Doomed Planet

#063: People are dying young from drugs in the Appalachian town of Athens, Ohio. PLUS: Seattle's upcoming election pits do-nothing servant of plutocrats Bruce Harrell against sender of cherries Lorena Gonzalez in the Mayor's race. Fearless abolitionist Nicole Thomas-Kennedy is running against clueless right wing nincompoop Ann Davison to become City Attorney. Sweet times!

#062: After a severe bout of COVID-19 Lisa Steadman returned home from the hospital to find her husband dead (of COVID) and decomposing. Did their chihuahuas start eating him? And why were they unvaccinated? A peek into the world (or at least Facebook page) of a right wing fundamentalist Trump CHUD with a crippled sense of self-awareness and no understanding of privacy, class consciousness or scie...

#061: It's hard to do a monthly obituary podcast when nobody is dying on you, except for Jackie Mason and Dusty Hill - the guy from ZZ Top. Perhaps we'll have better luck in August. Know somebody who kicked it recently? Contact us! doomedplanetpod@gmail.com

#060: Car Dealer Billy Fuccillo (January 9, 1956 – June 17, 2021) had a slogan for his TV commercials: "it's huge!" His carbon footprint was also huge.

#058: Vicky Cornell has turned the estate of her rock star husband into a lucrative cash cow. A brutal, hard-boiled look at the life, death and afterlife of Chris Cornell: handsome Seattle rock god, brilliant singer and songwriter, competent guitar player and multi-millionaire ... bad chooser of trophy wives. UPDATE: Thanks Jason Ridgen for pointing out that using Soundgarden's copyrighted music i...

#057: Ruminations on the demise of artists Edward Gorey and Charles Schulz, wine critic Tom Stockley and young person Jeff Tilroe. Plus: my Joe Rogan alcohol poisoning experience, the bad art of war criminal G. W. Bush and Chelsea Clinton's punk rock band. "Death is an important part of our existence. If people lived forever a bunch of 10,000 year old dicks would be running things."

#056: Communist Teen discusses recent celebrity deaths including "neolib creep" Larry King, "immoral casino gangster and Republican" Sheldon Adelson, "capitalist psychopath" Phil Spector and Hank Aaron: "kids today don't care about sports, especially baseball." Give us some Twitter love: @DoomedPlanetPOD www.doomedplanet.com  

#055: Swarms of biting insects, oppressive heat and humidity, over 100,000 mostly white, conservative retirees who drink, drug and drive around in golf carts ... welcome to The Villages! COVID-19 has run rampant in this Florida retirement community full of anti-maskers. "Villagers" voted overwhelmingly for Trump in 2020. "If you name each of the groups least likely to wear a mask, the result rough...

#054: A look back at the Seattle junkies, boozers, scam-artists, arsonists, racists, pornographers and tech villains that we profiled in Season 1. Look for Season 2 to drop on 01 01 2021. We're steering this ship away from crime and towards a new direction: all obituaries! doomedplanet.com doomedplanetpod@gmail.com

#052: Final episode of season 1! We talk Bezos with Greg from the Seattle Sucks podcast. "Amazon's business model has always been monopolization. And by being a Wall Street guy Jeff Bezos was able to pitch that concept. Investing in a monopolistic behemoth. Over the years Bezos was able to amass more and more capital to create a cartel. It's the dream of anybody on Wall Street. They poured money i...

#051: Regressive taxes, budget austerity, incompetent political leaders, mass unemployment and homelessness, an epidemic of police violence ... a pandemic. That is the reality in Seattle right now. What can Seattleites expect from the coming decade? We interview Elaine to find out.

#050: Two massive oil refineries owned by Marathon Petroleum and Royal Dutch Shell operate on the Puget Sound, where tankers containing millions of gallons of crude oil ply the waters. What happens when an Exxon Valdez-style catastrophe occurs? An oil spill would devastate the cornucopia of wildlife that thrives in and around the Sound: Mollusks, Crustaceans, Echinoderms, Cnidarians ... Cetaceans...

#049: The richest person in the history of modern capitalism lives near Seattle, where thousands of homeless people exist in tents. It's one of the most expensive cities in the USA, with the most regressive taxes. Disingenuous police chief Carmen Best was forced to resign after her "troops" gassed and beat peaceful protesters. Her fascist boss, Mayor Jenny Durkan, is still in office. Welcome to Be...

#048: Mary Kay Letourneau died with Vili Fualaau at her side. They began sleeping together when she was 34 and he was 12. Her dad was a far-right wing politician and one of her brothers worked for war criminal Eric Prince. PLUS: We talk with Merlin Ryan, a high school buddy who just got paroled after serving a very, very long stretch for a 1983 murder.

#047: In 1995 four Seattle firefighters died after Martin Pang torched the family egg roll factory. A self-styled playboy and secret agent, Pang had an unlimited expense account thanks to his parents. After the fire he fled to Brazil, where hotshot criminal defense attorney John Henry Browne got his murder charges lowered to manslaughter in an extradition deal. He served his time and was released...

#046: American supermarkets in the age of COVID display the utmost contempt for their employees AND their customers. A fifty cent fee for cash back, union-busting self check-out kiosks, long lines at understaffed registers where underpaid employees risk exposure - the list of insults is endless. In this episode we tour a Seattle Safeway store, praise their union (UFCW21), and explain why 80% of fo...

#045: Alice in Chains singer Layne Staley was a good person. A gentle being who never had a bad thing to say about anybody. He was in rough shape when he finally cashed out, but he left us with his music and his story. Fair enough.

#044: In 1976 Canadian rock band Rush released their epic concept album 2112. In 2006 Kyle Huff killed six people at 2112 East Republican Street. We explore the connections between a Libertarian-leaning rock album about a lone hero who commits suicide and Kyle Huff - a mentally ill fan of classic rock who might have associated the 2112 address where he met his fate with the Rush album of the same...

#043: Travel writer, entrepreneur and activist Rick Steves is the king! We throw the Seattle true crime format out the window for this episode and instead profile an all-around decent guy who works tirelessly to make the world a better place.

#042: Sinister plutocrat Bill Gates loves cheeseburgers! He's been spotted around Seattle waiting in line for them. See! He's a regular person! Just like you and me! A humble, simple, private man who needs nothing more in life than a cheap beef sandwich. Special appearances by plute Warren Buffett and Seattle burger heir/right wing oddity Saul Spady. This episode sponsored by Chop Mart. Torches. P...

#041: Gravity Payments CEO Dan Price sparked a mainstream media firestorm when he announced a million dollar pay cut for himself and a minimum $70K salary for all his employees. He also got sued by his brother and accused of abuse by his ex-wife. Dan owns mansions and a yacht and almost 75% of privately held Gravity and makes 25K per speech. When COVID hit his employees took a voluntary pay cut. D...

#040: Taking bribes, beating up suspects, planting drugs on them, seducing victims of domestic violence, sleeping with informants, abusing cocaine and targeting homosexuals and minorities for abuse: Bernie Lau was a typical Seattle Police officer in the 1970s. This is the story of undercover SPD narc and Aikido master Bernie Lau - in his own words.

#039: Voters in Washington State have had over 20 chances to vote for Michael George Goodspaceguy Nelson over the years. In this exclusive interview we grill Goodspaceguy about his heroes (Trump, Musk, Tim Eyman), his right wing libertarian political theories, his net worth and, of course, space.

#38: Josephus Collett wet his beak in many different troughs - railroads, breweries, cattle ranches in the Wyoming territory. This widely respected Terre Haute, Indiana capitalist was less evil than your average American businessman, but capitalism is a crime - a crime against humanity and against the health of our planet, and that makes Collett a criminal.

#037: In 1983 three men invaded Seattle's Wah Mee club, hog-tied 14 people, robbed them and shot them in the head. One man survived and was able to identify the shooters: Kwan Fai "Willie" Mak, Wai-Chiu "Tony" Ng, and Benjamin Ng. It remains Washington State's deadliest mass murder.