Twisters and the history of modern day stormchasing

I still remember seeing Twister in 1996. I recall questions then over how someone could make a movie about a tornado.¹ I remember that Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt were unlikely leads for a summer film (but goodness were the perfect). I remember the cow. And I remember that it was LOUD.²

Twister proved to be an unlikely box office smash, earning $494.6 million dollars that year, finishing second only to Independence Day. I like to think in some ways it turned America’s attention to the Great Plains in a positive way. I got to live in Wichita, Kansas for about five years—a stone’s throw from the area in both films—and though I tease sometimes, I must tell you that the folks out there are as good as they come.

So when Twisters was announced, I was cautiously optimistic. After all, tornadoes have a bit of a dinosaur problem—there’s only so much you can do with them. But like its predecessor, it has a stellar cast and is directed by Lee Isaac Chung, the man behind Minari. I’m happy to tell you, this is a good movie.

We’re welcoming back the amazing Kate Carpenter this week. You probably remember her from the Horizon episode a few weeks back but more likely because she’s a kick ass scholar in her own right. Kate actually came to me about doing this pod since she is literally writing her dissertation about the history of storm chasing at some school called Princeton.³ Kate has already written a few pieces on both Twister and Twisters, but you’re not allowed to read them until after you’re done with this page.

In this episode we talk a lot about Kate’s research into the history of storm chasing, the roles that tornadoes play in the ecosystem, and how climate change is affecting Tornado Alley. In the excerpt below, Kate talks about the linkages between climate change and the storms we see in Twisters.

We of course talk about the movie and if you haven’t seen it, we don’t spoil the movie until about halfway in. Instead we set the stage for you guys, giving you the background information on the history and science behind Twisters before going into a spoiler filled conversation about what the film does right, where it takes liberties, and our favorite parts. You can find the podcast right below. I hope you like it.

And hey this YouTube Channel is new so please like and subscribe- once we get to 500 subscribers we’ll be able to do some different kinds of stuff with YouTube. We’re getting close now.

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About our guest

Kathryn (Kate) Carpenter is a PhD candidate in History of Science at Princeton University whose research focuses on the intersection of environmental history and history of science. Her dissertation is a social and scientific history of storm chasing in the United States since the 1950s. It draws on archival sources, scientific publications, photographs and videos created by storm chasers, popular culture, and oral histories to examine how both professional meteorologists and weather enthusiasts created a community that became central both to our understanding of severe storms and to the cultural identity of the Great Plains.

Kate holds a 2023-2024 Charlotte Elizabeth Proctor Honorific Fellowship from Princeton University. From 2022-2023, her work was supported by the Graduate Fellowship in the History of Science from the American Meteorological Society, and in 2021-2022 she held the Taylor-Wei Dissertation Research Fellowship in the History of Meteorology from the University of Oklahoma History of Science. She has also been awarded travel fellowships including the Andrew W. Mellon Travel Fellowship from the University of Oklahoma, the Summer Dissertation Grant from the Princeton American Studies program, and two awards with outstanding merit from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Women’s Council Graduate Assistance Fund.

Kate’s master’s thesis focused on water, public land access, and health at Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas. An article based on this research, “Cesspools, Springs, and Snaking Pipes(Link is external),” was published by Technology’s Stories as a Best Early Career Paper.

In addition to her academic research, Kate is a writer and public historian. Her work has been published in Contingent Magazine(Link is external) and the Cleveland Review of Books(Link is external). She has curated several historical exhibits, including Making History: Kansas City and the Rise of Gay Rights(Link is external), which was award the NCPH Student Project Award and the Midwestern History Association Alice Smith Prize in Public History. She is the creator and host of the Drafting the Past(Link is external) podcast, which has been downloaded more than 50,000 times since its launch in 2022 and is used in college classrooms across the country.

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Alright, thanks for being here. If you’re digging the podcast, please do consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. They really help us as we try to attract a new and larger audience. But most importantly, take care of yourselves.

J

1. This was before someone realized you could put sharks in them, obviously.

2. I also remember having a metabolism that could handle Milk Duds and a Coke and not have the effect of shaking the earth when I left the theater.

3. It’s the Minnesota of Jersey.