On January 12, 1888, across Dakota Territory, Nebraska and Minnesota, an unusually warm winter morning sent children to school and farmers into the fields in light clothes. In the early afternoon, a wall of wind and ice swept across the Great Plains, and the temperature collapsed. This is the story of the Schoolhouse Blizzard, the teachers who had to decide whether to keep their pupils inside, and the warning that never reached the farms.

Sources:

- David Laskin, The Children's Blizzard (HarperCollins, 2004)

- History Nebraska (Nebraska State Historical Society), accounts of the Blizzard of January 12, 1888

- NOAA National Weather Service, history of the U.S. Army Signal Service and the creation of the Weather Bureau (1890)

Any Other Day is written and produced by Twenty Seconds Audio. This episode is based on historical records and published accounts; sources are listed above.

Narrated with an AI-generated voice.

Researched, written and produced by Twenty Seconds Audio.

Business inquiries: 20secondsaudio@gmail.com

Written and produced by Twenty Seconds Audio.

Business inquiries: 20secondsaudio@gmail.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In January 1915, in Antarctica's Weddell Sea, Ernest Shackleton's ship Endurance froze into the pack ice, barely a hundred miles from the coast. Ten months later, the ice crushed her, leaving twenty-eight men stranded on a drifting floe, more than a thousand miles from the nearest settlement, with no way to call for help. This is the story of how they tried to get home.

Sources:

- Ernest Shackleton, South: The Story of Shackleton's Last Expedition 1914-1917 (Heinemann, 1919)

- Frank Worsley, Shackleton's Boat Journey (1940)

- Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust, Endurance22 expedition reports on the discovery of the wreck (March 2022)

Any Other Day is written and produced by Twenty Seconds Audio. This episode is based on historical records and published accounts; sources are listed above.

Narrated with an AI-generated voice.

Researched, written and produced by Twenty Seconds Audio.

Business inquiries: 20secondsaudio@gmail.com

Written and produced by Twenty Seconds Audio.

Business inquiries: 20secondsaudio@gmail.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On January 15, 1919, in Boston's North End, a steel tank holding more than two million gallons of molasses split open on an unusually warm winter day. It had leaked for years, and the neighborhood had long stopped noticing. This is the story of that ordinary morning, the minute it gave way, and the long fight to pull people out of the flood.

Sources:

- Stephen Puleo, Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 (Beacon Press, 2003)

- Boston Globe and Boston Post coverage, January 16-17, 1919

- Nicole Sharp, Jordan Kennedy and Shmuel Rubinstein, "Revisiting the Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919", American Physical Society, Division of Fluid Dynamics, 2016

Any Other Day is written and produced by Twenty Seconds Audio.

This episode is based on historical records and published accounts; sources are listed above.

Narrated with an AI-generated voice.

Researched, written and produced by Twenty Seconds Audio.

Business inquiries: 20secondsaudio@gmail.com

Written and produced by Twenty Seconds Audio.

Business inquiries: 20secondsaudio@gmail.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.