Cautionary Tales

Tim Ebl & Ryan Hanson

Dive into a side-splitting collection of wild and wacky tales from the tradies of the world! Inspired by the real-life misadventures of the average joe, Cautionary Tales is packed with larger-than-life characters and situations almost too ridiculous to be true! Stupidly shameless, sometimes disgusting, and always side-splittingly funny, these tales raise awareness for men’s mental health as they leave you thinking “these can’t possibly be real”. Join the crew and take your seat around the proverbial campfire as you discover tales of revenge, pranks, accidents, and toilet humor. read less

Our Editor's Take

The Cautionary Tales podcast lives up to its title. This series, based on the popular book of the same title, has some wild stories about life in blue-collar jobs. Tim Ebl and Ryan Hanson, authors of that book, cohost the podcast. The tales here are indeed cautionary. They are also hilarious.

Each of the raw and real episodes of the Cautionary Tales podcast comes from the book. This hilarious show features real-life stories from tradespeople. The program features their wildest and worst misadventures. There are shameless pranks and ridiculous accidents. There are stories of workplace revenge and of memorable coworkers. Listeners may laugh and also get a sense of these jobs.

"Kurt was the male version of a cat lady," the podcast hosts explain in "Episode 5 — The Weekend Assassin." But instead of cats, Kurt owned guns—many guns. He weirded out his coworkers when he showed his vacation pictures. But instead of idyllic isles, he would show his pictures of dead prairie dogs. A few years after working with Kurt, the narrator talks with someone else about crazy coworkers they had worked with over the years. The narrator's friend talked about working with a man who showed vacation photos of dead gophers. "How's Kurt doing?" the narrator asks.

Another episode talks about Danny, a micromanaging boss. He butted heads with Jesse, a welder who annoyed him (and vice versa). In this workplace, they had wildlife who would roam by their outdoor location. The rule was to keep food locked up in the lunch trailer to keep them away from the animals. But Jesse lured the animals into the trailer with food. A bear ended up getting into Danny's office and defecating on his desk. The smell was horrible and memorable.

New episodes of this podcast come out every few weeks. Fans of Cautionary Tales may also enjoy Unreliable Narrator. That's the other podcast Tim and Ryan do together.

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