Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford
Episodes
You Have Reached Your Destination
27 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We may mock our ancestors for seeking the advice of oracles, soothsayers and psychics, but today we rely heavily on computer programs and math formula...
Bowie, Jazz and the Unplayable Piano
20 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It was the biggest concert of Keith Jarrett's career - but the pianist was in for a shock when he entered Koln's opera house. The only piano at the ve...
How Britain Invented, Then Ignored, Blitzkrieg
13 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In 1917, a brilliant British officer developed a way to use an emerging military technology: the tank. The British army promptly squandered the idea –...
Buried by the Wall Street Crash
06 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Both of the world’s greatest economists, Irving Fisher and John Maynard Keynes, thought they could see into the future and make a killing on the sto...
The Deadly Airship Race
29 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A British Lord wanted to build the best airship in the world - and so he had two rival design teams battle it out to win the juicy government contract...
La La Land: Galileo's Warning
22 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Galileo tried to teach us that adding more and more layers to a system intended to avert disaster often makes catastrophe all the more likely to happe...
The Rogue Dressed as a Captain
15 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
One crisp morning in Berlin, in 1906, a small group of soldiers were led on an extraordinary heist by a man they believed to be a Captain. So how did ...
DANGER: Rocks Ahead!
15 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Torrey Canyon was one of the biggest and best ships in the world - but its captain and crew still needlessly steered it towards a deadly reef known as...
Introducing: Cautionary Tales
22 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Coming November 15 from Tim Harford and Pushkin Industries, Cautionary Tales relates a true story of a time when something did not go according to pla...