Steel and Kindness: Clash of the Skyscrapers
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 everything go according to plan? This…
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We tell our children unsettling fairy tales to teach them valuable life 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 Messy and The Undercover Economist) brings you stories of awful human error, tragic catastrophes, daring heists and hilarious fiascos. They’ll delight you and scare you, but also make you wiser.
Most Recent Episode
Steel and Kindness: Clash of the Skyscrapers
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 everything go according to plan? This…
The Nice Guy, the Bully and the Kiss
Leo Durocher would stop at nothing to win. The baseball player-turned-manager was a skilled tactician and famously tough. But he also cheated, intimidated umpires and was violent; he was even known to…
Tim’s Tolkien Obsession & Amazon Prime’s The Rings of Power
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 and the social science at play…
The Human Guinea Pigs of Camp Lazear
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 dies. Curiously,…
Embracing the Escape Fire (with Adam Grant)
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 he went on to invent…
Flying Too High: AI and Air France Flight 447
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. Then, it begins plummeting from the sky at…
Run, Switzer, Run: The Women Who Broke the Marathon Taboo
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 unable to have…
Adidas v Puma: A Battle of Boots and Brothers
Adi and Rudi Dassler made sports shoes together - until a feud erupted between them. They set up competing companies, Adidas and Puma, and their bitter rivalry divided the sporting…
The Revenge of the Whales
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 taking in…
When the Robots Take Over… – Cautionary Questions
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 does correlation imply causation? And what will Tim…
WW2: How Britain Ignored the Mother of All Secrets
Cautionary Tales will be LIVE on stage in London this May. Tickets are on sale now: https://www.tegeurope.com/events/cautionary-tales/ Neatly dressed in his suit, Hans Ferdinand Mayer was every inch the unassuming corporate…
The Fraudster’s Guide to Magic Money
Cautionary Tales will be LIVE on stage in London this May. Tickets are on sale now: https://www.tegeurope.com/events/cautionary-tales/ Sam Israel had a problem. The investors in his hedge fund, Bayou Capital, were expecting…
Blood and Gold (with Dan Snow)
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 fortune was rife with…
The Rise and Fall of a Megalomaniac
Nicolae Ceaușescu was not beloved. His regime was vicious and he treated Romania as his personal wallet: while Ceaușescu emptied the coffers to construct a vast, ornate palace, his people starved.…
Inside the Bizarre World of Dictators
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 Vladimir Putin? This is…
Do Nothing, Then Do Less
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 steady the aircraft. The…
Buried Evil: V2 Rocket (Part 3)
As US troops approached a Nazi prison camp, they could hear agonized wailing. The stench of rotting flesh filled their nostrils. Moments later they discovered a pile of smoldering corpses,…
Supersonic Nazi Vengeance: V2 Rocket (Part 1)
At the height of World War Two, British intelligence began receiving reports that the enemy was developing a rocket weapon. The idea seemed fantastical — resources in Nazi Germany were…
Tenerife: The Most Deadly Air Disaster
Teaser: In 1977, two planes collided on the runway at Tenerife Airport. Why did the crash happen? And, given that it took place on the ground, why didn't more people…
How the Radium Girls Fought Back
Cautionary Book Club: Mollie Maggia's dentist planned to remove a painful abscess from her mouth. But to his horror, her jawbone disintegrated at his touch, crumbling and splintering until it resembled ash. Like hundreds of her…
Glowing Peril: The Magical Glitter That Poisoned a City
In Goiânia, Brazil, a junk dealer acquires an old medical device from two scrap-metal scavengers. The device itself isn't useful, but it comes with precious lead which will fetch him good money.…
George Washington’s Beard of Beetles (with The Dollop)
Cautionary Conversation: Just before Christmas 1799, President George Washington was riding around his country estate, Mount Vernon, when it began to snow. When he arrived home, guests were waiting for him.…
Laser Versus Parchment: Doomsday for the Disc
William the Conqueror undertook a remarkably modern project. In 1086, he began compiling and storing a detailed record of his realm: of where everyone lived, what they did and where…
Killers of the Flower Moon: Osage Chief Jim Gray In Conversation
Henry Roan has been shot through the back of his head. The local authorities have found his body slumped over the steering wheel of his car. There's no gun at…
Oil and Blood: The Osage Murders
Minnie Smith grew sick quite suddenly. She had been young, fit and healthy - and the doctors were baffled when she died. "A peculiar wasting illness," they called it. Then,…
DOUBLE BILL: A Monkey For Mayor / A Screw Loose At 17,000 Feet
This week, we've twice the storytelling fun for you: two Cautionary Tales shorts, previously only available to Pushkin+ subscribers. A Monkey for Mayor: It was supposed to be a publicity…
“7000 horses are being flown across space…” – Cautionary Questions #2
Why are board games so popular in Germany? What’s Tim Harford’s top tip for productivity? And where do all those sound effects come from? Tim is joined by Cautionary Tales’…
A Chorus of Contempt at The Sydney Opera House
1957. Jørn Utzon receives a phone call: he's just won an international competition to design a brand new opera house for the Australian city of Sydney. Utzon is unknown in…
The City That Sold Itself To Wall Street
Cautionary Book Club: When Morgan Stanley offered to lease Chicago's parking metres for the princely sum of $1 billion, the City Council were convinced that they had struck gold. They hastily…
General Ludd’s Rage Against the Machines
1812. A band of "Luddites" is laying siege to a textile mill in the North of England, under cover of night. They plan to destroy the machines that are replacing…
The Father of Space Travel
Cautionary Conversation: Did a Nazi put America on the moon? To celebrate the launch of his mini-series on the V-2 rocket, Tim Harford sits down with Pushkin’s resident V-2 expert,…
Poles Apart: How A Journalist Divided A City
Heroic explorer Frederick Cook has just returned from the very roof of the world, the first man to reach the North Pole. Or so he says. Journalist Philip Gibbs has…
Andy Warhol’s Factory of Truth
Cautionary Conversation: Andy Warhol’s assistant, Gerard Malanga, is facing a long prison sentence in Italy. He’s forged several Che Guevara portraits and tried to pass them off as genuine Warhols.…
When Parakeets Plundered New York
Cautionary Conversation: An invasive parakeet species began spreading in New York City - and the government decided to kill every last bird. Tim Harford is joined by Ben Naddaff-Hafrey, host…
The Coup, the Poet and the Secret to Winning Wimbledon
“If you can make one heap of all your winnings and risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss..." Those words - from Rudyard Kipling's poem "If" - were based on…
The Man Who Played With Hurricanes
Today, the idea of controlling the weather is controversial. Scientists who research geoengineering have even received death threats. But once upon a time, people were optimistic about remaking the climate…
Sonic Poison? The Genesis of Havana Syndrome
CIA agents in Havana complaining of mental fog, dizziness and ear pain in 2016. Children in Miami in 1974, hyperventilating and wracked with abdominal pain. A medieval outbreak of the…
Airships, AI and Alan Cumming: Tim Answers Your Questions
Why does economics get a bad rap? How did a small Hungarian airline wreak havoc in the 2000s? What cautionary tales can we glean from Tim’s own life? And what’s…
The Man Who Bet His House on a Pop Song – A Eurovision Tale
You can gamble on horses or on the turn of a card - but Daniel Gould made a living betting on the outcome of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. Daniel…
The Dark Money Behind Mother’s Day
Anna Marie Jarvis wanted a national holiday to honor the dedication and sacrifice of America's mothers. She wasn't the first person to propose a Mother's Day - but her campaign…
The True Scandal of Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound
It could cure any 'female ailment' - even cancer - said the adverts. But Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound was, in fact, just a concoction of herbs and alcohol of…
What if Terrorists Could Weaponize Covid?
Cautionary Conversation: In 1990, a small extremist group launched a nerve gas attack on passengers riding the Tokyo subway. Thousands of people were hurt, more than a dozen died. At…
The Vigilante and the Air Traffic Controller
Air traffic controllers are meant to stop aircrafts from flying into one another... and if they fail, computer systems are installed to warn pilots of a coming collision. But sometimes…
America’s Mata Hari? The Double Life of Esther Reed
Cautionary Conversation: When a small-town detective gets a tip about a missing woman, he believes he's uncovered a highly-trained chameleon: a foreign spy. Soon, Esther Reed is on the FBI's…
Office Hell: the Demise of the Playful Workspace
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 would sweep away corner offices and cubicles…
The Scientist and the Swindler
Cautionary Conversation: Celebrated physicist Professor Paul Frampton was on his way to Brussels to meet the love of his life, swimwear model Denise Milani. Or so he thought. When he…
The Hero Who Rode His Segway Off a Cliff
Steve Jobs called It “the most amazing piece of technology since the PC.” According to Jeff Bezos It was not only “revolutionary,” but infinitely commercial. It was a fiendishly clever…
The Final Illusion of the Great Lafayette
Golden sparks are raining down on the Great Lafayette’s famous vaudeville show, “The Lion’s Bride”. They look like they’re part of the performance. They aren’t — and soon the theater…
LIVE: The Myth of the Million Dollar Tulip Bulb
RECORDED BEFORE AN AUDIENCE AT THE BRISTOL FESTIVAL OF ECONOMICS (11/17/2022) The Dutch went so potty over tulip bulbs in the 1600s that many were ruined when the inflated prices…
The Company That Cancelled Christmas
More than 100,000 families - many of them amongst the poorest in Britain - put money aside for Christmas gifts and other seasonal treats in a savings club called Farepak.…
The Wild Turkeys of Schleswig
There are eight American turkeys painted on the walls of Schleswig's Cathedral of St Peter - which is odd... since the frescoes were created two centuries before Columbus even crossed…
The Inventor Who Almost Ended the World
Thomas Midgley's inventions caused his own death, hastened the deaths of millions of people around the world, and very nearly extinguished all life on land. Midgley and his employers didn't…
The Halloween Poisoner
Candy laced with cyanide and needles in marshmallows, we've long been warned to be suspicious of the sweet treats handed out by strangers at Halloween. But it seems that most…
Cautionary Conversation: The Conspiracy Theorist Who Changed His Mind
Charlie Veitch was certain that 9/11 was an inside job. The attack on the World Trade Center wasn't the work of Al-Qaeda, but an elaborate conspiracy. He became a darling…
The Online Date That’s Too Good to be True
Single and looking for love, Dr. Robert Epstein found himself chatting with a slim, attractive brunette online. She seemed perfect... perhaps even too good to be true. Dr. Epstein is…
A Leap of Faith From the Eiffel Tower
Inventor Franz Reichelt wants to test his novel "parachute suit" from as tall a structure as possible - and the Eiffel Tower seems ideal. Previous trial runs used a mannequin…
Cautionary Conversation: Flying on Empty
A meter is longer than a yard. An ounce is heavier than a gram. We harmlessly mix them up sometimes, but a "unit conversion error" when you're filling up the…
“You’re not Howard Hughes!”
By the 1970s Howard Hughes was the "invisible billionaire”. A business tycoon, a daring aviator and Hollywood Lothario, Hughes had an amazing life story... but hiding away in luxury hotels…
South Pole Race: When the Limeys Get Scurvy
Polar exploration is dangerous... but trudging hundreds of miles in subzero temperatures isn't made any easier if you're suffering from scurvy. The deadly vitamin deficiency destroys the body and will…
South Pole Race: “Mummy, is Amundsen a good man?”
Roald Amundsen beat Captain Scott to the South Pole. The Norwegian - using dog sleds and skis - made it look easy... fun, even. He was heading home to safety,…
South Pole Race: David and Goliath on Ice
1910: Two men are racing to be the first to reach the South Pole. Captain Robert Falcon Scott heads a well-financed, technologically-advanced expedition - aiming to reach the pole in…
Chicago When It Sizzles
July 1995. A deadly heat wave gripped Chicago - bridges buckled; the power grids failed; and the morgue ran out of space - but some neighborhoods saw more deaths than…
The French Knight’s Guide to Corporate Culture
France 1346: The army of King Philip VI is Europe's pre-eminent killing machine. It's accustomed to crushing any force stupid enough to oppose it, and now fully expects to annihilate…
Frankenstein Versus the Volcano
When Mount Tambora erupted it spewed ash across the globe; blotting out the sun; poisoning crops; and bringing starvation, illness and death to millions. It may also have helped inspire…
Bless the Coal-Black Hearts of the Broadway Critics
When Billy Joel agreed to let dance legend Twyla Tharp turn his songs into a Broadway musical it seemed like a surefire hit. But in previews, Movin’ Out was panned…
When the Autopilot Switched Off
An airline captain thought he was giving his children a harmless thrill by letting them "fly" his packed airplane - the young cockpit visitors weren't really in control... the autopilot…
The False Dawn of the Electric Car
Sir Clive Sinclair was a computer whizz and business mogul to rival Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. He was a visionary who could do no wrong... until he tried to…
The Balloons That Ate Cleveland (A Cautionary Tales Short)
When Disneyland released one million helium balloons to set a new world record, Cleveland, Ohio looked on in envy. Could it top the Magic Kingdom? What did citizens hope to…
Death on the Dance Floor
With its splendid modern architecture, the Hyatt Regency was the place to be seen in Kansas City in 1981. Beneath space-age walkways, guests drank, laughed and danced... not realizing that…
The Mummy’s Curse
Disturbing the remains of the Egyptian pharaohs is known to incur a deadly curse, so why did a team of archeologists still risk inciting the wrath of King Tutankhamun by…
The Truth About Hansel and Gretel
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,…
Do NOT Pass GO!
Lizzie J. Magie (played by Helena Bonham Carter) should be celebrated as the inventor of what would become Monopoly - but her role in creating the smash hit board game…
Wrong Tools Cost Lives
The British Government promised to create a "world-beating" system to track deadly Covid 19 infections - but it included an outdated version of the off-the-shelf spreadsheet software Microsoft. The result…
Fritterin’ Away Genius
Claude Shannon was brilliant. He was the Einstein of computer science... only he loved "fritterin’ away" his time building machines to play chess, solve Rubik’s cubes and beat the house…
The Fan Who Infected a Movie Star
German measles is a minor illness for most people - but for unborn children it can be devastating. In 1943 - when the link was only just becoming clear -…
Whistleblower on the 28th Floor
Financial expert Ray Dirks (played by Jeffrey Wright) exposed one of the biggest corporate crimes of all time - and yet he was the one who ended up in front…
Masterly Inactivity Versus Micromanaging
Lady Sale (played by Helena Bonham Carter) was part of a bloody and ignominious British retreat from Afghanistan in 1842. The arrogant colonial invaders had thought intervening in Afghan affairs…
Demonizing Dungeons & Dragons
When James Dallas Egbert III was reported missing from his college dorm - one of America’s most flamboyant private detectives was summoned to solve the case. "Dallas" had many of…
Number Fever: How Pepsi Nearly Went Pop
Pepsi twice ended up in court after promotions went disastrously wrong. Other big companies have fallen into the same trap - promising customers rewards so generous that to fulfill the…
The Curse of Knowledge Meets The Valley of Death
Why were soldiers on horseback told to ride straight into a valley full of enemy cannon? The disastrous "Charge of the Light Brigade" is usually blamed on blundering generals. But…
The Dunning Kruger Hijack (and Other Criminally Stupid Acts)
The hijackers of flight 961 wanted its pilot to fly them to Australia - and wouldn’t listen to his pleas that there simply wasn’t enough fuel for the mammoth trip.…
Catching a Killer Doctor
Family doctor Harold Shipman got away with murdering his patients for decades. He was one of the most prolific serial killers in history - but his hundreds of crimes largely…
The Art Forger, the Nazi, and “The Pope”
"The Pope" was a revered Dutch art expert - and yet he fell for a not very convincing forgery of a "lost" Vermeer masterpiece. The forger had duped other art…
Florence Nightingale and Her Geeks Declare War on Death
Victorian nurse Florence Nightingale (played by her distant cousin Helena Bonham Carter) is a hero of modern medicine - but her greatest contribution to combating disease and death resulted from…
Martin Luther King Jr; the Jewelry Genius; and the Art of Public Speaking
One speechmaker inspired millions with his words, the other utterly destroyed his own multi-million-dollar business with just a few phrases. Civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr (played by Jeffrey…
BONUS: Storks, Smoking and the Power of Doubt
It’s easy to mock statistics or cast doubt on them, but we do so at our peril. Undermining our trust in facts and figures can cause great harm, and even…
How To End A Pandemic
The eradication of smallpox is one of humanity’s great achievements — but the battle against the virus was fought by the most unlikely of alliances. How did the breakthrough happen…
That Turn To Pascagoula
For years, people had warned that New Orleans was vulnerable — but when a hurricane came close to destroying the city, the reaction was muted. Some people took the near…
The Village of Heroes
It looked like any ordinary roll of cloth, but it brought the dreaded plague to the village of Eyam. First it killed the tailor, then resident after resident succumbed. To…
The Spreadsheet of Life and Death
Clive had a deadly form of cancer, but fortunately there was a new drug to treat it. Imagine his anger when he was told the treatment was too expensive. He’d…
A Tsunami of Misery
A monstrous wave and then a nuclear disaster forced Mikio and Hamako Watanabe from their home. But being saved from the potential dangers of a radiation leak destroyed their lives…
Fire at The Beverly Hills Supper Club
Flames are spreading through a Cincinnati hotel. The staff know it, the fire department is coming, and the people in the packed cabaret bar have been told to evacuate… and…
You Have Reached Your Destination
We may mock our ancestors for seeking the advice of oracles, soothsayers and psychics, but today we rely heavily on computer programs and math formulas to help us navigate our…
Bowie, Jazz, and the Unplayable Piano
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 venue…
How Britain Invented, Then Ignored, Blitzkrieg
In 1917, a brilliant British officer developed a way to use an emerging military technology: the tank. The British army promptly squandered the idea – but the Germans did not.…
Buried by the Wall Street Crash
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 stock market — and then…
The Deadly Airship Race
Competition is supposed to bring the best out of people, but run in the wrong way it can cause people to fall apart in the most horrifying ways.
La La Land: Galileo’s Warning
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 happen. His basic lesson…
DANGER: Rocks Ahead!
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 The…
The Rogue Dressed as a Captain
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…
The Host
Tim Harford
Tim Harford’s long-running column in the Financial Times, “The Undercover Economist,” reveals the economic ideas behind everyday experiences. His first book, The Undercover Economist, was published in 30 languages and sold…
