Against The Odds Wondery

This episode comes out for free on 05/21 and is available early and ad-free for Wondery+ subscribers.

Sign up on http://wondery.fm/applepodcasts and stay up-to-date on the latest new podcasts and more from Wondery.

In July 1879, 33 men set sail aboard USS Jeannette on a two-year mission to become the first humans to reach the North Pole. Though many other expeditions have failed, Captain George De Long is confident that a warm northbound current will give them enough momentum to escape getting stuck in the treacherous arctic pack ice. But not long after the journey begins, De Long and his crew realize their journey will be far more daunting than they could have ever imagined.

In March 2011, one of the largest earthquakes in history struck eastern Japan, followed by a massive tsunami. This one-two punch then caused a third disaster—a total loss of power at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Employees at the plant found themselves scrambling to cool down the reactors, and avoid a deadly meltdown.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Crippled by a tsunami of unprecedented scale, one of the reactors at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is in danger of melting down. To save it, workers must do the unthinkable: Vent radioactive steam into the atmosphere, to avoid a larger catastrophe as explosive gasses build up inside the reactor core. And they must risk exposing themselves to dangerous levels of radiation to do it.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Now contending with multiple damaged reactors, engineers at the Fukushima nuclear power plant hatch a series of increasingly desperate plans to prevent a total meltdown. But several explosions and the loss of vital cooling pumps bring the entire plant to the brink of chaos. As the crisis worsens, it becomes clear that the very future of Japan is at stake.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

After a week of unrelenting disasters—and with Tokyo itself now under threat—the managers of the Fukushima nuclear power plant are forced to evacuate all but the most essential staff. But with the help of an elite firefighting force called the Hyper Rescue Squad, the remaining few rally for one last battle to avert a catastrophic meltdown.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It’s December, 1968, and 20-year-old Emory University student Barbara Mackle is taken at gunpoint from the Atlanta motel room she’s sharing with her mother. Her two kidnappers drug her and then drive her to a remote spot in the woods outside the city. Their plan? To bury her alive in a coffin-like box while they wait for a half-million dollar ransom from her father, a wealthy real estate developer.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.