At a time when we’re all blaming digital devices for ruining our attention spans, our children’s mental health and even the future of democracy itself, let’s give credit where it’s due: my cheap fitness watch has changed my life. Three and a half years ago I started running at my local Parkrun, taking more than…

Tim Harford

14.10.2025

Cautionary Tales – Can You Make A Sherman Tank Float? | Tim Harford

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 to break through some formidable coastal defences - Hitler’s Atlantic Wall. Sherman tanks will come in very handy - and the Allies have come up with a novel solution for getting them…

Tim Harford

17.10.2025

Cautionary Tales – The Canal, the Crash and the Ketamine (Pushkin’s Reign of Error) | Tim Harford

https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/playlists/podcast/ In 1983, a plane takes off from Ottawa with less than half the required fuel on board. As the engines cut out one by one, the pilot is left with a ticking clock and an impossible task. But what does a tale of an unusual plane crash have in common with one about a…

Tim Harford

17.10.2025

The UK’s problems aren’t caused by immigration | Tim Harford

In 1799, the German adventurer-scientist Alexander von Humboldt set out on what would prove to be a five-year exploration of South America. Young, independently wealthy and almost absurdly energetic, Humboldt took a vast array of instruments with him. A one-man harbinger of the age of big data, he measured the circumferences of cacti, the air…

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The relentless rule of my fitness tracker | Tim Harford

Cautionary Tales – Can You Make A Sherman Tank Float? | Tim Harford

Cautionary Tales – The Canal, the Crash and the Ketamine (Pushkin’s Reign of Error) | Tim Harford

The UK’s problems aren’t caused by immigration | Tim Harford

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