Doomed to Fail - Ep 213: A Good Thing Exists - Morgan's Wonderland

Episode Date: July 28, 2025

Today, in good news, Farz tells the story of San Antonio's kindest philanthropist, Gordon Hartman! Gordon created Morgan's Wonderland - an amusement park that makes attending amusement parks possible for people with disabilities. We'll talk about the mission of the park, the cool rides they created to make sure that everyone can ride safely. Learn even more at https://morgans.org/ 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] 

It's a matter of the people of the state of California versus Hortonthal James Simpson, case number B.A.019. And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you. We are back, Taylor, for another live recording that's live for us, but not the listeners. How are you? Good. I don't know how we do otherwise. Like in Jurassic Park, when he talks to himself in that video, you know what he's like,

Oh, yeah. John. I would, like, record my half and then you would record your half. We're just like John Hammond and Malcolm Ian Malcolm And I did tell you that I saw a Jurassic Park

Then you went and it was good I know I've actually wanted to go see it I just haven't It's just like I haven't mustered up It's just when you're cozy at home It's just tough to be like Let me get up and put on pants

Like I just don't want to you know We did see I saw Superman yesterday I heard amazing things about Superman It was great Yeah So he's my least favorite superhero but like if it's a good movie it's a good movie yeah that's fair no it's good it kind of like resets a bunch

of stuff he's very cute um so there's that and then also i um fantastic four comes out on well it's already it's come out by the time we do this um but my friends from college ian and jeff wrote it and i'm very excited no way yeah they've been um you know writing for tv and movies for a long time and this is their first like really really huge one so ian springer and jeffaplin who wrote the story for Fantastic Four First Steps. Did you go to college together? That's awesome. Yeah, they're awesome.

They're awesome. And they both live in L.A. now. But I think Jeff was on our trip to Italy in 2001 that we studied and brought together where I even met once. I've done them forever. And very excited for them. You have such cool friends. You know. And me. I know.

All encompassing, I know. Cool. Well, I'm going to go ahead and share a story. And it's something like you. Oh, yeah, that's right. That's right, sorry, everyone. Welcome to doomed just to fail. We bring you history's notorious disasters and greatest failures, and I'm Taylor joined by Fars.

Are you ever stunned that I never remember this? No. It's just like, it's just Fars. Like, he doesn't know things. That's funny. Okay. I sort of shared this with you via an Instagram post last week, I guess. And I just got so into it and decided I wanted to do a story about it.

A little bit of a spoiler alert. this is not a doomed to fail story this is like a unbelievably uplifting and heartwarming story which is very anti-minute usual subject matter um and i'll be honest like i i've rare i'm not like a super emotional person but this like legit was like causing me to have issues just like uh it's very very heartwarming and um i hope you guys like it because i'm going to cover the world first and only ultra-accessible theme park designed for guests of all abilities. Oh, I love that. So I'm going to be talking about Morgan's Wonderland, which is based out of San Antonio,

or it's located in San Antonio, Texas. And I'm going to start by getting into what does ultra-accessible even mean. I think we all know what accessible means, but what does ultra mean. So I'm going to go off of the definition that they use on their own website at Morgan's World. Morgan's Wonderland.com, which says that it is, quote, removing both physical and economic barriers that confront children and adults with special needs. This means that those with and without special needs can come together in a fully inclusive environment for better understanding of each other.

It's great. Super Noble cause, and based on what I've seen on their website, at least on the economic side of things, they really do live up to what they preach. basically anybody with a disability or special needs can access the park for free anybody wow adult tickets only cost $38 for a day pass um by comparison i went on universal's website and they're great because they've actually incorporated flex pricing which means they can bump the rates up depending on the day you go uh to be as not accessible as possible um the tickets seem to range between

$110 and $150 a piece. And then they upsell you at the end of the cart process with $80 to $100 per ticket upsells on additional fast pass.

And then I don't know if you ever bought food or drinking any of these parks, but it is like, I watch a lot of like Dave Ramsey content and like the amount of people that call in crying because they had to take a he lock out on their house because they wanted to take their kids on a trip to Disney and it's like

what are like it's very not cool I mean just so many I have so many thoughts about that like what so it's way too expensive for a family of like five you know

I'm family of four and I wouldn't I don't really I'm going to do it and it's also just like the whole thing is so expensive they make everything so expensive and also they're like probably a fee at the end. Every time I buy a ticket, there's a fucking fee. I want to murder someone. Also, correction, Taylor.

You are a family of five. Oh, that's true. Thank you. Could you imagine my tortoise on, like, Splash Mountain? Can you imagine little Mickey ears on him? Oh. See, this is how you get sucked in. That's how you end up getting a heloog on your house.

That is the first time I've ever wanted to genuinely go is to find the tiniest pair of mouse dears for Ben Franklin's ghosts. You put him next to, like, the girls dressed as? like Bell or something and she like I could put a little head. I bet I could put a little tutu on him. I love it. Okay. Anyway. So that's the economic side of. So let's get like who founded it, what it's all about. So the guy who founded is a guy named Gordon Hartman. He was born and raised in San Antonio,

Texas. And I love like these inspirational figures that nobody knows anything about. This guy, okay, 15 years old, he launched a landscaping business. By 19, he started a home building business. By 23, he started his land development company. Eventually, he would grow to become the largest home builder and land developer in San Antonio for about 22 years. This guy made it, like, big time. He would marry his wife, Maggie, in 1991, and would give birth their daughter, Morgan. I think in 1993, the exact dates aren't there. I think the family actually does like to be somewhat private. It's somewhere between 93 and 95

it's when she was born. And Morgan, unfortunately, was born with a cognitive and physical, was born with cognitive and physical special needs. She was born with a syndrome called Tattin Brown Raman, which it's a genetic disease. And so it has varying degrees

in which it kind of affects you, but in some cases you can suffer from extreme intellectual disability as well as physical disability involving your joints. So she was seemingly more on the extreme side of things. That, I don't think you for pausing for me. I'm like taking a deep breath.

Remember how I did work at the, at a hedge fund, you remember. And I complain about it and all the things. But when I worked there, the CEO's daughter had a disease that was really bad as well. That was like very, very, very rare. So part of the profits of the hedge fund did go to research for that. That's awesome. That's awesome. At some point, and again, details about this seem to be kind of scant as well.

But there seemed to have gone on a family trip, the three of them together. And they were enjoying some pool time at a resort. And Morgan wanted to enter the pool and play with the other kids who were throwing a ball around. And as she approached them, she was basically just outright rejected. The kids just didn't want to play with her. they took their ball and they went home. How old I? Gordon, the father, would later say, quote,

I'll never forget the look of anguish and dismay on Morgan's face. So I decided there had to be a way to bridge the gap of misunderstanding about people with special needs. That incident was a tipping point for Morgan's Wonderland. He also had a TED talk that I, it's not in the outline, but he had a TED talk about something about how any environment, it was something along the lines of you're not disabled, you're only in an environment that doesn't facilitate what you are able. Yeah.

Which is very true. Totally. So in 2005, Gordon sold all of his business interests and set out on a new endeavor of creating Morgan's Wonderland. The process started by establishing the Gordon Hartman Family Foundation of 501c3, whose initial interest was developing and building this. theme park. He went about acquiring about 25 acres of continuous land around San Antonio, as well as consulting

with doctors and families and therapists to figure out how he can go about achieving this. The outcome in 2010 was the launch of Morgan's Wonderland to cost about $50 million with completely new and novel rights to accommodate any and everybody. Nobody makes this stuff. Like, they don't make attractions for this demographic. And so, like, for example, the carousel, they had to create that. And they had to make it so that it didn't have flashing lights. It could accommodate wheelchairs.

It didn't have loud music so that people with sensory sensitivities weren't feeling overwhelmed. This was kind of the part that I, like, a little bit broke down. was they they have a swing that's made to like secure a wheelchair too um which i thought was really touching and beautiful because i thought about like when i was a kid you know one of the first and simplest enjoyments you have as a kid is you get on a swing set with like your sibling whatever you just push each other and like feel the they talked about how any child should be able to feel the wind past rushing past them like on a swing set um and But, again, it's not something that everybody can do because if you have a kind of disability that doesn't allow you to hold your body upright and you have specialized wheelchair contraptions for like your spinal balance, like you need to have that with you.

They created a ride called Jets Wonderbikes, which is a hang glider type thing where you can get on and get lifted up in the air. Again, all wheelchair accessible. And they, you can actually physically manipulate it. Like you can pedal it. But they also were like, well, some people can't pebble it. And so they added hand cranks so the kids were able to kind of tinker with it and play around with it as well. I love the fact that every ride description on their side included pictures and it included what the ride does, who it was for, as well as options to stop the experience to ensure that no kid was too frightened or overwhelmed by being there. So they literally had like there was one, there's like a, it was, again, this is an online story.

I'm like mumbling a little bit but like it was a theater style it was like a 3D theater concept but they had like kill switches for kids to like hit if they wanted like the thing to stop shaking as they got scared or something

it's like they thought of everything that's lovely seven years after Morgan's Wonderland open the family launched Morgan's Inspiration Island so that's 2017 which was basically a splash pad splash pad water park concept

and like I felt honestly shitty and guilty because as I was reading some of this stuff I was it I never it never dawned on me the things that you would need to do for these accommodations to exist like I never never experienced them so one thing was anyone who visits the park was given free by the park um wheelchairs that were waterproof and came in multiple different sizes to make sure that everyone felt comfortable and weren't going to get their actual wheelchairs soaking wet. All that was done, all that's provided free of charge. They also provide waterproof bags for ventilators, people that need oxygen. And this one, again, never thought of, but there's people who have exposed tracheas because they don't have the capacity to breathe without having an exposed trachea. And they provided covers and accommodations for them as well. All this stuff is given free of charge to anybody who visits. In 2020, they launched more.

sport, which is a three-acre complex designed for anybody to play sports. I think as of right now, they support pickleball, tennis, basketball, and softball. And they also, much to the credit of the San Antonio Spurs, partnered with them to create a completely free league for kids with or without disabilities to join. That's amazing. Yeah, like it's, this guy, Go ahead, sorry. No, it's just like you, I think like you were going to say, like, it's so lovely to have money and do good things with it.

I'm going to get to that, too. Like, it's such a, well, I'm going to go into detail about that. In 2021, they also launched Morgan's camp, which was an overnight stayaway camp for kids of all abilities to join summertime activities like a climbing wall, which also incorporated a police system with wheelchair ramps to make sure that any kid wants, wants you can do that. A zip line, which had seats insured for accessibility. that one was very unique that was not a normal zip line I saw the picture of it

it was not like one that you just like strap yourself to from the chest like it's made for anybody to be able to kind of get on it it's more like a ride almost like an open open swing basically that their overnight cabins are designed

with rooms for kids to park their wheelchairs next to their bunks and they have a medical center on site which is awesome The one that I thought was really, really cool. I mean, all of that stuff is really cool, but they started this thing called Mac, which is Morgan's Multi-Assistence Center.

And this is just like an all-around facility in San Antonio for families of kids or anybody with disabilities to provide completely free medical, non-medical, or therapeutic services to the families. They have facilitators there. They refer to as navigators. to intake families to understand what their needs are and where the gaps and services are

and what they can do to kind of bring those two together. They provide on-site medical and therapy as well as off-site home visits. Again, all free to the families. They even started a facility at Mac called Morgan Salam, which provides haircuts, styling, nail coloring, coloring of hair, all that stuff. And the difference here is that there's no time constraints

because sometimes people who get sensory overloaded, like you need more, you need to be different with, you deal with it differently, right? And so the whole thing starts with like the stylist who is also trained on the different needs of their clientele to evaluate the customer, hear what they actually want from like an outcome perspective,

but also assess like their needs and make sure that whatever they're doing is met to accommodate those needs. In 2020, Gordon had to shut down operations due to COVID-19. And also- And I imagine that they were like very susceptible. Yeah, exactly. Like they were like very following the rules very closely because of the people who attend there.

Yeah, a lot of folks have been for yourself place. Yeah, totally. So he pivoted. And he took his staff and the people that worked there, the ones that were like in character costumes and stuff like that. And they would do home visits for kids and like do little. dance parties on their porches. They do virtual gala

for people as well. This guy just would not give up. He would not let anything disrupt kind of achieving this mission. And so this goes to the money piece of it. So the vast, vast bulk of funds

used to provide all these services. They came from Gordon himself and his family. He basically contributed as much as he could to the foundation to kind of go through doing this. rough estimates put the amount of money that he put into it himself about $86 million. Wow. And the family themselves have committed to donating 95% of their wealth to throughout their entire lifetime to this mission.

Toyota has been a substantial sponsor. Like I said, the Spurs have been very, very helpful. The FC, the football club over there has also been really helpful. So it was the YMCA. And donors as well as like the parks themselves generally. winning some ticket sales from the adults who would visit or through merchandise sales and things like that. And I was, I was like, it was, again, I kept getting like emotional over this shit because I was like, what like a stark contrast. And like, I kept being like, this is

also America amidst like news of like the bad that goes on. Like this is also. here. This is also here. This also exists. And it's something that we should be really, really proud of. They are going to do some... I couldn't actually tell if it was a movie, like a documentary they were going to do on

the topic, but something seems to be in the works that's been like optioned which I hope brings this to light and lets everybody know this exists. And I will say, not to tune my own horn, but as of this morning, I am part of Morgan's Giving Society.

And they will be sending me a Morgan's butterfly lapel pin, which you can see the butterfly on their website as well as their favorite con that I'm totally intent on wearing because this is absolutely incredible. This guy is incredible. This family's incredible. So this is not doomed to fail. This is doomed for hope. Yeah, it's a little bit of a hopeful story. That's lovely. Very, very lovely.

And honestly, like, as I was going through it, I was like, why wouldn't anybody, why wouldn't everybody say, send their kids to a camp like this like or to attend a water part like this because I think like that's the thing when I was growing up that like because you didn't see it every day you didn't know how to interface with it you didn't know how to interact with people that were differently able and I mean I know me as a kid I wasn't like the most outgoing with things that I was uncomfortable with or didn't understand totally I think exposure is the way you overcome that and so that that's such a good point i feel like we've touched on it like a little bit like i think i talked about this little my babies in the uk yeah who you know were had like physical

deformities and how people hadn't seen anyone like that in so long because they just sent them to asylums yeah you know and you're like that is not it doesn't that is not a way to handle that situation you know and then i also watched a video i think corey booker posted it on Instagram the other day, but it was from a woman who was talking about how she was in a wheelchair and how things that are to make things more accessible actually help everyone. Like, you know, I never noticed the number of corners in my neighborhood in Los Angeles that had like a ramp versus a curb until I was pushing my kids in the stroller and I would like avoid the ones that didn't have like the ramp, you know, because like they were built for people with wheelchairs,

but they helped people on bikes, sell people with strollers. Like they help people with carts, like all sorts of different things. And then like things like stuff. subtitles, like they are originally created of people who can't hear, but they're helpful for literally everyone that I know. I use subtitles. Yeah, everyone does these days. You know, so like things that, like, the adjustments that they're making there to accommodate, people can probably be helped and used in other places as well.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And so not just for them. Anybody who goes to morgons.org, if you scroll down a little bit, you can see there's a picture of Morgan there and beneath it is it says Morgan's family of entities where it has Morgan's Wonderland, Inspiration Island, Camp, Sports Mac. You can go on any one of these and click to donate because like I don't like yeah this guy's exceedingly wealthy or actually if you go to the footer you can actually click on a donate link right there as well and just click and give directly but like we want to encourage this kind of thing and I think the more people help

the more they feel a part of it, the more they actually think about it. And I don't know, make it a part of their muscle memory. So hopefully folks can give. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. Thank you. That's lovely.

I know. I had it like pepper and a plane crash on the last episode just to balance out. I know, for real. Now, it's nice to, you know, hear good things. I think especially with someone who is rich doing something good and helping people. like it's hard to see that sometimes and there are people who are doing it but it's probably true that a lot of people are doing it

aren't telling a lot of people there's so much of that too I can think of like four billionaires but there's like hundreds you know yeah yeah probably people I mean that this is probably people doing some good somewhere it's like that saying

of like everybody thinks that we're so polarized and if you go on Twitter you think like oh my God everybody's so angry and upset about everything and then it was something about like how like 90 something percent of the content is generated by like 10% of the people and I think that's

the noise that you pay attention to and we all hear but like I didn't know this guy even existed he probably lives 45 minutes away from me like San Antonio is not that far but I literally didn't even know this guy existed and and like I didn't even know this water this park existed or the series of parks existed so I have a tiny

spoiler for SuperBahn so pause here for 10 seconds and fast forward do the third second fast forward Lex Luthor literally has a pocket universe in which he has a bunch of monkeys just typing shit online like literal monkeys it's hilarious. That's not that different from our modern world. It's like thousands

of monkeys on Twitter being like fuck Superman. It's really funny. That is not that. I believe it. I believe it. Cool, but that was my story. If anybody knows, again going back to what Taylor was saying like this can't be a one-off.

Tell us some good stories. Yeah. Tell us like if you know of something that's going on like in your or you know people. like this um i'd love to hear about it and i think like it's useful to elevate that because you get it's easy if you watch the news to get like wrapped up and like the negativity but like there's still a ton of positivity out there and so i'd like to give that a voice if possible nice nice we can end with that's and i think was the last episode that we ended with the world as being destroyed via climate change don't don't worry about it yeah

We are, yeah, we're a very confusing podcast at times. Everything's fine. Awesome. Well, thank you. Do we have anything to announce? Nope, no announcements, but please follow us on social media at Jam DeFell Pod. And then also, I think I want to release our compilation episodes every Thursday, which is like, if you haven't listened to everything, because we have over 200 episodes,

you can go back and look at different topics and I'm trying to put them together for you, so there will be more. Sweet. Thank you listeners, and thank you, Taylor. Thank you, Fars. You're going to cut it off.