SYSK Selects: How the Donner Party Worked

# Stuff You Should Know: The Donner Party

Josh and Chuck dive into one of history's most tragic and infamous stories—the Donner Party, a group of pioneers who took a disastrous shortcut to California in 1846 and became trapped in the Sierra Nevada mountains during a brutal winter. The episode explores how a single fateful decision based on a con man's false promises led to starvation, desperation, and the haunting question of whether the trapped settlers really resorted to cannibalism to survive. From the drama of infighting on the trail to the harrowing rescue efforts months later, this is a gripping account of human endurance pushed to its absolute limits.