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Disaster Area: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Jennifer Matarese
A podcast about disasters throughout history - what caused them, how people survived, and how we've responded to keep those disasters from happening again.
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The most recent episodes — sign up to get AI-powered summaries of each one.
- May 15, 202650 min
Episode 266: The Club Cinq-Sept fire
It should have just been a regular Saturday night dancing to rock music and having a good time at the relatively new dance hall outside of Saint-Laurent, France. But in the early morning hours of November 1st, 1970, what was likely one dropped match or cigarette turned the Club Cinq-Sept into an oven. Videos: Pierre Montillo interview AP News clips of the fire Articles and books: The worst thing is the sound of silence": 50 years after the "5-7" tragedy, the memory and the grief remain intact. Youth to Burn: Guy Debord on the fire at Saint-Laurent-du-Pont Virtual Globetrotting: Diagram of the layout of the Club Cinq-Sept France: An Unusual Silence 1970: Nightclub inferno 'wipes out generation'
- May 8, 20261h 7m
Episode 265: The Cutter incident - part three
It would start with a headache, a fever, maybe a funny tummy. But soon enough your knee would give out, or your arm would hang limp, or you would struggle to breathe. You'd be taken to the hospital, where you'd get your diagnosis - polio. If you survived, you ran the risk of doing so with paralyzed limbs, struggling to walk on bulky leg braces. Your parents would be terrified they might lose you, and so everybody wanted the one thing that could stop all of this - a vaccine. Videos: New England Journal of Medicine: The Cutter Incident, 50 Years Later American Experience: The Polio Crusade The Iron Lung and Polio by M.Rockoff | OPENPediatrics Articles and books: Polio: An American Story, by David M. Oshinsky The Cutter Incident, by Dr. Paul Offit NEJM: The Cutter Incident
- May 1, 202640 min
Episode 264: The Cutter incident - Part Two
It would start with a headache, a fever, maybe a funny tummy. But soon enough your knee would give out, or your arm would hang limp, or you would struggle to breathe. You'd be taken to the hospital, where you'd get your diagnosis - polio. If you survived, you ran the risk of doing so with paralyzed limbs, struggling to walk on bulky leg braces. Your parents would be terrified they might lose you, and so everybody wanted the one thing that could stop all of this - a vaccine. Videos: New England Journal of Medicine: The Cutter Incident, 50 Years Later American Experience: The Polio Crusade The Iron Lung and Polio by M.Rockoff | OPENPediatrics Articles and books: Polio: An American Story, by David M. Oshinsky The Cutter Incident, by Dr. Paul Offit NEJM: The Cutter Incident
- Feb 27, 20261h 12m
RERELEASE: Episode 254: The Cutter incident - Part One
NOTE: This was released in May of 2025, but due to life being what it is, I didn't get to finish the final two parts of the episode. So I am rereleasing this episode this week, and the next two weeks I will release the following two episodes. I have now officially backed myself in a corner and I simply MUST finish the episodes now. It would start with a headache, a fever, maybe a funny tummy. But soon enough your knee would give out, or your arm would hang limp, or you would struggle to breathe. You'd be taken to the hospital, where you'd get your diagnosis - polio. If you survived, you ran the risk of doing so with paralyzed limbs, struggling to walk on bulky leg braces. Your parents would be terrified they might lose you, and so everybody wanted the one thing that could stop all of this - a vaccine. Videos: New England Journal of Medicine: The Cutter Incident, 50 Years Later American Experience: The Polio Crusade The Iron Lung and Polio by M.Rockoff | OPENPediatrics Articles and books: Polio: An American Story, by David M. Oshinsky The Cutter Incident, by Dr. Paul Offit NEJM: The Cutter Incident
- Feb 21, 202658 min
Episode 263: Eastern Air Lines Flight 212
2001 was not the only year in which something tragic occurred on September 11th. On that day in 1974, eighty-two people would board a plane from Charleston, South Carolina, to Charlotte, North Carolina. Only ten would survive. Videos: 9/11/74: The Untold Story of Charlotte's Deadliest Plane Crash Stephen Colbert and Anderson Cooper's beautiful conversation about grief Talkative Pilots: Eastern Airlines Flight 212 Articles and books: A fiery plane crash on 9/11/74 changed Charleston forever. 50 years later, its scars linger. NTSB Crash Report for Eastern Airlines Flight 212 Charlotte's deadliest plane crash has finally been memorialized after 51 years
- Feb 11, 20261h 22m
Episode 262: The sinking of the White Ship
King Henry I of England had grand plans for the future of his sole legitimate male heir, William Aetheling. None of those plans would come to pass. Articles and books: The Sinking Of The White Ship 1120 The White Ship, by Charles Spencer The Impact of the White Ship Disaster of 1120 900 years since the White Ship disaster How one catastrophic shipwreck sank a medieval dynasty Divers find The Tragic White Ship
- Jan 8, 202652 min
Episode 261: The SS Sultana disaster - Part Two
On a cold April night in 1865, the calm across the waters of the Mississippi River was shattered by a sudden explosion - one which destroyed a steamboat and most of the Confederate POWs crowded on its decks. Videos: Remember the Sultana The History Channel: The Sultana Part-Time Explorer: America's Worst Shipwreck Articles and books: Sultana: Surviving the Civil War, Prison, and the Worst Maritime Disaster in American History, by Alan Huffman Knoxville, TN: S.S. Sultana Memorial Appomattox Court House: The Surrender Meeting American Battlefield Trust: The Sultana Disaster The Sultana Disaster Museum Toledo Blade: The Sinking of the Sultana
- Jan 1, 202638 min
Episode 260: The SS Sultana disaster - Part One
On a cold April night in 1865, the calm across the waters of the Mississippi River was shattered by a sudden explosion - one which destroyed a steamboat and most of the Confederate POWs crowded on its decks. Videos: Remember the Sultana The History Channel: The Sultana Part-Time Explorer: America's Worst Shipwreck Articles and books: Sultana: Surviving the Civil War, Prison, and the Worst Maritime Disaster in American History, by Alan Huffman Knoxville, TN: S.S. Sultana Memorial Appomattox Court House: The Surrender Meeting American Battlefield Trust: The Sultana Disaster The Sultana Disaster Museum Toledo Blade: The Sinking of the Sultana
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About Disaster Area
A podcast about disasters throughout history - what caused them, how people survived, and how we've responded to keep those disasters from happening again.
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