Eye Digress

Some tourism slogans inspire wanderlust. These absolutely do not.

In this geography-meets-The I Digress Podcast, our hosts dive into the marketing disasters that somehow made destinations sound worse than they actually are. From El Salvador's brutally honest time estimate to Denmark's eyebrow-raising dating invitation, it's a quiz-format journey through real tourism campaigns that missed the mark spectacularly.

Also featuring: poorly translated signs that warn of "invisible crafty slippery people," hotel notices about emotional toilet releases, and restaurant guarantees that their food won't cause pregnancy. Plus a detour into Chinese dining etiquette involving 200-year-old tortoises and bull penis.

Three categories of catastrophic marketing: bold slogans that backfired, mistranslations that made places sound dangerous, and signs that somehow made simple instructions sound sinister.

Laugh, travel nowhere, question marketing departments.

Spotify Tags: tourism fails, bad slogans, travel marketing, quiz show, mistranslations, funny signs, geography comedy, travel disasters, marketing fails, educational humour

Unless we outlast them, we love our pets to death. Literally.

Dead birds. Rotting axolotls. Terrapins painted like new. In this death-meets-chaos short episode of The I Digress Podcast, our hosts dive into the darker side of pet ownership – what happens when Fluffy meets the great beyond. From Mexican walking fish whose organs literally hung out on strings to a cat named Dawn (yes, really), it's a graveyard shift through Australia's most traumatic pet burial stories.

Also featuring: a backyard transformed into Australia's most unofficial pet cemetery, complete with brass memorial plaques and grasshopper caretakers.

Laugh, cringe, hug your pets tighter.

Spotify Tags: pet stories, pet cemetery, Australian wildlife, spider attacks, funny pet stories, pet death, backyard burials, dark humour, pet disasters, animal stories, Australian podcast, true stories, pet fails, wildlife encounters

REVEALED: The Bizarre Phobias That Make Spider Fear Look Normal (Plus Why We Still Have Monkeys)

Fear of buttons. Terror of belly buttons. Panic attacks from the Pope. Long-word phobia with an impossibly long name. Some fears are rational – these will make you question humanity's survival instincts.

In this anxiety-inducing episode of The I Digress Podcast, Ringo dives deep into the world's most irrational phobias while broadcasting from Greenland in a koala suit. It's a masterclass in human neuroses. Warning: contains explicit belly button exposure and evolutionary confusion about monkeys.

Spotify Tags: weird phobias podcast, irrational fears, bizarre psychology, funny mental health, strange anxieties, phobia facts, hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia, chronophobia, belly button fear, educational comedy podcast

Some guilty pleasures are embarrassing, but we can’t help ourselves anyway.

In this cringe-comedy confessional episode from The I Digress Podcast, Ringo spills his most embarrassing entertainment habits and shopping disasters. From binge-watching "Fake or Fortune" (think Antiques Roadshow for slightly younger retirees) to impulse-buying Chinese gadgets that become expensive doorstops, it's a masterclass in questionable life choices. Also featuring: the chocolate biscuit problem that destroys families, why Tom Cruise ruins sci-fi movies by being in them, and the ancient Japanese secret to not eating yourself into oblivion. Warning: may cause immediate Amazon cart abandonment.

Spotify Tags: guilty pleasures, podcast, embarrassing TV shows, impulse buying fails, Tom Cruise movies, shopping addiction, binge watching confessions, fake or fortune, twitter ads disasters, chocolate biscuit problems, funny podcast confessions

Dog bombs. Horse treadmill trains. Coffins with periscopes. A group shaving machine. Some inventions are brilliant. These are absolutely not.

In this history-meets-hysteria episode of The I Digress Podcast, Ringo throws us into the worst investment round in history – think Shark Tank, but lethal. From Soviet war dogs that accidentally bombed their own trenches to the "youth serum" that straight-up killed its inventor, it’s a comedic catalogue of chaos. Also featuring: a bullet-loaded mousetrap, a lighthouse that wiped out its builder mid-storm, and a childbirth invention that flings babies out at 7G. Yes, really. Laugh, cringe, question humanity.

Spotify Tags: failed inventions, weird patents, bizarre history, invention disasters, funny podcast, dark humour, accidental deaths, history facts, educational comedy, Shark Tank fails

House sharing chaos that everyone can relate to. In this short but savage episode, the boys relive house sharing incidents from dodgy Edinburgh décor and vitamin overdoses to incest-adjacent bed-sharing and beds dubbed The Chariot and The Boneyard. If you've ever lived with friends (or frenemies), this one's for you -- complete with prank calls, soggy sheets, and cheese toastie addiction.

Spotify Tags: roommate stories, house sharing, living with friends, comedy podcast, living together, Australian comedy.

Bizarre historical figures and strange biographies from history's most interesting people. Nuclear survivors, meth-fuelled ski escapes, public barrel-wearing philosophers, and vampire opera singers - it's your history lesson, I Digress style. From Diogenes the Cynic publicly peeing on people for "philosophy" to Julia Child's double life as a wartime spy-slash-chef, no tale is too weird. Also featuring meth-fuelled Finnish soldiers, undead French divas, and a "gentleman's club" that's basically just old blokes 'sharing' silver platters.

This fact-filled romp through bizarre biographies uncovers the most jaw-dropping lives you’ve never heard of.

Spotify Tags: historical figures, weird history, bizarre biographies, history facts, educational comedy

Travel disaster stories and holiday chaos that will make you laugh. Flights missed, boats playing chicken, beer-hunting in Cairo, and bald guys receiving shampoo deliveries - welcome to holiday chaos, I Digress style. Ringo takes the reins to share travel mishaps from around the world - from ferry-fuelled sleep deprivation to dodgy ATMs and a suspiciously persistent drug dealer in Lisbon. There’s also a run-in with prank-happy execs, multilingual failures and the world’s most confusing bus ride through the Sinai. You’ll never look at a “five-star tour” the same way again.

• Missed flights, midnight shampoo deliveries, and a pub toilet shaped like a phone booth – it’s all here.

• Learn how to blag your way into luxury hotel beers with a fake room number (pro tip: try 310).

• Ringo fends off a buffet of hard drugs in Portugal… because apparently, saying “no” once isn’t enough.

Spotify Tags: travel stories, holiday disasters, vacation fails, travel comedy, funny travel, travel disasters, holiday stories, vacation fails

Black Death history and medieval pandemic facts that put COVID to shame. Bioweapons, bottled farts and other extreme plague counter measures - it's time for a deep dive into a pandemic that changed history. Discover why some people thought onions, urine baths and cuddling chickens could cure it - and how one Pope's hatred of cats helped doom Europe. There's also corpse-flinging Mongols, V-neck tunics and DIY cures including strapping live animals to your boils.

• Pope who worsened the plague by killing cats

• DIY cures including strapping live animals to your boils

• Plague tactics 101: throw your dead over enemy walls

Spotify Tags: black death, medieval history, pandemic history, plague facts, dark history, medieval pandemic, plague history

Ever wanted to visit Myanmar? Myanmar travel stories and Southeast Asian adventures from the new frontier. Gem-wielding junta, beetle nut spit and food that might kill you.

We kick off Season 3 with a chaotic deep dive into Myanmar, comparing its peculiar charm and social awkwardness with the likes of Cambodia, Vietnam, and Thailand. From pristine dollar obsessions to vomiting roadside and inadvertently offering up your laptop to strangers – it’s a cultural rollercoaster that’ll leave you both fascinated and horrified.

• 90% of the world's rubies are guarded by a military that doesn't want your money – just your know-how.

• The street food looks amazing… but eating it could be your last meal.

• A foot fetish, a long con involving a possible rock, and a Wi-Fi login while delirious – welcome to travel, I Digress-style.

Spotify Tags: Myanmar travel, Southeast Asia, travel stories, cultural experiences, adventure travel