From molasses tsunamis to space shuttle tragedies, here are some of history’s most infamous engineering disasters.
Ep 20 - Part 2: Oh The Humanity!!! - The Hindenburg
- A luxury airship explodes mid-air in front of a live radio broadcast. Hydrogen, hubris, and horrific design come together in one fiery crash.
Ep 26 - Part 1: Under Pressure - The Byford Dolphin & The Titan Submersible
- What happens when pressurization systems fail under extreme ocean depths? People don’t just die—they implode.
Ep 61: Engineering Disasters Part 1 - The 1981 Kansas City Hyatt Skywalk Collapse
- Two walkways, a design shortcut, and one horrific ballroom disaster. A case study in load-bearing failure and engineering denial.
Ep 65 - Engineering Disasters Part 2: Tragedy in Bhopal
- A leak at a pesticide plant in India became one of the worst industrial disasters in history—with long-term effects still felt today.
Ep 69 - Click in and Buckle up: Roller Coaster Accidents
- When thrill rides go wrong, it’s never a fun ending. We ride through the history of bolts, brakes, and very bad decisions
Ep 72 - Shopping for Disaster - The Sampoong Department Store Collapse
- A luxury mall built on shaky shortcuts. Spoiler: it literally collapses during a shopping day.
Ep 93 - Disaster at Shift's End: The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
- Locked doors. No fire escapes. Young women burned alive while trying to flee. A disaster that sparked labor reform—at a horrific cost.
Ep 96 - Doomed to Sink: The Olympic Class Ships of The White Star Line
- The Titanic wasn’t the only one. The whole fleet was a floating disaster factory, with design flaws and bad luck baked in.
Ep 126 - A Sticky Situation: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919
- Yes, a 15-foot wave of molasses tore through Boston’s North End. It sounds funny—until you realize how many people it drowned.
Ep 132 - Swimming in the Sub-Basement: The Great Chicago Flood of 1992
- A forgotten utility tunnel, a slow leak, and a very flooded downtown. Oops.
Ep 130 - Come One, Come All!: The Hammond Circus Train Wreck
- Two trains, one sleepy engineer, and a whole circus trapped in a fireball. This one’s as tragic as it is surreal.
Ep 138 - Touching the Face of God: Challenger
- A cold morning. A rushed schedule. And an o-ring failure that broke the world’s heart on live TV.
Ep 156: We chased waterfalls - Niagara Falls
- Humans have tried to harness the power of the falls—and sometimes failed very dramatically.
Ep 167: Blood on the Water - The USS Indianapolis
- A secret mission ends in disaster when the ship is torpedoed—and sharks move in. A haunting failure of communication and rescue.
Ep 200: Disaster on the Graveyard Shift - Chernobyl
- A test gone wrong leads to the worst nuclear disaster in history. A chilling lesson in human error and systemic denial.
Ep 202: Ok Place, Totally Wrong Time - Not so Lucky Dragon #5
- A Japanese fishing boat sails into a U.S. nuclear test site—without knowing it. The fallout changes lives and policy.
Ep 210: Do Whatever You Want!! - Action Park, New Jersey
- The most dangerous theme park in America. Rides with no rules, employees with no training, and patrons with no idea what’s coming.
Join our Founders Club on Patreon to get ad-free episodes for life!
patreon.com/DoomedtoFailPod
We would love to hear from you! Please follow along!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doomedtofailpod/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/doomedtofailpod
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@doomedtofailpod
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@doomed.to.fail.pod
Email: doomedtofailpod@gmail.com
