This Is A Disaster

What better place to build a fishing and country club than at the edge of a recently-compromised dam?  A flood made particularly horrific by all of the debris it took with it, and Johnstown Pennsylvania didn't see it coming... or didn't want to.  Conemaugh Lake, 19th-century industrialists, broken telegraphs, and a demonic Katamari Damacy.

Leigh's song pick:: Domsbore by Boredoms

Peter's song pick:: Brought To The Water by Deafheaven

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Theme song by Blank Sun: https://blanksun.bandcamp.com

Young boys get stranded on an island, and anyone who's read the book knows the rest of the story... or do they? A group of Tongan teenagers in the 1960s acted as a real-world experiment to see whether humanity is more "Lord of the Flies" or "The Coral Island".  Polynesia, 'Ata, shipwreck in the Pacific, and humanity exposed.

Peter's song pick:: In My Mind At Least by PS I Love You

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Theme song by Blank Sun: https://blanksun.bandcamp.com

Hey, we heard you like wood, so we stored wood in your wood so you can wood when you wood!  When they first built the Windy City, perhaps they should have considered building materials that were a bit less timber-based.  Controversy about Mrs. O'Leary's cow versus Daniel "Peg Leg" Sullivan aside, the great fire that tore through Chicago in October 1871 took no prisoners.  A cow, a lamp, a drunk, a city made of kindling, and twenty-four hours of one of the worst infernos to hit a major US city.

Leigh's song pick:: Woundwort by Fall of Efrafa

Peter's song pick:: Nobody's Listening by Linkin Park

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Theme song by Blank Sun: https://blanksun.bandcamp.com

Bad things come in fours.  Leigh tells us about a bottleneck at a Who concert, a stampede at the Roskilde festival, a human garlic press at a Hillsborough soccer match, and the perils of Ten-Cent Beer Night.  The Who, Pearl Jam, Liverpool versus Nottingham Forest, and the Cleveland Indians versus the Texas Rangers... and beer.  Lots and lots of too-cheap beer.

Leigh's song pick:: Riot by Dead Kennedys

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Theme song by Blank Sun: https://blanksun.bandcamp.com

Leigh tackles one of his White Whales, talking about the ups, downs, and eventual collapse of the production of what could have been the Beach Boys' greatest album.  Human-sized kitty litter, songs about surfing, California girls, a questionable psychotherapist, and untold kilometers of magnetic tape.

Leigh's song pick:: Our Prayer by The Beach Boys

Peter's song pick:: Living Every Single Hell by The Sun Through A Telescope

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Theme song by Blank Sun: https://blanksun.bandcamp.com

What happens when you pick a fight with Mikey Mouse, and all you have at hand is two million latex balloons?  In 1986, United Way of Chicago found out.  A charity balloon release, a Guinness World Record, spooked prize horses, and a peek into Peter's past.

Peter's song pick:: Just A Simple Plan by Piebald

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Theme song by Blank Sun: https://blanksun.bandcamp.com

Special guest Karol (aka doom-rapper "garbageface") drops by the podcast to tell us about possibly the original sticky situation.  How could such a sweet treat turn deadly?  Maybe by storing two million gallons of it in a paper-thin water tower?  A cautionary tale about paying attention to warning signs, and the children running home with cups of molasses.  WW1, building codes, and so much molasses.

Video about the efforts to simulate the Boston Molasses Flood:

Karol, aka "garbageface":

Leigh & Peter's band, HAMN:

Karol's song pick:: Sloth Esteem by The Slothspring

Leigh's song pick:: Hamburger Lady by Throbbing Gristle

Peter's song pick:: Mirror Reaper by Bell Witch

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Theme song by Blank Sun: https://blanksun.bandcamp.com

How many tragic folk musicians from the 60s could there possibly be?  Leigh helps answer that question with the story of Gram Parsons.  You know you're hitting the rocks when Keith Richards tells you to slow down... Acoustic guitar, tequila and morphine binges in the desert, and a botched cremation.

Leigh's song pick:: Love Hurts by Gram Parsons and 

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Theme song by Blank Sun: https://blanksun.bandcamp.com

Some disasters reverberate throughout history.  Santorini wasn't always a ring of islands...  there was a time it was the beautiful peak of a mountain island called Thera.  The archeological site at Akrotiri is our main portal into what exactly happened to the Minoan civilization on Crete and Thera... but the effects of Thera's eruption were felt thousands of kilometers away, and may have even shaped the course of history.  The Exodus, the parting of the red (reed?) sea, ancient Egyptian plagues, and the lost city of Atlantis.

Leigh's song pick:: Parish of Tama (Ossuary Dub) by Painkiller

Peter's song pick:: Pompeii by ES Posthumus

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Theme song by Blank Sun: https://blanksun.bandcamp.com

When it comes to measurement, there's the right way, and there's the Imperial system.  Sometimes when you make the switch from one system to the other, wires get crossed and things can go south.  Was that in liters, or gallons?  The history of the metric system, an airplane flying light, and a decommissioned air base that maybe wasn't so decommissioned.  Nuclear Norm brings the aerial terror!

Norm's song pick:: Gravity by Four Year Strong

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Want some words of woe?  Check out our new bookshelf!

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Theme song by Blank Sun: https://blanksun.bandcamp.com