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 lakes anywhere in the world; you’ll see why you would rather be beaten half-to-death in the face with a bat than visit the site of today story; and you’ll find out how a cherished keepsake from our tale was recovered by a nightmarish bright orange, alien-shaped robot monster made out of airplane-grade aluminum.

And because you are listening on Patreon… you will figure out if flat-earthers are just the dumbest people in the world or the dumbest people in history; you will get to walk through the deadliest things to ever happen on the Greatest Lake system in the world; and you will hear a sode inside a sode about a storm from 1913 so powerful than when they needed a name they settled on “Great”.

We can only barely understand how frightening today’s story must have been for the men who were lost and the families they left behind. I feel a real responsibility to tell their stories with accuracy and respect knowing there are real people out there connected to the story and still wounded by it. That said, outside of calling the ship the Eddy Fitz one time, and then the way I give description to the indescribable physical hell you’d experience if you grabbed a snorkel and tried to visit the site of the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, I think maintained a definite air of respect during this episode. You’d be honestly surprised at how many people were so deeply touched and effected by the event. Sorry for sounding so gloomy at the end, but sometimes I get bummed out. Not as bummed as the families of those lost on Gitchi Goomie mind you.

With all that said, there are only two more episodes in the year, but they are really something. We’ll be having our least nauseating visit to Victorian England in search of outdoor entertainment. And the last episode is our return to the Disaster Moviesode format by popular demand. The last time we did one, it was the 1998 Michael Bay schlocktacular “Armageddon” – a movie so bereft of sense or scientific consideration, they used it at NASA as a test to see how many things you could find wrong with it. Well, this time, we have a film so preposterous, it makes Armageddon look misunderstood. And it contains within it’s 2 hours and 15 minute running time almost every type of disaster, except ironically, asteroids. It's the 2003 Aaron Eckhart movie, “The Core”, and I know you’re going to like it. I saw it in the theatre, and I certainly didn’t.


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THANK YOU. Most shows survive at the whim of production companies and corporate sponsors, built from the top down. Doomsday doesn’t exist because some network exec believes in it – it exists because actual people do. It's built from the bottom up, and it’s been my privilege to bring you these stories. Just you, me, and a microphone.
 
I don’t do this for you, so much as I do this because of you. If you'd like to support the show at Buy Me A Coffee, or join the club over at Patreon for AD-FREE EPISODES, LONGER EPISODES, EXTRA CONTENT, all that good stuff (I’m truly sorry about those ads, they're not in my control)

All older episodes can be found on any of your favorite channels 
 
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Spotify :...

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 about an explosion so large, people miles away had to clear limbs and genitals from their rooves; and you would hear about how at the time, ancient disasters were believed to be Heaven’s way of saying your Government sucked.

And if you were listening on Patreon… you would hear about how people were killed in the early development of explosives, including those for whom there wasn’t enough left to put a thermometer in; you would hear about the time San Francisco tried to use dynamite to fight fires, and how that didn’t go as well as you’d think; and you would hear as I climb upon my pulpit and deliver unto you a sermon on blasphemy and the special place in hell reserved for insurance adjusters.

As one supporter who already heard this on Patreon said – "everybody Wanggongchang tonight!"

Jesus himself will make a quick cameo in this story, and he will explain how all sins are forgivable – except for the blasphemous use of his Dad’s name by insurance adjusters, and how there’s a toasty level of hell that awaits them all. Apologies in advance if you work in insurance, but it’s better to find out now.

The last time we visited China, we watched a sideways rocket launch that performed an incomplete orbit over the countryside before landing nose first onto its own launch centre 22 seconds later. Those were the good old days compared to today’s story, which is much older, and much more aggressive. It won’t be as gory of course, but the body count will be much more egregious. In trying to figure out this story’s rightful place in history, I had to start comparing it to meteors and super volcanoes and atomic bombs. Not to spoil anything, but this is one of the more profound disasters we’ve ever covered, and the cause was I believe, something so innocuous and dumb, I’ve done it to my cat by accident before.


–––––


THANK YOU. Most shows survive at the whim of production companies and corporate sponsors, built from the top down. Doomsday doesn’t exist because some network exec believes in it – it exists because actual people do. It's built from the bottom up, and it’s been my privilege to bring you these stories. Just you, me, and a microphone.
 
I don’t do this for you, so much as I do this because of you. If you'd like to support the show at Buy Me A Coffee, or join the club over at Patreon for AD-FREE EPISODES, LONGER EPISODES, EXTRA CONTENT, all that good stuff (I’m truly sorry about those ads, they're not in my control)

All older episodes can be found on any of your favorite channels 
 
Apple : https://tinyurl.com/5fnbumdw
Spotify : https://tinyurl.com/73tb3uuw
IHeartRadio : https://tinyurl.com/vwczpv5j
Podchaser : https://tinyurl.com/263kda6w
Stitcher : https://tinyurl.com/mcyxt6vw
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