Doomed Planet

#012: Jeff always fills his ballroom. The event is never small. The social pages say he's got ... the biggest balls of all. ALSO: The Amazon (penis-logo-branded) Banana stand! AmazonGo - the union-busting robot grocery store. OBIT: Two Seattle tech guys who died in tragic freak accidents.

#011: Tall, handsome ... a pretty face. Sebastian Bach epitomized 80s hair metal. His book (18 and Life on Skid Row) is a cookie-cutter story of sex, drugs, rock, and a profound disrespect for the fairer sex.

#010: An army of ghostwriters have churned out dozens of books on behalf of rock meatheads - they are all bad. ALSO: Megadeth's Dave Mustaine. Predictable tales of excess from some dudes who were in Ratt.

#009: From 1890 until 1908 opium imported from Asia was refined in Canada and then smuggled to Seattle. The result: big profits and satisfied customers. Racist newspapers covered the action. ALSO: Podcast shout-out: Michael Moore's Rumble (yes!). Facebook sobriety (Hell yeah!). Jim Belushi's Blues Brothers branded legal weed (ew).

#008: Tacoma chef and minister Jeff Smith sold millions of books and had a hit TV show, but when multiple victims of his sexual abuse came forward his career was destroyed and he was forced to pay millions. He died a lonely and broken man.

#007: Influential rock percussionist Carmine Appice wrote an autobiography called "Stick It." It's not about drumming.

#006: Teenagers at Chief Sealth International High School saw his body before the medical examiner took it away. We knew him when he was alive: musician in the early Seattle grunge scene, cultivator of pot and mushrooms, fast driver of vans, gentle giant, lover of cats. R.I.P.

#005: Psychedelics and the newfound freedom provided by the pill meant sweet times on the hippie scene - until the criminal element moved in and ruined everything. Our interview with Elaine, who was there. Plus: Seattle Sucks, Doordash: why the delivery boy economic bubble is stupid.

#004: Profiles of deceased Seattle cult video star and "worst guitar player in history" Three Finger Jack and homeless punk rock cartoonist Ace Backwords, who lives in the hills of Berkeley, California with a bunch of feral cats and some turkeys. Also: R.I.P. audacious Seattle filmmaker and bad artist Karl Krogstad.

#003: Native Americans, Mexicans, African Americans ... Japanese draft resisters ... Charles Manson - they all did time on McNeil Island - a chilling symbol of our racist, punitive carceral state. The Alcatraz of the Pacific Northwest. There are sex offenders there now. They have served their time but are under "civil commitment" and are not allowed to leave. Also: A Facebook peek at a wealthy dri...

#002: Dick Balch was making TV commercials that were both crass and dangerously avant-garde long before punk rock types took up the same aesthetic. Balch gained fame and a small fortune starring in spots for his Federal Way Chevrolet dealership – he played a cackling maniac who smashed cars with a sledgehammer. Balch was destroying the things that made him his living - while appearing severely was...

Generoso "Gene" Pope Jr. bought the New York Enquirer, turned it into a lurid tabloid of smut, changed the name to National Enquirer, bribed supermarket executives with hookers to get it on the shelves, then moved to Florida in order to evade the unions. Along the way he smoked three packs a day, and when he died the timing was perfect for his heirs, who made millions. This is his story. Also: The...