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, 4 hours, 48 minutes and 56 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.
Boost-A-Gram Leaderboard (rules) for Causality
- 155445 sats for Episode: "737 MAX Ethiopian Air" from Dave
- 133346 sats for Episode: "45: Granville" from Crimson Deer
- 50017 sats for Episode: "44: Beirut Warehouse 12" from Dave Jones
- 50000 sats for Episode: "43: Triangle Shirtwaist Factory" from Dave Jones
- 50000 sats for Episode: "48: Instituto Goiano de Radioterapia" from Dave Jones
- 50000 sats for Episode: "48: Instituto Goiano de Radioterapia" from Dave Jones
- 50000 sats for Episode: "48: Instituto Goiano de Radioterapia" from Dave Jones
- 50000 sats for Episode: "52: Colonial Pipeline" from Dave Jones
- 42782 sats for Episode: "Callide C Blackout" from Mrmr
- 25000 sats for Episode: "49: Carmel Fireworks Explosion" from Dave Jones
Latest Episode
Episode 53: Callide C Blackout
30 March, 2024
In 2021 the Callide C Power Station experienced a unit failure that tore the turbine-generator apart, resulted in hundreds of thousands of premises losing power, and cost hundreds of millions to repair. We look at how design errors and ultimately a lack of information led to the incident escalating out of control, when it could have been recovered.
With
John Chidgey.
Episode Gold Producers:
'r' and Steven Bridle.
Episode Silver Producers:
Mitch Biegler, Shane O'Neill, Lesley, Jared Roman, Joel Maher, Katharina Will, Chad Juehring, Kellen Frodelius-Fujimoto and Ian Gallagher.
Episode 22: Chernobyl
8 July, 2018
The largest nuclear incident in human history released an estimated 400 times the radioactive material compared to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It all happened because of a test that was delayed by one shift, or was it the ultimate inevitability of a flawed reactor design?
With
John Chidgey.
Episode Gold Producer:
'r'.
Episode Silver Producers:
Carsten Hansen and John Whitlow.
Episode 21: Milford Haven
30 April, 2018
A turning point in control systems user interface design and alarm management happened in an unlikely place that few have ever heard of. We look at what went wrong at Milford Haven.
With
John Chidgey.
Episode Gold Producer:
'r'.
Episode Silver Producers:
Chris Stone and Carsten Hansen.
Episode 20: Stava Dam
25 February, 2018
On the 19th of July, 1985 in Tesero, Northern Italy, a tailings dam gave way and killed 268 people. With the most common tailings dam design in the world, what went wrong and how widespread are the risks?
With
John Chidgey.
Episode Gold Producer:
'r'.
Episode Silver Producers:
Chris Stone, Eivind Hjertnes and Carsten Hansen.
Episode 19: Smiler
23 November, 2017
In 2015 at Alton Towers in the UK, The Smiler Rollercoaster experienced a major incident leading to severe injuries for multiple riders. We look at how pressure to get the ride running again and mis-communication defeated the system designed to protect the riders.
With
John Chidgey.
Episode Gold Producer:
'r'.
Episode Silver Producers:
Chris Stone and Eivind Hjertnes.
Episode 18: The Fog
15 September, 2017
In 1952 a fog in London left 4,000 dead in just 4 days but many more would die before the causes could be rectified. Worse than that, it had happened before and it’s happening again right now, somewhere else.
With
John Chidgey.
Episode Gold Producer:
'r'.
Episode Silver Producers:
Chris Stone and Eivind Hjertnes.