Why do we picture a tsunami as a giant, cinematic wave, when the reality is far more deceptive—and far more dangerous?
In this episode of No One Is Coming, Lance Still explores the terrifying physics of tsunamis and the hidden history buried right beneath our feet. From the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami to the 2011 Tōhoku disaster in Japan, we look at what happens when the sea stops behaving like the sea and becomes a fast-moving, destructive flood.
The episode also uncovers how a catastrophe can disappear from living memory while its evidence remains behind—in coastal soil, ghost forests, geological records, and Indigenous oral histories. Scientists can read those traces centuries later, reconstructing disasters that entire communities once knew firsthand.
From there, we turn to the human side of survival. Why do people sometimes hesitate when every minute matters? What happens when we wait for confirmation instead of trusting the warning signs in front of us? You’ll hear how a little bit of knowledge helped save an entire beach in Thailand, how a 12-year-old girl helped evacuate a Chilean village in the middle of the night, and why preparedness is less about predicting every contingency than knowing enough to recognize when something has changed.
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No One Is Coming is survival for the non-camo crowd: a documentary podcast about disasters, uncertainty, and what ordinary people can do before the plan falls apart.
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