In this episode, we explore the cutting-edge science of tsunami detection and prediction through the lens of major disasters and breakthrough research. We follow University of Southern California Professor Costas Synolakis and Georgia Institute of Technology Professor Hermann Fritz as they investigate the devastating two thousand eighteen Palu tsunami in Indonesia that killed four thousand people, uncovering how a seven point two magnitude earthquake triggered multiple landslides that combined into a killer wave reaching the city in just two minutes. We examine how Indonesian geologist Nazli Ismail's discovery of ancient tsunami deposits in bat-filled caves revolutionized understanding of these recurring disasters, dating back ten thousand years through carbon fourteen analysis. The episode covers Japan's advanced Dense Oceanfloor Network System for Earthquakes and Tsunamis monitoring the nine-hundred-kilometer Nankai fault, which scientists predict has an eighty percent chance of causing a tsunami in the next thirty years that could kill three hundred fifty thousand people and devastate cities like Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya. We investigate how Italian researchers traced the eighteen eighty-seven Mediterranean tsunami that killed six hundred people to underwater faults thirty kilometers off the coast, and explore volcanologist Mauro Rosi's work connecting Stromboli's volcanic activity to a thirteen forty-three tsunami that devastated Naples. The episode reveals how modern tsunami warning systems operate, from Indonesia's Jakarta monitoring center to Japan's sophisticated artificial intelligence evacuation systems, while examining why coastal development continues to increase vulnerability despite advancing detection technology.

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In this episode, we explore the explosive eight-hour interview recordings that Jackie Kennedy gave to historian Arthur Schlesinger just four months after President Kennedy's assassination in Dallas. These intimate conversations, kept secret for decades at Jackie's request, reveal the true story behind the Kennedy presidency from nineteen sixty-one to nineteen sixty-three. We examine Jackie's role in shaping the Kennedy myth, her detailed accounts of major Cold War events including the Bay of Pigs invasion and Cuban Missile Crisis, her complex relationship with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and his wife, and her candid assessments of political figures like Lyndon Johnson and Charles de Gaulle. The recordings expose Kennedy's health struggles, drug dependency, and the intense pressure he faced during critical moments like the Vienna Summit with Khrushchev. We also uncover Jackie's transformation from grieving widow to political strategist, working alongside Robert Kennedy to control the Kennedy legacy while revealing shocking details about life inside the White House during one of America's most turbulent periods.

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In this episode, we talk about the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, the largest event of its kind in the world. We cover its origins in Arizona’s mining past, its transformation into a global hub for collectors, jewelers, and miners, and how rare stones from places like Tanzania and Mahenge end up in luxury houses like Cartier. We dive into how crystals form, how they’re mined and judged, and how elite buyers trade them for millions. From ultraviolet-reactive Tiffany stone to museum-grade aquamarines and trillion-dollar tsavorites, Tucson is where the world’s rarest minerals meet their fate—either as fine jewelry, private collections, or museum centerpieces. 

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In this episode, we talk about the rise and fall of the SS—from the Einsatzgruppen executions in Babyn Yar to the industrialized killings at Auschwitz. We cover the roles of Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich in creating the Nazi system of genocide, the ideology that justified murdering Jewish children, the use of foreign recruits as expendable forces, and the transition from mass shootings to gas chambers. We explore how death camps like Auschwitz operated, how most SS members escaped punishment, and how many continued to deny or justify their actions after the war. The episode ends with the postwar legacy of SS veterans, their continued allegiance to Nazi ideology, and the delayed trial of Auschwitz accountant Oskar Gröning, charged with complicity in the murder of 300,000 Jews. 

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In this episode, we talk about the rise and evolution of the SS in Nazi Germany — from a personal bodyguard unit to a genocidal machine. We examine how Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, and Joseph Goebbels used propaganda, racial ideology, and social engineering to radicalize hundreds of thousands of men. We explore the SS’s role in the occupation of Poland, the invasion of France and the Soviet Union, the Kristallnacht pogrom, and the eventual implementation of the Final Solution. Firsthand testimonies from former SS members reveal how fanaticism, racism, and discipline created a generation willing to kill without question. The episode covers the internal structure of the SS, its control over police and intelligence, the use of concentration and extermination camps, and the lasting legacy of ideological warfare. 

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