PODCAST · history
Relative Disasters
by Greg & Ella
The podcast where a brother and sister manage their existential angst by discussing historical disasters.
Episodes
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The Roosevelt-Ronden Expedition of 1913-1914 (Episode 146)
In 1913, Teddy Roosevelt and Candido Ronden, national heroes of the United States and Brazil, set out to map a previously-uncartographed river. By the time they saw civilization again, two men were dead, one was lost to the jungle (and good riddance), and Roosevelt was nearly dead. This is what...
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Queen Jane, Approximately - The Story of Lady Jane Grey (Episode 145)
The Lady Jane Grey was many things in her short life - a polyglot, a religious scholar, a young woman who approached the world with curiosity. She was also a pawn in the schemes of her much-less-intelligent father, and it resulted in her becoming Queen of England... for a moment.
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The Mystery of Richard III (Episode 144)
Richard the Third of England has been regarded as a monstrous ruler, a murderer of his nephews, and a raving, hunchbacked lunatic. As with all disasters - especially those of rulers - the truth is far more interesting.
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The Nimiipuu Fighting Retreat of 1877 (Episode 143)
In 1877, a series of cultural misunderstandings and distrust led to a completely avoidable war, the execution of which saw the United States Army consistently out-maneuvered and tactically embarrassed by a tactical genius... or at least that was the story. In actuality, the desperate Nimiipuu...
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The Collapse of the Bronze Age (Episode 142)
It was one of the largest collapses of human civilization, arguably bigger and more important to history than the fall of Rome... so why do we know so little about it? Well, it's only recently that theories about how the major empires of the Bronze Age fell have found corroborating evidence in…
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Ancient Sparta Was A Dumpster Fire (Episode 141)
The mythology of ancient Sparta is that of peerless warriors, un-defeatable soldiers who defended democracy and resisted those who would conquer Greece. The reality is... a lot different. We're going to take a look at what ancient Sparta was actually like, why it was like that, and whether or not...
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The Altamont Free Concert (Relative Disasters Episode 140)
It was intended to be "Woodstock West", a celebration of music in a free concert in California. It was intended to have a fun lineup of some of the biggest rock bands on 1969, headlined by The Rolling Stones. It ended with four people dead, hundreds injured, and is often pointed to as the death…
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The 1968-1969 Sunday Times Golden Globe Race (Episode 139)
In 1968, a race launched from the British Isles, a race to be the first person to circumnavigate the globe by themself. Nine people entered the race. When it ended, one person had won, seven people had given up, and one person was never found again. We're going to talk about the open ocean, the...
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The Radium Girls (Episode 138)
In 1914, a scientist made a new kind of paint, a paint that glowed. A company was founded, and they needed girls with small hands to work there, applying that paint to the hands and numbers of watches and to the dials of gauges in aircraft. One problem - the paint was deadly. And nobody told the...
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The Reign of King John, 1199-1216 (Episode 137)
Auntie Lynn joins us to discuss the disastrous reign of King John - and the numerous sidebars with which we become distracted. This episode is a free-wheeling discussion of John and a lot of random - but interesting - nonsense surrounding his reign! Note: As happens often, the dogs wanted to...
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The London Beer Flood of 1814 (Episode 136)
A flood is a flood, whether it's water or beer - and a 571-ton, 15-foot tall wave is going to be destructive, no matter what it's made of. Join us as we talk about beer, rookeries, prejudices, and settle some myths.
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The Australian Cane Toad Invasion (Episode 135)
Back in the 1930s, some folks in Australia's sugar industry imported the Cane Toad from South America to help control a destructive beetle population. It... did not go well. It continues to not go well. It will likely keep not going well.
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The Chi'Ing-yang Event of 1490 (Episode 134)
The city of Chi'Ing-yang got flattened in the late fourteen hundreds... and nobody really knows what happened. We'll talk about meteorites, comets, and explosions as we examine some of the more plausible theories. A nerdy brother and sister talk about disasters - that's what the show's all about....
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The 1887 Nanaimo Mine Explosion (Episode 133)
We're headed underground yet again, to visit beautiful British Colombia and talk about what happens when you mix explosives, methane, and coal dust. It's a tragedy that affected an entire city and is still relevant today.
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The Malleus Maleficarum (Episode 132)
A guy wrote a book, collecting and codifying religious and social suppression of women. That book became a sensation, propelling the man to fame and fortune. No, we're not talking about some modern "MRA" idiot or so-called "incel"... no, this guy existed over half a millennium ago and we're still...
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The 1933 Business Plot (Episode 131)
This week we're looking at an attempt to overthrow the American president Franklin Delano Roosevelt by a group of Wall Street financiers and big business leaders. Mocked and dismissed at the time - in newspapers owned by said business leaders - this attempted coup was a uniquely American…
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They Read The Fine Print (Episode 130)
Join us for three stories of people exploiting - or trying to - ill-thought-out corporate promotions. We'll talk about Vacuums, Soft Drinks, and Pudding, all tied together by an odd connection to airplanes - The Hoover Free Flights promotion, the Pepsi Points Harrier Jet legal case, and the…
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The L-8 Ghost Airship Incident of 1942 (Episode 129)
Join us in the skies off the coast of California in this episode. We'll talk about the US Naval airship L-8, the mysterious disappearance of its crew, and its brief time as an airborne ghost ship!
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The 1975 Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (Episode 85)
Re-upload. Join us as Ella explains the events of a fateful night that sent a crew of 29 to the bottom of the largest freshwater lake in North America. We'll discuss shipping tonnage, the incredibly dangerous weather systems of the Great Lakes, and talk a little about Gordon Lightfoot's haunting...
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The Great French Wine Blight (Episode 128)
Join us as we head to the mid-1800's and learn about a very specific blight that nearly crippled the French wine industry!
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The Byford Dolphin Explosive Decompression Incident of 1983 (Episode 127)
Another deep-sea oil rig, another disaster; in 1983, five saturation divers were killed when their air pressure was explosively decompressed. This episode covers a truly awful way to die.
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The Montparnasse Derailment of 1895 (Episode 126)
How does a train wind up outside of its station, standing on its face? Well, the answer involves a perfect storm of operator negligence, bad brakes, and good ol' financial incentive.
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The Toba Supereruption of 74TYA (Episode 125)
Greg and Child Unit A explore one of the biggest volcanic eruptions of all time, and why a simultaneous massive decrease in the human population may be a case of correlation, not causation.
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The 1995 Sampoong Department Store Collapse (Episode 124)
On this episode, we're going to the city of Seoul to take a look at another example of how greed kills people. In 1988, a building was constructed to maximize profit and minimize expense; in 1995, its inevitable collapse caused the most non-wartime deaths South Korea has experienced. We'll talk...
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The 1976 Ladybird Plague (Episode 123)
We're going to the dry and drought-blasted British Isles of 1976 for this (short) episode; we'll talk about ladybirds, the population boom-and-bust cycles of insect life, and how weird weather can throw an entire ecosystem into red-shelled chaos.
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Conspiratorial Thinking (Episode 122)
To kick off our 2024 season, I thought we'd cover the insidious disaster that is Conspiratorial Thinking! We'll discuss how our brain can get short-circuited in the strangest ways, why it takes fear and lack of self-reflection skills to be a true believer... and why this stuff cannot be dismissed...
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The Star Wars Holiday Special (Episode 121)
Back in 1977, Star Wars was a phenomenon that changed the film industry. In 1978, some CBS executives tried to replicate the magic for TV and the results were... legendary? Just probably not in the way they intended.
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Fuschia - The Man, The Color, the Mystery (Extended Sidebar 06)
Ella takes a dive into color theory and the bizarre history of Fuschia - the color and the man it was named for. And why it may not be a real color at all.
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The Ourang Medan Ghost Ship (Extended Sidebar 05)
On this extended sidebar, Ella brings us the story of the Ourang Medan, a ghost ship found floating in the middle of the pacific with the entire crew dead. Or was it never found, its only survivor finding his way to a barely-inhabited atoll and living just long enough to relay how his whole crew...
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Dock Ellis' 1970 No-Hitter (Extended Sidebar 04)
In this extended sidebar we talk about a baseball player at the absolute top of his game, one of the hardest feats in the game of baseball, why he was able to pull it off under the influence of LSD - and more importantly, the incredible work he did once his baseball career was behind him.
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The Ica Stones (Extended Sidebar Episode 02)
Well, apparently all we're going to do are "stone-based historical scams" on these Extended Sidebar episodes... anyway, this hoax came up waaaaay back in our first season during the research for the Gregor MacGregor episodes. Join us as we talk about the Ica Stones, a hoax involving ancient…
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The 1975 Heroism of Oliver Sipple (that ruined his life) (Episode 120)
Join us for our last episode of the season, wherein Ella and Greg discuss how a selfless act of heroism led to the ruination of a man's personal life. We'll discuss how to NOT be a good friend, the state of human rights in 1975, and how far society's come since then - and how far we still have to...
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The Dare Stones (Extended Sidebar 01)
Join Ella and Greg while they talk about one of the weirdest (and most obvious) scams in American archaeology - the Dare Stones!
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The Wellington Avalanche (Episode 119)
In February 1910, the deadliest avalanche in the history of the United States occurred in the small town of Wellington, Washington. On this episode, we're talking rotary plows, wild weather, and railroad history. Sources for this episode include: "White Cascade", G. Krist, 2007...
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The 1972 Crash of Flight 401 (Episode 118)
We head down to the Florida Everglades for one of the most disheartening plane crashes of all time - though with a higher survival rate than would be expected. We'll talk about alligators, frogs, autopilot controls, and a huckster attempting to cash in on tragedy. Sources: The 401 Crash and...
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Magic the Gathering's Combo Winter of 1998 (Episode 117)
A few notes; one, this is an extremely nerdy episode. Two, our recording circumstances were a little tricky (with a very persistent cricket intent on co-hosting), so the audio quality is a little less than I'd like with background noise. With Ella on a well-deserved break, Greg and his friend...
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The Water Wiggle (Episode 116)
Content Warning: In this episode we discuss the deaths of two children; if you'd rather not hear about that, please skip this episode. We're going back to the 1960s and 1970s, where kids ran around and played in the street and hooked weird toys up to their garden hoses during the summer. One of...
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The 1865 Wreck of the S.S. Sultana (Episode 115)
In April 1865, the deadliest shipwreck in American history occurred when a steamship exploded in the middle of the Mississippi River. On this episode, we're discussing the Civil War, cast-iron fire-tube boilers, and how a steamship with the legal capacity for 460 people ended up carrying just…
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The Life of Puyi, Last Emperor of China (Episode 114)
China had a dynastic system of government for four thousand years; it ended when its last emperor was six years old. His life would be filled with the dissolution and reconstruction of China, brutal foreign occupations and incursions, and his own self-sabotaging need to be an Emperor again. Join…
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The Long and Awful Reign of Nero (Episode 113)
In CE 68, the Roman Emperor Nero died, bringing an end to a dynasty - and relief from his 14-year-long rule, a time of greed, excess, abuse, murder, and (possibly) arson. On this episode, we're discussing the life of the worst of the Julio-Claudian rulers, as well as the Great Fire of Rome, a…
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Liu Bang and the Founding of the Han Dynasty (Episode 112)
Liu Bang was a man who had a good life and then had a really bad day. How he handled that bad day led to the creation of one of China's most important dynasties and reshaped China's history - join us as we talk about executions, how legal systems based on fear are not sustainable, and lacquer.…
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The Short and Terrible Reign of Caligula (Episode 111)
Born in 12 CE, Gaius Cesar Augustus Germanicus - nicknamed 'Caligula' - survived a horrific adolescence to become the third Roman Emperor at just 24 years old. The four years that followed were expensive, scandalous, and full of increasingly violent behavior - but was he really as 'mad' as his...
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The Dilberito (Episode 110)
In 1999, Scott Adams used his beloved-at-the-time character Dilbert to market... a line of microwaveable burritos. Join us as we take a look at bizarre marketing, the recommended daily allowance of vitamins and minerals, and cooking with gelatin, plus an insight into weird foods that Ella and…
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The 1950 Green Hornet Disaster (Episode 109)
In 1950 Chicago, a rush-hour streetcar missed an emergency switch and slammed into a gas truck carrying 8,000 gallons of gasoline. The resulting explosion and fire burned down five apartment buildings and killed 34 people. On this episode, we're discussing streetcar safety, emergency exits, and…
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The Tri-State Tornado of 1925 (Episode 108)
In 1925, a tornado of incredible size and power swept through Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana; by the time it was finished, it had killed over seven hundred people, injured at least two thousand, and destroyed entire towns. Join us as we talk about tornado systems, how this particular tornado...
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The Wreck of the USS Akron (Episode 107)
In April 1933, the US Navy's airship Akron flew directly into a thunderstorm off the coast of New Jersey. The crash that followed claimed the lives of 75 people, making it the deadliest accident in airship history. On this episode, we're discussing the American airship program, spy cars…
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The 1755 Lisbon Earthquake (Episode 106)
We're headed to Portugal this week, with an earthquake so large it shook fundamental human belief systems. The 1755 earthquake hit the capital of Lisbon (and elsewhere), with its physical effects being felt as far away as Brazil; its effects on society at the beginnings of the Enlightenment were...
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Hyacinth Madness! (Episode 105)
In 1910 America, residents of the southeastern states were facing down two major problems: a shortage of meat, and an invasive plant that was threatening fishing, shipping, and recreation. Luckily, a Louisiana official and two 'experts' had just the solution: hippo ranching. On this episode…
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10-Cent Beer Night (Episode 104)
Well, we're back with 1970's baseball again. This time, the hapless baseball team from Cleveland decided to offer a 10-Cent Beer promotional event... but they neglected a key restriction that would result in a riot that left both teams injured, the stadium getting torn up, and a massive force of...
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The 1916 New Jersey Shark Attacks (Episode 103)
In July of 1916, five swimmers at the Jersey Shore were attacked by a shark. Four suffered fatal wounds and the fifth required two months in the hospital to recover. The "New Jersey Man-Eater" was front-page news across the country, and the attacks are still a subject of debate, scrutiny, and...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
The podcast where a brother and sister manage their existential angst by discussing historical disasters.
HOSTED BY
Greg & Ella
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Relative Disasters have?
Relative Disasters currently has 153 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Relative Disasters about?
The podcast where a brother and sister manage their existential angst by discussing historical disasters.
How often does Relative Disasters release new episodes?
Relative Disasters publishes regularly with 153 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Relative Disasters?
You can listen to Relative Disasters on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Relative Disasters?
Relative Disasters is created and hosted by Greg & Ella.
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