Mother Nature Will Kill You

Haley and Jillian close out the podcast with a trip down memory lane and episode superlatives.

Haley and Jillian talk about the recent fires in LA and what this means for our collective future. Then Jillian talks about the nail biting story of Alex Honnold and his historic free solo climb of El Capitan, and Haley talks about the Sierra Nevada Yellow-Legged Frog for conservation corner. Sources: Free Solo , 2018, National Geographic Exclusive: Alex Honnold Completes the Most Dangerous Free-S...

Jillian and Haley spend the beginning of the new year talking about how the first person to stand on the North Pole may have actually been an African-American man, Matthew Henson, and hope to give credit where credit is due. Haley talks about the polar bear for conservation corner. Sources: The Legacy of Arctic Explorer Matthew Henson , James Edward Mills, National Geographic Matthew A. Henson: Th...

Haley and Jillian get ready for the holidays with a three story episode focusing on shipwrecks that occurred around or on Christmas. Haley talks about the swamp darter for conservation corner. Sources: The Christmas Tree Ship , Glenn Longacre, National Archives The Grim Fate of the Privateer "General Arnold , Patrick Browne, Historical Digression The Wreck of the Annie C Maguire at Portland Lighth...

Haley and Jillian get into another mountaineering disaster - this time we head to K2 instead for the 2008 K2 disaster. Then Haley talks about the bellybutton eyed Indus River Dolphin for conservation corner. Sources: The 2008 K2 Disaster , C.J. Leger, Basecamp Magazine The Summit Documentary K2: How to Climb the Abruzzi Spur Route, Stewart Green, tripsavvy K2, Wikipedia Death zone, Wikipedia Karak...

Jillian and Haley wallow in newfound hell for a moment before diving into the story of the 1999 Oklahoma City F5 Tornado. Haley then talks about the Red Cockaded Woodpecker for conservation corner. Sources: May 3, 1999 Oklahoma/Kansas Tornado Outbreak , NOAA The Great Plains Tornado Outbreak of May 3-4 1999 , NOAA The Story behind a famous photo during a historic Oklahoma tornado outbreak, Jason C...

Jillian and Haley deal with the horrors of real life by dealing with the horrors of past life with the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. Haley rounds out conservation corner with the Sumatran Rhino. Sources: ⁠ Woman wedged upside down between rocks for 7 hours after trying to retrieve her phone ⁠ , Hilary Whiteman, CNN ⁠ Family tells of 'relief after 1924 climbers foot found on Everest, ⁠ Tessa Wong and...

Haley, Jillian, and Corey reunite for Appalachian Trail Tales Part III for stories of survival, murder, and spooky stuff. Please Donate for Hurricane Helene Relief: ⁠North Carolina Disaster Relief Fund⁠ ⁠Food Bank of Eastern and Central Nort Carolina⁠ ⁠Hurricane Helene Response Red Cross⁠ Sources: ⁠ 6 days in the wild: Kenneth Knight’s ordeal in the Virginia mountains ⁠ , C.R. Burns, Appalachian T...

Haley and Jillian welcome a guest on the podcast to talk about his visit to Everest base camp, and talk about all of the bodies still left on the mountain. Hurricane Helene Donations: Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina North Carolina Disaster Relief Fund North Carolina Community Foundation Sources: The Bodies on Mount Everest: Dead, Frozen & Left at the Top , Ultimate Kilimanjar...

Haley and Jillian delve into the other Dyatlov Pass incident - the Khamar-Daban incident. Siberia is full of terrors. Then Haley talks about the Russian version of Bigfoot, the Mecheny. Sources: The Khamar-Daban Incident: Mountain Madness , Bipin Dimri, Historic Mysteries Infrasound , Wikipedia Khamar-Daban Incident , Wikipedia  "Mysterious death of climbers at the Khamar-Daban pass. Death of Bury...

Haley and Jillian visit Haley's ancestral home of Croatia for the mysterious death that occurred in a cave in Pogancia Bay, and then Haley delves into some Croatian folklore monsters and spirits. Sources: Petri, Nadan and Marija Definis-Gojanovic.2003. Scuba diver with a knife in his chest: homicide or suicide? Croatian Medical Journal. 44(3):355–359. Underwater Suicide? Mysterious Case of Div...

Jillian and Haley talk all things Iowa State Fair and Jillian jumps into the spooky phenomenon that many explorers experience, the mysterious third man syndrome. Haley then rounds out our first spooky season episode with cryptid corner featuring the Antarctic ningen. Sources: The Third Man Factor: Surviving the Impossible , John Geiger Ningen , Cryptid Wiki

Haley and Jillian cover another story related to current world events, the terrifying Fort McMurray Fire of 2016. Haley then gives us a conservation corner twofer with the limber pine and the Clark's Nutcracker. Sources: ⁠ Fire Weather: A True Story From A Hotter World ⁠ , John Vaillant ⁠ Bitumen ⁠ , Wikipedia ⁠ Clark's Nutcracker ⁠ , Cornell Lab, All About Birds ⁠ Species at Risk: A Guide...

Haley and Jillian reflect on all of the topic related news stories going on recently before diving into another National Park topic: the accidents and deaths surrounding Yellowstone National Park's hot springs. Haley talks about the reintroduction of gray wolves to Yellowstone for conservation corner. Sources: Has Anyone Died from Falling in a Geyser? Tom Arrandale, Yellowstone National Park D...

Haley and Jillian dive right into a national park summer vacation with Yosemite and the horrors of the half dome hike. Then Jillian talks about Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep for conservation corner. Sources: Yosemite National Park , The National Park Foundation Yosemite National Park , Yosemite Mariposa County John Muir , National Park Service Ansel Adams , National Park Service Half Dome Day Hike ,...

Haley and Jillian talk exploration in the news with Hurricane Beryl, OceanGate's upcoming trip to a blue hole, the recent shark attacks in Florida, and the two men stuck in space. Then Jillian gets into the worst shark attack in recorded history with the sinking of the USS Indianapolis. Haley rounds it out with conservation corner with the strange ugly-cute binturong. Sources: The Worst Shark...

Jillian and Haley explore the misleading theories on Polynesian navigation and migration to the South Pacific with the Kon-Tiki Expedition, and talk about how it really happened with the story of the Hōkūle'a. Haley brings it all home with a Moana themed conservation corner with the Giant Manta Ray. Sources: How the Voyage of the Kon-Tiki Misled the World About Navigating the Pacific , Doug He...

Haley and Jillian "land" on the two incredible space-gone-wrong stories of John Glenn's Friendship 7 mission and the landing survival story of the Soyuz 23. Haley then spends a lot of time talking about flamingos, and the one time she flamingled with them. Sources: 60 years Ago: John Glenn, the First American to Orbit the Earth aboard Friendship 7 , John Uri, NASA Astronaut John Glen...

Haley and Jillian reunite back on east coast time with the story of the Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island. Haley delves into the ecology of the Catalina Island Fox. Sources: Natural History Museum Unveils Portrait of Juana Maria, the Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History “Island of the Blue Dolphins” women’s cave believed found , Steve Chawkins, Los Angeles Times...

This weeks episode is a little shorter than normal, because Haley is solo for the first time! Haley covers the 1982 Lake Tahoe Alpine Meadows avalanche, covering for Jillian until she returns for the next episode (Jillian is moving!). Sources: Buried: The 1982 Alpine Meadows Avalanche , Jared Drake and Steven Siig, Netflix The Legacy of Alpine Meadows: The 1982 Avalanche , Unofficial Alpine.com Si...

Jillian and Haley dive into the Timothy Treadwell documentary "Grizzly Man" before Jillian tells the story of chronobiologist Michel Siffre and the time isolation experiments. Haley talks monarch butterflies during conservation corner. Sources: Caveman: An interview with Micchel Siffre , Joshua Foer and Michel Siffre, Cabinet Magazine Siffre Cave Study Psychology , Study Smarter Chronobi...

Corey decides he wants to come on the podcast again and Jillian, Corey, and Haley talk about all kinds of personal news, including a move and a wedding. Jillian then dives into the highly controversial life and death of Timothy Treadwell, and Haley talks grizzly bears during conservation corner. Sources: We Watched "Grizzly Man" With a Bear Biologist. It Got Weird. Emma Veidt, Backpacker...

Haley and Jillian talk about the troubling "spinning fish disease" in the Florida Keys before diving into the tragic tale of the Yarnell Hill Wildfire and the Granite Mountain Hotshots. Haley brings it back up during conservation corner with the Apache trout. Sources: 19: The True Story of the Yarnell Hill Fire , Kyle Dickman, Outside Magazine Granite Mountain Hotshots: The firefighting...

Jillian and Haley talk about how history always repeats itself with a recent news story about Donner pass. Jillian dives into more prehistoric stories with the lost land of Doggerland and the hominids of Rising Star Cave. Haley rounds it out with some seal talk. Sources: Doggerland- The Europe That Was , Benjamin Kessler, National Geographic Doggerland: Lost ‘Atlantis” of the North Sea gives up it...

Haley and Jillian are back with a super uncomfy story about what happens when a dive boat leaves you behind, the true story of the disappearance of Tom and Eileen Lonergan. Haley takes us to the Great Barrier Reef during conservation corner with the dugong. Sources: Tom and Eileen Lonergan: The American Couple Who Disappeared in the Great Barrier Reef , Kara Goldfarb, All That’s Interesting Myster...