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The Day's Dumpster Fire

The Day's Dumpster Fire

Written by: Ed and Kara
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About this listen

In this podcast, Kara and Ed regale history's greatest mess ups. They do not celebrate humanity's successes but its most fantastic failures! This show is not dedicated to those who have accomplished incredible things, but to those who have accomplished incredible things and how they royally screwed things up in the process.


You might ask why they are doing this podcast: it's because you've botched up the best laid plans and you know what? THAT'S OKAY!


Let this show help you navigate the mishaps that you have come across where there is no clear answer available.


So sit back, relax, and listen about people who messed up way more than what you could of possibly imagine.

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Episodes
  • The Great Train Wreck of 1918 - Episode 74
    May 11 2026

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    Ed's by himself today so he's got the entire episode for himself to do as he pleases. Kara is on vacation and that means Ed can do whatever type of episode he wants so what could possibly go wrong?

    As a result of Kara being vacation, Ed decided to do and episode themed off nothing else done before in The Day's Dumpster Fire history. and episode dedicated to one of the worst train accidents in American history.

    What was supposed to be a normal July 9, 1918, early morning train ride for folks coming in from Memphis TN to Nashville and folks coming out of Nashville TN heading to Memphis, two trains collided just a little way outside of Nashville on a blind turn called "Dutchman's Curve." This collision marked the worst train collision in US history and took the lives of over 101 men, women, and children. Furthermore, about 80% of the people who died that day were African Americans who were trying to head to a munitions factory for work.

    In this episode, Ed will nerd out on some cool facts about how steam engines work and why they dominated the mass transit system of the 1800s and early 1900s. He will also dig into the litany of safety issues that resulted in the disfigurement of many railroad workers if they didn't end up dying doing their jobs. Next Ed will describe the geography of where the collision took place as well as the two trains involved. He'll explain how the accident took place, who or what was at fault and what Ed thinks is the real culprit behind this terrible accident.

    It's not what you think! So, you better sit down and listen. You might just learn some math along the way.

    Of course, if you disagree with Ed's theories or want to add your own be sure to email Kara and Ed at thedaysdumpsterfire@gmail.com come.

    Check out the website and send a text if you want. This is not your typical dumpster fire, and it invites the community to chip in their theories.

    If you're interested in this episode, check out these!

    The Transatlantic Telegraph

    The Hindenburg


    Hey before you go!

    If have ideas for future episodes that you want Kara and Ed to look into, email them at thedaysdumpsterfire@gmail.com. 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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    1 hr and 45 mins
  • The Bat Bomb of WWII Fire Part 2. - Episode 73
    Apr 29 2026

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    We here at the Day's Dumpster Fire felt that The Bat Bomb of WWII Fire Part 1 episode was so iconic and a breath of fresh air given the stresses of modern day living, Ed and Kara hammered through the recording and editing of Part 2 early so that you wouldn't have to wait tow weeks for the conclusion. Even though it would be worth the wait, Part 2 of The Bat Bomb of WWII should be released sooner than later!

    In this episode, Ed and Kara discuss the establishing, engineering, testing, and subsequent conclusions of Dr. Lytle Adams' brain child, the bat bomb or better known in the top secret circles: Project X-Ray.

    If the Manhattan Project consisted of elite top tier scientists and engineers headed up by one of the greatest minds of 20th century, Project X-ray was the exact opposite. Comprised of a team of only two scientists, a hotel manager, a body builder, a pilot turned movie star, two random brothers with nothing else to do in the 1940s, a lobster fisherman, and two high school students, the idea of a bat bomb burning down cities in Japan would have been better reflected in a television comedy series.

    Ed will show how Project X-Ray was put together, how the bats were selected, how little napalm bombs were attached to them, how they were stuffed into a glorified toilet paper tube after being flash frozen and then dropped out of a B-25 bomber outside Los Angeles and the conclusion that were derived from such a test.

    Furthermore, Ed will look at how those conclusions were put together to make a second bomb but with actual destructive capabilities!

    World War II was a scary, intense, and involved time in American history, but it was also a time where any idea could be entertained. Some ideas were hugely successful and changed the trajectory of human history, and others... well... simply went up in smoke. Not to spoil anything, but we'll let you decided where Dr. Adams' bat bomb sat in terms of historical influence.

    Hey before you go!

    If have ideas for future episodes that you want Kara and Ed to look into, email them at thedaysdumpsterfire@gmail.com. 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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    1 hr and 49 mins
  • The Bat Bomb of WWII Fire Part 1. - Episode 72
    Apr 27 2026

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    In today's episode, Ed decided to go down a different kind of dumpster fire. Instead of a large volume of people being killed or injured or thousands of people losing their retirements due to sketchy accounting practices. The Bat Bomb of WWII is a testament to the creativity of the human mind in times of extreme need and how not all ideas are going to be good.

    While vacationing in Carlsbad, New Mexico to watch bats, dentist / eccentric inventor, Dr. Lytle S. Adams, heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 that sent America into World War II. The first half of 1942 didn't go well for America when fighting the Japanese Empire for a multitude of reasons, but Dr. Adams thought of using bats to wreak havoc on the Japanese Empire's homeland of... well... Japan...

    In this episode, you're going to be regaled with founding, setup, testing, and conclusions from one of the most "bat brained" ideas of WWII. Dr. Adams selected an elite crew of scientists and contributors to put together a bomb that when dropped, would dispense over 1,000 bats all carrying a little incendiary capsule of napalm. The idea was that the bats would disperse over Japan, find dark attics and other nooks and crannies so that the napalm charge would go off and set fire to the building.

    The plan was so well thought out and so perfect, that if implemented correctly, it could rival that of another type of weapon being researched in Los Alamos at the same exact time as the Bat Bomb just out side Los Angeles... the nuclear bomb!

    This is all assuming that Adams and his team could make this Bat Bomb idea actually work and not burn the entire program to the ground in the process.

    Oh wait! This is going to be two parter episode, but you won't have to wait two weeks for Ed to get the episode out containing the thrilling conclusion. If all goes according to plan, part 2 will be out a few days after this episode airs... What could possibly go wrong?

    Some other episodes that you might find interesting based on the time period and / or mentioned in the Bat Bomb episode:

    Oppie's Demo Core Fire

    The Dust Bowl

    Prohibition (Episodes 59-62)

    The Great Depression (Episodes 65-68)

    Be sure to check out the Day's Dumpster Fire website for detailed show notes, images, Kara's drawings, as well as an ever growing library of humanity's most fantastic failures!

    Hey before you go!

    If have ideas for future episodes that you want Kara and Ed to look into, email them at thedaysdumpsterfire@gmail.com. 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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    1 hr and 14 mins
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