A Fascination with Failure: Death On The Dancefloor (Classic)

21 July 2023 · 42m

Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford

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Show notes

Henry Petroski is one of Tim Harford's favourite fellow nerds. His study of engineering failures has profoundly influenced Tim's own writing, including the classic Cautionary Tales episode Death on the Dance Floor.

Petroski passed away in June 2023, at the age of 81. This week, in honour of the late great engineer, Tim looks back at the catastrophic Kansas City Hyatt Regency disaster of 1981. The hotel's space-age sky walks -- 60 tonnes of glass, concrete and steel -- crashed down onto the heads of revellers in the atrium below. 114 people died. What was to blame?

For a full list of sources for this episode, please visit timharford.com.

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More episodes

The Doors of Death: The Herald of Free Enterprise24 Jul "What a Bloody Mess we're in" - Britain's [REDACTED] Accident17 Jul Attack of the Night People10 Jul LIVE: We Are Not Machines - with Sarah O'Connor3 Jul Treacle Tears: The Boston Molasses Disaster26 Jun

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