Doomed to Fail - Re-Release: Morgan's Wonderland - A Happy Story!

Episode Date: August 13, 2026

Let's do a quickie re-release & learn about an inclusive amusement park for all - Morgan's Wonderland! It's a happy story about a father who built something magical for his daughter and shared it with the world!   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] 

In a matter of the people of the state of California versus Hortenthall James Simpson, case number B.A.019. And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your current 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. I would, like, record my half and then you record your half.

We're just like John Hammond and Malcolm, Ian Malcolm. And I did tell you that, 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, we also 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 resets a bunch of stuff.

He's very cute. So there's that. And then also I, Fantastic Four comes out on, well, like, sorry it's coming out by the time we do this. But my friends from college, Ian and Jeff wrote it. And I'm very excited. No way. Yeah. They've been, 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 Jeff Kaplan, who wrote the story for Fantastic Four. or first steps. Did you go to college together? Mm-hmm. That's awesome. Yeah, 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. I know. You know. And me. All encompassing, I know.

Cool. Well, I'm going to go ahead and share a story. And it's something like I, you. Oh, yeah. That's right. That's right. Sorry. right everyone um welcome to doomed to fail we bring you history's notorious disasters and greatest

failures and i'm taylor joined by farce are you ever stunned that i never remember this no it's just like it's just far as like he doesn't know things okay um i sort of shared this with you via an instagram posts last week i guess um and i just got so into it and decided i want to do a story about it uh a little bit of a spoiler alert this is not a a doomed to fail story. This is like a unbelievably uplifting and heartwarming story, which is very anti-minute usual subject matter. And I'll be honest, like I, I'm not like a super emotional person, but this like legit

was like causing me to have issues. Just like, it's very, very heartwarming. And I hope you guys like it because I'm going to cover the world's 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 Wonderland. underland.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 to 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. 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 to be as not accessible as possible.

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 drink in any of these parks, but it is like I watch a lot of like Dave Ramsey content and like the amount of of people that call in crying because they had to take a heat 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 a family of four and I wouldn't, I don't really, I don't want to do it. And it's also just like, the whole thing is so expensive. I make everything so expensive. I make everything so expensive. And also, there's 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 heel up 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 girl who's 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 is 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, and I think you for pausing for me. I'm like taking a deep breath. Remember 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. Totally. 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 it's on the outline. But he had a TED talk about something about how any environment. It was something along the line. 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 or 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 paddle 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 outline. Sorry. I'm like mumbling a little bit. But like it was a, it was a theater style.

It was like a 3D theater concept. Um, 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, 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 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've, they launched Morgan's Sports, 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 um that one was very unique like that was not a normal zip line i saw the pictures 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 basically that um their overnight cabins are designed with rooms for kids to park their wheelchairs next their bunks um and they have a medical center on site, which is awesome. The one that I thought was really, really cool. I mean, all that stuff is really cool, but they started this thing called Mac, which is Morgan's multi-assistance center. And this is just like an all-around facility in San Antonio for families of kids with this 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 who 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 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 here 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. stuff like that. And they would do home visits for kids and like do little dance parties on their porches. They do virtual gala's for people as well. Like this guy just would not give up. Like he 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 it 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 is the YMCA. donors as well as like the parks themselves generating some ticket sales from the

adults who would visit or through merchandise sales and things like that um and i was i was like again i kept getting like emotional over this ship because i was like what like a stark contrast and like i kept being like this is also america amidst 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 i couldn't actually tell if it was a movie like a or a documentary they're going to do on the topic but something seems to be in the works that's been like optioned um which i hope brings this to light and lets everybody know this exists.

And I will say, not to chew my own horn, but as of this morning, I am part of Morgan's Giving Society. They will be sending me a Morgan's butterfly lapel pin, which you can see the butterfly on their website, as well as their Favicon, that I'm totally intent on wearing because this is absolutely incredible.

This guy's incredible. This family's incredible. So this is not doomed to fail. This is doomed for hope. Yeah, it's a little bit, a little bit of a hopeful story. That's lovely. Very, very lovely. And honestly, as I was going through it, I was like, why wouldn't any, why wouldn't everybody 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 abled. 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 the

little bit of my babies in the UK 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. that is not a way to handle that situation, you know. And then I also watched a video. I think Cory 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 help people on bikes, help people with strollers.

Like, they help people with carts, like all sorts of different things. And then, like, things like 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. So not just for them. Anybody who goes, to morgan's dot 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 um you can go on any one of these and click to 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 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 know I had like pepper in a plane crash on the last episode just to balance out I know for real no it's nice to you 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. Those people, probably people, I mean, this is probably people doing some good somewhere. It's like the 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 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 like I didn't even know this water, this park existed or the series of parks existed.

So. I have a tiny spoiler for Superman. 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. Yeah, tell us like if you know of something that's going on like in your, or you know people like this, 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. And I think was the last episode that we ended with the world as being destroyed. Be a climate change. Don't worry about it.

Yeah. We are, yeah, we're very confusing podcasts 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 Jim 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. Yeah. Thank you, listeners. And thank you, Taylor.

Thank you, Fars. You're going to cut it off.