All Episodes

On April 27, 1865, the steamboat Sultana exploded on the Mississippi River, killing 1,864 people—more than the Titanic. Most victims were Union POWs who had just survived Andersonville and Cahaba prison camps. This is the story of the deadliest maritime disaster in American history, buried by history because it happened the same day John Wilkes Booth was killed.

In 1927, Henry Ford tried to build an American utopia in the Brazilian Amazon. White picket fences, square dances, and fire hydrants from Michigan—all transplanted into the world's most untamed jungle. What he got was worker riots, ecological collapse, and a $20 million ghost town. This is the story of Fordlandia.