Timesuck with Dan Cummins

On October 8th, 1941, with Stalingrad surrounded, Leningrad besieged, and the Nazis making new gains on Russian territory every day, Joseph Stalin ordered the creation of three new Air Force regiments... the first female aviation military regiments in world history.  Led by famed civilian aviator Marina Raskova,  these young women, most of whom were between the ages of 17 and 26, would have to transform from flight hobbyists to killer soldiers. The 588th Night Bombers Regiment would earn the nickname “the Night Witches” from the German soldiers they terrorized in the darkness. Flying no-frills wooden planes with ill-fitting uniforms and no parachutes, most runs would happen with three planes, the first two meant to draw attention and enemy fire, with the third being the one to drop the bomb. What made this so dangerous is the fact that the third plane, to avoid detection, would have to cut their engines and glide over their target as quietly as  possible. Despite the danger, the Night Witches regiment alone would fly around 30,000 sorties and have 23 of their pilots awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union— and they would definitively help change the tide of the war against the Nazis. The badass story of the Night Witches and their female fighter counterparts, this week, on Timesuck. Want to apply for the Cummins Family Scholarship fund?  The application process opens on MARCH 6TH, 2023. To apply click this link!: https://learnmore.scholarsapply.org/cummins/ Click the "Scholarship Hub America" button. Register to create a Hub account with a unique username and password.Log into your account and complete the questions in the profile section. The list of scholarships will display on the website.   Locate the  Cummins Family Scholarship Fund application and click the “Apply Now” link to fill out your information!     An online recommendation form must be submitted on your behalf. It is the student’s responsibility to follow up with their recommender to ensure they submit the information before the deadline. Next start filling out the application by completing all required fields and click the “Save answers” button.  If all required data was entered, the Application section in the progress bar at the top of the page will turn green.  An error message will display at the top of the page if any fields are missing or have incomplete information. Click the “Next” button at the top of the page and use the Add a Document tool available to upload your documents. Once all documents have been uploaded, click the “Next” button again to review your information before submitting your application.  If all information appears correct, click the “Lock and Submit” button and click “OK” to submit your data to Scholarship America for processing. You will receive an email confirmation once the application has been successfully submitted.  If you don’t receive the email confirmation, please check your spam or junk mail folder or search for an email from studentsupport@scholarshipamerica.org  to confirm your application has been received. Questions can be emailed to cummins@scholarshipamerica.orgWet Hot Bad Magic Summer Camps are ON SALE!  BadMagicMerch.com Bad Magic Productions Monthly Patreon Donation:  This month's donation is for $14,740 to Teach For America, a diverse network of leaders who work to confront the injustice of education inequity through teaching.You can learn more about Teach for America or get involved by going to teachforamerica.org An additional $1,640 is being put into the scholarship fund! Thank you to all of our patrons who are able to continue to support not only us but these amazing causes. Teachforamerica.orgGet tour tickets at dancummins.tv Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/KMwq1TzDRc8Merch: https://www.badmagicmerch.comDiscord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89vWant to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever happens to be our most current page :)For all merch related questions/problems: store@badmagicproductions.com (copy and paste)Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcastWanna become a Space Lizard?  Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcastSign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits.

What is the the Perfect Murder?  It's what two affluent and academically brilliant young Chicagoans, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, wanted to pull off in 1924 when the murdered fourteen-year-old Bobby Franks. WHY did they want to kill anyone? In part, to prove to themselves that were Übermensches after misunderstanding the philosophical nihilism of Nietzsche. They had come to think that they were truly advanced humans. People above the law. And that normal morality didn't apply to him. They couldn't be held liable by the laws of lesser men around them. Except they could! And they would be. They would be caught quickly because while they were extremely academically talented, criminally, they were morons. And then these two morons would have everyone in Chicago and around the nation talking about what they'd done in another so-called "trial of the century." Want to apply for the Cummins Family Scholarship fund?  The application process opens on MARCH 6TH, 2023. To apply click this link!: https://learnmore.scholarsapply.org/cummins/ Click the "Scholarship Hub America" button. Register to create a Hub account with a unique username and password.Log into your account and complete the questions in the profile section. The list of scholarships will display on the website.   Locate the  Cummins Family Scholarship Fund application and click the “Apply Now” link to fill out your information!     An online recommendation form must be submitted on your behalf. It is the student’s responsibility to follow up with their recommender to ensure they submit the information before the deadline. Next start filling out the application by completing all required fields and click the “Save answers” button.  If all required data was entered, the Application section in the progress bar at the top of the page will turn green.  An error message will display at the top of the page if any fields are missing or have incomplete information. Click the “Next” button at the top of the page and use the Add a Document tool available to upload your documents. Once all documents have been uploaded, click the “Next” button again to review your information before submitting your application.  If all information appears correct, click the “Lock and Submit” button and click “OK” to submit your data to Scholarship America for processing. You will receive an email confirmation once the application has been successfully submitted.  If you don’t receive the email confirmation, please check your spam or junk mail folder or search for an email from studentsupport@scholarshipamerica.org  to confirm your application has been received. Questions can be emailed to cummins@scholarshipamerica.orgWet Hot Bad Magic Summer Camps are ON SALE!  BadMagicMerch.com Bad Magic Productions Monthly Patreon Donation: This month's donation is for $14,740 to Teach For America, a diverse network of leaders who work to confront the injustice of education inequity through teaching.You can learn more about Teach for America or get involved by going to teachforamerica.org An additional $1,640 is being put into the scholarship fund! Thank you to all of our patrons who are able to continue to support not only us but these amazing causes. Teachforamerica.orgGet tour tickets at dancummins.tv Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/X9kDFavXzOkMerch: https://www.badmagicmerch.comDiscord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89vWant to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever happens to be our most current page :)For all merch related questions/problems: store@badmagicproductions.com (copy and paste)Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcastWanna become a Space Lizard?  Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcastSign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits.

The Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing, China in 1989  is one of the most important, noteworthy tragedies in modern Chinese history. It was the biggest protest against communism rule in over sixty years. But thanks to the consistent suppression and propaganda of the modern Chinese government…  many if not most Chinese citizens today...don’t even know it ever happened. Why is the communist regime in charge of China so insistent on erasing the history of this event? What IS the history of this event? I learned so much about communist China's history this week and now really fully understand why the Tiananmen Square  protests occurred, and why they were violently ended. I hope you learn a bunch too and get some laughs in as well. Hail Nimrod! Wet Hot Bad Magic Summer Camps are ON SALE!  BadMagicMerch.com Bad Magic Productions Monthly Patreon Donation: We will all be donating this month to Teach For America (amount TBD) - a diverse network of leaders who work to confront the injustice of education inequity through teaching. An awesome group of meatsacks doing their best to make sure poor kids - not just middle class and rich kids - also get a good crack and going to a good college to help improve their futures. You can learn more about Teach for America or get involved by going to teachforamerica.org Get tour tickets at dancummins.tv Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/1AgOQxbDDcIMerch: https://www.badmagicmerch.comDiscord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89vWant to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever happens to be our most current page :)For all merch related questions/problems: store@badmagicproductions.com (copy and paste)Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcastWanna become a Space Lizard?  Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcastSign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits.

In the 1960s, a strange new cult emerged in Manhattan's Upper West Side out of the Sullivan Institute. A cult created by shady "therapist" Saul Newton, who twisted the psychoanalytical teachings of Henry Stack Sullivan into something insidious - a way from him to sleep with paying therapy patients, have them move onto his compound, and play god over their lives. He and a few of his wives would run their scam for decades. They convinced members to live on their compound, pay to be in continual therapy, and pay to put on propaganda plays at their Fourth Wall Theater. Members also paid to be sexually used by cult leadership, leadership that decided who they had sex with, who they could have kids with, who would raise those kids, and so much more. Cult! Cult! Cult!  Wet Hot Bad Magic Summer Camps are ON SALE!  BadMagicMerch.com Bad Magic Productions Monthly Patreon Donation: We're giving $14,533 to The Museum of Tolerance - the only museum of its kind in the world, and an additional $1,614  to the scholarship fund this month. Thank you, Space Lizards! The MOT is dedicated to challenging visitors to understand the Holocaust in both historic and contemporary contexts and confront all forms of prejudice and discrimination in our world today. For more information, you can visit www.museumoftolerance.com.Get tour tickets at dancummins.tv Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/1AgOQxbDDcIMerch: https://www.badmagicmerch.comDiscord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89vWant to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever happens to be our most current page :)For all merch related questions/problems: store@badmagicproductions.com (copy and paste)Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcastWanna become a Space Lizard?  Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcastSign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits.

This week we investigate the life and crimes of one of the Freeway Killers. Patrick Kearney, the Trash Bag Killer, was convicted for 21 murders, confessed to 32, but is suspected of up to 43 killings of both boys and young men between 1962 and 1977 in Southern California. Lesser known then the other Freeway Killers, previous Suck subjects Randy "Scorecard Killer" Kraft and William "The Freeway Strangler" Bonin, Patrick Kearney at first appears less brutal than his murderous counterparts. And in a way he was. He never tortured his victims... while they were alive. His primary motivation seems to have been necrophilia. But in another way, he was worse than the other two killers, because his victims tended to be younger. One victim was only five years old. Another depraved serial killer chapter is written in Timesuck's book of true crime today. Wet Hot Bad Magic Summer Camps are ON SALE!  BadMagicMerch.com Bad Magic Productions Monthly Patreon Donation: We're giving $14,533 to The Museum of Tolerance - the only museum of its kind in the world, and an additional $1,614  to the scholarship fund this month. Thank you, Space Lizards! The MOT is dedicated to challenging visitors to understand the Holocaust in both historic and contemporary contexts and confront all forms of prejudice and discrimination in our world today. For more information, you can visit www.museumoftolerance.com.Get tour tickets at dancummins.tv Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/T06AOFIJArYMerch: https://www.badmagicmerch.comDiscord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89vWant to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever happens to be our most current page :)For all merch related questions/problems: store@badmagicproductions.com (copy and paste)Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcastWanna become a Space Lizard?  Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcastSign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits.

Today we dig into the life of Julius Caesar and the final days of the Roman Republic. How was Caesar and what was Rome when he lived there? How did he transform himself from a random minor noble in a Republic full of fandom nobles, into one of the most powerful man in Rome and one of the most known historical figures of all time? Today's tale if full of alliances, betrayals, a very confusing Roman political system, and more as I try my best not to ruin the tale of the man who set Rome on the path to becoming an empire.  Hail Nimrod! Help Ean find Uncle Buck!  https://www.facebook.com/groups/703874246429031/permalink/2624879937661776/?mibextid=Nif5ozWet Hot Bad Magic Summer Camps go on sale for everyone Friday, January 20th, at Noon PT. Bad Magic Productions Monthly Patreon Donation: We're giving $14,533 to The Museum of Tolerance - the only museum of its kind in the world, and an additional $1,614  to the scholarship fund this month. Thank you, Space Lizards! The MOT is dedicated to challenging visitors to understand the Holocaust in both historic and contemporary contexts and confront all forms of prejudice and discrimination in our world today. For more information, you can visit www.museumoftolerance.com.Get tour tickets at dancummins.tv Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/hzDuCBaOWooMerch: https://www.badmagicmerch.comDiscord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89vWant to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever happens to be our most current page :)For all merch related questions/problems: store@badmagicproductions.com (copy and paste)Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcastWanna become a Space Lizard?  Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcastSign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits.

What do you think you know about Amanda Knox? Do you think she was a sex-crazed party girl who got away with the murder of Meredith Kercher in Italy in 2007? That's what I thought before I dug into the research for this episode. I do not think that anymore. The case against her is the sloppiest murder trial I've ever looked into. Outlandish investigative bias, ridiculous crime lab mistakes, and a court system where jurors are allowed to be influenced by the media during the trial. And in this case, the media was mostly tabloids. And the tabloids - fed nonsense by the prosecutor in Knox's case - continually printed completely fabricated and slanderous theories about Amanda. The court of public opinion convicted her of Meredith's murder and forever tarnished her reputation... but did she have ANYTHING to do with her roommate's death? Was she even sex-crazed? Did the media and the Italian legal system get ANYTHING right about her in her first trial? We have a wild one this week. Enjoy! Wet Hot Bad Magic Summer Camps coming up quick!  Tickets go on sale the week of JANUARY 16TH. Whooooo!!!Bad Magic Productions Monthly Patreon Donation: We're giving to The Museum of Tolerance - the only museum of its kind in the world. The MOT is dedicated to challenging visitors to understand the Holocaust in both historic and contemporary contexts and confront all forms of prejudice and discrimination in our world today. For more information, you can visit www.museumoftolerance.com.Get tour tickets at dancummins.tv Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/hzNbvtrpZswMerch: https://www.badmagicmerch.comDiscord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89vWant to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever happens to be our most current page :)For all merch related questions/problems: store@badmagicproductions.com (copy and paste)Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcastWanna become a Space Lizard?  Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcastSign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits.

Today we dig into the history of Dungeons and Dragons and look at what influences Gary Gygax and others drew from to create such an immersive and addictive RPG experience. We'll examine the long history of wargaming and fantasy literature to understand where games like D&D come from. And I'll lay out exactly how D&D came to be associated with Satanic influences. Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! That'll make sense when you listen. Happy 2023 and Hail Nimrod!Wet Hot Bad Magic Summer Camps coming up quick!  Tickets go on sale the week of JANUARY 16TH. Whooooo!!!Bad Magic Productions Monthly Patreon Donation: We're giving to The Museum of Tolerance - the only museum of its kind in the world. The MOT is dedicated to challenging visitors to understand the Holocaust in both historic and contemporary contexts and confront all forms of prejudice and discrimination in our world today. For more information, you can visit www.museumoftolerance.com.Get tour tickets at dancummins.tv Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/unHXHwm9UfIMerch: https://www.badmagicmerch.comDiscord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89vWant to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever happens to be our most current page :)For all merch related questions/problems: store@badmagicproductions.com (copy and paste)Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcastWanna become a Space Lizard?  Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcastSign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits.

We take a look this week at the incredibly inspirational life of Helen Keller. She accomplished SO much despite completely losing her sight and ability to hear at the age of just 19 months. Had the miracle worker Anne Sullivan not entered her life when she did, I don't think we'd know Helen's name today. Anne's life - also so incredible. Their intertwined story got me all fired up. We also take a look back at what went on at Bad Magic in 2022 and what we hope to accomplish going forward. Thank you all for sticking by us while we navigated through a lot of behind-the-scenes drama this past year. Despite the drama, still had SO many great moments, and hope to have even more in 2023. Bad Magic Productions Monthly Patreon Donation: We gave a total of $37,547 to the Bad Magic Giving Tree! Thank you for helping us make the holidays extra special for 53 families and 125 kids :) And we also were able to contribute another $1612 to our scholarship fund.Get tour tickets at dancummins.tv Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/1vpMYLLlxFQMerch: https://www.badmagicmerch.comDiscord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89vWant to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever happens to be our most current page :)For all merch related questions/problems: store@badmagicproductions.com (copy and paste)Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcastWanna become a Space Lizard?  Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcastSign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits.

Josef Mengele was a great guy! Just very misunderstood. Wait, no. I'm thinking of someone else. Josef Mengele was a MONSTER. His complete and total lack of empathy for anyone not a member of Hitler's nonsensical racial purity dream boggles the mind. He saw his experimental patients at the Auschwitz  concentration camp as nothing more than lab rats who happened to kind of look human. His experiments were cruel and misguided. And mostly dealt with identical twins. Child twins. And saddest of all - his cruelty did not stand out amongst his peers. He was but one of many, many monsters. A product of Nazi brainwashing that had gone on for so long, reality had been inverted. Evil was good, and good was evil in many ways. We look at all of this today. And sorry for the timing! It was a voted-in topic, and is probably about the LEAST festive topic we could Suck this week. But - I did find it fascinating and hope you do too. And next week will be lighter - I promise! :) Hail Nimrod and Happy Holidays! Bad Magic Productions Monthly Patreon Donation: We gave a total of $37,547 to the Bad Magic Giving Tree! Thank you for helping us make the holidays extra special for 53 families and 125 kids :) And we also were able to contribute another $1612 to our scholarship fund.Get tour tickets at dancummins.tv Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/CY7-CVYhu0wMerch: https://www.badmagicmerch.comDiscord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89vWant to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever happens to be our most current page :)For all merch related questions/problems: store@badmagicproductions.com (copy and paste)Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcastWanna become a Space Lizard?  Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcastSign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits.