Doomed to Fail

What would you do if you had millions and millions of dollars? Terrance Watanabe managed to gamble away the most money in history - he came from the family that invented the catalogue 'Oriental Trading'. If you were a kid in the 90s, you know what we're talking about!   Learn about the dangers of gambling - including all the stuff you can do on your phone these days!  Join our Founders Club on Pat...

Today, we have two stories of disasters at sporting events. First, we'll talk about the 1989 Crowd Crush at the Liverpool / Nottingham Forest FA Cup game at Hillsborough Stadium in the UK. Poor planning and new leadership ended in the deaths of 97 people.   Then, we will go back to 1918 to the Happy Valley Racecourse Fire where over 600 people were killed when grandstands made of bamboo fell into...

Imagine you've been unstoppable - created the most popular websites and movies in the history of well, websites and movies... what would be next? You see everyone on their phone all the time out in public, and think - that's it! Shows JUST for your phone!   Sounds kind of dumb, but whatever - the only thing that could possibly go wrong would be if people were trapped in their houses and devoted to...

Read Fab's Book!  "You Know It's True: The Real Story of Milli Vanilli" https://www.amazon.com/You-Know-Its-True-Vanilli/dp/B0FP4P554H   We're back with the epic rise and fall of Milli Vanilli! We're old enough to remember, and we still delight in their smash hits!   But it's obviously also a tragic story of fame, the music industry, race, culture, and creative freedom.   We'll talk about our star...

Did this case enthrall you when you were a child?? I remember the song, and being sure she did it from the TV movie... but after researching I'm just not as convinced!  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:...

Voltaire kind of  said, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." And that's pretty much Freedom of Speech in the US. You CAN say stuff, you aren't immune to consequences, but the basic right does exist.   Today we'll talk about the founding of the ACLU, and the time that they supported the right to have a bad opinion. Join our Founders Club on Patreon to...

It's Victorian London - and if you aren't rich, things are awful. (That's actually a pattern of all of humanity and of all time if you take a second to reflect on the greed.) Imagine, though, that it's specifically the kind of awful where you are on the streets selling yourself for money in order to buy crappy booze and sleep in an even crappier rooming house if you can.   Taylor read a lot of boo...

Episodes: Ep 1 - Part 2: Mommy Dearest - Lori Vallow & Chad Daybell A doomsday cult, missing children, and murders that shocked the nation.   Ep 3 - Part 2: Trouble in Celebration - The Todt Family Murders A quiet Florida town rocked by family annihilation.   Ep 8 - Part 1: Terror in the Capital - The DC Snipers Two men who turned daily errands into fatal targets.   Ep 18 - Part 1: BFFs Gone Wrong...

Farz & Taylor met in 2013 when they started working at a startup in Downtown Los Angeles.  We understand that some people like DTLA, but Taylor personally lived in New York City for 13 years before this and has never set foot in a worse place than the area around Pershing Square. We say that because the Cecil Hotel is just a block away from where we worked, and as soon as we got into the neighborh...

In 1996, Australian weirdo Martin Bryant killed 35 people in the deadliest shooting in Australian history. He's the worst, annoying and rude, he killed his landlords and tourists, going on a spree that shocked the nation.   Australia followed up with a mass gun buyback program that has made Australia safer from gun violence, but it still has all those bugs.  Join our Founders Club on Patreon to ge...

Episodes: Ep 107 - Australia's Gun Horror: The Port Arthur Massacre The shooting spree that reshaped Australian gun laws.   Ep 111 - Michigan's own 1970s Serial Killer - John Norman Collins Michigan’s “Co-ed Killer.”   Ep 120 - South American Nightmares: Luis Garavito & Pedro Lopez Two South American serial killers whose victim counts are staggering.   Ep 123 - Trip down memory lane: What happened...

This is our most popular episode ever. We can only assume that you people are kind of gross and Google this trio often. Here's the story of young men who murdered over 20 people, tortured animals, and filmed it all.   Buckle up for this depraved tale from Eastern Europe. Join our Founders Club on Patreon to get ad-free episodes for life!  patreon.com/DoomedtoFailPod We would love to hear from...

Imagine you live on a farm in Germany. It's winter. Your maid quits because she hears footsteps in the attic, you find a newspaper from a faraway town in the yard, and there are footsteps in the snow coming towards your house, but NOT leaving???   You would, of course, be right to be scared. Let's revisit the story of the Gruber family (and their NEW maid who was only on the job ONE day) and how t...

Let's revisit one of the most famous murders of the 20th century - and a highlight from our tenth episode! So, OJ Simpson absolutely killed Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. It's a tragedy that there was no justice and his poor poor kids.   Anyway! Does anyone even read these descriptions?? This is the first of several murder rereleases!  Join our Founders Club on Patreon to get ad-free episod...

Oh boy do we have a lot of Murder episodes!! We started off mostly doing true crime before we pivoted to history and some true crime and other fun things! This is part 1 of three of our Murder episodes! Re-releases on the way!   Episodes: Ep 4 - Part 1: Tragedy in Manchester - the murder of Kelly Anne Bates A teenage girl trapped in one of the UK’s most horrifying abuse-murder cases.   Ep 5 - Part...

Speaking of religious history - here's a re-release of our episode on Friar Diego De Landa & the Mayans. There are many Maya people still living in Central / Meso America. They have a rich culture, but they did have tons of written history burned away by Spanish Friars - because Jesus would want you to do that? It's heartbreaking, and Taylor will always be mad about that.  If you are tempted for a...

Religion has sparked wars, inspired art, toppled empires, and comforted the faithful. In these episodes, we explore the stories where belief shaped human history in unforgettable and sometimes unsettling ways.   Episodes: Ep 5 - Part 1: Divorce is fine, calm down! - The Story of Anne Boleyn & Henry VIII When Henry VIII wanted out of his first marriage, he set off a chain reaction that changed reli...

Sources: Sybil - by Flora Rheta Schreiber - https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/sybil-by-flora-rheta-schreiber/259328/item/84207467/?#edition=4801599&idiq=3086510 Sybil Exposed: The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case - By Debbie Nathan - https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/sybil-exposed-the-extraordinary-story-behind-the-famous-multiple-personality-case_debbie-nathan/271028/?   To...

Imagine you have a lot of money and months of free time, so you decide to climb the highest mountain we've got. That's good for you, but if you die there, you stay there, and recently, there's a line to the top.   In this re-release, we'll discuss the first time, tragic times, and the sherpas who keep the whole thing going. Aren't they the heroes? Join our Founders Club on Patreon to get ad-free e...

Remember the 1950s? We don't either, and it wasn't like, ideal for women and minorities... but there WAS this idea of a place you could go to get away - think Palm Springs now (if you ignore all the unhoused people, which you should not, someone should do something about Palm Springs).   ANYWAY - here's a re-release of a time when men tried to create a paradise by changing nature, and they absolut...

Let's go back to our Volcano Series for Natural Disaster Week! Today, we'll tell the story of how Pompeii and Herculaneum were buried when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in AD 79. We'll cover what type of volcano, the warnings of doom, the cities themselves, how Nero sent help, how they were discovered centuries later, and how climbing Mt. Vesuvius is hella boring. This was part 2 in our 7 part series that...

🌋 Volcanoes Ep 38: Volcanoes Pt 1 - Mt. Toba's Echo: Journey into Earth's Cataclysmic Past A prehistoric eruption so massive it may have nearly wiped out humanity. Ep 42: Volcanoes Pt 2 - Time Capsule of Tragedy: Exploring Pompeii's Frozen History Mount Vesuvius destroys—and preserves—an entire Roman city in one day. Ep 46: Volcanoes Pt 3 - The Silent Summer: Tambora's Echo in Time An eruption in...

We've said it before, and we'll say it again - divorce is an option. It's not great, people will be sad, kids will be traumatized, but it's WORSE to be the child of a murderer and not have a mom.   Today, Farz tells us about how Helle Crafts's husband, Eastern Airlines pilot Richard Crafts, thought that the best way to keep sleeping with floight attendents would be to get rid of his wife, and her...

Episodes: Ep 7 - Part 1: Dorian Gray-t Expectations - Oscar Wilde's wild ride Oscar Wilde’s wit, scandal, and downfall - the wild ride of one of literature’s sharpest voices.   Ep 23 - Part 1: Our Lady of the Night - Mary Shelley Mary Shelley, teenage author of Frankenstein , inventor of science fiction, and survivor of endless tragedy.   Ep 79 - Germany's love affair w/ 1st Nation culture: The st...

It's 1976 - thousands of US Veterans in the American Foreign Legion meet up in Philly for a few days of meetings and camaraderie (and we assume not talking about trauma because it was the 70s).   Staying at the Bellevue Stratford Hotel, hundreds of men would get sick when they returned home, and over 30 would be dead in the next few days.   What caused the Legionnaires (and some people who just wa...