Accidental Bond Villain, Thomas Midgley

He wasn’t trying to destroy the planet—he just accidentally did it. Twice.

In this episode of Waywut, Darrell tells Jason the unbelievable true story of Thomas Midgley Jr., an American inventor whose legacy includes two of the most environmentally catastrophic creations in human history: leaded gasoline and CFCs (Freon).

Midgley was hailed as a genius… until people realized he’d unleashed mass lead poisoning and helped punch a hole in the ozone layer. And just when you think his story can’t get darker, his final invention—meant to help him get out of bed—literally kills him in one of the most ironic deaths ever recorded.

🧪 Inside this episode:

• How Midgley helped popularize leaded gasoline despite early evidence it was toxic
• Why his “safe” refrigerant (Freon) turned out to be a global climate disaster
• The long-term effects of his inventions on public health, intelligence, and the atmosphere
• GM and DuPont’s role in putting profit over science
• Midgley’s final act: inventing a device that led to his own strangulation

Also: rants about historical accountability, weird death reports, and what not to put on your résumé if you’ve unintentionally helped doom the planet.

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