{"podcast":{"title":"History Impossible","slug":"history-impossible-947020","podcast_index_feed_id":947020,"rss_url":"https://www.spreaker.com/show/5634566/episodes/feed","website_url":"https://www.spreaker.com/show/history-impossible","image_url":"https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/a8c668a60b07d3cb3e35a8813764ce86.jpg","author":"Alexander von Sternberg","episode_count":102,"summary":"History Impossible covers some of the less-known, strange, and supposedly impossible events, people, and ideologies throughout history that are all nonetheless true. The settings and time periods range from the Second World War to ancient Japan to medieval Europe, and many more. The show engages with difficult ideas and impossible decisions that were made by human beings like you or me, always to significant effect. It goes out of its way to grant agency to all of its subjects and does its best to present the most nuanced approach one can, all while acknowledging any personal biases that may exist. You will not find a more honest attempt at presenting difficult and controversial historical topics. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-impossible--5634566/support .","last_synced_at":"2026-07-20T18:18:35.593766+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/history-impossible-947020"},"episode":{"title":"Mother's Wrath, Mankind's Bargain (The Los Angeles Fires of 2025)","slug":"mother-s-wrath-mankind-s-bargain-the-los-angeles-fires-of-2025","published_at":"2025-02-13T10:00:13+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/history-impossible-947020/mother-s-wrath-mankind-s-bargain-the-los-angeles-fires-of-2025","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/history-impossible-947020","url":"https://www.spreaker.com/episode/mother-s-wrath-mankind-s-bargain-the-los-angeles-fires-of-2025--64312117","audio_url":"https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/https://pdcn.co/e/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/64312117/mother_s_wrath_mankind_s_bargain.mp3","summary":"In this episode of History Impossible inaugurating 2025 and the sixth anniversary of the show, we will be looking at the Los Angeles Fires of 2025 but from an extended, historical, and probably overly philosophical lens. Because as it turns out, natural disasters are a constant of the human experience and create some of the greatest extremes, and reflecting on what afflicts us now alongside what has afflicted us in the past can provide at least some clarity (or, in my case, closure). The destruction faced by Los Angelenos in 2025 is not too dissimilar from many examples of destruction in relatively recent history. From the Krakatoa explosion in 1883, to the Galvestone hurriance in 1900, to the San Francisco Earthquake in 1906, there are plenty of examples. We examine these and their after effects in detail in this episode of History Impossible. It was an emotional experience to go through all of this and I hope you all can appreciate why. I wrote the original essay upon which this episode was based over a month ago, but it still has some validity and weight that I didn't expect. So please enjoy as much as one can enjoy such a heavy subject, in this newest episode of History Impossible ... History Impossible has been made possible by the following generous supporters on Patreon, Substack, and PayPal. Please consider donating today to help keep me free and this show alive: David Adamcik David Alsbach Rajan Athul Robert Babeon Michael Beach Benjamin Greg Bosai Johannes Breitsameter Daniel Camaj Carol ABC Charles C Curtis Christiansen Clayton Connell Cliffydeuce CR B.Cyr daddygorgon Danny Lynda Davis Paul DeCoster Regina Dick-Endrizzi Neil Dickens Nathan Diehl Bob Downing Dramicas Martin E. Gavin Edwards Howie Feltersnatch Pierre Ghazarian Jayson Griesmeyer Nathan Grote Be…","meta_description":"In this episode of History Impossible inaugurating 2025 and the sixth anniversary of the show, we will be looking at the Los Angeles Fires of 2025 but fro…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":6657,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/history-impossible-947020/episodes/mother-s-wrath-mankind-s-bargain-the-los-angeles-fires-of-2025/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/history-impossible-947020/mother-s-wrath-mankind-s-bargain-the-los-angeles-fires-of-2025.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}