When Billy Joel agreed to let dance legend Twyla Tharp turn his songs into a Broadway musical it seemed like a surefire hit. But in previews, Movin’ Out was panned by the critics. It was soon headed for Broadway and was set to be an expensive and embarrassing...
Cautionary Tales
My podcast, telling true stories about mistakes and what we should learn from them.
Cautionary Tales Short – A Screw Loose At 17,000ft
Cautionary Tales will be back next Friday (and every other Friday thereafter). For Pushkin+ subscribers, I proudly present another Cautionary Tales “Short”. Shownotes The ideal source on Maintenance Guy and his travails is Matt Parker's wonderful book Humble Pi;...
Cautionary Tales – When the autopilot switched off
An airline captain thought he was giving his children a harmless thrill by letting them "fly" his packed airplane - the young cockpit visitors weren't really in control... the autopilot was doing the real flying. Until it wasn't. Do safety features actually lull us...
Cautionary Tales Short – Voting in a Monkey as Mayor
Cautionary Tales episodes are released every other Friday, and so there will be one appearing again next week. Meanwhile, for Pushkin+ subscribers, I proudly present another Cautionary Tales “Short”. Shownotes The main sources on the Hartlepool elections were...
Cautionary Tales – Photographing Fairies
Sherlock Holmes is known for approaching all mysteries with cool logic - and yet when his creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle saw photographs taken by two young girls purporting to show real life fairies at play… he unwisely declared them genuine. Elsie Wright - Self...
Cautionary Tales Short – Blood On The Tracks
As per our new rhythm, Cautionary Tales episodes are released every other Friday, so there will be one appearing again next week. As a bonus for Pushkin+ subscribers, I proudly present another Cautionary Tales "Short". Shownotes A major source was, of course, the...
Cautionary Tales – The False Dawn of the Electric Car
Sir Clive Sinclair was a computer whizz and business mogul to rival Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. He was a visionary who could do no wrong… until he tried to launch an electric vehicle. The C5 “electrically assisted pedal cycle" doesn't seem so outlandish to us now… but...
Cautionary Tales Short – When A Plague Struck World of Warcraft
This week's episode is available to Pushkin+ subscribers only, I'm afraid, but we'll have another full-length episode available for all next week, and every other Friday thereafter. Our sources included reporting from PC Gamer, Wired, the Washington Post, GamaSutra...
Cautionary Tales Short – The Balloons That Ate Cleveland
When Disneyland released one million helium balloons to set a new world record, Cleveland, Ohio looked on in envy. Could it top the Magic Kingdom? But what did citizens hope to gain from getting into the record books... and at what cost? This shorter episode is one of...