From flood panics and flaming cities to gas masks for comet poison, humanity has always had a flair for predicting the end of the world—with spectacular inaccuracy. In this special palate cleanser episode, Annie and Johanna walk us through some of the weirdest, funniest, and most deeply unserious doomsday predictions in history.

We'll cover the Great Flood that never came in 1524, London’s fire-and-666-fueled apocalypse panic in 1666, the comet hysteria of 1910 (featuring anti-comet pills), Y2K’s spreadsheet Armageddon, and yes, that time in 2012 when everyone thought the Maya were trying to kill us with a calendar. Add in some cults, bunkers, misinterpreted prophecies, and more than a few tinfoil hats, and you've got a full tour of the world's many failed finales.

Spoiler alert: we’re still here.

apocalypse, doomsday predictions, failed prophecies, end of the world, Halley’s Comet, Y2K, Mayan calendar, 2012 panic, Stöffler flood, Great Fire of London, Fifth Monarchists, cults, comet panic, Jehovah’s Witnesses 1914, doomsday cults, doomsday prepping, comet pills, planetary alignment, funny history, weird history, mass hysteria, Fresh Hell Podcast, Annie and Johanna, historical panic, end times, apocalypse myths, failed apocalypse

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