Disaster Area

The start of the summer season in Paris in the 1890s could arguably be the Bazar de la Charité, sort of a rummage sale for the wealthy to benefit the poor. The height of Parisian's female society passed through its doors each year, and May 4th, 1897, was no different. But the presence of the bazaar's biggest novelty - a cinematograph showing films by the Lumière brothers - also led to a gruesome t...

On April 15th, 2013, runners in Boston were approaching the finish line of the city's esteemed marathon at ten minutes to three in the afternoon when a large explosion tore through the crowd. Thirteen seconds later, a second one went off down the street. The manhunt for the men who committed the attack would last several days and take over the entire metropolitan area. Videos: The Days That Shaped...

On April 15th, 2013, runners in Boston were approaching the finish line of the city's esteemed marathon at ten minutes to three in the afternoon when a large explosion tore through the crowd. Thirteen seconds later, a second one went off down the street. The manhunt for the men who committed the attack would last several days and take over the entire metropolitan area. Videos: The Days That Shaped...

The family dinner party was in full swing, despite the host needing to be carried out in a drunken stupor only twenty minutes earlier. But this is no ordinary family. This is the royal palace of Nepal, and the host - Crown Prince Dipendra - is about to return, angry and armed. Videos: Zero Hour : The Nepalese Royal Massacre Why Nepal's Prince Organised A Royal Massacre | Asia's Monarchies | Real R...

The Mexico City suburb of San Juan Ixhuatepec was the home of poor immigrants, working-class families, dozens of large businesses, and a Pemex oil and gas company site - at least, until November 19th, 1984. Videos: Ciudadano Infraganti Explosiones de San Juanico 1984 Articles and books: San Juan Ixhuatepec remembers one of world's worst industrial disasters Three decades on, survivors of worst Pem...

For five days in July of 1995, the city of Chicago baked underneath record temperatures, and behind closed doors people suffered for days - the poor, the elderly, the disabled. By the time the heat wave was over, over 750 people were dead. Sources can be found at http://disasterareapodcast.wordpress.com/.  

Surely this can't be the 200th episode!   It is the 200th episode, and don't call me Shirley.   Videos: "Airplane!" "Airplane II: The Sequel" Articles and books: Internet Movie Plane Database - Airplane! Bulls vs. Lakers Box Score: March 7th, 1980 Airplane! script Airplane II script

There is always bound to be a first - the first person to climb Mount Everest, the first person to run a four-minute mile, the first woman to become president. But there are terrible firsts, and in this episode we discuss the first major tragedy of the American space race. Videos: Apollo 1 Audio - January 27th, 1967 Articles and books: The Astronaut Wives Club , by Lily Koppel Apollo 13 , by Jim L...

A man armed with semi-automatic weapons and a livestreaming camera walks into a place full of people he hates and commits a mass murder. It shouldn't be something we see more than once. But now we have.

In which Jennifer describes her visits to disaster sites in New York City last week, including the 9/11 Memorial, the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire, and the 1920 Wall Street bombing.

We all hope that in a moment of great need, we would do the right thing. When the airspace over the United States closed on September 11th, the small town of Gander, Newfoundland, did just that.

In fifteen minutes one Friday in April of 1967, one tornado slashed through the Chicago suburb of Oak Lawn, leaving dozens dead in its wake. But it wasn't the only tornado to strike the area that afternoon.

It was just supposed to be a typical office training session masked as a Christmas party - the speeches, the boring videos, the slideshows that probably could have been an email. But at 11 AM, everything changed when a person dressed all on black entered the conference room and began shooting. Then it got worse - they weren't alone.

First, the train ran off the rails. Then, fire rained from the sky. Hell, it seemed, had come to San Bernardino.

When Hollywood legend Carole Lombard boarded TWA Flight 3 on January 16th, 1942, in Las Vegas, she hoped to be home in only a few short hours. She and the twenty-one other people on board only made it thirty-three miles closer to home.

What do you get when you have sixty noblemen in a cess pit? One of the most disgusting disasters of all time.

I just wanted to share some news regarding the podcast for those of you who don't follow the social media accounts or Patreon. Nothing terrible, I promise. 

When we all first heard basketball legend Kobe Bryant had died, the world was in disbelief. But the how of it all made everything so much more tragic.

Dragging yourself into work on a Monday can always feel grim. But on June 18th, 1990, the employees at the GMAC office in Jacksonville, Florida, had something far more terrifying than boring meetings to look forward to that day.

And now for Jennifer's hometown disaster - when one small hurricane turned southern New York and Pensylvania into one big muddy lake.

On March 18th, 1937, the students in the junior-senior high school of New London, TX, sat waiting in eager antipation of the end of the school day, looking forward to a three-day weekend. But the school, and many of the students and teachers inside the building, wouldn't make it to 3:30.

The Trolley Squre Mall in Salt Lake City was a popular and historical landmark with a quaint and quirky design. On February 12th, 2007, a young man would arrive at the mall to do something no one, not even his family, saw coming.

The first maneuver the Frecce Tricolori display team would perform at the Ramstein air show on August 28th, 1988, was called the pierced-heart maneuver. But when three of the planes collided, what followed woud instead pierce through the heart of the crowd, killing dozens.

The man on the train would not be quiet, and what he was saying was horrifying. Three men would stand up to him. Only one of those men would survive.

We will never know the entirety of what happened on the Taconic State Parkway on July 26th, 2009, but we know enough - that a drunk and high mom driving a van loaded with five children drove the wrong way and struck another vehicle, leaving eight people dead. It's in the details where the mystery grows.