This episode kicks off our coverage of an infamous American tragedy – the Donner Party.

In the mid-1800’s, a group that would later be known as the Donner Party set out West in search of a better life. The California and Oregon Trails were notoriously tough. The journey was dangerous, unpredictable and long. So, when an irresponsible, self-serving douchebag named Lansford Hastings began touting a shortcut to California, members of the Donner Party were intrigued. Could there really be a faster way to California?

Tragically, Lansford was full of shit.

“The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride,” by Daniel James Brown

“The Best Land Under Heaven: The Donner Party in the Age of Manifest Destiny,” by Michael Wallis

The documentary, “The Donner Party”

“How the Donner Party was doomed by a disastrous shortcut,” by Erin Blakemore for History.com

“Lansford Hastings, the Donner Party, and the Civil War,” by Elizabeth Eisenstark for the National Museum of Civil War Medicine

“The deadly temptation of the Oregon Trail shortcut,” by Laura Kiniry for atlasobscura.com

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