Worst Case Scenario with Abi Clarke and Julia Stenton - Day 16 - Leonid Rogozov

Episode Date: September 6, 2023

When you're the only doctor at a remote an Antarctic research station the last thing you want is to become ill yourself but that is just happened in the story of Leonid Rogozov.Leonid's illness would prove to be be fatal unless he had surgery and in this episode of Worst Case Scenario Abi takes Julia through how he performed surgery... on himself! Send in your own worst case scenario to [e-mail] and please follow the podcast on Instagram @wcspod for video extras.Theme tune by the brilliant Crizards who can be found on Instagram @crizards Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Get attacked by an angry shark Stuck up a mountain in the dark Pushed up a top of a big landmark Hit by lightning in your local park Caught in a downpour of acid rain Struck by meteor or a train A proton beam passing through your brain Attacked by that angry shark again

Hear how they survive Trappled by a herd of buffalo Chaste with an axe by your new friend Joe Buried alive in a pile of snow It's the worst case scenario. Hello. Hello. That was as clean as a guest.

Okay. This is, and you said WCS, that's our handle. This is Worst Case scenario. It's a podcast where we tell each other crazy survival stories we found on the internet about people who survived just the most traumatic or insane situations. live to tell the tale. Yes. And every week we build a survival toolkit based on things that the people in the stories have used in order to survive to try and help us survive the worst case scenario. In case we ever find ourselves there. Yeah. We know what to do. Should we? Yeah. It's meant

to make us feel less anxious. It's there to tell us that even if it gets real bad, it is possible. Survival's possible. Always. Even when you think it's all over. Yes. You can, follow the podcast wherever you get your podcast. We're also on Instagram and TikTok at WCSPod. And we also want stories from you of times you found yourself in the worst case scenario and survived to tell the tale. And you can send them to us help at WCSpod.com. That's an email address.

I heard of it. I think that's all the admin. I think so. Right. Tell me your amazing story. Oh my God. Okay. So my friends live through an actual worst case scenario this week.

I can't wait. Give it to me. So my friends are, as you love to point out, I and my friends are older than you. Okay. And they are... I thought you were just going to say close. Oh, sure, that too. Wow, okay, Julia. I'm really rub it in.

I mean, yeah, we've been best-decent school. We get it. You've got a lot of friends. Sorry. And two of my friends. Rachel and Casper, they, I've known them at school, they met in school, they're now married, having their first child. Jesus.

This is the story of the birth of their first child. And didn't that happen this week? It happened this week. It's so exciting. So I've written it down because I don't want to forget any details. So Rachel, for a few days before, was having very light contractions. Obviously, she's the first one of us to have a kid. So we have no prior experience.

We don't know anything. It's just like, oh, you're pregnant, good luck. Who knows? So for a few days, she's having very light, contractions but she's like this probably isn't enough also something you should know caspar and rachel are the most laid-back people you will ever meet so it really has to be very precarious for them to like go to the doctors or freak out exactly so she's having light contractions she's very blaze about it and then they start picking up so they decide to head off to

the birthing center oh they're also in switzerland that's where they live so everything is different they are giving birth in this birthing centre that has no pain relief. Absolutely not. Right? No. What did you talk about that? I was like, I never understand when people are like,

I want to have, but I want to give birth without taking any money. I'm like, you're kidding? Give me all of the drugs immediately. Exactly. I'm not wanting to do it without the drugs. Yes, agreed. But I don't think she had a choice. I think it was like, this is just how they do it in Switzerland.

Oh, then I would move. Yeah. So they start picking off, they, they, they joke. jump in the car to go to the birthing center. They also live on a hill. So Casper's driving down the hill. As he's going down the hill, Rachel's like, oh, it's happening now.

Shut up. So she gets into the back of the car. Casper's still driving. She takes her trousers off. And then the baby is coming. No. Casper turns around to see a baby's head with a face. And he said he was so...

I'm glad it had a face. He was so... That would be more disturbing. If you tell me, he saw a baby with no face. But it was the sight of the face that shocked him so much. He crashed the car into a wall. Wow. Yeah.

So you're saying they've had an ugly baby. That's what you're telling me. That baby ain't going to be no supermodel. She is the cutest baby I've ever seen. So the windscreen smashes. The airbags burst. The car is smoking. Like it's a full-blown.

Oh my, my car crash. And then Rachel was just in the back, giving birth, and then she delivers the baby into Casper's hands. So he's just now, like, holding his baby. And then they call, obviously, they call the birthing center. They come and get Rach in the baby. But Casper has to stay back with the car. I love that his baby gave him such a fright.

Yeah. It's like he, like, he, like, forgot he was having a baby. And he's like, oh, fuck, you're pregnant? What? Oh, my God, there she is. And then, so, apparently the people were. at the birthing center like arrived and he's there covered in blood oh my god like he got hurt no he didn't get hurt he's fine everybody's fine it's her but he delivered the baby and obviously

there's a lot of blood and so he looks like a full horror show um the car is written off he's devastated it was a pussat he loved it it's a shame um okay so that's the story that's the best birth story isn't it she i don't know how they're gonna talk they can't have any more kids because they really can't and if they do they're going to have to really orchestrate. Yeah, they're going to have to, like, have the next one in a plane crash. Yeah. Also, my boat, maybe, like, while a boat sinks.

They're going to, they're going to have to keep progressing the vehicle, I think. I think so. Yeah. Do more and more dangerous crashes. It's going to be, like, Mission Impossible. Yeah. Like, jumping off a cliff. Yeah.

Like a skydiving ber. Yeah, and let gravity take the baby out. And then the baby has, like, his own parachute. And then you meet it at the one. That would be cute. That would be cute. Wow. Isn't that wild?

That's wild. So all your friends are like, oh, I guess that's what's having a baby's like. Yeah, it's put us all off, obviously. I mean, I was never keen, but like, yeah, well, yes. I don't know. Would it not put you off? I'd do it just for the story. It's a great story. My friend did say, this is great for the baby, because whenever she's in, like, those situations where you have to say, tell us your name and something interesting about you. She's got one, day one. Or like, two Tuesday and I. Exactly. Yeah. I made my dad. crash my car, crash his car as I was being born. I this week have given myself a real, a real difficult time as someone who struggles with a lot of words and pronunciations. Love this.

This is going to be difficult for me. It's going to be painful. It's going to be a struggle. It's set in Russia. Yes. And there's a lot of names. There is a lot. Are we getting accents this time? absolutely enough. I wish actually, I didn't have time. To practice your Russian accent?

I didn't, no. I spent all the time trying to work out how to say all the words, written out how to say everything phonetically. Cheat, you're cheating. I'm putting effort in, Julia. If you are someone who struggles with kind of slightly gruesome stuff, though, this is quite a tummy turner, I will warn. If you, if you, if you struggled with Dinell, Dinell's shattered, uh,

penis. I miss that. If you struggled with Dinell Bannege's shattered pelvis, um, this one's a step further. Okay. Okay. Um,

as I'll ever be. So this is a story. I've looked it up, but I'm going to forget it all. Of Leonid Ivanovich Rogasoff. I hope. Okay. We're in the times of the Soviet Union, right?

The Soviet Union engaged in expeditions to Antarctica in 1955 to, uh, oh, why did I do that? What have you done? I don't know what that words meant to be now. So I replaced some of the words with just the phonetic, like, spellouts, but now I forgot what the word originally was. I'm going to say, and it, the Soviet Union was engaging in expeditions to Antarctica from 1955 until it was all over, right? Until it was all over.

Until it was all over. After this, the Soviet Antarctic stations were taken over by Russia. The first Soviet contact with Antarctica was in January 1947 when they began whaling in Antarctic waters. That's when whaling really became a thing. But we're going to be talking about the sixth expedition. When you say whaling, in my head, they're just, it's just a group of men stood on a ship going, no they're killing whales like the absolute douchebags they are okay but okay we're talking about the sixth expedition

that was the first they really set whaling trend they're on a ship called ob it sailed from Leningrad on the 5th of November 1960 after 36 days at sea she decanted she is a boat ever a he No, always a woman, I think. She decanted part of the expedition

onto the ice shelf of the Princess Astrid Coast named after Queen Victoria's granddaughter who married the King of Norway. Their task was to build a new Antarctic polar base inland at Schumacher Oasis and spend the winter there. The remoteness and ferociously cold climate means that this area is cut off

from the rest of the world for months at a time and for much of the year it can't be reached by either air or sea. After nine weeks on the 18th of February, 1961, the new base called, Are you ready? Are you ready? Novo-Lazarovskaya.

Novelazza Revskaya. Sounds Russian. Sounds Russian to me. Novo-Lazza Ravskaia. How are you getting less confident the more you do? It's a bit in the middle. It's the laza. Novo-Laza Ravskaya was opened. Okay, that's what the base was called, right?

They finished just in time with the polar winter already descending, bringing months of darkness, snowstorms and extreme frosts. The sea had frozen over, the ship had sailed and would not be back for a year. Contact with the outside world was no longer possible. through the winter the 12 residents of Novo Lazarevskaya That was great That was really good That was really good

Would have only themselves to rely on I should say by the way before I keep going A lot of this week's story is from one article So I feel like I need to like shout it out Because it's basically all from them And it was the case report Of what's going to happen by Vladislav Rogosov, consultant anithesis,

and Neil Bermal Professor of Russian and Slavic Studies. And they wrote a case report, and it's pretty much all come from that. Thanks, guys. So the 12 residents would only have themselves to rely on. And we're going to be talking about mainly one of the expeditions members. 26-27, ages differed in different things I read, your old surgeon, Leonid, Ivanovich, Rogasov, absolutely murdering this, and he was the station's medic, okay? He had interrupted a promising scholarly career and left on the expedition shortly before he was due to defend his dissertation on new methods of operating on cancer of the esophagus.

And should anyone become ill, it was his and only his job to diagnose what is wrong and provide the appropriate treatment. they must be completely self-sufficient. So if he gets ill, they're fucked. The rest of them are fucked. Good. Okay. Yes, exactly. This is also my nightmare, by the way.

Being trapped with 12 people who you don't know. Yeah. And it's not even being filmed for reality TV, so you don't even get to be an influencer afterwards. This is essentially Big Brother with none of the perks. And you're also in the Antarctic. You can't go outside. And there's no producer to come and intervene.

you're on your own already i'm freaking out about this story you can't you can't walk out that big brother fire exit you can't say i'm a celebrity getting me out of here there's nothing there's no there's no hotel nearby for you to no it's like love island you can't leave okay so they arrived in november they finished the camp in february and it is now april right that's that's also too long that's also way way way too long oh they still have they still have like over a year left. They're there for like two years. I can't. I can't.

So they've done November, February, it's now April. More specifically, it's the 29th of April, 1961, which was a Saturday. I found out. Elvis Presley is top of the charts. Kids are watching Tom and Jerry. Adults are watching the Twilight Zone. That's the overall vibe. Rogosov, however, as you predicted,

Julia, has fallen ill. No. Yeah. He's not feeling so good on this April Saturday. So we're only what, like six months in, five months in? Yeah, five months in. Shit. He's noticed symptoms of weakness, discomfort and unease and nausea.

And within just a few hours, so it's very, it's come on very quickly, within just a few hours, his temperature has risen alarmingly to 37.5 degrees C. Okay. He then gets sharp pains in his side. and upper part of his abdomen, which shifts to the right lower quadrant. And obviously, as a fully qualified doctor, sergeant, these symptoms are very familiar to him.

And he had very little difficulty diagnosing the cause. He wrote in his diary, It seems that I have appendicitis. No. I am keeping quiet about it, even smiling. Why frighten my friends? Who could be of help? What is he going to do?

So appendices, so, so, that, that's, that kills you. That can kill you. Your appendix burst. That's, that's game over. What's he going to do? Yeah, he's in a bad spot. He's going to have to, oh, I don't like where this is going. Okay.

So, just in case you don't know, appendicitis is a painful swelling of the appendix, a small, thin pouch about five to ten centimeters long connected to the large intestine where poo forms. Bit of fun. The usual treatment involves surgical removal, as you've said, of the affected organ. It is a relatively straightforward

procedure when performed by a trained surgeon. So like no-was, you know. But his ability to easily diagnose the condition was a pretty cruel realisation because like you said, he knows that if he's going to survive, he has to undergo surgery. But as the only medic and surgeon on the

base, he was the only person. who could perform it. The closest Russian-speaking surgeon was a thousand miles away at the second base, only reachable via air, and a blizzard which had been raging for days made it impossible for any aircrafts to take off or land.

So, next day, on the 30th of April, he tries all available conservative treatments like antibiotics, local cooling, but his general condition is getting worse. His body temperature has risen, his vomiting has become more frequent, He wrote in his diary,

I did not sleep at all last night. It hurts like the devil. A snowstorm whipping through my soul, wailing, the screaming. The original wailing. Like a hundred jackals. Still no obvious symptoms that perforation is imminent, but an oppressive feeling of foreboding hangs over me. This is it.

I have to think through the only possible way out to operate on. myself. No. It's almost impossible, but I can't just fold my arms and give up. I like the idea as well that he's also not telling his, like, other people there. He's like walking out of the canteen, like, all right? You get? Yeah, fine.

Oh, I don't know when I wrote this, but there's a really good quote coming later about that. Okay. He knew that if left untreated, his diseased appendixed, would quickly rupture and then burst, which would be as painful as it sounds, but also he would die without immediate surgery. Soon the vomiting was uncontrollable and it was clear his condition was getting worse. So, 36 hours after realizing something was wrong, he writes again later that day in his diary. 1830. I've never felt so awful in my entire life.

The building is shaking like a small toy in a storm. the guys have found out they keep coming by to calm me down and I'm upset with myself I've spoiled everyone's holiday tomorrow is Mayday and now everyone's running around preparing the autoclave

the autoclave I've googled it don't worry it's a steam sterilising machine that uses steam under pressure to kill harmful bacteria viruses fungi and spores on items that are placed inside of it we have to sterilise the bedding because we're going to operate

and then again at 8.30 he says 2030 I'm getting worse I've told the guys now they'll start taking everything we don't need out of the room they moved everything out of Rogasov's room leaving only his bed two tables and a table lamp the aerologists

who are people who study the atmosphere here we go Fedor Cabot I'm going to say Cabot no Carbot Carbot Carbot Carbot You don't even need to know their names

Why am I doing this Fadourgabot let's say And Robert Fishove Flood the room with ultraviolet lighting And sterilised the bed linen and instruments As well as Rogasov The Meteorologist Alexander Artemv

the mechanic Zinovi Teplinsky and the station director Vladislav Gurbovich are selected to undergo a sterilize wash. So you kind of got lost in the names there but two guys flood the room with ultraviolet lighting to sterilize it

there's a meteorologist a mechanic and a station director it's like a murder mystery all people you want in the operating room yeah so they're the ones they're actually going to be involved Rogasov explained how the operation would proceed he taught Artimev how to use

the retractors which would hold back the skin and then he assigned them all tasks so Artemv would hand him instruments Teplinsky would hold the mirror and adjust the lighting with the table lamp so he could see where he was cutting so he'd be looking in a mirror and then Gerbervich was there in reserve in case nausea overcame either of the assistants and they like collapsed or couldn't be there.

In the event that Rogasov lost consciousness, he instructed his team how to inject him with drugs using the syringes he had prepared and how to provide artificial ventilation to revive him. When the preparations were complete, Rogasov scrubbed and positioned himself. He chose a semi-reclining position with his right hip slightly elevated and the lower half of the body. elevated at an angle of 30 degrees. Then he disinfected and dressed the operating area and he anticipated needing to use his sense of touch to guide him so he decided to work without gloves.

The operation began at 2am local time. Rogasov first infiltrated the layers of abdomen wall with 20 milliliters of 0.5% procane, a local anaesthetic, using several injections. He couldn't use anything stronger because obviously usually you'd get... But he's got instruct them what to do it.

Well, oh no, he's doing it. They're not doing anything. They're passing him instruments. They're holding the mirror. But he is the only one doing the surgery. So he couldn't use anything stronger because he needed to be a lot. So he can only use local anaesthetic.

after 15 minutes he made a 10 to 12 centimetre and 5 inch deep incision on himself the visibility in the depth of the wound was not ideal sometimes he had to raise his head to obtain a better view or use the mirror but for the most part he worked by feel he then exposed the appendix and could see it in the mirror the extraordinary pain was accompanied need by waves of nausea, vertigo and a growing sense of weakness, which made it hard for him to keep a tight grip on the scalpel. After 30 to 40 minutes, he was having to start taking frequent short breaks, knowing that he

had to finish. And when he finally exposed the appendix, he could see that it had already begun to rupture and that there was like an ugly hole at the end of it, which was large enough for him to stick his thumb through, meaning that the operation was like not a moment overdue. So finally he removed the severely affected appendix. He applies antibiotics directly into the peritoneal. I hope I said that right.

There's so many words in this. Cavity and closed the wound. The operation itself lasted an hour and 45 minutes. Partway through Gerbervich, the standby, called in, oh, I didn't look up this one. This snuck through the net. Yuri Vershuggan He called him in to take photographs of the operation

and Gervic wrote in his diary that night when Rogasov made the incision and was manipulating his own innards as he removed the appendix his intestine gurgled which was highly unpleasant for us it made one want to turn away flee not look but I kept my head and stayed

Artemv and Toplinsky also held their places, although it later turned out they had both gone quite dizzy and were close to fainting. Rogasov himself was calm and focused on his work, but sweat was running down his face

and he frequently asked to Plinsky to wipe his forehead. The operation ended at 4 a.m. local time. By the end, Rogasov was very pale and obviously tired, but he finished everything off. So after the operation, he shows his assistance

how to wash and put away the instruments and other materials. He'd done everything he could do, exhausted and in great pain. He was carried out of the improvised operating room. He took sleeping tablets and soon passed out, leaving the others to just wait and see how it had gone. The next day, his temperature was 38.1 degrees, so still very high. He described his condition as moderately poor.

Just say poor. There's no shame in that. Don't need to be humble. Don't be humble about it. It's bad. It's real bad. It's a bad situation. Moderately poor.

I now feel bad for like any time a doctor has asked me like, on a scale of 1 to 10, how much does it hurt? Because I am not being moderate about it. He's like just describing British weather. Yeah. It's moderately poor. Also I love how they were like, you know what? We wanted to leave the room, but we thought, you know, probably should stay.

It's like, yeah, that's the least you could do. The least you can do is wipe the sweat from his brow. but like you do have to not pass out you're watching a man manipulate his own innards as they said and they're like you can't faint you can't even look away and they're and like also this guy is probably in like this weird kind of um adrenaline focus they're not they're just listening to his intestine gurgle

true I I can do it I can do it no um he didn't get better at first. But that's very normal after a long operation. Even one performed under the ideal conditions. But he continued taking antibiotics and after four days he finally

started to recover. His excretory function came back to normal. Yay. Life's greatest release. And signs of localized peritonitis disappeared. After five days his temperature was normal. After a week he removed the stitches, saw the wound

was clean and healing well and within two weeks he was able to return to his normal duties and to his diarate. So let's hear it from his point of view. Two weeks. So he writes on the 8th of May 1961. I didn't permit myself to think about anything other than the task at hand. It was necessary to steal myself, steal myself firmly and grit my teeth. In the event that I lost consciousness, I'd given Artemov a syringe and shown him how to give me an injection. I chose a half-sitting position. I explained to Tbilinski how to hold the mirror. I'm going to say, in the diary, he does say their first names, but just be thankful I can manage their second. My poor assistance, he says, exclamation mark. At the last minute, I looked over at them.

They stood there in their surgical whites, whiter than white themselves. I was scared too, but when I picked up the needle with the novacane and gave myself the first injection, somehow I automatically switched into operating mode, and from that point on, I didn't notice anything else. I worked without gloves. It was hard to see. The mirror helps, but it also hinders, after all. It's showing things backwards. I work mainly by touch. The bleeding is quite heavy, but I take my time. I try to work, surely. Opening the peritoneum, I injured the blind gut, which is the beginning of the large intestine, and had to sew it up. Suddenly, it flashed through my mind. There are more injuries here and I didn't notice them.

I grow weaker and weaker. My head starts to spin. Every four to five minutes, I rest for 20 to 25 seconds. Finally, here it is, the cursed appendage. He uses a lot of exclamation marks. He's given drama. With horror, I noticed the dark stain at its base. That means just a day longer and it would have burst.

and at the worst moment of removing the appendix I flagged my heart seized up and noticeably slowed my hands felt like rubber well I thought it was going to end badly and all that was left was removing the appendix and then I realized that basically I was already saved so that's from his diary after a month he was able to help with much of the heavy work that is routine on a polar research session. That's mental. Surely you just be like sit this one out. You know what? For the rest of the trip, you take it easy. Hey, there's only 12 of them. There's stuff to do. And he was fine. It took a while for the news of his pioneering self-surgery to travel back to Russia. But when it was reported, newspapers made him a hero. And even today, which I have

looked up, 62 years, four months and one day later, his story still continues to inspire young medical students. In the case report I read, it said, Leonid Rogasov's self-operation undertaken without any other medical professional around was a testament to determination and the will to survive. The team left Antarctica more than a year later and on the 29th of May 1962, their ship docked back at Leningrad Harbour. The next day, Rogosov returned to his work at the clinic. Shortly thereafter, he successfully defended his dissertation, the one about the esophagus. He worked and taught in the Department of General Surgery in the first Leningrad Medical Institute and he never returned to the Antarctic and he died in St. Petersburg as

Leningrad had then become on 21st of September 2000. Wow. So he like lived a full life no repercussions of this and in his latest years he rejected all glorification of his deed when thoughts like this were put to him he answered with a smile and the words a job like any other a life like any other that's mental

that's absolutely mentor and that is the story of the self-surgery by surgeon Leonid Ivanovich Rogerson wow well done on the names that was a very valiant effort there. It was names and medical terminology.

I feel my jaw is seized. I can't believe these people who like don't, who shun the opportunity to really revel in the fame of it. Yeah, if I'd done that, I'd be like, yeah, that was pretty cool actually. That was really cool of me. But I think they think it makes them cool or not. I mean, it definitely does.

Like the people who like pretend they don't get out, the people who pretend they have that. They're like, yeah, I did that and I don't. Yeah, it is much more humble. That's like the big power move, in it? Yeah, for sure. I'm just not that. I would be, I'd be like, yeah.

Oh, sorry, do you want me to come and tell you the story about how I perform surgery on myself? Well, that's why we're stand-up comedians, Julia. We go, attention, attention, attention. There'd be an Edinburgh show out of that, for sure. What are you putting in Survival Toolkit, though? Survival. Okay, Survival Toolkit. a mirror I guess you couldn't have done it without the mirror

ooh that's a good suggestion we can't put his like extensive surgical knowledge I mean a scalpel a scalpel yeah localized anesthetic that would just be quite nice I think

for the for the toolkit in general yeah it probably helped but I won yeah I wonder if he could have done it without the mirror I know he said that it was like it was kind of a hindrance because it was, and he did it mostly by touch. Yeah, but he did need it.

That's how he could see the appendix as he looked in the mirror. Okay. Should we go mirror? I'm going to, yeah, let's go mirror. Mirror. And like that's just handy to have in your bag anyway. Do you know what I mean? Exactly.

Listener stories. Give me the good stuff. But, dear, fill me up. Wow, you have perked up. Okay. Dear Abby, Julia, Loudrop and Neil. Love the podcast and really enjoying your stories as well as the listener stories. I'm a total homebird and don't have any tales of outdoorsy mishaps to share with you.

But I do have the tale of a near miss I had many years ago involving the improper use of a glass oven. dish. Maybe it could serve as a warning in case anyone else is stupid enough to do the same thing I did. Now, I have done something similar to this. So I take issue with your use of the word stupid there, but okay. I'm fine with it. In a long, narrow galley kitchen, an early 20s me was lovingly preparing a pasta bake for tea for myself and my then-fiance. Now, usually Hopefully that means now husband, but we don't know. Not how our listeners usually go. Usually does go the other way.

I'm sure you're familiar with the kind. Jar of sauce goes into the bowl, stir in dried pasta, stick in the oven for around an hour, and ovs cover with cheese, the standard. Lovely. Oh, God, I'm hungry. I was getting a dab hand at making these by this point, but it always frustrated me how long it took the sauce to come up to the boil once it had gone into the oven. And then in brackets, first world problem.

This day, I had an idea. I was already preheating the oven, so why not preheat the glass dish at the same time? Genius, no? Oven on max, not messing around, dish in the oven, and 15 minutes later, I took out a scorching hot dish and placed it on the worktop. I smugly poured the jar of cold That's not a wooden worktop Yeah I smugly poured the jar of cold sauce

into the hot dish thinking how quickly this bad boy was now going to cook and then I heard the distinct and concerning sound of glass cracking not just a crack but a crack crack crack sound kind of like when someone is about to fall through the ice

in a Tom and Jerry style cartoon. What happened next? I was in my story, Tom and Jerry. Oh, yeah. What happened next plays out in my head like a scene from die hard in slow motion as I dropped to the floor and rolled out of the narrow kitchen

in one smooth movement and ran over to the other side of the next room. Just in time to hear the explosion that took place behind me. I'm still not sure how I managed to get out of there so quickly. I am not what you would call an athletic type. In shock, I slowly returned to the kitchen to take stock of what had just happened.

Not only was there now orange pasta sauce all over the ceiling, units, cupboards and floor, but hundreds and hundreds of shards of what used to be a glass dish embedded in all of the hard surfaces due to force, due to the force of the explosion. I shuddered to think about what it would have done to my flesh if I'd stayed in the kitchen. so I am unscathed but lesson learned physics apparently I don't know how she thought just putting it in a hot dish would cook it anyway that's not how you cook stuff cold liquids you don't just heat the hob up then add the sauce and go ping done

it has to be in the ban cooking for a bit you don't just put it in a because then at that point you know why cook anything why not just microwave the bowl or the plate put cold food on it And that'll cook it, just a hot plate. I respect the out-of-the-box thinking, I do. It just doesn't, it makes no sense.

What, next time, next time you want fish and chips, what, you're just, you're just going to have raw potato and raw fish, put it on a hot plate, being battered. Is that how you think it works? This is how we innovate, okay? You have to think outside the body, you have to be prepared to have your flesh ripped apart by shards of class. This is what Darwin was talking about, okay?

This would have been a Darwin death. Yeah, for sure. So that's my tale. Also, on the topic of Mia's bruise from the listener stories episode, I definitely see a turtle. Poor turtle. A lot of people were saying, Tal. Tell was a popular choice.

I kind of saw a hippo the second time. Did you? Someone said something very dark. I haven't got my phone on me so I can't look. I think they were messing with us. We did invite that to be fair. We've almost instructed people to give us their darkest. If you haven't, check out WCSpod.com.

No, fuck off. WCSPod. Wow. Okay, Julia. Weirdly to end the episode. WCS Pod to see Mia's bruise and tell us what you can see in her bruise. That is from Kath in Cardiff. Thank you so much, Kath. Thanks, Kath.

I remember, so firstly, I have done this. I was making like a casserole kind of thing in a dish that I didn't realize had a glass top and without thinking I just put the top on the dish put it in and then the glass shattered and then the casserole was ruined. But also I remember

when I was in primary school my best friend's mum it was really icy and her windscreen was all iced over and we were in a rush somewhere i don't know where we were going so she went and got boiling water and poured boiling water on her um you would do that and did that not work no it cracked her windscreen whoa you can't go from like very very very cold to very very hot or very very hot to very very very cold with glass i swear i've pulled boiling water on my

maybe it's just been like warm water maybe it wasn't ever boy all right give us one more okay hi julia and abbey love the show a very short but sweet survival story of mine when i was about seven or eight i went to my best friend's house for a sleepover i managed to stay till midnight and then cried till my mum came and got me because i was that kid oh i hated that kid those kids always came to my sleepover and then and then everyone would leave i was like Isn't me? Because my friend and sister were older than me, so they had sleepovers before. So when I finally got to have my sleepover, I was so excited.

I was definitely like the first and youngest to have a sleepover in my class. And then every single one of my friends went home. I was like, you fucking pussies. What were you doing? Nothing. We were just playing games, sleeping, eating chocolate, all the fun sleepover stuff. I imagine that you're like... I tried my best to keep them.

I was like, another game. And no, guys, we can have fun. We can have fun. in my head you're like a dance instructor and you're like drilling them over and over again until you've got the dance right well you know this I did do on my birthday I made them all audition for a production of Annie and my birthday party and I got to be um miss Hannigan in the first half because it's the best part and then Annie in the second half because she's not really in it in the first in the second half you got to swap roles yeah but then also in a hard knock life I did play molly because she is the nice little solo a little sad bit right so it was it was it's a basically just like how can Arby do a one woman show of Annie and then everybody else just I just got to do the good bits I just wanted to do the it was my birthday sure yeah but they did have to audition as well because like you know not yeah god you've changed so much since then I have not at all but um Lauren I'm seeing her tonight and she was in that production and she's still

my friend so I offer something there you get she stayed at the the lifelong sleepover she's stuck around. Oh, that's nice. Hi, Lauren. She listens. She told me to it. She tells me she does, so let's see. Anyway, um, carry on. But before all that happened, so she's gone home, but before all that happened, we were in my friend's room and she was sitting on her top bunk and I was on the bottom bunk. I stood up to grab something from her dresser and seconds later, the whole top bunk

fell on top of the bottom one. Oh, no. I can't sit on a bottom. like in set brothers to this day to this day for fear of being squished please so no one was on it no one was no because she she had luckily just got just got up and then by the other way she would have been crushed under the weight of the top bunk that's terrifying that is the that's the fear though isn't it with the top bunk I imagine you're a top bunk my fear is um that they wet the bed oh and it trickles down yeah onto the bottom or have sex up there when you get all

older and it's like um who's sleeping in a double in a in a in a not go on like school trips where they were like residential like the geography trip or whatever and then you know like young people away from their parents off on a trip everyone's flirting yes yeah yeah yeah yeah i feel and also like you know i've never been in one but i've heard of hostels and uh heard of them um not for me not for me really but uh you do hear people yeah sharing rooms and getting up to all sorts yeah i don't want to be under that no no thank you clearly a top you are clearly a top bunk kind of girl yeah um please keep up the claustrophobic darren please give up the excellent podcasting you guys keep me company on long drives and it's

lovely kerris p s the other day i was watching the program alone on channel 4 oh my god i was going to message you about this have you seen alone oh my god so there was an american version oh my housemates were watching it the other day where someone goes out in the wilderness yeah yeah and it's whoever can last the longest people get people people need to get a home just join a choir you know join a choir that's the oh that's but then my housemates were like they win money and i was like oh yeah yeah and also they're like into it they're like survivalists they're all like wannabe bear grills I know but I just felt really bad for like their families.

They were leaving back. They were like, I just can't wait to just get out there away from my wife and children and anyone that I've ever kept. Like, just can't wait to be away from them all. I was like, Jesus Christ. Just, this is what I mean? Just have a once a week hobby. Have some space.

You don't need to ditch them entirely. Imagine, imagine if like your husband turned around to you and was just like, yeah, I just like fantasize about going to the woods for like a year and never seeing you or talking to you. And I'd be like, yeah, me too. I fantasize about that too. okay well you should go on the show I'm more of a

I want to be with you all the time kind of person love me um okay so yeah so alone on Channel 4 it's a survival reality show in Canada highly recommend anyways

there was talk of a bear on the show and I said to my husband that if you see a bear you have to speak to it And in my finest Julia impression, I did a, hey bear. He rolled his eyes at me and said he didn't believe me. And then, also, what the fuck? And then in the next segment, one of the contestants cracked out their very own hay bear. Oh, nice.

And my husband was flawed. And I've never felt so powerful and smug in my life. So thanks for that. Keras, you are absolutely welcome. But a classic man has to hear it from another man, eh? Right. Someone else. I don't hear it from you.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I really feel like we've achieved. You know when people are like, you know what? If I can, like when teachers are like, what's your legacy? If I can touch the life of one child or whatever, I will consider myself. Don't touch your children, do you?

Or if I can make an impact on one person. I feel like we've succeeded. with this podcast now. Yeah. We've been able to let one wife have a smug moment with her husband. And I'm here for it. Hey, bear.

Hey, bear. Shall we bye bear? Bye, bear. Hope you survive another week. And win more arguments with your husband. Please, please do. Get attacked by an angry shock. Struck up a mountain in the dark

Pushed up the top of a big landmark Hit by lightning in your local park Caught in a downpour about it rained Struck by meteorora train A proton beam passing through your brain Attacked by that angry shark again Hear how they survive Trappled by a herd of buffalo

Chaste with an axe by your new friend Joe Burried alive in a pile of snow The worst case scenario My name is Ryan. This is my best friend Tony, and together we do the Tony and Ryan podcast, and people right across Canada, they listen to our show. Now, Stacey and Marley, you guys are sisters and pretty competitive. Can you tell us who listens more? Oh, it's definitely me. No. We will text each other through the day saying, hey, have you listened to the pod yet? So it's something that even we talk about as sisters,

what was talked about on the pod. So when you finish listening to this legendary podcast, check out us, Tony and Ryan.