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Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford

Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford

By: Pushkin Industries
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About this listen

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.

2026 2025 Pushkin Industries
Social Sciences World
Episodes
  • Run, Switzer, Run: The Women who Broke the Marathon Taboo (Classic)
    Apr 17 2026

    Tim is running the London Marathon on the 26th of April. To give him a week off to finish training, we're playing this running-themed classic from the archives. If you would like to donate to Teenage Cancer Trust, Tim's fundraising page is at tinyurl.com/HarfordMarathon - any support is very much appreciated.

    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 children. Rubbish, of course. But when Kathrine Switzer signed up for the 1967 Boston Marathon, it wasn't the distance that bothered her - it was the enraged race director trying to assault her.

    Thanks to pioneers like Kathrine, women have made huge strides in long distance running - and are now challenging the times of men in the very races they were banned from for so very long.

    See the show notes at timharford.com

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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    37 mins
  • The Lovestruck Explorer's Deadly Guessing Game
    Apr 10 2026

    In 1860, police officer Robert O'Hara Burke plans an expedition to map the mysterious blank in the centre of Australia. Joining him is scientist William Wills, and a ragtag team of hires. Burke falls out with virtually everyone around him, and demonstrates an uncanny ability to make terrible choices - from the equipment he brings to the route he takes. But even as the mission unravels, one final, simple decision could still save him.

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

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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    39 mins
  • The Refugee Who Led a Software Revolution - with Ben Walter
    Apr 7 2026

    Millionaire-making tech start-ups are most often associated with Silicon Valley. But this software revolution begins on a woman’s kitchen table in rural Britain in the 1960s. Steve Shirley faced extraordinary odds. After escaping Nazi Germany as a child, she later encountered workplace discrimination and endured deep personal tragedy. But she persevered to build a business decades ahead of its time, creating opportunities for hundreds of women.

    Tim Harford is joined by Ben Walter, CEO of Chase for Business and host of The Unshakeables podcast, to explore the life, legacy and lessons of an overlooked titan of tech.

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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    28 mins
All stars
Most relevant
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.

Riveting

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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

Super interesting

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“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.

Note Worthy Events Explained Very Well

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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.

If only someone had actually researched the name

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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.

Very good but…

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