Ep 291: American Bloodfalls with Tom Maxwell Part 1
“For millennia, showers of blood, known variously as blood falls, rains of blood, and blood rain, have been reported in sources both historical and literary. The earliest record comes from Homer’s Iliad, in which Zeus makes it rain blood ‘as a portent of slaughter.”
Description:
Bloodfalls and meat showers - phenomena that sound more like biblical plagues than historical events. Yet, reports of these bizarre occurrences peppered the American landscape for over a century. From Alabama to Massachusetts, Tennessee to California, eyewitnesses sometimes described small red clouds followed by downpours of blood, flesh, and viscera. Some were subjected to the red rain on entirely cloudless days. While many saw divine judgment, skeptics suspected elaborate hoaxes. Scientists proposed numerous theories ranging from vomiting vultures to atmospheric anomalies, while newspapers spread the stories far and wide. But what really happened during these grisly events? Were they connected or separate phenomena with similar descriptions? And why did they seem to stop abruptly at the turn of the 20th century? Join us as we delve into this bloody chapter of American history with our special guest, Tom Maxwell, former frontman of the Squirrel Nut Zippers and bloodfall expert, for Part 1 of this 2-part series. Together, we'll examine not just what fell from the sky, but what these incidents reveal about 19th-century America - its people, its science, and its struggle to make sense of a rapidly changing world. From the fringes of meteorology to the depths of human nature, this is the strange, gruesome, and utterly captivating story of America's reign of blood and meat.
Reference Links:
“The Great Kentucky Meat Shower mystery unwound by projectile vulture vomit” on Scientific American
“Ep 230: Charles Hoy Fort – Our Supernatural Father Part 1” on AstonishingLegends.com
“Ep 231: Charles Hoy Fort – Our Supernatural Father Part 2” on AstonishingLegends.com
“Oakville Blobs: In 1994, Mysterious Gelatinous Goo Rained Down On Washington” on IFLScience.com
Tom Maxwell’s book, “A Really Strange and Wonderful Time – The Chapel Hill Music Scene: 1989-1999”
Location:
Lebanon, Tennessee, the town near where a bloodfall occurred on August 17, 1841
Suggested reading:
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CREDITS:
Episode 291: American Bloodfalls Part 1. Produced by Scott Philbrook & Forrest Burgess. Audio Editing by Sarah Vorhees Wendel of VW Sound. Music and Sound Design by Allen Carrescia. Tess Pfeifle, Producer and Lead Researcher. Ed Voccola, Technical Producer. Research Support from The Astonishing Research Corps, or "A.R.C." for short. Copyright 2024 Astonishing Legends Productions, LLC. All Rights Reserved.