This, Again

In 1949, the royal vaults of Baroda were supposed to be sealed, transferred to the new Indian state as part of a complex and delicate independence process. But when an audit revealed that hundreds of crown jewels had vanished, suspicion fell on one woman: the Maharani of Baroda, Sita Devi.A woman as notorious as she was glamorous, Sita Devi didn’t just smuggle the jewels out of India. She wore them on magazine covers, flaunted them in Monte Carlo casinos, and lived a life of velvet defiance while

When the world is burning, the most powerful people often have one job: show up. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it’s too little, too late. And sometimes, they don’t bother at all.In this episode of This, Again, we’re looking at three centuries of leaders who vanished when their people needed them most — and what that absence cost them. From Marie Antoinette’s balcony gamble during the French Revolution, to Tsar Nicholas II’s abdication and brutal end, to Emperor Hirohito’s eerie silence and single

A luxurious nightclub filled with palm fronds and politicians. A festival stage surrounded by screams. In this episode, we revisit two events separated by 80 years—but united by a chilling truth: when crowds gather, things can turn deadly fast.We start with the Cocoanut Grove fire of 1942, a catastrophe that claimed 492 lives in just ten minutes. Locked exits. Flammable ceilings. One of Hollywood’s biggest cowboy stars. Then, we jump forward to Astroworld 2021—another event where the warnings were

On January 28, 1986, millions watched as the Space Shuttle Challenger lifted off with a teacher on board—only to explode 73 seconds later. Thirty-seven years later, five passengers dove toward the Titanic wreck in OceanGate’s Titan submersible—never to return.What connects these two tragedies? Not just technology or risk, but human psychology: normalcy bias, diffusion of responsibility, and the seductive power of a good story. In this episode of This, Again, Mallory Faust takes you through the

We all know the story of Salem: young girls pointing fingers, women dragged to the gallows, and a community unraveling. But the real terror? It wasn’t the witches. It was the certainty. In this episode of This, Again?, we dig into the Salem witch trials—not just what happened, but why it happened, and why it keeps happening. We explore the deep-rooted fear that gave rise to the Malleus Maleficarum, the mass hysteria of 1692, and the frightening parallels in our own era—from viral accusations to the

History doesn’t just echo — it screams. This, Again is a podcast about the disasters, delusions, downfalls, and bizarre evolutions that prove humans don’t really change…we just change outfits. I’m Mallory Faust, and in every episode, I dig into the psychology behind the moments when people got it wrong — from witch trials to cult devotion, space shuttles to parties gone fatally wrong. Why do we keep falling for the same tricks, ignoring the same warnings, repeating the same mistakes? You may think