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Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford

Treacle Tears: The Boston Molasses Disaster

6/26/202640 min

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 make munitions for the First World War. When a worker notices dark molasses seeping from the tank he warns the company that there could be a leak. But the man in charge, Arthur Jell, has more important things to worry about: schedules to meet and profits to make. Besides, it's only sugar. How dangerous could it be?

For the sources, see the show notes at timharford.com.

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Transcript preview

First 90 seconds

  1. Jacob Goldstein0:00

    This is an iHeart podcast, Guaranteed Human.

  2. Speaker 20:03

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  3. Michael Lewis0:19

    It's Michael Lewis here with some exciting news. I have a new audiobook coming out on October 6th called Blockers. It's, among other things, an inside look at the early days of Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, as it's referred to, as told by the public servants it entangled. But it's not just that. One kept Americans' most sensitive tax data out of the wrong hands, and another made sure that politicians and civil servants played by the rules. One figured out how to stop wildfires from destroying suburban neighborhoods. Another delivered the cure to cystic fibrosis, and there was also a security guard. You can pre-order your copy of the audiobook exclusively at blockers.fm. That's blockers.fm. Pre-order now, and we'll also send you a code for 25% off of all Pushkin titles, including mine, like Liar's Poker and The Big Short, through the end of the year.

  4. Tim Harford· Host1:10

    Brought to you by Odoo.

  5. Robert Smith1:12

    I'm Robert Smith, and this is Jacob Goldstein, and we used to host a show called Planet Money.

  6. Jacob Goldstein1:17

    And now we're back making this new podcast called Business History about the best ideas and people and businesses in history.

  7. Robert Smith1:25

    And some of the worst people, horrible ideas, and destructive

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