One of the most curious friendships in the entire 20th century was between Harry Houdini

and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Now at one level it makes perfect sense, one's a magician, the other's the one who invented,

Sherlock Holmes, of course they would be friends.

But also one of them was a hardcore skeptic.

Harry Houdini spent the last part of his life debunking claims of pseudoscience in the

paranormal.

He would ruin his saants midway through connecting with the spirit world to prove that it was

just fake magic tricks.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, however, very much believed in the supernatural.

And you gotta understand that at the beginning of the 20th century there was a weird sense

of anything being possible in a world where radio waves could carry communications in

a world where telephones allowed you to reach across the Atlantic.

Why wouldn't you believe that life and death was just one more gulf to be breached by technology?

And to get a sense of how strange this time was, I want to try something different.

I recently got turned on to the Cautionary Tales podcast with Tim Harford.

On Cautionary Tales, Tim tells stories from the past pointing out valuable lessons in

history's greatest mistakes, disasters, fiascos.

It's the kind of show we're after hearing it.

You'll notice how a tiny change in a hotel's blueprints can result in tons of concrete

stealing glass crashing down on guests.

You'll understand the moment of sitting in a cockpit where the autopilot switches off,

...