Thanksgiving Disasters — And How to Avoid Them

Across the country, families and friends are preparing for the most American of all holidays: Thanksgiving. In the best of times, it’s a day filled with gratitude, delicious food, and time spent with loved ones. But let’s face it — the festivities don’t always go as planned. Medical issues, travel hiccups, family feuds, and mishaps in the kitchen can all get in the way of having a great turkey day.

On this special episode of The Pulse, we explore a range of potential Thanksgiving disasters and collect expert tips on how to avoid them. We hear stories about real holiday catastrophes, along with advice on how to cook the perfect turkey, navigate family conflict, and deal with problems ranging from canceled flights to avian flu.

Also heard on this week’s episode:

• Food scientist Nathan Myhrvold shares his tips for how to cook the perfect Thanksgiving turkey — including the science behind achieving a beautifully caramelized exterior without drying out the breast meat. Delve deeper with Myhrvold’s six-volume cookbook, “Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking.”
• Journalist Ronnie Polaneczky shares the story of her first time hosting Thanksgiving, and the memorable — and unconventional — menu choice that terrified her daughter, and remains part of their family lore two decades later.
• Thanksgiving means lots of time with extended family — and that can quickly translate to conflict. We talk with psychologist Dan Gottlieb about how to prepare yourself and navigate family friction without losing your mind. Gottlieb is a family therapist who’s written several books, including “The Wisdom We’re Born With.”
• Deep-fried turkeys have garnered popularity in recent years for their quick cooking time and delicious results — but, as YouTube videos have revealed, they can also blow up in your face … literally. Theoretical astrophysicist Ethan Siegel explains the physics behind why frozen turkeys can cause an explosion when they hit hot oil, and how to avoid disaster. Siegel is a science communicator who writes the blog “Starts with a Bang,” focused on physics, astronomy, and the nature of the universe.
• We talk with two emergency medicine docs, Drew Kalnov and Matthew Delaney, about the most common injuries they see on Thanksgiving, and how to avoid them. Kalnov works at the Ohio Health Doctors Hospital in Columbus, and co-hosts the podcast EM Over Easy, and Delaney is a professor of emergency medicine at the University of Alabama Birmingham.