The Rest is Failure cover art

The Rest is Failure

The Rest is Failure

Written by: Nathan Pali
Listen for free

About this listen

The Rest Is Failure is a history and leadership podcast about what comes after the triumphs—the mistakes, misjudgments, and decisions that didn’t work.

While history often celebrates winners and turning points, this podcast focuses on leadership failures, bad decisions, and unintended consequences that are usually summarized, softened, or ignored. Each episode examines real historical moments where leaders failed to adapt, misread reality, or doubled down on the wrong choice—and how those failures shaped what followed.

From political and military disasters to organizational collapse and cultural breakdown, the show explores how leaders fail, why smart people make bad decisions, and how power distorts judgment over time. These are not morality tales or hindsight lectures, but story-driven examinations of failure as it actually unfolded.

This isn’t a podcast about success stories or heroic leadership. It’s about what went wrong, why it went wrong, and why failure is often the most influential part of history.

If you’re interested in leadership history, historical failures, decision-making, power dynamics, and the hidden side of how the world was shaped, this podcast is for you.

The Rest Is Failure Because history remembers the victories. But it’s built on the failures.

© 2026 The Rest is Failure All rights reserved.
World
Episodes
  • Roman Bacchanalia Panic of 186 B.C.
    Feb 3 2026
    In this episode, we explore the Roman Bacchanalia panic, a historical event where the Senate reacted with extreme fear and repression to private religious gatherings. We discuss how leaders, faced with what they don't understand, often resort to exaggeration and moral panic rather than seeking to understand the underlying needs driving such movements.          Chapters    00:00 Introduction to the Bacchanalia Panic    01:08 Whispers of Secret Gatherings    04:46 Senatorial Fear and Repression    08:46 The Role of Witnesses and Historians    12:41 Leadership Failure and Lasting Lessons
    Show More Show Less
    11 mins
  • The Challenger Tragedy: What Went Wrong
    Feb 2 2026
    In this episode, we revisit the devastating Challenger space shuttle disaster of 1986, examining the critical decisions and organizational pressures that led to the catastrophe. We explore how a system rewarded confidence and forward motion over the quiet expertise of engineers, ultimately forcing reasonable decisions to drift into tragedy.          Chapters    00:00 Introduction to the Challenger Disaster    00:46 The O-Ring Dilemma    02:32 Engineers vs. Managers    05:09 The Fateful Launch    07:26 Organizational Failure
    Show More Show Less
    8 mins
  • The Fall of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
    Feb 1 2026
    In this episode, we explore the gradual dismantling of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a vast European republic that succumbed not to revolution or conquest, but to internal paralysis and external manipulation. We examine how a political system valuing 'golden liberty' and the 'Liberum Veto' ultimately rendered the Commonwealth vulnerable to its neighbors.          Chapters    00:00 Introduction to the Commonwealth    00:40 Golden Liberty and Liberum Veto    03:46 External Interference and Partitions    07:06 Failed Reforms and Final Collapse
    Show More Show Less
    7 mins
No reviews yet