This week, Melanie is WRONG, a bet is made, the Wendy's alligator goes out to pasture, TAG is an evil puppeteer, miners are poetic, history loves insane asylums, gold rushes, and white men, Brianne has hot takes on lobotomies, Robert Lawson ain't shit, and Melanie is doing Count Dante.

Content warnings: fictional addiction, alcoholism, housefire, deaths of children, and suicidal ideation, old-timey ableist language, sexism, domestic violence, murder to escape domestic violence, masturbation, mental illness, eugenics, graphic discussion of lobotomies, forced sterilization, fatal fire.

Links:
80-year-old woman sentenced to prison for killing ‘abusive’ husband while he slept
A survivor against the odds—noted New Zealand writer Janet Frame dies
Archives New Zealand
Asylum admission criteria in the 1800s means you might have qualified
‘Barbaric’ medical practices still used today
Filming in 'one of creepiest places'
Gold rush
Kirkbride Plan
Mania, dementia and melancholia in the 1870s: admissions to a Cornwall asylum
Otago gold rush
Robert Lawson (architect)
Scots Baronial Architecture: how to spot it
Seacliff Lunatic Asylum
The Anti-Insane Asylum Society
The sad saga of Seacliff: Built on shifting sands
The story of Seacliff, the most haunted place in New Zealand
Victorian Oppression of Women Through Psychiatry

This week, we put on our gray business suits and campaign in Ohio, Brianne reveals herself to be a villain, an alligator in someone's pants emerges as a frontrunner, the Midwestern food bracket elicits a strong emotional response, Melanie hopes for a big snake, America is nothing to get excited about, Melanie disrespects the wishes of rougarous and gets spiderwebs in her bush, a self-proclaimed country boy is a reliable employee at Winn-Dixie and not much else, and Lex is in trouble.

Content warnings: broken neck, racism, gun violence, death of teenager/grief of parents.

Links:
Acquittal in Doorstep Killing of Japanese Student
ANGRY JAPAN LAYS TO REST STUDENT SHOT DEAD IN U.S.
CEASE FIRE
Defense Depicts Japanese Boy as 'Scary'
Each Other's Arms
Hattori v. Peairs
History of Brady
How could it happen here?
I have lived in the monster
Jury Acquits Man Who Shot Japanese Youth
Justice Files: Get Your Gun
Louisiana 'Freeze' shooting tragedy remembered 20 years on
Louisiana Laws
Man Who Shot Japanese Student Doesn’t Want His Pistol Back
Parents of slain Japanese student win
Shooting of Yoshihiro Hattori
THE CASTLE DOCTRINE AND STAND-YOUR-GROUND LAW
Yoshi Hattori Memorial Scholarship
Yoshihiro Hattori: The door knock that killed a Japanese teenager in US

This week, we learn how to be good citizens, an alligator is thrown through a fast food window, we cave to a year and a half of requests, pot gets framed for asshole genius behavior, and we cover the worst amusement park disaster yet.

Content warnings: mentions of drugs, domestic violence 18:15-19:00, horrific death of a child which is the topic of the episode but discussed specifically from 39:00 on, decapitation, vague mention of suicidal ideation

Links:
Behind the Thrills
How a Freak Accident Happens
Judge Dismisses Murder Charges Over Boy's Death On Kansas Waterslide
Schlitterbahn co-owner charged with drug crimes, hiring prostitute
Schlitterbahn Kansas City
Schlitterbahn’s Tragic Slide
'THERE WAS A TRAIL OF BLOOD' Teenage girls reveal horror of seeing 10-year-old boy ‘decapitated’ on the world’s tallest waterslide
Verrückt (water slide)

This week, Melanie puts out feelers for cross-stitching listeners, puppy justice takes over Florida, we petition to bring back the name Constance, Melanie gets catfished by a fake Steve Miller Band, and a tea dance goes horrifically wrong.

Content warnings: structural collapse, graphic discussion of death and severe physical trauma, graphic discussion of traumatic rescue and recovery episodes, PTSD, repeated references to dismemberment, explicit death of a child 00:34:40-00:37:31.

45 KILLED AT HOTEL IN KANSAS CITY, MO., AS WALKWAYS FALL
46 killed in Hyatt collapse as tea dance turns to terror
BEFORE HOTEL DISASTER, WALKWAY SWAYED TO THE RHYTHM OF DANCERS
ENGINEERS ARE HELD AT FAULT IN '81 HOTEL DISASTER
Hyatt hotel hid collapse of a roof, paper says
Hyatt Regency Skywalk Collapse
Hyatt Regency walkway collapse
In an unexpected move denounced by Mayor Richard Berkley,...
KMBC 9 Chronicle: The Skywalk Tapes – The night the skywalks fell, forever changing Kansas City
One Of The Deadliest U.S. Accidental Structural Collapses Happened 40 Years Ago Today
Skywalk Memorial Foundation, Inc.
'Tea Dance' Hotel Disaster Toll Reaches 111
The Hyatt Regency Hotel disaster: A year later survivors still dance
The Kansas City Hyatt Disaster: 30 Years Later, a Reminder to Never Forget
THIRD HYATT WALK REMOVED DESPITE PROTEST FROM MAYOR
Three Decades On, A Memorial For The Victims Of The Hyatt Disaster
Tragedy in KC: The Hyatt Collapse of 1981
When this hotel skywalk collapsed, it was one of the deadliest structural failures in US history

This week, hurricane life continues, Melanie addresses her fake divorce, a Florida man won't be kink-shamed, and comas are complicated.

Content warnings: extensive and descriptive discussion of comas/coming out of comas, severe physical trauma, and the loss of one's child. Car accident, falling asleep at the wheel, memory loss, and adult humor.

Links:
A Twist of Fate
Michigan truck driver convicted in Indiana mistaken identity crash is out of prison
Mistaken Identity - Don & Susie Van Ryn and Newell, Colleen, & Whitney Cerak
Whitney Cerak Marries In The Church Where Her Funeral Was Once Held

This week, Tiktok changes the game, Brianne leaves the podcast a bad review, an army of turtles defeats everyone, Melanie takes it all, Brianne will flash anyone, Arby's delivers disaster concierge service, Melanie is the trashy neighbor, we court a Waffle House sponsorship, and Melanie conceals a mohawk.

Content warnings: hurricane aftermath, alligator attack, loss of spouse, sinkhole, serious injuries after accident, cow in peril, near drowning of adult and child.

Links:
A Louisiana man is presumed dead after an alligator attacked him while he walked in floodwaters
Crash victim recalls terror after Mississippi road collapse
Escaped animal returned to enclosure at Audubon Zoo
How bad will Hurricane Ida be? Waffle House closures in Louisiana indicate storm's power
MS highway collapses near Lucedale, killing 2 and injuring 10 as Hurricane Ida moves through state
Searchers still looking for man attacked by alligator in Hurricane Ida floodwaters
Swamp deer that breached exhibit at Audubon Zoo located
Teen who survived deadly Highway 26 crash recalls terrifying moments trapped in ravine
Tweet
What is the Waffle House index?

This week, Melanie is marked safe, a man is a member of a very important organization, Dave dies, we cover the most horrifying thing we've ever covered, Jeep Liberties become problematic, and Melanie is wooed by scratch-off tickets.

Content warnings: one use of the c-word, hurricane damage/evacuation/deaths, carbon monoxide poisoning, death by accidental hanging, extreme gore 50:27-58:50, traumatic loss of spouse in old age, domestic violence ending in murder-suicide 1:02:56-1:08:20, gun violence, death from being hit by a car.

Links:
4 killed in shooting at car wash in Melcroft, Pennsylvania
Car crushes elderly couple in fatal accident caught on video
Car wash deaths took little time, says expert
Car Wash History: From Simple Beginnings to Modern Day Features
Community raises funds for family of car wash DWI victim
Curious and Unusual Deaths: Death by Routine Maintenance
Elgie Gordon Bedford
Fatal accident raises questions
Female customer crushed to death by drunken car wash worker as daughter watched, DA says
In Memory of Joan & Frank Tornabene
Jealousy drove Pennsylvania car wash shooting suspect
Man, 18, dies in accident at car wash
MELCROFT SHOOTING: What we know about 4 people killed at car wash
Officials confirm suspect in Fayette County shooting that killed 4 was pronounced dead Sunday evening
Retired NYPD lieutenant, 90, succumbs to injuries after car wash crash that killed his wife
Suspected gunman in quadruple homicide at rural Pennsylvania car wash dies
Tracie A McManus
Traumatized Woman Finds Face in Car Wash
Two Oelwein men die in Fayette car wash
Update: Second Victim in Marine Park Crash Succumbs to Injuries on 65th Wedding Anniversary

This week, we don our emotional bat dresses, there's an alligator in someone's pants, a corporation is totally upstanding, murderous sludge gets upcycled, fishermen storm a factory, a lot of people die, and we explore possible alternate timelines.

Content warnings: maltreatment of alligators, neurological symptoms in animals, eating eels, serious illness/possible death of five year old child, CNS disease, experimentation on cats, miscarriage, stillbirth, infant deformities, community shunning, invasive medical exam.

Links:
Episode 75 Mercury: The cost of progress
Johnny Depp Claims He Is Being Boycotted By Hollywood, Worries About ‘Minamata’ Release
Lessons learned from previous environmental health crises: Narratives of patients with
Minamata disease in TV documentaries as the main media outlet
Minamata disease
Minamata Disease
MINAMATA`S HEROES
Mysterious chemical found in dead cat’s brain reopens debate over mercury poisoning disaster
Minamata disease compensation agreements of 1959
Something in the Water: Life after Mercury Poisoning
The Minamata Disaster and the Disease That Followed
The Minamata Disaster and the True Costs of Japanese Modernization