History's Greatest Dumpster Fires

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In this episode, your hosts Ed and Kara look at how something so simple and mundane as BREAD could potentially kill you back in the day. Granted, today's bread shouldn't cause much harm, but that wasn't the case for Victorian-Era England!

While coal powered the factories, bread powered the workers—and it's wild to see how much the daily loaf was altering the productivity of tomorrow. From sketchy additives to downright poisonous ingredients, welcome to the ultimate historical baking disaster.

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Hey before you go! 

If have ideas for future episodes that you want Kara and Ed to look into, email them at [email protected]. They would love to hear from you!

You can also send them a text message by clicking on the link at the top. 

Be sure to head on over to www.thedaysdumpsterfire.com for the ever growing library of historical dumpster fires. 

Check us out on the ol Instagrams!
https://www.instagram.com/thedaysdumpsterfire/

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Your friendly neighborhood emu-loving history nut, Kara, teleports us back to 1871 to investigate the ultimate historical scapegoat: Mrs. O'Leary's cow. Legend says this rule-breaking bovine knocked over a lantern and sparked one of the worst urban disasters in American history—but did it really?

At the time, Chicago was a booming city built almost entirely out of highly combustible materials and packed with a grossly deficient fire brigade. Honestly, the real miracle is how it didn't burn down sooner.

In this episode, we dive into:

• The Blame Game: Why a working-class immigrant woman (and her cow) took the fall.
• The Perfect Storm: The dry weather, terrible city planning, and chaotic miscommunications that sealed Chicago's fate.
• The Aftermath: How the rich managed to fair better than the poor (shocker, we know) and how the city literally rose from the ashes.

Warning: A lot of super creepy 1870s children's dolls were destroyed in this fire, and to be perfectly honest, we are totally okay with that.

Support the show

Hey before you go! 

If have ideas for future episodes that you want Kara and Ed to look into, email them at [email protected]. They would love to hear from you!

You can also send them a text message by clicking on the link at the top. 

Be sure to head on over to www.thedaysdumpsterfire.com for the ever growing library of historical dumpster fires. 

Check us out on the ol Instagrams!
https://www.instagram.com/thedaysdumpsterfire/

Send us Fan Mail

Ed and Kara dive into the electrifying world of nuclear power plants. Love 'em or hate 'em, they are a fact of life, generating reliable electricity for decades... right up until the moment something goes horribly wrong.

In this episode, we look at how these masterpieces of human engineering can literally blow up and what happens when thousands of pounds of radioactive fallout blankets the map. When it comes to catastrophic failures, dumpster fires don't get much more dramatic than this. And of course, no self-respecting history podcast would be complete without covering the big three: Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and Fukushima.

Caution: Your hosts are not responsible if you start feeling like you have acute radiation poisoning after listening to this episode.

"False" symptoms may include:

• Upset stomach, nausea, and skin irritation
• Loss of hair and sensitivity to light
• Strange growths (including extra digits or limbs)
• Bone marrow degradation and necrotizing tissue
• Digits or limbs (even the extra ones) randomly falling off
• Hemorrhaging from the nose, mouth, ears, eyes, and rectum
• Random bouts of unrecoverable death
• Sudden government cover-ups
• And the worst symptom of all... excess taxes.

Support the show

Hey before you go! 

If have ideas for future episodes that you want Kara and Ed to look into, email them at [email protected]. They would love to hear from you!

You can also send them a text message by clicking on the link at the top. 

Be sure to head on over to www.thedaysdumpsterfire.com for the ever growing library of historical dumpster fires. 

Check us out on the ol Instagrams!
https://www.instagram.com/thedaysdumpsterfire/

Send us Fan Mail

We all know the name, and we've all heard the legends of her beauty and greatness. The only problem? History has completely butchered her biography time and time again.

In this episode, Kara dives deep into the life of Cleopatra to dismantle the massive misconceptions surrounding her reign. For centuries, her story has been told and retold by generations of scholars who viewed her legacy with all the educational acumen of a single "Y" chromosome. Cleopatra's true history has been a certified dumpster fire for generations, but Kara is here to finally extinguish the inferno and set the record straight.

Note: No one carrying a "Y" chromosome was harmed during the making of this episode.

Support the show

Hey before you go! 

If have ideas for future episodes that you want Kara and Ed to look into, email them at [email protected]. They would love to hear from you!

You can also send them a text message by clicking on the link at the top. 

Be sure to head on over to www.thedaysdumpsterfire.com for the ever growing library of historical dumpster fires. 

Check us out on the ol Instagrams!
https://www.instagram.com/thedaysdumpsterfire/

Send us Fan Mail

In this second episode, Ed explores one of the most disastrous military campaigns in modern history. A young Winston Churchill and First Lord of the Navy, comes up with a brilliant, unflappable plan to use the mighty British Navy in the early days of WW I to take over the Dardanelles Strait and knock out the Turkish army in one fowl swoop. This plan of attack was ambitious and perfectly thought out, until 10 minutes after the battle starts, Churchill ends up sinking a majority of his ships and stranding tens of thousands of men in a desolate wasteland for months... ultimately costing Churchill his government career. 

Support the show

Hey before you go! 

If have ideas for future episodes that you want Kara and Ed to look into, email them at [email protected]. They would love to hear from you!

You can also send them a text message by clicking on the link at the top. 

Be sure to head on over to www.thedaysdumpsterfire.com for the ever growing library of historical dumpster fires. 

Check us out on the ol Instagrams!
https://www.instagram.com/thedaysdumpsterfire/

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode, our very own Emu expert, Kara, takes us back in time to the Australian wilderness where farms and homesteads were being overrun and destroyed by insurgent Emus who were really just looking for a bite to eat. Buckle up as Kara tells the harrowing tale  of the Australian government declaring war on thousands of Emus and heroic acts of a few soldiers with machine guns in the early 1930s.
 

Support the show

Hey before you go! 

If have ideas for future episodes that you want Kara and Ed to look into, email them at [email protected]. They would love to hear from you!

You can also send them a text message by clicking on the link at the top. 

Be sure to head on over to www.thedaysdumpsterfire.com for the ever growing library of historical dumpster fires. 

Check us out on the ol Instagrams!
https://www.instagram.com/thedaysdumpsterfire/

Send us Fan Mail

Ed and Kara are back this week with a beast of an episode for you. It’s been a long time coming, but Ed has finally dug into one of the worst air disasters of the 20th century, the Hindenburg fire! 

The Hindenburg was the largest dirigible? Blimp? Zeppelin? floaty thingy the world had ever seen. This thing was designed from the ground up to be comfortable, fast, and most importantly SAFE. Even though the thing was filled with highly flammable hydrogen gas, the Germans really did think of everything and we don’t mean that in a sarcastic way… they really did think of everything. 

So how in the world did the Hindenburg burn to the ground in less than 40 seconds?

The answer is in the episode! So take a listen and discover how one of the greatest technological marvels of the modern era came crashing down in the most dramatic way possible. 

This episode has a ton of pictures and diagrams and what not, so be sure to check out The Day’s Dumpster Fire website for all the details.  You’ll also get to see the back catalog of nearly 60 historical dumpster fires as well as a collection of Kara’s insanely good artwork. 

Be sure to send Kara and Ed an email at [email protected] for show ideas and even corrections. We here at the Day’s Dumpster Fire love all feedback as it makes the whole team better so that you can get the best content possible. 

In this episode, Kara and Ed talked about the following episodes that you may find interesting. All of which can be found on The Day’s Dumpster Fire website!

• Episode 14: The Molasses Flood Fire
• Episode 26: Firing Fireworks Fire
• Episodes 35 and 36: King Louis XVI 
  
  

Hey before you go! 

If have ideas for future episodes that you want Kara and Ed to look into, email them at [email protected]. They would love to hear from you!

You can also send them a text message by clicking on the link at the top. 

Be sure to head on over to www.thedaysdumpsterfire.com for the ever growing library of historical dumpster fires. 

Check us out on the ol Instagrams!
https://www.instagram.com/thedaysdumpsterfire/

Send us Fan Mail

In 1904, the city of St. Louis won the bid to house one of the new Olympic games. In this episode, Kara is diving into the wild and whacky events that took place in these games— including women racing to win a pound of tea, marathon runners being denied water and only given alcohol, and one dude even being poisoned with strychnine. 

The 1904 Olympics was one for the history books—before you know it, everything will fly off the rails. So sit back and relax with a sports drink of your choice… like brandy—and enjoy the chicanery. 

Hey before you go! 

If have ideas for future episodes that you want Kara and Ed to look into, email them at [email protected]. They would love to hear from you!

You can also send them a text message by clicking on the link at the top. 

Be sure to head on over to www.thedaysdumpsterfire.com for the ever growing library of historical dumpster fires. 

Check us out on the ol Instagrams!
https://www.instagram.com/thedaysdumpsterfire/

Wanna send us a message? Click on this link on any device that can send text messages and let us know what you think or give us ideas and we'll give you a shout out on a future episode! And don't forget to check out our website: www.thedaysdumpsterfire.com

Ed and Kara are back this week with a beast of an episode for you. It's been a long time coming, but Ed has finally dug into one of the worst air disasters of the 20th century, the Hindenburg fire! 

The Hindenburg was the largest dirigible? Blimp? Zeppelin? floaty thingy the world had ever seen. This thing was designed from the ground up to be comfortable, fast, and most importantly SAFE. Even though the thing was filled with highly flammable hydrogen gas, the Germans really did think of everything and we don't mean that in a sarcastic way... they really did think of everything. 

So how in the world did the Hindenburg burn to the ground in less than 40 seconds?

The answer is in the episode! So take a listen and discover how one of the greatest technological marvels of the modern era came crashing down in the most dramatic way possible. 

This episode has a ton of pictures and diagrams and what not, so be sure to check out The Day's Dumpster Fire website for all the details.  You'll also get to see the back catalog of nearly 60 historical dumpster fires as well as a collection of Kara's insanely good artwork. 

Be sure to send Kara and Ed an email at [email protected] for show ideas and even corrections. We here at the Day's Dumpster Fire love all feedback as it makes the whole team better so that you can get the best content possible. 

In this episode, Kara and Ed talked about the following episodes that you may find interesting. All of which can be found on The Day's Dumpster Fire website!

Episode 14: The Molasses Flood Fire

Episode 26: Firing Fireworks Fire

Episodes 35 and 36: King Louis XVI 

Hey before you go! Email us your "Trashcan Fires" to

[email protected] (be sure to put "Trashcan Fire" in the subject line

We would love to see your stories where you tried to plan out every little detail, but when you executed that plan, it all went horribly wrong shortly after and turned into your own Dumpster Fire.

Be sure to put "Trashcan Fire" in the subject line followed by the title of the story and whether or not we can use your name.

Check us out on the ol Instagrams!
https://www.instagram.com/thedaysdumpsterfire/

Wanna send us a message? Click on this link on any device that can send text messages and let us know what you think or give us ideas and we'll give you a shout out on a future episode! And don't forget to check out our website: www.thedaysdumpsterfire.com

In 1904, the city of St. Louis won the bid to house one of the new Olympic games. In this episode, Kara is diving into the wild and whacky events that took place in these games including women racing to win a pound of tea and marathon runners being denied water and only give alcohol and one dude even being poisoned with strychnine. 

The 1904 Olympics was one for the history books before you know it, everything will fly off the rails. So sit back and relax with a sports drink of your choice... like brandy and enjoy the chicanery. 

For more details and notes be sure to hit up The Day's Dumpster Fire website!

Hey before you go! Email us your "Trashcan Fires" to

[email protected] (be sure to put "Trashcan Fire" in the subject line

We would love to see your stories where you tried to plan out every little detail, but when you executed that plan, it all went horribly wrong shortly after and turned into your own Dumpster Fire.

Be sure to put "Trashcan Fire" in the subject line followed by the title of the story and whether or not we can use your name.

Check us out on the ol Instagrams!
https://www.instagram.com/thedaysdumpsterfire/