339 - Grab Your Chapstick

[0] This is exactly right.

[1] And welcome to my favorite murder.

[2] Post -summer -time break episode.

[3] Been a minute.

[4] I mean, but in these strange times, like a month truly feels like eight months.

[5] Yeah.

[6] Let's get into what does a minute really mean these days.

[7] These days?

[8] Four weeks.

[9] Four weeks is one minute.

[10] That's right.

[11] So it has been literally a minute.

[12] Literally a minute.

[13] Yeah, we had a little, we had a. fun little break of a month, but you guys had some episodes we were really happy to share and proud of.

[14] And I immediately celebrated my month off by getting COVID.

[15] And then I just waited.

[16] I just delayed about seven days.

[17] And then I got COVID.

[18] Yay.

[19] I mean, it's kind of perfect.

[20] Yeah.

[21] It was kind of perfect because it was like, I don't have to cancel any meetings or I don't have to like try to record while I'm sick.

[22] I was just like, goodbye and like got into bed for a week.

[23] Yes.

[24] And it was nice.

[25] So did you, because we, so I got it on vacation.

[26] Yeah.

[27] And there were people in the group and some got the, I only felt bad for 48 hours version.

[28] So you got the other version.

[29] I don't want to call it long COVID because it's not long COVID.

[30] Yeah.

[31] But it is the longer in that choice.

[32] Yeah.

[33] It wasn't a quick, it wasn't a quick guy, but I didn't feel terrible for more than like two days.

[34] But then everything else was just kind of blah.

[35] And I still can't totally.

[36] or at least smell and taste perfectly.

[37] Same.

[38] Which is you know, like, as someone who loves food and the way it tastes and smells, it's been really hard.

[39] Taste and smell is a huge part of eating.

[40] Not the only part.

[41] Some might say foundational.

[42] I'm still doing it.

[43] My personal heartbreak is that there are things that I can and can't taste.

[44] Cheerios are right there for me, so I'm eating a lot of just Cheerios as a meal is working out pretty well.

[45] Because other stuff, I'll be like halfway through it and I'll be eating.

[46] habitually going, this is all texture and no taste and super weird.

[47] There's no joy in it.

[48] No, there's no like, oh, did I just get a little bit of caramelized onion?

[49] There's nothing.

[50] No layers are happening whatsoever.

[51] But the heartbreak for me is coffee tastes fucking terrible.

[52] Oh, yeah.

[53] Okay.

[54] Coffee tastes to me now what it probably tastes like to a seven -year -old that takes a wig give their parents coffee.

[55] That's good, though.

[56] It's like starting fresh, right?

[57] It's like starting from a fresh palate.

[58] Let's see what we really like.

[59] Maybe we don't like what we thought we liked.

[60] Maybe Mexican pizzas aren't my favorite food in the world.

[61] Maybe my palate has matured.

[62] I don't know.

[63] Or what if you find out that Mexican pizza is one of the more, like, complex recipes there is in restaurant world today?

[64] It could be.

[65] I don't know, because I can't fucking taste anything.

[66] Yeah, you wouldn't, you wouldn't, no. You have some time, because they're bringing the Mexican pizza back permanently.

[67] I read an article.

[68] Sorry, more accurately.

[69] I saw an article that said it's coming back like next month.

[70] I'll take it.

[71] I'll go there.

[72] As a permanent, it's not going to be a special like they did last time if they're bringing it back.

[73] Yeah, like a year ago, someone should have told them that that, okay, I'm not going to yell about the Mexican pizza on this tree.

[74] crime podcast.

[75] In these trying times, what would be great is if fast food restaurants could go full nostalgia and just be like doing things the way they used to for the people who can barely hang on.

[76] Question.

[77] Chaco taco thoughts and feelings.

[78] Embarrassing answer, I've never eaten a chaco taco taco.

[79] You're like the third person I know well who has said that.

[80] And I'm like, I thought I knew you.

[81] How have you never had a chaco taco taco?

[82] Well, I was at my first response was going to be, it's an East Coast thing to a person who grew.

[83] grew up in Los Angeles.

[84] I always assumed it was like either a Midwest or an East Coast thing because we, but also living out in the country, we didn't have an ice cream man. None of that, that shit was like stuff that was only on TV in my opinion.

[85] An ice cream man was a full fantasy situation.

[86] Okay.

[87] Yeah, we definitely had one.

[88] Rumor was he sold LSD.

[89] I never was old enough to, you know, there's that age limit on LSD buying from a candy man or whatever.

[90] I hope.

[91] I never got there, but word on the street.

[92] I have so many things I watch, but I don't know if they're all worthwhile talking about or listen to and...

[93] But wait, really quick, can I ask you about the Chaco Taco?

[94] Oh, yeah.

[95] Was it your pick?

[96] First of all, did you get to grab a quarter and run out to the ice cream in every day?

[97] A, was Janet down with something like that?

[98] And then B, was it one of your picks?

[99] So Janet was never home, so I would break into my sister's shitty little kids safe.

[100] You know, which you don't need a fucking number for a password for.

[101] You just turn it around.

[102] I'm a safe cracker.

[103] That's right.

[104] So I take some change from her and we jaywalk on one of the busiest streets in Irvine to go to this little market that was across the street from us.

[105] And yes, the Chaco Taco Taco was a regular pick for me. It's just so satisfying.

[106] It's basically just a like a drumstick, but in taco form.

[107] Oh, that's smart.

[108] Yeah.

[109] It worked.

[110] It worked.

[111] It did work.

[112] That was a real flow.

[113] flare up.

[114] Social media, please taste, man. There's a lot going on.

[115] And that's one of the things.

[116] And the day that flared up, I was like, don't have to have an opinion.

[117] Don't have an opinion.

[118] Never need to think about this again.

[119] Yeah.

[120] I mean, I literally haven't had one in 20 years, but there is a nostalgia aspect for me. So it's a bummer.

[121] But what are you going to, you know, life goes on.

[122] True.

[123] You can't get down because of that.

[124] There's other ice creams in the world.

[125] I'm here to say there's a ton of other ice cream.

[126] creams and shapes in the world.

[127] If you like a thing that's shaped like one thing that's supposed to be savory, but it's actually sweet, I totally get that.

[128] Even something that's shaped like a normal thing that's not supposed to be frozen, aka a fucking Snickers ice cream bar or a Twix ice cream bar, have you had?

[129] Oh, my God.

[130] Yes.

[131] Next time you go to the store.

[132] I've had the Snickers, not a Twix.

[133] Get the Twix ice cream bar.

[134] That thing is legit.

[135] Is there a cookie element?

[136] Yeah, because it's like a Twix.

[137] basically.

[138] It's just that the filling is ice cream.

[139] So there's like caramel in it and it's like got the cookie and it's really fucking good.

[140] Amazing.

[141] Yeah.

[142] Trust me. I eat food.

[143] Trust me on this one.

[144] Whether or not, here's what I think is really telling about me. What to me feels like I have 40 % of my taste buds and or smelling.

[145] So I don't know what the issue is.

[146] Exactly.

[147] What's going on.

[148] Still am powering down as much food as I can't.

[149] Like the habit of eating.

[150] Oh, yeah.

[151] Has only kind of slowed down a little bit.

[152] Yeah.

[153] Which is pretty bewildering to realize, where I'm just like, well, I still get to eat.

[154] I'm still going to eat this burrito.

[155] I mean, how many things in life, though, make you kind of happy?

[156] There's very few.

[157] And eating is on the top of that list, which I'm like fine with.

[158] That's a thing.

[159] It's way up there.

[160] It's way up there.

[161] I mean, maybe now's the time for you to try seafood more since you hated seafood so much.

[162] But then what would the benefit be if I can't.

[163] smell it or taste it, like, then I'm just, then it's all this amazing seafood texture.

[164] No, I, because you know how everyone.

[165] Oh, yes, delicious oysters.

[166] No, because then it'll like slowly reintroduce you to this thing without the full frontal of the seafood taste and you'll slowly acclimate to it instead of it being like, and then anytime someone's like, do you want to go get sushi?

[167] You don't have to explain yourself about sushi.

[168] Well, but you know what's funny?

[169] Most of the time, I don't anyway, because you can.

[170] And, like, I think a lot of times we think we have to do stuff like that, like preamble, people are not paying attention to anything you do.

[171] I go to sushi and then just get miso soup, edamame, you know, if they have those spicy, crunchy tuna things, man, those are amazing.

[172] And it's always fresh, so it doesn't taste like.

[173] Okay.

[174] But anyway, yeah.

[175] Well, I'm going to bring over a whole swordfish, cooked swordfish to your house after this.

[176] And I'm going to go ahead and debone it for you and feed it to you.

[177] You're like, first, eat the eyes.

[178] You will love it.

[179] I mean, it's swordfish.

[180] I don't know why it's the funniest fish.

[181] It's the funniest fish to offer.

[182] It's too big.

[183] You're like, how would you walk it in?

[184] You're like, can you meet me out at my car, please?

[185] I have swordfish on top of my car on my, like, bike rack.

[186] First, I have to get a bike rack because I don't ride bikes, and so I don't have a bike rack.

[187] That'd be amazing if you were a fisherman, a commercial fisherman that added a bike rack to your car so that you could carry around fresh fish to your friend's house.

[188] I bet that's a thing.

[189] Since we're on the subject of food and people doing crazy things for food, did you watch the bear?

[190] Oh, yes, I guess.

[191] Ha, fuck boy.

[192] What's up, chef fuck boy?

[193] What's up?

[194] Serious, kind of sweaty, really intense, focused, talented, haunted, very large -eyed.

[195] Tatted, like, shitty tattoos.

[196] shitty tattoos.

[197] Shitty tats.

[198] Smoker, which is like, that's so bad.

[199] I love you.

[200] Yeah.

[201] I mean, did that guy smile once in that series?

[202] No, because he was torture.

[203] He was so tortured.

[204] He was so stressed and busy, which we love, and he was tortured.

[205] But then I think his eyes lit up one time during a conversation where I was like, this is so powerful.

[206] When he talks about food, like you and I, except you and I are talking, he's talking about Noma, the best, we're talking about Taco Bell.

[207] Tacoville bringing back that Mexican pizza But we're right Tacos, we are right We're populists Stop it We're right too We're on our own TV show It's called The Binge Yes, you were going to make a point I never was and I never will Okay Then I'll think I'll try to think of one Because the bear I did Watching everybody go crazy For the bear On social media I was like okay fine And then I was like Yes, thank you Because I think I've told you this before You know that Bradley Cooper movie burnt where he's a chef that's all stressed out?

[208] It's the same.

[209] Yes, it's the same thing, right?

[210] I've watched that movie easily five times.

[211] It's very hard to explain because...

[212] I've never seen it.

[213] It's a real dark horse of a film.

[214] There's a little romance in it.

[215] There's some drama.

[216] There's a lot going on.

[217] But it's like, what I realize is, oh, I am very interested in chefs and what they do and how they do it.

[218] It's that thing of, like, When front of house and back of house hook up, it's like fireworks and lots of alcohol and some cocaine.

[219] I think more cocaine.

[220] Mostly cocaine.

[221] Yeah.

[222] Just to keep it going.

[223] I didn't date a chef, but a chef had a crush on me when I was a lot younger.

[224] Uh -huh.

[225] And I worked at this health food store in Santa Monica.

[226] And he would bring me over.

[227] And he worked at the restaurant next door, so he was always in.

[228] And he...

[229] Bring you food?

[230] He'd bring me food, and it was like chef food.

[231] So it was like, how is this pasta?

[232] It's just fucking pasta, but it's the best pasta I've ever fucking had in my life.

[233] And then he revealed to me that he had an old from way before.

[234] And look, we've all been through some shit when we were younger and made bad mistakes, had an old swastika tattoo.

[235] And I was like, and he was like very apologetic, obviously I'm Jewish.

[236] He was like, didn't want to tell me. And so I was like, I just can't fucking take it you, dude, sorry.

[237] Sorry.

[238] Well, I mean, what, was it the 90s?

[239] Had they not had the laser tattoo removal yet?

[240] It was the 90s and I think it was on his head, like his scalp.

[241] Whoa.

[242] Jesus, this got dark.

[243] So he was a straight up skinhead?

[244] Yeah, he had been like a skinhead.

[245] Fuck.

[246] I know.

[247] Well, but based on what I've learned from Anthony Bourdain and the like, it's almost like troubled past leads you to the intensity of the kitchen culture really working for you.

[248] You thrive there, yeah.

[249] Yeah.

[250] Yeah, they say the same thing about some fucked up writer's rooms where if the boss is fucked up enough, the people who really thrive are the people who had fucked up parents because they're like, yes, I'm back home.

[251] Mother's milk, you know what I mean?

[252] Right, because you get like yelled out and screamed out and then praise for three seconds and you're like, and you like live off of that little bit and it works.

[253] And you're like, oh my God, it's Christmas and I'm eight years old.

[254] This is how it is.

[255] I'm sorry, the idea of a man being able to be like, give me these six ingredients in your refrigerator and I will go ahead and whip something up.

[256] And the best thing, yeah.

[257] In quarantine, I've sat and fantasized about that concept and brought myself to tears of just like, imagine a world where.

[258] Like, this could be possible for you someday if you would just.

[259] What if this whole 15 minutes has just been a hello fresh ad?

[260] Promote Loominess.

[261] Anyways, promo code lonely.

[262] I will say this.

[263] My cousin Stevie, who I talk about a lot on here, at one point in his young life, he had a restaurant.

[264] Oh, wow.

[265] Yeah, and it was like a kind of a sandwich shop that also had a good gourmet food.

[266] That's how he met his wife.

[267] Dream.

[268] I want to open a restaurant.

[269] Not a restaurant.

[270] I want a sandwich shop someday.

[271] Yes.

[272] Oh, our friend Joe DeRosso opened a fucking sandwich shop.

[273] What?

[274] And we went to New York and went and ate at his sandwich shop.

[275] Did you not know this?

[276] A brick -and -mortar sandwich shop.

[277] It's more of a bowl.

[278] bar that serves some of the best sandwiches I've ever had.

[279] It's called Joey Roses.

[280] If you're in New York, go say hi to Joe, DeRosa, our good friend.

[281] One of the reasons we met, I can't believe that.

[282] He has a sandwich shop and it's good.

[283] He must be so happy.

[284] Is he so happy?

[285] He's so happy and so stressed out because it turns out that running a bar and restaurant is very hard.

[286] But it's just like a normal, like, cool New York bar.

[287] But it's like, you know how he always had really great taste and it was into old video games and shit.

[288] It's like that, so it's cool.

[289] And then he makes, like, really quality, or they make, like, really quality sandwiches.

[290] That is fucking amazing.

[291] Congratulations, Joe, if you ever hear this.

[292] I miss you.

[293] No, he won't.

[294] I have, yeah, he won't.

[295] Oh, I was just going to tell a story that my cousin's TV is really...

[296] No, no, it's very dumb to go back to you, but it's kind of satisfying.

[297] He makes food all the time, like, when he comes to visit and stuff.

[298] Oh, amazing.

[299] And watching both of them clean the countertops, Like, they do it all at once.

[300] So they have all these, like, leftover habits.

[301] Yeah.

[302] That's like being in the Marines or something and still making your bed every day.

[303] Exactly.

[304] So they take these, like, hot towel, hot dish towels and wipe down the counter.

[305] So, like, my kitchen is never cleaner than when they cook in it because it gets this, like, hot towel wipe down thing where I'm just like, God damn.

[306] What a valuable, like, trait to learn.

[307] And they put tape on things and mark the date, right?

[308] and drink out of like a container cup or a container instead of a...

[309] Chefs.

[310] Chefs, write us.

[311] What do we want them to tell us?

[312] Tell us your...

[313] Tell us if you're single, what you're into, horses, reading.

[314] Where you hang out.

[315] Hey!

[316] I don't know.

[317] Tell us about being a chef and how insane it is and like your worst chef, like your worst night on the job or brunch or whatever.

[318] Stress things.

[319] Yeah, like what does it really like to be a chef?

[320] This is a spoiler.

[321] So if you're going to watch this show, you know, don't be in this conversation.

[322] The bear.

[323] But there's that thing where he gets delivered what he thinks is 200 pounds of meat and it's 20 pounds of meat.

[324] Yeah.

[325] Like that real subtle, and they play it so perfectly because that's how problems actually show up to you.

[326] It's like a person speaking in a totally normal tone of voice, like, no, it's 20.

[327] No, that's what you asked for me. Yeah, I'm just the delivery guy, bye.

[328] And he just leaves and then you're just like, now this huge problem is sitting on me until I solve it.

[329] Yeah.

[330] It's, like, so perfectly played.

[331] It's a great show.

[332] Vince couldn't watch it because he doesn't like stress, stressful TV.

[333] Like, he couldn't watch, what's the one with a gem?

[334] Uncut gems.

[335] Uncut gems.

[336] He couldn't watch that.

[337] Like, when things are really stressful, so I had to watch it alone.

[338] Yep.

[339] And just, you know.

[340] Yeah.

[341] It was beautiful.

[342] It was so good.

[343] It was really good.

[344] I watched Blackbird, and I caught up on Blackbird.

[345] Me too.

[346] Yeah.

[347] That's quite something.

[348] I saw like an actual show, I think it was a dateline where he was, the real guy was interviewed and it was, it's got to be so hard to play real people.

[349] Yeah.

[350] This show is so creepy and so good.

[351] Yep.

[352] Right?

[353] And so realistic.

[354] Yeah.

[355] The people, I thought when the guy first got brought in, I was just like, oh.

[356] And then I was just like, and then it just becomes, you're like, that's what that guy is.

[357] Oh, my God.

[358] Paul Walter Houser is the name, the serial killer.

[359] And I think he's giving what's his name from Mind Hunter a run for his money.

[360] Sorry.

[361] Cameron, Britain.

[362] Cameron, Britain, friend of the show.

[363] Well, Cameron Britain is the Trailblazer.

[364] That's true.

[365] That's true.

[366] You know?

[367] And then it's like, who's going to come at me?

[368] Right.

[369] Make your thing better in the great competition of life.

[370] That voice is so creepy.

[371] It's such a bummer.

[372] Oh, my God.

[373] And then Taryn Egerton, like, crying in his cell after having to hear.

[374] And he's just like, oh, it's so good.

[375] Blackbird, you guys should watch.

[376] It's so good.

[377] Also, Taryn Egerton or Edgerton, you don't know how to pronounce it.

[378] You don't.

[379] Because he's Welsh.

[380] So that's the perfect excuse for an American, yeah.

[381] But he was in, obviously, he was in Rocket Man. An amazing, like, I saw that movie and I was like, holy shit, who is this guy?

[382] Oh, incredible.

[383] If you haven't seen Rocket Man, so worth it.

[384] It's such a beautiful, wonderfully executed thing.

[385] I hate shit like that, too, by the way.

[386] And I fucking love, Vince and I both fucking loved it.

[387] It's irresistible.

[388] Yeah.

[389] Biopics make me uncomfortable in a deep, deep way like musicals do, but this.

[390] And this is kind of both, yeah.

[391] Yeah, it was both, and I loved it.

[392] Okay, yeah.

[393] Okay, the other one was.

[394] He's just so good and you don't expect, yeah, he's such a good performer.

[395] Yeah.

[396] But then he also was in me, my dad, and Nora's favorite movie of, let's say, 2017.

[397] I can't remember when it came out.

[398] Eddie the Eagle, which is a true story about a British guy who all his life wanted to be in the Olympics and figured out that the most likely way he could do that was to do.

[399] do the long jump in the Winter Olympics, and he did it.

[400] And it is the funniest fucking story.

[401] And Taryn Edgerton plays the guy.

[402] And once again, he shows up and you would have no idea it was him.

[403] I love it.

[404] He's such a good actor.

[405] That's such a great premise for your life.

[406] I know.

[407] I love that.

[408] Like, I was going to say for a movie, but it's real.

[409] Like a premise for your life.

[410] Let's get on board with those.

[411] I know where you're kind of like, my goal is this weird thing that's really broad.

[412] I'll just figure out how to get there by any means.

[413] It's not like the thing I love is this, and I want to get here.

[414] It's, I want to get here.

[415] How do I make A -2?

[416] Another thing that you recommended that this is a Karen was right corner that Vince and I have been binging through COVID, through our COVID adventures, is detectorists.

[417] Oh.

[418] Come on.

[419] We can't stop singing that song to each other.

[420] I'll be your treasure.

[421] Oh, like.

[422] Also, that guy that sings that song is an actor.

[423] And he's in the show.

[424] He, like, performs it once.

[425] Yeah, that show is great.

[426] We're on season two.

[427] I fucking, or three, we're on season three.

[428] I love it.

[429] It's just so, it makes me want to get a detector, a metal detector.

[430] I've always wanted to do that.

[431] Those scenes where it's the actual group of detectors that meet are some of the funniest.

[432] There's so much great comedy in those scenes.

[433] It's like six of them, and they're all perfect.

[434] They're all perfect.

[435] And I have to give a bunch of people credit years ago.

[436] I think I said I started it, and then whatever was going on at the time, I needed something different.

[437] But people kept writing to me and saying, go back to it.

[438] It's, you will love it or I would say something on the show.

[439] And they'd be like, this is what happens in detectorists.

[440] It's made for you.

[441] And then when I...

[442] So Murderino's new.

[443] They knew.

[444] And when I finally watched the whole thing and the way it kind of lays out and I don't say anything about it, but it really is.

[445] Plus the fact that...

[446] I almost cried.

[447] Oh, yeah.

[448] It's beautiful.

[449] It's beautiful.

[450] And I almost cried.

[451] It's beautiful.

[452] And McKenzie Crook, who is the taller guy, is the guy from the British office.

[453] Yeah.

[454] And he wrote and directed it.

[455] Yeah.

[456] It's his project.

[457] He's incredible.

[458] I love that guy.

[459] I love it too.

[460] Oh.

[461] Let me do a quick shout out to murderinos, actually, because I was at the airport, I think the Las Vegas airport before.

[462] I have one of these too.

[463] You do?

[464] Okay.

[465] Yeah.

[466] Or maybe I was in, okay, no, it was on my trip to New York where I got COVID.

[467] I was in the bathroom at the airport where in.

[468] everyone in LAX wore a mask.

[469] No one at JFK wore a mask.

[470] That was just my observation.

[471] No offense, New York.

[472] And this girl stopped me and was like, hey, you know, whatever.

[473] I work for the company that through your Santa Barbara event, you know, our weekend.

[474] She's like, I just worked for them.

[475] I didn't listen to your podcasts before that.

[476] And I've just worked for this event company forever.

[477] I have never ever been at an event where there's so many nice people and so many people who are so happy and so stoked to be there and so polite and no one was rowdy and everyone was awesome and everyone like was just getting along and so she like complimented that and I was like so honored to be that's very cool isn't that cool yeah because it's all it's a bunch of cool girls yeah essentially we're very lucky We don't litter.

[478] Girls like us don't litter.

[479] No, we actually keep an eye out for a lot of things.

[480] We pick up other people's litter who litter.

[481] That's right.

[482] We're the kind of people who will step forward and say, excuse me, the line is over there.

[483] Yeah.

[484] Or like if you have a cigarette, you put your cigarette, put in your pocket until you can find a trash can.

[485] Like, you don't litter.

[486] I don't know why I'm stuck on littering.

[487] It seems like a nice girl thing to not litter.

[488] It's like a good symbol of how you place the boundaries that are not actual rules.

[489] You don't have to do it.

[490] But you do it.

[491] Right.

[492] And those are our girls.

[493] That's right.

[494] Or women or other or men.

[495] Men, women?

[496] There's definitely men at that weekend.

[497] Those beyond the binary?

[498] Everyone.

[499] Everybody under the sun is included.

[500] All right.

[501] We got a lot of shit taken care of, didn't we?

[502] Yeah, that was plenty for our first.

[503] Oh, wait.

[504] Sorry.

[505] Really can't continue without discussing the Somerton man was identified.

[506] Like for real?

[507] Yeah, but I didn't read it because I was so sick of all of these maybes.

[508] For real, for real.

[509] And it was the guy that we thought it would be who was in love with the chick who lived nearby and they had a kid.

[510] I didn't.

[511] How long ago did you do that story?

[512] A lot of time ago.

[513] I should read articles instead of skimming headlines.

[514] They have the name.

[515] He had a relative nearby.

[516] He was either getting divorced or divorced.

[517] Okay.

[518] And yeah.

[519] So you can look at it before the next episode.

[520] That's very exciting.

[521] It is.

[522] They don't think he died naturally, but they don't know what happened as far as I remember, from what I read.

[523] I mean, mystery is being solved is very exciting.

[524] There's so many cold cases that are being solved these days.

[525] It's just like, I mean, we're coming for you, everyone, except not in the Somerton Man's case.

[526] But everyone else, it's exciting.

[527] Seems like not in that case.

[528] Yeah.

[529] Should we do a little network check -in?

[530] Let's do it.

[531] Hey, you guys, we have a podcast network.

[532] It's called Exactly Right Media.

[533] And over on our movie podcast, I saw what you did.

[534] Hosts Millie and Danielle cover two teen thrillers from 1998, your favorites, The Faculty and Disturbing Behavior.

[535] Nice.

[536] And then this week, Michelle Boutot and Jordan Carlos, welcome New York City comedian Norrie Davis to Adulting.

[537] That's our newest show.

[538] I hope you guys are listening.

[539] It is so freaking awesome.

[540] We're so proud of it.

[541] It's hilarious.

[542] People are loving adulting.

[543] Yeah.

[544] On Parent Footprint with Dr. Dan, Jennifer Pasteloff, who's the author of On Being Human, a memoir of Waking Up, Living Real, and Listening Hard, joins Dr. Dan.

[545] Oh, love that freaking show.

[546] Not just because he's my cousin, because he's really smart.

[547] And in the MFM merch store at My Favorite Murder .com, we have the Here's the Thing, muscle tea now.

[548] You guys were like, we need muscle teas, and we were like, is that what's in style now?

[549] And you're like, yes, you're old.

[550] And so we were like, great, here it is.

[551] So here's the thing, fuck everyone, muscle teas are available.

[552] Here's your muscle tea.

[553] Here's your fanny peck.

[554] Go live your life at your music festival, youngster.

[555] Do it.

[556] Enjoy.

[557] I love a fanny pack.

[558] We have fanny packs, and they're excellent.

[559] I'm a big fan.

[560] All right, we've done it.

[561] Okay.

[562] Yeah, I think it's in year first, right?

[563] Oh, I'm first.

[564] Hey, speaking of mysteries, I have one.

[565] Okay.

[566] Karen, you know I'm all about vintage.

[567] shopping.

[568] Absolutely.

[569] And when you say vintage, you mean when you physically drive to a store and actually purchase something with cash.

[570] Exactly.

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[586] That's Shopify .com slash murder.

[587] Goodbye.

[588] Today I'm going to tell you the story of the mysterious 1989 Mount Ahasidake SOS incident.

[589] So there's some Japanese words in here that I'm going to have to try my best to translate, but I haven't studied Japanese in so long, so it might not be great.

[590] Since you've been to Japanese school, it's been decades probably.

[591] Truly.

[592] Put in your best.

[593] effort.

[594] That's all anyone can ask.

[595] Ossie.

[596] Daque is the name of the mountain, so that's correct, I believe.

[597] So the sources used in today's episode are an Associated Press article, a strange outdoors article, news website, tbs .c .o, the website yamahack .com, the blog, tizakasamo .net, an article on the blog, red .cash.

[598] The Mysterious Universe website, an article on listverse .com by Sean Hennessey.

[599] some Reddit pages, including where I found the story initially by a username Super underscore King underscore U underscore rule.

[600] And Wikipedia.

[601] So let's start.

[602] On July 24, 1989, two men from Tokyo are out hiking the Mount Asahadake, which is the tallest mountain on Japan's northernmost island of Hakito.

[603] The mountain, which is also known as Mount Asahi, grape beer, is a very important.

[604] around 7 ,514 feet high and located in the northern part of the Dysetsu -Zan National Park.

[605] So this big, beautiful Japanese mountain you can imagine, I'm sure it's breathtaking.

[606] It's an active stratovolcano, which is basically a volcano which forms out of alternate layers of lava and ash.

[607] And stratovolcanoes are also really steep and therefore very cone shape.

[608] So steam and volcanic gases are emitted from.

[609] from the mountain, and then they have these cracks in them.

[610] So the steam and stuff comes out, the cracks and smaller holds on the surface.

[611] I'm sure it looks like an alien planet in the best way.

[612] So obviously, the mountain attracts a lot of adventurers, skiers, snowboarders in the winter as well.

[613] It's also a super popular hiking spot in the summer.

[614] It's got a ropeway going from the foot of the mountain up to around 5 ,200 feet.

[615] So it's like you climb this rope up the mountain.

[616] Like pull yourself up, like a cable.

[617] car, kind of.

[618] And when you say you, you don't mean me, do you?

[619] Don't mean me or you.

[620] Great.

[621] Maybe Stephen, he's younger than us.

[622] Stephen would do it.

[623] Stephen would do it, yeah, but I don't know about us.

[624] I did hike Mount Fuji in high school, so.

[625] You did?

[626] What?

[627] Yes.

[628] My dad took my sister and I, and we hiked Mount Fuji, but it was like old people were doing it, too, so it wasn't as exciting as that.

[629] What was the steepest part?

[630] Like, did it get steep?

[631] I think the steepest part was probably the very end when you go to, like, the summit.

[632] We hiked it overnight so that the sun rose through the clouds and then you got to see it.

[633] And they, like, pumped music up there and everything, like, to make it, you feel, like, feel really patriotic.

[634] The Eye of the Tiger?

[635] Was it Eye of the Tiger?

[636] Yes, it was.

[637] Oh, my God.

[638] Wow, that's epic.

[639] That's amazing.

[640] That's very cool.

[641] Yeah.

[642] Nice one, Stephen.

[643] It's truly one of the coolest things I've ever experienced, yeah.

[644] Was there a rope anywhere?

[645] Yes, there was a rope all along the side so you could hanging out too.

[646] So.

[647] Okay.

[648] It's like a staircase with a rope.

[649] Got it.

[650] Okay.

[651] Very cool.

[652] So even though the summer is ideal for hiking, the weather's great, the temperature differences between the base of the mountain and the summit can be as much of a difference as 68 degrees Fahrenheit.

[653] So that's pretty a lot.

[654] The altitude, the altitude also means conditions can change quickly, resulting in plummeting temperatures and cloud cover severely limiting visibility, which can disorient most You know, even the most experienced hikers.

[655] You also got to have that chapstick because...

[656] Oh, my God.

[657] The wind kicks up or some weird sun thing.

[658] Oh, ouch.

[659] I'm getting that feeling where you're going to make me go up this mountain.

[660] So what do I need?

[661] Grab your chapstick, Karen.

[662] Chapsticks number one.

[663] So on July 24, 1989, these two men from Tokyo are out hiking Mount Asa Hideke.

[664] They're hiking the mountain.

[665] and that evening authorities are alerted that the men, these two men, and I can't find their name anywhere, otherwise I would shout them out, even though they might not want that to happen.

[666] The men haven't come back from their hike, so rescue helicopters are dispatched.

[667] And as rescuers fly over the area of the start of this river called Chubetsu, about two and a half miles from the Mount Summit, they spot something that gives them hope that maybe these men are safe, because it's really dangerous.

[668] obviously they set them the helicopters and searchers out immediately because at night it's freezing temperatures.

[669] Like you can't make it through the night.

[670] And sorry, it's an active volcano?

[671] It's some, yeah, I don't know if it's active meaning they're worried it's going to explode at any time where it's just like it's still working.

[672] The plumbing, the plumbing's still there.

[673] The plummy is still on.

[674] The water's turned on, but nothing really happens got it.

[675] Exactly.

[676] So from the air, the helicopters are able to spot a huge sign on the slow.

[677] of the mountain that clearly spells out S -O -S in English.

[678] The sign appears to have been made from huge logs, drag...

[679] What?

[680] What did I say?

[681] S -O -S -O -S -W in English, but I mean like...

[682] Yeah, that's right.

[683] Is there a Japanese...

[684] Japanese characters?

[685] Because I was just like, oh, wow, got it.

[686] Wait, aren't those letters?

[687] It's just a sign.

[688] That was on me. I had to think about that a lot.

[689] No, it makes sense, though.

[690] The sign appears.

[691] have been made from huge logs dragged into position from nearby birch trees.

[692] So you can imagine if it's on this mountain and the helicopters are able to spot it, that means there are humongous logs spelling it out.

[693] It would have taken considerable effort to build, given each letter, measures about 16 feet long and 10 feet wide.

[694] The logs have also been stacked three high.

[695] So someone was fucking making this sign when these guys wanted to be saved, obviously.

[696] As the choppers do, a sweep of the area, they spot the lost hikers about two miles north of the SOS sign.

[697] As you can imagine, it's a relief for everyone.

[698] The men are exhausted and taking into a hospital to be assessed.

[699] And they explained that they were caught in a flash flood and had a seek refuge inside a cave.

[700] The other thing about this mountain is that brown bears, the biggest dicks of the bear world, are all over the mountain.

[701] Yeah.

[702] Right?

[703] I made that up.

[704] It could be black bears that are the biggest dicks, but I don't want to me either.

[705] I bet Grizzly or Cody, is going to be in there too.

[706] But here's the thing about any of those bears.

[707] Yeah.

[708] Their hands can kill you if they were just like, oh, there's a fly by your face.

[709] You're dead immediately.

[710] Like even if they meant it in a nice way, and they never do.

[711] No. But if they did, it wouldn't matter because they have like five knives on there.

[712] What if there was one who did mean it in a nice way and he just kept killing his friends because he was like, because the flies just kept flying around him.

[713] Oh, let me get Oh, I'm sorry.

[714] I'm sorry.

[715] Jack, I'm sorry.

[716] Jack, I'm sorry.

[717] This one's on me again.

[718] My bad.

[719] I'm a bear.

[720] Okay, but the guys are in generally good shape.

[721] It's a happy ending.

[722] Authorities tell the men that they're practical thinking and constructing that SOS sign is what saved their lives.

[723] But the hikers are like, what are you fucking talking about?

[724] No, they're not.

[725] Uh -huh.

[726] They have no idea what.

[727] their rescuers were talking about.

[728] They didn't construct any sign, and they didn't see any sign while they were hiking either.

[729] They were simply overwhelmed with relief when they saw the helicopters approaching and were like, yeah, get us the fuck out of here.

[730] No clue about the SOS sign.

[731] Ooh, I like this.

[732] Mm -hmm.

[733] So now everyone is confused.

[734] If the hikers didn't construct the sign, then who the fuck did, right?

[735] Japanese media gets wind of the story, which is so baffling that a Hokkaido TV reporter, Kobu Arabatini, decides to accompany the police out to the mountain to take a look for himself, which I guess you can do in Japan.

[736] You know, they're just trying to look into it.

[737] Yeah, journalist style.

[738] That's right.

[739] You know.

[740] Five days after the two Tokyo men had been rescued on July 29th, Koyo and the police searched the area surrounding the SOS sign for any indication of anyone else that could possibly be stranded.

[741] and they hope that if someone had gone missing recently, they can be rescued too.

[742] But about 165 feet away from the sign, Coyo, the journalist, comes across a large hole dug underneath the roots of some trees.

[743] It's not huge, but it's big enough for an adult -sized human to hide if they need shelter from the elements and those motherfucking brown bears.

[744] Those bears.

[745] So Coyo climbs inside this hole.

[746] No, what?

[747] I know.

[748] like, how many thousands of dollars would it take for you to climb into a hole on a mountain?

[749] Also, be like, are there any bears in there?

[750] Hi.

[751] How about snakes?

[752] How about those weird pill bugs that you just wouldn't want on you?

[753] No. You could name a thousand animals.

[754] You know, like, Japan probably has some insects that rival Australian insects, too.

[755] Absolutely.

[756] Right?

[757] Like, in a beautiful way, but also in a, like, don't climb into a fucking pit way.

[758] Okay.

[759] Let's hear what this.

[760] I mean, truly, I hope this reporter is making bank.

[761] He's fine.

[762] He's fine.

[763] It all turns out fine.

[764] Well, that's the point is that he's trying to make bank, I think.

[765] He goes inside and he makes a bizarre discovery.

[766] There's a notebook, two cameras, and a driver's license in the hole.

[767] The name on the license is Kenji Iwamoru, who's from Conan City in the Aichi Prefecture.

[768] Don't know where that is, personally.

[769] I don't know anything you just said.

[770] It's tough.

[771] This is all the way across the world.

[772] Yeah, I do subscribe to this incredible Japanese tea time, like sweets and tea box, but so far these places haven't been covered in it.

[773] They haven't.

[774] No one's mentioned any of these mountains or animals or reporters.

[775] Okay.

[776] So the mystery deepens, 25 -year -old worker Kenji has indeed gone missing while hiking on the mountain.

[777] But not recently, the last time anyone has.

[778] had seen him as five years earlier on July 10th, 1984.

[779] Oh, my God.

[780] At the time, Kenji had been staying at a lodge on the mountain.

[781] He told the proprietor, he was going to go for a hike.

[782] He doesn't make it back to the lodge to get his belongings.

[783] We don't know a ton about Kenji except from the fact that he's really into anime, and he has an interest in computers having been a graduate of the Kyoto Institute of Technology.

[784] So police look further into his disappearance, and he had set out on.

[785] on his solo hike, and he hadn't returned to work even a week later.

[786] So clearly, no one was really paying attention at the lodge that he was missing.

[787] So Kenji's parents finally report him missing to police.

[788] At the time, back then, an extensive search is undertaken for him on the mountain.

[789] There's no sign of him anywhere.

[790] And police just conclude that he'd lost his way, and they stopped searching.

[791] So it isn't hard to actually get lost on this mountain.

[792] So it isn't a huge coincidence because, It's not a long hike up the mountain, but on the way back down, there are two large boulders which hikers use as markers to get their bearings.

[793] One boulder is known as safe rock, and that leads down to the town where you start from.

[794] But the other boulder, it has a rope around it so that you can tell it's not the same rock.

[795] And it's called, you ready for this?

[796] It's called fake safe rock.

[797] Oh, no. So one's called safe rock.

[798] the other, they were like tied a bow around it and were like, this is fake.

[799] Do not fall for this.

[800] No, don't fall for this.

[801] And so that's situated on a trail that leads off a cliff.

[802] Oh, God.

[803] Yeah.

[804] And the problem is the boulders look almost identical, except for the bow.

[805] Rope.

[806] I keep calling it a bow because it just sounds so useless.

[807] Of all the ways to delineate that second boulder to tie rope around it.

[808] Can we get some red paint and just fucking cover it.

[809] And then put a sign in as many languages as you can find to say, don't go this way.

[810] Just says no on it.

[811] No. It's very common for inexperienced hikers to confuse those two, even in good weather because they're the same fucking rock.

[812] So hikers ascending the mountain who use the quote, fake safe rock as their guidepost on accident find themselves in the area where the rescuers found the SOS sign.

[813] So it's likely that Kenji went towards the fake rock.

[814] It's a spot where thick, tall bamboo grass makes it all but impossible to navigate down the mountain coupled with the fact that it leads to a cliff.

[815] So back to 1989, when they found the two hikers safe and the SOS sign, police are conducting that thorough search of the area where the journalist Koyo finds them.

[816] And they make an intriguing yet ultimately gruesome discovery near the SOS sign.

[817] They locate a nap set.

[818] containing a towel, soap, a tripod, a pair of men's sneakers, a cassette recorder, and four cassette tapes.

[819] And they also find another thing.

[820] They find human bones, which appear to have sustained bite marks from animal activity.

[821] So some of the bones are broken, perhaps while the person was still alive, and the skeletonized remains are sent for testing.

[822] Then the authorities put one of the cassette tapes in the recorder and hit, play.

[823] They hear the theme music from your favorite Japanese anime TV show, Karen, the super dimension fortress macros and magical princess Minky Momo.

[824] Is that right?

[825] It's so good.

[826] Well, the thing about, it's a lot like the bear.

[827] It's really stressful.

[828] They work at a restaurant.

[829] No, I've never heard of this show before.

[830] I thought you're from ever on after today, you are like make the bear, what's it called, when you compare things to the bear.

[831] Just like, That has nothing to fucking do it.

[832] Yes.

[833] It's always going to be in relation to the bear.

[834] Yeah.

[835] From now on.

[836] But then they're listening to this tape of the theme music and then something else comes on the tape.

[837] In recording lasting a total of two minutes and 17 seconds, the distressed and disjointed voice of an unidentified man can be heard clearly yelling for help.

[838] So someone pressed, because it's an old walkman, right?

[839] probably or whatever.

[840] So someone pressed record so they could record over the whatever it was on the cassette.

[841] Remembering you had to do that to record off the radio?

[842] Oh yeah.

[843] So it's basically someone for two minutes and 17 seconds freaking out and saying that they're lost.

[844] Oh.

[845] The rough translation.

[846] So I guess there's only 16 seconds of the recording that exists publicly.

[847] You can find it in a YouTube video.

[848] And the rough translation is, but it's in Japanese everyone.

[849] So, you know, Do that what you will.

[850] Yeah.

[851] The rough translation is, quote, SOS, help me. I can't move on the cliff.

[852] SOS help me. The places where I first met the helicopter, I can't move further due to bamboo brush being in the way.

[853] Please get me out of here.

[854] So super eerie.

[855] It doesn't totally make sense because he's talking about a place where he first met a helicopter, meaning he might have seen one of the helicopters trying to save him, thought they spotted him.

[856] and they didn't, something like that.

[857] Yeah.

[858] And he's slowly enunciating every word, and you know how much you love, like, trauma recordings.

[859] That's kind of your favorite 911 calls and stuff, your favorite thing in the world.

[860] I say no. But there's nothing to suggest the man is talking to anyone.

[861] It's clearly him just recording this thing to, like, get to people to try to save him.

[862] Police play the recording for Kenji's parents, and they can't tell for sure whether it's their son or not.

[863] But they do confirm that the...

[864] the knapsack and the other items, all this stuff is his.

[865] And meanwhile, the forensic testing on the human skeleton comes back as those belonging to a woman aged between 20 and 40 years old with type of blood.

[866] So, which doesn't look like what Kenji had, I think.

[867] So it's not even a male's body.

[868] So that's a sudden weird twisteroo, right?

[869] Like whose bones are these?

[870] Right.

[871] But then there's also mentioned that the bones could belong to more than one person.

[872] But of course, this all creates confusion, there's no record of any woman being in that age range going missing on the mountain, and Kenji was by himself anyway.

[873] So following the test results more than six months later, police then finally announced that they believe the remains are actually of a man with type A blood type, which is Kenji's blood type.

[874] So that's a little suspicious too, but it was 1990, so maybe they weren't as good as at telling whether a skeleton belongs to man or woman, I don't know.

[875] Yeah, the tech wasn't there, or maybe it was easier to confuse.

[876] Yeah, exactly.

[877] But then just don't say anything.

[878] Right.

[879] Say, can I have two more days, please?

[880] Right, or can you send this to a bigger lab?

[881] Send it to Tokyo.

[882] Tokyo is like advanced.

[883] You know it is.

[884] They've always had the biggest best billboards and light up neon signs.

[885] There's no way their DNA stuff in the 80s wasn't totally kick -ass.

[886] That's right.

[887] Have you ever been anywhere over there in Asia?

[888] Dying to.

[889] Japan someday, for sure.

[890] Yeah, we're going.

[891] Yeah.

[892] So it's looking more and more like the skeleton is definitely Kenji's.

[893] And the man on the tape, it's not certain, but it's probably Kenji and his SOS recording.

[894] And it looks like he's definitely the person who created the giant SOS as well.

[895] Although it is very, very heavy.

[896] And if he had broken bones to begin with, it might have been impossible for him to do it.

[897] so maybe it wasn't him.

[898] It's not like 100 % sure that it was him, but the timing, the time frame fits based on aerial photos as well.

[899] Okay.

[900] But it would have taken him around two days to build and would have involved a lot of heavy physical work.

[901] And the logs would have had to be chopped down unless there was foresting going on at the time, which they don't think there was, but there was never any, like, hatchet found on the scene either.

[902] So super weird and mysterious.

[903] So although he didn't survive, his perilous hike and that SOS sign never saved him.

[904] It did help to rescue two other hikers five years later.

[905] So in a way he's kind of a hero because who knows if those two hikers would have been found if that SOS sign hadn't been spotted by the helicopters trying to save them.

[906] So that is the story of the mysterious 1989 Mount Asa Hidake SOS incident.

[907] That is the craziest coincidence.

[908] or I guess coincidence is the wrong word because it was a problem area on the mountain.

[909] But to me, what's weird is helicopters had not seen that sign in the five years between.

[910] Five years, because other people had to go missing.

[911] It's almost, it is a crazy weird coincidence in like a, you know, and it's just a sad story of the sky getting stuck out there.

[912] He'd probably succumb to the elements or starvation or a bear.

[913] who the fuck knows.

[914] But he clearly was trying to survive for a while.

[915] If he had that holes that he was in, like...

[916] He had the hole.

[917] He recorded this message and he made this SOS sign that sounds like it would have been really, really hard, even for an able -bodied person who has food and no broken limbs to make.

[918] So it's a pretty incredible story.

[919] Completely baseless idea.

[920] Yeah.

[921] But if, say, those bones were actually identified correctly in the beginning, it was a woman's bones between 20 and 40, like they said.

[922] What if there was another person lost out there?

[923] Yeah.

[924] That he found a woman wandering out there and then they made that SOS thing together.

[925] Yeah.

[926] And then something, like, they didn't get rescued and then someone got, you know, something terrible happened.

[927] Can we get those bones tested again?

[928] Can this be our new Somerton man?

[929] Yeah, we need a replacement for Somerton man. I mean, that's just like, that is a fascinating story, though.

[930] It's just so, like, everybody knows how we feel about the forest and the dangers that lie within.

[931] There's just so many.

[932] Stay out of it.

[933] There are many.

[934] Please.

[935] Ugh.

[936] Very compelling and also very, you know, I think I've mentioned this to you before, but I read the book Mysterious California, and it does talk about how, like, Mount Shasta does have lizard humanoid creatures walk around in golf clothes.

[937] Sure, sure, sure.

[938] Lizard heads, but golf shirts and stuff like that.

[939] I do think there is a, the missing.

[940] history element to like a mountain, being up on a mountain where people don't normally go, the higher you get, the elevation and the elements, yeah, what could be living in the mountain if you did find a cave that actually brought you into the mountain.

[941] Especially if it's volcanic, right?

[942] So you are into like conspiracy about like we don't really know what's at the bottom of the ocean or inside a mountain?

[943] Entirely.

[944] It's one of my worst habits because I've talked about like things like the complete, in terms of archaeology, garbage show, ancient aliens.

[945] I'm not defending that because I...

[946] Well, I believe in aliens, so we can have this conversation all day.

[947] Yes, I mean, the alien part is separate, but they continually talk on ancient aliens about how it has to be aliens that help build the pyramids of Giza or any of the wonders of the world or whatever, where it's like, absolutely not.

[948] That was just unchecked, hideous slavery.

[949] Right.

[950] And we were actually probably smarter back then compared to now.

[951] Right.

[952] We do think we're progressing always.

[953] And it's like maybe we're not, dude.

[954] We're not.

[955] Have you seen the internet ever?

[956] Have you seen Roe versus Wade lately?

[957] They pulled that thing apart for the absolute detriment of society.

[958] Just to kind of like weirdly prove a point.

[959] It's insanity.

[960] Based on the same thing that they used back then, which is that really, which is someone else's religion that other people don't even fucking believe in, but they have to abide by your religious fucking laws because you happen to be in charge in the moment, pharaohs or whatever.

[961] And so you're using slave labor.

[962] Or Republicans.

[963] So you're using slave labor.

[964] I did see a really great protest sign that said, if you don't like abortion, ignore it like you do school shootings.

[965] Did you see the one that was like, so glad that my pregnant 10 -year -old will be able to read religious studies on the wall of their school while they're hiding from shooters?

[966] Oh, God.

[967] They put it all in one sentence.

[968] Yeah, guys, we're laughing.

[969] We are horrified and it's disgusting.

[970] We're laughing because the reality we live in that now includes monkey pox being the new thing.

[971] The new thing.

[972] Like, it's too much.

[973] It's beyond.

[974] It is bad for human beings to live in a society where these things have been accepted.

[975] Yeah.

[976] Off the grid.

[977] Off the grid.

[978] Let's go.

[979] Continue the fight.

[980] Well, here's my story for you.

[981] Uh -oh.

[982] Okay.

[983] Here we go.

[984] I think I'm just going to get into it.

[985] And I'll tell you why I picked this story three quarters to eight tenths of the way through it.

[986] Great.

[987] But I'm just going to tell you, it's Alaska's 1964 Good Friday earthquake.

[988] Can I show you something?

[989] No one's going to be able to see this, but I'm, my toes curled when you said that.

[990] Oh.

[991] Are you hanging on for your life?

[992] Because I'm so excited.

[993] I'm curling my toes in excitement, and I just showed Karen on Zoom.

[994] It's a big one.

[995] Get ready.

[996] Okay.

[997] The main sources used to today's story or the chronology of physical events of the Alaskan earthquake by Jeannie Chance from 1966.

[998] You'll learn more about Jeannie Chance in this story.

[999] She's basically the reason that there are like eyewitness stories about the experience of going through this earthquake.

[1000] And then there's a book called This Is Chance, The Great Alaska Earthquake, Jeannie Chance and the Shattered City she held together by John Mualum.

[1001] There's a book called On Shaky Ground, America's Earth.

[1002] Earthquake Alert by John Nance.

[1003] The 1964 Great Alaska Earthquake and Tsunamis of Modern Perspective and Enduring Legacies by the United States, your favorite author, The United States Geological Survey.

[1004] And then there's lots more sources that will be in our show notes that you can go look at if you're interested in any of these things.

[1005] Okay, cool.

[1006] So it is Friday, March 27, 1964.

[1007] And that's Good Friday for all those Catholics out there.

[1008] you're eating fish, you are going to probably a morning mass. That's the Friday that kicks off the Easter weekend.

[1009] So in the story of Jesus and his sacrifice for all of us, it started on a Friday.

[1010] I'm not going to explain the whole thing.

[1011] So I have, is that, okay, is Ash Wednesday two days earlier?

[1012] Ash Wednesday, no. No. Okay.

[1013] You guys like your days.

[1014] God.

[1015] There's days and there's ashes and there's repentance and there's thinking about stuff and there's asking for forgiveness but really you know you don't deserve it okay there's a thing going to catholic school there's a thing called the stations of the cross that they do not make kids do anymore and i think we were the last generation and it is one of the weirdest oldest kind of like most old -fashioned weird medieval like the priest has incense And he's just, he's waving a thing of incense around.

[1016] And you basically, in Catholic churches, they have what they call stations of the cross.

[1017] And it's every step of the way of what happened to Jesus on his way to being crucified.

[1018] Oh, fun.

[1019] And you just kind of go over it, you know, when you're like 12.

[1020] You're just like, hey, don't forget.

[1021] That's amazing.

[1022] Okay.

[1023] Why do they stop it?

[1024] Because it's traumatizing for children?

[1025] Yeah, it also takes, like, it might.

[1026] Yeah, they don't care about that.

[1027] But at our school, like I think schools, don't do it anymore because the parents, it basically, Gen X parents showed up and were like, we're not doing this anymore.

[1028] There were, girls would always faint during Stations of the Cross.

[1029] It took like three hours.

[1030] It was just constant, like praying, kneeling, standing, sitting.

[1031] It was very old school.

[1032] Okay.

[1033] It has nothing to do with this story.

[1034] Okay, good.

[1035] But now I'm obsessed in my mind.

[1036] I'm like, wait, is Ash Wednesday before the Wednesday before Easter Sunday?

[1037] But I don't think it is.

[1038] I think it's earlier.

[1039] Because, you know, it's like a whole season of repentance.

[1040] Got it.

[1041] But I could be wrong, and I'm in a lot of trouble if I'm wrong.

[1042] Going to hell.

[1043] My grandmother truly is coming up out of her grave to be like, are you kidding me?

[1044] Okay.

[1045] So it's Good Friday, the Friday before Easter Sunday.

[1046] In Anchorage, Alaska, a woman named Jeannie Chance is at home enjoying a rare, quiet moment to herself.

[1047] The 37 -year -old Texas transplant is a reporter at a local radio.

[1048] radio station and a busy working mom of three.

[1049] She originally took the job at the radio station to supplement her family's income after moving to Alaska.

[1050] And in doing so, she became the young state's first female broadcaster.

[1051] 64.

[1052] That's when everything was changing.

[1053] And Alaska at the time was only five years old.

[1054] So it's all new and fresh and whatever.

[1055] So in an era where many women in news exclusively covered topics like cooking or housekeeping, Jeannie just wants to be out in the field.

[1056] She is all about covering more ambitious, more compelling stories, which of course annoys some of her male colleagues who find her professional drive to be incompatible with the domestic duties of a wife and mother.

[1057] Oh, go back in the kitchen.

[1058] I'm hungry.

[1059] I mean hungry But fucking assholes.

[1060] And then I wrote, In spite of this dumb bullshit, Jeannie is excellent at her job.

[1061] She covers everything from local crime to dog sled races, and she's known for showing up on location day or night to cover breaking news.

[1062] So she's in it.

[1063] I mean, like, she just is.

[1064] It's a hard to fuck yourself to the men.

[1065] Yeah.

[1066] She's just kind of like, well, I know you want me to stay home, but that's your problem with your mother that you need to solve.

[1067] I'm going to live my life as a badass reporter.

[1068] Yeah, I know you don't care for abortion rights, but that's your problem.

[1069] It's your problem.

[1070] Get a vasectomy.

[1071] Don't get someone pregnant, yeah, who you don't want.

[1072] Snip it off, solve the problem for yourself, and let other people live.

[1073] Yeah.

[1074] Okay, let's not upstage Jeannie.

[1075] So she has a signature sign -off that is, This is Jeannie Chance, K -E -N -I, News on the Go.

[1076] So you can just picture she's got like a little London fog raincoat that she wears.

[1077] And she also carries a tape recorder with the record button on it and a microphone attached to it.

[1078] She's all about it.

[1079] Okay, so it's just before 5 .30 in the evening on Friday, March 27th, and Jeannie is being forced to switch into her mom mode, which is the other job that she excels at.

[1080] Her oldest son has interrupted her moment of peace with a problem.

[1081] he forgot to buy the manual that he's required to bring to a swimming lesson the next day.

[1082] So Jeannie lectures him on procrastination, pulls on her boots, hops in the car, and pulls out onto the road.

[1083] She's going to go take care of business, like all working moms do.

[1084] So she comes, she slows to a stop at a red light, and suddenly her car starts bouncing up and down.

[1085] And the first thing that she thinks that like a tire blew out.

[1086] And then the car bucks again, and she looks up and she walks up and she walks up.

[1087] watches the traffic light go out, and then she hears the horrible sound of metal grading on metal.

[1088] And across the intersection, cars that had been parked neatly in a row are now violently smashing into one another and before separating, like over and over again, like an accordion folding in and out.

[1089] So Jeannie basically just holds onto that steering wheel and she keeps her foot press down on the brake, hoping it'll somehow steady her shaking car.

[1090] Yeah.

[1091] Her mom's moving a mile a minute, she doesn't really understand what's happening and then finally she realizes this is an earthquake.

[1092] And the same thing happened to my dad in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

[1093] He was driving cross -petaluma and he thought he got a flat tire.

[1094] And that was a big one, right?

[1095] It was huge, yeah, but not as big as this one.

[1096] I have been in a little earthquake in a car before that when we got, we all remembered driving over a pothole or something like that.

[1097] Right.

[1098] It's such a weird sensation.

[1099] It's the ground moving, under your tires.

[1100] Like, that's crazy.

[1101] So from an epicenter 75 miles away and 15 feet underground, nearly 600 miles of fault lines are rupturing in real time.

[1102] And this is just the beginning of a disaster that will change Alaska and the whole world around it forever.

[1103] This is the start of the largest earthquake North America has ever seen.

[1104] Holy shit.

[1105] I don't know anything about this.

[1106] Right?

[1107] Okay.

[1108] Okay, so in 1964, Alaska's only been a state for five years, but it has a long, rich, native history preceding its statehood and enduring colonization by Russians and the eventual purchase by the United States.

[1109] So Anchorage is the capital, and that's a big city that's evolving.

[1110] It does retain its frontier sensibilities, and of course, it welcomes tourists into its very nice hotels, its luxury apartment buildings.

[1111] They even have a J .C. Penny downtown, which is actually...

[1112] actually a feather in Anchorage's cap because it's proof that big U .S. companies believe in this burgeoning city enough to put down roots in it.

[1113] Yeah.

[1114] But 100 miles away, it's a little bit different in the coastal city of Valdez.

[1115] So not far from Alaska's postcard worthy Prince William Sound region with the snow -capped mountains, crystal blue waters, glaciers, orchas, you've seen it.

[1116] Valdiz has a population of about 1 ,200 people.

[1117] But that number's actually on the decline because this city is or town, we should say, is not the most future -oriented town.

[1118] And on top of that, it was hastily built on spongy, unsustainable ground during the gold rush with really no thought toward longevity or sustainability.

[1119] So it's kind of, it's a gold rush town that's been in decline.

[1120] Right.

[1121] They didn't try to make a permanent town.

[1122] They were like, this is temporary gold rush.

[1123] Gold rush, right?

[1124] And gold rush all the way up in Alaska where, you know, when the gold rush was happening, that was just territory.

[1125] Yeah.

[1126] Have you been to Alaska?

[1127] I have.

[1128] Me too.

[1129] Did you go on a cruise there?

[1130] Did you?

[1131] Yes.

[1132] That's how I went.

[1133] I didn't.

[1134] Did you just drive up there?

[1135] No, I made a TV show for a cooking channel.

[1136] Oh, that's right.

[1137] Did you have some sweets up there?

[1138] No, this is a different one.

[1139] This is mine and Allie's TV show, Tripping Out with Allie and Georgia.

[1140] And we went to Homer and ate reindeer.

[1141] and I got seasick.

[1142] The end.

[1143] That's right.

[1144] It's really beautiful.

[1145] And it's so...

[1146] It's like breathtaking.

[1147] It's so rugged.

[1148] I mean, talk about like gorgeous mountains and the scenery is like unbelievable.

[1149] Everything, the air is really clean and...

[1150] And everyone's so nice because they're so like...

[1151] You came here.

[1152] Yeah.

[1153] Let's be like...

[1154] What's the word?

[1155] Hospitable?

[1156] I don't know.

[1157] Hospitable.

[1158] I was going to say J .C. Penny.

[1159] Okay.

[1160] So it's a Valdez's quiet town, not much happens, but it is a harbor town.

[1161] So if anything's going to happen, it kind of usually is there.

[1162] Yeah.

[1163] That's where it happens.

[1164] And on this day, coverage in the Valdez Times newspaper is just, as you'd expect, for a small sleepy town.

[1165] There's articles about a high school student who just won a blue ribbon at a science fair in Anchorage.

[1166] It's big news.

[1167] There's marriage announcements.

[1168] There's movie listings for Mickey Rooney and Jack Palant's films that are playing nearby.

[1169] Oh.

[1170] But the biggest story.

[1171] in town that weekend is the arrival of the SS China, which is a huge ship that comes in to basically, you know, it comes in every once in a while and it brings supplies, fresh produce, you know, Easter flowers for this holiday weekend.

[1172] And it basically represents connection to the outside world that when you're that remote, in such a remote location, it's really nice for the people that live there.

[1173] So, and also local men get jobs when those ships come in.

[1174] unloading all the cargo.

[1175] And for the most part, it's just really entertaining.

[1176] So, like, those ships come in.

[1177] All the citizens go down to the harbor.

[1178] They just want to see the big ship up close.

[1179] Parents bring their kids.

[1180] The kids are greeted by crew members of the ship with little treats like fruit and candies.

[1181] So the SS China is basically the biggest news in town that Easter weekend.

[1182] Nice.

[1183] So 13 -year -old Tom Gibson is one of the many Valdez residents who's excited to go down and see the china on that Friday night.

[1184] So just after 5 .30 that night, he and his older brother and a couple friends get into a car, and they're driving down toward the waterfront.

[1185] They're nearing the waterfront when the earth starts shaking.

[1186] They, of course, don't have any idea.

[1187] Again, being in a car during an earthquake, you kind of don't know what's going on.

[1188] And Tom would later say his field of vision became like a fun house mirror.

[1189] Everything got wobbly and warped.

[1190] And for a moment, the boys thought maybe other kids were jumping on the car as a prank and bouncing it up and down.

[1191] So the driver stops, and the boys can't believe their eyes because the road in front of them has begun undulating like a wave in the ocean, cresting and falling in a cycle.

[1192] So, of course, they all panic.

[1193] Tom reaches for his door handle, but because the road is rising and falling so dramatically, when he goes to open the car door, it hits pavement and gets jammed.

[1194] Oh, my God.

[1195] So they can't get out of the car until the road goes.

[1196] back down.

[1197] They have to wait for the cycle to end to open the car and escape the car.

[1198] Holy shit.

[1199] Just all of a sudden, reality is altered in this way, where you have to adapt to, oh, the road is like fluid now.

[1200] Yeah.

[1201] That's fucking crazy.

[1202] Yeah.

[1203] So basically, they do this thing where they all basically have to figure out when they can open the car doors to get out and run.

[1204] They all get out.

[1205] Back on the SS -China, the captain, Captain Stewart, scramble.

[1206] from the dining room to the ship's deck and he looks out at the pier in Valdez.

[1207] Moments ago it was crowded and bustling with families, kids and parents everywhere.

[1208] Now he sees an absolute horror show.

[1209] Crowds of adults and children, quote, running in all directions trying to keep their footing as the dock buckled and split up.

[1210] So the dock from the movement at like the worst possible moment.

[1211] Yes.

[1212] Crowded with people.

[1213] Similar scenes of horror are happening all over south central Alaska at this same moment as this quake violently shakes the earth.

[1214] In many cities, including Valdez, oil tanks explode, causing huge fires.

[1215] In seward, train tracks buckle and boxcars split apart and go in different directions off of train tracks.

[1216] Yeah.

[1217] People in Anchorage run from falling debris and as they run fall into huge cracks that just open up in the ground.

[1218] Your favorite.

[1219] Others are buried in the rubble of falling buildings.

[1220] What's weird is as opposed to a sinkhole that's like kind of a big, a sinkhole falls into the ground in this sensical way.

[1221] Yeah.

[1222] The pictures that I've seen of these, it's like a seam opens in the air.

[1223] It's like that movie that The Rock was in, San Andreas, where you're just like, that didn't happen.

[1224] And it's like, no, that is literally what happens.

[1225] And it's what's going to happen in the next 10 years.

[1226] True.

[1227] Keep water by your bed or whatever.

[1228] Keep your shoes and your flashlights nearby.

[1229] Okay.

[1230] There's people who fall into holes.

[1231] There's also people who weren't able to get away from the buildings and they're either inside or running outside and they just get buried in the rubble from the falling buildings.

[1232] Oh my God.

[1233] So just to give you a sense of how big this earthquake is, the one I was just talking about the 89 Loma Prieta earthquake in the Bay Area of San Francisco, California, injured 4 ,000 people.

[1234] It lasted 15.

[1235] seconds and it had a magnitude of 6 .9.

[1236] So that was just like a huge crazy jolt.

[1237] There was an earthquake in January of 2010 that hit Haiti.

[1238] That killed hundreds of thousands of people.

[1239] It lasted 30 seconds and it had a magnitude of 7 .0.

[1240] And of course, a very famous earthquake, which is the 06 earthquake of San Francisco, one of the deadliest in history.

[1241] It lasted basically between 45 and 60 seconds, it had a magnitude of 7 .9.

[1242] Wow.

[1243] The Alaskan earthquake of 1964 had a 9 .2 magnitude, and it lasted for four minutes.

[1244] No. Yes.

[1245] Four minutes.

[1246] That's too long.

[1247] If you're from California, you know that even just short jolts are really scary.

[1248] The sustained, that idea of a sustained earthquake like that is horrifying.

[1249] And also, this one isn't the biggest ever.

[1250] In 1960, there was an earthquake in Chile.

[1251] It was a 9 .5 magnitude, and it lasted 10 minutes.

[1252] I want to explain to people who have never been in an earthquake, how fucking weird it is.

[1253] And it feels like it goes on forever and ever, even when it's 15 seconds.

[1254] And I remember someone I know explaining they were in the Northridge earthquake.

[1255] And the way they explained, they lived in an apartment, and they got up and were looking out the window as the earthquake happened and normally across the window like through the window they could see the apartment next door yeah but they remember seeing sky because the ground was shaking and moving so much that the apartment building next to them had just swayed out of sight yeah that's how fucking eerie and weird it is and don't know if it's about to get bigger and worse like you're just standing there hoping it'll end soon waiting waiting waiting you just think like get under a table, get in the doorway, which is what we were taught.

[1256] It's just so, it's so freaky.

[1257] It's so freaky, and I, yeah, I kind of can't get over a 9 .0.

[1258] No. It's just so wild, but then to have it just go on and on.

[1259] Yeah.

[1260] And then it makes me wonder if, like, if it gets that high, I wonder if the, you know, plate shifting, the reason it lasts so long is because, like, it's big and, you know, Like, it's, if it goes past a certain point, it's going to be long.

[1261] I don't know.

[1262] Send us your, um, your, send us your expertise.

[1263] No, send us your earthquake stories and tell us what it was like for you and your expertise on everything.

[1264] Okay, so of course, four minutes of the earth violently shaking is extremely disturbing and disorienting, but there's almost no time literally in this case, it only seconds for people to get their bearings before the next hellish chapter of this disaster begins.

[1265] Almost as soon as the ground begins to shake, large amounts of seawater retract from the shore.

[1266] So this is what happens in big earthquakes that I didn't know until very recently, and I find it insanely fascinating.

[1267] And apparently it didn't go quietly either.

[1268] There's a very loud booming roar as the water in the harbor of Valdives is sucked away back out.

[1269] into the ocean and then it rushes back in and basically 98 million cubic yards of shore go out into the ocean and also with all the debris that's been broken down into the ocean and it comes back as a tsunami and when it does retract 50 feet of sea floor is exposed in the harbor so wild Which is just mind -boggling.

[1270] And then also I'm like, wait, treasurer.

[1271] I know.

[1272] I'm like, detectorist.

[1273] What's out there?

[1274] What's out there?

[1275] Run out to foot 48 and find something.

[1276] Okay, so basically back, so that's happening in the ocean.

[1277] On land, with the earthquake still active, 13 -year -old Tom is rushing down the street trying to figure out where to go next.

[1278] And amid all the chaos, he looks down toward the waterfront, and he sees something that makes no sense.

[1279] the SS Chena, which is a massive cargo ship, is flipped on its side and suspended by a huge wave above the docks to the point where its propeller was visibly spinning in the air.

[1280] So basically, when that tsunami wave came back in, it took that ship with it, and that ship crested the wave as it came in and hit basically the port in Valdez.

[1281] And of course, the water has all kinds of debris, It's basically starting a second disaster situation within a disaster situation.

[1282] So horrible.

[1283] So on board the SS Chena, Captain Stewart and the other crew members hang on as the boat is whipped around the harbor.

[1284] So they just have to go with what's happening, like that boat is just going with where the water takes it.

[1285] It crashes into the Valdez docks where people had been gathered just minutes ago, then it scrapes the bottom of the ocean as the water is sucked back out to sea.

[1286] When the water rushes back in, the ship crashes into a marina where smaller boats are docked.

[1287] And then once again, scraping bottom, it gets pulled back out.

[1288] Basically, the chain is tossed over a Valdez cannery that had been completely submerged in the tsunami.

[1289] Basically, in Captain Stewart's account of that day, there was a point where the ship took, as he calls it, a tremendous role that he did not think it was going to come back from.

[1290] The dock in Valdez is gone.

[1291] Dozens of people have been killed at the waterfront, and also three of the Chena's crew members are killed.

[1292] So back in Anchorage, which is 100 miles away, remember, Jeannie Chance is still in her car, and her car is still moving back and forth.

[1293] She's actually, to the point where she's worried the car's going to flip over, that's how much it was moving.

[1294] She keeps her foot pressed on the break to try to steady it, which we don't know if that really would be working or if that's just to make her feel better.

[1295] Yeah.

[1296] The outside world is blurry, but she can make out three people, a man with two women, who are clinging to a brick wall of a building on a sidewalk nearby.

[1297] And then she watches, as the foundations of the building splits, a crack goes up the wall, the wall sways outward, and throws those three people to the ground.

[1298] Ay, hey.

[1299] And then finally, the earth stops shaking.

[1300] In the town of Anchorage, the bulk of the damage is, only from ground movement and landslides.

[1301] They didn't have the same water problem that Valdez had.

[1302] Over 200 homes and 150 commercial buildings as well as roads and bridges are completely destroyed in this earthquake.

[1303] Oh my God.

[1304] Anchorage is not a huge town to begin with.

[1305] So it's really leveled.

[1306] Their downtown is hit really hard.

[1307] Fissures open.

[1308] Some sidewalks and streets drop 10 feet into the earth and building, crumbled onto pedestrians and onto parked cars.

[1309] There's actually this unbelievable picture.

[1310] Wait, I'm going to show this to you super quick.

[1311] That's workers.

[1312] Oh, my God.

[1313] Can you see that?

[1314] Yeah.

[1315] That's like a street.

[1316] A normal street, but they're trying, like the street itself has dropped down below, the sidewalk has dropped down.

[1317] Wow, it's chaos.

[1318] Yeah, they're just trying to get people out of those buildings.

[1319] Like the front, you can't come out of a building.

[1320] Because the street below has moved so much.

[1321] Right.

[1322] Some doors were completely blocked by a sidewalk higher than it was before.

[1323] Like it kind of goes up in the air.

[1324] It's just crazy.

[1325] It's wild looking.

[1326] It's chaotic.

[1327] The J .C. Penny Building, which was the emblem of Anchorage's corporate endorsement, looks like a demolition site.

[1328] And the Anchorage Airport's control tower was toppled to the ground, killing the air traffic controller who was working in.

[1329] side.

[1330] Oh, bummer.

[1331] So it just went over.

[1332] Horrible.

[1333] So when the earthquake ends, Jeannie instantly switches into reporter mode, as you know she would.

[1334] Right.

[1335] She seems to be the only motorist daring enough to start her engine again, and she drives three blocks to the Anchorage Public Safety Building.

[1336] She gets there basically 60 seconds after the earthquake stops.

[1337] And once she's there, she figures she'll find a first responder or a city official to interview and get a report ready to go for the evening news.

[1338] But instead, Jeannie's greeted by an overwhelmed city official who essentially offloads the job of public information officer onto her.

[1339] But Jeannie takes it in stride.

[1340] That night and into the weekend, Jeannie reports live on the radio from her outpost in the Anchorage Public Safety Building, relaying information from public health and safety officials as aftershocks continue to rattle the building.

[1341] Wow.

[1342] She tells listeners, use snow to make safe drinking water and where shelters are being set up for those people whose homes have been destroyed.

[1343] She even begins to make connections between separated family members.

[1344] People are actually walking up to Jeannie's counter at the public safety building and sharing their full names for Jeannie to read on air to spread the messages to their loved ones that they survived and they're okay.

[1345] Oh my God.

[1346] She works straight through that Friday night.

[1347] she only signs off at two -hour nap on Sunday afternoon, and she wakes up and goes straight back to broadcasting.

[1348] Wow.

[1349] I believe she broadcast for, like, 96 hours, basically.

[1350] Oh, my God.

[1351] It became, like, this central communication post for all these poor people whose everything had just been, like, leveled.

[1352] Yeah.

[1353] Back in Valdez, the SS -China is finally pulled out into deeper waters where it's knocked around the sea for a while, But the ship has miraculously survived.

[1354] Captain Stewart is able to anchor the china about a half mile from shore.

[1355] And from there, he starts using his radio to dispatch messages about the destruction in Valdez.

[1356] The ship becomes an important resource for the area in the coming days, providing the only source of outside communication for the town until the U .S. Army arrives.

[1357] So basically, they saw what happened.

[1358] They know that there's all these people in crisis.

[1359] And so they just stay out at sea and basically broadcast, letting everybody know, like, you've got to get up here.

[1360] Wow.

[1361] Around 10 p .m., five hours after the initial quake, Captain Stewart watches from the sea as fires burn throughout Valdez.

[1362] He describes the scene that evening as ghastly and one that will keep them awake for days, saying, quote, I saw people running with no place to run to.

[1363] They were just engulfed by buildings, water, mud, everything.

[1364] Oh, my God.

[1365] So, of course, the damage is heavy across southern Alaska.

[1366] Cheniga, which is the oldest native settlement in the Prince William Sound region, loses a third of its population after a 65 -foot wave crashes into the small village minutes after the first jolt.

[1367] Almost every single building in this settlement is destroyed by this tidal wave.

[1368] The native villages of Old Harbor, a Fognac, OZan, Sinky are also damaged in the disaster.

[1369] And in Kaguayak, all but three buildings are leveled.

[1370] And in that city, all photos of the village were lost from before 1964.

[1371] So any recorded photo from Gold Rush, from anything, it's all gone.

[1372] Oh, they.

[1373] How tragic.

[1374] In seward, which has one of Alaska's busiest ports, ground movement from the quake causes waterfront oil tanks to go up in flames almost immediately.

[1375] And then as the wave pummels, waves come in and pummel the town, basically the fuel is spreading and on fire on the water.

[1376] So it's like the fuel just gets spread all over.

[1377] Yeah.

[1378] That it's on fire, it gets spread by water and then catches everything else on fire.

[1379] It's like a nightmare.

[1380] The height of the tsunami waves vary, you know, from place to place, but the large, largest reportedly reaches an incredible 200 feet high in Shoup Bay, which is not far from Valdez.

[1381] That's taller than the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

[1382] That's fucking insane.

[1383] It's a tidal wave.

[1384] Yeah.

[1385] It's horrifying.

[1386] Or a tsunami.

[1387] This earthquake is so massive.

[1388] It reverberates all the way down the west coast of the United States.

[1389] It causes the space needle in Seattle to sway.

[1390] The open ocean tsunami wave that was triggered by the earthquake also to be.

[1391] travel south, it hits open ocean speeds of over 400 miles an hour and up to 150 feet at sea.

[1392] It causes damage along the coasts of British Columbia and into Washington State.

[1393] Waves begin hitting Oregon around 11 o 'clock, and this is so tragic.

[1394] There's a family on the beach and four children are swept away by this tsunami wave that no one knew was coming.

[1395] A short time later, multiple waves Better Crescent City, California, including one that was 20 feet tall, 11 people are killed there.

[1396] The initial tsunami wave shrunk to a few feet by the time it reached San Francisco, but it still manages to tear down a pier that had 30 boats attached to it.

[1397] The jolt from this earthquake was so severe that it briefly caused the entire continent of North America to shift upwards.

[1398] And in Louisiana, rough waters caused by the earthquake capsized several fishing boats.

[1399] So it just kind of keeps reverberating out all the way to South Africa, which is a much lighter scale, but the water levels rose and were affected because of this earthquake that far away.

[1400] In total, the disaster is estimated to have cost $311 million in property damage, which is $2 .3 billion in today's money.

[1401] Oh, fuck.

[1402] And it caused heavy damage to a land area that it caused heavy damage to a land area that.

[1403] encompassed 50 ,000 square miles.

[1404] But the only reason I know about this is because the damage in Anchorage was so bad that they started hiring laborers from San Francisco to travel up there to help them rebuild that city.

[1405] So my grandpa, since it was 1964, all his kids were mostly, except for my Aunt Joe and my Aunt Kevin, who were the two youngest, almost all of the kids were, you know, either teenagers or out of the house.

[1406] So my grandpa, who was a plasterer, traveled up there with a bunch of other skilled laborers.

[1407] Yeah.

[1408] And helped rebuild Anchorage.

[1409] Holy shit.

[1410] They lived in like a work camp.

[1411] And he said, like later, my dad said, my grandpa had a great time.

[1412] He told all these stories about like, because he had, he had basically spent since he was 17 years old, you know, working his ass off and being in, you know, first generation immigrant.

[1413] Yeah.

[1414] And trying to build a lot.

[1415] and then he had nine kids.

[1416] And so basically this was like, this was almost like his midlife.

[1417] He got to kind of go and party and hang out.

[1418] And like they, he said they had a great time.

[1419] They'd play cards and, like, they had this, like, work camp.

[1420] And they were just there helping these people.

[1421] That's amazing.

[1422] Did you hear the stories like that growing up all the time?

[1423] That's the only one I heard of, like, other than that, our family was there were San Francisco.

[1424] Yeah, but you heard, sorry, you heard, like they talked about your grandpa doing that.

[1425] All the time?

[1426] Yes, when I was a little bit older.

[1427] Yeah.

[1428] That was like a kind of a weird discovery where somebody made a reference to it.

[1429] That's when, oh, that's when dad was gone because he was up in Alaska.

[1430] And then it was just like, why would Grandpa go to Alaska?

[1431] Yeah.

[1432] And then he's like, oh, they helped rebuild Anchorage.

[1433] That is wild.

[1434] Isn't that crazy?

[1435] Yeah.

[1436] So there is a silver lining in terms of science about this disaster.

[1437] And that's that the 1964 Alaska earthquake, basically taught us much more about how the earth works and how earthquakes work.

[1438] Basically, at the time, they didn't believe in plate tectonics.

[1439] That was kind of like an outsider theory.

[1440] And this earthquake proved that plate tectonics were real, and that's what basically all huge earthquakes or all earthquakes are the result of.

[1441] So very briefly, the theory of plate tectonics proposes Earth's crust is divvied up into place, They float over the earth's mantle.

[1442] And when these plates meet, there's a dramatic effect like earthquakes or the creation of mountains.

[1443] So in the 1964 earthquake, a plate slipped under another plate.

[1444] It was the Pacific and the North American plates.

[1445] They learned about tectonic plate shifts, subduction zones, which is the area where those plates overlap, and earthquakes and their effect, like how they cause tsunamis.

[1446] Yeah.

[1447] There were no like tsunami warning systems.

[1448] There was nothing like that existed before this earthquake.

[1449] And basically because of it, it all exists now.

[1450] Wow.

[1451] This earthquake led to the establishment of the National Earthquake Information Center and the Palmary Observatory in Alaska, which has since evolved into the National Tsunami Warning Center.

[1452] So it's all from this one thing.

[1453] Yeah.

[1454] And of course this earthquake was traumatic for so many people.

[1455] livelihoods, infrastructure, whole towns were lost in the damage, including native Alaskan villages with long, rich histories that were just wiped out.

[1456] Oh, this was the part.

[1457] I was going to put my grandpa's story here.

[1458] Anchorage had to rebuild much of its young city, and what remained of the town of Valdez was completely raised, and it had to be relocated a couple miles away.

[1459] Like, they just had to start a new town somewhere else.

[1460] Wow.

[1461] Captain Stewart of the SSChief, and his remaining crew were awarded the Ship Safety Achievement Award in 1965, which is, quote, the highest honor given to U .S. flag vessels for performance demonstrating safety training and discipline.

[1462] The National Safety Council and the American Merchant Marine Institute commended the crew for not only saving the ship and the lives of many of its crew members, but for helping the town of Valdez by providing communication services until the army arrived.

[1463] So just days after the earthquake and directly on the heels of her, oh, it was a 59 -hour broadcast marathon.

[1464] Wow.

[1465] Reporter Jeannie Chance immediately hit the road to continue covering the earthquake.

[1466] So she took her portable tape recorder and interviewed survivors all across Alaska, including Captain Stewart.

[1467] And so his testimony that appears in this story is because Jeannie Chance picked up and was like, I'm going to go talk to everybody about this.

[1468] Amazing.

[1469] It's so amazing.

[1470] And basically the majority, the reason this story can be told in those first person, like with Tom, the 13 -year -old and everybody, is because of the work that Jeannie Chance did.

[1471] And then she won several awards and much deserved recognition for her nonstop reporting during and after the earthquake.

[1472] And four years later, in 1968, she was elected to the Alaska House of Representatives where she supported progressive legislation that especially represented and protected.

[1473] women.

[1474] She pushed for increased abortion access in Alaska before the passage of Roe v. Wade in 1973.

[1475] Wow.

[1476] So she was early days.

[1477] May the spirit of Jeannie Chance come back to us and enable us to fight.

[1478] Hell yeah.

[1479] Like that wasn't even written down.

[1480] I got myself on that one.

[1481] Look at my shirt.

[1482] Hell yeah.

[1483] Hell yeah.

[1484] Hell yeah.

[1485] The 1964 Good Friday earthquake changed the geography, the coastlines and the elevation of many parts of south central Alaska.

[1486] I mean, it literally changed the earth.

[1487] The massive destruction of buildings, homes, and infrastructure meant that many places had to entirely rebuild, reimagined, and reinvest in their communities.

[1488] Tom Gilson, who was that 13 -year -old boy who was on his way to see the SS chain of that night, eventually made it to safety, and he survived.

[1489] And in adulthood, he went on to serve a stint as the Valdez's.

[1490] town treasurer and he's occasionally talked with reporters about the trauma that he carries from that weekend.

[1491] He has said, quote, a truck will rumble by and I'll think about it.

[1492] I'm not afraid to admit it.

[1493] It made a huge impression on me. It's just like, yeah, dad.

[1494] Yeah.

[1495] Go ahead and express those feelings.

[1496] No one is surprised whatsoever.

[1497] It made an impression on you that the asphalt in front of your car got shooken out like a blanket.

[1498] Right.

[1499] It's called PTSD.

[1500] Yeah, we're allowed to have it.

[1501] You know, because of him being willing to talk about it, it's his stories and all of the ones, the recollections that Jeannie recorded from the disaster, the terrible ones, the heroic ones, the ones that blend the two, that paint a picture of what happened that day, which is so unfathomable to many of us, and there's a real service in those people sharing those stories with Jeannie and with us.

[1502] Perhaps no one puts it better than Jeannie herself in a forward introducing her collection of survivor interviews.

[1503] She writes, quote, a salute goes to the many courageous Alaskans who faced tragedy and conquered it and then calmly told their stories that others might benefit.

[1504] And just one last thing.

[1505] To this day, the Alaskan earthquake of 1964 remains one of the strongest ever recorded.

[1506] There would be 11 aftershocks with magnitudes of at least 6 .0 for 24.

[1507] hours after the initial event and then smaller aftershocks for a year.

[1508] No, no, no. Don't do that.

[1509] Yes.

[1510] And that is the story of the 1964 Alaskan earthquake, the largest American earthquake to date.

[1511] Holy shit, I never even heard about it.

[1512] I mean, I bet I hadn't.

[1513] I just ignored it.

[1514] But still, that is crazy.

[1515] You went la la la la. I think people in California kind of have to do that.

[1516] We're always very, like, we're always very faux casual about, like, it's just an earthquake, but we're really all waiting for the big one.

[1517] Oh, absolutely.

[1518] Oh, my God.

[1519] Amazing.

[1520] Great job.

[1521] I love that there's a personal connection there.

[1522] That's fascinating.

[1523] Right?

[1524] That's my grandpa Martin Kilgareff.

[1525] He went up there.

[1526] Marty.

[1527] Marty.

[1528] He's the O .G. Yeah, he is.

[1529] Wow.

[1530] Great job.

[1531] That was like at how Earth can murder you story telling episodes.

[1532] This season on the History Channel I mean, powerful first show back after such a long and illness -laden vacation.

[1533] That's right.

[1534] Wow.

[1535] So much sleeping.

[1536] So much sleeping got done.

[1537] Oh my God, I was in bed for days.

[1538] Yeah, me too.

[1539] It was pretty great.

[1540] It was kind of nice.

[1541] Cats, pretty awesome.

[1542] There were cats everywhere.

[1543] It was kind of ideal.

[1544] It's like the thing I'd been working my entire life up towards, like training for my entire life.

[1545] Yeah.

[1546] And I finally days of napping.

[1547] All right.

[1548] Well, thanks for joining us again.

[1549] We're happy to be back.

[1550] Yep.

[1551] New episodes coming up.

[1552] We're vacation's over.

[1553] It's just, it doesn't matter we got sick.

[1554] It's over.

[1555] Potentially, that's what's going on.

[1556] So thanks for being here with us.

[1557] Yeah.

[1558] And stay sexy.

[1559] And don't get murdered.

[1560] Goodbye.

[1561] Elvis, do you want a cookie?

[1562] This has been an exactly right production.

[1563] Our senior producer is Hannah Kyle Crichton.

[1564] Our producer is Alejandra Keck.

[1565] This episode was engineered and mixed by Stephen Ray Morris.

[1566] Our researchers are Marin McClashen and Gemma Harris.

[1567] Email your hometowns and fucking hoorays to My Favorite Murder at gmail .com.

[1568] Follow the show on Instagram and Facebook at My Favorite Murder and Twitter at My Fave Murder.

[1569] Goodbye.

[1570] Follow My Favorite Murder on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen so you don't miss an episode.

[1571] If you like what you hear, rate and review the show.

[1572] Visit exactly right store .com to purchase my favorite murder merch.