Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford
Episodes
The Sightseeing Flight and the Invisible Mountain
27 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In November 1979, Flight 901 departs New Zealand on a sightseeing journey over Antarctica, heading directly towards a volcano. When the plane vanishes...
Presenting: Drug Story - On Xanax and Anxiety
20 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
This episode comes to you from the new podcast Drug Story, which investigates the origins, workings and cautionary tales behind today's medical interv...
"And it went click" - Dawn of the Working Dead
13 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Robert Propst is more than an inventor: he is a visionary, an innovator dreaming up how to make the perfect office workstation. When he reveals his bo...
Explosives or Sugar? The Deadly Art of Distraction in Putin’s Russia - with Helena Merriman
06 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In 1999, a series of bombs explode in Russian apartments, killing hundreds and spreading panic. No one knows who is behind it. But when one device is ...
Flight of the Fantasist: The Race Around the World - Part 2
27 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Donald Crowhurst is a brilliant inventor with a failing business. When he hears about the Golden Globe Race offering publicity and cash to the fastest...
The Philosopher and the Handyman: The Race Around the World - Part 1
20 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Who will be the first to sail non-stop around the world? In 1968, The Sunday Times announces a trophy and a cash prize for the winner, and the Go...
Presenting... American Criminal: The Great McDonald's Monopoly Heist
17 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
This episode comes to you from American Criminal, the true-crime history podcast that takes you inside the minds of some of America's most notorious o...
Sphygmograph Be Damned: The Science of Love
13 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Chris McKinlay is a good-looking, smart student at UCLA, but he can't seem to get a girlfriend. He's a computing expert, so why not use his technology...
The Angels, The Stones and The Dead
06 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In the final days of the Sixties, The Rolling Stones join forces with other rock legends to plan a free concert at Altamont Speedway that will rival W...
Powered by Orgasm: The Rise and Fall of a Sex Cult - with Ellen Huet
30 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Run by the charismatic Nicole Deadone, OneTaste billed itself as a sexual wellness startup celebrating the power of female orgasm. But behind the cele...
The WOW Machine Stops (Pt 2)
23 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Tony Hsieh, the billionaire CEO of Zappos, is passionate about community. He pours his time, energy and fortune into building a network of like-minded...
Shoes, Booze and the Pursuit of Happiness (Pt 1)
16 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
They say the company Zappos is harder to get into than Harvard. Zappos may sell shoes, but its mission is to deliver WOW through a fun-focused company...
Liar, Bigamist, Brute: How Isaac Singer Liberated Women
09 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The sewing machine was once thought to be an impossible invention. It was such a complicated contraption that it would take more than one inventor, wi...
Fritterin' Away Genius (Classic)
02 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Claude Shannon was brilliant. He was the Einstein of computer science... only he loved "fritterin' away" his time building machines to play chess, sol...
Photographing Fairies (Classic)
26 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sherlock Holmes is known for approaching all mysteries with cool logic - and yet when his creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle saw photographs taken by two ...
"They fall behind and are slowly crushed" - Board Games and Economics with Richard Garfield
19 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Playing board games and spending too much money are time-honored Christmas traditions, so to mark the festive season, Tim is joined by the creator of ...
Flixborough: The Factory that was Wiped off the Map
12 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A megaplant near the small village of Flixborough, England, is busy churning out a key ingredient of nylon 6, a material used in everything from stock...
The Disappearance of Grace Oakeshott
05 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
At the start of the 20th century, Britain was slowly becoming a freer place for women. Young Grace Oakeshott seized every opportunity to learn and imp...
Your Chance to Attend a Cautionary Tales Table Read
04 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Ever wished you could be a fly on the wall while Cautionary Tales is being made? Now you can. We just launched the Cautionary Club - our new Patreon c...
How to Experience the Joy of Giving Right Now: A Giving Tuesday Special from The Happiness Lab
02 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
According to the science, it really is better to give than receive. Donating a dollar; sharing a kind word or lending someone a hand changes lives, bu...
Homo deceptus: Science's Dirty Little Secret
28 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 1912, a fossil discovery shakes the scientific world. Piltdown Man is the elusive missing link between humans and their ape-like ancestors. Forty y...
Presenting Heavyweight: Etta
25 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
I'm excited to share an episode from another podcast, Heavyweight, a new addition to the Pushkin slate of shows. Heavyweight, hosted by Jonathan Golds...
Kyoto: The Battle that Defined Climate Politics - with Joe Robertson
21 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Misinformation, double-dealing, character assassination - lobbyist Don Pearlman will stop at nothing to prevent the world from agreeing to cut carbon ...
Presenting: Twenty Thousand Hertz
18 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When Satanic Panic ripped through America, rock music was in the crosshairs. Could songs contain secret backwards messages urging children to take dru...
The Treasure Hunt that Broke America (Part 2)
14 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Forrest Fenn’s legendary treasure hunt ignites a nationwide obsession. The thrill of adventure, the promise of gold, and the call of the wild en...
The Treasure Hunt that Broke America (Part 1)
07 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Forrest Fenn never does things the regular way. Despite no formal training and little knowledge of art, he becomes a millionaire gallery owner. An out...
The Truth About Hansel and Gretel (Classic)
31 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Was the fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel - the story of a woodcutter’s children abandoned in the woods and left at the mercy of a witch - in fact...
On Fire from the Inside - Lethal Injection Up Close with Malcolm Gladwell
28 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Last week, Cautionary Tales told the tragic story of Derek Bentley, exploring Britain's troubled relationship with capital punishment. Across the Atla...
Derek Bentley Must Hang
24 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
An amateurish burglary in 1950s London ends in murder. One of the men involved is a 19-year-old named Derek Bentley. Bentley has the understanding of ...
The Canal, the Crash and the Ketamine - Pushkin's Reign of Error
17 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 1983, a plane takes off from Ottawa with less than half the required fuel on board. As the engines cut out one by one, the pilot is left with a tic...
Schrödinger's Spy: Businessman, Fraud, or Russian Agent? - with Sam Jones
10 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When the Financial Times uncovered the billion-dollar Wirecard fraud, it seemed like the story was over. But then the company’s Chief Operating ...
Missing Fish and Fatal Feasts: Ritual and Ruin at the Sun King’s Table
03 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the gilded court of Louis XIV, 17th Century France, manners are everything. Where to sit, how to eat, what to wear - any misstep is costly. No one ...
Don't Panic! Douglas Adams' Guide to Tomorrow - with Arvind Ethan David
26 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Writer Douglas Adams, best known for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, used science fiction and satire to warn us about potential dangers in our f...
A Deadly Day at the Races: What Radical Protest Can and Cannot Do
19 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After years of campaigning for votes for women, the Suffragettes emerge at the turn of the 20th Century. Their motto, 'Deeds Not Words', heralds the s...
True Lies and Genuine Fakes
12 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 1998, an art gallery gets a mysterious phone call. The caller claims they have been fooled by a master forger and that many of their prized paintin...
Stalling for Survival - A Lonely Fight Against a Deadly Medicine
05 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 1960, FDA scientist Frances Oldham Kelsey is tasked with approving an application for a mild sedative to be sold in America. The drug is popular ac...
Announcing: The Cautionary Club
02 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Do you want more Cautionary Tales episodes in your life? Do you want access to behind the scenes stories and bonus conversations with Tim? Do you want...
Disaster Favours the Daring: Shipwreck at Honda Point
29 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 1923, legendary navigator Captain Dolly Hunter led a squadron of warships into America’s worst peacetime naval catastrophe. The mission was s...
Paradise Poisoned: How Utopias Fall Apart
22 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Dore Strauch and Friedrich Ritter make an unconventional couple, united by their contempt for shoes, root vegetables and, above all, society. In 1929 ...
"Genius Still Unrecognised" - The Worst Poet in the World
15 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
William McGonagall's poems are something else. The jarring meter, the banal imagery, the awkward rhymes: they made him a laughing stock in 19th Centur...
Office Hell: The Demise of the Playful Workspace (Classic)
08 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the early 90s, cutting-edge advertising agency Chiat/Day announced a radical plan, aimed at giving the company a jolt of creative renewal. They wou...
Number Fever: How Pepsi Nearly Went Pop (Classic)
01 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Pepsi twice ended up in court after promotions went disastrously wrong. Other big companies have fallen into the same trap - promising customers rewar...
Fire at The Beverly Hills Supper Club (Update)
25 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It's been five years since Cautionary Tales ran a mini-series about the Covid-19 pandemic, exploring the lessons we were learning in real time as the ...
"Captain Kirk Forgot to put the Machine on Stun"
18 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Lying on the cold metal table, Voyne Ray Cox knew the drill. This was his ninth round of cancer treatment - which is why he was certain that what happ...
"I get in trouble when I say things like this" - Michael Lewis on Sam Bankman-Fried
11 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Acclaimed author Michael Lewis discusses his time with Sam Bankman-Fried and why he thinks both high finance and Effective Altruism shaped the 'Crypto...
Grand Theft Automated: How to Save a Trillion Lives
04 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A radical thought experiment transforms the lives of a new breed of philanthropists, as they follow the logic of altruism to extraordinary lengths. Th...
The Man who Solved Kindness
27 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
George Price is on a mission to prove that human kindness is real. He's seen the latest research suggesting any altruism is ultimately selfish and fin...
The Shark That Ate Hollywood: Jaws at 50
20 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Steven Spielberg thought his career was finished. He was behind schedule, his actors were fighting, the crew were mutinous and worst of all, his shark...
Le Mans 55: The Deadliest Race
13 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The annual Le Mans 24 Hour race brings in hundreds of thousands of spectators to watch the giants of motor racing put their endurance to the ultimate ...
The Nazis, the Bomb, and the Woman that Science Forgot
06 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Lise Meitner has fought for her entire life to be seen as a scientist, slowly building a career as a nuclear physicist in Berlin. When Adolf Hitler ri...
Give Politicians a Raise, Smuggle Smartphones into School, and go Full Donk! Cautionary Questions with Risky Business
30 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Can game theory be used to win a world cup? Can you pay the way out of political corruption? And are there winning strategies in life we don't use bec...
Roosevelt and the Renegade (Panama Disaster 2)
23 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sixteen years have passed since Ferdinand De Lesseps' catastrophic failure in Panama and the dramatic collapse of the French Panama Canal company. Now...
The Great Frenchman's Folly (Panama Disaster 1)
16 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Ferdinand De Lesseps, "the Great Frenchman", is convinced that he is the man to build the Panama Canal. No, he isn't an engineer and, no, he's never a...
Lab Leak: Could Smallpox Come Back?
09 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 1978 the world is on the brink of declaring victory over smallpox. No cases have been seen for months, and it looks like the end for a deadly, pain...
"Dangerously Near to Absolute Perfection"
02 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 1900, two friends in the flourishing Arts and Crafts Movement in London share a vision: to print the ultimate edition of the Bible. Together they c...
Buried by the Wall Street Crash (Classic)
25 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Cautionary Tales returns with a new episode on May 2nd. Both of the world’s greatest economists, Irving Fisher and John Maynard Keynes, thought ...
Presenting: You Must Remember This - Alfred Hitchcock
18 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Here's a special episode from our friends at You Must Remember This. Hitchcock’s most iconic decade— a decade of Technicolor grandeur and ...
“I love being the person who doesn’t know anything” - Why Steven Levitt has swapped academia for podcasting
11 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
20 years ago, a book called Freakonomics became an instant bestseller and worldwide sensation. Tim Harford got his hands on the first copy that Steve ...
The Old Man and the Wrecking Crew
04 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When Britain entered its first Covid-19 lockdown in March 2020, many found comfort in evoking the British wartime spirit. A timely hero emerged - Capt...
Houdini: The Phone Call from the Coffin (Part 3)
28 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Fearing for his life, Harry Houdini leaves secret codes with his loved ones, promising to use them in any post-mortem messaging. In 1926, Houdini's de...
Houdini's Detective and her 1500 Dead Husbands (Part 2)
21 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Harry Houdini finds an ally in his fight against spiritualism, a brilliant detective called Rose Mackenberg, who'll do whatever it takes to expose a f...
Houdini: A Message from the Spirits (Part 1)
14 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Harry Houdini is remembered today for his legendary escapes and illusions, but he also had a lifelong obsession with the paranormal. After dabbling in...
Would You Trust a Gangster Nanny? - Cautionary Questions with Rachel Botsman
07 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Lights, Camera, Tax Break
28 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 t...
The Nursery Rhyme That Ruined a Rock Band
21 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
"Down Under" was huge. This jokey ode to legendary Australian wanderlust helped Men at Work win a Grammy and was a key part of the band's creativ...
The Widow Who Disrupted Champagne (with Ben Walter)
19 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Tim Harford is joined by Ben Walter, CEO of Chase for Business and the host of "The Unshakeables" podcast, to explore the story of the trailblazing Wi...
The Thrill and the Drop: A First Date Rollercoaster
14 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Leah Washington and her new boyfriend Joe Pugh are on their first day out together. They're at Alton Towers theme park, where they've chosen to ride t...
Dr. Brinkley's Miracle Cure For Impotence (with Betwixt The Sheets)
07 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Cautionary Conversation: In the 1920s, a conman convinced America that goat testicles were the secret to male virility. Tim Harford and Dr Kate Lister...
The Night of the Mugger
31 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Winston Trew has just been arrested for mugging. It's 1972 and the crime has recently made its way to Britain from the United States. Dangerous thugs,...
Missing on "Dead Mountain": A Cold War Cold Case
24 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the bleak Russian winter of 1959, nine experienced hikers led by Igor Dyatlov set out on an expedition. None of them made it back alive. When their...
Frozen in a Burning 747 (Tenerife Air Disaster 2)
17 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Two airplanes have just collided on the runway at Tenerife Airport. While no one on the Amsterdam-bound KLM plane survives the resulting fireball, 71 ...
Cleared For Take-Off? (Tenerife Air Disaster 1)
10 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
“Evacuate the airport, we’ve planted bombs,” a terrorist tells the telephone operator at the airport in Gran Canaria, in 1977. By th...
Do NOT Pass GO! (Classic)
03 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Cautionary Tales returns with new episodes on January 10th. Lizzie J. Magie (played by Helena Bonham Carter) should be celebrated as the inventor...
Demonizing Dungeons & Dragons (Classic)
20 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 s...
Captain Coward and the Blame Game
06 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Off the coast of an Italian island, an enormous cruise ship - seventeen floors high, three soccer pitches long - is tilting noticeably to one side. Th...
Get Happier, Help Others: Some Good Ideas About Giving
02 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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...
RoboPod and the Perpetual Money Machine - Cautionary Questions 2
22 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What really drove the 2008 financial crash? What’s a shadow bank? And what’s the connection between NIMBYs and BANANAs? Tim Harford and Jacob Gold...
Darwin's Grandpa and the Art of Sex Appeal
08 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Charles Darwin was stumped by peacocks. According to his theory of evolution, some creatures were better equipped to survive in their particular envir...
The Edinburgh Body Snatchers: Murder at Halloween
25 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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, W...
Cautionary Tales Presents: Death Fraud and Other Risky Business
14 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Tim Harford joined Nate Silver and Maria Konnikova on their podcast Risky Business to discuss two of history’s most compelling swindlers: Sam Israel...
The Poet Who Toppled The British Empire
11 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
India, 1930. Sarojini Naidu is marching towards a British-controlled saltwork; behind her is a long column of protestors all dressed in white. The gr...
Reason, Wrath and Rebellion on the High Seas
27 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Early morning, April 1789. Captain Bligh is abruptly dragged from his cabin. Wrists bound, bayonet pressed to his chest, he and a few loyal sailors ar...
Steel and Kindness: Clash of the Skyscrapers
13 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Paul Starrett has just won a major building contract. If everything goes according to plan, this will be the tallest building in the world. But will ...
The Nice Guy, the Bully and the Kiss
13 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Leo Durocher would stop at nothing to win. The baseball player-turned-manager was a skilled tactician and famously tough. But he also cheated, intim...
Tim's Tolkien Obsession & Amazon Prime's The Rings of Power
30 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Tim Harford's life has been building up to this moment. In this Cautionary Conversation, he discusses the works of his favorite author J.R.R. Tolkien ...
The Human Guinea Pigs of Camp Lazear
16 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Young doctor Jesse Lazear has deadly Yellow Fever. He thrashes around and convulses in his sick bed, and his vomit is black. He is just 34 when he die...
Embracing the Escape Fire (with Adam Grant)
02 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Cautionary Conversation: Steve Jobs hated his phone so much that he smashed it against a wall. He also referred to mobile carriers as "orifices". Yet ...
Cautionary Tales Presents Vultures from Lost Hills: Dark Canyon
25 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The disappearance and death of Mitrice Richardson remains Malibu, CA’s most baffling unsolved case. It’s been nearly 14 years since her remains we...
Flying Too High: AI and Air France Flight 447
19 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Panic has erupted in the cockpit of Air France Flight 447. The pilots are convinced they’ve lost control of the plane. It’s lurching violently. ...
Run, Switzer, Run: The Women Who Broke the Marathon Taboo
05 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Until the 1960s, it was deemed too "dangerous" for women athletes to run distances longer than 200m - and a marathon would kill them, or leave them un...
Adidas v Puma: A Battle of Boots and Brothers
21 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Adi and Rudi Dassler made sports shoes together - until a feud erupted between them. They set up competing companies, Adidas and Puma, and their bitte...
The Revenge of the Whales
07 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, in 1819, Owen Chase is standing on a slowly sinking ship. It's just been headbutted by an 85 foot whale. It's taki...
When the Robots Take Over... - Cautionary Questions
24 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Tim Harford is joined by Jacob Goldstein to answer your questions. Does winning the lottery make you unhappy? Is Bitcoin bad for the economy? When d...
WW2: How Britain Ignored the Mother of All Secrets
10 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Neatly dressed in his suit, Hans Ferdinand Mayer was every inch the unassuming corporate executive. So, when he asked to borrow a typewriter from his ...
The Fraudster's Guide to Magic Money
26 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Sam Israel had a problem. The investors in his hedge fund, Bayou Capital, were expecting spectacular returns. Sam himself had spent years proclaiming...
Blood and Gold (with Dan Snow)
23 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Bonus: When Spanish conquistadors arrived in Peru in 1526, it was the beginning of the end for the Inca. Their bloody pursuit of gold, fame and fortun...
The Rise and Fall of a Megalomaniac
12 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Nicolae Ceaușescu was not beloved. His regime was vicious and he treated Romania as his personal wallet: while Ceaușescu emptied the coffers to con...
Inside the Bizarre World of Dictators
29 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Why are so many autocrats germaphobes? Why was the truth so dangerous for Soviet engineers? And what can salami reveal to us about the mind of Vladimi...
Do Nothing, Then Do Less
15 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Chuck Yeager's plane pitched and rolled as it plummeted from the sky. He grappled with the controls inside the cockpit, but to no avail: he couldn't s...
Buried Evil: V2 Rocket (Part 3)
01 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As US troops approached a Nazi prison camp, they could hear agonized wailing. The stench of rotting flesh filled their nostrils. Moments later they di...