

Timesuck with Dan Cummins
Dan Cummins
Jump down new rabbit holes with Timesuck, the weekly podcast that takes you on a fascinating and bizarre journey through history’s darkest corners, most shocking conspiracies, and wildest true stories. Hosted by acclaimed standup comedian and storyteller Dan Cummins, each episode blends dark humor with deep research to uncover hidden truths about infamous historical figures, unsolved mysteries, notorious serial killers, and more. If you crave the weird, the wild, and the unexpected, Timesuck is your next obsession!
And check out the Short Sucks, a new series of 40-60 minute episodes two Fridays a month. These bite-sized stories are perfect for when you want a quick dose of Timesuck (or need more addictive content to consume while you’re waiting for your next Timesuck!)
And check out the Short Sucks, a new series of 40-60 minute episodes two Fridays a month. These bite-sized stories are perfect for when you want a quick dose of Timesuck (or need more addictive content to consume while you’re waiting for your next Timesuck!)
Episodes
Mentioned books

May 31, 2021 • 2h 32min
246 - Trail of Tears
When the 1830s began, nearly 125,000 various tribal members lived on millions of acres of land in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Florida - land where their ancestors had lived for centuries. By the end of that decade, only a handful of indigenous Americans would remain in the southeastern United States. The federal government had forced them to leave their homelands and walk hundreds of miles to a specially designated “Indian territory” across the Mississippi River - present day Oklahoma. And this difficult and deadly journey - thousands would die along the way - would be known as the Trail of Tears. As new waves of European settlers kept pouring into America, farming land along the coasts was quickly taken up. Farming land for growing cotton in Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, Florida, and Tennessee was especially coveted. New settlers wanted that land and they would do almost anything to get it - including taking it from tribe members who yes, had lost their battles against the US government, but also - could’ve been treated far more fairly in the aftermath. Rather than work to assimilate the tribes into American culture - the US federal government under President Andrew Jackson and his Indian Removal Act, passed by Congress in 1830, chose to banish them to less desirable land. Though the entire process of Indian Removal that lasted from 1831 to 1877 would come to be known as the Trail of Tears, one march in particular would become emblematic of the entire misguided and heartless venture - the 2,200 mile 1838 journey of seventeen Cherokee detachments. Historians estimate that between 1/4 and 1/3 of what remained of the Cherokee population died during that journey. We look at this journey and other tribe's journey's today, talk about what led up to them, examine the history of European contact with the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Seminole, and Chickasaw, and go over so much more in this jam-packed-with-historical-information episode, let's learn from our mistakes so we don't repeat them edition, of Timesuck. Thanks for helping Bad Magic Productions donate $13,800 this month to The Ocular Melanoma Foundation, in honor of Timesucker Alex Roach.
To find out more, go to http://www.ocularmelanoma.org/
Watch the Suck on YouTube:https://youtu.be/KXsOxewvna8
Merch - https://badmagicmerch.com/ Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v
Want 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 current page hasn't been put in FB Jail :)
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/timesuckpodcast
Wanna become a Space Lizard? We're over 10,000 strong! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcast
Sign 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.

May 24, 2021 • 2h 2min
245 - Karl Denke, the Cannibal of Ziębice
Heard of this guy before? If you haven't, I'm with you. I hadn't either. And then once I got into this story, I wondered HOW had I never heard of him? This story is insane. Karl Denke killed, it seems, at least 30 people in Ziębice, Poland (formerly Münsterberg, Weimar Republic aka Germany). And he ate them. And he sold some of their meat to others. Probably many, MANY others. And he made suspenders out of their skin and shoelaces out of their hair and on and on and on. And he did that out of his apartment, surrounded by neighbors, for over two decades. How? Partially - due to hyperinflation. Yes, hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic led to so much economic chaos that people were a lot more worried about surviving than they were about what their neighbors were up to. And why haven't more of us heard about Karl? Because of another killer operating nearby at the same time who was even more disturbing - Fritz Haarmann. We'll go over some of his crimes as well. True crime, the economic chaos of German's Interwar Years and more on an outlandish edition of Timesuck.
Thanks for helping Bad Magic Productions donate $13,800 this month to The Ocular Melanoma Foundation, in honor of Timesucker Alex Roach.
To find out more, go to http://www.ocularmelanoma.org/
Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/oIvZy2JwlHs
Merch - https://badmagicmerch.com/ Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v
Want 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 current page hasn't been put in FB Jail :)
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/timesuckpodcast
Wanna become a Space Lizard? We're over 10,000 strong! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcast
Sign 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.

May 17, 2021 • 2h 15min
244 - Crazy US Laws!
Today we take a fun and sometimes concerning tour around the United States looking at laws that are still on the books that either definitely shouldn't be, shouldn't have ever been, are sadly necessary, or are just plain... odd. Did you know that in Indiana it's illegal to have a "a covered clearly erect penis" at a city park? Or that it's illegal to use a ferret to help you hunt in West Virginia? It's also illegal to sell dog hair in New York. And if you've ever been in a "duel with deadly weapons" in Kentucky you can't become a state attorney. In Idaho, cannibalism carries a special punishment. Anal, oral, and premarital sex are illegal in Idaho. As is adultery. So many outdated laws that should've never existed in the first place. And so many WTF laws. It's just a misdemeanor to barter a baby in Pennsylvania. But having sex with your first cousin in Utah is a felony. Also, it's illegal to own seven or more dildos in Texas. And on and on and on. We go over actual state, county, and city legal codes for so, so, SO much legislative strangeness today. Hail Nimrod and I hope you get some laughs out of this madness.Thanks for helping Bad Magic Productions donate this month to The Ocular Melanoma Foundation, in honor of Alex Roach, a Timesucker who was taken from his family at the tender age of just 33 (amount to be announced next week). The Ocular Melanoma Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, and is one of the leading research and patient support organizations focused on ocular melanoma-eye cancer.
To find out more, go to http://www.ocularmelanoma.org/
Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/m1LVfkBh5x0
Merch - https://badmagicmerch.com/ Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v
Want 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 current page hasn't been put in FB Jail :)
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/timesuckpodcast
Wanna become a Space Lizard? We're over 10,000 strong! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcast
Sign 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.Stock music provided by four_track, from Pond5

May 10, 2021 • 2h 12min
243 - The Angel's Landing Cult
Cult! Cult! Cult! We're back to sucking on a cult - a small and relatively unknown one which is surprising considering how crazy this story is. For well over a decade, conman Daniel Perez convinced a small band of followers into thinking he was possessed by three mostly evil angels, or maybe was an angel, and that he had the keys to heaven, or maybe reincarnation? And that he could make it rain, or maybe bring animals back from the dead? He was way better at talking followers into dying so he could get their life insurance money than he was at keeping his nonsensical claims straight. For years, he and his small band of followers lived on a compound called Angel's Landing just outside of Wichita, Kansas, messing around with ATVs, driving fast cars, playing with model airplanes, and getting drunk at weekend parties while everyone conveniently ignored the fact that he was doing stuff like sharing his bed with an eleven-year-old. This ridiculous pervert has been in prison for years now where he will thankfully die. Find out how he got there on this week's super strange tale. Thanks for helping Bad Magic Productions donate this month to The Ocular Melanoma Foundation, in honor of Alex Roach, a Timesucker who was taken from his family at the tender age of just 33 (amount to be announced next week). The Ocular Melanoma Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, and is one of the leading research and patient support organizations focused on ocular melanoma-eye cancer.
To find out more, go to http://www.ocularmelanoma.org/
Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/QT_eonHvS4s
Merch - https://badmagicmerch.com/ Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v
Want 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 current page hasn't been put in FB Jail :)
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/timesuckpodcast
Wanna become a Space Lizard? We're over 10,000 strong! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcast
Sign 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.

May 3, 2021 • 1h 51min
242 - Jameson Whiskey and Cannibalism
Whiskey! Today’s suck is SOAKED in whiskey. Mostly, in Jameson - some Irish whiskey.John Jameson - the founder of Jameson - was originally a lawyer from Alloa in Scotland before he founded a distillery in Dublin in 1780. In 1805, he was joined by his son John Jameson II who took over the family business. For the next 41 years, John Jameson Jr. built up the business before handing over to his son John Jameson the 3rd in 1851. By the turn of the 19th century, Jameson’s distilleries were the second-largest producer in Ireland and one of the largest in the world, producing 1,000,000 gallons annually. The name Jameson was synonymous with Irish whiskey. And then in the late 1880s, a scandal broke out regarding claims that John's great-grandson, James S Jameson, paid to watch a Congolese slave girl killed and eaten. And then the name Jameson was associated with cannibalism almost as much as whiskey. A dark and strange historical scandal. We explore it today, along with a history of alcohol and more, in today's whiskey-based edition of Timesuck.
Thanks for helping Bad Magic Productions donate $13,300 this month to The Saint Bernard Project. The SBP will be helping those in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana as they continue to work on their recovery from winter storm Uri. To find out more, go to https://sbpusa.org/
Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/VHvMZtGMKVw
Merch - https://badmagicmerch.com/ Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v
Want 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 current page hasn't been put in FB Jail :)
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/timesuckpodcast
Wanna become a Space Lizard? We're over 10,000 strong! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcast
Sign 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.

Apr 26, 2021 • 2h 30min
241 - QAnon and Antifa: Who, What, And Why?
QAnon is the conspiracy cult involving so, so many things. It MOSTLY centers around belief in an elite, leftist, Satanic, child sex trafficking slash human sacrifice slash adrenochrome harvesting ring and the one man thought to be destined to expose and destroy this Deep State, evil, globalist cabal - former president Donald Trump. Seriously. That's really what it is.
Antifa is a left-wing political ideology, made up of various autonomous groups that often include communists, socialists, and anarchists, that violently oppose fascism and other far right-wing ideologies, often through militant protest tactics. They believe in de-platforming any group they deem xenophobic, racist, homophobic, sexist, etc. They fight intolerance with intolerance and their counter-protests often spiral out into not just assault but property damage. We explore each of these belief systems today, see how they intersect, and look at how one led to the infamous storming of the US capitol on Jan. 6th. Wtf and Hail Nimrod!Thanks for helping Bad Magic Productions donate $13,300 this month to The Saint Bernard Project. The SBP will be helping those in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana as they continue to work on their recovery from winter storm Uri. To find out more, go to https://sbpusa.org/
Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/oERijVWNWnA
Merch - https://badmagicmerch.com/ Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v
Want 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 current page hasn't been put in FB Jail :)
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/timesuckpodcast
Wanna become a Space Lizard? We're over 10,000 strong! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcast
Sign 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.

Apr 19, 2021 • 2h 9min
240 - Anonymous and the World of Hackers
“We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us.” Anonymous - the hacking collective that for many put hacking on the map. Since 2007, Anonymous has hacked just about everyone: the CIA, NSA, the Federal Reserve, other governmental agency websites around the world, the KKK, the Church of Scientology as well. They've released millions of classified documents. They've disrupted business for multimillion-dollar corporations. Why do they do all this? Looking into that today. Also digging in the history of hacking and the culture of hacking they come from. Also looking into some other hacker organizations and some massive hacks they've pulled off, like hacking into ATM networks and deciding when and how much cash an ATM will kick out. The group that did that has stolen over 1.2 billion dollars to date. Hope you learn a lot with this one today. Get ready for lots of techno music and tons of cyber facts. Hail Nimrod! Thanks for helping Bad Magic Productions donate $13,300 this month to The Saint Bernard Project. The SBP will be helping those in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana as they continue to work on their recovery from winter storm Uri. To find out more, go to https://sbpusa.org/
Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/E_mYxxRosHc
Thanks to Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio for the hacker sound bed "80s Retrowave Music - Hackers"
Merch - https://badmagicmerch.com/ Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v
Want 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 current page hasn't been put in FB Jail :)
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/timesuckpodcast
Wanna become a Space Lizard? We're over 10,000 strong! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcast
Sign 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.

Apr 12, 2021 • 2h 7min
239 - El Chapo, the Sinaloa Cartel, and the War on Drugs
What a wild one we have today. I set out, fascinated by his two escapes from prison, to only explore cartel leader El Chapo. And then I got sucked into the history of the War on Drugs. And what a crazy history it is. Saying drugs are bad and that's why they're illegal is to vastly oversimplify US drug policy. Does the War on Drugs make any sense at all to fight? Can it actually be won? Does it actually make things much, much worse and create a lot of additional crime? Even if you don't agree with me, I hope you find today's episode interesting and thought-provoking. Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera certainly led an interesting life. Thanks for helping Bad Magic Productions donate at least $12,500 this month to The Saint Bernard Project. The SBP will be helping those in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana as they continue to work on their recovery from winter storm Uri. To find out more, go to https://sbpusa.org/
Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/i0WzJDeSE1c
Merch - https://badmagicmerch.com/ Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v
Want 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 current page hasn't been put in FB Jail :)
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/timesuckpodcast
Wanna become a Space Lizard? We're over 10,000 strong! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcast
Sign 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.

Apr 5, 2021 • 2h 42min
238 - Mao Zedong: Father of Communist China and Worst Mass Murderer of All Time?
Mao Zedong's name is associated with one of the heinous totalitarian regimes of the 20th century - if not one of the most heinous regimes in the history of the world. Due to famines brought about directly by his brutal policies and political "purges" he authorized, roughly 45 million Chinese citizens died. Possibly tens of millions more. Chairman Mao is responsible for more noncombatant deaths than Hitler and Stalin combined. So doesn't that make him the worst mass murderer of all time? We take a look at China in today's big episode - it's history, it's culture, and how the communist came to power in the wake of WW2 with the son of a farmer as their leader. We explore Mao's life and the rise of communism in what was long an imperial nation, in today's true crime, why didn't he brush his death, yes he really tried to have all the sparrows killed, insane, tyrannical edition of Timesuck. Thanks for helping Bad Magic Productions donate at least $12,500 this month to The Saint Bernard Project. The SBP will be helping those in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana as they continue to work on their recovery from winter storm Uri. To find out more, go to https://sbpusa.org/
Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/DfBh-Q7_hfM
Merch - https://badmagicmerch.com/ Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v
Want 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 current page hasn't been put in FB Jail :)
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/timesuckpodcast
Wanna become a Space Lizard? We're over 10,000 strong! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcast
Sign 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.

Mar 29, 2021 • 2h 16min
237 - The Pig Farmer Killer: Canada's Filthy Robert Pickton
Robert Pickton was born in 1949 just outside of Vancouver, CA, in Port Coquitlam, on a pig farm. His parents were Helen and Leonard Pickton, two insanely filthy human beings who couldn’t have cared less about clean clothes or a house that wasn’t full of animal shit or even about bathing their children, Robert, his sister Linda, and his brother, Dave. Robert would live on the family farm his entire life before going to prison for the murder of six women. Police had evidence that he killed at least another twenty, but it was unnecessary to also try him for those crimes. Pickton killed these women and then butchered their bodies, feeding some of their remains to his pigs, and possibly feeding some of their remains to local Vancouverites as well. Today's story is such a strange one. It involves the Hells Angels, a place called the Piggy Palace Good Times Society, and so, so, so much filth. Hope you enjoy getting dirty with this Suck. Thanks for helping Bad Magic Productions give $12,500 this month to the USC Shoah Foundation. Click the link to learn more: https://sfi.usc.edu/
Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/tuQb44fh0T8
Merch - https://badmagicmerch.com/ Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v
Want 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 current page hasn't been put in FB Jail :)
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/timesuckpodcast
Wanna become a Space Lizard? We're over 10,000 strong! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcast
Sign 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.