Timesuck with Dan Cummins

A serial predator drugs women, keeps a list of victims, and somehow keeps slipping through the cracks — while the people meant to stop him sure do appear to keep looking the other way. This week, we follow one relentless prosecutor as she pulls at a thread that unravels disturbing alleged corruption, institutional failure, and a justice system that seems more interested in protecting itself than protecting victims.

For Merch and ev...

When a wife and two young children vanish, the internet’s favorite theory shows up fast: it’s always the husband. This week on Timesuck, we dig into the horrifying Chris Watts case - a story of appearances, assumptions, so, SO many Thrive supplements, and a seemingly normal man whose life imploded in the most unthinkable way.

Merch and more: www.badmagicproductions.com 

Timesuck Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v

Want to join the Cul...

He was Australia’s most infamous bushranger - a working-class rebel to some, a violent murderer to others. This week on Timesuck, we dive into the brutal, myth-soaked life of Ned Kelly, his war with the police, and the armored showdown that sealed his place in history.

Merch and more: www.badmagicproductions.com 

Timesuck Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v

Want to join the Cult of the Curious PrivateFacebook Group? Go directly to Fac...

In this Short Suck, we dive into the Haitian Revolution - the only truly successful large-scale slave revolt in human history - where the enslaved people of Saint-Domingue rose up, burned France's “cash machine” to the ground, and then fought France, Spain, and Britain for more than a decade to create Haiti. It’s a brutal, twisty, holy shit how do we not already know this story full of battlefield genius, betrayals, and legendary s...

In this episode of Timesuck, we’re heading to New Zealand to explore Gloriavale - a so-called “Heaven on Earth” founded by charismatic preacher Neville Cooper, where obedience to God somehow turned into obedience to one very, VERY creepy man. What began as a utopian Christian commune devolved into total control, forced labor,  a lot of creepy sexual stuff., and generations raised to believe submission was salvation. It’s Eden… if E...

From 1963 to 1965, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley carried out one of the most disturbing crime sprees in British history, abducting, torturing, and murdering children in and around Manchester before burying them out on the bleak, desolate moors. We break down the psychology, partnership, and pure moral rot behind the Moors Murders—and examine how two people fed each other’s darkness until it consumed innocent lives and horrified an ent...

Whoo BOY! This week's episode is packed with info and stats. How did the US healthcare system get so expensive and complicated? Is it still better than some form of universal care? Throwing a lot of history and stats at you today, and comparing our model to the healthcare models of some other countries to show that there are other ways. Ways far cheaper for the average citizen that work as well as ours. So... why don't we change? 

M...

In this week's Short Suck, we revisit the 2006 Duke Lacrosse scandal—the case that felt like an open-and-shut story of privilege and violence… until the facts started falling apart, the DNA didn’t match, and the real rot turned out to be the rush to convict. It’s a brutal look at how media narratives, campus outrage, and a DA chasing votes can turn “everyone knows what happened” into one of the most infamous examples of what happen...

Behind the straight-A smiles and proud immigrant-family success story of Jennifer Pan was one of the most elaborate webs of lies in modern true-crime history — and when that web finally snapped, it led straight to hired guns and a family nearly wiped out. In this episode of Timesuck, we dive into how crushing expectations, fear of failure, and years of deception turned a “perfect daughter” into the architect of a brutal home-invasi...

In the middle of the night, a man with a messiah complex and a god-sized ego walked into a suburban Utah bedroom and stole a fourteen-year-old girl from her family. What followed was a nine-month nightmare of psychological torture, cult-style control, and one of the most chilling cases of child abduction in modern American history. This is the true story of Elizabeth Smart - and the monster who tried to make her his “wife.”

Merch an...

In this week's Short Suck, we head back to the 1930s, when milk wasn’t just one of many beverages  - it was survival, income, and power. As the Great Depression crushed farmers, workers, and cities alike, a perishable staple sparked riots, bombings, deadly shootings, and even Mafia involvement across the Midwest. This is the forgotten history of the Milk Wars,  when America went to war... over cow juice.

For Merch and everything els...

In the spring of 1946, a masked serial killer stalked the lovers’ lanes and quiet homes of Texarkana, leaving behind brutal murders, traumatized survivors, and a small city gripped by fear. This episode dives deep into the true story of the Phantom Killer and the flawed investigation that failed to stop him. Some monsters truly only come out at night. 

Merch and more: www.badmagicproductions.com 

Timesuck Discord! https://discord.gg/...

The year-end inspirational Timesuck is here! We wrap up 2025 with the incredible true story of Chris Gardner — a man who survived poverty, abuse, foster care, and homelessness (along with his toddler son) before becoming a multimillionaire stockbroker and global philanthropist. If he could rise from that kind of hardship to build a life of purpose and generosity, what might the rest of us be capable of overcoming?

Merch and more: ww...

In this Short Suck, we head into the brutal hills around Tennessee’s old Brushy Mountain prison to explore the Barkley Marathons— the nearly-impossible 100-mile ultramarathon. And we’ll meet Lazarus Lake, the cigarette-lighting, Dr Pepper-drinking madman who designed a race meant to break people, complete with secret applications, sadistic course changes, and “human sacrifices” who have almost no chance of finishing. 

For Merch and ...

What happens when ordinary people decide the legal system isn’t enough — and to take justice into their own hands? From real-life “superheroes” to tragic misfires, from folk-hero avengers to catastrophic citizen’s arrests, this episode explores the wild, messy, often dangerous world of vigilante justice. Sometimes inspiring, sometimes horrifying, sometimes darkly hilarious, these stories reveal just how quickly “doing the right thi...

In the 1960s and ’70s, yoga teacher–turned–self-proclaimed messiah Anne Hamilton-Byrne built one of Australia’s most shocking cults—an LSD-fueled blend of New Age mysticism, stolen children, and her own delusions of divine destiny. With doctors, psychiatrists, and academics convinced she was the Second Coming of Christ, Anne created The Family, a secretive compound where kids endured years of isolation and abuse. Be VERY thankful y...

In this Short Suck, we dive into the almost-forgotten story of The Business Plot - when a group of powerful bankers and corporate bigwigs allegedly tried to recruit one of America’s most decorated Marines, Smedley Butler, to lead a fascist coup against President Franklin D. Roosevelt. We’ll sift through testimony, shady alliances, and a very convenient death to ask: how close did the U.S. actually come to going full fascist in the ...

You read that title right. Are you familiar with the story of James Strang? A blatant con artist who converted to Mormonism shortly before Joseph Smith's assassination who used a forged letter and some "discovered" brass plates to establish himself as Smith's legitimate heir, and then convinced hundreds of followers to move to Beaver Island in Lake Michigan where they crowned him king in 1850 and formed a small army that included p...

In this deeply informative episode of Timesuck, we explore the history of addiction, how different cultures have tried to understand and control it, and what modern science reveals about how it rewires the brain, hijacks choice, and reshapes identity. From ancient remedies and religious interpretations to modern medicine and neuroscience, we break down how desire becomes dependency — and why recovery is so much more than just willp...