Doomed to Fail
We bring you stories of history's most notorious disasters and epic failures. Join us as we analyze the red flags and ask the important questions. How did things go so wrong? Could these disasters have been avoided? Join us as we laugh, learn, and explore the most epic failures of all time.
Ep 262: AI Apocalypse - We've been here before
Everyone, calm down! Let's talk about more end times! We'll chat NORAD (which is not an acronym) and the Cold War - we'll tell you about some of the possibly hundreds of times that we almost went to war, again. Like when Stanislav Petrov made the decision not to alert people when he thought that maybe war was starting.
What could possibly go wrong????
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<...Re-Release - the SR-71 Blackbird (the plane in the Ryan Reynolds movie 'Mayday!')
New on Netflix is this Ryan Reynolds movie where we can only assume he's playing 'Ryan Reynolds in a plane' but it's a COOL plane at least!! Here's a re-release of the dish!
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Ep 261: Timur - He was a fan of skulls
Today in 'things could be worse' at least the early 15th century warrior king Timur (aka Tamerlane) isn't knocking on your city walls demanding piles of heads. Because for real that happened, Timur's empire spanned Central Asia and was characterized by wall-to-wall bone-chilling terror (including flaming camels!), whilst saving the artists & scientists building a cultural renaissance out of whoever didn't die.
We're talking Genghis Khan ancestry, Persian expansion, and more!
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Ep 260: Hurricane Katrina - 21 years later
Let's talk about one of the worst disasters in American history - Hurricane Katrina in 2005. We'll learn what a hurricane IS, how it affected the New Orleans area, and how massive oversight and poor planning caused thousands of deaths.
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Ep 259: Malaysia Airlines Flight 370: MH370
We're back with another plane crash! This one is a doozy and a mystery, did the captain plan this? Where was the plane for 6 hours, and where is it now? We'll talk about mental health, flying over the ocean, and how scary the ocean is in general!
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Ep 258: The Dulles Brothers - John Foster & Allen
You've heard their names, but what did the Dulles brothers actually do? Today we will ;tldr their extraordinary resume that spans from World War I to Vietnam. Both the Secretary of State and the Director of the CIA at the same time, the Dulles brothers, John Foster and Allen, shaped the United States policies both at home and abroad for decades.
Source the brothers - https://www.amazon.com/dp/0805094970?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback
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Re-Release: Morgan's Wonderland - A Happy Story!
Let's do a quickie re-release & learn about an inclusive amusement park for all - Morgan's Wonderland! It's a happy story about a father who built something magical for his daughter and shared it with the world!
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Re-Release - The Hindenburg Disaster
Let's bring it back to one of the most notorious disasters in history - the crash of The Hindenburg!
We learned SO many things in this one from 2024 - as it crashed at the end of a journey that took it from Europe and over NYC -- there are pictures of The Hindenburg Blimp flying over New York City hours before it crashed with SWASTIKAS on its tail feathers!
Learn more with us!
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Ep 257: A Tragedy on the Ground - The Collapse of Terminal 2E at Charles de Gaulle Airport
We checked, and the bars at Charles de Gaulle open around 7am - which means the people who were killed in the collapse of Terminal 2E on May 23, 2004, were probably just annoyed to be there. Today, we'll dig into what brought on the collapse, from the French government to a history of concrete; it's a ride!
Please let us know if you have ever once felt safe on a jet bridge.
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We would lo...
Ep 256: Don't Breathe - The Great Smog of London
In the not-so-distant past, 1952 to be exact, London experienced several days of pea-soup colored, deadly fog. The combination of coal, diesel engines, cold weather, and an anticyclone (which is a new word for us) ended up causing 12,000 deaths.
Dig out your kn95 masks and join us for The Great Smog of London.
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Ep 255: A week in hell - Memorial Medical
Post the initial storm of Hurricane Katrina the power went out at Memorial Medical Hospital. Doctors faced the near impossible question of - do we leave these people here in the heat and humidity, or do we help them pass on? Learn the story of Dr. Anna Pou and what she decided to do.
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Ep 254: We absolutely want this to succeed - The Women's Pro Baseball League
Wooo sports! The Women's Pro Baseball League starts up on Aug 1 - and the four official teams are named after four incredible women! Let's learn about them!
The San Francisco Firebells are named for - Firebell Lil - aka Lillie Hitchcock Colt - a firefighting volunteer & patron
The New York Heights are named for - Dorthy Height - a Civll and Women's rights leader right up there with MLK
The Boston Hunters are named for - Harriot Kezia Hunt - who, despite not being allowed to go to medical school, had a...
Ep 253: Don't trust anyone - Dr. Christopher Duntsch
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.
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<...Ep 252: Things Could Be Worse! - 536 CE
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 (536 to around 660 CE)
https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/items/072ba4aa-014e-4f87-8fc7...
Ep 251: They're Out There - Lost Cosmonauts
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!
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Ep 250: Taylor's Goriest Episode - The Halifax Explosion
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 empty Norwegian ship, the Imo, sails on the wrong side of the harbor. The slow (like 6mph) collision has insane consequences you have to hear to believe!
...
Ep 249: An Almost Disaster - The Citigroup Center
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 right people were finally alerted. A huge (secret) retrofit was undertaken before the building destroyed the neighborhood.
Taylor continues to not be...
Ep 248: MOVE - The Bombing of Philadelphia
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 13 people in the house, half of whom are children. The city brings a reasonable group of 500 police officers, A TOMMY GUN (among others), and ultimately...
Ep 247: Contaminated - The Goiânia Accident
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!
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Ep 246: Wings of Doom! - The Mothman & The Silver Bridge
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 ones)! Was it all a warning??
Listen in to discuss how you should never go on a bridge, the logistics of sleeping with a man with bat wings, a...
Ep 245: The Texas Killing Fields - Part 2
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.to.fail.pod Email: doomedtofailpod@gmail.com
Ep 244: Arsenic Obsession - The Valentine Meat-Juice Incident
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.
Florence's book is avaialble via the public domain - https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/55773
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Ep 243: The Stars at Night are Big and Bright - The Texas Killing Fields
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!
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Ep 242: Don't Stop Believin' - glee
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 after horrible things came to light, and in 2020, Naya Rivera drowned while boating with her son.
That's a lot.
...
Ep 241: A Ship of Dreams (and Gold) - The SS Central America
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!
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Ep 240: Fighting for Education for all - Malala Yousafzai
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.
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Ep 239: Parasocial murder - Grant Amato
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.
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Ep 238: Olympic retro - Tonya Harding & Nancy Kerrigan
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's a crime! Tonya & Nancy are INCREDIBLE athletes!
Join us!
Are you young enough not to know...
Women's History Month! Yay! (Sad noisemaker sound followed by popping balloons and probably some crying)
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: Amelia Earhart's Enduring Influence
Ep 93 - Disaster at Shift's End: The Triangle Shirtwaist F...
Re-Release: The Atlanta Olypmic Bombing
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 kind of want to make fun of him, but then you get to know him and realize he was the best man for the j...
Re-Release: Terror in Munich - Olympics 1972
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.
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Ep 237: Real Life Super-Villain? - Carlos the Jackal
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.
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Re-Release: Lucy Letby - Who would harm a baby?
Netflix just released 'The Investigation of Lucy Letby' so let's re-relase our episode on this horrible story!
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Re-Release: Berlin 1936 - The Olympics under the Third Reich
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 hanging fields.
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<...Ep 236: A Stolen Ship to Freedom - Robert Smalls
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 Congress.
Join us for this heroic tale!
Some sources:
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/primary-sources/robert-smalls-bold-feat-so-skillfully
http...
Re-Release: The Ancient History of the Modern Olympics
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.
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Ep 235: Fallacies of logic - Second Order Thinking with Juan Carlos Pineiro
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 balloons into the air in 1986, the cultural treasure that is the Biosphere 2, and when doctors set out to give vaccines to people who hadn't had them before.
Ep 234: 911 - From Switchboards to Text Messages, what's your emergency?
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!
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Ep 233: FBI files - Crypto scams, family annihilators, and Olympic cartels
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 family in Scottsdale, AZ - he then blew up the house and escaped into a national forest (we're hoping he's dead in a cave somewhere).
And! Ca...
Ep 232: We remember you! - Pluto (formerly the planet)
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
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