Today we talk about solar storms, the violent cosmic tempests that prove our peaceful sun is actually a sleeping giant.

Every eleven years, the sun’s magnetic field flips, initiating a cycle that can trigger massive eruptions of superheated plasma aimed directly at Earth. In this episode, we’re counting down the most powerful geomagnetic storms in recorded history. We map the timeline from the legendary 1859 Carrington Event - which set telegraph offices on fire and brought the northern lights to the tropics - to the 1967 Cold War scare that almost triggered a nuclear war, right down to the massive May 2024 Mother's Day storm that illuminated our modern skies.

We’re examining how these coronal mass ejections travel across the solar system, the unique technological chaos they leave in their wake, and what a direct hit from a "super-sto ...