Who will be the first to sail non-stop around the world? In 1968, The Sunday Times announces a trophy and a cash prize for ...

In the late 1930s, the Roosevelt administration embarked on a curious project. Officials hired thousands of unemployed writers to produce guidebooks, children’s books, local histories, collections ...

The marathon, the algorithm and me Twenty-five centuries ago, after the Greeks shattered the Persian army at Marathon, brave Pheidippides ran 26 miles to Athens with the news. Robert Browning’s ...

Chris McKinlay is a good looking, smart student at UCLA, but he can’t seem to get a girlfriend. He’s a computing expert, so why not use his technology prowess to supercharge his search ...

To celebrate – or commiserate – this year’s Valentine’s Day, Tim has something a little different. Straight from the Cautionary Library of misadventures comes a bumper crop ...

https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/playlists/podcast https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/sphygmograph-be-damned-the-science ...

Panic has erupted in the cockpit of AirFrance Flight 447. The pilots are convinced they’ve lost control of the plane. It’s lurching violently. Then, it begins plummeting from the sky at breakneck ...

France 1346: The army of King Philip VI is Europe’s pre-eminent killing machine. It is used to crushing any force stupid enough to oppose it, and now fully expects to annihilate a motley band of ...

Did you know that a toy spaceship can teach you about inflation? Or that a pooping cow can show you how to invest your pocket money? And that even the greatest detectives have been fooled by fake news ...