Episodes
Tuesday Apr 14, 2020
1:23:45: The Chernobyl Disaster
Tuesday Apr 14, 2020
Tuesday Apr 14, 2020
Most of the city of Pripyat was fast asleep in the early morning of April 26, 1986. It was a relatively quiet night, save for the sounds from the nearby Chernobyl Power Station. All was calm until just before 1:30AM, when a small explosion echoed through the air, followed almost instantly by a second, larger fireball. Emergency operators received alarms of a fire at Chernobyl, believed to be a destroyed control system tank setting fire to the roof. Inside, workers frantically worked to ensure Unit 4s reactor continued to receive cooling water and prevent the fire from causing meltdown.
Firefighters rushed to the scene, most having just gotten out of bed, and wearing nothing but short sleeve shirts, some still in pyjamas. As they assembled their hose equipment, all they could think about was the taste of metal in their mouth. Little did they know, only meters away from them, was a hole where the reactor once lay. It was now nothing more than an inferno, burning as hot as the surface of the Sun, and spewing toxic radiation into the sky. A large plume of black smoke floated over the forest towards Pripyat. When it arrived, the city was darkened by the shadow of death.
Music:
Tower (Metro 2033 Soundtrack) – Alexey Omelchuk
Monday Aug 19, 2019
The Silent Service: A History of Submarine Warfare
Monday Aug 19, 2019
Monday Aug 19, 2019
Deep in the ocean stalks a hidden hunter, virtually undetected and silent. Within, its crew works away, cramped, having not seen the sun in weeks. The crew drives blind through the depths, with only a pinging sonar available to aid navigation. They lay down there, waiting for the possibility to strike.
Submarines have had a long history behind them, one which is seldom talked about except for blockbuster films from Das Boot to Hunt for Red October. Today, Pan Historia dives into a brief, but detailed history of Submarine Warfare.
Outro: In the Navy by The Village People
Monday Apr 29, 2019
RMS Titanic, the Ship of Dreams
Monday Apr 29, 2019
Monday Apr 29, 2019
Titanic was a ship who truly lived up to her name. The second of the mighty Olympic-class ocean liners, she was dubbed the ship of dreams, where her builders and crew bragged how not even God could sink her. She and her sister Olympic were the pride of the Belfast shipbuilders of Harland & Wolff, as no ocean liner before them were larger, or more beautiful. Titanic embarked on her maiden voyage from Southampton, UK on April 10, 1912, and after stops in Cherbourg, France and Cork, Ireland, she left towards the open sea towards New York City. The richest passengers were there to experience a luxurious vacation on the open seas, while most of the second and third class passengers were heading towards a new life in the Americas.
Fate, however, is unpredictable, and often cruel. On the night of April 14th, only a day away from her destination, a frantic message echoed the telegraph lines of the Atlantic:
"CQD CQD THIS IS TITANIC"
"MOUNT TEMPLE TO TITANIC
WHAT IS THE MATTER?"
"TITANIC TO MOUNT TEMPLE
CANNOT READ YOU OLD MAN BUT HERE MY
POSITION 41.46N 50.24W COME AT ONCE
HAVE STRUCK BERG"
Intro: Titanic Distress Signal
Intrepid by Kevin MacLeod
Outro: Nearer, My God, To Thee