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02.25.25: Yuge Explosions (& the Gearheads Who Love Them) - When One Megaton Ain't Enough: Texas City, Beirut, Halifax, West, Henderson, Mine Gas, Nuclear Testing, Rabaul, St. Helens, Krakatoa, + A Few Bombs that Didn't & the SS United States
03/11/2025
02.25.25: Yuge Explosions (& the Gearheads Who Love Them) - When One Megaton Ain't Enough: Texas City, Beirut, Halifax, West, Henderson, Mine Gas, Nuclear Testing, Rabaul, St. Helens, Krakatoa, + A Few Bombs that Didn't & the SS United States
Hostus Maximus and sometime savant Justin Fort goes full brain-dump on the kind of history that makes pre-teen kids deep-dive science for all the wrong reasons. Obviously, when folks die because a ship full of ammonium nitrate or radical WW1-era explosives goes kablooey in the harbor, it's a damn shame, but you can't help but marvel at the sheer magnitude of serious industrial accidents (be they jet fuel, fertilizer, munitions or just leftover mine gas). It's not just manmade disasters, though - Mother Nature (or Father Nature? Turnabout and all...) has a pretty good market for things that go BOOM too, like whole mountains and entire islands. Join the show for an hour of train-of-thought goodness (and a reminder that mailboxes are federal property, "because you can" doesn't always mean you should, and if you want to blow stuff up, go pro and do it for a living). To max out the spicy, we've got the mine in Mike's basement, the legitimacy in Stephen King's short stories ("Langoliers" and "Night Flyer", for instance), some WW2 in Europe and the Pacific, submarines & "Das Boot", the return of the D2HIE1WHCII rule, and enough Monster Magnet to explode a horse.
/episode/index/show/garagehour/id/35643595
