Doomed to Fail

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...

Let's talk the invention of 911 (that's 999 or 0118 999 881 999 119 725 3 if you're British). Did you know it wasn't full adopted in the US until the 2000s?? We'll go over AT&T, telephone lines, and switchboards!     You'll also hear Taylor list every time she's called 911 - feel free to share your 911 stories with us!  Join our Founders Club on Patreon to get ad-free episodes for life!  patr...

Today (amongst Heated rivalry chatter), we're talking the FBI's most wanted! The list, which is more publicity than anything, was started by who else but J. Edgar Hoover! We highlight three current fugatives who go in and out of the top ten.  Crypto Queen Ruja Ignatova ran a scam called OneCoin - then she boarded a RyanAir flight and disappeared!  Crappy husband Robert William Fisher murdered his...

Let's talk about space!! We do have small panic attacks thinking about how Jupiter is huge and always raining. But, we're focusing on the little guy - Pluto! We'll talk about when he was discovered, who he was named after, and how he got demoted.    "Pluto is a planet" - Jerry Smith Join our Founders Club on Patreon to get ad-free episodes for life!  patreon.com/DoomedtoFailPod We would love...

Hello and welcome to 2026! Let's start it out with the story of Mary Mallon, who spread Typhoid Fever around NYC in the early 1900s. For a while, Mary didn't know that she was a 'healthy carrier' of the disease. But something started happening - every place Mary worked, people got sick. She was eventually 'caught' by investigator George Soper, quarantined, let go, started cooking AGAIN, and finall...

Let's end the year with a re-release of our girl Amelia!   Be brave.  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/@doomedtofa...

What was the funnest day in American history?? For your consideration - here's the story of the Axeman of New Orelnes - maybe more than one person, maybe just one? But, one very well written person wrote a letter asking everyone in NOLA to have a Jazz band playing one March night in 1919... it might have been fun.  Join our Founders Club on Patreon to get ad-free episodes for life!  patreon.c...

We love stuff, but the idea of going to a store for that stuff sounds insane. Today, Farz will talk through the history of Black Friday - why do we do Thanksgiving when we do? Why do we like sales so much? Would you murder someone for a PlayStation (say no)?   Happy Franksgiving & Merry Christmas! Join our Founders Club on Patreon to get ad-free episodes for life!  patreon.com/DoomedtoFailPod...

Hey Pachuco! It's 1943, and we're in Downtown Los Angeles! LA's population has just grown exponentially - partly with people from Mexico brought into the US specifically to address the labor shortage after all the Japanese Americans were taken into internment camps (not good!) - and partly because the US needs every young man to join the war and there are tens of thousands of 18-20 year old servic...

Let's do some highlights of MKUltra because it is a can of worms! We'll talk Sidney Gottlieb America's 'poisoner in chief' who used LSD (and other drugs) to try to reprogram minds. Spoiler - you cannot do that.   Source https://www.amazon.com/s?k=poisoner+in+chief&i=stripbooks&adgrpid=183397944181&hvadid=779569029006&hvdev=c&hvexpln=0&hvlocphy=9031388&hvnetw=g&hvocijid=1797291272736522472--&hvqmt=...

Man we love a good mutiny! This, however, is a bad one. The deadliest one in history! It's 1628, and the Dutch East India Company is up to no good... We'll talk about the syphilis-addled brain of Jeronimus Cornelisz, who staged a mutiny, killed a TON of people, and ultimately was executed for all the wildly unnecessary shenanigans.   Grab a Dramamine and join us!  Join our Founders Club on Patreon...