Answer extracted from the This American Life podcast — listen to the full episode below.
What happens when a child drops a heavy object from height onto a makeshift seesaw and narrowly escapes death?
An 11-year-old boy in northern England dropped a roughly 25-pound curbing stone from about 15 feet onto a homemade teeter-totter he had built at a construction site. The brick launched toward his face at what felt like slow motion, and he instinctively jerked his head back as it whistled past him, missing him by inches. He sat down for several minutes to recover, realizing he had come inches away from death.
A Construction Site Playground Gone Wrong
When Graham was about 11 or 12 years old, his family moved into one of the first houses in a new residential development being built in northern England. Construction sites became his playground—scaffolding beckoned for climbing, leftover materials offered endless building possibilities, and the sense of adventure was irresistible. As he recalls it, the episode documents how children like Graham would scavenge for treasures among the building rubble, from cigarettes to food the workers left behind.
One day, alone on the site, Graham had an idea that felt brilliant at the time. He assembled a simple lever system using a plank of wood balanced on a brick at the center—a makeshift seesaw, or as he calls it, a teeter-totter. He placed another brick on one end and then climbed the scaffolding to the second-floor window level carrying a massive curbing stone weighing approximately 25 pounds. His plan was to drop it onto the opposite end of the plank from height to see how far the brick would catapult.
He lined up the stone directly above the near end of the seesaw below. The drop was perfectly executed. The stone landed exactly where he intended, and the physics worked precisely as Graham had calculated—the brick launched into the air with tremendous force.
An Instinct That Saved His Life
What happened next remained etched in Graham's memory as the most vivid moment of his childhood. The brick launched toward his head at what he describes as feeling like slow motion, even though it was traveling at lethal speed. In an instantaneous reaction, he jerked his head back. The brick whistled past his face, missing him by mere inches.
Had that instinctive movement not happened—had he stood motionless watching his experiment unfold—the curb stone would have struck him directly. The impact at that velocity and weight would almost certainly have been fatal. Instead, he sat down for several minutes, his body processing what had just occurred. He had genuinely come within an inch or two of death, the result of a childhood experiment that seemed harmless until the moment it nearly wasn't.
For more context on this harrowing childhood moment and the broader story surrounding it, listen to the full episode on Listenly.
See also
Why did the label 'boyfriend' feel uncomfortable or significant to Sarah in her relationship with Ethan?
Sarah explained that putting a label on the relationship felt like entering a long tunnel — it could last a long time, which was scary.
What happened when Janet McNamara asked her psychiatrist about a possible autism diagnosis?
When Janet brought up the possibility of autism with her psychiatrist, he administered a test and then told her that people with Asperger's generally have certain characteristics that matched her profile.
How did Janet McNamara first encounter the possibility that she might be autistic?
Janet McNamara, a comedian performing in Boston, was approached after a show by the owner of a comedy club called Dick Dougherty's Comedy Vault, who suggested she might be on the autism spectrum.