I already like you.

You don't have to like burnish your image with me, verymage.

I'm just trying to be honest and lovely.

God bless you for that.

You are lovely.

Goddamn it.

Welcome to SNAFU, the Show about history's greatest screw ups.

I am your host ed helms, and today I am joined by an incredible documentarian, producer, director, and podcaster, extraordinary with some of the most incredible investigative skills in the biz.

A few of his most memorable hits include Missing Richard Simmons, nine to twelve, The Line, and most recently, the Ambis and Apple Podcast of the Year, Hysterical and Way Before all of that, he was also my former colleague from The Daily Show.

I am talking about the amazing, illustrious Tuberski.

Welcome Dan, it's me, Hi.

Hi, how are you.

I'm awesome, So good to see you.

Yeah, it's really good to see you too.

We worked together a very long time ago, and you've done so many incredible things since then, and I am enormously proud of you and proud to know you.

Thank you.

I feel the same way about you.

It's been half a lifetime since we worked together.

Yeah, pretty much.

When was that you were your Daily Show tenure?

I started in two thousand and two and went to two thousand and six.

I was ninety nine to two thousand and three.

Okay, yeah, so we overlapped about two years maybe ye and am and.

Two years that we just happened to win a Peabody.

Oh yeah, that's right.

I don't know.

Coincidence, I don't know.

You tell me, I don't think.

So that's that's why this this is our first collaboration since then, and it's going to win a Peabody.

It's like, this actual episode not going to win.

That's what we do, that's how we do it.

So we You and I collaborated on a number of secondments in our Daily Show days, and one of the ones I'm most proud of is in fact, a Dan Tabirsky segment, a delightful little number called Guns for Tots.

Explain the premise of this, of this segment we did for the Daily Show.

It was this guy who who wanted to make sure he was he was?

What was he doing?

He was libertarian?

Yeah, he was a libertarian.

Yeah, he was a libertarian guy and he was and he was protesting the existence of a law that was trying to keep guns away from kids, Like if you had a squirt gun, you had to like painted bright pink so it didn't look like a gun.

So some kid didn't get shot by accident by a cop.

Yeah, And he was just up in arms.

He felt like this was government overreach, that the government would have the audacity to uh to interfere with someone's right to arm their children.

And this is all true, this is real.

This is the real stuff that we did a satirical about.

But the real premise was this guy had a very provocative toy drive called Guns for Tots, in which he gave toy guns two children in Harlem, New York, and we went and covered.

It and we treated him like like.

Like the hero.

He's a warrior.

He was a justice warrior.

He was a justice warrior.

He was like making a difference.

Yeah, guy, I'll never forget our the The segment closed with him talking about how he wants to he can't wait to buy guns for his children, his own children, and we cut to our amazing editor at the time, Ainer had a beautiful little daughter and do you remember this.

We filmed her playing with a with a toy gun that had been painted black and looked very real, and it's like this, the sweetest, most horrifying juxtaposition of a child with what looks like a glock.

Yeah, it's incredible, it's incredible.

It's an amazing visual.

I mean it's crazy.

How long ago that was.

Well, let's get into today's snap.

Who it is.

It's quite a doozy this one.

Are you ready?

Yeah, all right, here we go.

Imagine this.

It's January nineteen nineteen.

You and I are strolling the North End of Boston together on a brisk forty degree day for Boston.

Of course, this is actually shorts and t shirt weather.

Yeah, super nice.

Now, the North End is Boston's version of Little Italy.

At this time, there are about four hundred thousand people crammed within a square mile of tightly wound streets, enjoying their mid day chowders and packing the caz.

Although they're Italian though, so oh yeah right, yeah, yeah, I don't know.

It's a weird combination.

Yeah, Boston an Italian accent by caz of course, I mean horse drawn carriages and trolley's.

At the time, there were over eight thousand of them in the city.

Of Boston car.

Just to be clear, there were also cars, but it was very early in the automobile time.

I think it was still just rich people who had cars at that time.

That must have been such a mess having to figure out how to navigate cars and horses on the same roads.

That must have been really confusing.

That's a great point.

I mean that you're right that transition must have been real hairy for a while.

And did they have horns on for horses like when you were when you had a wagon, did you have a horn or did they just do it with That's not a bad question.

I'm just I would be because I know when they got cars, they would have horns, right, horse drawing carriages have horns.

Well, all I know is that the cars of the day sounded a lot like right, that was like the car horn.

Yeah, And I'm guessing if you were a conscientious carriage driver, why wouldn't you have a horn on your carriage?

Or bells?

Maybe it's bells, although they might scare the horses.

You gotta be careful.

I don't know.

Man.

So picture this.

We're back there.

It's January nineteen nineteen, and suddenly the ground starts to shake.

Is it an earthquake?

Well, no, Dan, it's probably the last thing you'd expect it to be.

A twenty five foot tall wave of thick, brown liquid rushing straight towards us at thirty five miles an hour.

Any idea what it is?

Uh, it's not a tsunami.

No, and it's not sewage either.

Well that's good that it's not.

It's brown.

We know it's brown.

It's a brown wave.

It's a wave.

It's it's a liquid.

It's oil.

It's oil.

You're never gonna guess.

It's so seemingly random and crazy.

It is molasses.

Oh fuck, that's a mess.

Yeah.

It was a massive tsunami of molasses that flooded the north end of Boston.

And it was it was a very dire accident.

Where did it come from?

Okay, we're gonna get into all of this, but so just to understand how Boston got itself in to this wicked pisse of a predicament, let's rewind.

Let's go all the way back to the beginning.

And I'm not going to throw any more bostonisms out because I can't even do it right.

No, I like them.

I think they're fun.

So, first, what you have to know is that molasses was a major commodity of the day and a crucial component of the Massachusetts economy in the early nineteen hundreds.

Are you a fan of molasses?

Like, do you ever consume molasses?

No, that feels like a Southern thing to cook.

With, for sure, it's definitely so.

I grew up having molasses on like breakfast biscuits and stuff.

It's basically like a very very strong syrup, is what it tastes like.

Yes, it's delicious.

Are you aware of the many uses outside of cuisine that molasses can be used for?

Well, because we're talking about Boston, I'm wondering if they use it for like pitching boats and stuff like that.

It's interesting.

Could use like tar.

Yeah, it's not quite as strong as tar.

It's it's much less viscous than tar.

So here are some other uses of molasses.

Of course, it's used to make rum.

But did you also know that it can be distilled into industrial alcohol and then even broken down into its chemical components for use in explosives.

So it had some very strong industrial uses, and especially at this time, because with the outbreak of World War One, there was suddenly a massive increase in demand for industrial alcohol and for explosives, and so therefore also huge demand for molasses.

That's incredible.

Yeah, and so they had to have these massive storage tanks all over the country for molasses of all.

You one more time?

Yeah, where does molasses actually come from?

Is it tree?

Sap?

It is, so it's made from sugarcane.

At this time, it almost all came from the Caribbean.

That's why.

That's why Caribbean rema is such a thing.

Correct, interesting, Okay, I'm learning.

In nineteen fifteen, a group called the United States Industrial Alcohol Company we will heretofore refer to as USIA saw an opportunity to capitalize on the growing popularity of molasses and began construction on a three million gallon tank in Boston's North Endow.

Now, how big do you think this is?

Like if you had to like compare it to something, how big is a three million gallon tank?

I mean it's got to be like just like one of those things like that you see that hold the water tanks, like.

Oh, like at airports, like the is that like three million?

You know?

I think it's much bigger.

It's so this is the size of four four and a half Olympic sized swimming pools.

It's fifty feet tall and nine defeat in diameter.

That is, that's a lot of molasses.

That's a lot of molasses.

That's incredible.

Now, the idea was for USIA to supply their own refineries with raw molasses instead of relying on other companies, thereby cutting out the middleman.

And the company was expecting a massive molasses shipment from Cuba.

So naturally, USIA being a large classic American American industrial corporation, that's all about the bottom line, they needed to rush the construction of this giant molasses tank.

So a man named Arthur Pgel had been hired to oversee the molasses tank project, despite having zero engineering background whatsoever.

Sorry Gel ju no.

J e ll okay got Arthur Pgel?

Yeah, it is a funny last name, especially considering that we're talking about a viscous substance.

Ye.

Well, he was able to deliver on the two most important criteria, making this thing fast and making it cheap.

So allegedly, Gel and his team did not even test this giant vat before putting it into use.

You know, you would want to like fill it with water at least and just see if it works.

Well.

They didn't.

They didn't even test it, so right away, this vat is leaking constantly, so much so that neighborhood kids were bringing buckets to catch the drippings for a snack.

Are you a finicky eater?

Or are you?

Are you like George Castanza?

I mean if somebody said, hey, you want a bucket of molasses, I wouldn't say no.

I wouldn't throw a bucket of molasses out of bed.

I'm not sure it would be good in bed.

Who knows.

So this tank was not working well from the get go.

In fact, every time the tank was filled, the groaning of the metal could be heard by nearby residents, a clear indication that something was a miss with the structural integrity of the tank.

Self complaints naturally came flooding in.

So what did this company USIA do, especially because there was so much visible leakage all around the tank?

Well, they painted the tank brown to disguise all the leaks.

That'll make the problem go away.

Just yeah, this is wild.

This is really wild because it's something we see a lot in our SNAFU research here at the Snaffoo podcast.

People do not do the right thing.

Just trying to cover their tracks or put band aids on terrible situations is like the norm.

That's like, you know, at least it is well, So this might surprise you.

Molasses tank failures were not uncommon during this time period.

They happened all over the US.

That's incredible.

Yeah, they happened all over the US, from New Orleans to Oakland to Hoboken.

But on the flip side, most tanks were also not this enormous, like absolutely acid.

On January fifteenth, nineteen nineteen, a ship arrived from the Caribbean to pump a huge delivery of fresh, warm molasses into the tank.

Now, this is important to know.

Like a lot of liquids, as molasses gets warmer, it flows much quicker, it has a lower viscosity.

As it gets colder, it gets way more viscous, and it flows very, very slowly and thicker.

As soon as they pump this tank full of molasses, something is off right away.

No one considered the fact that the tank was already half full of cold molasses due to the previous days freezing New England temperatures.

It's kind of like pouring super hot coffee into a freezing cold glass.

It shatters, right, because that is thermal shock.

This actually happened in my kitchen a bunch of years ago.

I pour bacon grease into a cup and then put it in the fridge to let it harden, and then I throw it away.

Do you do that?

Is that like a No, that's a great idea because you can't pour it down the sink because it'll clog your sink.

So you put it in the fridge and it gets it hardens, and then you can just sort of flip it out into your trash can.

So I had done this and forgotten about it, and so it was like this cold bacon grease in my fridge.

Then I made more bacon.

I like bacon.

I don't know, it's just Jesus Christ and who cooks bacon?

That's what century is this?

What are you talking about?

You like fry up a pan of bacon in your house.

I've never I'm sorry, I'm just a little.

Shocked you've never cooked bacon in your.

House as a child.

I just like a rasher of bacon is just I don't know, these very old fact Well, I guess you're having.

Molasses too, remember Georgia.

We eat bacon.

So I had another hot like this hot bacon grease and I'm gonna dispose of it.

So I just grabbed the cold glass of cold grease from previously pour the hot grease in it, and it sheered.

It broke a perfect, perfect break along at the line of the cold grease and hot grease, and I was holding a ring of glass like in a perfectly clean break.

And then of course all the bacon grease shattered all over the floor with broken glass.

Wow, and one of the biggest messes I've ever made.

Pretty gross.

My girlfriend at the time now wife helped me clean it up, and I was like, this is an amazing person who is willing to help me clean up bacon, bacon grease and broken glass.

That's a horrible mess.

Yeah, it actually sounds like it mimics exactly what's about to happen with the molasses.

That is part of what is about to go down in this massive molasses tank.

So people stated at the time that they heard a rumble, thinking it was a passing train, and then actually they started to hear machine gun like sounds which were actually the fasteners popping off the tank.

Now all of this happened right in the midst of lunch hour, when everyone was out and about enjoying their warmer than usual January day.

I don't even know if anyone knows what a machine gun is in nineteen twenty, but I'm still like getting out of there.

The gigantic vat bulged and broke, and in a flash, two point three million gallons of molasses formed a massive wave and rushed into the North end of Boston.

A New York Times report described the event as quote A dull, muffled roar gave but an instant's warning before the top of the tank was blown into the air.

Wagons, carts, and motor trucks were overturned, a number of horses were killed.

The street was strewn with debris intermixed with malasse, and all traffic was stopped.

Wow, they ended on.

All traffic was stopped, which seems like the most benign part of the incident.

And all traffic was stopped.

Horses thing.

A lot of people died too, Dan, We're getting to that.

Yeah, well, the horses, but.

Just I mean, I'm just saying, you know that the people having to clean up the dead horses and molasses it was.

That's a mess.

This is a massive snaffoo.

It was an incredibly tragic event.

So the swell moved at thirty five miles an hour, which is at the average speed of a cheetah.

The molasses was initially warm.

We try to give you contact, Dan now, I love it, I get it.

So any any cheetahs in the North end of Boston that day were fine because they got out in time.

So the molasses was initially warm from being initially added to the tank, but it quickly cooled as it spread through the streets, and this cooling caused it to thicken and become more viscous, making rescue efforts extremely challenging.

Here's a haunting quote from the Boston Post.

The next day, horses died like so many flies on sticky fly paper.

The more they struggled, the deeper in the mess they were ensnared.

Human beings, men and women suffered likewise.

It's grim.

Wow.

Grim.

So molasses is also one and a half times more dense than water, So if you're in its path, you weren't just like washed away.

You were pummeled by this, right, hit by it.

Yeah, it's uh.

It even pushed an entire firehouse off its foundation.

Wow, yeah, are you?

Are you good in a disaster like this?

I think I would probably be a mess at first, But I think if it was a long term disaster, I think I would be one of the ones like I can do apocalypse.

I feel like I'm ready for that to go down.

I have a very strong like urge to help.

I will run towards someone in peril, but but I can't guarantee you I'm not going to go into shack right.

So old buildings were crushed by this wave, and the remaining pools of molasses were one to three feet deep in some areas.

According to records, one hundred and fifty people were injured and twenty one were tragically killed in the flood, many of whom worked for the harbor near the vat's location.

Injuries were severe.

Patients were carried into a makeshift hospital with broken backs and fractured skulls, really really dire stuff.

Red crossworkers and a troop of one hundred and sixteen Navy cadets who were nearby actually tried to swim through the molasses to rescue people, but to no avail.

At nightfall, the weather got cold, even colder, and the molasses got even harder and thicker, so rescue efforts just became next to impossible.

Bodies were now getting trapped in amber like crystallization, so it's almost like the mosquito in Richard Address in his Cane.

But yeah, very very grim.

So we do have some photos.

I'm gonna show you.

This is an elevated train structure that was just like massively Yeah, it almost knocked it over.

Wow, Oh my god.

They must have been such a mess, Like everybody just must have been covered in this shit.

Yeah, because it's it's like, yes, it's a tragedy, but it's also sticky and gooey.

We have another photo as well.

This next one is uh is damage on Commercial Street.

You can actually see the collapsed tank in the center of this image, just in front of the white colored buildings.

Wow, that's so cool.

The rescue effort went on for four entire days, mainly recovering bodies.

The devastation was immense.

Most of the victims had either suffocated or were crushed by debris that came through the flood.

The north end was a mess, and molasses coated the debris, making it like to your point, It was insanely hard to clean up, but they did finally find a hack.

There was a really interesting discovery on how to clean up molasses, any idea how to clean up molasses?

It feels like one of those tricks where remember there would be a plate of water and you would have you to put like pepper and salt in it, and then you'd put a drop of soap and the yeah, and it sends everything to the edge.

I feel something like that, like some sort of like combination of things that makes it dissipate.

Okay, it's it's not that dramatic, but it is clever, Like I wouldn't have thought of it off the top of my head.

But it turns out seawater helps dissolve molasses.

Oh interesting.

I don't know why, but it does.

And uh so, Yeah.

They started pumping water in from the Boston Harbor, and after weeks of hosing down, the whole area of the city was finally rid of the icky, sticky gew Most of the molasses was washed into the Boston Harbor itself, and residents reported that the water was brown for weeks.

If only this coincided with the Boston tea part, right, because then they might actually have a yummy new concoction floating around the Oh History tea fit tea and molasses, the little Earl Gray with molasses in the Boston auvel.

That sounds nice.

I can't believe.

I've never heard of that.

That's such a strange thing.

It's one of those weird things where it smells good, so it's like a horrible tragedy but with a good smell.

I remember reading reports from these Iraq war veterans who talked about walking through carnage and being, you know, very traumatized by what they're seeing, but also like a a cologne delivery truck had exploded, and so there was this like weird sweet stench of cologne washing while they're looking at this carnage, and it just the cognitive dissonance of it was like it was like very traumatic for these guys.

Isn't that new?

There was something about let that happened to New York as well, where every once in a while in New York there a smell will come over from New Jersey and if it's a sweet smell.

Yeah, it was a mystery.

It was like a pancake smell.

Yes, yes, I remember that.

And I think I think there's there are situations where actually that's like a bad sign if that happens, like you like, it's something's.

Wrong, something's about to explode.

There's molasses.

New York City stinks like New York City does not smell good.

And if it suddenly does smell good, yeah, it's alarming, alarming.

It's like someone's gotta gotta pee or take a ship right near me.

So that just to normalize this, because but I remember that that with the pancake smell that they couldn't identify it for I don't know if they ever did, but I don't think that is that was wild.

This one where they cleaned it with seawater, that is a stark replacement, right, because seawater don't smell good.

Yeah, so you like washing seawater through the.

Stream, Yeah, that's gonna smelled good.

Back then I saw horseshit and molasses.

Yeah, you're right, you're right.

Yeah, Like it was nothing smelled good.

So what happened next?

Countless accusations were thrown around in the weeks following the disaster.

A class action lawsuit, of course UH Door versus the United States Industrial Alcohol Company was filed by one hundred nineteen residents.

Okay, so this is wild.

So Usia blamed Italian anarchists, oh the for an attack on the molasses tank.

The accusation had an inkling of plausibility to it because anarchists had targeted USIA facilities during the war.

Anarchists doing bombings were a big deal in the early part of this century.

That's absolutely true.

The good old blame the anarchists.

Excuse, do you have any good, like get out of jail cards?

Any good?

Any good?

Exclaims anarchists.

Yeahsts, you take responsibility.

I take responsibility.

I'm a yeah, I take responsibility.

Come on, Dan, I already like you.

You don't have to like burnish your image with me.

Trying to burnage.

I'm just trying to be honest and lovely.

I'm just trying to be honest and lovely.

God bless you for that.

You are lovely.

Goddamn it you, God, you are a goddamn lovely person.

All right, back to it.

Italian Americans, who were often discriminated against and accused of being criminals at that time, were the ones thrown under the bus here.

After all, the that was put in the distinct neighborhood of the North End because residents couldn't advocate for themselves.

This is obviously a very common practice in the United States.

Low income neighborhoods are often the sites of industrial processes and wastelands.

So the North End was majority Italian, and only twenty five percent of these Italians were actually citizens at the time with the ability to vote or affect change of any kind.

The corporations knew they were safe to effectively misbehave in these environments, which is very tragic.

These corporations are not lovely like you.

They are not lovely like that.

I don't even try.

No, they are very UNTOBURSKII like.

I don't like that.

It's not nice.

This lawsuit was one of the earliest class actions in the state of Massachusetts and one of the first examples of pursuing corporate accountability and regulation.

The lawsuit took several years.

Over a thousand people testified, including family of the victims, and there were fifteen hundred evidence exhibits.

The defense spent tens of thousands of dollars on expert witnesses, and the judge, Hugh w Ogden, was a war veteran who allegedly hated anarchists.

Essentially, everyone felt that this case was a massive long shot for the plaintiffs.

What do you think?

How are you feeling about their odds?

We all love a courtroom drama.

Yeah, been Italians back then, Like they didn't they I don't think they went.

I think they lost.

Surprise, surprise.

A nineteen twenty five judge Ogden shockingly ruled in favor of the plaintiffs.

I mean, I say shocking because of your your correct assumptions that it was very unusual at the time, even though it was obviously the right thing to do so.

For anyone keeping score at home, that means they were deliberating testimonies for nearly five whole years before the decision was made.

The USIA's claim of anarchist sabotage was tossed aside like a stale Boston brown bread loaf.

Instead, the USIA just go with it, all right, I didn't say where.

Instead, the USIA was then made to pay the victim's families, the City of Boston, and the Boston Elevated Railroad Company six hundred twenty eight thousand dollars in damages close to eleven million in today's dollars.

What would you do if you just like came into a massive windfall like that, Dan.

I would enjoy the feeling that I'll have enough money to live till I die.

I would just hang on to it, all right, I mean, I'm in the future.

Even if it was I know, you would splurge on something, even if it's just like a something at CVS.

Like what would you if you suddenly knew you were rich beyond your wildest dreams?

Like what would be my wildest dreams?

Or would you just go on Amazon and be like, yes, I want that wall charger?

I want them, Like.

You know, I've always thought it would be interesting.

I wouldn't want to ride a motorcycle like nothing too loud, but I've always said it would feel really nice to like a chopper, like to be driving slow, like down the So I think I could really get into that and like drive around like do little as on the outer motorcycle man Nansen, just like tour the country and find myself with my motorcycle.

And not just a motorcycle but a chopper with like the wheel way out front.

Well, I like that feeling.

I feel like you can't go that fast on that it feels a little more sturdy than a regular I like that, just like you can't.

I like that too.

Yeah, that's what I'm looking for a buddy to go driving with.

Hit it on the hell we living?

What would you do?

What would you do with if you just came into a bunch of money.

I feel like it would be a ton of little dumb things, like I would just go to my favorite cattlehogs and be like that shirt this.

Yeah totally, But if there was a big splurge, I don't know.

I've always wanted to be a helicopter pilot.

Huh.

I don't know.

I just think they're so cool.

Would you buy a helicopter?

I guess.

I mean, how do you be a helicopter pilot?

Like?

Do you rent them?

How does it work?

It seem very expensive.

I think they're impractical, right, or maybe you share them, maybe you like or maybe you like buy a share in a helicopter or something like that.

Helicopter pilot would be fun, actually.

Obviously helicopters are.

We use them in movies all the time and on Hangover too, when we're shooting in Bangkok on this speedboat and this helicopter pilot who who's supposedly like the best, like you know, camera chopper pilot was like zooming.

We're going like sixty miles an hour on this speedboat and he's like zooming right all around us.

And at one point he's like, we're zooming this way, and he's going along next to us, like the chopper's flying sideways and next to us, which is called crabbing.

It's like going sideways, but it's sixty miles an hour and he just sticks his hand out the window and waves at us.

We're like two hands on the wheel, buddy.

Wow, that must that must feel like freedom.

That must feel like credible to be riding around something that fascile turns like that.

Still, Yeah, and it was so terrifying for us because we're like they were flying so close, but also just an absolute thrill.

That must that must have been one of those days where it just have the fun.

It's like, I can't believe we're doing this.

Oh my god, there's so many of every day to me on a movie set is I can't leave.

I'm doing this.

It is truly the most fun thing in the world.

I can't believe I get to do it.

That's nice.

So this lawsuit was one of the earliest class actions in Massachusetts and one of the first examples of pursuing corporate accountability and regulation.

They proved that a corporation could be held accountable for negligence, putting a pin in the era of unquestioned support for big business.

And this was the beginning of a greater governmental oversight and regulations, in essence a small way of setting the groundwork for FDR's New Deal Politics and Infrastructure reform a few decades later.

It does make me think of this story, that this story would make a good documentary.

Dan.

When you start to approach a story, how often do you sort of have assumptions or expectations of what the ending might be.

Usually I'll go, if I'm doing something, I will go into it with like three or four possibilities of where I think the ending is, so you can't just go blind.

But I always have some idea so that if if one way doesn't work out, I'm not screwed.

I still I still there's still another sort of way to sort of finish the story in a satisfying way.

So I like to consider the possibilities because because and hopefully one of them will be the one that happens.

That's how I did.

But I like complexity, I really do.

It's what makes it interesting.

Sure.

And and there's that old adage about documentaries that the best ones are the sort of ones that that make a left turn somewhere in the process.

Your amazing piece, the line about the Navy seal Eddie Gallagher, that was that was a that was an incredible that had a very surprising ending to me because you kind of like somehow your how you handled that him as an interview subject gave him a sense of safety or comfort or or wanting to be transparent or something powerful that that I won't spoil for listeners, but he shared some just really breath taking points of view that I was very very affected and moved and stunned by that one.

Wow, oh, I'm so that's so nice to you to say, Yeah, it was an absolutely incredible conversation and I was stunned as well.

And I still I listened to that like six months ago.

I was looking for something and just trying to remember how it went down, and still like, I can't I can't believe he said it, the things he said, And yeah, it was really a shocker.

It was a shocker but fascinating.

Well.

I think it's due it in large part to how lovely you are, Dan Tubirsky.

Thank you.

That's what he said too.

Yeah, he said, Dad, I know him an ABC, but you're pretty lovely.

Thanks man.

So jumping back into it, here's a fun fact.

The molasses industry in Boston never regained its prominence.

Investigations for Yeah but a sad story.

Investigations were opened in the years following, and they found a host of problems with the tank construction.

The tank was made with too little of the metal manganese, so it was too brittle in temperatures below sixty degrees, which for Boston would be like most of the time, and the steel used was thinner than would be specified in the plans.

Due to the scrutiny and the year's long lawsuit, USIA never built a new tank and eventually shuttered the doors of their Boston production plant entirely.

Without the Molasses Giant, the Boston molasses industry collapsed.

So clearly the impact of this event stuck both in the hearts of those in Boston and in the history of corporate regulation that we see today.

After the flood, Boston was techie for weeks.

No winks there.

I'm using the word tacky.

Literally, Boston was tacky for weeks.

And legend has it that on hot summer days it still smells like molasses.

Amazing.

I love that.

I love that.

It must have been weeks and weeks and weeks to get that sort of stickiness and smell out.

I mean, it's just it's really amazing.

Yeah, molasses is a is no joke.

Yeah, it's it's no joke.

Like you don't want it, Like it's hard to get that out of a shirt, is let alone out of a city.

I love this story.

It's a it's a tragic story in Boston's history.

It's to me, it's such a city specific story that it reminds me of the Great Fires of Chicago or San Francisco.

It's like, you know, and it has that apocac because it's molasses.

It has this kind of apocryphal feel that it's like so wild, like the like Miss O'Leary's cow in Chicago that kicked over the lantern.

Supposedly, these stories sort of reach almost like a fable status or or sort of like urban mythology, but they're totally true.

Yeah, it's incredible.

I did a little bit of digging and found that class action lawsuits have reached an all time high in the last three years, with over one hundred and fifty nine billion dollars in settlements.

Now, class action suits obviously have their pros and cons.

While they might help a broader group to gain lower cost of litigation and incentivize them to pursue their rights, they've also drawn criticism for leading to lower payouts, inflated benefits to lawyers, and loss of individual control.

But I've always thought the right to class action suit is actually quite inspiring and a great tool for consumer protection.

It's it's almost like the right to collective bargaining on like for for unions, Like when you know, large groups of people that don't have a voice when they work together can actually have a very powerful voice.

And I've always thought the the anti union sentiment in our country is very confusing, especially coming from the right, because it's such a it's such a free speech uh to me, it's it's the ultimate expression of free spreech of free speech.

It's just saying, like how do we how can we get together and like and uh and like be a louder voice when traditionally it's the wealthy and the powerful that have the loudest voices.

Well, it's also a part, it's part of how you make economies where especially with with things like class action lawsuits and and labor is like it's it's how you make economies work more efficiently.

Like like, if you don't let individuals act as groups to sort of increase their power to the size that it should be, you're not, it's all then the whole thing's.

Out of whack, all right, Dan Debirsky, is there anything in your professional world that you can plug or talk about or or spill any beans tease us with.

You're the exciting things that you're up to.

You're one of my favorite podcasters in the world.

What What's What's what's on deck?

I'm I'm working on two things, both will come out next year, both of which I can't disclose, but I think they're both going to be good.

They're different.

And the one, the one that's coming on next actually has Italian anarchists the nineteen twenties, which I which I was so excited to talk about.

Right, it's connected as I said earlier, Go do a deep dive on Dan Tabirski's work so that you're prepared for how awesome these upcoming projects are going to be.

And also, yeah, you're ouvra.

I like that good good word.

And also congratulations to both of us for winning a Peabody on this episode.

I assume and see the awards there.

Yeah, Dan, I can't thank you enough for coming on.

It's so so fun to see you and hang out.

Thanks for being here.

So great to see you man anytime.

All right, cheers.

SNAPFHO is a production of iHeart Podcasts and Snapfoo Media, a partnership between Film Nation Entertainment and Pacific Electric Picture Company.

Our post production studio is Gilded Audio.

Our executive producers are me Ed Helms, Mike Falbo, Glenn Basner, Andy Kim Whitney, Donaldson, and Dylan Fagan.

This episode was produced by Alyssa Martino and Tory Smith.

Our video editor is Jared Smith.

Technical direction and engineering from Nick Dooley.

Our creative executive is Brett Harris.

Logo and branding by The Collected Works.

Legal review from Dan Welsh, Meghan Halson and Caroline Johnson.

Special thanks to Isaac Dunham, Adam Horn, Lane Klein, and everyone at iHeart Podcasts, but especially Will Pearson, Kerry Leeberman, Nikki Etoor, Nathan Otowski and Alex Corral.

While I have you, don't forget to pick up a copy of my book, Snapboo, The Definitive Guide to History's great just screw Ups.

It's available now from any book retailer.

Just go to snapoo dashbook dot com.

Thanks for listening, and see you next week.