On a holy morning in 1755, with churches packed full of worshippers, the earth split open beneath Lisbon, the sea drained away, and a city-crushing tsunami and firestorm followed. It was an apocalyptic reset that reshaped human history.

This episode recounts the triple catastrophe of earthquake, tsunami, and fire, then explores what came next: a ruthless rebuilding effort, the birth of earthquake engineering, and a philosophical earthquake that shattered Enlightenment optimism and pushed humanity toward science over pure theology.

• The geology of the offshore fault and why the sea pulled back before the tsunami struck
• Energy so vast that waves reached Cornwall, Ireland, North Africa, the Caribbean, and Brazil
• The Marquis of Pombal’s brutal pragmatism: burying the dead at sea and hanging looters
• Pombaline architecture and the flexible wooden cage tested by marching soldiers
• How the disaster fueled Voltaire’s Candide and pushed Kant toward early seismology