BackStory

The following are individual show segments included in the BackStory episode “Weathering the Storm” broadcast in June of 2012. You can listen to the entire episode here.

Segment A

A Winter’s Tale

The History Guys tell the story of 1816, the “Year Without A Summer”, when a volcanic eruption in Indonesia threw so much ash into the atmosphere that New England saw snowfall in July.

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Rain Man

BackStory Producer Eric Mennel recounts the story of Hatfield the Rainmaker, an amateur scientist in the late nineteenth century who believed he could make rain fall from the sky. 

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B Segment

What We Have Here Is A Failure to Communicate

Brian interviews Oxford University lecturer Gareth Davies about why the politics of disaster response are often so fraught and acrimonious.

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Home Today, Gone Tomorrow

Peter, Ed, and Brian riff on whether or not hurricanes are a great equalizer among social classes.

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Sunburned

Contributor Jackie Sojico tells the story of a solar flare in 1859 that created aurora all over the world, causing people reach for both science and mysticism as explanations.

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Segment C

Listener Calls

Peter, Ed, and Brian take calls from listeners.

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The End of the World As We Know It and We Feel Fine

Coney Island Museum Curator Aaron Beebe takes us on a trip through the disaster-themed amusements once featured at the Coney Island. Peter, Ed, and Brian discuss the cultural trend of weather as entertainment and spectacle.

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