Today, we go back across the pond to talk about the Tower of London - not technically a tower if you're looking for something tall, more of a complex with a COMPLEX history (lol). We'll talk about when our dear Anne Boelyn was killed, when Rudolph Hess was held there, and everything in between! Grab your umbrellas (We assume it's always raining there) and learn with us!
Today, we go back across the pond to talk about the Tower of London - not technically a tower if you're looking for something tall, more of a complex with a COMPLEX history (lol). We'll talk about when our dear Anne Boelyn was killed, when Rudolph Hess was held there, and everything in between! Grab your umbrellas (We assume it's always raining there) and learn with us!
Hi Friends! Our transcripts aren't perfect, but I wanted to make sure you had something - if you'd like an edited transcript, I'd be happy to prioritize one for you - please email doomedtofailpod@gmail.com - Thanks! - Taylor
Taylor: Gosh, I can't believe it's December already
>> Taylor: In the matter of the people of the State of California v. Orenthal James Simpson, case number BA09.
>> Farz: And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. And we are back on a presumably happy sunny day in December.
>> Taylor: Woo hoo.
>> Farz: Woo hoo.
>> Taylor: Gosh, I can't believe it's December. I know, that's so stupid to be like time, blah, blah, blah, but like, man, what a ride.
>> Farz: Yeah. Do you. Do you feel like the older you're getting, the less, the quicker it's happening?
>> Taylor: I do. And I feel like when every time I look at the calendar, I'm like, God, it seemed fucking stuff. Every year, you know, like, I have to do Thanksgiving and I have to do Christmas, and then January starts and we're gonna do Girl Scout cookies, and then baseball starts and then it's summer. And then I'm like, it's just never. It's the same thing every year and it never ends.
>> Farz: We'll die soon enough, Taylor. It'll be fine.
>> Taylor: Yes, everything is fine. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Doomed to Fail with a podcast that brings you history's most notorious disasters and epic failures twice a week, every week. I am Taylor, joined by Fars. On Monday. We talked about Niagara Falls, and now it's Fars turn to tell us the story.
There's so much history that's not documented because people didn't document
>> Farz: It's Fars turn. So, I am going to do a slight continuation of medieval history by talking about the Tower of London.
>> Taylor: Yay. Not a tower.
>> Farz: Well, I mean, it has towers, right? But it's not itself a tower. Yes. So one thing I found, like, one thing I was like, thinking about as I was like, doing this research, is that there's so much history that's like, not there because, like, people just didn't document shit. Like, there was. Nobody could read, nobody could write. There was no place to put things. There's no libraries to put them in that would, like, withstand the test of time. All these places that are, like, of world historical significance got shelled into oblivion during World War I and 2 or through the many conquests of, like, mankind. And I think. Go ahead.
>> Taylor: no, we talk about that. And I think that we're wrong to think. I've said this before, that our history is going to be forever, you know?
>> Farz: Yeah, no, I would never. I would never assume that. I mean, think about, like, even. Even the stuff that, like right now we think is well documented, is digitized in a way that, like, I don't know, in like a thousand years, there might not be any Console computers. Maybe everything's just stored in brain waves.
>> Taylor: Exactly. Yeah.
>> Farz: It's not reverse compatible the way that my PS5 games aren't reverse compatible with PS4.
>> Taylor: Exactly.
>> Farz: Same thing. It's just like that.
You've not been to London, but you would love to go
So going into the history of the Tower of London, so let's start with London itself. I learned so much.
>> Taylor: Oh my God, I'm so excited. But you've not been to London. You've been to the airport, but you have not been there.
>> Farz: I've never been outside of the airports.
>> Taylor: Yeah, I've been there twice. I stayed there for two weeks in grad school. It was so fun.
>> Farz: I'm sure, I'm sure. I would love to go. I would love to go. It seems like a really fun city. so London's really interesting. There's so much infighting between groups and groups are so poorly defined in this time that that's like one of my key takeaways.
Prior to 1066, Anglo Saxons ruled the territory that is now London
So, okay, so here's like a brief super bridge aversion of like how London became like London. So prior to 1066, Anglo Saxons ruled the territory that is now known as London. And I never knew this, but Anglo Saxons, like a whole breed of people.
>> Taylor: What are you talking about? Was it 1066 was a battle of Hastings. We know this.
>> Farz: I'm going to get into that. I'm going to talk about. Yeah, so prior to 10. Yeah, that, that, that's what all this happened. So. Yes. So prior to 1066, Anglo Saxons ruled the territory known as London. England, as a whole was basically broken up between different factions and Anglo Saxons and Normans, or people with roots in Normandy, didn't get along. And that's like, kind of how London happened. So mostly this had to do with what I would argue are basically minor and inconsequential details that caused them to fight. It's so interesting. Any, any human who is slightly different than any other human will find a way to hate that human. It's just, it's just ingrained in our DNA like, we will never outrun this thing.
>> Taylor: we just watched Independence Day 2, which was not, not terrible. It's kind of fun. But they were like, we had 20 years of peace. It was like the only way we'd have that is if aliens came down and tried to kill everyone. And even then I don't think we could do it.
>> Farz: Yeah, even then we'd find a way to fight each other.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: What I. The distinctions I found between Anglo Saxons and Normans was like, Anglo Saxons that are roots were more in Germanic Cultures. Normans were more in Viking cultures. Anglo Saxons were pagans and Normans were Christians. Anglo Saxons actually spoke old English, whereas Normans spoke. Spoke old Norman, which is a precursor to modern French. It's just like, yeah, you're in different places, you're different. That's how it goes. Like, that's how we are as humans. And then they're like, go after them and cut their heads off. So incredible. So for these reasons, the Duke of Normandy, this guy named William the Conqueror, was roaming around England in 1066, jacking up Anglo Saxons and asserting his authority. So as you asserted, In November of 1066, he made his way into London after winning the Battle of Hastings, which was the one big battle between Normans and Anglo Saxons or the Anglo Saxon king at the time. And that kind of set the stage for everything that comes after this.
>> Taylor: that is doom to m fail. Episode 39 was the battle of Hastings.
>> Farz: There you go. Did you go into what happened after the formation of London?
>> Taylor: I don't think so.
>> Farz: Okay, great. Then we call us part two of that one. So by the time he ended up getting to London, a new. This poor kid, some teenage kid king named Edgar was crowned. Poor, poor Edgar. Like at this point, the Anglo Saxon army is completely decimated. So from what I can gather, when the conqueror just kind of marched on into London and this poor kid they put in charge just told him he can have it, which makes sense.
>> Taylor: I wouldn't, I wouldn't fight. I'd be like, you're good.
>> Farz: Take it, dude.
>> Taylor: Let me leave with my skin. Yeah.
William the Conqueror built the White Tower on the River Thames
>> Farz: So William the Conqueror, he is coordinated as king in December of 1066. Shortly thereafter, he did basically what kings do, and he decided to build like a super impressive castle for himself. He started building the White Tower, which was built right on the River Thames. Thames, Thames, Thames, Thames, Thames. It was meant to be his residence as well as fortification from potential invaders. It was not an impressive building by modern standards. It was about 50,000 square feet across, four levels. It, had a basement which was for storage, dungeon, spaces, a main floor which was the residence, the upper floor, which is the living quarters, and the top floor was used by guards. It was pretty chill. Like it wasn't like a blow your socks off kind of place.
>> Farz: For about 200 years, it would remain, ah. It would maintain its use as a royal residence and mostly maintain its appearance and structure. But over time, new rulers would take it over and make additions or changes. Most of these changes were in keeping with shifting away from it being a royal residence and it being used more for matters of state. And the construction going on outside of it would reflect this. Nearly 300 or so years after it was built, monarchs would build the Westminster Palace, Windsor Castle, and Hampton Court palace and they would use those as their primary residences. Again, at this point it would become more of a ceremonial place to take heads of state for things. When it was first built, the grounds for the White tower was about one acre. Tiny. Right. 200 years later it's up to six acres. A stone wall was put up and stone towers were constructed for better observation of the River Thames. 100 years later, the grounds increased by double to 12 acres. A moat was added in, the outer wall was expanded, a chapel was built and a fun little gateway was put in called the Traitor's Gate, which was installed for prisoners being brought in from the river.
>> Taylor: Like traitor. Like not Trader Joe's traitor. Like you betrayed me.
>> Farz: You betrayed me. Yeah, yeah. They took that kind of trader stuff pretty seriously in old England.
>> Taylor: Yeah. And so they needed the executioners.
>> Farz: Yes, exactly. Which we're going to get into actually. So in the 14th century, more towers were constructed with such socially acceptable names as Bloody Tower, barracks, armories and the residences for high profile prisoners were also added. And in the 16th century is when all pretense that this thing had been used for anything other than creating misery for the local population was dropped and it basically became a prison along with like some other state functions. Like it was, it all, it was a mint, for example, like it was, it did stuff like that. M. by this point it expanded from the original 1 acre I mentioned earlier as the White Tower to 18 acres into what is now known as the Tower of London. So and it's again, it's not like what you were saying earlier, like it's not a tower, it's a complex.
>> Taylor: Right. I first rethink of a tower, I think of like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, which is like actually a tower, you know?
>> Farz: Yeah, no, this is like this, this is like remember when in Game of Thrones Reek went to his like uncle and said you should just give up for Ramsey or whatever and just quit and he'll let you guys be fine. And then he let them in and then they like killed them and skinned them.
>> Taylor: Sure.
>> Farz: This is what that whole vibe is. Not good. So between 1540 and 1640, that was like the most active period for when it was a prison. The living experience of prisoners here like varied quite dramatically depending on who the prisoner was and what they were charged of. So high status inmates who were royalty of some kind, they were kept in, like, nice quarters. They would have, like, private quarters. They would have servants. A lot of times they were able to purchase their own food and stuff. Like, they had, like a pretty chill life by most standards. but then some were. Some people were kept in what we would picture as like a medieval prison. Like damp, cold, dark, filled with rats and disease. There was an area in the basement that was known as Little Ease, which was filled with these, four square foot rooms for prisoners where they would be kept in solitary confinement. And you wouldn't be able to sleep or sit in these rooms that were so small. It sounds horrible.
>> Taylor: That sounds terrible.
>> Farz: The Nazis did this too. I remember hearing that some of the camps had this. This in there too.
>> Taylor: Remember in like the first or second Game of Thrones where Peter Dinklage is in that. That thing where he's like, in the cell, but it's like outside and it's like turned and he's like, if he falls asleep, he'll roll onto the. Into a lake. No, it's like, very scary.
>> Farz: Yeah. They found really creative ways to torture people.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: So it seems like to me that the flip from Catholicism to Protestant played a pretty heavy use in torture and misery being escalated at the Tower of London. Because a lot of the people. Well, there's a lot of famous people that ended up there and, being tortured and killed. But a lot of people seem like they just like, weren't accepting of the Protestant faith and that was why they were there. They were like heretics and they were like, still Catholics. And again, it's like, dude, you're not that different. Like, just get along with them. Like, it's fine.
>> Taylor: I know. Well, I just, confirmed. But Anne Boleyn was killed there.
>> Farz: I know. I'm going to get into it.
>> Taylor: Okay, cool.
Only 22 people were ever executed at the Tower of London throughout its history
>> Farz: Which you got into. Which I'm going to reference your episode as, well.
>> Taylor: God, this is so exciting for us.
>> Farz: Yeah. It all comes full circle. So the rack was a popular device used for torture. That's basically a thing where you lay on your back and then they strap things to your arms and legs and just kind of pull you apart and disjoint your body.
>> Taylor: Mm.
>> Farz: There's another fun one called the Scavenger's Daughter. Yeah.
>> Taylor: So this, I don't know what that means, but I'm nervous.
>> Farz: So this was a metal, a frame looking contraption that they would put your neck in on the top part of it like the peak of the A, for example, they put your hands in the middle section, your feet in the bottom section. There'd be like a corkscrew looking thing at the end of it and they just twist this to basically do the opposite of a rack and compressed your body into itself. Apparently it was supposed to be really, really bad. Especially after your muscles, joints and everything else was torn to shreds. Doing this was particularly painful. So yeah, and then obviously like all the rest of it, the beheadings, hangings, all we, we cover this next. You should episode go listen to that one. But like yeah, we, they, they develop horrible stuff here. Obviously the locals hated the Tower of London. It had this foreboding quality to it. And originally it just had a. It was a symbol of royal excess compared to the lives of daily Londoners, which was horrible. Like living in London, like the medieval era, you just went, you went through the Black Death, you went through. Everything was hard and horrible and every now and then, which was kind of interesting, as they would expand it, they would also take over parts of the neighborhood that were useful for people and they would just destroy it and take it for themselves.
>> Taylor: So that was hell's time.
>> Farz: Yeah, so it's. This part's interesting. So throughout its history, only 22 people were ever executed at the Tower of London. But that's because most executions needed to happen in public. So the public was terrified of the crown.
>> Taylor: Yeah, that makes sense.
>> Farz: So a section outside of the Tower grounds was known as Tower Hill. There's at least 120 executions that happen here, but that's just what was documented. And again, a lot of this stuff wasn't well documented. The state didn't want, you know, they didn't. They wanted you to see it, but they didn't want to have a historical record of what they did. They just wanted you to be terrified of them. So given his reputation, I can only assume that there was a lot more than 120 executions that happened here. But. Yeah, well that's what the, that's what the record currently shows.
>> Taylor: Right. And I'm sure people like died in the freaking vault or whatever, you know.
>> Farz: Yeah, well, yeah, which we'll get into.
>> Taylor: Okay.
>> Farz: Yeah, a lot of, again, a lot of the searches wasn't documented, which like a really high profile one is one that I'll go into in here in a second. Over time, the Tower of London became mostly ceremonial and served as a headquarters for the British military. They would still hold prisoners there, but it became less common and mostly reserved for high profile criminal criminals.
The last prisoner of state to be held here was Rudolph Hess
The last prisoner of state. This is absolutely incredible. If you've been ignoring me this whole time, pay attention to this. People. Like, turn, turn the audio up. The last prisoner of the state to be held here was Rudolph Hess.
>> Taylor: Whoa.
>> Farz: Rudolph Hess was deputy to Adolf Hitler and, towards, like the. When, when the war, World War II started heating up, he basically got isolated from the decision making process. Was like, okay, Rudolph, you're over there. Like, yes, you have duties and whatever, but like, we don't need you for military stuff. This is insane side story, but there were some intermediaries between Rudolph Hess and the King of England. There was like duke whatever, of who gives a shit, right? So he has heard that through his intermediaries that the King of England, King George, wanted to remove Churchill from his role in favor of conceding the war to Hitler. That's what he heard. M. Hess then wrote a letter to some random duke that this intermediary knew and told him that, he, he wrote a letter to the king, handed it off to this duke, saying, hey, I plan to fly to England and negotiate a peace with you.
>> Taylor: Can't believe you.
>> Farz: Without telling Hitler real history. That actually happened.
>> Taylor: I know.
>> Farz: So this guy trained himself how to fly, a fighter jet or fighter plane and flew from Germany to meet this duke in Scotland so he can start the peace negotiations with King George of England. So the best part of this is that after he took off, he had his underlings deliver a letter describing his plan to Hitler and Hitler. Just like when you read this account of this, you can hear him like slapping his forehead, being like, oh, my God, what an idiot. He's like, what a idiot. He spread news to the media that Hess was insane and experiencing a nervous breakdown and told his staff to shoot him on site if he ever comes back. Winston Churchill, after the fact, this is amazing. After the fact, he would describe Hess's plan as one of, quote, lunatic benevolence, end quote. Like, he sounded almost shocked that anyone in a position that Hess had attained in life would ever think that this plan would work. Like, he was basically describing. I wrote down, it sounded like he was. Churchill was describing him as like a golden retriever trying to like get in between two grizzly bears fighting over salmon. He was like, dude, this is not going to work.
>> Taylor: And I feel like we talked about this before because I'm looking up pictures of Rudolph Hess and I know I've recently looked at the picture of him as an old man and I was like, I can't believe he got to be an old man, you know? Yeah.
>> Farz: 93. 93 what? So what happened? Here's what happened. This is all true. Hess boarded this jet, this plane. He flew into Scotland and then he started running low on fumes and he ejected from his plane. The plane crash landed. He was fiddling around with his parachute when some farmer just saw him, was like, what are you saying? What. What language is this? And took him back to his cottage and then phoned the police. From there, the police reached out to the military, and then everybody descended on this cottage. And was he wearing. I don't know, actually. I wish. It'd be so funny if he was wearing his SS uniform.
>> Taylor: I feel like he probably was.
>> Farz: So from there, he meets with all these officials in the military and he starts telling them that, listen, I have a plan to negotiate a peace treaty. You got to let Hitler have Europe. and then I think we'll be good. And they're like, no, we're not going to do this. It's incredible.
>> Taylor: no, that's literally the thing that we're fighting for.
>> Farz: Well, he was like, listen, she'll let you keep England. Just give him the rest of Europe, and then you'll be fine. We're not doing that. So eventually, he was transferred to the Tower of London for a few days before going to a different prison and staying there until the Nuremberg trials, where he was given a life sentence. Ultimately, he would die in some other prison at 93 years old by suicide in 1987. Some say it wasn't suicide. Most prevailing historians say it was suicide. Doesn't really matter. What's interesting is that the last execution of the Tower of London in the 1940s was also a German, a guy named Joseph Jacobs, who again flew from Germany into Allied territory, parachuted out, broke his ankles in the process, and was immediately discovered. His sentence was fast. There was like he had no strategic value whatsoever. They just, like, took him. Yeah, they're like, just kill him on site. So that's what. Well, they didn't kill on site. They killed him at the Tower of London, by firing squad.
So other famous deaths worth calling out here include Guy Fawkes and two princes
So other famous deaths worth calling out here. As you mentioned, our fifth episode, Taylor, you covered Anne Boleyn, so she was obviously killed here. As well as Guy Fawkes, who tried to lead a revolt against the king and was sentenced to drawing in quartering. What's interesting here is that he actually never got to the end part of his execution, because during the hanging part, after they put the rope around his neck, he actually Jumped, breaking his neck, because he was like, I don't want the rest of this, Just kill me fast. And so he did that. Then there's the story of the princes in the tower. Not the princess in the tower, it's the princes. male. Two males, two princes. Yes. And that's like a really famous English story which, like, I wasn't aware of. Did you know about this?
>> Taylor: I did, yeah. Okay, I'll tell you more.
>> Farz: So it's relatively quick synopsis, but These are the two sons. These, the princes are two sons. Edward V, age 12, and Richard, age 9, whose father was King Edward IV and died in 1483. So in theory, Edward V was to be king, but given the fact that he was 12 years old at the time, his uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was named the Lord Protector. So plans for Edward's coronation were underway. While Edward stayed at the Tower of London, which was what you did. The monarch would, during this time in the 1400s, the monarch stays in the Tower of London, in the residence there, waiting for their coronation. About a month later, while planning was still underway for this coronation, his brother Richard also joined him in the Tower. And the uncle decided after this to postpone the coronation. It sounds like the uncle was doing like stuff behind the scenes because it was around this time that parliament passed a law called Titulus Regis, which stated that Edward's claim to the throne was illegitimate because his father, Edward iv, the previous king, had pre contracted to marry a different woman. Which based on whatever interpretation this is, means that the new king was illegitimate and a bastard, so he couldn't be the king. So they literally passed a law to skip the rightful king, this 12 year old little boy, so that he could go to his uncle. So that basically that laid the groundwork for his uncle to ascend to the throne. And then the two brothers were never seen again. Never seen again again. Like, this is not a death that's counted as an execution, but like they just. That was it.
>> Taylor: I feel like, it is like even recently they found evidence of them or something. It's still a mystery. Is that true?
>> Farz: Yeah. So it's still a mystery. They did find bones consistent with a 12 and a 9 year old, deep in the grounds in the Tower of London. But what they said was, whatever it is, like the strata of earth they found them in was in line with the era in which the Romans London is. They're like, they would never have been buried that deep probably. So we probably just found these kids that were here when the Romans Ruled London and they died. And their bones are here.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: but, yeah, there was some talk of other bones being found, like in 2012 or something, and DNA testing being done on them. I don't know if that ever. It never had. Well, I don't know if that happened, but I know that we still don't know where their bodies are.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: So today, the Tower of London is a. Is the most popular tourist attraction in England, actually. And it houses the Crown Jewels. It serves as a historic site. Say again?
>> Taylor: I was going to ask that because I'm pretty sure I saw the Crown Jewels there.
>> Farz: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: And you might have seen the ravens there. which is pretty fun. So apparently.
>> Taylor: And the beef eaters.
>> Farz: The beef eaters, exactly. So the superstition. The is that. The superstition in England is that, quote, if the Tower of London ravens are lost or fly away, the crown will fall and Britain with it. That's a quote. And so now, at minimum, they keep six ravens at the Tower of London. There's actually a Raven Master, which is like the most metal job in the world.
>> Taylor: Can you imagine? It's 2024. You're the Raven Master of the Tower of London. Get the out of here with that job.
>> Farz: If. If you showed up at a bar and you turned to the girl next to you, like, what do you do for work? It's like, I am a venture capitalist and it's like, what do you do? It's like, I'm the Raven Master. It's like, dude, you're done. Like, you have. You don't even have to open.
>> Taylor: I feel like also you would know because he'd be wearing, like, a black cult cloak.
>> Farz: I know. Carrying a raven on his shoulder.
>> Taylor: Oh, no, I see that. I see that.
>> Farz: Yeah, I kind of picked it up. With a raven on your shoulder. So currently there are seven, ravens. They're named Jubilee, Harris, Poppy, Georgie, Edgar, Bronwyn, and Rex. And Rex was the most recent one and they added that when King Charles was coordinated.
>> Taylor: Great.
>> Farz: So thank you, ravens, for preserving a, very, very useful monarchy that, we all love to this day. Done great things for the world.
>> Taylor: Sure.
>> Farz: So that's my story. That's the Tower of London.
>> Taylor: That's cool. I definitely, when I was there, there were. You could ice skate there.
Tell me more about the Beefeaters at the Tower of London
I didn't ice skate there, but I remember that there was ice skating there and I was like, that is hilarious. yeah, it's a weird thing knowing me there.
>> Farz: What misery existed there. But.
>> Taylor: Yeah. Tell me, do you know more about the Beefeaters. So they have. They wear those big hats and like why is that their job?
>> Farz: They're yeomans. They are the gar. There's some crazy title. We just call them beef eaters because the title is like the Yeoman Warrior to her Crown Majesty. It's like something crazy. They just like. We're like just call them beef eaters but.
>> Taylor: So weird.
>> Farz: Technically, I. I think it's actually mostly a ceremonial job. I think it's like sort of their security guards at the Tower of London. M. it's just like another thing that they spend money on where it's like just do something different with this money.
>> Taylor: Yeah, I guess. Yeah, I guess they like stand there. So what do I want? I want September. September, January.
>> Farz: Yeah, they do a lot of standing there, you know.
>> Taylor: Yeah, exactly. but that's fun. It's crazy that you can like go on a tour to a place that was like that. Like stuff like that happened, you know?
>> Farz: Yeah, I thought that too when I was in Ireland and walking around and being like I'm walking inside like a 1600 year old ruins of like a castle. It's just un. It's just otherworldly. Like.
>> Taylor: Yeah. Like where people were like terrified and murdered and died and it's so weird.
>> Farz: It's just like our concept of time as Americans is like. Yeah, nuts. Because how old is America? 270.
>> Taylor: Yeah. And there's just like.
>> Farz: There's bars in England older than 270.
>> Taylor: Exactly. That's so funny. There's so much more.
There's so much to talk about with the Bloody Tower. Like you could do an entire episode on that
well, luckily we're not going to run out of ideas because there's so much to talk about.
>> Farz: Yeah, it's. Yeah, like that's what I was thinking with during your episode. It's like, it's like. It's kind of interconnected and it just goes so many layers deep. Because like realistically I could have done an entire episode on the Bloody Tower. They call the Bloody Tower. That's where the two princes were held. Like you could do an entire episode just on that part of the structure. Like there's just so much to all this stuff.
>> Farz: Which is why I also think a lot of it wasn't really documenting. It was just like. It was like kind of. How deep do you go?
>> Taylor: Well it was. And it was like destroyed like you.
>> Farz: Said, like finding out like what the foundation of the Tower of London was made out of when it was poured or late or whatever. Like that stuff doesn't exist. Like there.
>> Taylor: There would well say goes Back to the. When the Romans were there. And then, like, the Romans just, like, abandoned England. And then a, whole bunch of stuff happened. And then, you know, then it's. Yeah, so much stuff.
>> Farz: Yeah. Even, like, the whole, taking over of London. It was just like this guy just went around burning the. Out of everything. And the Anglo Saxons were like, oh, we're, we're done here. And this kid being like, I don't want to fight you anymore. I think I'm good. Let me go play with my Legos.
>> Taylor: We just talked about with Jack the Ripper how hard it was to live in London then, you know, and that was like hundreds of years after this.
>> Farz: You know, life was so hard. Humans are.
Let's go to London. Um, I'll go underground in London
>> Taylor: Let's go to London. I know.
>> Farz: I'd be into it.
>> Taylor: I'll go underground in London.
>> Farz: Is there an underground in London?
>> Taylor: I have no idea. Remember our idea for the podcast Underground with Taylor and Farce? And you go to. You go to caves, and I go underneath cities and see who dies first.
>> Farz: I think I'll die first. I, don't know the win.
>> Taylor: You win if you die first.
>> Farz: Okay. Yeah. I don't have the body composition to get through a cave really well, so I don't think it's going to go too, too good for me. But. But, yeah, that's my story in a little jaunt down to Medieval Times.
>> Taylor: Very cool. Thank you. Yeah, very fun. Makes you want to go back to London.
>> Farz: Yeah, Yeah. I mean, that's like. I mean, listen, if there was ever a day when I could, like, just kind of semi retire, I think I would just do that. I would just throw my luggage over my back and just go around England.
>> Taylor: Yeah, especially if you, like, have enough money to stay at hotels. Like, I'm not going to backpack anywhere, but if I, like, have enough money to stay at hotels, and that is good.
>> Farz: I'm sure that obviously I've aged out of sharing bathrooms. Let's put it 1,000%.
>> Taylor: Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely not. cool. Well, thank you. That was very, very fun.
>> Farz: Yay.
Taylor: I did not send out our newsletter in October because it was too much
do we have anything to read off?
>> Taylor: No, but I did want to mention, that I did not send out our newsletter in October because I usually send it at the beginning of the month and the beginning of November was too much. But I will send it out soon. So if you are not signed up for a newsletter and you want to get reminders of our episodes, we are on substack at Doom to Fail Pod. We're on one of the million places that you can find us. On the Internet. But, you can sign up for a newsletter there.
>> Farz: Sweet.
>> Taylor: And the link is in our link tree on our Instagram. I don't know.
>> Farz: Beautiful. And find us on Doom to fail pod@gmail.com or right to Us Doom podcast.
>> Taylor: Send us a note. What do you want to learn about? What's, like, a cool thing that you heard and you're like, I wish I knew more. Or you know a lot about it and you want us to know about it too. Tell us.
>> Farz: What's funny is, Is I literally came up with an idea for a topic while we were talking or while you were doing your episode. Should I. Should I tell you?
>> Taylor: No.
>> Farz: Well, I might not do it, though.
>> Taylor: Okay, tell me.
>> Farz: Wait, what was his name again?
>> Taylor: No, don't tell me.
>> Farz: I can't. Okay, so I'm. I'm going. I'm trying to find my, my search history. It was. It was the. You were talking about, like, the people going over Niagara Falls. And I was like. And I was like, man, like, God. God bless these, like, legends of mankind who do the stupidest possible things. And I remember that guy who was, like, a limo driver in Las Vegas who wanted to prove that the Earth was flat, so he built, like, a homemade rocket and fired himself into space. It, like, actually works. Like, he actually went far enough to be able to see the curvature of the Earth. And, like, he was. I was like. Like, I need to. I need to figure out, like, what that guy's background in history was. Like. He taught himself rocket science, and he doesn't believe the Earth is round.
>> Taylor: Like, it's so funny.
>> Farz: That's incredible, isn't it?
>> Taylor: Like, it is incredible. It's, like, not a die on. Yeah. Yeah, okay.
>> Farz: He did die, though. I. I did see. Died, like, four years ago. He blew himself up some other way. I came.
>> Taylor: I think he did, too. I think he, like, went, like, 20ft and fell or something.
>> Farz: Yeah. But there was one that was actually successful. He actually did get far enough. But anyways, I might make that, next week's topic. But it was just, like, I was, like, thinking about, like, other crazy people and like that.
>> Taylor: Yeah, I love it. That's so funny.
>> Farz: anyways, cool, Taylor. That's all I got.
>> Taylor: Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, everyone.