The Art Forger, the Nazi, and "The Pope"
"The Pope" was a revered Dutch art expert - and yet he fell for a not very convincing forgery of a "lost" Vermeer masterpiece. The forger had duped other art connoisseurs too - including the high rank...
12 Mar 202135min
Florence Nightingale and Her Geeks Declare War on Death
Victorian nurse Florence Nightingale (played by her distant cousin Helena Bonham Carter) is a hero of modern medicine - but her greatest contribution to combating disease and death resulted from the v...
5 Mar 202136min
Martin Luther King Jr, the Jewelry Genius, and the Art of Public Speaking
One speechmaker inspired millions with his words, the other utterly destroyed his own multi-million-dollar business with just a few phrases.Civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr (played by Jeffrey W...
26 Feb 202135min
Bonus: Why We Believe What Isn't True (with Axios Today)
We're no stranger to stories about misinformation or deliberate disinformation. We live in a world where now more than ever, you have to be skeptical. That skepticism can be healthy, but it also can b...
12 Feb 202114min
The Data Detective
Cautionary Tales' host Tim Harford has a new book - The Data Detective - setting out ten commandments for understanding the numbers, charts, graphs and statistics that bombard us every day. In this fr...
2 Feb 202134min
BONUS: Storks, Smoking and the Power of Doubt
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 even death. We should guard against it.Tim Harford...
16 Sep 202010min
How To End A Pandemic
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. How did the breakthrough happen - and can we guaran...
17 Jul 202025min
That Turn To Pascagoula
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 people took the near miss as a warning - others, as ...
10 Jul 202024min
