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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611 episodes
Updated Monday
Explicit

Episodes611

Newest first

January 19 · 2 hr 34 min
490 - How to Fail at Murder (and Life): The Jennifer Pan Story
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-invasion murder plot.
January 12 · 2 hr 53 min
489 - Taken from Her Bed: The Elizabeth Smart Abduction
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.”
January 9 · 1 hr 3 min
Short Suck #49: The Milk Wars: When People Died for Dairy
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.
January 5 · 2 hr 39 min
488 - The Phantom Killer and the Texarkana Moonlight Murders
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.
Dec 29, 2025 · 2 hr 20 min
487 - Chris Gardner & the Pursuit of Happyness
The 2025 year-end inspirational Timesuck is here! I share 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?
Dec 26, 2025 · 1 hr 1 min
Short Suck #48: The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young
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.
Dec 22, 2025 · 2 hr 50 min
486 - Vigilante Justice: What Could Possibly Go Wrong? (A Lot)
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 thing” can go very wrong.
Dec 15, 2025 · 2 hr 39 min
485 - The Family: Australia's Most Notorious Cult
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 you’re not in this CULT! CULT! CULT!
Dec 12, 2025 · 42 min
Short Suck #47: The Business Plot - When Bankers Tried to Topple the White House
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 1930s?
Dec 8, 2025 · 2 hr 29 min
484 - The King of Beaver Island
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 pirates? This true story is wonderfully bonkers. Hail Nimrod!
Dec 1, 2025 · 2 hr 52 min
483 - Addiction: Most Misunderstood Condition Ever?
Addiction is often dismissed as weakness, moral failure, or poor decision-making - but the truth is far more complex, unsettling, and human. 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
Nov 28, 2025 · 59 min
Short Suck #46: Mutiny on the Bounty!
We sail back to 1789 and find out why the real Mutiny on the Bounty was way less “noble sailors vs brutal tyrant” and way more “horny, possibly rapey young officer snaps on his short, cheese-hoarding, coconut-obsessed captain.” In today's Short Suck, we dig into the petty ego clashes, disastrous decisions, and deeply messed up sexual dynamics that led to one of history’s most infamous mutinies.
Nov 24, 2025 · 2 hr 43 min
482 - The Hunger Killer: Inside the World of the Starvation Doctor
Linda Hazzard - self-proclaimed “fasting specialist” and actual sadistic fraud - ran one of the most disturbing medical scams in American history. At her Washington State sanitarium, later nicknamed “Starvation Heights,” she starved countless patients under the guise of curing everything from aches and pains to cancer. Her brutal regimen of near-total fasting, daily enemas, and bizarre “massage” beatings left a trail of emaciated victims...
Nov 17, 2025 · 2 hr 58 min
481 - Go Ask Alice: When a Fake Diary Helped Launch a Real War on Drugs
In 1971, Go Ask Alice shocked parents across America - marketed as the real diary of a teenage girl swallowed alive by drugs, addiction, and death. Terrified moms and dads bought the book by the millions, used it to police their kids, and fueled a cultural panic that helped justify the War on Drugs. But there was just one problem: the entire book was a lie presented as truth...
Nov 14, 2025 · 58 min
Short Suck #45: The Great Molasses Flood
On January 15th, 1919, a massive molasses tank in Boston’s North End burst, unleashing a 25-foot wall of sticky destruction that toppled buildings, derailed trains, and killed 21 people while injuring scores more. Today, we follow the harrowing rescues, the landmark class-action showdown, and the reforms that changed U.S. engineering standards. A strange, darkly ironic tragedy—equal parts true-crime, industrial history... and sugary nightmare.
Nov 10, 2025 · 2 hr 48 min
480 - Old Blood and Guts: The Life and War of General Patton
Happy Veteran's Day! George S. Patton was a war-winning, poetry-writing, reincarnation-believing chaos machine. The Allies needed him. The Nazis feared him. His bosses… tolerated him. From heroic battlefield leadership to slapping hospitalized soldiers and creating international incidents with his mouth, Patton lived louder than almost anyone in uniform. This is the story of Old Blood-and-Guts: genius, troublemaker, and one of the toughest sons of bitches in U.S. military history.
Nov 3, 2025 · 2 hr 55 min
479 - Rumble, Meatsack, Rumble! The Story of Muhammad Ali
He was brash, beautiful, bold, flawed, and unapologetically himself. From Olympic gold to global fame, Muhammad Ali’s story is one of rebellion, redemption, and relentless courage. This week, we dive into the life of “The Greatest” - a man who fought not just opponents in the ring, but racism, war, and even his own failing body. Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee… and rumble, young meatsack, rumble.
Oct 31, 2025 · 1 hr 3 min
Nightmare Fuel 37: Dissonance (2 of 2)
Happy Halloween, Meatsacks! The conclusion of our Halloween week fictional horror! In this conclusion to yesterday's release, Duncan Briggs just wants his life to return to what it was before he'd ever heard of AR Innovations. But we all know that's not going to happen, right? Instead, the new ride he's on keeps getting wilder.
Oct 30, 2025 · 1 hr 12 min
Nightmare Fuel 36: Dissonance (1 of 2)
Hello again Meatsacks! The beginning of our last bit of Halloween week fictional horror! This one was originally released back in July. In this first of two parts, we meet a man, Duncan Briggs, who agrees to participate in a paid scientific study to make a little cash to get his wife something nice for her birthday while he's in-between jobs. And then things get.... weird. Enjoy!
Oct 29, 2025 · 1 hr 1 min
Nightmare Fuel 30: Operation Wandering Soul
Hello Meatsacks! Time for more Halloween week horror! This one was, as you can guess, released the week before yesterday's story, from this past May. And in it, we head to the tropical jungle of Vietnam's Annamese mountains. When on a dark, rainy night in January of 1968, PsyWar Detachment Six was conducting black ops meant to terrify and break the spirits of the Viet Cong. Enjoy!

Timesuck with Dan Cummins

490 - How to Fail at Murder (and Life): The Jennifer Pan Story

489 - Taken from Her Bed: The Elizabeth Smart Abduction

Short Suck #49: The Milk Wars: When People Died for Dairy

488 - The Phantom Killer and the Texarkana Moonlight Murders

487 - Chris Gardner & the Pursuit of Happyness

Short Suck #48: The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young

486 - Vigilante Justice: What Could Possibly Go Wrong? (A Lot)

485 - The Family: Australia's Most Notorious Cult

Short Suck #47: The Business Plot - When Bankers Tried to Topple the White House

484 - The King of Beaver Island

483 - Addiction: Most Misunderstood Condition Ever?

Short Suck #46: Mutiny on the Bounty!

482 - The Hunger Killer: Inside the World of the Starvation Doctor

481 - Go Ask Alice: When a Fake Diary Helped Launch a Real War on Drugs

Short Suck #45: The Great Molasses Flood

480 - Old Blood and Guts: The Life and War of General Patton

479 - Rumble, Meatsack, Rumble! The Story of Muhammad Ali

Nightmare Fuel 37: Dissonance (2 of 2)

Nightmare Fuel 36: Dissonance (1 of 2)

Nightmare Fuel 30: Operation Wandering Soul