In a small black box, in a cupboard just out of reach of my desk, I keep one of my few treasured possessions: a set of Oblique Strategies cards, signed by their co-creator, the artist and musician Brian Eno. The cards, each carrying a brief instruction, are a prompt...
https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/dumm-und-d-mmer-hitler-invades-florida In 1942, eight men are sent from Nazi Germany to infiltrate America. Their mission: to sabotage critical infrastructure. Their problem: they’re idiots. Operation Pastorius...
https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/the-delorean-saga-fraud-drugs-and-marty-mcflys-car-with-business-history This is a special crossover episode with Business History. John DeLorean was a visionary who wanted to create a futuristic new sports car -...
In 2012, the creator of the xkcd cartoon Randall Munroe unveiled Up Goer Five — a detailed diagram of the Saturn V rocket, annotated using only the most common 1,000 (sorry, “ten hundred”) words in the dictionary. It was a viral hit, as was the follow-up book, Thing...
Born into a poor, abusive household in 1838, Victoria Woodhull doesn't have much hope of a comfortable life. But she's smart, charismatic and has an uncanny ability to read people, managing to forge a path to Wall Street and the publishing world. When Woodhull decides...
https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/the-weight-of-fame-a-hollywood-tragedy Talented and beautiful, Molly O'Day is a rising star in 1920s Hollywood. But when Molly's teenage body starts to change and she can no longer fit into the dress she wore...
Four hundred years ago, in a Stockholm shipyard, work began on Vasa, the pride of the Swedish navy. King Gustavus Adolphus was at war, and gave orders to his shipwrights to build something impressive. In accordance with the king’s instructions, Vasa was ambitiously...
https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/arsenic-and-lace-the-trial-of-the-yorkshire-witch-with-maddy-pelling Mary Bateman lived in York in the late 18th Century, an age that prized rational thought. Many people still longed to believe in the old ways...
https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/the-doors-of-death-the-herald-of-free-enterprise? The Herald of Free Enterprise is a new class of ferry that allows cars to drive directly into the ship. The doors protecting the ship must be closed before every...