Missing on "Dead Mountain": A Cold War Cold Case
Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford
Pushkin Industries
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 24 January 2025
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the bleak Russian winter of 1959, nine experienced hikers led by Igor Dyatlov set out on an expedition. None of them made it back alive.
When their campsite was finally discovered, it told a chilling story: their tent was slashed open, bodies scattered across the snow. The hikers' injuries were as baffling as they were gruesome. One had had his head stoved in. Bits of bone had been driven into his brain. Others were missing their eyes and their tongues.
Had the hikers angered the local Mansi tribespeople? Had they witnessed a secret military experiment? Or had something even more strange and sinister unfolded on Dead Mountain?
For a full list of sources, see the show notes at timharford.com.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Pushkin. |
| 0:10.0 | Trust is at the centre of so many cautionary tales. |
| 0:14.1 | I've told you about the people who trusted a man in uniform |
| 0:17.0 | and allowed him to steal from the city coffers. |
| 0:20.7 | And the woman who drove into the desert |
| 0:22.4 | because she trusted the sat-nav ahead of her instincts. Then there was the celebrity author who |
| 0:28.1 | trusted photographs of fairies as proof of their existence. We've had people who trusted in technology |
| 0:34.7 | when they shouldn't, and those who didn't trust it when they should. |
| 0:39.3 | And that's before we get to the doctors, business leaders and scammers who abused the trust |
| 0:44.5 | put in them. I'm fascinated by questions of trust, and given that you're a loyal listener to |
| 0:51.4 | cautionary tales, I'm guessing you're quite interested in them too. |
| 0:55.8 | And that's why I've invited Rachel Botsman to join me for a special edition of cautionary |
| 1:02.1 | questions. Rachel is the author of the new audiobook, How to Trust and Be Trusted. So, |
| 1:09.7 | do better to answer your trust questions. |
| 1:14.0 | Maybe you'd like to know why we naturally trust some people but recoil from others. |
| 1:19.7 | Maybe you're curious about why so many people are taken in by particular historical figures. |
| 1:26.3 | There might be an episode of cautionary tales that makes you tear |
| 1:29.7 | your hair out at the gullibility of those involved. Are we right to be suspicious when ever a |
| 1:35.6 | politician says, trust me? Can being too distrustful be as dangerous as being too trusting. |
| 1:48.8 | Whatever your query, you can trust Rachel to have the answers. |
| 1:52.5 | So send them to Tales at Pushkin.fm. That's T-A-L-E-S at Pushkin.fm. |
| 1:59.0 | Trust is at the centre of so many cautionary tales. |
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