Doomed to Fail

Listen, as we know, there are terrible things in lakes. Monsters. There are monsters. This week we learn that there ALSO can be buildups of poison underneath lakes that can 'erupt' at any time and do a clean sweep of all animal life around it. We'll talk about two times in recent history (and we have reason to believe it happened in ancient times) when methane gas killed everyone around Lake Kivu...

In the 1960s, thousands of babies worldwide were born with physical abnormalities, and the culprit was a 'wonder drug' given to mothers who had morning sickness. Pharmaceutical companies promoting the drug Thalidomide didn't do enough testing on pregnant women before marketing their product directly to them (well, legal testing anyway; there was most likely testing in Concentration Camps during WW...

Actually, this has happened a few times! Join us as we talk through the times when planes and buildings collided in New York City! We are NOT talking about 9/11 because Taylor was there and she's just not interested in talking about it! In 2006 Yankees pitcher Cory Lidel crashed into an apartment building. In the 70s New York Airways had helicopter service from the Pan Am building to JFK that ende...

Picture it: It's 1930s Germany, and you just want to get out, so you go to a remote island in the Galapagos to start a homestead and be left alone. Then you start to get neighbors. Some are normal (babies, donkeys, etc.). But others are a wild trio of pretend aristocrats who yell and shoot into the air and really ruin the island vibe. Join us to learn the wild story about to be told in the movie E...

🚀 New Episode Alert! 🚀 Join us as we explore the tragic story of the Challenger Explosion , the space shuttle disaster that changed NASA and space exploration forever. In this episode, we delve into the moments leading up to the launch, the aftermath, and the incredible stories of the brave astronauts onboard. 🌍✨ Tune in for a deep dive into history, science, and human resilience. #Challenger...

If you haven't heard this story, don't google it! You'll never guess where it's going and the ride, the ride is wild!   Edwin Rist loved tying fishing flies, a fun craft where you have the potential to stab yourself in the finger at every turn! He just had hit the peak of his work and needed something new, something snazzy, potentially extinct. Enter the Natural History Museum at Tring - and we'll...

Let's talk about one of the worst ways to die... there are chances you've seen this graphic of how John Jones was stuck in Nutty Putty Cave... but did you know he's still there? A young father with another on the way, John made a wrong turn in Utah's Nutty Putty Cave and ended up head down in a crevice that was impossible to get him out of. For over 24 hours rescuers tried to get him out in vain,...

While reading the children's classic "Madeline," Taylor's kids asked her what an appendix is, and she had no idea. No longer classified as a vestigial structure (take that, Darwin), the appendix might help with regulating gut bacteria after an illness. We'll talk about Gabriele Falloppio, who was no doubt wrist-deep in a human body when he called the appendix worm-shaped in 1522. Claudius Amyand,...

Let's talk about more bad US presidents! This week, we talked about our 29th, Warren G. Harding. A Republican who was subtly pushed into running by the Oil industry. The goal is to send Albert Fall to the Secretary of the Interior job & sell some US Navel Reserve Oil to the only bidders. Fall got super suspiciously rich. Harding probably would have been in trouble for turning a blind eye but he di...

In our final PayPal episode, we talk about the delicious ways you can enact revenge on people if you are a billionaire. Whether it's totally shutting down a media company (even if that media company is gross and VERY early 2000s) or short-selling Tesla stock whilst you are looking Musk in the face and asking him to donate to charity. If you are rich, revenge can be piping hot.  Join our Founders C...

Today, we go back down below the city of Chicago to talk about the Great Flood (Leak?) of 1992. Did you know that in the 1890s, construction started on a railway under the city that would transport telephone lines, coal, and eventually packages around its 60 miles of track? By the 1950s, the tunnels were shut down and largely forgotten due to better streets, less coal dependence, and some corrupti...

In Part 2 of our PayPal series, we dig into the men who built it and the things that they built next. We'll talk about what a Venture Capitalist is and how even when they fail sometimes when they hit it BIG they hit it REALLY, REALLY big.   The names of these guys & their businesses are EVERYWHERE! What do you think they are up to next? Join our Founders Club on Patreon to get ad-free episodes for...

Today, we explore Circuses of the early 1900s - a not-great-for-animals menagerie of tricks and oddities. Benjamin Wallace was one of the greats out of Indiana and, by 1918, had cashed out while his Circus kept going via two giant trains full of performers, animals, and equipment. After getting through The Great Flood of 1913 and the second worst circus train crash of all time, the Hagenbeck-Walla...

In this real-life Game of Thrones episode, Taylor talks about Princess Olga of Kiev. A widow, a mother, ruler of the Kievan Rus, and eventually a Saint. But the path... it was not laid with good deeds. After the murder of her husband Igor, Olga goes on a rampage of revenge and devastation against the Drevlians. There are Vikings, there is pillaging, there is town burning! It's fun, and even if it...

We are technically old enough to remember when you couldn't send money or pay for things online, but it feels like it was centuries ago! This week, Farz starts us off on his PayPal series with a peek at the origins, who was involved, and what the right place, time, and amount of money was able to create! Join our Founders Club on Patreon to get ad-free episodes for life!  patreon.com/Doomedto...

Listen, Farz knew that Taylor was going to yell about this, and she did. Life is hard and if you have the means and opportunity to help people you totally should, it's just really hard to see the 'help' on terms that are wildly unfair. Mother Teresa's legacy involves NOT giving pain medication to sick people, keeping millions of dollars in bank accounts around the world, and truly believing that t...

Let's talk about the infamous molasses flood in Boston - it sounds almost delightful, a stick mass of molasses, what was it even doing there?? But, surprise, it is not delightful. It was a 25-foot wave of molasses, sticky, cold, and deadly. People died, including firemen and children. What happened? How did such a monstrously large tank get built next to homes?   We'll talk about Boston, WWI, Proh...

Ciao ragazzi! Did you ever wonder HOW we got all the ancient texts after all these years? We didn't think too hard about it until this week when Taylor tells the story of Poggio Bracciolini, the 15th Century Italian Humanist who discovered many ancient texts hiding away in monasteries being copied over and over by monks. Poggio worked for 7 popes as a notary and scribe but would travel around Euro...

What happened this past weekend in Venezuela? Farz walks us through the history of abundance when they found oil, to the Oil Embargo of the 1970s that brought great inflation and poverty. This past weekend, the Venezuelan election happened and so far, Nicholas Maduro is being declared the winner. How did they get from a Socialist uprising to having a dictator essentially? Learn more about this bre...

Happy Olympic Opening Ceremony Day!! How did we get here? Join us as we present all four of our Olympics episodes! Ep 1 - Ancient Olympics & Pierre de Coubertin bringing us the modern games in 1896 Ep 2 - Hitler's 1936 Olympics & The Domination of Jesse Owens Ep 3 - Munich 1972 - The Massacre of the Israeli Olympic Team by Terrorists Ep 4 - Atlanta 1996 - The Atlanta Centennial Park Bombing & The...

Have you ever wondered what trauma brought us together as friends? It was working in Downtown Los Angeles in 2013!! Farz walks through the spooky, creepy, and very gross history of DTLA's least-fine hotel, The Cecil. We talk about the people who've lived there and the ghosts who probably still do. Have you been to a haunted hotel? Let us know!  #hauntedhotel #theshining #cecilhotel #DTLA Join our...

Let's talk about 16th-century 'prophet' Nostradamus! There's nothing spooky here unless you want there to be! If you DO, then heck, there's a lot to unpack! We'll talk about his 942 prophecies that foresaw everything from Napolean to Nagasaki. AND this one? What could it mean?? Upon the airwaves, voices strong will sail, From depths of despair, tales of trials unveil, Listeners gathered from dista...

In our final episode on The Olympics, Taylor tells the story of Olympic Hero Richard Jewell. Jewell was a "law-enforcement" type of guy who, despite being fired from law enforcement, would take any opportunity to tell you that he had 'scanned the perimeter' and 'knew how to diffuse a bomb.' In July 1996 he was working security at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta when a bomb very much did go off...

Today, we go south to talk about the terrible serial killers Luis Garavito & Pedro Lopez. Separately, these two are the top two killers on record, killing nearly 200 children each. There's nothing to sugar coat here - these guys took advantage of poverty and the terrible human condition to commit some of the most atrocious crimes possible.   True Crime friends - this is for you!  Join our Founders...

This is it! Our final re-release and we are all caught up! It's one of Taylor's favorite episodes. Let's talk about our dear Vincent van Gogh!   🎧 Immerse yourself in the vibrant yet turbulent life of Vincent van Gogh, one of history’s most fascinating and misunderstood artists. This week, we explore his artistic genius, the personal struggles that haunted him, and the enduring mysteries surround...