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The Data Detective
Season 1
Cautionary Tales' host Tim Harford has a new book - The Data Detective - setting out ten commandments for understanding the numbers, charts, graphs a…
5 years, 1 month ago
BONUS: Storks, Smoking and the Power of Doubt
Season 1
It's easy to mock statistics or cast doubt on them... but we do so at our peril. Undermining our trust in facts and figures can cause great harm, and…
5 years, 5 months ago
How To End A Pandemic
Season 1 Episode 14
The eradication of smallpox is one of humanity's great achievements - but the battle against the virus was fought by the most unlikely of alliances. …
5 years, 7 months ago
That Turn To Pascagoula
Season 1 Episode 13
For years, people had warned that New Orleans was vulnerable - but when a hurricane came close to destroying the city, the reaction was muted. Some p…
5 years, 7 months ago
The Village of Heroes
Season 1 Episode 12
It looked like any ordinary roll of cloth, but it brought the dreaded plague to the village of Eyam. First it killed the tailor, then resident after …
5 years, 8 months ago
The Spreadsheet of Life and Death
Season 1 Episode 11
Clive had a deadly form of cancer, but fortunately there was a new drug to treat it. Imagine his anger when he was told the treatment was too expensi…
5 years, 8 months ago
A Tsunami of Misery
Season 1 Episode 10
A monstrous wave and then a nuclear disaster forced Mikio and Hamako Watanabe from their home. But being saved from the potential dangers of a radiat…
5 years, 8 months ago
Fire at The Beverly Hills Supper Club
Season 1 Episode 9
Flames are spreading through a Cincinnati hotel. The staff know it, the fire department is coming, and the people in the packed cabaret bar have been…
5 years, 8 months ago
Cautionary Tales Presents: TED Talk Daily
Season 1
In this special episode of Cautionary Tales, we feature Cautionary Tales host Tim Harford's TED Talk Daily from 2018. What can we learn from the worl…
6 years, 1 month ago
You Have Reached Your Destination
Season 1 Episode 8
We may mock our ancestors for seeking the advice of oracles, soothsayers and psychics, but today we rely heavily on computer programs and math formul…
6 years, 2 months ago