Oct 19, 2026 · 38 min
Three catastrophic years reshaped civilization in unexpected ways
Introducing WHAT THE FACT with Connor Tomlinson and Carter Roy, a new Rewind podcast!
The episode shows how volcanic winters, plague, and famine can destroy societies while accelerating cultural and political change.
- 1The 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora triggered a global volcanic winter, famine, food riots, and creative responses in 1816.
- 2The Black Death devastated Europe but increased surviving workers’ leverage, weakening serfdom and helping set conditions for the Renaissance.
- 3The combined climate crisis and Justinianic Plague of 536 undermined Byzantine power and helped usher in the medieval era.
Don't miss
The hosts reconstruct 536 as a prolonged environmental and biological catastrophe, using glacier ice cores to identify volcanic evidence for its darkness and cold.
The brief
Connor Tomlinson and Carter Roy frame history as a contest between three catastrophic years, asking which was worst while tracking how disaster can produce lasting change.
In 1816, ash from Mount Tambora caused a volcanic winter, failed harvests, famine, food riots, and deadly weather across much of the world.
The same freezing summer helped inspire Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Lord Byron’s Darkness, and the bicycle, showing catastrophe’s strange creative legacy.
The Black Death brought mass death and crude medical responses, but the labor shortage that followed weakened serfdom and helped remake Europe.
The hosts rank 536 as the most severe candidate: prolonged darkness and cold, followed by plague, weakened Justinian’s empire and ended an era.
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