The ways people and sometimes policymakers respond to disasters can have hidden and unintended consequences. And sometimes those consequences can be tragic.

On today's show, our old friend Tim Harford, an economist and host of the Cautionary Tales podcast, joins us to talk about unintended consequences. FWe discuss how our minds are better at solving problems that we can see directly than they are at anticipating problems and risks that our decisions might be creating further down the line. And we talk about how a better understanding of unanticipated consequences and the ""identifiable victim effect"" can help us respond to the coronavirus pandemic in ways that can make it less likely that those consequences will be fatal.