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Speaker 1: Pushkin. The Knights of France had every reason to feel confident.

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Speaker 1: Resplendent in their fine armor, astride their great steeds. They

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Speaker 1: belonged to the greatest army in medieval Europe. They'd crushed

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Speaker 1: every enemy they'd met on the field of battle, so

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Speaker 1: an upstart band of English invaders stood little chance. Except

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Speaker 1: those French noblemen ended the day defeated, their horses shot

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Speaker 1: out from under them, drowning in mud and their own blood.

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Speaker 1: History is littered with tragic stories such as this, stories

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Speaker 1: we could all learn from and apply to our daily lives.

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Speaker 1: I'm Tim Harford, and on March the twenty fifth, I'll

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Speaker 1: be returning with all new cautionary tales, drawing out valuable

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Speaker 1: lessons from the greatest mistakes, disasters, and fiascos of the past.

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Speaker 1: Every other Friday, I'll transport you back in time. Together,

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Speaker 1: we'll find out why a tiny change in a hotel's

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Speaker 1: blueprints went unnoticed, sending tons of concrete, steel and glass

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Speaker 1: crashing down on guests. We'll watch as an airline captain

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Speaker 1: lets his child play with the controls of a packed

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Speaker 1: passenger jet, gambling that the autopilot will save them all

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Speaker 1: from doom, and we'll have a front row seat as

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Speaker 1: an award winning choreographer and a rock music megastar come

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Speaker 1: close to opening the worst Broadway musical of all time.

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Speaker 1: These new cautionary tales will explore the extremes of human

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Speaker 1: behavior and the extremes of what nature can throw at

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Speaker 1: us too. We'll swelter as a deadly heat wave descends

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Speaker 1: on Chicago, killing some residents but oddly spare their near neighbors.

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Speaker 1: And then we'll shiver as we follow two very different

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Speaker 1: men competing to reach the South Pole, an awful trek

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Speaker 1: well deserving of the title the worst journey in the world.

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Speaker 1: In addition, I've created five cautionary Tales shorts, available exclusively

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Speaker 1: to Pushkin Plus subscribers. To hear these smaller but still

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Speaker 1: perfectly formed stories about deadly rail disasters and killer computer viruses,

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Speaker 1: sign up for Pushkin Plus on the show page in

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts or at pushkin dot fm slash plus. Be

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Speaker 1: they long or short, I promise you that some of

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Speaker 1: my stories will delight you, others may scare you, but

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Speaker 1: all of them will make you wiser. So join me

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Speaker 1: every other Friday from March the twenty fifth onwards. For

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Speaker 1: cautionary tales, find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: all wherever you get your podcasts.