https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/the-treasure-hunt-that-broke-america-part-2 https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/the-treasure-hunt-that-broke-america-part-1 Forrest Fenn’s legendary treasure hunt ignites a nationwide...
Is there a more annoying cliché in policy-wonk circles than “there are no silver bullets”? If so, it does not readily spring to mind. What those who intone this ritual phrase mean, of course, is not to expect too much. Silver bullets kill werewolves, we are told: just...
The US is making the immigration of skilled workers more expensive; the UK is exploring ways to make it cheaper. It is tempting to conclude that one of them must be wrong. But which? President Donald Trump’s eye-catching proclamation that $100,000 will be added to the...
https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/the-treasure-hunt-that-broke-america-part-1 https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/the-treasure-hunt-that-broke-america-part-2 Forrest Fenn never does things the regular way. Despite no formal...
The children of North End, Boston, play in the shadow of an enormous steel tank of molasses. The thick, sticky sugar syrup is being used to make munitions for the First World War. When a worker notices dark molasses seeping from the tank, hewarns the company that...
https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/the-truth-about-hansel-and-gretel-classic Was the fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel – the story of a woodcutter’s children abandoned in the woods and left at the mercy of a witch – in fact, early true crime? A hit...
In the late 1930s, a Dutch civil servant, Jacobus Lentz, designed a near-unforgeable identity card. In 1940, the Dutch government rejected his proposal as too intrusive. Weeks later, Germany occupied the Netherlands and Lentz travelled to Berlin to pitch his idea. The...
https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/on-fire-from-the-inside-lethal-injection-up-close-with-malcolm-gladwell Last week, Cautionary Tales told the tragic story of Derek Bentley, exploring Britain's troubled relationship...
https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/derek-bentley-must-hang An amateurish burglary in 1950s London ends in murder. One of the men involved is a 19-year-old named Derek Bentley. Bentley has the understanding of a child - and he wasn't the...