You don't have to be a perfectionist to fear making a big mistake.

But assuming they don't actually affect us, there is something about other people's

mega mess-ups that is deeply compelling and dare I say it

even entertaining. From KERA in Dallas, this is think. I'm Chris Boyd. Comedian actor and

writer Ed Helms created and starred in the sitcom Rutherford Falls. He played Andy Bernard

on The Office and Stu in the Hangover movies, among many other roles.

But before all that, he was a correspondent on The Daily Show, a gig that required a keen eye for the comedy to be found in real current events.

In his podcast, Snafu, Helms tell some of the weirdest, dumbest true stories in history.

And for those who cannot get enough, he's written a book filled

with even more of them. I found those stories not only funny, but oddly comforting. Like, for all my

flaws, I will never accidentally set a river on fire or lose a $125 million space probe, which

must count for something, right? The book is called Snafu, the definitive guide to

history's greatest screw-ups. Ed Helms, welcome to think. Thanks so much for having me.

This is a surprisingly optimistic book. Well, I'm glad you see it that way. It's, you know,

it gets into some, some not so great history, but I'm curious why you see it that way. I sort of comment on that in my introduction to the book, but I'd love to hear your take.

Yeah, I mean, we always feel like things are as bad now as they've ever been.

Like everything that we're doing wrong is unprecedented. But this is a history that reminds us that

people have made enormously bad choices and we're here. Yep. That's exactly right. And that's

why I find that researching snafus and researching just human folly and reading about it and writing about it is an oddly optimistic exercise. And I too, I also take some comfort in the just reminder that we've been here before right we'll

and we'll get through it and and not only that but uh we'll probably stumble back

again afterwards but but there's I don't know there's just there's just some hope baked into all of the awfulness.

It also has struck me that many cultures that, you know, have lived through very, very difficult times are sort of the ones that are best known for having a sense of humor, whether that's a dark sense of humor

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