Disaster Area

A podcast about disasters throughout history - what caused them, how people survived, and how we've responded to keep those disasters from happening again.

Episode 254: The Cutter incident - Part One 05/31/2025

Episode 254: The Cutter incident - Part One It would start with a headache, a fever, maybe a funny tummy. But soon enough your knee would give out, or your arm would hang limp, or you would struggle to breathe. You'd be taken to the hospital, where you'd get your diagnosis - polio. If you survived, you ran the risk of doing so with paralyzed limbs, struggling to walk on bulky leg braces. Your parents would be terrified they might lose you, and so everybody wanted the one thing that could stop all of this - a vaccine. Videos: Articles and books: , by David M. Oshinsky by Dr. Paul Offit /episode/index/show/disasterareapodcast/id/36801670

Episode 253: The 1692 Port Royal earthquake 05/01/2025

Episode 253: The 1692 Port Royal earthquake In a bustling city of pirates and wickedness, one might think things couldn't get any more dangerous. But in the Jamaican city of Port Royal in 1692, that thought would be tested, and tested hard. Videos: Articles and books: , by Ben Hughes If you'd like to donate to the GFM for my car, you can find that here: /episode/index/show/disasterareapodcast/id/36383765

Stoned History: Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 03/31/2025

Stoned History: Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 To raise money for car repairs, Jennifer answers the question you've all been wondering - how well can she talk about a disaster while ... let's say "not sober." Please help Jennifer fix her car! It takes our esteemed cohost Professor on rides to go see cows and he therefore cannot live without it. Links below: GoFundMe: Paypal: Cashapp: $disasterareapod Venmo: @disasterareapodcast /episode/index/show/disasterareapodcast/id/35951115

Episode 252: The Charleston Sofa Super Store fire 03/14/2025

Episode 252: The Charleston Sofa Super Store fire It was almost the end of a typical Tuesday for workers at the Sofa Super Store in Charleston, South Carolina, in June of 2007, and several of them went out to the loading dock to smoke and kill a little time. One stray cigarette butt thrown too near the trash, and within an hour and a half nine firefighters would be dead. Videos: Articles and books: /episode/index/show/disasterareapodcast/id/35666940

Episode 251: The 1996 Charkhi Dadri mid-air collision 02/28/2025

Episode 251: The 1996 Charkhi Dadri mid-air collision On a warm November evening in 1996, in the rural farmland not far from Delhi, the remains of two aircraft plummeted from the skies. The collision which caused them to fall is still the deadliest mid-air collision in history. Videos: Articles and books: /episode/index/show/disasterareapodcast/id/35478115

Episode 250: Cats (2019) 01/31/2025

Episode 250: Cats (2019) Let us celebrate the 250th episode of the podcast by doing literally anything else but watching "Cats." Videos: Articles and books: , by T.S. Eliot /episode/index/show/disasterareapodcast/id/35093850

I'm alive! + The wildfires in Los Angeles 01/14/2025

I'm alive! + The wildfires in Los Angeles It turns out that I have not disappeared into a magical world to be romanced by a fae prince - more's the pity. Anyway, let's talk about the Los Angeles wildfire, misinformation, and knowing when you need to give yourself space so you can give others the help they need. /episode/index/show/disasterareapodcast/id/34850495

Episode 249: The sinking of the Sea Wing 11/30/2024

Episode 249: The sinking of the Sea Wing It was a hot and muggy summer day as the steamboat Sea Wing carried passengers down the Mississippi River for what was to be a lovely excursion to the National Guard settlement near Lake City, MN. And it was ... until the storm hit. Videos: Articles and books: , by Steve Gardiner /episode/index/show/disasterareapodcast/id/34210910

Episode 248: The Camp Fire - Part Two 11/07/2024

Episode 248: The Camp Fire - Part Two For years, the hook holding up the power lines at transmission tower 27/222 in northern California had been wearing down bit by bit. On November 8th, 2018, the hook finally broke, and the resulting series of events led to the deadliest wildfire in California in a century. Videos: Articles and books: , by Alastair Gee and Dani Anguaino /episode/index/show/disasterareapodcast/id/33725172

Episode 247: The Camp Fire - Part One 11/01/2024

Episode 247: The Camp Fire - Part One For years, the hook holding up the power lines at transmission tower 27/222 in northern California had been wearing down bit by bit. On November 8th, 2018, the hook finally broke, and the resulting series of events led to the deadliest wildfire in California in a century. Videos: Articles and books: , by Alastair Gee and Dani Anguaino /episode/index/show/disasterareapodcast/id/33725142

Episode 246: The Heath High School shooting 10/07/2024

Episode 246: The Heath High School shooting Sometimes it feels as though Columbine was our first experience with school shootings. But it very much wasn't, as the town of West Paducah, Kentucky, can attest. Videos: Articles and books: , by Katherine S. Newman, Cybelle Fox, David J. Harding, Jal Metha, and Wendy Roth /episode/index/show/disasterareapodcast/id/33275032

Episode 245: The sinking of the SS Atlantic - Part Two 10/01/2024

Episode 245: The sinking of the SS Atlantic - Part Two In part two, we watch as the Atlantic continues to head toward the southern coast of Nova Scotia ... with dangerous consequences. Videos: Articles and books: by Bob Chaulk /episode/index/show/disasterareapodcast/id/33274942

Episode 244: The sinking of the SS Atlantic - Part One 09/07/2024

Episode 244: The sinking of the SS Atlantic - Part One It's been a rough week and a half on stormy seas as you and your family make the trip from Ireland to your new home in America in March of 1873. Now finally, the ship is making a stop in Halifax to refuel and you might all be able to rest. But there will be no rest for the passengers on the SS Atlantic. Videos: Articles and books: by Bob Chaulk /episode/index/show/disasterareapodcast/id/32847857

Episode 243: The Kiss nightclub fire 09/01/2024

Episode 243: The Kiss nightclub fire It was just supposed to be a fun college party with a great band at a popular Brazil nightclub. But once the pyrotechnics came out, Kiss turned into Hell in an instant. Videos: Inside Kiss nightclub, purportedly minutes before the fire started: and Tiktok video from of the ceremony prior to the nightclub's demolition Articles and books: /episode/index/show/disasterareapodcast/id/32847402

Episode 242: The Itaewon Halloween crush - Part Two 08/08/2024

Episode 242: The Itaewon Halloween crush - Part Two It was the first Halloween that the streets would be open in Seoul, South Korea, since the start of the COVID pandemic, and young people in the city couldn't wait to go celebrate in the vibrant Itaewon neighborhood. Many of them wouldn't make it home. Videos: Articles and books: /episode/index/show/disasterareapodcast/id/32379852

Episode 241: The Itaewon Halloween crush - Part One 08/01/2024

Episode 241: The Itaewon Halloween crush - Part One It was the first Halloween that the streets would be open in Seoul, South Korea, since the start of the COVID pandemic, and young people in the city couldn't wait to go celebrate in the vibrant Itaewon neighborhood. Many of them wouldn't make it home. Videos: Articles and books: /episode/index/show/disasterareapodcast/id/32379672

Episode 240: The Uvalde school shooting - Part Five 06/17/2024

Episode 240: The Uvalde school shooting - Part Five In the final part of this series, we learn about the perpetrator as well as the investigations which have followed in the past two years. Videos: Articles and books: . /episode/index/show/disasterareapodcast/id/31391667

Episode 239: The Uvalde school shooting - Part Four 06/10/2024

Episode 239: The Uvalde school shooting - Part Four In part four of this five-part series, we watch as people realize just how flawed the police response at Robb Elementary really was. Videos: Articles and books: . /episode/index/show/disasterareapodcast/id/31391582

Episode 238: The Uvalde school shooting - Part Three 06/03/2024

Episode 238: The Uvalde school shooting - Part Three In part three of this five-part series, we see responding officers still preparing to approach classroom 111. Videos: Articles and books: . /episode/index/show/disasterareapodcast/id/31391507

Episode 237: The Uvalde school shooting - Part Two 05/27/2024

Episode 237: The Uvalde school shooting - Part Two In part two of this five-part series, we see local law enforcement in Uvalde arriving at Robb Elementary, and what happens next - and what does not. Videos: Articles and books: . .k............................................................................. /episode/index/show/disasterareapodcast/id/31486197

Episode 236: The Uvalde school shooting - Part One 05/20/2024

Episode 236: The Uvalde school shooting - Part One In the first in this five-part series, we look at the town of Uvalde, and the first moments before a normal school day goes from calm to terrifying. Videos: Articles and books: . /episode/index/show/disasterareapodcast/id/31391277

Episode 235: The Eschede train disaster 05/01/2024

Episode 235: The Eschede train disaster A year ago this week, I covered the Amagasaki train derailment in 2005 in Japan. Why not cover a second one seven years earlier near a small town in Germany? Videos: Articles and books: /episode/index/show/disasterareapodcast/id/31063883

Episode 234: The 1906 San Francisco earthquake - Part Three 04/14/2024

Episode 234: The 1906 San Francisco earthquake - Part Three It's early in the morning on a Tuesday when you're awakened by the shaking of your bed, of your entire home. You think for a moment it's the end of the world. You and your family make it out of your home, even though so many others do not. For a moment, you think you are safe. Then, you smell smoke. Videos: Articles and books: , by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts , along with a /episode/index/show/disasterareapodcast/id/30613563

Episode 233: The 1906 San Francisco earthquake - Part Two 04/07/2024

Episode 233: The 1906 San Francisco earthquake - Part Two It's early in the morning on a Tuesday when you're awakened by the shaking of your bed, of your entire home. You think for a moment it's the end of the world. You and your family make it out of your home, even though so many others do not. For a moment, you think you are safe. Then, you smell smoke. Videos: Articles and books: , by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts , along with a /episode/index/show/disasterareapodcast/id/30613528

Episode 232: The 1906 San Francisco earthquake - Part One 03/31/2024

Episode 232: The 1906 San Francisco earthquake - Part One It's early in the morning on a Tuesday when you're awakened by the shaking of your bed, of your entire home. You think for a moment it's the end of the world. You and your family make it out of your home, even though so many others do not. For a moment, you think you are safe. Then, you smell smoke. Videos: Articles and books: , by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts , along with a /episode/index/show/disasterareapodcast/id/30613483

Episode 231: The Peshtigo fire 03/06/2024

Episode 231: The Peshtigo fire The deadliest fire in American history happened not in Chicago, but in a small Wisconsin town to the north of Chicago on the exact same day - October 8th, 1871. Videos: Articles and books: , by Denise Gess and William Lotz /episode/index/show/disasterareapodcast/id/30182958

Episode 230: The sinking of the USS Thresher 02/28/2024

Episode 230: The sinking of the USS Thresher On April 9th, 1963, the nuclear-powered submarine USS Thresher departed Portsmouth Naval Shipyard for depth tests in the Atlantic. It would never return. Videos: Articles and books: by Norman Polmar /episode/index/show/disasterareapodcast/id/30146563

Episode 229: The Collinwood school fire 01/31/2024

Episode 229: The Collinwood school fire The deadliest school fire in American history took place on - of all days - Ash Wednesday, March 8th, 1908, in the Cleveland suburb of Collinwood just after first period ended. Within a half hour, 172 students and three adults would be dead, or close to it. Videos: Articles and books: , by James Jessen Badal /episode/index/show/disasterareapodcast/id/29711323

Review: Society of the Snow 01/11/2024

Review: Society of the Snow Jennifer stops rewatching the movie long enough to review the movie. Spoilers ahead! /episode/index/show/disasterareapodcast/id/29438883

Episode 228: Dan Air Flight 0034 01/01/2024

Episode 228: Dan Air Flight 0034 You'd think if your plane crashed fifty meters from the end of the runway, you'd be saved. You'd be wrong. Videos: Articles and books: /episode/index/show/disasterareapodcast/id/29292378

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