Doomed to Fail

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 walked by the hotel) to get sick? Send in the CDC (Rest in Power), shock your hot tub, and throw away your humidifiers for this medical mystery! 

Forensic Files - Season 1, Episode 7 - Legionnaires' Disease - Full Episode - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5fh4opyUU8

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Ep. 47: Doomed to fail species? The story of the passenger pigeon

• Once the most abundant bird in North America, they darkened the skies in flocks of millions—until humans hunted them into extinction.

Ep 179: A Friend Till The End & Beyond - Hachikō

• The dog who waited at a Tokyo train station every day for his owner, even years after the man had died.

Ep 215: Nowhere to Echo - Whale Entrapment

• When whales become trapped in icy waters, it’s a race between nature and human intervention to save them.

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What would you do if you accidentally threw away a fortune? In this episode, we dig into the story of James Howells — the IT worker who tossed out a hard drive holding thousands of Bitcoins, worth hundreds of millions of dollars today. From the rise of cryptocurrency to the landfill treasure hunt that captured global headlines, we explore how one mistake turned into one of the most expensive “oops” moments in history.

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Ep 2 - Part 2: Nero: The Fiddling Tyrant

• Rome’s most infamous emperor, accused of burning his own city and fiddling while it fell into chaos.

Ep 12 - Part 2: Ancient Sport Rivalries - The Nika Riots

• What started as a sports rivalry in Constantinople exploded into a massacre, leaving thousands dead in the Hippodrome.

Ep 38: Volcanoes Pt 1 - Mt. Toba's Echo: Journey into Earth's Cataclysmic Past

• A volcanic eruption so massive it nearly wiped out humanity. Prehistoric disaster at an unimaginable scale.

Ep 42: Volcanoes Pt 2 - Time Capsule of Tragedy: Exploring Pompeii's Frozen History

• When Vesuvius erupted, it destroyed—and preserved—an entire Roman city in a single day.

Ep 62: Mother of the Antichrist - Nero's mum, Agrippina the Younger

• Nero’s mother, power-hungry and ruthless. Some called her the “Mother of the Antichrist.”

Ep 101 - The Immortal Persian King: Cyrus The Great

• The Persian king who built one of the largest empires in history—and a legacy that still echoes today.

Ep 105 - Examining the Great Thinker: Socrates

• The philosopher who annoyed Athens so much, they put him on trial and made him drink poison.

Ep 114 - The Olympics Pt 1 - Ancient Origins to Parisian Potties

• From naked athletes to chamber-pot disasters in Paris, the Games have always been a little messy.

Ep 122 - Fire & Brimstone: Nostradamus

• The mystic who saw plagues, prophecies, and maybe your TikTok feed centuries in advance.

Ep 207: Hey Ladies!!! - Sappho

• The original rock star poet of ancient Greece. Queer icon, lyrical genius, and survivor through fragments.

Ep 216: Ancient Incendiaries - Greek Fire

• A weapon so terrifying it burned on water. Byzantine napalm that changed naval warfare forever.

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Let's go back to ancient warfare, shall we? We'll talk about all the things you can fill a clay pot with to throw at enemies—spikes, bees, boiling hot sand—use your imagination!

Then, we will discuss the mysterious Byzantine weapon, Greek Fire. From a siphon, it could shoot white hot fire onto enemy ships, causing pain, devastation, and setting the water aflame.
 

How Greek Fire was Used to Target Enemy Ships - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPUgvYZ5UDk

The UnXplained: Greek Fire Is Every Sailor's Deadly NIGHTMARE - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0CvNL4k140

What Do We Know about “Medieval Flame Throwers” Known as "Greek Fire"? -

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQt9nBh3ceM

"Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World" by Adrienne Mayor

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Ep 68 - You're Cleared for Disaster: The Tenerife Airport Crash of 1977

 

The world’s deadliest aviation disaster didn’t happen in the air—it happened on the runway. Two jumbo jets, thick fog, and a fatal misunderstanding.

Ep 77 - Cloudy with a Chance of Terror: Cumulonimbus

 

Towering thunderclouds that can tear planes apart. Pilots fear them, passengers don’t see them coming.

Ep 80 - Stratospheric Secrets: SR-71's Classified History

 

The fastest jet ever built, shrouded in Cold War secrecy. We peek inside its classified missions.

Ep 90 - Echoes of the Sky: Amelia Earhart's Enduring Influence

 

Her disappearance remains a mystery, but her influence on aviation—and women in flight—is undeniable.

Ep 116 - Off by a Milli-something: How Tiny Mistakes Doomed Space Exploration

 

The smallest measurement errors can doom billion-dollar space missions. The details will make you triple-check your math.

Ep 138 - Touching the Face of God: Challenger

 

A cold morning, ignored warnings, and a tragedy broadcast live. The shuttle disaster that changed NASA forever.

Ep 140 - Foggy with a Chance of Disaster: When Planes Hit Buildings in NYC

 

Before 9/11, there were still collisions. Fog, skyscrapers, and pilots flying blind.

Ep 161: Flight to Oblivion - The Lockerbie Bombing

 

A mid-air explosion over Scotland that became an international terrorism case.

Ep 170: Another reason to fear flying - the Überlingen disaster

 

Two jets collide over Germany in the dead of night—while air traffic control is running on skeleton staff.

Ep 186: Flying the Skies above India & Breaking Barriers - Sarla Thukral

 

India’s Amelia Earhart - Sarla broke barriers in pre-WWII India with the support of her husband, who died in a plane crash.

Ep 190: Suicidal pilots: Germanwings Flight 9525

 

A pilot locks his co-pilot out of the cockpit. Minutes later, the plane is gone.

Ep 192: A Scenic Crash in Antarctica - Air New Zealand Flight 901

 

A sightseeing trip over Antarctica turns deadly when whiteout conditions hide a mountain until it’s too late.

Ep 205: Under Pressure - Japan Airlines Flight 123

 

The deadliest single-aircraft crash in history. A blown repair job and a crew fighting for control until the end.

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Let's talk about whales, from what we do and do not know about mammals, to the incredible things that animals have to endure! 

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The history of medicine is equal parts miracle and nightmare. These episodes prove it.

Ep 98 - The Never-ending Story: Henrietta Lacks

 

• Her cancer cells were taken without her consent and became the most important cell line in medical research—changing science forever.

Ep 135 - Useless Harbinger of Death?: The Appendix

 

• A tiny organ with no clear purpose… except when it tries to kill you. We explore its strange history and evolutionary mystery.

Ep 141 - Look for The Helpers: Thalidomide Babies

 

• A “miracle drug” for morning sickness turns into a global tragedy, leaving thousands of children with severe birth defects.

​​Ep 146 - Fatal Insomnia: New Fear Unlocked

 

• A rare genetic disorder where you stop sleeping—ever—until it kills you. New fear: unlocked.

Ep 158: Frostbite and Forceps - Self Surgery in Antarctica

 

• A Soviet doctor gets appendicitis at the South Pole. The only available surgeon? Himself.

Ep 162: Sugar Cubes for the Masses - The Polio Vaccine

 

• From iron lungs to sugar cubes, how science took on one of the 20th century’s most feared diseases.

BONUS: Real Life Stories - Getting the Polio Vaccine with Taylor's Dad, Mark!

 

• A first-hand account from someone who was there when the sugar cube arrived.

Ep 198: I'll take one of those! - Organ Transplants pt 1

 

• The early days of transplant surgery—full of bold experiments, ethical dilemmas, and plenty of failures.

Ep 201: The Living Market - Organ Transplants Pt 2

 

• From black markets to life-saving breakthroughs, the complicated story of organ donation today.

🎧 

Listen now—just maybe not while eating lunch.

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Black Snow: Curtis LeMay, the Firebombing of Tokyo, and the Road to the Atomic Bomb - by James M. Scott - https://www.amazon.com/Black-Snow-Curtis-Firebombing-Atomic/dp/1324002999

The Brutal Bombing of Tokyo 1945 | The Deadliest Bombing in History - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-iS8ZQjr1c

Unauthorized History of the Pacific War Podcast - The Firebombing of Tokyo - Episode 416 -

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkWVi5s85lo

Today, let's talk about Operation Meetinghouse - the overnight firebombing of Tokyo on March 9-10, 1945. USAAF General Curtis LeMay orchestrated hundreds of B-29 Superfortress bombers to bring thousands of pounds of incendiary bombs to Tokyo. He knew that he was targeting civilians, but believed this campaign of "terror bombing" would push Japan to surrender. It didn't. You know it didn't.

The firebombing of Tokyo killed over 100,000 people, more people than the Atomic Bombs in their respective cities. Families burned to death in piles, people boiled to death in cisterns and rivers.

It's a harrowing, awful story. Taylor cries. War is stupid. 

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Ep 27: Cruising through History: The Rise and Fall of the Edsel

• Ford’s flashy new car was supposed to be the future. Instead, it became the most famous flop in automotive history.

Ep 33: Getting rich quick always works: The story of Charles Ponzi
 

• Before “Ponzi scheme” was a term, there was Ponzi himself—running the ultimate get-rich-quick con until it all collapsed.

Ep 112 - Squeeze your Juice and have it too: Juicero
 

• A $400 juicer that couldn’t survive the realization you could squeeze the packets by hand. Peak Silicon Valley absurdity.

Ep 128 - Cash, Check, or COD?: The PayPal Mafia - Part 1
 

• From scrappy startup to online payments giant, the early PayPal crew would go on to run the tech world. But first, chaos.

Ep 131 - Titans of Tech: The PayPal Mafia - Part 2
 

• Power struggles, big buyouts, and billion-dollar egos. The PayPal story only gets messier.

Ep 133 - Revenge: The PayPal Mafia - Part 3
 

• The alumni club that went on to shape modern tech—for better, worse, and everything in between.

Ep 137 - Birds of a Feather, Stolen Together: Edwin Rist
 

• A prodigy flutist who pulled off one of the strangest heists in history: stealing rare bird skins for fly-tying fanatics.

Ep 193: How fast can this go? Più veloce!! - Enzo Ferrari

• Fast cars, fiery temper, and a brand built on speed and spectacle. Ferrari’s legacy isn’t all shiny red paint.

Ep 199: Missed the "Mark" to Market Accounting - Enron
 

• Cooking the books with “mark-to-market” accounting until the entire house of cards collapsed in scandal.

Ep 210: Do Whatever You Want!! - Action Park, New Jersey
 

• The most dangerous amusement park in America. When the business model is “let them get hurt,” lawsuits are inevitable.

🎧 Stream these cautionary tales wherever you get your podcasts. Preferably not while investing in questionable startups.

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