Podcast Episodes

A Deadly Day at the Races: What Radical Protest Can and Cannot Do

Season 6 Episode 37

After years of campaigning for votes for women, the Suffragettes emerge at the turn of the 20th Century. Their motto, 'Deeds Not Words', heralds the start of more radical actions, including fire bomb…

Published on 1 month, 4 weeks ago

True Lies and Genuine Fakes

Season 6 Episode 36

In 1998, an art gallery gets a mysterious phone call. The caller claims they have been fooled by a master forger and that many of their prized paintings are fakes. Or are they?

This is the story of t…

Published on 2 months ago

Stalling for Survival - A Lonely Fight Against a Deadly Medicine

Season 6 Episode 35

In 1960, FDA scientist Frances Oldham Kelsey is tasked with approving an application for a mild sedative to be sold in America. The drug is popular across Europe and is touted to be free of side effe…

Published on 2 months, 1 week ago

Announcing: The Cautionary Club

Season 6

Do you want more Cautionary Tales episodes in your life? Do you want access to behind the scenes stories and bonus conversations with Tim? Do you want to support us in making the show?

We're excited …

Published on 2 months, 2 weeks ago

Disaster Favours the Daring: Shipwreck at Honda Point

Season 6 Episode 34

In 1923, legendary navigator Captain Dolly Hunter led a squadron of warships into America’s worst peacetime naval catastrophe. The mission was supposed to be a speed trial, a display of the squadron’…

Published on 2 months, 2 weeks ago

Paradise Poisoned: How Utopias Fall Apart

Season 6 Episode 33

Dore Strauch and Friedrich Ritter make an unconventional couple, united by their contempt for shoes, root vegetables and, above all, society. In 1929 they leave Germany and begin anew on the deserted…

Published on 2 months, 3 weeks ago

"Genius Still Unrecognised" - The Worst Poet in the World

Season 6 Episode 32

William McGonagall's poems are something else. The jarring meter, the banal imagery, the awkward rhymes: they made him a laughing stock in 19th Century Scotland and are still derided to this day. How…

Published on 3 months ago

Office Hell: The Demise of the Playful Workspace (Classic)

Season 6 Episode 31

In the early 90s, cutting-edge advertising agency Chiat/Day announced a radical plan, aimed at giving the company a jolt of creative renewal. They would sweep away corner offices and cubicles and rep…

Published on 3 months, 1 week ago

Number Fever: How Pepsi Nearly Went Pop (Classic)

Season 6 Episode 30

Pepsi twice ended up in court after promotions went disastrously wrong. Other big companies have fallen into the same trap - promising customers rewards so generous that to fulfil the promise might m…

Published on 3 months, 2 weeks ago

Fire at The Beverly Hills Supper Club (Update)

Season 6 Episode 29

It's been five years since Cautionary Tales ran a mini-series about the Covid-19 pandemic, exploring the lessons we were learning in real time as the crisis unfolded. 'Fire at The Beverly Hills Suppe…

Published on 3 months, 3 weeks ago