Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford

Pushkin Industries

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. Read more

History

Episodes

Liar, Bigamist, Brute: How Isaac Singer Liberated Women

01/09/2026 00:37:30Fritterin' Away Genius (Classic)

01/02/2026 00:37:20 Photographing Fairies (Classic)

12/26/2025 00:37:44"They fall behind and are slowly crushed" - Board Games and Economics with Richard Garfield

12/19/2025 00:47:33Flixborough: The Factory that was Wiped off the Map

12/12/2025 00:38:30 Show all episodes

Our take on Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford podcast

As we walk through life, we make many mistakes, some of which significantly impact our well-being. Many of these mistakes are avoidable only if we got cautioned earlier. Tim Harford takes his time every Friday to tell us true stories about mistakes we should learn from. These stories might delight you; they will undoubtedly entertain you, and most will scare you; however, they teach you something. Tom is also the author of "The Data Detective," a book on the rules to make sense of statistics.