Well There's Your Problem | Episode 25: Bhopal Disaster (Part 1)

In this half of an episode we talk about the worst industrial accident in modern history, the 1984 Bhopal Disaster. Also we learn some organic chemistry.
The Patreon: / wtyppod
image credits:
slide 1 chemical plant
By Julian Nyča - Self-photographed, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
king bhoja
By Bernard Gagnon - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
taj ul masjid
By This file is not in the public domain. Therefore you are requested to use the following next to the image if you reuse this file: © Yann Forget / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
bhopal city of lakes
By Deepak sankat - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
train station
By Suyash Dwivedi - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
insecticide pump
By Photographed by User:Bullenwächter - Hamburg Museum, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
union carbide gas
By Union Carbide; scan and commentary by Don O'Brien - Country Gentleman magazine, 1922-10-07, via Flickr: Gas Lighting, CC BY 2.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
MIC tank
By Julian Nyča - Self-photographed, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
tea time
By joyosity - Tea at the Rittenhouse Hotel, CC BY 2.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
bhopal sunset
By Sankalpbhatt - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
give us anderson
By Obi from ROMA ,LONDON - BHOPAL, CC BY 2.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...

[@mattkomar7622]

Shouts out to the guy who went on the BBC and posed as a representative of Dow Chemical, claiming that Dow was taking responsibility for the Bhopal disaster and would compensate the victims' families, which then caused Dow's stock price to plummet.

[@ExperimentIV]

god damn absolute hero

[@abandonedchannel281]

Madlad

[@biedisunizlietne]

In what world do we live in, if it's the humane compensation for a fuck up and not the fuckup itself that makes the stock price plummet?

[@chrysincognitio3751]

Utter praxis

[@davyhotch]

The Yes Men documentary is an oldie but a goodie

[@TheMrolio22]

"We should keep this a little bit brisk" Title Card: *The Gang Does Not Keep it a Little Bit Brisk*

[@helloofthebeach]

My favorite dynamic here is when Liam or Alice make a dark joke and Justin says "There's a story about that coming up" and you can just feel the life leaving them.

[@justmadethistocomment9505]

"oh we'll get to that"

[@steemlenn8797]

Mostly it's Alice: "Nobody would do... or "Good that it's impossible that..." and then Justin: "Oh, no, it's possible, but that is in the next slide".

[@williamchamberlain2263]

"It gets worse" is even worse from an engineer, because you just know it's going to come with data and a timestamp.

[@Madhouse_Media]

It's probably the best unintentional(?) running gag in all of podcasting.

[@kylefish666]

I really appreciated your humanizing of the people of Bhopal before the main analysis. Wish it didn't strike me as so novel.

[@cfredrics]

I call this phenomenon "WTYP Excellence"

[@horacioestabridis1628]

The reason sticking two benzene groups together makes it safe is cause benzene is of perfect size to wedge itself between the two strands of your DNA and "chelate" it. This makes the strands of DNA stick together rendering the DNA unreadable by the body. Sticking two together prevents this cause the molecule becomes too big.

[@kjj26k]

So it literally mutilates your very DNA, rendering your cells incapable of replicating or really any process. Wow, Organic Chemistry really is just mean.

[@justinokraski3796]

@@kjj26k it's a bit like sticking a wad of used gum in your wallet and then struggling to pay the store clerk

[@poppyhaze6613]

asbestos works similarly, it's essentially fiberglass from the angry earth, with crystals so tiny and hateful they sorta crowbar themselves into your genes and yank them open in your lungs

[@falloutghoul1]

@@poppyhaze6613 So that's why I see all of those mesothelioma commercials...

[@RsRj-qd2cg]

@@kjj26k it wouldn't actually be that bad if every instance of benzene altering DNA led to the cell dying. Other cells would replace the dead cell. The problem is when the DNA is changed and the cell multiplies when it doesn't need to. If immune cells can't track down and kill the replicating cell, a tumor forms, and then cells break off and start going to places they don't belong.

[@skeletonwizard708]

"None of us are eco-fascists, Liam is just an omnicidal maniac", Finally, someone talking sense! I'd vote for that guy!

[@alexanderlarsen6412]

a skeleton wizard would say this

[@belcavendishny]

He calls em like he sees em, that's for sure

[@devinfaux6987]

Incidentally, "Zoom meeting fatigue" is a scientifically-verified thing now. It's theorized to be in large part due to being able to see your own broadcasted image, and a couple dozen faces just staring back at you for hours. Having everyone turn off their cameras helps a lot.

[@Fattybobatty1224]

Man, Justin bringing a strong challenger to the deadpan “yes” with the exhausted “oh my god” here.

[@darthbob88]

0:37 Liam groaning about doing an almost three hour podcast, and then two years later they went and did a 3-episode 9 hour mini-series on the Penn Central. That's growth.

[@MrSaturnpyo]

Really hope you do another "despite thousands of clowns worth of fuck ups and millions of dollars in damage no one died" episodes soon

[@TheMrolio22]

Stade Olympique in Montreal would be a great contender

[@sakomeow]

"despite thousands of clowns worth of fuckups and millions of dollars in damage, no one died" describes the podcast itself quite well actually

[@horacioestabridis1628]

The creation of the Salton Sea is hilarious, cost millions (in modern dollars) and didn’t kill anyone.

[@firefox5926]

@@horacioestabridis1628 what about that billionare who wants to rebuild the titanic lol actuly i think he has a dinosaur them pack as well? but the one i would like to see is that guy .. i think it was Liverpool...or leeds.... or was it Manchester... anyways the excentric 18th centry guy who emplyed peaple to dig tunnels ... so many many tunnels

[@Jwend392]

How about the aborted LaFarge Dam project in Wisconsin? Or the Hoan Bridge in Milwaukee?

[@acassiopeia6439]

Oh dear. Having to explain that Indian lives have value does not bode well for the scale of this disaster. Note: I had not heard of the bhopal disaster when I started watching this episode.

[@chaosof99]

That you haven't heard of this before is an indigment on our entire society. Shit is fucking ghastly.

[@Thecoffeefreak]

I was 9 when this shit went down and didn't hear anything about it until almost 10 years later. As horrible as the internet can be it can do a lot to fix ignorance.

[@industrialborn]

I found out about it in conjunction with Chernobyl of course.

[@faggykrueger]

Out of curiosity, how old are you? I’m 19 (~2 months away from 20 now... yikes) and I didn’t learn about this either. I was homeschooled and then I graduated from public high school in the suburban southeastern US. Neither of those environments really care about labor rights and international development history. I learned about this a few months ago when I caught up on Behind the Bastards episodes. It’s pretty fucking horrific.

[@acassiopeia6439]

@@faggykrueger I'm 26, lived in the UK all that time. Our education system teaches nothing about the Labour movement here or abroad, and to say our history lessons are whitewashed would be an understatement.

[@Cat_Stevens]

Justin's "oh my god" moments: 32:30 "Human anatomy should just be called digging for spare parts." "I- oh, my god." 33:10 "I used to listen to that on a CD walkman, walking to school. Yeah. No skip my ass." "Oh my god." and the best one 35:25 "Now, how do we get this, right? Ummm, oh my god, I got, some, beer cans, here! blockin' my view of the screen."

[@mysickfix]

oh my gauwd

[@Myrea_Rend]

Someone with infinitely more patience than me should make an "Oh, my gauwd" supercut.

[@excitableboy7031]

Ah. Bhopal eh? I have an uncle there. Nice place. The union carbide plant looks like a more desolate chernobyl. You want to stay lakeside when you go to Bhopal. They totally got away with it. That was the worst part.

[@HamiltonMechanical]

Shout out from Oak Ridge, Tennessee! :) Where we don't actually glow in the dark, but the mercury causes everyone to have dementia. Gotta love living on a superfund site!

[@HamiltonMechanical]

OH, and btw, the whole coke thing gets blown a bit out of proportion. Anything cola related gets called a coke. Everything else gets called by its name. A sprite, a dew, etc. but we definitely don't use the words "soda" or "pop" here. And If I remember correctly, we went from Union Carbide, to Martin Marietta, To Bechtel Martin, to Bechtel Jacobs, and now I think its CNS or something like that.

[@zimmerwald1915]

Justin, not realizing he's the podcast-boss.

[@helloofthebeach]

He who controls the slides, controls the podcast (with slides)

[@itzelpretzel]

this is my favorite podcast that contains both explaining the value of indian lives and also knocking over beer cans while explaining organic chemistry

[@RWnope]

"Keep it a little bit brisk" 1 hour 28 minutes, part 1 I'd say you both succeeded and failed at the same time, but I won't complain about more content.

[@Comnlink]

PurgatoVykers task failed successfully

[@user-wg7nw3mh2e]

why would they split it in half? that is deeply frustrating. they're

[@splooie02]

Our trough runneth over

[@kibels894]

"The shitwind from Greeley" Alice's local knowledge of American cities is impressive.

[@bynrdskynrd]

Justin has done an episode about Killdozer, and its recommended.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Such a tragic event, unfortunately greed causes too many disasters

[@JustinVodden]

And John knows all too well

[@Huntracony]

I love how there is always, without fail, a shift change in these disasters.

[@tortugagreen9924]

You know you just arrived at the spicy part when Justin goes "well, at 8:30 PM, ..." like oh boy things are moving fast now if we're measuring in minutes and hours rather than days and months.

[@YoungZibzy]

God damnit, I made it 25 episodes without getting my jimmies rustled, but Alice not knowing that -ates and -ides are very different in chemistry got me a little

[@UnfortunatelyTheHunger]

tbh, the naming conventions in chemistry are very counter-intuitive and, hot take, serve as a gatekeeper; science communication is to this day still not being given the attention it deserves, which in turn makes knowledge a corrupting power

[@Orinslayer]

@@UnfortunatelyTheHunger well, they make more sense in the language of the guy who named them usually.

[@Silkenray]

I am weird enough that I took Organic Chemisty as a requirement for a non-Chem degree, and loved it enough that I chose to work in chemical data for a career. (Ready to be thoroughly depressed at being reminded of the absolute horror of this disaster)

[@dadiolego]

I know orgo gets a bad rap, but as a chem major, literally its the most enjoyable yet the most difficult class i’ve taken. Physical chem tho, fuck that shit.

[@Silkenray]

Orgo is the least math-y chemistry class, which was fine for me because while I can math well I math slowly. Not being miserable when taking Orgo requires good 3D spatial orientation skills and the ability to generalize from a specific example so you don’t have to memorize every step of every mechanism because that way madness lies. From what I can tell about pChem, not having had that particular pain myself, the main thing that seems to matter is just really really loving calculus.

[@ubermenschen01]

@@dadiolego Dang for me it was the opposite, loved physical chem hated organic.

[@jkholtgreve]

@@Silkenray I always thought I could never take it because I’ve never seen in 3-D, but apparently a blind guy got through pre-med by developing his own braille code in conjunction with 3-D models. Kinda neat how tactile 3-D intelligence can substitute for visual.

[@ThePinkus]

6:35 Don't know why, as soon as they said they cut the 811 line in Denver, I started visualizing Denver as a place where everyone took that as the once-in-a-lifetime chance to let loose on their repressed impulse and turned into frenzied dwarves, pickaxes swinging, and everybody singing in tune "I am a dwarf, and I'm digging a hole! Diggy Diggy Hole! Diggy Diggy Hole!". Because that's what You do when there's no one telling You "No You can't!", right?

[@FranklyImaPerson]

I mean there's an entire song about what to do in Denver when you're dead by Warren Zevon

[@ClaudiaNW]

Sort of Denver meets Moria meets Ankh-Morpork.

[@pdb189]

Boy, I can’t wait to tune in to my favorite uplifting engineering failures podcast. I hope they’re covering something light hearted like a water leak at a cotton candy factory! ::sees title:: The light has gone out of my life.

[@pastell6395]

I used to be a straight-A science student, but then utterly bombed-out Chemistry suddenly in literally the last year of college. Shattered my self-esteem, so I appreciate the tangent about the arbitrary nature of how we teach Chemistry. Big validation

[@ashleyelgin9808]

Me: Sees the title. Also me: Now I feel sad.

[@JacquesLeChat]

i came here to post this but in my heart i knew it had already been said

[@oldmanramblingatclouds]

Yeah, same. Wish I had more to say, but I don't have the vocabulary.

[@livescreaming]

For those who don't know, dyspnoea is actually difficulty in breathing and pulmonary oedema is fluid on the lungs! So even worse than initially sounded to them!

[@doctorgravel8572]

Here I am watching this in late August of 2021, watching the Goddamn News segment and noting that we have moved on from bleach to livestock de-wormer. That's REAL progress, folks.

[@Scone635]

I'm feeling triggered because he keeps saying Amine wrong. Its A-Meen Oh god, I'm that dude (he, him) in the comments

[@chrisborgars-smith2439]

"don't spew hydrogen cyanide into the atmosphere -" I swear to god I was saying "and don't spit" at the same exact time as Alice

[@B1gCh33sy]

Can't wait for the Agent Orange episode for ep. 50.

[@hellzangelrulz]

Great band.

[@SnowmanTF2]

Always nice to see our friend 'Activate Windows'

[@yedoom]

They really are the 4th host. It's never the same without Activate Windows

[@justinevans1852]

@@yedoom Can you believe that Activate Windows doesn't get a portion of the patreon money? They need to form a union.

[@lazamair]

@@justinevans1852 Uh huh, like Microsoft hasn't extracted enough money out of us as it is...

[@justmadethistocomment9505]

@Iazamair I mean they've still got some telemetry, but using windows without paying for it is praxis

[@Erlec]

Yes, Another week closer to the Tacoma narrows bridge episode! I can't wait!

[@Deimonik1]

In Brisbane, Australia a few years council did the same thing and hit the fibre optics cable for the entire city knocking out internet and communications for 4 days. Funniest part was because it was Brisbane City Council they knew there was a fibre optics cable where they were digging and just gave it the Aussie sentiment of "she'll be right" (saying means nothing to worry about).

[@elainejsta]

>”engineering disasters podcast” >”I want you to think of cheese as *milk loaf”*

[@kamelal-tamimi8123]

Ohhhh Noooooooooooooo Bhopal is like one of the Mega-Depressing ones....... they better put tons of jokes to balance that out...

[@darthbob88]

Going to spend the next month straight doing more comical shit like the atmospheric railway or "A dog fell off a fence".

[@deeznoots6241]

Don’t worry they will follow it up with Tacoma Narrows bridge episode where only a dog died.

[@zaphodtoasty9208]

@ThisIsMyRealName it was a bit of a disappointing dog...

[@Dong_Harvey]

The episode ending with Alice bemoaning the legacy of tea and Justin picking up in post, made me think Alice had a serious moment here and it was decided that the tea breakdown was not a good thing to release, at least not until after the Boston Molasses Incident episode

[@thomasbelmont810]

In the early 1960s we used to vacation at a place called Long Beach Island, off southern N.J. Because it was a barrier island with an adjacent marshy bay, there were voracious mosquitoes. Every evening a Willys Jeep would go up and down the streets spraying DDT, a giant cloud trailing behind it. For reasons that escape me, we used to chase behind as long as we could keep up - it was great fun for us kids, somehow. I’m 64 now, and I’m sure that it’s still in my bones.

[@AmstradExin]

Jožin z bažin, enough said. (:

[@ca984]

I hope we get our 6 day 32 part episode about the inefficiency of cars by September 😍

[@sudo_1618]

Yeah, I come from the Philippines and our rail situation is so weird. We have a national land rail, but it only has 1 or 2 lines going to the capital. Otherwise we only have Light Rail in the city. Sadly no rail in the countryside, where infrastructure is needed.

[@bytemega_]

Our railways are an engineering disaster

[@mister3horn153]

Everyone should watch the episode of Behind The Bastards podcast on this disaster.

[@acassiopeia6439]

I haven't listened to the episode in question but Behind the Bastards is excellent, as is The Women's War. Robert Evans is just really good at the whole podcast thing.

[@effluviah7544]

Agreed, it's so fucking good.

[@MxArgent]

Swindled's episode 09 is good, too.

[@teslashark]

Failure appreciation series, unite!

[@Runningfromtheredqueen]

And add the episode on the church of bleach-drinking while you're there.

[@Tsukunea]

Skookum and Shmoo? This WTYP/AvE crossover is great!

[@InsaneZeroG]

I wanna see an episode on the Boston Molasses Flood

[@faggykrueger]

InsaneZeroG yeeeeessss seconded! I just want to hear them mock my accent.

[@mrail3]

This

[@schnoodle3]

must do

[@jadebullet3884]

I had reccomended it for a Franklin bonus episode back in the day and it was mentioned as in the works, but we never got that sweet release. They must be storing it for later.

[@PanAndScanBuddy]

Goo flood! Goo flood! Sweet goo flood!

[@Dorian_sapiens]

So, where can I find out what intersectional landlords are and why they tried to cancel our intrepid WTYP heroes?

[@Doriyan]

They are playing down a case where Alice got angry at a trans person because they made a joke about a band, then suggested they commit suicide because they are subletting rooms in a house they inherited. You can check it out here: twitter.com/plainoldchair/status/1253282061881933824 Cool handle btw.

[@Dorian_sapiens]

@@Doriyan Wowwww, those tweets are really awful. But thank you for answering my question, and I like your handle too!

[@ZeRedSpy]

Damn, that’s insane.

[@flinko99]

@@Doriyan Deeply appreciate the actual explanation. It's always... fascinating... to be reminded that the people who make media you like may. Well, you know.

[@kjj26k]

This is the _Infinity War_ of _Well There's Your Problem._

[@griffinrails]

_You know we're in the endgame when there is no mention of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge Disaster_

[@kjj26k]

@@griffinrails That was like when the film said *"Thanos Will Return"* _Chills_

[@TheRaumente]

I love how you correctly pronounced naphthalene but not amine.

[@jadebullet3884]

Man, I hope you guys do the Damascus incident. Command and Control is a great source for that. I just love that the ICBM that was involved was actually in a previous incident where the silo it was in caught fire and killed a bunch of people. Talk about a bloodthirsty nuke.

[@cristizagan8232]

Justin: "Bhopal" Justin's accent: "Pope Paul"

[@pyrolr9588]

Just wanted to note an additional thing about the fertilizer suicides in rural India, from what I've read part of the reason it's done is because the companies to which most farmers are hopelessly in debt to supply that fertilizer. So in a way by using the fertilizer it's a more direct link, like a hunger strike in a way. Saying it was me who did it but you who caused it.

[@jsone42]

40:00 dyspnoea means breathing difficulties

[@zagnorch1336]

7:05 - "an enormous suburb hell" is an apt description of San Jose as well.

[@DJ-Sellout]

To be fair San Jose has it's highlights. Like sidewalks.

[@zagnorch1336]

@@DJ-Sellout Not if you live in a county pocket inside the city limits like I do. My neighborhood has no sidewalks or even curbs, just foot-wide curved gutters.

[@DJ-Sellout]

@@zagnorch1336 I stand corrected. San Jose realy is an enormous suburb hell.

[@henrycurtis3652]

Or Phoenix

[@peskypigeonx]

Isn’t basically every American city besides the Northeast and some other exceptions suburb hell?

[@EvilDMMk3]

Ah, the bomb calorimeter, was there ever a tool so dull with a name so cool?

[@raptormaster666]

Ahhh, THIS one. I didn't need the warning about how bad this was, I already knew this was a level of fuck-up beyond the realms of normality. A solid podcast as usual.

[@somethingsnowing]

Liam's suicidal cardinal story puts mine to shame. Ours only did it for 2 weeks, while we were out of town and my older brother was watching our pets. He had not let the cat out because he had to work and didn't want him to be out all day. So when we get back from our trip, we finally let our murder cat out with the request to kill the suicidal cardinal that keeps hitting the same second story window. Not 30 minutes later, the cat returns to the backdoor with a still living cardinal. We praise the cat and he then picks up the bird and walks away from the back door, down the stairs of the deck, and rips the birds fucking head off and carries it into the woods, leaving the body behind.

[@jts11d63]

As a chemist I both hate and love your explanation.

[@mcb187]

About the fiber line being cut… few years ago, the entire northern half of C Springs lost internet because a road grader (basically a machine with a big blade used to level surfaces) ripped out a large fiber bundle by Comcast. 2 days. No internet. That was an interesting few days at school… did you know that a lot of schools in the US rely heavily on the internet for stuff like attendance and grades?

[@TheGolux]

I think the Indian OSHA is like, to the south of india, goes all the way from africa to australia more or less?

[@excitableboy7031]

Indian OSHA is very stringent, especially in those days. They didn't take bribes less than ₹100,000. Very strict about that.

[@criticalfxck13]

nonono Im Indian dude and let me tell you the Indian OSHA is very wet

[@miche1df]

The cardinal attacking the window thing is pretty common during the breeding season. They see their reflection in the window (or a car mirror, or any other reflective surface), but birds don't really understand how glass works, so they think it's another cardinal encroaching on their territory and they attack it because they're highly territorial.

[@UnfortunatelyTheHunger]

Somebody make that Bhopal train station an asset for Cities:Skylines

[@TrainmasterGT]

pointPi and Trainz Simulator :D

[@Summer-it3wh]

If you like old gasometers you might like the ones in Vienna that they turned into housing, they built apartments on the inside and put a big skylight over the roof, it looks incredible.

[@jbkjbk1999]

Ah yes my favourite podcast, Philadelphia Man Angry about Organic Chemistry

[@TheShadowOfMars]

"The East is Red" reminds me that the 1975 Typhoon Nina dam failures deserve a WTYP episode.

[@ExperimentIV]

the moment my autistic ass heard the trump bleach thing my brain (as a joke) was like “wow autism and covid have the same cure” and then i just felt really depressed for 5 minutes after obviously as an autistic person i dont think it’s a disease and why cure it i love knowing way too much about ABBA and other ridiculous shit. i could be the greatest pinch hitter at bar trivia EVER. (she/her)

[@TrainmasterGT]

Experiment IV bleach is the cure to everything. World hunger? Bleach. The Republican Party? Bleach. The Tacoma Narrows Bridge Disaster? Bleach.

[@FatTitsFatStacks]

Is there such thing as knowing too much about ABBA?? 😂

[@ExperimentIV]

@@FatTitsFatStacks honestly? yes

[@coreygolphenee9633]

Just makes me wish I could have been autistic in the 70s being a human Google was like a big a magician back then

[@GoredonTheDestroyer]

I'm on the spectrum and I'm just stupid. (He, and you're not gonna fuckin' believe this, Him)

[@tjbarke6086]

In before the tone trolls complaining about it not being solemn enough.

[@justinokraski3796]

the funny thing is people are more upset over the pronunciation of "amine"

[@jg-7780]

You know you’re getting closer to the disaster when you get to the minute-by-minute breakdown

[@Personal_Chizo]

IT'S OUR TACOMA NARROWS BRIDGE EPISODE, FINALLY.

[@Personal_Chizo]

We want more, bois.

[@erikawhelan4673]

"big white hand of progress" I see what you did there, Alice.

[@coreygolphenee9633]

So white some consider it invisible

[@brandonbohan7281]

Half my job is telling utility companies "hey, there's a line there, don't bore through it." Always call the city before boring. Please!!

[@Baumgardener]

Always love seeing my wonderful state mentioned online. Colorado is extremely weird especially in boulder as there are lots of left leaning folk completely mixed with chuds. I was a canvasser for a few years and man, you could have a Maoist next a gadsden flag flying chud. I don't know what it is but something makes it very odd.

[@Udontsay948]

That seems to me to be every seeming blue state. Pocket of various gonzo infestations.

[@coreygolphenee9633]

Same as Washington used to be i imagine when Colorado was a lot more rural it attracts people that just wanna be left alone regardless of their political bent, that meant hippies and libertarians

[@coreygolphenee9633]

Thats most blue States in WA you two liberal cities and some college towns surrounded by west Virginia

[@Alevuss92]

Same with New Mexico. There's a lot of leftists here, but right next to a guy cosplaying as a conquistadork

[@TrashHeapCustodian]

Alice knowing about Fort Detrick gives me some serious hometown pride, loved living near a Superfund and seeing the Anthrax building on the ride to school every day, super cool and good (He/him)

[@TrashHeapCustodian]

SHAKE HANDS WITH DANGER IS BACK YES (He/him)

[@authoranonymous8892]

This got me on a rabbit hole of looking up Superfund sites, apparently there are over 1,300 nationwide which is...more than I expected and definitely more than I'd like.

[@capkirk9033]

As an organic chemist, Roz's pronunciation of "Amine" causes me great pain. 10/10

[@goldmanfan504]

Woohoo - a new episode!!!! I love this so much!! Thank you so much, Alice you are my favorite!,!!!

[@malcolmking752]

Glad to hear you guys talk about the Indian railways network, I’ve always been amazed by it especially the fact that so much of it is broad gauge.

[@whoever6458]

We grew the three sisters in the backyard and it looked like a food jungle. It was pretty awesome and the beans were delicious!

[@connorholm8670]

never heard it pronounced "amin-ay" before, lol.

[@pmcgee003]

He didn't want to be a-meen-y

[@abandonedchannel281]

Idi Amine

[@agentofashcroft]

I thought it was an anime joke or something.

[@kaycashew]

Organic chemistry convinced me to be a physics major instead of a chemistry major. It’s not easy.

[@coreygolphenee9633]

The ceiling in chemistry is probably a lot lower in terms of difficulty but the risks associated with chemistry just seem like your meddling with the primal forces of nature

[@crowwithaknife1312]

@@coreygolphenee9633nah the real risk of majoring in chemistry is realizing that all the most stable jobs are at pharmaceutical companies

[@SuperVictorion]

In regards to The Goddamn news: It wasn't just 811 that had their fiber line gone Anyone on Centurylink business had their internet cut. It was bad.

[@CleverCrumbish]

This is the WTYPpod spoken of in hushed tones in the comments of other WTYPpods and I am ready to die

[@Omegasupreme1078]

Hi guys.... the "Union Carbide Gas" didn't refer to propane, it referred to making acetylene gas for lighting using calcium carbide. This was used in rural lighting systems where city gas or electricity were not available. Also, very nice touch with the discussion of the people of Bhopal.

[@jellewijckmans4836]

Please for the love of god tell my you are pronouncing amine incorrectly on purpose.

[@RenaDeles]

Considering how many other things he mispronounces of course this isn't on purpose

[@coreygolphenee9633]

Mid Atlantic

[@GyroCoder]

"I will happily go vegetarian to save the planet, but you can take my cheese and my eggs from my cold dead hands." Mood. Finally, someone who sees things my way.

[@kjj26k]

Same. I'll respect the fuck out of a cow When it's in a pasture.

[@ThePopopotatoes]

Goat cheese is also delicious and goats are very sustainable to raise almost anywhere outside of literal scrubless desert

[@trashmoneyyt]

The city you're thinking of is Bangkok. I have tons of pictures of the train going through as everything stops to accommodate for it. The train only goes at like 3 feet per second while it's going through the market.

[@PocketBeemRocket]

I just started listening to this podcast, and I just realized how long it took the crew to get to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge episode.

[@curiousteddie]

oh..... yay. this one actually came earlier than i expected. idk if i wouldve been ready for this one as ep 100, but i sure will keep listening and paying on patreon. god this one is gonna make me miserable, can't wait.

[@huntermorgan4201]

I really appreciate the dedication to the bit at the end of this part one

[@huntermorgan4201]

I had such a love-hate relationship with high school chemistry; Justin's outburst about organic chemistry got me good

[@MousseCakePie]

Ending it on the tea time was the right editing choice. Very à propos

[@remimitchell827]

For the most part, love this episode. Fucking hate it when Alice describes alfalfa as a “useless vegetable”. It’s a nitrogen fixing legume that is often used for hay for cattle in North America, as well as a form of organic fertilizer pellet. I don’t think I’ve ever just seen it casually “tilled under the soil” on anything other than organic farms as a form of organic matter fertilizers.

[@dejjal8683]

I think cyanide is just CN while HCN is called hydrogen cyanide, CN is also responsible for the -nitrile suffix in certain chemicals as in acetonitrile . And yes I did hate having to balance equations, this is why I work in operations and not in the lab.

[@spamviking]

Shout out to my high school chemistry teacher Mrs Chan who accidentally blew up the biology class' fish tank (two classes shared the same room because budget) when she was cutting up small chunks of sodium metal and one bit flew off and plonked into the thing. We did save all the fish though. Also shout out to my university chemistry professor, who I can't remember his name, who used to set random things on fire all the time, like his own arm, and walk around the hall lecturing like nothing was happening.

[@laurencebois5119]

The thing about the gasometers, there was one in the channel Islands that was recently decommissioned, not just because it was located right in the middle of the city, but that it was damaged beyond repair after it caught fire for the second time

[@Tadesan]

31:00 Justin, thank you for the rant on balancing equations!

[@stevendaleschmitt]

Wonderful podcast - I've been binge watching for two days. I wish I could contribute - have degrees in medical imaging and vocational education (job training) and experience in healthcare from pushing a wheel chair through CT special procedures and clinical applications training for 3D imaging for some of the big industrial manufacturers. Seen my share of engineering disasters in this field, have good perspective on our H.C. system. If you ever plan on healthcare podcast, specifically the business end of hospitals and private doctors offices, I'd be thrilled to help out. You are doing important work here.

[@synthgal1090]

Submit a Safety Third!

[@synthgal1090]

did you submit a safety third

[@griffinrails]

Could you do the Granville derailment after Bhopal Part 2? It is the ultimate "shake hands with danger".

[@SamwiseOutdoors]

Alice is a bit harsh on Denver: it gave us all Five Iron Frenzy, and was where Ska died in November of 2003.

[@anxiousandworrying1]

It was a verry good patreon episode we are all verry proud of you

[@FlourishCaster]

When Liam asked "Didn't they [Union Carbide] run Oak Ridge as well?" I put my head in my hands and groaned so dramatically, my dog came over to my desk. Fucking hell.

[@seadub4944]

I swear this is the perfect, it's smart and stupid all at once..... Both the topics and the presentation..... It's great, more please....

[@TheSylda]

So this came out last night and I looked at the title and went... 'I am not watching this before heading to bed, My sleep is bad enough'