What I’m Listening To: Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford
Apparently if you are British, you probably know Tim Harford as he’s your local famous Economist. I imagine a slightly more well-known British version of our Stephen Dubner and/or Steven Levitt, but then again, if you know who those two guys are, then you are probably a Freakonomics fan and you’ve probably heard an interview or two with Tim Harford. And maybe you’ve even heard this same episode of his podcast Cautionary Tales since it was featured in the Freakonomics podcast feed.
We all know Florence Nightingale as the world’s most famous nurse, but there’s so much more to her than that. She was also a huge data nerd and is one of the first people to use super visually compelling data graphs to make her case. The reason this podcast is named Cautionary Tales, is obviously the purposeful manipulation of data visualization is something that is also used in a lot of bad ways these days. But in her case, it was responsibly done, to prove a point that data really did support – that sanitation could reduce disease & mortality rates. Apparently she was not just an amazing nurse, but also a big statistics geek which just ratcheted her up even higher in my estimation. Will probably look for a biography to read soon.
Also, yes, even though I’m on a strict podcast reduction plan at the moment – I did subscribe to this one and have listened to several other just as interesting episodes – so have a feeling I’ll be updating My Favorite Podcasts list soon!