CURRENT
Causality
Chain of Events. Cause and Effect. We analyse what went right and what went wrong as we discover that many outcomes can be predicted, planned for and even prevented.
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Total Listening Time: 1 day, 8 hours, 14 minutes and 54 seconds.
John has a great voice to listen to. He’s also super smart and breaks the maths and such side of things down enough my brain doesn’t freak out haha. Thanks. Sam. Perth
Really enjoy John’s analysis of these famous safety incidents. Lots to learn here!
A wonderful podcast. Loving it!
I discovered this podcast in a roundabout way investigating Chernobyl & Fukushima. John Chigdey is a passionate genius, I love his delivery, knowledge and analysis. I have never heard of many of these incidents (NOT ACCIDENTS!). It's tragic how these mistakes pile up on each other until the inevtiable happens. Everything seems so safe and reliable until it doesn't. Even if you're not an engineer or a scientist this is a must listen series. I listened to them all pretty much straight in a row. There are lessons here applicable to just about every part of life.
A wonderful podcast. Loving it!
Great podcast. Just finished Fukushima and it’s amazing the amount of misinformation put out by other podcasts that talk about this incident. It’s great to get an engineering perspective on what happened. Keep up the great work.
Fascinating take on the world.
John does a wonderful of walking through and unpicking the incidents discussed. His expertise in control systems and how they factor into unfolding events make this a must listen for anyone with an interest in engineering matters. Keep listening and pay attention.
Thank you this is such a great resource for safety professionals; well researched and easy to listen to.
The disasters covered aren’t overly dramatized and are presented factually with an aspect I think many shows are missing: what was learned and what could be done differently. This is one of my new favorite podcasts
There is no better researched podcast than this one. Amazing telling of disasters with emphasis on engineering and science.
I am entirely fixated on disasters, and this is by far my favorite source. Clean covering, professional with a well of barely hidden rage at the powers that be that allowed these disasters to come to fruition, and a nice voice to boot. If I could give more stars I really really would.
This is one of the few podcasts where the podcaster understands what the word thorough means. No useless information is ever added. The subjects are interesting, heavy, and important. Sometimes it is dry, in the sense he is not making jokes, but that is a positive thing for this podcast but does mean it is not always the most accessible. I’m sure the podcaster knows this as he (to my glee) includes undiluted technical information to help explain the event.
This is a great podcast for me when I need a break from true crime. He talks about cataclysmic events not simply for the morbid entertainment, but to think about the “HOW” and “WHY” factors from the perspective of an engineer. Also, the dreamy Australian voice and calming tone of the narrator is everything. It’s oddly a compliment, but when I need to fall asleep to something that won’t give me nightmares in the way many others of the same genre might— he’s my guy!
As a teacher, I’ve found this podcast extremely valuable in learning great examples of why physics is important in our daily lives. He’s done a wonderful job in the recap of events and then the breakdown of where things went wrong. I highly recommend this podcast!
I enjoy having someone with a more analytical brain talk about what went wrong and why. Too many podcasts focus on the horror of what happened in disasters, as opposed to the causes beneath it. Or they focus on being entertaining and witty. I’d much rather hear someone with a background in science go through cause and effect, and what happens when people and systems fail. For a non scientist such as myself, it’s lovely learning how someone with, I assume, education and training in engineering, perceives man made disaster Great job to everyone involved in this podcast!
Great analysis of various disasters. Fascinating how greed has become one of the main villians in these disasters.
I am a maintenance electrician and it is so interesting how incorrect procedures or “tribal learning” leads to dangerous outcomes
A podcast for those with a brain
This podcast is awesome. Really interesting details explaining disasters from an engineering point of view.
John explains the causes of disasters in great detail—many of them about incredibly interesting events that I did’t even know about.
Fascinating take on the world.
YES THIS. When John goes off on a tear about engineering ethics and you can fully feel his passion on the subject, it gives one some hope for humanity. Another huge Positive: Causality episodes are evergreen, I often recommend them when a disaster comes up in conversation.
I can honestly say that I have spoken up about issues that I might have just 'let go' because of Causality. I have also started to communicate more clearly and explicitly at work to remove ambiguity and reduce miscommunication.
Jeeze I always thought causality was the best. Disaster pods are cool but they aren’t analytical. Feels like disaster pods make everything seem fated while causality exposes negligence and carelessness. The pod definitely adds value to history for me. Best one of them all 10/10
Yes. Let's also remember the shameful people who overrode the engineers raising alarms because they were worried about time and money. As John points out in Causality episode 8, waiting even one more day would have probably prevented this outcome.
The curious history of early aviation and failed engineering review processes @CausalityShow 10: The Comet
Great episode of @CausalityShow as a Quality Engineer the phrase legacy knowledge makes me cringe. Put it in a damn procedure.
been obsessing over the @causalityshow podcast: engr breaks down disaster in detail and gets to the moral background of engnrng.
The Causality podcast (by John) is great, offering detailed walkthroughs of other engineering-related incidents to explore how and why they happened, how they could have been prevented:
Causality - a fortnightly reminder of human frailty and hubris. Spellbinding frightening listening.
Latest Episode
Episode 59: Bayer CropScience
1 May, 2025
After an extended outage of the Methomyl Unit at the Bayer facility in Institute, West Virginia, the decision was made to commence a restart of the Unit even though the DCS upgrade was still incomplete and the newly replaced Residue Treater hadn’t been fully recommissioned. An incident whose root cause was years in the making would ultimately cost two people their lives.
With
John Chidgey.
In Causality Explored, (Premium ONLY) we dive into how HMI Display counts should be designed and thus how HMI Graphics should be layered to fit within human limitations.
Episode Gold Producers:
'r', Steven Bridle and Kellen Frodelius-Fujimoto.
Episode Silver Producers:
Mitch Biegler, Shane O'Neill, Jared Roman, Katharina Will, Chad Juehring, Ian Gallagher and Jamie Russell.
Episode 58: West Fertilizer Company
31 March, 2025
In the early hours of the evening on the 17th of April, 2013 in the small city of West, Texas…smoke was seen emanating from the West Fertilizer Company building. In 20 minutes there was a massive explosion that levelled the facility and its surroundings, killing 15 people and injuring hundreds more. How this came to be, represented a failure of regulations, planning and grandfathering on every level.
With
John Chidgey.
Episode Gold Producers:
'r', Steven Bridle and Kellen Frodelius-Fujimoto.
Episode Silver Producers:
Mitch Biegler, Shane O'Neill, Jared Roman, Katharina Will, Chad Juehring, Ian Gallagher and Jamie Russell.
Episode 57: Stardust Nightclub
8 January, 2025
On Valentines Day in 1981 in the North of Dublin, Ireland a fire broke out in a nightclub just following a Disco Dancing competition. We look at how measures taken to prevent illegal entry and poor building material choices cost 48 young people their lives.
With
John Chidgey.
Episode Gold Producers:
'r', Steven Bridle and Kellen Frodelius-Fujimoto.
Episode Silver Producers:
Mitch Biegler, Shane O'Neill, Jared Roman, Katharina Will, Chad Juehring and Ian Gallagher.
Episode 56: BP Husky Toledo
18 December, 2024
On the 20th of September, 2022 at the BP Husky Toledo refinery in Ohio, a level transmitter change out from a month prior triggered a chain of events that would cost two operators their lives. We look at how poor Management of Change, high alarm rates and a resistance to stopping the job, let a plant upset turn into a disaster.
With
John Chidgey.
Episode Gold Producers:
'r', Steven Bridle and Kellen Frodelius-Fujimoto.
Episode Silver Producers:
Mitch Biegler, Shane O'Neill, Jared Roman, Katharina Will, Chad Juehring and Ian Gallagher.
Episode 55: CrowdStrike
19 October, 2024
On Friday the 19th of July, 2024 millions of CrowdStrike Falcon Agents the world over would lead to a Windows system crash on business machines throwing parts of the world into chaos. We look into exactly what caused it and how complacency and a lack of understanding amplified the effect of this wholly preventable incident.
With
John Chidgey.
Episode Gold Producers:
'r', Steven Bridle and Kellen Frodelius-Fujimoto.
Episode Silver Producers:
Mitch Biegler, Shane O'Neill, Jared Roman, Katharina Will, Chad Juehring and Ian Gallagher.
Episode 54: Midland Resource Recovery
25 June, 2024
In 2017 during an Odoriser decontamination procedure in West Virginia, two people were killed when it unexpectedly exploded. Barely a month later, a similar procedure at the same site led to a second explosion, killing someone else. We examine how poor hazard analysis and legal interference led to yet another fatality…right in front of the eyes of the investigators on site.
With
John Chidgey.
Episode Gold Producers:
'r', Steven Bridle and Kellen Frodelius-Fujimoto.
Episode Silver Producers:
Mitch Biegler, Shane O'Neill, Lesley, Jared Roman, Katharina Will, Chad Juehring and Ian Gallagher.