History Podcast / WellTheresYourProblem

* AccidentallyCorrectWriting: In-universe example. In the MS Estonia episode, Justin had drawn a course for the ship with a ridiculously squiggly line complete with an unnecessary loop as a joke, only for November to inform him that ship courses are surprisingly close to that in real life.

''[[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPxHg4192hLDpTI2w7F9rPg Well There's Your Problem]]'' is an engineering/politics/dark comedy podcast that covers the background, events and fallout of engineering disasters throughout the ages, in particular what faults directly led to the disaster. Originally a side-project of structural engineer Justin "Roz" Roczniak on his [=YouTube=] channel donoteat01 (which uses ''VideoGame/CitiesSkylines'' to showcase urban planning), the podcast features Justin, his former roommate and systems analyst Liam McAnderson[[note]]"Yay, Liam!"[[/note]], pessimistic futurist November[[note]]formerly Alice prior to episode 152[[/note]] Kelly (educated in law and coal engineering, from the ''Podcast/TrashFuture'' podcast) as well as Editor Devon, [[AndZoidberg and the 'Activate Windows' alert on Justin's PC]] (and sometimes Guest) as they pick apart, contextualize and make a ''lot'' of risque jokes about historical failures of engineering from a leftist perspective.

''[[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPxHg4192hLDpTI2w7F9rPg Well There's Your Problem]]'' is an engineering/politics/dark comedy podcast that covers the background, events and fallout of engineering disasters throughout the ages, in particular what faults directly led to the disaster. Originally a side-project of structural engineer Justin "Roz" Roczniak on his [=YouTube=] channel donoteat01 (which uses ''VideoGame/CitiesSkylines'' to showcase urban planning), the podcast features Justin, his former roommate and systems analyst Liam Anderson[[note]]"Yay, Liam!"[[/note]], pessimistic futurist November[[note]]formerly Alice prior to episode 152[[/note]] Kelly (educated in law and coal engineering, from the ''Podcast/TrashFuture'' podcast) as well as Editor Devon, [[AndZoidberg and the 'Activate Windows' alert on Justin's PC]] (and sometimes Guest) as they pick apart, contextualize and make a ''lot'' of risque jokes about historical failures of engineering from a leftist perspective.

** Justin initial introduces the "Safety Third" segment to highlight cases where personal responsibility would ''not'' have averted a close call with danger, specifically as a TakeThat to Creator/MikeRowe and his personal responsibility messages.

* [[Take That, Audience!]]: borrowing from Trashfuture's playbook, listeners are derisively referred to as "the hogs".

* TestosteronePoisoning: Discussed. One of November's {{Catch Phrase}}s is "Dudes rock.", its meaning ranging from
needless masculine bravado to an expression of adoration over someone's willingness to act goofy.

* ArtisticLicenseMilitary: Discussed frequently due to the huge amount of variables in any historical recreation. The Bonus episode on swords features Doctor Mark Geldof who mentions that real historians are "comfortable with ambiguity" because of how difficult it is to say specific events did or didn't happen with respect to history

* AuthorTract: Half the point of the show, being a fusion of engineering history and leftist historical and material analysis (cushioned in a lot of jokes). The show doesn't so much 'turn political' as 'occasionally forgetting to be when going into engineering detail'.

* BodyHorror: Distressingly common when discussing disasters involving fragile human bodies and extremely heavy objects made of steel, wood, concrete, or earth. The Byford Dolphin ExplosiveDecompression incident is one such example, but any disaster where the hosts suggest "You wanted to die quickly in this one" tends to qualify

* BrickJoke: Episode 34 features an altered final slide, implying that the unidentifed Gladio operative responsible for the Bologna train station bombing was also responsible for the Tacoma Narrows Bridge disaster.

** "Blimp" is called one in the Hindeburg disaster episode.

*** Liam also takes credit for the defeat of the Nazis in WW2, saying "You're welcome!" and bragging about bombing runs.

* TestosteronePoisoning: Discussed. One of November's {{Catch Phrase}}s is "Dudes rock." She says it when pointing out needless bravado as the main reason why a obviously bad decision was made, chalking it up to wanting to appear manly and/or not wanting to appear weak.

''[[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPxHg4192hLDpTI2w7F9rPg Well There's Your Problem]]'' is an engineering/politics/dark comedy podcast that covers the background, events and fallout of engineering disasters throughout the ages, in particular what faults directly led to the disaster. Originally a side-project of structural engineer Justin "Roz" Roczniak on his [=YouTube=] channel donoteat01 (which uses ''VideoGame/CitiesSkylines'' to showcase urban planning), the podcast features Justin, his former roommate and systems analyst Liam Anderson[[note]]"Yay, Liam!"[[/note]], pessimistic futurist November Kelly (educated in law and coal engineering, from the ''Podcast/TrashFuture'' podcast) as well as Editor Devon, [[AndZoidberg and the 'Activate Windows' alert on Justin's PC]] (and sometimes Guest) as they pick apart, contextualize and make a ''lot'' of risque jokes about historical failures of engineering from a leftist perspective.

* AccidentallyCorrectWriting: In-universe example. In the MS Estonia episode, Justin had drawn a course for the ship with a ridiculously squiggly line complete with an unnecessary loop as a joke, only for Alice to inform him that ship courses are surprisingly close to that in real life.

* AmericaWonWorldWarII: Frequently invoked by Liam, usually towards Alice or any non-American guest.

'''Alice:''' Taxes!\\

'''Alice:''' Taxes ''on'' grain!

** Alice: "Dudes rock." when pointing out [[TestosteronePoisoning needless bravado]] as the main reason why a decision was made.

** In episode 31, Alice notices that the logo for ''The God Damn News'' seems to be getting blurrier with every episode. Justin confirms that he has been in fact copying it from the previous episode since the introduction of the segment and would probably decay until it reaches a single pixel of resolution.

** Discussed in a non-engineering context in Episode 109, with Rhodesian and Zimbabwean soldiers both wearing sneakers in battle. Alice argues that wearing sneakers for insurgency and counter-insurgency are more effective than combat boots, which provide ankle support and better protection from the elements in rough terrain but are heavy and noisy to move in as a result.

* CulturalPosturing: A frequent part of the show is Justin, Liam, and Alice good-naturedly sniping at each other over their respective cultures.

* DisasterDominoes: Removal of safety systems (often to save money or time on maintenance) are a common feature of the run-up to the disasters in question, to the point where during the Bhopal episode Alice explicitly compared the isolation of one to pulling a block out of a Jenga stack.

** The show started out usually sticking to a 60-90-minute length at worst, but starting with Bhopal (which was split into two 90-minute halves) extra long episodes passing 120 minutes have become increasingly common. The longest regular episode so far (on the Titanic) runs for a grand total of 335 minutes across two parts, with Alice joking the episode is karma for the Gulf State episode below.
** Episode 54 (on Gulf State Vanity Projects) ran so long that Alice tried to forcibly end it by doing a closing speech. Justin soldiered on anyway (to what is ''thankfully'' the last slide).

** Ego: Alice. [[DeadpanSnarker Deadpan Snarker]]. A bit more emotionally charged than Justin but much less than...

** In the Le Mans episode (Episode 45), Alice gets quite the kick out of "berms."

* JokeAndReceive: On occasion, Alice or Liam will jokingly suggest a ridiculous engineering solution, only for Justin to explain that, yes, people actually did try that. For example, in their episode on the Ashtabula Horror, when Justin mentions how early railroad practices were based off ones for canals, Alice makes a joke about canal locks for trains, prompting Justin to explain that there was indeed a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_railway system that could in fact be described as canal locks for trains]].

* LighterAndSofter: The bonus episodes fall into this as DoomItYourself projects tend not to hurt many people beyond the builder's pride. There's also the episode on the Atmospheric Railway, which Alice described as a 'palette cleanser' after realizing its AwesomeButImpractical nature meant it never left the pilot project stage and thus never had a chance to hurt anyone, beyond a hypothetical horde of rats that got sucked into its pipes and one terrified railway engineer who unexpectedly set a new land speed record when the system was turned on while the "engine" was disconnected from the rest of the train.
* LikeAnOldMarriedCouple: Rocz and Liam have a tendency to bicker in this fashion since they have been friends since college and formerly roommates. Alice even called this trope by name during their first live show.

* NoJustNoReaction: During the episode on the Byford Dolphin accident, this was Alice's response when Justin began describing the effects of ExplosiveDecompression on the divers.

** Grenfell Tower had one stairwell and no sprinkler system in ''2017,'' which both of the American presenters found genuinely shocking, only compounded with Alice noting that in the UK sprinkler systems are almost non-existent.

* NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer: When the fire alarm in Alice's building goes off during the episode on the Station Nightclub fire.

* RecklessGunUsage: The Safety Third segment from Episode 95 features a pair of these stories, to the great amusement of the crew (especially Alice, who had been in the Cadets at school).
* RedOniBlueOni: Liam is the red to Justin and Alice's blue.

** [[OnceAnEpisode Every episode]] begins with a pronoun check of the three hosts and any eventual guests. [[note]]Justin is 'he/him', Liam is 'he/him', Alice is 'she/her', and editor Devon is they/them.[[/note]]

** Alice responding "just make it stronger/more rigid" when a structure that is made to bend slightly under load is brought up. Justin's explanations that this would make the structure ''more'' dangerous never persuade her.
** Alice quantifying project budgets and compensation settlements in terms of how many Xboxes that money could buy.

** Alice controls the sound drops. Aside from the music for "The God Damn News" and "Safety Third" segments, she occasionally throws in the Soviet National Anthem[[note]]when the Soviet Union does something silly/awesome[[/note]], and "The East Is Red".

** Whenever a person/place involved in the disaster has an unusual name that sounds made-up, Alice's reaction upon hearing it for the first time is usually a dismissive "No, it's not!" This also extends to oddly-named towns/streets/people in her home country, to which we usually get a tired "Is Britain ''real''?"
** "The [bodily function] that changes you as a person" which Alice points out as having entered their shared lexicon.

-->'''Alice:''' BRIDGE HAS CRACK STOP. Ah, the crack in the bridge has stopped.
* TemptingFate: The Atmospheric Railway episode was a LighterAndSofter episode that Alice referred to as a "palette cleanser", unless the next slide showed that the railway killed 500 people. Luckily Fate didn't come to collect on this one because the answer is none; although the rats don't make out so well.
* TestosteronePoisoning: Discussed. One of Alice's {{Catch Phrase}}s is "Dudes rock." She says it when pointing out needless bravado as the main reason why a obviously bad decision was made, chalking it up to wanting to appear manly and/or not wanting to appear weak.

** Every time Justin tries to pronounce a European name you can hear Liam and Alice groan a little.

** In later episodes, Liam and Alice start reacting with trepidation whenever Justin says a specific date, as it signals that the disaster under discussion is about to occur. Even more so if he mentions time as well (the hosts later would joke that the specificity of the date and time mentioned dictates the severity of the disaster).
** Relatedly, Alice ''hates'' when death tolls are given as estimations, since that inevitably indicates that the disaster was violent enough to result in scattered human remains instead of distinct bodies.

* UglyCute: In-universe, Alice describes the Morgantown personal transit system with such terms in the "Las Vegas Loop" episode.

''[[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPxHg4192hLDpTI2w7F9rPg Well There's Your Problem]]'' is an engineering/politics/dark comedy podcast that covers the background, events and fallout of engineering disasters throughout the ages, in particular what faults directly led to the disaster. Originally a side-project of structural engineer Justin "Roz" Roczniak on his [=YouTube=] channel donoteat01 (which uses ''VideoGame/CitiesSkylines'' to showcase urban planning), the podcast features Justin, his former roommate and systems analyst Liam Anderson[[note]]"Yay, Liam!"[[/note]], pessimistic futurist Alice Caldwell-Kelly (educated in law and coal engineering, from the ''Podcast/TrashFuture'' podcast) as well as Editor Devon, [[AndZoidberg and the 'Activate Windows' alert on Justin's PC]] (and sometimes Guest) as they pick apart, contextualize and make a ''lot'' of risque jokes about historical failures of engineering from a leftist perspective.

* OutsideContextProblem: Discussed quite heavily in in the episode covering the Cavalese Cable Car Disaster, specifically in how it applies to the field of engineering. There are certain problems and disasters that while ''technically'' possible, are so unlikely that it's absurd to assume that an engineer even considered them, much less designed for them. Like say... [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill a fighter jet flying through the lines of a cable car at over 500 mph.]]

* OutsideContextProblem: Discussed quite heavily in Episode 112, which covers the Cavalese Cable Car Disaster, specifically in how in how it applies to the field of engineering. There are certain problems and disasters that while ''technically'' possible, are so unlikely that it's absurd to assume that an engineer even considered them, much less designed for them. Like say... [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill a fighter jet flying through the lines of a cable car at over 500mph.]]