THE BLACK HOLE OF CALCUTTA: WHO IS TO BLAME?
The Alarmist
The Alarmist
4.4 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 9 December 2025
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Who’s to blame for The Black Hole of Calcutta?
This week, The Alarmist (Rebecca Delgado Smith) discusses the infamous Black Hole of Calcutta and the controversy that followed. Set in Fort William owned by the British East India Company circa 1756, an atrocity occurred that would go on to shape history as we know it. Speculations about the event live on, but the fallout is undeniable. Was a lack of humanity to blame? Is poor communication the culprit? Or was this another symptom of rampant colonialism? Fact Checker Chris Smith and Producer Clayton Early join the conversation.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, Alarmy, check out Alarmist on Patreon for ad-free episodes and bonus content. |
| 0:07.5 | No one's immune to trends. I feel like celebrities generally start them because they're in the |
| 0:14.1 | public eye. But they're just people and they want to be up on the latest trend. And this, I can imagine |
| 0:19.7 | being a wealthy socialite at one of the many gatherings that we will never be invited to, maybe. |
| 0:27.8 | And the topic of conversation is like, oh, yeah, Barbara just cloned her dog. |
| 0:32.1 | And some people are like, really? |
| 0:33.1 | Who did it? |
| 0:33.9 | What? |
| 0:34.3 | I have to get that person's name, you know? |
| 0:38.8 | Can you send me their info? |
| 0:39.6 | Exactly. |
| 0:44.0 | Go to patreon.com slash The Alarmist and subscribe today. |
| 0:47.4 | I was born with a special gift. |
| 0:58.0 | The ability to mentally transform any situation into the worstcase scenario in my own brain. My therapist calls my gift catastrophizing. |
| 1:02.0 | And that's why I'm uniquely qualified to scrutinize and analyze history's greatest disasters |
| 1:09.0 | and find out who's to blame. |
| 1:14.1 | They say history repeats itself. |
| 1:16.8 | Not on my watch. |
| 1:18.3 | My name is Rebecca Delgado-Smith, and I am the alarmist. |
| 1:37.1 | Hey, everyone. Thanks for tuning into The Alarmist, a comedy podcast where we talk about history's greatest tragedies and figure out who's to blame. |
| 1:43.1 | Today we're discussing the black hole of Calcutta. Here's what you need to know. By the mid-18th century, India was a pressure cooker. |
| 1:48.7 | The Mughal Empire's power had fractured, leaving real authority in the hands of regional |
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