NOTE: IN THE PORTION WHERE I EXPLAIN NUCLEAR FISSION, I MIX UP NUCLEI AND NEUTRON! I realised this post editing but I think it generally makes sense, but when I explain how the nuclei is hit, I say it releases a nuclei, it actually releases a neutron, the neutron then hits the next nuclei and releases more neutrons, that is what forms the chain reaction. Tha ... Show More
Oct 2023
The First Ascents of Everest - Mallory and Irvine
Welcome to When It Goes Wrong, the podcast about disasters, accidents and when things fall apart. On this episode we will be heading back to Mount Everest and covering some of the first attempts at climbing it. We will cover Mallory's attempts in 1921, 1922 and the fateful trip i ... Show More
50m 22s
Aug 2023
Crush Disasters - Hillsborough and other Human Crushes - Part 2
Welcome to When It Goes Wrong, the podcast about disasters, accidents and when things fall apart. On this episode we will be covering crush disasters - mainly Hillsborough where in 1989, 97 people were killed at a football game in Sheffield UK. We will then summarise some other c ... Show More
47m 29s
Jun 2024
Episode 353 - Chernobyl: The Power Station That Ended a Nation
The world’s most infamous nuclear disaster officially killed just thirty-one people, but in reality it’s death toll is incalculable. Raining radioactive debris over a city, and melting the skin off the on-site workers, the explosion and subsequent meltdown at Chernobyl reactor 4 ... Show More
1h 14m
Sep 2022
NBN Classic: Kate Brown, "Manual for Survival: A Chernobyl Guide to the Future" (Norton, 2019)
This episode proved remarkably popular, so we're reposting it as an NBN classic for those who missed it the first time.
We cannot learn from disasters we do not yet understand. That conviction motivated historian Kate Brown to conduct groundbreaking research into nuclear energy’s ... Show More
47m 27s