Failed Utopia

Over twenty years ago, Dubai began constructing the world's largest artificial archipelago of islands, designed to be a lavish oasis for the super-rich. Today, the islands stand mostly empty and some are sinking back into the sea, but the developers and government of Dubai refuse to give up on the mind boggling mega-project. Let me tell you about this astonishing feat of engineering, how it did work--kind of, but also hasn’t panned out the way they hoped, and why they’ll probably never let this one go no matter how bad an idea it was.

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• Nakheel Properties
• Dubai Set To Open Heart Of Europe With 6 Outrageous Themed Islands
• The World is sinking: Dubai islands 'falling into the sea'
• Owner of Dubai's 'little Britain' jailed for non-payment of cheques
• Second Irish property investor kills himself over financial problems

Written and produced by Anna Roberts

Burning palm tree artwork by Perry Vasquez

Intro music by Elliot Middleton

Merchandise: www.failedutopia.com/shop

Why most New Year’s resolutions fail, the Babylonians and Romans, putting our hands on a peacock, setting and getting goals, habit formation, motivation vs. discipline, believing you deserve to have what you want, and what procrastination really is (you’re not lazy).

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Links & Resources

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988

Crisis Text Line: text HOME to 741 741

Domestic Violence Helpline: 1-800-799-7233

VictimConnect, a referral helpline for victims of crime: 1-855-484-2846

For veterans, Make The Connection

• America's Top New Year's Resolutions for 2023 Statista
• Atomic Habits by James Clear
• How Long Does it Actually Take to Form a New Habit? (Backed by Science) James Clear

Written and produced by Anna Roberts

Burning palm tree artwork by Perry Vasquez

Intro music by Elliot Middleton

Merchandise: www.failedutopia.com/shop

The Theranos saga continues. Updates on Elizabeth Holmes' sentencing and Sunny Balwani's trial and verdict.

Connect on Facebook or at the Failed Utopia website.

Links & Resources

Theranos Full Explainer: https://failedutopia.com/theranos/

Holmes Trial & Verdict Updates:

YouTube https://youtu.be/P9xR6jn84kU

Audio only https://failedutopia.com/theranos-update/

Written and produced by Anna Roberts

Burning palm tree artwork by Perry Vasquez

Intro music by Elliot Middleton

Merchandise: www.failedutopia.com/shop

Colonialism and utopianism, as Thomas More coined the term, have been linked since the early sixteenth century when European explorers began taking stock of newly accessible lands that would later become colonies. Colonists had the expectation of achieving a much better life by settling in "new" lands, while producing a dystopia for the original inhabitants. Optimistic colonists didn’t always find what they expected, but for centuries they continued to emigrate and settle, driven by utopian projections of what their new lives would be like. Today we talk about one of the first colonies in the New World and how it all went wrong.

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Links & Resources

• Roanoke Colony World History Encyclopedia
• The Roanoke Colonies Encyclopedia Virginia
• The Roanoke Colonies James Horn, The First Colony Foundation
• Have We Found the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island?
• Archaeologists May Have Finally Solved the Mystery of the Disappearance of Roanoke’s Lost Colony
• Roanoke’s ‘Lost Colony’ Was Never Lost, New Book Says

Written and produced by Anna Roberts

Burning palm tree artwork by Perry Vasquez

Intro music by Elliot Middleton

Merchandise: www.failedutopia.com/shop

Let’s talk about an environmental catastrophe that turned a tourism and wildlife paradise into a toxic wasteland. This is something that we’re starting to see happening all over the world and that’s only going to become more of a problem in the future thanks to climate change. 

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• Ghost towns and toxic fumes: How an idyllic California lake became a disaster
• How California’s Salton Sea went from vacation destination to toxic nightmare
• As the Great Salt Lake Dries Up, Utah Faces an ‘Environmental Nuclear Bomb’
• Lake Urmia, Iran’s Tarnished Gem

Written and produced by Anna Roberts

Burning palm tree artwork by Perry Vasquez

Intro music by Elliot Middleton

Merchandise: www.failedutopia.com/shop

The Church of Love: Chonda-Za, Love Angels, lonely hearts, and a whole lot of questionable love letters. Plus, self-delusion and seeing things for what they are.

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Links & Resources

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988

Crisis Text Line: text HOME to 741 741

Domestic Violence Helpline: 1-800-799-7233

VictimConnect, a referral helpline for victims of crime: 1-855-484-2846

For veterans, Make The Connection

• Useful Delusions: The Power and Paradox of the Self-Deceiving Brain by Shankar Vedantam & Bill Mesler
• Hidden Brain: Lonely Hearts
• Church Of Love Drama: Sex, Money, Angels And Broken Dreams AP News 1988
• Knights of Chonda-Za Chicago Tribune 1988
• Church of Love operators plead innocent to fraud The Daily Dispatch 1987
• ‘Church of Love’ wasn’t quite angelic Quad-City Times 1989
• Successful love angel: ‘Pure and wholesome’ The Des Moines Register 1988

Written and produced by Anna Roberts

Burning palm tree artwork by Perry Vasquez

Intro music by Elliot Middleton

Merchandise: www.failedutopia.com/shop

In Part 2, hopefully we’re gonna have a little more fun talking not about techno-utopia, but actual physical utopian communes based around the love of crypto. Cryptoland, Cryptopia, Satoshi Island, Bitcoin Beach, Bitcoin City, and actually, the entire country of El Salvador.

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Links & Resources

• Tragic Cryptoland trailer
• Cryptoland website
• When Your Island Paradise Goes Bankrupt...
• Thailand’s Crypto Utopia — ‘90% of a cult, without all the weird stuff’
• Satoshi Island website
• Bitcoin paradise? Briton creates ‘crypto utopia’ in South Pacific
• Six months in, El Salvador’s bitcoin gamble is crumbling



Written and produced by Anna Roberts

Burning palm tree artwork by Perry Vasquez

Intro music by Elliot Middleton

Merchandise: www.failedutopia.com/shop

Cryptocurrency is one of the most buzzy techno-utopian ideas out there. Is it really a disruptive technology of the future? Or a bunch of esoteric, elitist, crypto-bro BS? Even a scam? Let's talk about what crypto is and what it's good for... or not.

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Links & Resources

• Computer Scientists Say Crypto Industry Is Misleading the Public About Blockchain Technology
• Why This Computer Scientist Says All Cryptocurrency Should “Die in a Fire”
• The Ramps Killing Bitcoin's Dissident Thesis
• Luxury cars seized from 23-year-old 'Crypto King' as investors try to recoup millions
• Terra Co-Founder Do Kwon Faces Arrest Warrant in South Korea
• Nearly All NFTs Created With OpenSea’s Free Minting Tool Are Fake, Plagiarized, or Spam
• Man who threw away £150m in bitcoin hopes AI and robot dogs will get it back
• Lost Passwords Lock Millionaires Out of Their Bitcoin Fortunes

Written and produced by Anna Roberts

Burning palm tree artwork by Perry Vasquez

Intro music by Elliot Middleton

Merchandise: www.failedutopia.com/shop

The Farm was once the largest hippie commune in U.S. history, and it still exists today albeit in a somewhat different form.

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Links & Resources

• https://thefarmcommunity.com
• https://www.thefarm.org
• What life is like when you’re born on a commune Erika Anderson
• Stephen Gaskin obituary
• “40 Years on the Farm” documentary

Written and produced by Anna Roberts

Burning palm tree artwork by Perry Vasquez

Intro music by Elliot Middleton

Merchandise: www.failedutopia.com/shop

A spiritual Indian utopia that’s over 50 years old, but still very much a work in progress.

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• Better to Have Gone: Love, Death, and the Quest for Utopia in Auroville by Akash Kapur
• Bulldozing a dream? Auroville’s importance as an experiment in alternative living
• Bulldozers, violence and politics crack an Indian dream of utopia

Written and produced by Anna Roberts

Burning palm tree artwork by Perry Vasquez

Intro music by Elliot Middleton

Merchandise: www.failedutopia.com/shop