#cautionarytales — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #cautionarytales, aggregated by home.social.
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Cautionary Tales – The DeLorean Saga: Fraud, Drugs and Marty McFly’s Car (with Business History)
https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/playlists/podcast
This is a special crossover episode with Business History.
John DeLorean was a visionary who wanted to create a futuristic new sports car - a stainless steel marvel
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Cautionary Tales – The She-Wolf of Wall Street Runs for President
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 to run for president, she understan
https://timharford.com/2026/08/cautionary-tales-the-she-wolf-of-wall-street-runs-for-president/
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Cautionary Tales – The Weight of Fame: A Hollywood Tragedy
https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/playlists/podcast
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 when she was 16, the studio wants nothing to do with her. As the script
https://timharford.com/2026/08/cautionary-tales-the-weight-of-fame-a-hollywood-tragedy/
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Cautionary Tales – Arsenic and Lace: The Trial of the Yorkshire Witch, with Maddy Pelling
https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/playlists/podcast
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 and Bateman used this to her advantage
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Cautionary Tales – The Doors of Death: The Herald of Free Enterprise
https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/playlists/podcast
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 departure, or the ship sails with a gaping hole at one end. One black night in 1987, on the freezing waters off Zeb
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Cautionary Tales – “What a bloody mess we’re in”
https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/playlists/podcast
Windscale is supposed to be Britain’s big leap into the nuclear Age, bringing science fiction to life in 1950s Northern England. But in the race to catch up with America’s nuclear program, scientists are tinkering with forces they don’t fully understand. Wh
https://timharford.com/2026/07/cautionary-tales-what-a-bloody-mess-were-in/
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Cautionary Tales – Operational Eagle Claw: How America’s Best Soldier Was Perfect To A Fault
Chargin' Charlie Beckwith is an American colonel who expects nothing less than perfection from his squad. When hostages are seized during the 1979 Iranian revolution, Chargin' Charlie is given the chance to lead the rescue operation - and to show wha
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Cautionary Tales – Attack of the Night People
https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/playlists/podcast
If you tuned in to late-night WOR radio in 1950s New York, you'd enter the secret world of Jean Shepherd. Shepherd's nonconformist style, off-beat humour and love of pranks gathered a small but loyal following. These "Night People" loved being in on the joke, while
https://timharford.com/2026/07/cautionary-tales-attack-of-the-night-people/
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Cautionary Tales Live – We Are Not Machines, with Sarah O’Connor
https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/playlists/podcast
When the Luddites smashed factory frames in a bid to defend their craft and livelihoods, the machines came out on top. Today, AI and automation threaten to wipe out skilled jobs and flood us with inferior products at a fraction
https://timharford.com/2026/07/cautionary-tales-live-we-are-not-machines-with-sarah-oconnor/
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Cautionary Tales – Treacle Tears: The Boston Molasses Disaster
https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/playlists/podcast
The children of North End, Boston, play in the shadow of an enormous steel tank of molasses. The thick, sticky sugar syrup is being used to make munitions for the First World War. When a worker notices dark molasses seeping from th
https://timharford.com/2026/06/cautionary-tales-treacle-tears-the-boston-molasses-disaster-2/
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Cautionary Tales – The Dunning Canoe-ger Effect
https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/playlists/podcast
When John Darwin walks into a shop in London, it causes an instant stir. After all, John Darwin has been dead for five years. He claims to have amnesia, but everyone - from the police and the media to his insurance company - suspects he is lying. No one can prove
https://timharford.com/2026/06/cautionary-tales-the-dunning-canoeger-effect/
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Cautionary Tales – Undiplomatic Immunity: The Enemies Who Defeated Polio
In the 1950s, polio spread at an unprecedented rate, killing or paralysing thousands of Americans. Two renowned scientists raced to develop a vaccine, taking radically different approaches and becoming bitter rivals in the process. Decades later, when a new virus threatens America, their fe
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Cautionary Tales – How Civilisations Die (with Paul Cooper)
https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/playlists/podcast
As Governor of Britannia, Magnus Maximus has a huge army at his disposal, which is just what he needs to secure the Roman imperial throne. But perhaps the impressive general should have looked into the past before focusing on his future. Ti
https://timharford.com/2026/06/cautionary-tales-how-civilisations-die-with-paul-cooper/
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Cautionary Tales – Can you make a Sherman tank float?
https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/playlists/podcast
It’s D-Day and the Allies are about to invade Nazi-occupied France. For the landings to succeed, American soldiers on Omaha Beach will have to break through some formidable coastal defences – Hitler’s Atlantic Wall. Sherman tanks will come in very h
https://timharford.com/2026/05/cautionary-tales-can-you-make-a-sherman-tank-float-2/
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Hey #readers, here's a free #shortstory for you
This will be for you if you like #DarkFiction, #Macabre #Fiction, or #CautionaryTales
#Booktoot #bookstodon #bookmastodon #bookish #books #bookrecommendations #booklovers #bookcommunity #readingcommunity #reading #book #bookblogger #bookblog
A Tale of Reflux, Red Flags, & a Hospital Retreat Gone Wrong | www.PhysiciansWeekly.com https://share.google/C3usKRKRqJcsotMUC
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Cautionary Tales – The inventor who almost ended the world (classic)
https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/playlists/podcast
Thomas Midgley’s inventions caused his own death, hastened the deaths of millions of people around the world, and very nearly extinguished all life on land.
Midgley and his employers didn’t set out to poison the air wi
https://timharford.com/2026/05/cautionary-tales-the-inventor-who-almost-ended-the-world-classic/
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Cautionary Tales – Angels, Gold and Lust: John Dee and the Philosopher’s Stone (Part 2)
https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/playlists/podcast
Part Two: When Tudor polymath John Dee meets a man who claims he can speak with angels, his path to understanding the universe suddenly becomes clear. At their instruction, the pair begin searching for the fabled philosopher's stone. But
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Cautionary Tales – The Queen’s Astrologer: the Price of Prophecy
https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/playlists/podcast
In Tudor England, the line between mathematics and the mystic arts is vanishingly thin. Straddling both worlds is John Dee, a brilliant scholar and astrologer whose intellect grants him access to the highest circles of power. Dee navigates the politics of the c
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Cautionary Tales – The Drop of Paint that Sank a Submarine
Brand new submarine HMS Thetis is the pride of the British Navy. In 1939, she sets out for a test dive with 103 men on board. But a tiny flaw in her construction has gone unnoticed, and the crew of Thetis is soon racing against time to stop that flaw from spiralling into total destruction.
This episode is availabl
https://timharford.com/2026/05/cautionary-tales-the-drop-of-paint-that-sank-a-submarine/
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Cautionary Tales – Beware Tech Tycoons with Piranha Tanks, with Katie Prescott
https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/playlists/podcast
Mike Lynch was often lauded as Britain's answer to Bill Gates. Born into a working-class family, Lynch's incredible intellect and passion for computers led him to become a billionaire tech entreprene
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Cautionary Tales – Finding grace in a burger bun: an incrediburgible quest
https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/playlists/podcast
Dick and Mac are content with their lives: they enjoy making burgers by day and stargazing by night. Ray Kroc is a workaholic chasing success at any cost. When the brothers’ folksy charm collides with Kroc’s
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Cautionary Tales – Run, Switzer, Run: The Women Who Broke the Marathon Taboo (Classic)
https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/playlists/podcast
Until the 1960s, women couldn't compete in Olympic events any longer than a sprint - and commentators declared that a marathon would kill them, or leave them unable to have children. Rubbis
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Cautionary Tales – Bravo, Comrade Lysenko! The Man Who Failed To Feed The USSR
Comrade Lysenko has seized control of Soviet agriculture with his radical ideas about genetics. He disdains traditional scientists who learn everything from books and nothing from the land, and those who question his methods soon find themselves in trouble with Stalin. Meanwhile, across the world the abrasive Iowan
https://timharford.com/2026/04/cautionary-tales-lysenko-and-borlaug/
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Cautionary Tales – The Lovestruck Explorer’s Deadly Guessing Game
https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/playlists/podcast
In 1860, police officer Robert O'Hara Burke plans an expedition to map the ghastly blank in the centre of Australia. Joining him is scientist William Wills, and a ragtag team of hires. Burke falls out with virtually everyone around him, and demonstrates a
https://timharford.com/2026/04/cautionary-tales-burke-and-wills/
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Cautionary Tales – The Mad Mystic and the Last Battle on English Soil – with Ian Breckon
https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/playlists/podcast
As the Victorian era dawns, modernisation erodes the old ways of life and poverty rises. In the unrest, an unlikely hero emerges, capturing the imagination of the countryside's w
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Cautionary Tales – The Sightseeing Flight and the Invisible Mountain
https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/playlists/podcast
In November 1979, Flight 901 departs New Zealand on a sightseeing journey over Antarctica, heading directly towards a volcano. When the plane vanishes, investigators are left with a mystery: how could a seasoned pilot mi
https://timharford.com/2026/03/cautionary-tales-the-sightseeing-flight-and-the-invisible-mountain/
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Cautionary Tales – “And it went click”: Dawn of the Working Dead
https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/playlists/podcast
Robert Propst is more than an inventor: he is a visionary, an innovator dreaming up how to make the perfect office workstation. When he reveals his bold design for a creative, flexible 'cockpit of tomorrow', he comes into con
https://timharford.com/2026/03/cautionary-tales-and-it-went-click-dawn-of-the-working-dead-2/
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Cautionary Tales – When Muhammad Ali Met Henry’s Hammer
Before he became Muhammad Ali, Cassius Clay was known as the "Louisville Loud-mouth", as famous for his sharp taunts and poetic put-downs as he was for his skills in the ring. In 1963, Clay arrived in England to take down beloved British Heavyweight, Henry Cooper. Clay is the clear favourite, but the showdown will be rem
https://timharford.com/2026/03/cautionary-tales-when-muhammad-ali-met-henrys-hammer/
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Cautionary Tales – Explosives or Sugar? The Deadly Art of Distraction, with Helena Merriman
https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/playlists/podcast
In 1999, a series of bombs explode in Russian apartments, killing hundreds and spreading panic. No one knows who is behind it. But when one device is spotted before it detonate