Run by the charismatic Nicole Deadone, OneTaste billed itself as a sexual wellness startup celebrating the power of female orgasm. But behind the celebrity endorsements and promises of healing, lay a darker reality. When Bloomberg journalist Ellen Huet began to dig into the organisation, she uncovered financial, emotional and sexual exploitation of its members, many of whom would call the company a cult. Huet, author of Empire of Orgasm, joins Tim to discuss why we should beware people promising pleasure, and what we can learn from the rise and fall of OneTaste.

This episode contains explicit content from the beginning, and is not suitable for children.

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Tony Hsieh, the billionaire CEO of Zappos, is passionate about community. He pours his time, energy and fortune into building a network of like-minded people - first in Las Vegas, then Park City, Utah. But Tony's quest to build connection soon spirals into isolation, addiction and mistrust of those closest to him, revealing a contradictory truth about the pursuit of one of our most fundamental human needs.

WARNING: This episode discusses death by suicide. If you are suffering emotional distress or having suicidal thoughts, support is available - for example, from the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the US, or the Samaritans in the UK on 116 123

See the show notes at timharford.com

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They say the company Zappos is harder to get into than Harvard. Zappos may sell shoes, but its mission is to deliver WOW through a fun-focused company culture, making it one of the most coveted places to work in America. At the centre is CEO Tony Hsieh, obsessed with the hunt for happiness and driven by increasingly bold - and strange - ideas about how to find it.

See the show notes at timharford.com

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The sewing machine was once thought to be an impossible invention. It was such a complicated contraption that it would take more than one inventor, with more than one good idea, to make it work. Each of these inventors, including the notorious Isaac Singer, wanted the credit (and the fortune that came with it) for themselves. And so began the sewing machine war: a mire of backstabbing, stealing and misogyny.

See the show notes at timharford.com

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Claude Shannon was brilliant. He was the Einstein of computer science... only he loved "fritterin' away" his time building machines to play chess, solve Rubik's cubes and beat the house at roulette.

If Shannon had worked more diligently - instead of juggling, riding a unicycle and abandoning project after project - would he have made an even greater contribution to human knowledge? Maybe... and maybe not. Are restlessness and "fritterin'" important parts of a rich and creative life?

Read more about Tim's work at http://timharford.com/

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Sherlock Holmes is known for approaching all mysteries with cool logic - and yet when his creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle saw photographs taken by two young girls purporting to show real life fairies at play... he unwisely declared them genuine.

How did Elsie and Frances fool so many people with their photography... and why did they keep the hoax going for decades?

For a full list of sources go to timharford.com

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Playing board games and spending too much money are time-honored Christmas traditions, so to mark the festive season, Tim is joined by the creator of Magic: The Gathering - Richard Garfield - for a special Q&A about economics and game design.

How should you go about building the perfect game? Why did the Magic trading card market crash? Why do so many people hate Monopoly? Plus, Richard has a bone to pick with Tim about a previous episode of Cautionary Questions.

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A megaplant near the small village of Flixborough, England, is busy churning out a key ingredient of nylon 6, a material used in everything from stockings to toothbrushes to electronics. When a reactor vessel fails, the engineers improvise a quick-fix workaround, so the plant can keep up with demand. Before long, the temporary patch - a small, bent pipe - becomes a permanent part of the factory, and the people of Flixborough unknowingly drift towards disaster.

For a full list of sources, see www.timharford.com

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At the start of the 20th century, Britain was slowly becoming a freer place for women. Young Grace Oakeshott seized every opportunity to learn and improve the world around her - though she found those opportunities frustratingly narrow. One day, she vanished suddenly, leaving behind only a pile of clothes on a beach. A hundred years later, the truth about Grace’s disappearance has finally come to light.

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Ever wished you could be a fly on the wall while Cautionary Tales is being made? Now you can.

We just launched the Cautionary Club - our new Patreon community for Cautionary Tales fans who want to go deeper. If you sign up before the end of the year, you’ll be a Cautionary Club Founding Member, and you'll be invited to join Tim and the producers in a live table read of an unreleased episode.

This will be a rare chance for you to see how the stories we tell are developed in real time, hear the editorial suggestions, and ask your burning questions about Cautionary Tales. Founding Members will receive an invitation to the table read, which will be held early 2026.

But that’s just the beginning. You’ll also receive:
- two monthly bonus episodes
- a members-only newsletter with sneak peeks of what’s coming up
- behind-the-scenes chats and videos with Tim
- the chance to vote on future episodes
- early information on books and live events
- ad-free listening to the entire archive
and the opportunity to support the creation of the stories we tell on Cautionary Tales.

Join by December 31, 2025 to lock in exclusive perks and be recognised as one of the original members of the Cautionary Club. Sign up at patreon.com/cautionaryclub.

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