The Truth About Hansel and Gretel
Was the fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel – the story of a woodcutter’s children abandoned in the woods and left at the mercy of a witch – in fact, early true crime? A hit book, The Truth About Hansel and Gretel, said that historical records and archeological remains pointed to the story being based on fact. Are we too quick to dismiss the truth behind tall stories? Or are we always falling for tales that are too good to be true?
Cautionary Tales is written by me, Tim Harford, with Andrew Wright. It is produced by Ryan Dilley and Marilyn Rust.
The sound design and original music is the work of Pascal Wyse. Julia Barton edited the scripts.
Thanks to the team at Pushkin Industries, including Mia Lobel, Jacob Weisberg, Heather Fain, Jon Schnaars, Carly Migliori, Eric Sandler, Emily Rostek, Maggie Taylor, Daniella Lakhan and Maya Koenig.
Further reading and listening
Hans Traxler’s book is, of course, The Truth About Hansel and Gretel – unfortunately it is available only in German. An excellent starting point to understand the hoax is Jordan Todorov’s article for Atlas Obscura. Paul Berczeller’s documentary about Takako Konishi is This Is a True Story.
The study of the effectiveness of flagging satire is R Kelly Garrett, Shannon Poulsen, Flagging Facebook Falsehoods: Self-Identified Humor Warnings Outperform Fact Checker and Peer Warnings, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Volume 24, Issue 5, September 2019, Pages 240–258, https://doi.org/10.1093/jcmc/zmz012
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Well, this is certainly one of the best podcast episodes i heard this year, thank you. Your narration, the complexity of the story and the conclusion combined will make me share it with the biggest passion. But before that, let me just briefly factcheck.
