Ep. 261 – Dueling Disasters

All I Want For Christmas Month begins with a perspective-giving crash course in how bad a bad year can be. True crime takes a backseat to true catastrophe as Christopher and Eric count down the final weeks of 2024, a year they’d desperately like to put in their rearview mirror. What better way to distract themselves from the personal disasters that littered their last twelve months than with some historical cataclysms that put the trials of these dreadful 365 days in perspective. Christopher takes us to the Canary Islands in 1977 where bad planning and a pilot’s arrogance put two fully loaded 747s on a collision course with fiery hell — and dramatically improved safety regulations for the aviation industry. Then Eric ships us off to the Sunda Strait, 1883, where the island of Krakatoa teaches us humbling — and terrifying — lessons about the fragility of life and the power of the earth underfoot, lessons  literally heard halfway around the world.