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!)

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20 episodes
Updated Monday
Explicit

Episodes20

Newest first

517 - The Buffalo River Cult: Murder, Prophecy, and... a Ghost Girl??
In 1978, a fanatical doomsday cult disappeared into the Arkansas Ozarks believing the end of the world was arriving fast... which it did (for them), after they were arrested for the brutal murder of a three-year-old girl. More than twenty years later, six-year-old Haley Zega survived three days lost in that same wilderness, later claiming she was guided to safety by an "imaginary friend." How do these two seemingly unrelated stories relate to one another? Listen and find out!
Monday · 2 hr 49 min
Short Suck 62: From Mom-and-Pop to Mega-Corporations: The Transformation of America’s Food Industry
How did a nation built on local farms and family businesses become dependent on a handful of massive corporations for most of its (now mostly processed) food? In this week's Short Suck, we investigate the surprising evolution of the American food industry over the past century, from mom-and-pop markets to mega-distributors, exploring how convenience, consolidation, and ultra-processed foods quietly transformed what ends up on all of our plates.
July 24 · 1 hr 7 min
516 - Murder at 100 MPH: The Mackenzie Shirilla Case
A quiet Ohio suburb is shattered when a 17-year-old girl, Mackenzie Shirilla, drives nearly 100 miles per hour into a brick wall, killing her boyfriend and a close friend while somehow surviving herself. Was it a tragic accident, a medical emergency, or a carefully calculated act of murder? This week, we examine the evidence, the trial, the toxic relationship at the center of it all, and the questions that continue to divide people over the case.
July 20 · 2 hr 21 min
515 - Fort Hood: Murders, Mysteries, and Silence
For years, Fort Hood has been plagued by an unsettling string of murders, disappearances, suspicious deaths, and allegations of institutional failure that have left grieving families searching for answers. This week, we dive into the history of one of America's largest military installations, explore the cases that brought it under national scrutiny, and examine the competing theories—from leadership failures and violent crime to cartel rumors and even whispers of something more sinister. What's
July 13 · 2 hr 31 min
Short Suck 61: Why Are Nordic People So.... Happy?
For over a decade, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and Sweden have consistently ranked among the happiest nations on Earth—but why? We dig into the research behind the World Happiness Report, separate fact from political myth, and explore whether strong social safety nets, low governmental corruption, public trust, and the Nordic model of government really do create happier lives. Along the way, we also examine the decades of propaganda, misconceptions, and ideological battles that have shape
July 10 · 1 hr 5 min
514 - Carl Tanzler: Romantic... Necrophiliac?
In Key West, Florida during the Great Depression, an obsessed German radiology technician, Carl Tanzler, became convinced that a dying young woman named Elena de Hoyos was his supernatural soulmate. After her death, his delusion led him to commit one of the most bizarre and disturbing acts of grave robbery in American history. We explore the strange intersection of obsession, tuberculosis, embalming, mental illness, and necrophilia in yet another dark, weird, and fascinating episode.
July 6 · 2 hr 58 min
513 - The Dark Strangler: Serial Killer Earle Nelson
For at least sixteen months in the 1920s, Earle Nelson terrorized North America, murdering at least twenty-two women while drifting from city to city under false identities. Known as the Gorilla Man and the Dark Strangler, Nelson was a deeply disturbed sexual predator whose life was marked by childhood tragedy, mental illness, brain injury, prison sentences, and multiple escapes from psychiatric institutions. This is an especially wild one.
June 29 · 2 hr 26 min
Short Suck 60: The Mystery of the Yuba County Five
In February of 1978, five friends left a college basketball game in Northern California and seemingly vanished into thin air. Months later, four of them were found dead deep in the wilderness, miles from their abandoned car, while the fifth remained missing. Nearly fifty years later, the Yuba County Five remains one of America's strangest unsolved mysteries—a baffling case filled with unexplained decisions, bizarre clues, and theories ranging from tragic misadventure to murder and conspiracy.
June 24 · 1 hr
512 - The Stonewall Riots
On June 28th, 1969, New York City police expected another routine raid on a gay bar. Instead, they found a community that had finally had enough. This week, we explore the long history of anti-LGBTQ+ persecution in America, the explosive events of the Stonewall Riots, and how a few nights of resistance helped ignite the modern fight for queer liberation.
June 22 · 2 hr 41 min
511 - The 1991 Austin Yogurt Shop Murders
On a December night in 1991, four teenage girls gathered at an Austin frozen yogurt shop for what should have been an ordinary evening of work, pizza, friendship, and weekend plans. Instead, they became the victims of one of the most brutal and baffling crimes in Texas history - a case that shattered Austin's sense of safety and led to further tragedy.
June 15 · 2 hr 36 min
Short Suck 59: The Alligator Man aka The Butcher of Elmendorf
Long before serial killers became podcast and true crime doc celebrities in the US, there was Joe Ball: a bootlegger, bar owner, womanizer, and suspected murderer who kept a pit full of hungry alligators behind his Texas tavern. In the late 1930s, as women connected to Ball began disappearing one after another, rumors spread that "The Alligator Man" wasn't just feeding stray animals to his reptiles—he might have been feeding them people...
June 12 · 49 min
510 - Black Death: The Bizarre Kidnapping of Chloe Ayling
A young British glamour model flies to Milan for what she believes is a routine photo shoot in 2017 — and vanishes into one of the strangest kidnapping cases in modern true crime history. Drugged, stuffed into the trunk of a car, and allegedly marked for sale on a dark web sex auction by a shadowy group called “Black Death,” Chloe Ayling’s story quickly spiraled into an international media frenzy filled with bizarre twists, contradictory behavior, and public skepticism.
June 8 · 2 hr 21 min
509 - 13 Hours of Terror: The 2020 Nova Scotia Massacre
In April of 2020, while the rest of the world fixated on the terrifying early days of the Covid pandemic, a 51-year-old denturist in rural Nova Scotia launched one of the deadliest mass shootings in North American history — murdering 22 people across 13 horrifying hours while disguised as a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer. We dive deep into the shocking failures, bizarre details, and devastating human stories behind these attacks: a case involving fake police cars, burning homes, biker gan
June 1 · 2 hr 19 min
508 - John of God: Ghosts, Grift, and Psychic Surgery
For decades, hundreds of thousands of desperate people (maybe even millions) traveled to rural Brazil seeking miracles from João Teixeira de Faria — better known as “John of God” — a self-proclaimed psychic surgeon who claimed spirits healed others through his body. But behind the stories of supernatural cures, celebrity endorsements, and spiritual enlightenment lurked allegations of fraud, manipulation, and horrific abuse.
May 25 · 2 hr 28 min
Short Suck 58: Roaring! Spinning! Winning! The Rise of the Big Wheel
Before helmets, hoverboards, and helicopter parenting… there was the Big Wheel. Louis Marx and Company turned a low-slung plastic tricycle into one of the most iconic - and unexpectedly controversial - toys in American history. From glorious downhill drifts and neighborhood wipeouts to lawsuits, broken bones, and adult underground Big Wheel racing leagues, this is the wild story of the toy that taught generations of kids that danger and fun were sometimes the exact same thing.
May 22 · 58 min
507 - Finding The Lost City of Z: Percy Fawcett's Suicide Mission
What began as a search for a mythical city hidden deep within the Amazon became an obsession that consumed famed British explorer Percy Fawcett. In 1925, convinced that an advanced lost civilization known only as “Z” truly existed, Fawcett led a small expedition that included his oldest son into one of the deadliest environments on Earth… and vanished forever. What happened to them? And does Z exist?
May 18 · 3 hr 12 min
506 - The Charmer: Serial Killer George Russell
Big episode today! There were just too many interesting details out there about George Russell to cut out. Such a strange, unique, and ultimately terrible human being who is alive and in prison right now for some brutal murderers he committed in the summer of 1990 in Bellevue, Washington. Also, if you're a fan of Black Angus steakhouses, you will never think of them the same way after this week.
May 11 · 3 hr 7 min
Short Suck #57: Return to the Land: The Ravenden Experiment
Deep in the Ozarks, outside a tiny Arkansas town, a group of white nationalists believe they’ve found a legal loophole to resurrect segregation in America. They call it Return to the Land — a “traditionalist” community built around shared values, shared land… and shared race. Will they be shut down? Or will the be allowed to have, essentially, a new Sundown town?
May 8 · 1 hr 9 min
505 - Drowned by the Horizon: Japan’s 2011 Tsunami Nightmare
On March 11th, 2011, the ground beneath Japan didn’t just shake—it unraveled, releasing one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded. Minutes later, the ocean rose in response, surging inland with unstoppable force, swallowing towns, families, and entire futures in a matter of moments. What followed was not just a natural disaster, but a cascading nightmare of water, fire, and radiation that left a nation forever changed. This is the story of the day the horizon turned against humanity—and
May 4 · 2 hr 17 min
504 - Blizzard of Lies: The Karen Read Murder Trials
A blizzard, a body in the snow, and a case that’s divided a town—and the internet. In this episode, we break down the mysterious death of Boston police officer John O’Keefe and the explosive murder trials of Karen Read, where accusations of drunken rage collide with claims of a massive police cover-up. What really happened on Fairview Road… and who, if anyone, is telling the truth?
April 27 · 2 hr 44 min

Timesuck with Dan Cummins

517 - The Buffalo River Cult: Murder, Prophecy, and... a Ghost Girl??

Short Suck 62: From Mom-and-Pop to Mega-Corporations: The Transformation of America’s Food Industry

516 - Murder at 100 MPH: The Mackenzie Shirilla Case

515 - Fort Hood: Murders, Mysteries, and Silence

Short Suck 61: Why Are Nordic People So.... Happy?

514 - Carl Tanzler: Romantic... Necrophiliac?

513 - The Dark Strangler: Serial Killer Earle Nelson

Short Suck 60: The Mystery of the Yuba County Five

512 - The Stonewall Riots

511 - The 1991 Austin Yogurt Shop Murders

Short Suck 59: The Alligator Man aka The Butcher of Elmendorf

510 - Black Death: The Bizarre Kidnapping of Chloe Ayling

509 - 13 Hours of Terror: The 2020 Nova Scotia Massacre

508 - John of God: Ghosts, Grift, and Psychic Surgery

Short Suck 58: Roaring! Spinning! Winning! The Rise of the Big Wheel

507 - Finding The Lost City of Z: Percy Fawcett's Suicide Mission

506 - The Charmer: Serial Killer George Russell

Short Suck #57: Return to the Land: The Ravenden Experiment

505 - Drowned by the Horizon: Japan’s 2011 Tsunami Nightmare

504 - Blizzard of Lies: The Karen Read Murder Trials