After the Titan submersible imploded last week, Matthew Gavin Frank’s journey to the depths with Karl Stanley, a friend of Stockton Rush’s, took on a new meaning. (Frank rode in Stanley’s sub in February of this year; his essay, in which Frank meditates on the eternal dangers and allure of deep-sea exploration, went online the day after the OceanGate sub went missing.) He discusses Stanley’s warnings to Rush, mass fear, and whether he regrets his experience.

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* “Submersion Journalism,” Matthew Gavin Frank’s essay in the July issue of Harper’s

* The New York Times piece which mentions Stanley’s objections to the Titan

* [8:46] Submersible enthusiasts ignore the all-encompassing danger of the sea

* [13:57] The psyche of a submersible enthusiast vs. the psyches of the rest of us

* [16:13] “There is a malign quality to this certain and particular breed of wonder.”

* [19:32] The Titan tapped into “a fuse of our greatest, fearful hits.”

* [20:31] How the countdown aspect made us “keenly aware of how much closer we are to our own deaths”

* [22:38] Joking out of love, joking out of spite, and roasting someone after they’ve died

* [25:53] The media’s endless quest for ratings

* [32:15] “If there is such a thing as an expert in risk assessment in one-off, uncertifiable, deep-sea manned vehicles, my resume is hard to beat.”

* [35:28] Going for a walk, as an antidote to submersible addiction

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