Don't Panic! Douglas Adams' Guide to Tomorrow - with Arvind Ethan David
Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford
Pushkin Industries
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 26 September 2025
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Writer Douglas Adams, best known for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, used science fiction and satire to warn us about potential dangers in our future, from artificial intelligence to social media and animal extinction. In this Cautionary Conversation, Tim is joined by Arvind Ethan David, author of the new audiobook Douglas Adams: Ends of the Earth, to discuss why Adams was in the business of telling Cautionary Tales, his worries (and fixes) for the future, and what we all have in common with a sentient puddle.
For more information go to timharford.com.
Douglas Adams Ends of the Earth on audiobook: https://www.pushkin.fm/audiobooks/douglas-adams-the-ends-of-the-earth
The Hitchhikers Immersive evening in London: https://riversidestudios.co.uk/see-and-do/the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-185234/
Become a Cautionary Club member on Patreon for bonus Cautionary Tales episodes, behind-the-scenes chats, newsletters, and more. To join Pushkin+ visit pushkin.fm or the show page on Apple.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an IHeart podcast. |
| 0:13.2 | If you don't feel like you're getting enough cautionary tales, I have some very good news. |
| 0:18.2 | We've just launched the Cautionary Club over on Patreon. We'll be |
| 0:22.6 | dropping an extra Cautionary Tales episode each month, a bonus interview, and a newsletter, |
| 0:28.0 | chock full of behind-the-scenes titbits, and anything else we've dug up in our research. We would |
| 0:33.4 | love to see you there. Head to patreon.com slash cautionary club to find out more. That's patreon.com |
| 0:41.0 | slash cautionary club. I wanted to start this edition of cautionary tales with a little something by |
| 0:48.2 | one of my favorite writers, Douglas Adams, the creator of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Are you sitting comfortably? |
| 0:57.7 | Imagine a beautiful sunny glen on a distant planet and imagine you see a puddle before you, |
| 1:04.5 | recently formed from last night's rain. Imagine yourself to be that puddle, a fully sentient puddle who wakes up this very morning and thinks to herself. |
| 1:19.3 | Ah, what a wonderful morning. What an interesting world. What a beautiful glen, full of birdsong and sun. |
| 1:32.2 | How perfect this world is. |
| 1:35.8 | What an interesting hole I find myself in. |
| 1:39.4 | It fits me rather well. |
| 1:42.0 | In fact, it fits, my gosh, it fits me perfectly. It corresponds exactly |
| 1:47.0 | with the smooth contours of my body. I get it now. I understand this hole in the ground. |
| 1:58.0 | That is my home. It must have been made to have me in it. It was made for me, designed |
| 2:06.5 | precisely with my wants and my needs in mine. It is mine. Consider this. Reflect on what |
| 2:15.5 | a powerful idea it is. It makes me special and important. |
| 2:21.3 | If this world was made for me, that makes it my world. |
| 2:28.3 | My creation. |
| 2:31.3 | How wonderful. What shall I do with it? |
... |
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