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

It absorbs water. voice-verified

I mean, it's sort of waterproof, but it does absorb the moisture and it does get heavier. voice-verified

And this is very marginal because... voice-verified

It's supposed to be lighter than air. voice-verified

So even if it's just a couple of tons of water, and remember, this thing is more than 700 feet long. voice-verified

It's the size of a skyscraper. voice-verified

It doesn't take a lot of water to make it heavier. voice-verified

That's your first problem. voice-verified

The second is if the wind blows and it's trying to get into the wind, it's going to make very, very slow progress. voice-verified

And potentially the wrong kind of gust of wind is going to force it down towards the ground. voice-verified

There are 54 people on board. voice-verified

They include the crew. voice-verified

they include lord thompson himself and they include the entire design team of the r101 the crew as i mentioned are carrying their spare uniforms in paper bags to save weight lord thompson shows up oh voice-verified

in his chauffeured car, unfolds himself, he's a big tall man, unfolds himself in the chauffeured car. voice-verified

His chauffeur pops open the boot and there's the bottles of champagne in an enormous trunk and a huge ceremonial carpet, really heavy carpet. voice-verified

because whenever when he lands at these various points he wants he wants well he wants to lay out the carpet so they can host uh proper imperial dinners on this on this amazing carpet and of course nobody says mate the crew are carrying their clothes in paper bags to save weight could we not leave the carpet at home they go yes of course my lord and they they put the carpet on board so oh voice-verified

Down on the ground, despite the late hour and the rain, a Monsieur Alfred Roubaix was out hoping to bag some rabbits for Sunday lunch. voice-verified

As the Titanic ship loomed down out of the low clouds, he gazed in horror. voice-verified

Far bigger than the Cathedral of Beauvais, the R101 was moving slowly forward, her nose down as though she had given up and just wanted to be allowed to rest. voice-verified

Her thin, wet, fragile front cover had almost certainly ripped under the incessant winds, exposing the perforated hydrogen gas bags to the direct force of the storm. voice-verified

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