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The summer of 1914 was dazzling. Electric lights blazed in great cities, ocean liners crossed the Atlantic in record time, and the world was bound together by telegraph wires and trade. Politicians, scholars, and ordinary people alike told themselves the same comforting story: war was impossible in a modern, interconnected age. And then, with the crack of a gunshot in Sarajevo, that illusion shattered—and the world plunged into the bloodiest conflict humanity had ever seen.

In this episode of The Dark History Podcast, Rob takes you into that fragile moment before the fall: a Europe brimming with confidence but trembling on hidden fault lines of nationalism, empire, and pride. You’ll hear how Germany’s restless ambition collided with Britain’s naval supremacy, how France dreamed of revenge, how Russia and Austria-Hungary tangled in the Balkans, and how a single assassination lit the fuse of catastrophe.

But this is not just a story about the past. It’s a warning. As Rob draws eerie parallels to our own time—rising powers, arms races, fragile alliances, and volatile flashpoints—the question becomes impossible to ignore: are we, too, sleepwalking toward disaster? Or can the lessons of 1914 open our eyes before it’s too late?

With immersive storytelling and unsettling echoes across a century, this episode isn’t just about history—it’s about the fragile present we’re living in right now.

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In 1629, the Dutch East India Company’s flagship Batavia set sail from Amsterdam, loaded with silver and ambition. She was meant to be a vessel of wealth, glory, and trade. Instead, she became the stage for one of the most horrifying tragedies in maritime history.

When the Batavia struck a reef off the coast of Western Australia, nearly 300 survivors scrambled onto barren islands with no food, no water, and no hope of rescue. But their greatest threat was not the sea—it was each other.

At the heart of the disaster rose Jeronimus Cornelisz, a failed apothecary who turned desperation into a reign of terror. Under his command, Beacon Island descended into a nightmare of mass murder, enslavement, and cruelty almost too brutal to believe. Children were drowned, women were forced into concubinage, and more than 120 men, women, and children were slaughtered in the sand.

Yet even in the face of horror, resistance flickered. Wiebbe Hayes, a low-ranking soldier left to die, rallied his men, built a fort from coral, and stood against Cornelisz’s tyranny. His defiance would become the one spark of hope in a story otherwise drenched in blood.

This episode takes you from the suffocating decks of the Batavia to the desolate islands where order collapsed and savagery reigned. It is a tale of greed, power, survival, and the thin line that separates civilization from chaos.

Join me as we uncover the wreck of the Batavia and the nightmare that followed—one of history’s darkest voyages.

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The Invisible Killer: Gas, Grief, and the New London School Explosion

On March 18th, 1937, an ordinary school day in East Texas became one of the darkest tragedies in American history. At 3:17 p.m., a massive natural gas explosion ripped through the pride of a booming oil town—the New London School—instantly reducing a state-of-the-art building to rubble and silencing nearly 300 innocent lives, most of them children.

In this chilling episode of The Dark History Podcast, Rob takes you deep inside the forgotten disaster that reshaped safety laws forever. Through vivid storytelling, you’ll step into the classrooms of that fateful afternoon, hear the blast that shook the ground for miles, and witness the chaos as parents and oilfield workers clawed through the wreckage with bare hands in a desperate search for survivors.

But this isn’t just a story of devastation—it’s a haunting lesson about hidden dangers, misplaced pride, and how one invisible killer forced America to change. From the rise of East Texas oil money to the desperate aftermath and the legacy that still lingers today, this episode uncovers why the New London School Explosion remains one of the most important—and least remembered—events in U.S. history.

If you’ve ever wondered why natural gas smells like rotten eggs, or how tragedy can spark lasting change, this story will stay with you long after the episode ends.

🎧 Listen now to uncover:

• The rise of New London, Texas during the oil boom of the 1930s.
• How one small, invisible danger—odourless natural gas—turned a normal school day into catastrophe.
• The desperate rescue efforts, the staggering loss of 294 lives, and the grief that swallowed a community whole.
• The lasting impact of the disaster, including the safety measures we still rely on today.

This is history at its darkest—and its most unforgettable.

👉 Subscribe to The Dark History Podcast and never miss an episode where we pull back the veil on humanity’s most tragic, disturbing, and overlooked stories.

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