The Mummy's Curse (Classic)
A hundred years ago, the Tomb of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun was officially opened - despite the widely held belief that disturbing the remains of the Egyptian pharaohs could incur a deadly curse. Why did...
10 Feb 202337min
The Final Illusion of the Great Lafayette
Golden sparks are raining down on the Great Lafayette’s famous vaudeville show, “The Lion’s Bride”. They look like they’re part of the performance. They aren’t — and soon the theater is ablaze. The ma...
3 Feb 202336min
LIVE: The Myth of the Million Dollar Tulip Bulb
Recorded before an audience at the Bristol Festival of Economics (11/17/2022) The Dutch went so potty over tulip bulbs in the 1600s that many were ruined when the inflated prices they were paying for ...
20 Jan 202338min
DOUBLE BILL: When a Plague Struck World of Warcraft/Blood on the Tracks
As a special New Year treat we're presenting two Cautionary Tales Shorts - which have previously only been available to paying Apple and Pushkin+ subscribers. When a Plague Struck World of Warcraft: ...
6 Jan 202334min
"Snow Crashing Into The Metaverse" from Imaginary Worlds
This week, we’re sharing an episode of Imaginary Worlds. For the last 30 years, the real world has been catching up to Neal Stephenson’s vision of the future in his 1992 novel Snow Crash, which influe...
3 Jan 202329min
The Company That Cancelled Christmas
More than 100,000 families - many of them amongst the poorest in Britain - put money aside for Christmas gifts and other seasonal treats in a savings club called Farepak. It wasn't a bank, and it wasn...
9 Dec 202235min
The Wild Turkeys of Schleswig
There are eight American turkeys painted on the walls of Schleswig's Cathedral of St Peter - which is odd... since the frescoes were created two centuries before Columbus even crossed the Atlantic. ...
25 Nov 202239min
Cautionary Conversation: The Blitz Spirit and the Blackout Ripper
In a crisis most people respond with decency and solidarity. The bombing of British cities in the Second World War did not cause society to crumble as was expected, but proved instead human resilience...
18 Nov 202232min
