Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford

By: Pushkin Industries
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  • Summary

  • We tell our children unsettling fairy tales to teach them valuable 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 “The Data Detective”) brings you stories of awful human error, tragic catastrophes, and hilarious fiascos. They'll delight you, scare you, but also make you wiser. New episodes every other Friday.
    2024 iHeartMedia, Inc. © Any use of this intellectual property for text and data mining or computational analysis including as training material for artificial intelligence systems is strictly prohibited without express written consent from iHeartMedia
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Episodes
  • Darwin's Grandpa and the Art of Sex Appeal

    Darwin's Grandpa and the Art of Sex Appeal
    Nov 8 2024

    Take the Cautionary Tales listener survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HCHGGZ3

    Charles Darwin was stumped by peacocks. According to his theory of evolution, some creatures were better equipped to survive in their particular environment than others. It explained a lot - but it didn't explain the peacock's brightly coloured tail feathers, which were extravagant and cumbersome. Surely such plumage made it harder for peacocks to survive?

    It so happens that the life of Darwin's own grandfather offered clues to the puzzle of the peacock's tail - if only he'd known to look there...

    For a full list of sources, see the show notes at timharford.com.

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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    41 mins
  • The Edinburgh Body Snatchers: Murder at Halloween

    The Edinburgh Body Snatchers: Murder at Halloween
    Oct 25 2024

    Take the Cautionary Tales listener survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HCHGGZ3

    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, William Burke and William Hare, spotted a grim business opportunity. They began sourcing bodies - by any means possible...

    In this episode of Cautionary Tales - recorded live at the Podcast Show in London - true crime meets economics. Tim Harford's hair-raising story explores a question: what makes some markets acceptable, and others repugnant?

    For a full list of sources, see the show notes at timharford.com

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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    42 mins
  • Cautionary Tales Presents: Death Fraud and Other Risky Business

    Cautionary Tales Presents: Death Fraud and Other Risky Business
    Oct 14 2024

    Tim Harford joined Nate Silver and Maria Konnikova on their podcast Risky Business to discuss two of history’s most compelling swindlers: Sam Israel III and John Law.

    We hope you enjoy this episode of Risky Business. It's available wherever you listen to podcasts.

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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    48 mins

What listeners say about Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford

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Profile Image for SEAN BAIN

Note Worthy Events Explained Very Well

“Exceedingly insightful tales with narratives that contain poignant and informative lessons.”

Each episode contains valuable and useful insights about stories I previously became curious about but as an adult didn’t know who to ask, so put them aside. I think sealing open questions with well sourced answers supports my understanding.

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Profile Image for Mr. R. Thomas

Riveting

I had no idea about the self testing humans had the bravery to encounter. The point is made near to the end of the broadcast possible reasons for this bravery. These are astonishing accounts.

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Profile Image for James M.

Super interesting

Love this (as well as pretty much anything Tim Harford does) - just wish they clearly titled which episodes are the proper episodes and which are conversations - you end up having to listen to the start to figure it out a lot of the time

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Profile Image for BookCovered

If only someone had actually researched the name

Why did no-one tell Tim it's pronounced Eem, not Eee -am, and he says he grew up nearby....little things like this can be so frustrating. So apart from getting that basic fact wrong, and changing Curbar Edge from 'Curber' to become 'Curr - pause - barr it's not ' a bad retelling.

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Profile Image for Jen

Very good but…

Tim H is highly entertaining and authoritative journalist, making complicated topics seem very straight forward. So why the 3 stars? I highly resent the adverts when I’m paying for an annual subscription to a streaming service. If these were free, fair enough but the high cost of the audible service does not justify adding adverts. Plus, as Tim H would himself would say, paying twice for an item is not economical! Audible, pls sort it out and don’t treat your audience like idiots.

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2 people found this helpful