Train Wrecks! Literally!!! Are they America's REAL Pastime? How Should History Classes Teach About this Era of Popular Culture? Why Do People Enjoy Watching Real and Metaphorical Train Wrecks?

The Best Paragraph I've Read: One of the first staged train wrecks was done in 1895 by a railroad equipment salesman named A.L. Streeter in Ohio. The wreck used the same formula that nearly all other staged train wrecks would follow for the next 40 years. Organizers would lay a stretch of track, usually anywhere from 1,800 feet to a mile-long, and then get two old steam locomotives and put them at either end of the track facing each other. They would then hire two brave locomotive engineers to wait for a signal from the organizer. When they got the go-ahead, the engineers would pull the throttles back as far as they could to get the locomotives up to speed. They would then jump from the locomotive before the two trains crashed in front of a crowd who had paid a few dollars to see the spectacle. This paragraph comes from Atlas Obscura.  The article is titled: "For 40 Years, Crashing Trains Was One of America's Favorite Pastimes."  The article is written by Justin Franz.  You can read the full article here: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/staged-train-wrecks  Zac and Don discuss America's fascination with watching train wrecks both real and otherwise.  They talk about America's former cultural pastime of watching real train wrecks.  They also wonder if this episode in American culture should be taught in schools.  Finally, they discuss modern day "train wrecks" that people like to watch.      --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/bestparagraph/message