That’s Terrible!

On November 9, 1975, a bulk freighter called the Edmund Fitzgerald began its final voyage of the season, hauling iron ore across Lake Superior. But the next day, November 10, a storm struck, and the ship and its crew of 29 were lost.

In this episode, Erika and Amelia talk with Corey Adkins from the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society in Whitefish Point, Michigan. 

You can learn more about the Edmund Fitzgerald on the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum's website or check out the resources below.

The Last Voyage: Remembering the Edmund Fitzgerald. This is a great documentary from local TV station 9&10 News.

Book: The Legend Lives On by Bruce Lynn and Chris Winters

Book: The Edmund Fitzgerald: Song of the Bell by Kathi-Jo Wargin

Listen to Canadian folk singer Gordon Lightfoot's song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" here. 

Check out our website for exclusive stories, photos and book recommendations!

 

On October 30, 1938, the radio show The Mercury Theater on the Air had a special episode planned: a scary play for Halloween. The War of the Worlds was the story of Martians landing in New Jersey and attacking New York City. And the acting was so good that people actually believed the attack was real! 

On today's episode, Erika and Amelia talk with Gail Jarrow, author of SPOOKED!: How a Radio Broadcast and The War of the Worlds Sparked the 1938 Invasion of America. Listen and learn about the terrible night aliens landed on Earth.

Do you think you'd believe such a story if you heard it? Listen to the broadcast for yourself! And if you happen to be near Grover's Mill, New Jersey, you can see exactly where the Martians landed in the story.

 

Check out more of Gail Jarrow's books about terrible things:

American Murderer: The Parasite That Haunted the South

Blood and Germs: The Civil War Battle Against Wounds and Disease

Fatal Fever: Tracking Down Typhoid Mary

 

 

 

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT! That's Terrible! is now on Substack. Subscribe today for blog posts about all of our episodes including photos and more! Just look for @terriblepod or click the link above.

 

Now, on with the show!

 

It's spooky season, and we didn't have to look hard to find the perfect story. This week, Erika and Amelia talk with Dan Lipcan from the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts about Salem's most famous event: the witch trials of 1692. 

 

Check out these books if you want to learn more:

History Smashers! Salem Witch Trials by Kate Messner

It Happened in Salem by Jonah Winter

You Wouldn't Want to Be a Salem Witch! by Jim Pipe

Tituba of Salem Village by Ann Petry

The Tall Man from Boston by Marion L. Starkey

That's Terrible! is going international this week! Erika and Amelia talk with Paul O'Sullivan from Blarney Castle and Gardens in Cork, Ireland. It's a place with some spooky features, like a poison garden and a witch that roams the grounds at night (don't worry, she's trapped during the day). It's also the site of the Blarney Stone, which sits on top of the main tower at the castle. Legend has it, if you kiss the stone, you receive the gift of gab.

Paul recommends this book: Gran Kissed the Blarney Stone by Luann Atkin Koester.

The Great Molasses Flood occurred on January 15, 1919 when a storage tank failed at the Purity Distilling Company in Boston's North End. Millions of gallons of hot molasses went pouring into the streets, then cooled down and thickened, creating a sticky mess. The wave swept up people and animals and destroyed buildings, and the cooled, thick molasses took so long to clean up that for decades afterward, people said they could smell it on a hot day.

This week, Amelia and Erika are joined by Steve Gurriero, director of education from the Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation in Waltham, Massachusetts.

If you want to try Boston brown bread, we used this recipe.

 

Read more:

I Survived the Great Molasses Flood by Lauren Tarshis. There's a graphic novel too!

Leah Braves the Flood: A Great Molasses Flood Survival Story by Julie Gilbert

Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 by Stephen Puleo. This one is more for the adults!

 

 

 

 

This episode is chock full of book recommendations, so scroll all the way through the show notes for links!

Amelia and Erika (and a surprise third cohost, some girl named Nora) are joined by New York Times bestselling author Alan Gratz, whose stories put fictional kids in the middle of terrible true events. He talks about how he chooses his terrible topics, his favorite themes to write about and why kids love learning about war and disasters.

Be sure to check out Alan's new novella, Flight, available for preorder now.

 

Some of our favorite Alan Gratz historical fiction:

Two Degrees. A story about climate change and Nora's favorite

Projekt 1065: A Novel of World War II. (This one has spy stuff!)

War Games: A Novel of 1936 Berlin

Heroes. Did you know there were kids at Pearl Harbor? We didn't.

Ground Zero: A Novel of 9/11. Another of Nora's favorites

 

Some of Alan's favorite books!

Save the People! by Stacy McAnulty

History Smashers series by Kate Messner

The Watch That Ends the Night: Voices from the Titanic by Allan Wolf

Junius Leak and the Spiraling Vortex of Doom by Allan Wolf

The Vanishing of Lake Peigneur: A Graphic Novel Based on a True Story by Allan Wolf

 

If you want to learn more about the Little League Baseball World Series, visit our favorite bookstore in Williamsport, Pennsylvania for a local perspective!

Questions? Ideas for an upcoming episode? Email us at thepodcastgrotto@gmail.com.

 

The morning of April 18, 1906 brought a rude awakening for residents of San Francisco, California. At 5:12 a.m., a massive earthquake struck, breaking gas lines and starting fires that burned throughout the city for days. On today's show, Erika and Amelia talk with Jack Grippi, a retired geologist who now conducts walking tours for the San Francisco Historical Society. He talks about the science behind earthquakes and tells the story of a young girl who survived.

 

Learn more about earthquakes here!

See photos of Lily Sung and read more of her story here!

 

Read more about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake:

I Survived the San Francisco Earthquake by Lauren Tarshis

Lily and the Great Quake: A San Francisco Earthquake Survival Story by Veeda Bybee

 

Questions? Ideas for an upcoming episode? Email us at thepodcastgrotto@gmail.com.

If you haven't listened to Part 1, we highly recommend you do before listening to this one. 

The Radium Girls were factory workers who painted clock dials at the United States Radium Corporation in Orange, New Jersey and the Radium Dial Company in Ottawa, Illinois. They were well paid, and the job was fun. The paint made things glow in the dark, and the girls often used it on themselves as well, painting their dress buttons, their nails and even their teeth. Everyone in town knew who the girls were. But soon, the whole world would hear about them.

What the girls didn't know was that the paint they were using, and the way they were told to use it, was very dangerous. Some got very sick. Their employers refused to help them, so the Radium Girls had to stand up for themselves.

In the last episode, Erika and Amelia talked with Kate Moore, author of The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women, about the dangers of radium and how the factory workers were instructed to handle it. This week, we talk about what happened after the women got sick and how they're remembered today.

If you want to read more about the Radium Girls, we recommend:

The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore. This is an excellent book but definitely for the adults! Younger readers should check out the edition of Moore's book made just for them called The Radium Girls: The Scary but True Story of the Poison that Made People Glow in the Dark. 

The Story of Marie Curie by Susan B. Katz and Who Was Marie Curie? by Megan Stine tell the story of the woman who discovered radium.

If you want to see a sneak peek of a production of the play that inspired Kate to write her book, you can find one on YouTube from 2024 done by Columbus State University.

Questions? Idea for an upcoming episode? Email us at thepodcastgrotto@gmail.com.