This Is A Disaster

In 1954, the book "I Am Legend" envisioned a future where a sole human survivor struggled against a legion of zombie vampires.  Three movies retold this story, "The Last Man on Earth" with Vincent Price, "Omega Man" with Charlton Heston, and "I Am Legend" with Will Smith.  A special guest joins us as we discuss these three versions of the End Times.  Vampire zombies, lone survivors, underground so...

Leigh tells us about a man named Jesus and raised under threat of death, with the graves dug in the basement to prove it.  The music was good... at first... but then came the bodily fluids and other excretions.  Typically you want the crowd to flock INTO the venue, not out of it.  Punk rock, blood, poo, and a bloated corpse.  GG Allin.   Leigh's song pick:: Bored to Death by GG Allin & The Jabbers...

Ever regretting your choice to travel by air during the holiday season?  I bet it doesn't stack up to the passengers on the four aeroplanes waylaid in the Shanghai fog in Christmas 1946.  In an age before GPS, where modern guidance meant an AM radio with no redundancies, attempting a landing in heavy fog was harrowing, to say the least.  Merry Christmas, never fly!   Leigh's song pick:: Vandal by...

What's a decision that you've made that had the worst consequences?  Maybe when Pennsylvania enacted laws against burning garbage in landfills, they knew what they were doing?  Molly Maguires, abandoned mines, fighting fire with garbage, and the worst kind of eternal flame.  Welcome to Centralia, home of fire.   Peter's song pick:: Duhicebdo ed varicecag parvabiguf by Keygen Curch https://keygench...

Christmas came early!  In this bonus content companion to "Cosmic Terror (at the End of the Universe)" (Episode 11), our special guest Norm returns to discuss the possibility of extraterrestrial life.  Galactic sweet spots, exobiology, little green men, and what makes us so "special".  Aliens exist... or do they?   Norm's song pick:: Firebeather by Thrice https://open.spotify.com/track/5mUgocO3Ob6...

Leigh's favorite band has had their ups and downs.  Aleister Crowley, the occult, magik, summoning bandmates using the dark arts, and a bassist's unannounced flight to Iceland in anticipation of the nuclear holocaust... basically, par for the course if you're in a band.  Forty years of making music together is bound to lead to a story or two...   Leigh's song pick:: Requiem by Killing Joke https:/...

Our special guest Craig Baird from Canadian History Ehx takes us to World War 1 Halifax, and the largest accidental man-made explosion in history.  Canadian listeners have definitely seen the Heritage Minute commercial, but we promise there is 100% more molten rain, tsunamis, shattered glass, and chaos.  Nature even gets a blow in.   The Heritage Minute commercial:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

If you're looking to get away... from everything... consider taking a job as a wickie in a lighthouse.  Come with us on a journey back to the Great Lighthouse on Pharos near ancient Alexandria, through the history of lighthouses, and finally to a tale of isolation, death, and madness.  There ain't nothing small about the Smalls Lighthouse Tragedy.   Peter's song pick:: Kiss All The Pretty Skies Go...

Early English attempts at colonizing the Americas went real well.  Take a journey back to the lost colony of Roanoke, as would-be settlers are greeted with shipwrecks, disease, starvation, and arrows.  So many arrows.  Forts make friends as the seeds of the United States are planted in the 16th century.   Leigh's song pick:: Bending Light by Neurosis https://neurosis.bandcamp.com/track/bending-lig...

In 1977, Dave Sim created a new kind of comic book anti-hero: a three-foot-tall, bipedal, anthropomorphic aardvark.  Over the course of 300 issues and thirty years, this hero would travel to the moon, become the pope, and spend about a decade in a bar... and then it got weirder.  Ladies and gentlemen, the one, the only... Cerebus the Aardvark.   Leigh's song pick:: Fracture by King Crimson https:/...

Templar curses, corpse-eating pigs, and waking up to a house full of death.  We rejoin our Genoese heroes as they flee Caffa for the safety of home... coughing blood all the way.  Their twelve galleys lit the fires that would consume 14th century Europe, resulting in a staggering death toll.  It's amazing what a bacterium can do with the help of rodents and a filthy continent.  Yersinia pestis: Th...

The path to any great success is paved in failure... it's about what you do in the face of that failure.  In the 1960s, NASA was pushing to win the race to the moon.  Their efforts were nearly derailed when tragedy struck Apollo One and her crew.  Going from the first flight to the first man on the moon in the space of 60 years was bound to be a challenge...   Peter's song pick:: Son of a Preacher...

Every story starts somewhere.  In the case of the Black Death it starts with Mongol hordes, smug Italians, diseased rodents, and the misery of 14th century Europe.  All of that before we even get to the star of these episodes, the one and only, the Great Mortality.   Leigh's song pick:: Dead by Khanate https://khanate.bandcamp.com/track/dead   Peter's song pick:: Crone by Portal https://profoundlo...

In the 80s and 90s, our youth were being corrupted by Satan and his apostles: heavy metal, Prince, and Madonna.  In this week's (not-so)mini episode, Leigh tells us all about the Satanic Panic that gripped suburban America, and the totally proportional responses taken by Tipper Gore and her riders of the music-pocalypse.   Leigh's song pick:: We Come From the One by Sabbath Assembly https://sabbat...

When your empire dates back six thousand years, odds are it's been through a lot.  Still, history didn't prepare the population of Egypt in the beginning of the 13th century when the Nile, their lifesource, failed them.  Twice.  What happens when you run out of grain to eat?  What happens when you run out of animals...   Leigh's song pick:: Invisible Osiris by Robedoor https://www.youtube.com/watc...

The Oxford Comma: either you love it, or you're wrong.  In this week's mini episode, Peter tells the story of the comma's colorful legal history.  Don't worry... if you're just here for the disasters, there's at least one death.   Peter's song pick:: Don't Stop Me Now by Queen https://open.spotify.com/track/7hQJA50XrCWABAu5v6QZ4i?si=gN8iVgJMSxiPfAqzKvwC9Q   If you like what you hear, please subscr...

We bring in a very special guest to tell us about all the ways the universe is predicted to end.  The Big Crunch, The Big Freeze, The Big Rip... all of them sound like tasty deserts, but the only thing they'll serve up is a spoonfull of existential dread. Settle in, hug a loved one, and prepare to learn how everything you've ever known and loved will come to an end.   Mercury's Orbit: http://hosti...

In this mini-episode, recorded live at the Ottawa Podcast Festival, Leigh tells the story of a tragic reunion between Syd Barrett and his former Pink Floyd bandmates.  Shine on you crazy diamond... wish you weren't here.   Leigh's song pick:: Opel by Syd Barrett https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch3BfpZp8PI   If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a review ! Tell your friends! Tell yo...

In part two of Donald Crowhurst's story, he sets sail aboard the Teignmouth Electron to claim the Golden Globe prize for the first man to successfully sail around the world single-handed without stopping. An ill-equipped, half-finished boat captained by a hobbyist might not instil an abundance of confidence... nor should it...   Leigh's song pick:: Blood On The Moon by Chrome https://chromemusic.b...

How was this not our first episode? Because we buck the trend, that's why! In an episode full of surprising numbers, we talk about the fateful final voyage of the Hindenburg Zeppelin. A flight from Frankfurt to New Jersey was never so classy... or long... or topped off with a massive fire.   Peter's song pick:: Burn Well by WAKE https://wakegrind.bandcamp.com/track/burn-well   If you like what you...

Following Sir Francis Chichester's triumphant circumnavigation by sea in 1967, the Sunday Times wanted to cash in on circumnavigation fever! One wide-eyed and manic contestant dove into the Golden Globe competition, and immediately got in over his head. Hear part one of the story of Donald Crowhurst's bid to be the fastest man to sail around the world in 1968.   Leigh's song pick:: Antitoxidote by...

Your record label releases seminal albums by Joy Division and New Order, and is instrumental in the founding of a musical movement... how could you possibly screw that up?  Leigh tells us exactly how Factory Records did it...   Leigh's song pick:: Age Of Consent by New Order https://open.spotify.com/track/2EEinN4Zk8MUv4OQuLsTBj?si=J-EDSMtrReSn_BHEndrvCg   If you like what you hear, please subscrib...

Beneath beautiful, serene, idyllic Mount St Helens lay the molten rock that would forever change the face of the mountain and Washington state.  A dormant volcano is dormant... until it isn't.   Leigh's happy song pick:: Blue Calx by Aphex Twin https://aphextwin.warp.net/release/68148-aphex-twin-selected-ambient-works-volume-ii Leigh's terror song pick:: Love As Arson by Converge https://convergec...

What's the laziest you've ever felt? Peter tells the story of a particularly disastrous two days on the tallest mountain on earth. If you've ever had trouble getting up off a couch, this story will amplify your lazy-guilt by a million.   Peter's song pick:: Swan Dive by Heave https://heave.bandcamp.com/track/swan-dive   If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a review !   Instagram /...

Peace, love, and a 12-foot-tall fence. When the organizers describe their venue as "defensible", maybe think twice about buying a ticket. Fyre doesn't hold a candle to the original disastrous festival, Woodstock '99.   Leigh's song pick:: ACD (Abcessive Compulsive Disorder) by Nothing https://nothing.bandcamp.com/track/acd-abcessive-compulsive-disorder-3 Peter's song pick:: No; I'm In Control by K...