Know Your Disaster with Miss Alex: Recent Episodes
Alex Gibson
Future episodes will be available here: http://knowyourdisaster.libsyn.com/
Come with me!
Miss Alex is known for sharing the stories of horrific plagues during awkward lunch hours. She's an avid reader of Wikipedia's "list of worst natural disasters" page, and reading Camus's "The Plague" as a 14-year-old scared the crap out of her just enough to become fascinated with them (and terrified of rodents).
She loves telling stories, and she wants to share a crazy one with you.
A cheerful holiday tale of the Christmas eve express train, a sudden torrent of devastating mud and rock, and horrible news on Christmas morning.
Read more at http://knowyourdisaster.libsyn.com/
Have you heard of exploding lakes?
There are only three in the world, but two of them proved to be deadly in the mysterious limnic eruptions that occurred in 1984 and 1986. Miss Alex puts on her geologist hat to tell the story behind these bizarre and fatal eruptions, other potential sites, and CO2 emissions in the world today.
It's good to be back!
Read more at http://knowyourdisaster.libsyn.com/
In U.S. history, stadium disasters aren't a huge thing -- other than in racing accidents, they're extremely rare. Elsewhere in the world, though, as different large crowds have fled for exits or rushed fields, stadium stampedes and other events have quickly become devastating and catastrophic.
Miss Alex wanted to learn a bit about stadium incidents, why they happen, and what happened in the deadliest ever stadium incident in Lima, Peru at Estadio Nacional in 1964. The lesson? There's more to these incidents than fans upset at a bad call.
Read more at http://knowyourdisaster.libsyn.com/
In 1976, as China mourned the loss of two of its most famous political leaders, it faced an ever greater loss in the mining city of Tangshan. On July 27, 1976, an approximately 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit the city of more than 1.6 million, all but leveling it entirely.
As offers of aid came in from across the globe, the country refused and chose instead to lead the rescue and rebuilding efforts on their own. Today, Miss Alex talks about this event and restrains herself from going on about late Maoist China. Enjoy!
Read more at http://knowyourdisaster.libsyn.com/
The original Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus, OH was described using a variety of friendly terms, ranging from the "inhumane" to the "primitive" to describe the conditions inside.
On April 21, 1930, the prison was housing 4,300 inmates -- almost triple its 1,500 capacity. A botched escape attempt and some poorly-timed construction led to one of the worst ever structural fires in the US, and the worst ever prison fire in the country.
Now the site of the popular Arena District in downtown Columbus, the Ohio Penitentiary will forever live on for its less-than-desirable reputation and the horrible fire that engulfed the building.
It could be worse -- today's iteration of the prison is known as the "Abu Ghraib of Ohio."
Read more at http://knowyourdisaster.libsyn.com/
On September 27, 1994, 803 passengers and 186 crew boarded the MS Estonia for an overnight trip across the Baltic Sea from Estonia to Sweden. Unfortunately, a poorly-designed ship, bad weather, and some fatal green lights stopped those plans.
Join me on my first podcast as I share the tale of a horrible night on the Baltic Sea nearly 21 years ago. I'm Miss Alex -- history nerd, storyteller (in progress), and admitted disaster porn addict. My boyfriend's only excited that someone else gets to take on his role as forced listener.