We’ve always warned children by telling them unsettling fairy tales. But my Cautionary Tales are for the education of the grown ups. And my Cautionary Tales are all true.
Cautionary Tales is my new podcast from Pushkin Industries, makers of Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History, Michael Lewis’s Against The Rules, and Laurie Santos’s Happiness Lab.
Helping me tell these Cautionary Tales are some marvellous actors, including Alan Cumming (Instinct), Archie Panjabi (The Good Wife), Toby Stephens (Die Another Day) and Russell Tovey (Quantico). We also present the acting debut of a certain Mr Malcolm Gladwell.
Together we weave stories of human error, of tragic catastrophes and hilarious fiascos. Oil tankers crash in broad daylight, vital military ideas are carelessly given away to the Nazis, and a shouty man in a uniform pulls off an audacious heist. Alongside the drama, each story has a moral that emerges from psychology, economics, even design. Each story will make you wiser.
