Doomed to Fail

Seriously - some doctors got C's and they still get to be doctors! Today, we'll talk about Dr. Christopher Duntsch, who is a liar and a fraud and hurt A LOT of people doing surgery that he was not qualified to do. Join our Founders Club on Patreon to get ad-free episodes for life!  patreon.com/DoomedtoFailPod We would love to hear from you! Please follow along!  Instagram: https://www.in...

Let's talk about the 'worst year to be alive,' it's not this one - it's 536 CE! Of course, that's just a guess, but it's an educated guess because we know that there was a volcano that blotted out the sun - and THAT was the beginning of a mini-ice age that ushered in famine, mass migration, wars, and the plague!     Some Sources  Cooling and societal change during the Late Antique Little Ice Age (...

How far do you think humanity went during the Space Race? Do you think that we (and really, we mean humanity) let people go out to space and just left them there??? It's possible!  Join our Founders Club on Patreon to get ad-free episodes for life!  patreon.com/DoomedtoFailPod We would love to hear from you! Please follow along!  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doomedtofailpod/ &nbs...

Let's talk about the 3rd biggest man-made explosion ever (only eclipsed by the nuclear bombs). In 1917, ships were zooming back and forth between North America and Europe - bringing men (boys), supplies, ammunition, you name it, to the efforts of WWI.   In December, a French ship called the SS Mont-Blanc is filled to the brim with the most explosives imaginable, when they get to Halifax and an emp...

Let's talk about the almost-disaster of The Citigroup Center - 601 Lexington Ave in NYC. This building was built on a lot that wasn't empty when they got there, and they made an objectively weird deal with a church on the corner: they would build their building over the church's footprint.   This caused the building to be built on stilts - everything SEEMED ok until some people did some math & the...

So! It's 1985, and we're in Philadelphia, PA. A group called MOVE has moved into the neighborhood - and they are a little annoying. They have a bullhorn where they talk about human rights very loudly, their kids don't go to school, and they might have guns (but they probably don't work). The city decides to do a good old-fashioned siege to get the members of MOVE out of their rowhouse. There are 1...

Let's talk about a real accidental nuclear accident - it's economic collapse, tied to poor security, that leads to deaths. In Brazil, while the economy collapsed in the 1980s, people tended to find scrap metal in buildings, including those that used to be hospitals, and those hospitals, in this case, had very dangerous radioactive materials left behind.   Those get stolen, and a crisis is afoot! ...

Buckle up for an engineering disaster! In 1967, the Silver Bridge collapsed, killing 46 people in the freezing Ohio River. Were there warning signs? The bridge itself passed inspections, but it was a tiny crack that was its doom... BUT people around the area had spent the past year reporting strange sightings! A man-shaped thing with glowing red eyes and wings, UFOs, Men in Black (and not the fun...

Join us for part 2 of the Texas Killing Fields! Join our Founders Club on Patreon to get ad-free episodes for life!  patreon.com/DoomedtoFailPod We would love to hear from you! Please follow along!  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doomedtofailpod/   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/doomedtofailpod   Youtube:  https://www.youtube.com/@doomedtofailpod  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@doomed.t...

Today let's talk about the 'murder' of James Maybrick - a businessman in Liverpool in the 1880s who loved to medicate with poisions. A good, what-doesn't-kill-me-makes-me-stronger kind of guy.   James's young American wife, Florence, will be accused and tried of murder. It's a story of unmet expectations, Victorian medicine, and a very strong case for prison reform, even well over 100 years later....

True Crime Tuesday (it's Monday) - let's explore the Texas Killing Fields - an expanse of land near Galveston (which is near the ocean) that has been used for decades to drop bodies. Mostly young women who were vulnerable, the stories are tragic. The murderers are terrifying in their ability to evade police (like getting out on bail and just disappearing to Panama).   This is part 1!  Join our Fou...

I feel like glee is one of the most 'you had to be there' shows on TV? It's FULL of 2010s pop songs, remixes, and awkwardly improbable teenager shenanigans. Today we'll talk about the premise of the show (really, just kids forced to be in a glee club) and some of the early deaths of three of glee's main characters. In 2013 Cory Monteith died of a drug overdose, in 2018 Mark Salling died by suic*de...

Picture it - it's 1857, and you are on a ship filled with gold from San Francisco to the East Coast of the USA! There are so many things that could go wrong crossing Panama, heading up the Caribbean, pirates, probably?  Then the boat DOES sink along with a crap-ton of gold. Fast forward to the 1980s when Tommy Gregory Thompson (treasure hunter, thief, crazy man) starts to find the gold!  Join our...

Today we have the not-doomed story of Malala Yousafzai - who campaigned for girls to go to school in Pakistan when the Taliban was invading her area and demanding that women and girls stay inside and stop their education. Today, Malala's voice is a global cry for reform. Join our Founders Club on Patreon to get ad-free episodes for life!  patreon.com/DoomedtoFailPod We would love to hear from...

Today, we learn about Grant Amato - a former nurse (dishonorably discharged) and dude in love with a 'cam girl' - so in love that he stole a TON of money from his family and also murdered them.   I worry about the people who are in love with their Chat GPT. Join our Founders Club on Patreon to get ad-free episodes for life!  patreon.com/DoomedtoFailPod We would love to hear from you! Please f...

We're back! Happy Women's History Month! We think this counts - well, specifically, Taylor thinks this counts. The main characters are women, and the men in this story are SUCH IDIOTS that it's a + for women.   It's 1994, and the rivalry between Tonya Harding & Nancy Kerrigan is heating up (I know, I know). Enter Tonya's ex/current husband, Jeff, and his band of boobs (tm).   It's the Olympics! It...

Join me as I ramble through our Women's History episodes! Find them anywhere you listen to podcasts! Learn some stuff! Cry with me!   Ep 1 - Part 1: Catherine the Great & Peter III Ep 4 - Part 2: A World of Love to You - Eleanor Roosevelt & Lorena Hickok Ep 23 - Part 1: Our Lady of the Night - Mary Shelley Ep 50: Let them have Portillo's: The saga of Marie Antoinette Ep 90 - Echoes of the Sky: Ame...

We're travelling this week so one more Olympics Episode for you! This one is wild - it's 1996, and the Atlanta Olympic Centennial Park is open late. Security guard Richard Jewel is on the lookout for shenanigans and finds himself the first responder to a horrible attack that leaves one dead and many shaken.   Jewell is a dork - he's the kind of guy who takes his security role super seriously. You...

Part 3 of our Olympics Episodes is here for re-release! We're back in Germany (well, West Germany now) for the 1972 Summer Olympics. A team from Israel is held hostage by the Palestinian group "Black September." It ended in deaths, heartbreak, and a forever changed Global Stage. Join our Founders Club on Patreon to get ad-free episodes for life!  patreon.com/DoomedtoFailPod We would love to h...

When does someone turn into a super villain? Let's talk about Carlos the Jackal - part serial killer, part terrorist, full guy who just wants to make a mess.   We'll walk through his childhood in South America and his adulthood in literally any organization that needed a murderer. Join our Founders Club on Patreon to get ad-free episodes for life!  patreon.com/DoomedtoFailPod We would love to...

Netflix just released 'The Investigation of Lucy Letby' so let's re-relase our episode on this horrible story!  Join our Founders Club on Patreon to get ad-free episodes for life!  patreon.com/DoomedtoFailPod We would love to hear from you! Please follow along!  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doomedtofailpod/   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/doomedtofailpod   Youtube:...

In 1936, the Olympics were hosted in Berlin, Germany. You guessed it - things were not great.   We'll talk about the wonderfully talented American Jesse Owens, the invention of Basketball, and the propaganda of Leni Riefenstahl. It was a scary time to be in Europe - Hitler thought that every Olympics would be in Berlin for the rest of time, but they did not.   The basketball courts would later be...

  It's Black History Month! Today, we're talking about Robert Smalls. Smalls was born enslaved, worked on ships for the confederacy whilst enslaved, and then took it upon himself to steal a steam ship, save his family & others, sail past Ft Sumter in the middle of the night, and provide the Union with guns & info.   Later, he went back south, invested in his community, and represented them in Cong...

Here we go! Happy Olympics 2026! Let's re-visit our episode where we went over how it started in Ancient Greece, & how it got to be a modern event!   Greece still gets special bonus treatment in the Olympics! They get to go out first & they get special access for tickets. Good for them.  Join our Founders Club on Patreon to get ad-free episodes for life!  patreon.com/DoomedtoFailPod We would...

Today we have a guest!! Juan Carlos Pineiro - the creator of the Re:Mind Mental Model set (and also Taylor's husband) is here to walk us through three examples of doomed scenarios that used 'Second Order Thinking' to the detriment of many! Second Order Thinking is only thinking about immediate consequences and not thinking in the long term.   Like when the city of Cleveland released millions of ba...