Crash Lessons

Send us Fan Mail In the 1980s, a state-of-the-art radiation machine was supposed to save lives. But patients started coming back with burns that didn’t make sense… pain that shouldn’t have been possible… and symptoms doctors didn’t believe. The machine said everything was fine. It wasn’t. This is the story of the Therac‑25 — and what happens when we trust technology more than people. Sources: http...

Send us Fan Mail Mauled by a grizzly bear. Abandoned by his own men. Left with nothing in the wilderness. Hugh Glass survived one of the most extreme ordeals in American frontier history — but surviving didn’t mean peace. In this episode, we explore how Glass kept going when everything failed, what really kept him alive, and why his story still matters today. Sources hugh glass real story - Reddit...

Send us Fan Mail On July 6, 1944, what was meant to be a joyful afternoon at the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus turned into one of the deadliest fires in American history. In this episode of Crash Lessons , we tell the story of the Hartford Circus Fire — how a perfect storm of unsafe practices, wartime shortages, and human error led to tragedy, and how the disaster permanently ch...

Send us Fan Mail Deep beneath the waters of Deer Island, one of the largest wastewater treatment plants in the United States was under construction—an ambitious project meant to clean up Boston Harbor and protect the environment. But behind the engineering feat lies a much darker story. In this episode, we explore the construction of the Deer Island Sewage Treatment Plant and the dangerous conditi...

Send us Fan Mail Eight climbers. One Mountain. A storm no one could escape.  In this episode we are talking about the Shatayeva Group. In 1974 Soviet mountaineer Elvira Shatayeva led an ambitious all-women’s expedition to the summit of Lenin Peak. But when a brutal storm swept across the mountain, the team became trapped at extreme altitude with no shelter and no way down.  Sources  https://editio...

Send us Fan Mail The film “Roar” was dubbed the most dangerous film ever made and the most expensive home movie ever made. Join me this episode while I dive into the crazy story behind the filming of the film “Roar” and just why it exactly was given the titles.  Sources:  https://www.stage32.com/blog/surviving-roar-the-most-dangerous-film-ever-made-620 https://collider.com/roar-movie-making-of/ ht...

Send us Fan Mail On today’s episode we are talking about the Donner Party. A group of emigrants headed to the Coast from the Midwest for a better and healthier life get stuck in the mountains all because they listened to the wrong man. Many people died and the others did what they had to do to survive.  sources  https://www.britannica.com/topic/Donner-party https://www.history.com/articles/10-thin...

Send us Fan Mail This is the story of George Mallory and Andrew Irvine. In 1924 they attempted to be the first people to ever summit Mount Everest only to be lost on the mountain and left us with the biggest question in mountaineering. Did Mallory and Irvine summit Mount Everest? Making them the first people to ever summit?  Sources  https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/sandy-irvin...

Send us Fan Mail In 1982, 4 men went into the Amazon seeking an adventure. Two men never made it out while one man was left to survive alone for 3 weeks with a rotting foot and facing many of the dangers within   Sources  https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/travel/1998/09/06/lost-and-found/5c406cbd-6e90-469e-a018-09d806a1bd58/ https://www.mamamia.com.au/jungle-true-story/ https://mixe...

Send us Fan Mail Today I have a two in one mini episode for you guys. We have the London Beer Flood and Great Gorbals Whiskey Flood and yes the stories are exactly what the title says they are. Sources https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/The-London-Beer-Flood-of-1814/ https://www.history.com/articles/london-beer-flood https://www.historyextra.com/period/georgian/great-beer-flood...

Send us Fan Mail One of the worst mountaineering disasters in history came when a few crucial mistakes were made before the climb had even started, mixed with unpredictable circumstances that killed 11 climbers during the 2008 K2 disaster. Sources: https://bushcraftbuddy.com/the-3-worst-climbing-accidents-of-all-time/ https://basecampmagazine.com/2018/02/12/the-2008-k2-tragedy/ https://www.cbc.ca/...

Send us Fan Mail This episode we are covering one of the most rare natural disasters that caused the death of 1800 people and 3500 livestock. A limoncello eruption is so rare that there have only ever been two recorded instances within 100km of each other.  Sources:  https://www.britannica.com/event/Lake-Nyos-disaster https://explorersweb.com/the-1986-deadly-gas-blanket-from-lake-nyos/ https://sci...

Send us Fan Mail Today is a short little episode where I will be talking about the Weatray Mine Disaster. Where corporate greed and government incompetence signed the death certificate of 26 miners one day when they thought they were just going in for another regular day at work. Sources: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/westray-remembered-explosion-killed-26-n-s-coal-miners-in-1992-1.12...

Send us Fan Mail Today we have a shipwreck story for you guys. This is the final voyage of the Empress of Ireland. Just two years after the sinking of the Titanic and months before the outbreak of WW1 the Empress of Ireland was greatly overshadowed but with a passenger death toll greater than the Titanic this story is not forgotten and will forever be known as Canada’s worst maritime disaster.  So...

Send us Fan Mail From the horrid smell of human waste that wafted off of the Thames making people actually leave the city of London to the pea-souper, a thick greenish fog that clouded the streets making people sick or the great smog of 1952 that was to blame for thousands of deaths. These are 3 big events in British history that cleaned the city of toxins.  Source:  Smog Sources: https://www.brit...

Send us Fan Mail November 1971 a group of school kids and two instructors made their way from Edinburgh to the Cairngorms for a simple climbing expedition. What started out as a routine hike quickly turned into their worst nightmares. The group split into two and out of the 8 members of the second group only 2 were rescued alive.  Sources:  https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/people/cairng...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we are going to be going back in time a little to the early 1900’s.  I will be talking about the failed expedition to Wrangel island and more importantly the incredible survival story of Ada Blackjack. She survived alone on the island for 57 days having taught herself woodworking, how to shoot a gun, trapping animals and even how to build a boat. Her amazing will t...

Send us Fan Mail I have a wild story for you guys today. Often compared to the Dyatlov pass incident and referred to as “mountain madness”. This episode I will be talking about the Khamar Daban incident where a group of 7 hikers went up the mountain but only 1 made it back down. I will be talking about the crazy story the sole survivor had to tell about the incident and going over some of the more...

Send us Fan Mail A fun little bonus episode diving into a bit of Canadian history. For today’s episode we are going to be taking it back a few years to 1903 when the town of Frank was devastated in what we know today as Canadas deadliest rockslide.  Sources  https://canadiangeographic.ca/articles/the-1903-frank-slide-in-the-shadow-of-the-mountain/ https://frankslide.ca/learn https://www.thecanadia...

Send us Fan Mail Hey guys the first episode of my podcast we will be diving into Action Park, Americas most dangerous theme park. This place has quite the reputation in New Jersey and probably shouldn’t have been in business for as long as it was. But none the less I will be talking about some of the worst ride designs I have ever seen and some lives that were lost because of them. Sources: https:...