Doomed to Fail - Can you recommend a Religious History podcast?

Episode Date: September 26, 2025

Religion has sparked wars, inspired art, toppled empires, and comforted the faithful. In these episodes, we explore the stories where belief shaped human history in unforgettable and sometimes unsettling ways. Episodes:Ep 5 - Part 1: Divorce is fine, calm down! - The Story of Anne Boleyn & Henry VIIIWhen Henry VIII wanted out of his first marriage, he set off a chain reaction that changed religion across Europe. Anne Boleyn’s story is one of love, power, and a church forever altered. Ep 6 - Part 2: Love you Forever! - The Story of the Taj MahalThe Taj Mahal isn’t just an architectural wonder — it’s a monument to faith, love, and loss. This is the story of Shah Jahan and the devotion that built one of the world’s most sacred sites. Ep 14 - Part 2: Big Trouble in Little Plymoth - William Bradford & Thomas MortonPuritan leader William Bradford clashed with free-spirited Thomas Morton in early New England. Their fight over religion, freedom, and morality set the stage for America’s culture wars. Ep 18 - Part 2: Our Favorite Demon Hunters - Ed & Lorraine WarrenThe Warrens claimed to battle demons, ghosts, and the devil himself. We dig into their faith-driven investigations and the blurred line between belief and exploitation. Ep 43: Maya's Curse Unveiled: The Friar Diego De Landa EnigmaFriar Diego De Landa tried to stamp out Maya religion by burning their sacred texts. But his work left behind the very records that now help us understand their spiritual world. Bonus: Interview with Marcos Antonio Hernandez - Author of "Where They Burn Books, They Also Burn People""An intimate conversation on religion, censorship, and the power of faith in shaping societies. Hernandez explores how burning books often foreshadows darker persecution. Ep 127 - Suffering for Salvation: The Complicated Legacy of Mother Teresahe Complicated Legacy of Mother Teresa — Mother Teresa is remembered as a saint, but her methods and motives sparked global debate. We explore the tension between faith, charity, and suffering. Ep 129 - Mother of Sparrows: The Vengeance of Saint Olga of KievSaint Olga is venerated for her piety — but her story is also soaked in blood and vengeance. How did a woman who burned villages alive become canonized as a holy figure? Ep 145 - Witch Trials: Not just in Salem!Europe burned, drowned, and hanged thousands of supposed witches long before Salem. We trace the hysteria, fear, and power struggles behind these trials. Ep 177: What's the worst that could happen? - The Münster Rebellion of 1534A radical religious sect seized the German city of Münster and declared it the New Jerusalem. The bloody siege that followed proved just how dangerous faith and fanaticism can become. Ep 194: The Vatican State: How did it come to be?The Vatican didn’t always exist as its own nation. This episode traces the religious and political twists that carved out the world’s smallest country with the biggest influence. Join our Founders Club on Patreon to get ad-free episodes for life! patreon.com/DoomedtoFailPodWe 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: [e-mail] 

Hello. Hello. Welcome to Doom Digital Fail. My name is Taylor and with my friend Fars, we bring you historical disasters and interesting stories and we have over 200 episodes and today I'm going to tell you about some of ours that are about religion in all sorts of different ways. So go ahead and get started. I am not going to lie. I'm a big religion is the reason we have all these problems person, but I know that people are religious, which is great for you, as long as you're not hurting other people, which is something that I see all the time. And you'll also see in these stories, not all of them. Most of them. Okay, let's get started. Episode 5, Part 1, Ann Bolin and Henry VIII, because this is the reason we have the Church of England and all of this fighting

in the UK about Protestants versus Catholics is because Henry the 8th wanted to get divorced. big overarching theme that we have is like just get divorced don't kill your family anyway henry they is probably the most famous of the family wife killers just to get divorced because he wanted a son and then like they blame anne boleyn for not having a son okay you can't control that and then also she had a daughter who ended up being queen elizabeth so there anyway i love it anne boleyn luster heart episode six part two the Taj Mahal this is actually a a the Taj Mahal the building in india is actually a tomb and a monument to a wife and has a lot of religious symbols in it so listen to that one episode 14 part two william bradford and thomas morton this is like about puritans and i love

talking about puritans um if you have not had a child yet i recommend naming them cotton mather or increased mather i don't love those names so much and i can't believe i didn't name my child increase oh my god anyway i have a whole book in cotton mather and another book that i just got called the fever of 1721 about like a flu that went through the um like plymouth north eastern area and cotton mather's involved in that too and i just i just love him as an historical figure what a what a nut job episode 18 part two edin lorraine warren so talk about the bad side of religion like not the bad side because you know the bad side but like the demons side, which we don't believe in, but also we're not going to test it, you know. And also

Ed and Lorraine Warren were lying, but we got the Conjuring movies. And there's a new one. Have you seen it? I have not, but I really, really, really, really want to. I love them so much. Not them. The Conjuring movies, you know. Episode 43 makes people mad. It's about Friar Diego Delanda, who went to the Mayan Empire and burned a lot of their books. And the thing that you get when you post about this in social media is, oh, thank goodness. don't have child sacrifices anymore. You're like, what? Christians burn women all the time. And so many people have died in the name of other religions. It's not just Mayan religion. And if we would have kept their history, maybe we'd know more. But there are still a ton of Maya

people. And I would, yeah, it's interesting and very, very frustrating. Then I interviewed the person who wrote the book, where they burn books, they also burn people, which is a quote from a Jewish scholar, but also is a, the story is about friar Diego Delanda, Marcus Antonio Hernandez, is the author. He's lovely. You can listen to that. Episode 127 is not Mother Teresa. So far as brings us up, Mother Teresa is not great. So she had a thing that a lot of Catholics have, which is like, God wants you to suffer. So you cannot do things like have the medicine that you need. They use dirty needles. They helped people kind of not really.

I don't think she deserves sainthood if you're, you know, writing it down, keeping a tally. Someone who inexplicably has sainhood, which I'm kind of down for, is Olga of Kiev. It was episode 129. So she became a saint after her death, but she killed so many people

in vengeance. It's super fun. Listen to that one, 145, witch trials in Europe. Burning women, drowning women, turn me into a new all of those stories. It's not just in Salem. It was much, much worse in Europe. Episode 177, the Munster Rebellion of 1534. Basically, a religious group took over at Munster, the town, made everybody into religious fanatics, and then it didn't last very long, and the instigators were

killed and then hung in these big cages in the top of the cathedral, and the cages are still there. They've been restored, obviously, since then it's been, you know, 500 years, but fun. And then episode 194 is on the Vatican State. So we continue to be just enthralled by the Catholic Church, all of their ups and downs and the bloodshed and just the horror of it. And this was when they were selecting a new pope. So go bears, we have a new pope. Listen to that one too.

So this is the nicest I've ever been talking about religion. It boils my bones. But I hope that, I don't know, I would be like those episodes. If you have any questions, have any ideas, let me know, doomed tofillpod at gmail.com, doomed to fill a pod on all of your social media, and we will see you out there. Thanks.