Talent, Time and Money: The Curse of General Magic
It's 1990. A new company called General Magic is going to build its vision of the future: the smart phone. They have talent, almost unlimite...
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History
Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford
We tell our children unsettling fairy tales to teach them valuable lessons, but these Cautionary Tales are for the education of the grown ups – and they are all true. Tim Harford (Financial...
Episodes
20 of 234 episodesEvel Knievel Faces the Abyss
Evel Knievel, the world-famous daredevil, is planning his greatest ever stunt. In 1974, he wants to leap over Snake River Canyon in Idaho. T...
Dumm und Dümmer: Hitler Invades Florida
In 1942, eight men are sent from Nazi Germany to infiltrate America. Their mission: to sabotage critical infrastructure. Their problem: they...
The DeLorean Saga: Fraud, Drugs and Marty McFly's Car - with Business History
This is a special crossover episode with Business History. John DeLorean was a visionary who wanted to create a futuristic new sports car -...
Proceed with Caution - Pascal's Guide to Podcasts
How does a story on Cautionary Tales come to life? In this episode of our subscriber-exclusive series, Proceed with Caution, sound designer...
The Weight of Fame: A Hollywood Tragedy
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 longe...
Arsenic and Lace: The Trial of the Yorkshire Witch - with Maddy Pelling
Mary Bateman lived in Yorkshire in the late 18th Century, an age that prized rational thought. Many people still longed to believe in the ol...
The Doors of Death: The Herald of Free Enterprise
The Herald of Free Enterprise is a new class of ferry that allows cars to drive directly into the ship. The doors must be closed before ever...
"What a Bloody Mess we're in" - Britain's [REDACTED] Accident
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...
Attack of the Night People
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, of...
LIVE: We Are Not Machines - with Sarah O'Connor
When the Luddites smashed factory frames in a bid to defend their craft and livelihoods, the machines came out on top. Today, AI and automat...
Treacle Tears: The Boston Molasses Disaster
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...
The Thief, the Jewels, and the Dublin Castle Conspiracy
In the early 1900s, Sir Arthur Vickers keeps the magnificent Irish Crown Jewels safe under lock and key at Dublin Castle. When the jewels di...
The Dunning Canoe-ger Effect
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 h...
Presenting...This is History: A Dynasty to Die For
This episode comes to you from the new series of This is History, the podcast which tells the story of the Plantagenet Dynasty. Historian Da...
How Civilizations Die - with Paul Cooper
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. B...
Can You Make a Sherman Tank Float?
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...
The Inventor who Almost Ended the World (Classic)
Thomas Midgley's inventions caused his own death, hastened the deaths of millions of people around the world, and very nearly extinguished a...
From Drilled: The Carbon Gold Rush
We usually bring you failures of the past, but today we're sharing an episode from someone who uncovers failures as they happen. Amy Westerv...
Angels, Gold and Lust: John Dee and the Philosopher's Stone (Part 2)
Part Two: When Tudor polymath John Dee meets a man who claims he can speak with angels, his path to understanding the universe suddenly beco...