The Donner Party episode artwork

EPISODE · Sep 3, 2025 · 30 MIN

The Donner Party

from Hot-Mess Highpothesis · host Hot-Mess Highpothesis

Brittany takes Sydni on a snowy, stomach-churning trip through one of history’s most infamous road trips gone wrong: the Donner Party. Along the way, we roast Lansford Hastings — the human embodiment of a “you have died of dysentery” screen — and wonder how The Oregon Trail video game somehow made all this sound like quirky pioneer fun. Spoiler: it was not fun. It was dumb, deadly, and messy enough to make even us say, “maybe I’ll just stay home.

Brittany takes Sydni on a snowy, stomach-churning trip through one of history’s most infamous road trips gone wrong: the Donner Party. Along the way, we roast Lansford Hastings — the human embodiment of a “you have died of dysentery” screen — and wonder how The Oregon Trail video game somehow made all this sound like quirky pioneer fun. Spoiler: it was not fun. It was dumb, deadly, and messy enough to make even us say, “maybe I’ll just stay home.

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The Donner Party

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This episode was published on September 3, 2025.

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Brittany takes Sydni on a snowy, stomach-churning trip through one of history’s most infamous road trips gone wrong: the Donner Party. Along the way, we roast Lansford Hastings — the human embodiment of a “you have died of dysentery” screen — and...

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