 podcast

What should we provide? voice-verified

Because these are going to be quite long trips, more like ocean liner trips, so they'll take several days. voice-verified

So there was this question of what you should provide, how many servants should be, waiters, cooks should be on board this thing. voice-verified

That's part of it. voice-verified

The smoking lounge. voice-verified

So there were two potential candidates for what gas should be in the balloon. voice-verified

Let me talk to you about that. voice-verified

So one possibility is helium. voice-verified

Okay. voice-verified

Two problems with helium. voice-verified

One is the Americans basically have a monopoly on the world's supply of helium. voice-verified

The second is it's not as light as hydrogen. voice-verified

Okay. voice-verified

And that it gets to be quite marginal. voice-verified

So I forget the exact figures. voice-verified

But if you've got this enormous space that's filled with helium, maybe it's got 10% less lift. voice-verified

I don't know what that I forget what the exact figure is. voice-verified

But since so much of the lift is already lifting the engines, lifting the structure, lifting the superstructure, lifting the fuel, the switch from hydrogen to helium might be the difference between the airship will take off or the airship will not take off. voice-verified

so for those two reasons hydrogen is favored okay hydrogen is very light there are two problems with hydrogen number one the hydrogen atom is so small it just escapes from anything it'll get through any hole so it's difficult to find a substance that will contain it okay what they use is a cow gut cow voice-verified

So this enormous silver thing... You're not telling me the whole thing is... It looks like an Imperial Star Destroyer, only sleeker. voice-verified

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