Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford

History Podcasts

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...

Episodes

"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