A Word on Caution

Sometimes you listen to a podcast because you know you love "this thing," and sometimes you listen to a podcast because it tells you about "this thing" you didn't know you loved. I've recently picked up a new podcast in the latter category.

Cautionary Tales is a podcast featuring true stories of errors and calamities, with an emphasis on the lessons to be learned from the follies of others. Host Tim Harford brings a new story with each episode, hopping eclectically from topic to topic: an ill-fated ship with a stubborn captain; a musician's encounter with an "unplayable piano"; a doctor who became one of the world's most prolific serial killers; and much, much more. He narrates each tale with wry humor and sharp insight, with snippets of dramatic reenactment featuring the likes of Alan Cumming, Helena Bonham Carter, Jeffrey Wright, and more.

I find the podcast excellent for hitting both elements of its premise so effectively. The "Tale" part is always compelling, whether it's a story I didn't know before (a competition between government and private entities to build an airship) or one I did (the Moonlight/La-La Land Oscar mix-up). Harford is quite skilled at spinning a yarn, particularly in episodes that weave two parallel tales together in pursuit of a common thesis.

But there's always the "Cautionary" part as well. Don't just look and laugh at the idiocy on display in these stories, and definitely don't imagine that, had you'd been in the same place, you wouldn't have done exactly the same thing. Each episode of the podcast will teach you something you'd do well to remember, from how a well-intentioned backup system can create a problem, to how improvisation is sometimes preferable to methodical planning, to how people can respond to incentives you did not intend to create. The mission statement of Cautionary Tales might well be summed up as: make sure it's "better them than me" and not "better them THEN me."

Cautionary Tales hasn't been around all that long, and because it seems like the sort of thing requiring lots of research and creative writing, there isn't that big a back catalog of episodes. The second season is running now, but there are still barely more than 20 episodes to listen to (each averaging about 30 minutes). I made myself parcel them out slowly, I was enjoying them so much. But I've now opened all my "Christmas presents," and there's nothing left for me to do but wait for new episodes each week...

...and recommend that you give the show a listen. I have quite a few podcasts in the rotation, but Cautionary Tales is among my very favorites. I give it an A.