Telling the stories of famous and forgotten tragedies of the 19th and 20th centuries.
What could go wrong? Everything!
Dedicated to the memory of Founding Producer Susan Ferman.
Ashes and Ambition
In October 1871, Chicago was America's fastest-growing city—and a tinderbox waiting to ignite. When flames erupted in a small barn on DeKoven Street, a perfect storm of drought, wind, and wooden infrastructure transformed a neighborhood fire into an urban apocalypse. Through the eyes of eyewitness Frank Loesch, we follow 100,000 refugees fleeing through darkness as their city burns, watch limestone melt like paste, and hear a courthouse bell scream its death song. But this isn't just a story of destruction—it's the birth of the modern American city. From the ashes rose steel skyscrapers, professional fire codes, and a new vision of urban life. The mystery of how it started remains unsolved. How it changed everything is undeniable.
Catastrophic Calamities is a creation of Richard O Jones and Pulpular Media.
We invite you to tune in to our flagship podcast TRUE CRIME HISTORIAN (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311)with tales of the scandals, scoundrels, and scourges of the past told through vintage newspaper accounts from the golden age of yellow journalism.
If disaster is more your jam, check out CATASTROPHIC CALAMITIES (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/catastrophic-calamities--4605892), telling the stories of famous and forgotten tragedies of the 19th and 20th centuries. What could go wrong? Everything!
For brand-new tales in the old clothes from the golden era of popular literature, give your ears a treat with PULP MAGAZINES (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/pulp-magazines--6583444) with two new stories every week.
This episode includes AI-generated content.
18 Nov 2025
The 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy
December 3, 1984. Midnight. A toxic cloud escapes from a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, and drifts over sleeping neighborhoods. Within hours, thousands are dead. By dawn, bodies litter the streets. This is the Bhopal Gas Tragedy—the worst industrial disaster in human history. But the dying didn't stop that night. Forty years later, the poison continues to kill. Corporate negligence, cost-cutting measures, and a conscious decision to hide critical safety warnings turned a chemical plant into a death factory. Justice remains elusive. The victims are still dying. And the lessons remain unlearned. This is their story.
Catastrophic Calamities is a creation of Richard O Jones and Pulpular Media.
We invite you to tune in to our flagship podcast TRUE CRIME HISTORIAN (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311)with tales of the scandals, scoundrels, and scourges of the past told through vintage newspaper accounts from the golden age of yellow journalism.
If disaster is more your jam, check out CATASTROPHIC CALAMITIES (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/catastrophic-calamities--4605892), telling the stories of famous and forgotten tragedies of the 19th and 20th centuries. What could go wrong? Everything!
For brand-new tales in the old clothes from the golden era of popular literature, give your ears a treat with PULP MAGAZINES (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/pulp-magazines--6583444) with two new stories every week.
14 Nov 2025
The 1915 Sultana Steamboat Disaster
Episode 7 examines the deadliest maritime disaster in American history—a tragedy that killed more people than the Titanic, but one you've probably never heard of. The explosion and sinking of the steamboat Sultana on April 27, 1865 claimed between eighteen hundred and nineteen hundred lives. Nearly all of them were Union soldiers who'd survived the war, survived Confederate prison camps, only to be killed by the greed and corruption of their own side.
This is the story of how bureaucratic greed turned a rescue mission into a mass grave.
This is the story of the Sultana.
Catastrophic Calamities is a creation of Richard O Jones and Pulpular Media.
We invite you to tune in to our flagship podcast TRUE CRIME HISTORIAN (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311)with tales of the scandals, scoundrels, and scourges of the past told through vintage newspaper accounts from the golden age of yellow journalism.
If disaster is more your jam, check out CATASTROPHIC CALAMITIES (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/catastrophic-calamities--4605892), telling the stories of famous and forgotten tragedies of the 19th and 20th centuries. What could go wrong? Everything!
For brand-new tales in the old clothes from the golden era of popular literature, give your ears a treat with PULP MAGAZINES (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/pulp-magazines--6583444) with two new stories every week.
This episode includes AI-generated content.
12 Nov 2025
The 1938 Yellow River Flood
A Strategic Catastrophe
Episode 6
The 1938 Yellow River Flood was a deliberate act by the Chinese Nationalist government to halt the Japanese advance. This "scorched earth" tactic caused a catastrophic "long death" for hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians through drowning, famine, and disease, lasting nine years. It remains one of history's deadliest man-made environmental disasters.
Catastrophic Calamities is a creation of Richard O Jones and Pulpular Media.
We invite you to tune in to our flagship podcast TRUE CRIME HISTORIAN (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311)with tales of the scandals, scoundrels, and scourges of the past told through vintage newspaper accounts from the golden age of yellow journalism.
If disaster is more your jam, check out CATASTROPHIC CALAMITIES (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/catastrophic-calamities--4605892), telling the stories of famous and forgotten tragedies of the 19th and 20th centuries. What could go wrong? Everything!
For brand-new tales in the old clothes from the golden era of popular literature, give your ears a treat with PULP MAGAZINES (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/pulp-magazines--6583444) with two new stories every week.
This episode includes AI-generated content.
13 Aug 2020
The 1944 Hartford Circus Fire
Details of the tragic Hartford Circus Fire, 1944.
8 Jul 2020
The Wreck Of The Iolaire
An exploration of the tragic wreck of the Iolaire, a wealthy man’s yacht turned into a transport ship that went aground on the rocks of the Outer Hebrides, killing at least 201 sailors as they approached their home port.
9 Oct 2019
Tragedy in Kenner—The Crash of Pan Am Flight 759
On the afternoon of July 9th, 1982, Pam Am Flight 759 suddenly fell from the sky into a residential subdivision in Kenner, LA, killing all 145 people on board and eight people on the ground.
24 Sept 2019
Three Mile Island
It took systemic problems, design flaws and good old-fashioned human error to turn a minor mechanical function into an accident that could have wiped out the entire eastern seaboard of the United States.
10 Sept 2019
The Northridge Earthquake
The 6.7 Northridge Earthquake, followed by a 6.0 aftershock, less than a minute later, wasn't the biggest earthquake to hit Southern California, but it was one of the worst, because the epicenter was directly under a populated area. It did over $20 billion in damage and, more importantly, at least 60 people lost their lives—16 of them in one building. The official death toll stands at 61, with one study, by USC and the USGS, reaching 72. But Nobody really knows for sure. What we do know is that there were over 8,700 people injured, 1,600 of them hospitalized. More would have died in the aftershocks and fires caused by broken gas mains, if not for neighbors helping neighbors, and the incredible work done by police fire and rescue workers.
NBCLA First Reports Retrospective Full Show
NBCLA Northridge Earthquake Day Two Full Show
Northridge Earthquake Raw Footage, USGS No sound but some things you just have to see to believe
LAist 25th Anniversary Article Has pictures you can’t find anywhere else
Learning From Earthquakes Daniel Pendrick’s full article, on the Savage earth blog. Includes links to more information.
Seismology: The Northridge Earthquake and its Aftershocks Excellent article from the Southern California Earthquake Center, by Erik Hauksson and Lucy Jones
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Apple Podcasts (US)
4.6 / 5
19 ratings
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