646: The Secret of My Death
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What childhood experiment does the host recall that nearly killed him?
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Graham grew up in a working class town in the north of England. And when he was eleven or twelve, his family moved into one of the first houses in a new development that was being built. And it was kind of hitting the jackpot for him at that age.
was so incredibly fun.
This became my new playground.
This is Graham.
So I would, you know, climb on the scaffolding, do a bit of kind of amateur gymnastics, but also build stuff. And the big thing amongst us kids was lighting fires. And you know, there was tar paper, it was one thing that burnt very nicely.
There's actually all kinds of trouble to get into, bricks and boards to play with and wet concrete to write in. They'd find food the workers left, and cigarettes which they would smoke. Once I found a porn magazine. And one day Graham was there alone and he had this great idea. He put together a little makeshift seesaw, or as he calls it, a teeter totter, with a plank of wood balanced on a brick at the center. He put another brick on one end of the plank. And his idea was to drop something really heavy. Really, really heavy. Onto the other end of the plank, from a great height. to find out just how far he could send that brick catapulting into space. So to accomplish this he set up his teeter totter by some scaffolding.
So I climbed up on the scaffolding and I carried up this kinda p massive piece of curbing stone. I'm guessing around twenty five pounds. So you are how high up? Probably at the sort of second floor window level. Um, so what, fifteen feet, twelve feet?
He carefully tries to line up the stone directly above the near end of the seesaw, below down on the ground. And then He dropped the stone.
It it landed perfectly. I really had lined this up pretty well and The brick launched. And The following few moments are probably the most vivid memory I have of my childhood. I was obviously watching to see what the brick would do, 'cause that was the experiment really to to sort of follow that in its in its journey. But the brick. It
didn't move it out like you thought. Instead. It just seemed to be getting bigger. And bigger.
I now have an image in my head of this brick just getting larger and larger as it headed right towards my face. I I even remember very vividly that the brick had uh the construction of the brick had three circular holes in it and I can still picture them now as they headed towards me.
In a kind of slow motion way.
Yes, very much so. I feel like that memory is minutes when obviously it was just not even a second. So I I believe instinctively jerked my head back as this brick came directly towards my face. And I have a very clear memory of the kind of sound and the wind and even I believe the brick As it flew past me, flicked my fringe.
Different hair.
Yeah, and it it sort of whistled as it went. Uh even when I throw my dog's ball now, which has a little whistle device in it, that memory comes back to me.
This moment was stunning. Like nothing like this had ever happened to him.
And I remember having to sit down for actually quite a few minutes to recover. I really felt like, you know, s and probably for the first time that, you know, I was inches away from death. And I remember walking home in some state of shock afterwards.
You know, I used to wonder if if the brick had actually hit me and killed me. You know, uh you know, maybe I'd fallen off the scaffolding or something. I used to wonder, you know, when the the crime scene investigators came to look, what what would they make of the whole setup?
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What childhood experiment does the host recall that nearly killed him?
0:00–8:43
2
How does Nadia Bowers describe the mysterious death of her sister Sasha?
8:43–14:54
3
What clues does Nadia uncover about Sasha’s life, addiction, and autopsy?
14:54–23:30
4
Why does the story of comedian Dave Maher raise questions about digital after‑life?
23:30–30:28
5
What happens to a Facebook profile after the owner dies?
30:28–39:48
6
Why does a stranger attend Eddie Ferlani’s funeral and what does he learn?
39:48–49:00
7
How does Charlie’s essay reveal the hidden truth behind the military funeral?
49:00–1:00:21
8
What resources and take‑aways does the episode provide for listeners dealing with loss?
1:00:21–1:06:02