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
A great show to listen to & well researched gives you lots to think about.
I don’t even know how I ended up listening to this podcast. I usually gravitate to medical or history podcasts but this show came up as a suggestion one day and it is now one of my favourites. The way the events are described are concise but still have a narrative, the breakdown afterwards is always well explained and I find the personal asides add interest to the subject matter. Solid show.
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.
Very well written and narrated. No bs or drama. A pleasure to listen to. Thank you for your work John.
Thank you this is such a great resource for safety professionals; well researched and easy to listen to.
Wish there were more episodes because I’m addicted. This podcast is an exercise in disaster podcast excellence. Love the voice, love the thoroughness and love his smooth voice. Simply genius
Deeply researched does not begin to describe how outstanding these episodes are - highly recommended, ideal pace of information delivery, well produced, A+++
I’m not an engineer and I still enjoy these episodes. He breaks things down in layperson’s terms and does a great job of explaining various types of failure, and more importantly identifying opportunities missed to prevent the outcome. I listen with my now 15 year old son because it provides some fantastic examples of smart people doing not-smart things for perfectly human reasons. My father is a retired submarine commander, maybe you could do one on the USS Thresher or the USS Scorpion? He talked about them a little today and it was fascinating!
Reading “Midnight in Chernobyl” book right now. This Chernobyl episode is a great addition to augment the book. Getting a handle on the incident in 3D perspective at this point. Very professional & well-presented. Looking forward to hearing the other topics in this pod now. Thank you for this stellar level of quality. . . Update: Please cover the Titan submarine implosion tragedy, once you have the adequate info available to analyze it. Best wishes to you & thank you for your thorough work
I’m not even an engineer but this is the first podcast I’ve ever financially supported - it’s so well done! I haven’t seen as many new episodes recently; hope all is well.
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
The latest episode is only available through a subscription. Lame.
There is no better researched podcast than this one. Amazing telling of disasters with emphasis on engineering and science.
Wish episodes came out more often! This is a real gem. Someone on another podcast mentioned it off the cuff and I’m glad I found it and subscribed. It’s hard to find good podcasts with so many bad shows out there and half of them aren’t even still running but still show up in the podcast directory. To the host/creator, please market this more and get the word out! I think it has a broader appeal than just nerds like me (us?)!
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.
And incredibly well researched program. Covers all kinds of interesting historical events from a technical, risk, and practical viewpoint.I only wish it came out more often!
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.