This is the memory palace. I'm Nate de Mayo.

There was an iceberg right ahead.

You know the story. Everyone knows the story.

And when congressmen sat down to rewrite

non-acall safety regulations in 1915,

the story of the sinking of the Titanic

was in the front of their minds.

The story of the two few lifeboats.

The story of 1,517 people drowning in the North Atlantic.

But that story probably wasn't in the front of the minds

of the 844 passengers who boarded the SS Eastland,

that July.

Because those new, nautical safety regulations

made sure that every boat had enough lifeboats.

And besides, the one they were about to get on

was tied to the docks of the Chicago River.

They couldn't have known that the Eastland had a history

of listing when it was overloaded.

That it was top-heavy to begin with.

And that adding those lifeboats would be its tipping point.

And that those lifeboats wouldn't do any of them.

Any of the 844 of them.

...