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:

• New England Journal of Medicine: The Cutter Incident, 50 Years Later

• American Experience: The Polio Crusade

• The Iron Lung and Polio by M.Rockoff | OPENPediatrics

Articles and books:

• Polio: An American Story, by David M. Oshinsky

• The Cutter Incident, by Dr. Paul Offit

• NEJM: The Cutter Incident

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:

• History of Port Royal (Underwater Cities)

Articles and books:

• Apocalypse 1692: Empire, Slavery, and the Great Port Royal Earthquake, by Ben Hughes

• Historic Earthquakes: Jamaica, 1692 June 07 UTC

• Jamaica Port Royal

If you'd like to donate to the GFM for my car, you can find that here:

https://gofund.me/a0585132

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: https://gofund.me/59bec8ad

Paypal: [email protected]

Cashapp: $disasterareapod

Venmo: @disasterareapodcast

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:

• Charleston Fire Department’s recovery from deadly Sofa Super Store fire

• First hour of dispatch audio from the Sofa Super Store fire

• Charleston 9: The Ultimate Sacrifice

• Line-of-Duty Death and Injury Investigations - NIST Fire Modeling - The Charleston Investigation

Articles and books:

• Newsweek: 'It looked like Hell was burning'

• Post and Courier: Sofa store owner tells his side

• Post and Courier: Trapped: The story of nine Charleston firefighters' deaths

• NIST Study on Charleston Furniture Store Fire Calls for National Safety Improvements

• Remembering the Charleston 9: 17 years after deadly Sofa Super Store fire

• The Sofa Super Store fire: The blaze that reshaped the Charleston Fire Department

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:

• Mayday/Air Crash Investigation episode on Charkhi Dadri collision

• Disaster Breakdown: The Charkhi Dadri mid-air collision

• Remains of Charkhi Dadri mid-air collision

• "Head On"

Articles and books:

• Accident report

• Human error is blamed for crash

• At Least 349 Are Killed in Collision

• Indian Officials Gather Evidence on Midair Collision

• Haryana's Charkhi Dadri plans a memorial for 1996 mid-air collision victims

Let us celebrate the 250th episode of the podcast by doing literally anything else but watching "Cats." 

Videos:

• Cats: The Musical

• Cats (2019)

• The Late Late Show with James Corden: Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts with Chrissy Teigen

• "Cats" commercial for the Broadway show

Articles and books:

• Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, by T.S. Eliot

• What's a Jellicle, Anyway? Everything You Need to Know About Cats Before You See the Movie

• 21 Funny Reactions From Critics Who Thought The New “Cats” Movie Was A Catastrophe

• Cats review: a sinister, all-time disaster from which no one emerges unscathed

• 'Oh God, my eyes': The reviews for 'Cats' are hilarious and traumatic

• ‘It Became This Joke. But It Was the Most Spectacular Thing of Its Time.’ An oral history of Cats on Broadway, as told by its original cats.

• Cats (2019): Performance

• Editing the Buttholes Out of ‘Cats’ Was a Total Nightmare for VFX Crew

• The ‘Cats’ trailer dropped. We have 34 questions.

• Cats mistake revealed as Judi Dench's character spotted with human hand and wedding ring

• How Do Furries Feel About the New Cats Movie?

• RAZZIE AWARDS 2020 WINNERS: CATS DOMINATES 40TH GOLDEN RASPBERRY AWARDS

• Yes, The Songs in "Cats" Are Based on These Poems by T.S. Eliot

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.

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:

• The Sea Wing Disaster

• So Minnesota: Haunted history of the Sea Wing disaster

• Sea Wing Disaster on KSMQ's "Off 90" (Sponsored by the Minnesota Legacy Amendment)

Articles and books:

• Shipwrecked on Lake Pepin: The Sea Wing disaster

• Historic Disasters in Southeast Minnesota, by Steve Gardiner

• The Sea Wing disaster killed 98, yet the tragedy is little known beyond Red Wing

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:

• Netflix: Fire in Paradise

• Frontline: Fire in Paradise

• Camp Fire: One Year Later

• The Deadliest Fire in California History

• Drone fire of Camp Fire devastation in Butte County

• Trump confused over fire-hit town Paradise: 'Pleasure, what a name'

Articles and books:

• Fire in Paradise: An American Tragedy, by Alastair Gee and Dani Anguaino

• Trump refused to give California wildfire aid until told how many people there voted for him, ex-aide says

• Trump’s Misleading Claims About California’s Fire ‘Mismanagement’

• ABC10 Investigation: PG&E knew old power line parts had ‘severe wear’ months before deadly Camp Fire

• Trump blames forest management again on California fires visit

• The Camp Fire public report

• ‘Hell on Earth’: The First 12 Hours of California’s Deadliest Wildfire

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:

• Netflix: Fire in Paradise

• Frontline: Fire in Paradise

• Camp Fire: One Year Later

• The Deadliest Fire in California History

• Drone fire of Camp Fire devastation in Butte County

• Trump confused over fire-hit town Paradise: 'Pleasure, what a name'

Articles and books:

• Fire in Paradise: An American Tragedy, by Alastair Gee and Dani Anguaino

• Trump refused to give California wildfire aid until told how many people there voted for him, ex-aide says

• Trump’s Misleading Claims About California’s Fire ‘Mismanagement’

• ABC10 Investigation: PG&E knew old power line parts had ‘severe wear’ months before deadly Camp Fire

• Trump blames forest management again on California fires visit

• The Camp Fire public report

• ‘Hell on Earth’: The First 12 Hours of California’s Deadliest Wildfire