Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford

Pushkin Industries 254 - The Doors of Death: The Herald of Free Enterprise

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 Friday.

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Episodes

24 Jul 2026

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10 Jul 2026

03 Jul 2026

26 Jun 2026

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29 May 2026

22 May 2026

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08 May 2026

01 May 2026

24 Apr 2026

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10 Apr 2026

07 Apr 2026

03 Apr 2026

27 Mar 2026

20 Mar 2026

13 Mar 2026

06 Mar 2026

27 Feb 2026

20 Feb 2026

17 Feb 2026

13 Feb 2026

06 Feb 2026

30 Jan 2026

23 Jan 2026

16 Jan 2026

09 Jan 2026

02 Jan 2026

26 Dec 2025

19 Dec 2025

12 Dec 2025

05 Dec 2025

04 Dec 2025

28 Nov 2025

21 Nov 2025

18 Nov 2025

14 Nov 2025

07 Nov 2025

31 Oct 2025

28 Oct 2025

24 Oct 2025

17 Oct 2025

10 Oct 2025

03 Oct 2025

Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford

Episodes

The Doors of Death: The Herald of Free Enterprise

"What a Bloody Mess we're in" - Britain's [REDACTED] Accident

Attack of the Night People

LIVE: We Are Not Machines - with Sarah O'Connor

Treacle Tears: The Boston Molasses Disaster

The Thief, the Jewels, and the Dublin Castle Conspiracy

The Dunning Canoe-ger Effect

Presenting...This is History: A Dynasty to Die For

How Civilizations Die - with Paul Cooper

Can You Make a Sherman Tank Float?

The Inventor who Almost Ended the World (Classic)

From Drilled: The Carbon Gold Rush

Angels, Gold and Lust: John Dee and the Philosopher's Stone (Part 2)

The Queen's Astrologer: The Price of Prophecy (Part 1)

Beware Tech Tycoons with Piranha Tanks - with Katie Prescott

Finding Grace in a Burger Bun: An Incrediburgible Quest

Run, Switzer, Run: The Women who Broke the Marathon Taboo (Classic)

The Lovestruck Explorer's Deadly Guessing Game

The Refugee Who Led a Software Revolution - with Ben Walter

The Mad Mystic and the Last Battle on English Soil - with Ian Breckon

The Sightseeing Flight and the Invisible Mountain

Presenting: Drug Story - On Xanax and Anxiety

"And it went click" - Dawn of the Working Dead

Explosives or Sugar? The Deadly Art of Distraction in Putin’s Russia - with Helena Merriman

Flight of the Fantasist: The Race Around the World - Part 2

The Philosopher and the Handyman: The Race Around the World - Part 1

Presenting... American Criminal: The Great McDonald's Monopoly Heist

Sphygmograph Be Damned: The Science of Love

The Angels, The Stones and The Dead

Powered by Orgasm: The Rise and Fall of a Sex Cult - with Ellen Huet

The WOW Machine Stops (Pt 2)

Shoes, Booze and the Pursuit of Happiness (Pt 1)

Liar, Bigamist, Brute: How Isaac Singer Liberated Women

Fritterin' Away Genius (Classic)

Photographing Fairies (Classic)

"They fall behind and are slowly crushed" - Board Games and Economics with Richard Garfield

Flixborough: The Factory that was Wiped off the Map

The Disappearance of Grace Oakeshott

Your Chance to Attend a Cautionary Tales Table Read

Homo deceptus: Science's Dirty Little Secret

Kyoto: The Battle that Defined Climate Politics - with Joe Robertson

Presenting: Twenty Thousand Hertz

The Treasure Hunt that Broke America (Part 2)

The Treasure Hunt that Broke America (Part 1)

The Truth About Hansel and Gretel (Classic)

On Fire from the Inside - Lethal Injection Up Close with Malcolm Gladwell

Derek Bentley Must Hang

The Canal, the Crash and the Ketamine - Pushkin's Reign of Error

Schrödinger's Spy: Businessman, Fraud, or Russian Agent? - with Sam Jones

Missing Fish and Fatal Feasts: Ritual and Ruin at the Sun King’s Table