Boston's Great Molasses Flood of 1919 | Brown Paint, Horses, & Bed Rafts

The year is 1919. Boston is minding its business when a 50-foot tank full of molasses says, “absolutely not.”

JoLynne and Amanda ruin history with a literal syrup tsunami, corporate negligence, and the moment breakfast turned into a crime scene. This is the Great Molasses Flood of 1919, and yes… it is exactly as insane as it sounds.

In this episode, we cover a 30–40 foot wave of molasses moving at 35 mph, the engineering strategy of “paint it brown and pray,” a man who literally rafted through molasses on his bed (we respect it), why this somehow gets worse the more you think about it, and the world’s worst legal defense: “the anarchists did it.”

Chapters

00:00 Cold open

02:30 Intro Game: Would You Rather – Sticky Situations

07:45 Paint It Brown and Pray

15:30 How Do You Die

22:00 Cracker Barrel Crime Scene

28:00 Wrap

Games we played (because we’re professionals)

Would You Rather: Sticky Situations — slow, warm, pancake death vs. fast, cold, salty death. Choose wisely.

How Do You Die — are you nosy, petty, or protecting your laundry? Either way… the molasses is coming.

The takeaway: sometimes history is kings and wars. Sometimes it’s a giant tank of breakfast exploding because no one wanted to spend money on safety. And somehow it’s both hilarious and horrifying.

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(34)

Cleopatra | It's the Trojan Horse, but Horny

Hot take to start the show: every man who has ever lost his entire mind over a woman has blamed her for it. Two thousand years ago that energy started a civil war, ended with Julius Caesar getting sta...

15 Touko 1h 18min

De Clare: Too Much Power, Too Few Cousins

This week, we’re diving into the chaotic world of the De Clare sisters, one of medieval England’s most powerful families. What starts as inheritance drama quickly turns into royal favoritism, politica...

6 Touko 49min

Sid & Nancy | Punk Isn't Dead But These Two Sure Are

Patreon Bonus Episode. The year is 1978, and apparently the hottest relationship trend is mutual destruction.JoLynne and Amanda ruin history with the chaotic, toxic, and wildly overrated romance of SI...

29 Huhti 1h 19min

Gilded Age Mansions: Wealth, Labor, & Dark Truths

What were Gilded Age mansions really hiding?In this episode of Barely Historical, we dive into the outrageous world of America’s most extravagant homes—built during the late 1800s by names like the Va...

23 Huhti 51min

Ostara | Easter, Rabbits & the Truth About Spring

Every spring, humans suddenly feel the urge to reset their lives. We clean our houses, change our routines, and convince ourselves we’re becoming better people overnight. But this isn’t random. It’s a...

3 Huhti 58min

NASA Trusted Her With Space But Not A Bathroom | Katherine Johnson & The Colored Computers Sign | 1950s Virginia"

Imagine being so good at math that the federal government trusts you to calculate whether astronauts survive reentry into Earth’s atmosphere.Orbital mechanics. Launch windows. Trajectory equations. Re...

4 Maalis 44min

St. Valentine’s Day Massacre | Fake Cops, Highball the Dog, Raccoon Bootlegger

This Valentine’s Day, Barely Historical is skipping the roses and going straight to the gunfire.In this episode, Jo and Amanda dive into one of the most infamous crimes in American history: the St. Va...

11 Helmi 56min