Doomsday: History's Most Dangerous Podcast

Doomsday: History's Most Dangerous Podcast

Doomsday is a history lesson that easily disguises itself as a horror story. We explore the most traumatic, bizarre and most awe-inspiring but largely unheard-of disasters from throughout human history and around the world including the science behind every disturbing detail. If you like shipwrecks, decapitations, things that melt, living blankets of insects and people screaming for their lives, Doomsday is the podcast for you. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/doomsday-history-s-most-dangerous-podcast--4866335/support.

Episodes

June 8, 2026 53 mins

We've described some pretty fairly awful commutes on this show before. On today's very special "return-to-Africa" episode, all people wanted to do was get to work, but the weather got bad to the point where the road said "you shall not pass, your life is in danger". The train took a look at all this and said, "hold my beer”.

On today’s episode: you will learn how the location of today’s story sounds toasty and hot to the uninitiated...
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You’ve maybe heard that during an accident, time slows. Truth is, it’s an illusion. Your brain flips into high-alert, and processes visual information in way higher detail, which makes the experience feel longer. Of all the episodes and stories we’ve shared on this show before, this is the one story you would absolutely not want to appreciate in high-detail slow-mo.

On today’s episode: you’ll find out how cholera and typhoid-laced f...
No one shows up to work expecting to make history, but today’s story shows how one small, irreversible decision created the one of the worst days at work in US History. If that “fork in the road” moment had played out in any other way, today’s episode would mostly just be me chatting up Texans and offering up some gardening tips.

On today’s episode: you will find out why parts of Texas smell like money, and why that money smells unb...
I believe the most frightening vehicle to travel from point A to point B in would be a submarine – and I am including cable cars, and rocket sleds, and tightropes, and wingsuits, and early diving bells, and high-altitude balloon gondolas, and luge sleds, and the kind of fixed-wing plane where you have to walk on the wing, and human cannonballing, and ziplining over a volcano in that analysis. Let’s see if today’s story changes my m...
I do love a story where almost no one dies, but if you’ve listened to this show long enough, you know I also really do enjoy a bad day at work episodes where the opposite is true. In today’s story, no one dies. That said, some people are going to lose their hair and have their fingers soldered or arc-welded together at work. 

On today’s episode: you will see how the simple act of going blabbity blah turned the most physically unimpr...
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There is a strong anthropological argument that controlled fire is humanity’s first invention. Among the many gifts it bestows upon us, being able to survive colder climates is one of them. As you will soon see, in today’s episode, that will not be an issue.       

On today’s episode:  you’ll hear about one of the deadliest and most destructive forces on the planet can play a kind of peekaboo and then grow 300 feet tall and make yo...
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You might think the worst thing cheese can do is cause indigestion, or elevated cholesterol, or the need to punch more belt holes - maybe even the occasional fart sneaks out. But on today’s episode, you will learn, as it turns out, we’ve catastrophically underestimated it.

On today’s episode: we’ll visit a postcard perfect country that’s ridiculously beautiful from top to bottom, but on a map looks vaguely testicular and chewed; you...
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If you think the worst thing that can happen while skiing is trying not to scream while the ski patrol figures out why your leg’s bending that way, we have a lot to teach you about skiing. Spoiler: mountains can cook and kill people. Don’t say this podcast doesn’t teach you things.

On today’s episode:  you will learn why Frankenstein was more graceful on stolen corpse feet than you are in snowboots; you’ll learn why diagonal tunnel...
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The Yukon River is famous for its remoteness and scenic vistas and history, where very little may seem to happen – but in 1906, one man’s lack of situational awareness and fine-motor skills created the greatest, cattle-based pyrotechnics display the world had ever seen.

On today’s episode: 
you will see how miners and prostitutes used to travel in style in the far sub-Arctic North; you will hear about what may be the clumsiest bad-...
You ever go on a field trip at school and every time you look over your shoulder, there’s a teacher or chaperone giving you the stink eye? Well try to imagine a field trip where you look up and all your old relatives are waving you into a tunnel of white light.

On today’s very special milestone 100th Episode: 
you’ll hear about my school trip to a French strip club; you would learn about a man of God who unintentionally brought a f...
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BEFORE WE BEGIN – the best way to enjoy today's stupidity is in the form of video, which as a special thank you to all of you for another great year, I have edited together and made FREE at patreon.com/funeralkazoo. No strings attached. Just a gift to you all, with hopes for happy holidays and a fantastic new year. 

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You ever watch a big, blockbuster sci-fi action adventure movie that turns out to be so bereft of technical and s...
Nothing says ‘fun afternoon’ quite like adding cutlery to your feet, bruising most of your body, and then going for a nice swim. And to clarify, when I say nothing, I mean because that’s not something that anyone has ever said before.

On today’s episode: we’ll see how the former digs of axe murderers and corpse thieves and child labour body pits became one of the most beautiful green spaces in London; we’ll learn why early ice skate...
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The average lake around the world is about the size of a large parking lot – the kind of thing you might try to skip a stone across. The current World Record for stone skipping is 88 skips. If you were to skip a stone across the lake we’re visiting today, it would have to beat that number by about 406, 912 and it would be bouncing across the water for about three hours.

On today’s episode: You’ll learn about the most boat-hungry lak...
To begin today’s tale, allow me to share a translation of an ancient Chinese joke: Three men were looking at the clouds. One points to a cloud and says, that cloud is shaped like a horse. Another points to a cloud and says, that one is shaped like a whale. The third man points to a mushroom-shaped cloud, and everyone dies.

On today’s episode: you’ll find out just how badly ancient China wanted nothing to do with you; you’ll learn a...
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Take the most frightening death you can imagine, now double it. Then double it again. And then add fire. This is our Halloween episode, and by the time we’re done, your favourite horror movie will have all the impact of a baby food commercial. I’m not saying you’ll never sleep again, but I’m not not saying it. I am apologizing in advance, and I remind you that a Doomsday barf bag is only an email away.

Back when we did the Sknyliv ...
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The most unusual thing about today’s story is that almost everyone is going to bruise their lungs. For your sake, I hope it’s from laughing. Not everyone will be so lucky.

On today’s episode: you’ll hear about the one part of your body I want you to consider more worthy of fiddling with than your genitals; if you’re a stickler for building codes, we’re going to take you on a beautiful, potentially one-way hike to see some shoddy-ass...
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We’ve done episodes where people lose their teeth. We’ve done episodes where have them melted out of their heads, or frisbeed out by debris, or punched out by bulls, or even blown out of their heads by lightning. But we’ve never done an episode where the most horrifying thing that happens is you maybe get something stuck in them.

On this episode: we’ll take off on one of the least enviable flights in history – which is saying a lot;...
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It’s rare for us to have an episode with so many feces mentioned right off the top, but do not worry, refreshments will be served.

On this episode:
we’re doing another one-of-a-kind episode here, and I’ll explain the rules as get into it, but for all those listeners who love our more unhygienic content, have we got a treat for you. We’re talking about the only consumer product you can blow out your nose while friends and strangers c...
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As a lifelong, dyed in the wool, comic book enthusiast, it behooves me with the recent release of the new James Gunn Superman movie to share this short Patreon segment pulled from our recent Greensburg Tornado Disaster of 2007 episode. 

Back in 1938, to his creators, Kansas represented the humble origins and strong ethics we associate with the Superman we know today. They believed that no other State would have produced a character ...
Today, we will be spending the day on board a whole bunch of ships sharing a long and storied heritage. Sadly, we’re going to spend most of our time on the one that crew members called “The Mobile Chernobyl” .

On today’s episode:
we’ll see what it feels like to survive something that peeled through six inch steel plates like taffy; in our safety segment, you’ll hear the first use of the term “enriddlement”; and before we’re done we...
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