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Bowie, Jazz and the Unplayable Piano
Season 1 Episode 7
It was the biggest concert of Keith Jarrett's career - but the pianist was in for a shock when he entered Koln's opera house. The only piano at the venue was a broken-down wreck. Should he risk humil…
Published on 5 years, 10 months ago
How Britain Invented, Then Ignored, Blitzkrieg
Season 1 Episode 6
In 1917, a brilliant British officer developed a way to use an emerging military technology: the tank. The British army promptly squandered the idea – but the Germans did not. Blitzkrieg, the devasta…
Published on 5 years, 11 months ago
Buried by the Wall Street Crash
Season 1 Episode 5
Both of the world’s greatest economists, Irving Fisher and John Maynard Keynes, thought they could see into the future and make a killing on the stock market - and then both were wiped out by the Wal…
Published on 5 years, 11 months ago
The Deadly Airship Race
Season 1 Episode 4
A British Lord wanted to build the best airship in the world - and so he had two rival design teams battle it out to win the juicy government contract. Competition is supposed to bring the best out o…
Published on 5 years, 11 months ago
La La Land: Galileo's Warning
Season 1 Episode 3
Galileo tried to teach us that adding more and more layers to a system intended to avert disaster often makes catastrophe all the more likely to happen. His basic lesson has been ignored in nuclear p…
Published on 5 years, 11 months ago
The Rogue Dressed as a Captain
Season 1 Episode 2
One crisp morning in Berlin, in 1906, a small group of soldiers were led on an extraordinary heist by a man they believed to be a Captain. So how did an ageing nobody in a fake uniform trick them int…
Published on 6 years ago
DANGER: Rocks Ahead!
Season 1 Episode 1
Torrey Canyon was one of the biggest and best ships in the world - but its captain and crew still needlessly steered it towards a deadly reef known as The Seven Stones. This course seemed like utter …
Published on 6 years ago
Introducing: Cautionary Tales
Season 1
Coming November 15 from Tim Harford and Pushkin Industries, Cautionary Tales relates a true story of a time when something did not go according to plan. Some of these true stories are tragic, some ar…
Published on 6 years ago