Timesuck with Dan Cummins

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...

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, embalmi...

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 i...

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...

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. Merch and more: www.badmagicproductions.com...

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.    Merch and more: www.badmagicproductions.co...

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 reptile...

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...

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 devasta...

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, manipu...

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 ta...

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 exi...

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. ...

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?  For Merch and everything else Bad...

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...

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? Merch and more:...

Tonya Harding went from landing one of the hardest moves in figure skating history to being at the center of a real-life “what the hell were you thinking?” crime. This episode unpacks her rough upbringing, explosive relationships, and the unbelievably sloppy plot that turned Olympic dreams into tabloid infamy. Talent, dysfunction, and absolute chaos—this story's got it all. For Merch and everythin...

A purple, 35,000-year-old warrior from Atlantis shows up in a woman’s kitchen… and somehow turns her into a millionaire. Totally normal. Today’s Timesuck unpacks the wild, weird, and wildly profitable story of JZ Knight, Ramtha, and the New Age empire based in Yelm, Washington that asks: what if enlightenment… was just really confident nonsense? Merch and more: www.badmagicproductions.com  Timesuc...

Most serial killers hide what they are. Eddie Cole did the opposite—he flat-out told people he wanted to rape and kill women, and begged for help before it was too late. Somehow, again and again, he was released back into the world. Today’s Timesuck dives into one of the most frustrating true crime cases imaginable: a killer who warned everyone… and still wasn’t stopped. Merch and more: www.badmag...

The British Museum is one of the world’s greatest treasure houses—home to over eight million artifacts spanning human history. But behind its incredible collection lies a complicated legacy of empire, conquest, and controversy that raises a difficult question: who should really own the past? For Merch and everything else Bad Magic related, head to: https://www.badmagicproductions.com Hosted by Sim...

Roch Thériault promised his followers healing, purpose, and a closer connection to God — but what he built in the wilderness of Canada became something far, FAR more sinister. As his control tightened, faith twisted into fear, and “treatment” became torture. This is the story of the Ant Hill Kids. A story of how belief, isolation, and absolute power created one of the most disturbing cults in mode...

The 500th episode! And for the 500th straight week of Timesuck, I will not be in my right mind (but is it ever right?). I'll also be sharing the story of the 2023 Leongatha, Australia Mushroom Murders, when four family members all became violently ill after eating a lunch prepared by Erin Patterson. A meal laced with death cap mushrooms. This case riveted Australia like few others in recent memory...

Today we explore the horrifying true story of the Radium Girls — young women told to “lip, dip, and paint” with radioactive dial paint while their employers hid the deadly consequences. What began as a factory job seen as glamorous and high-paying turned into one of the most grotesque workplace poisoning scandals in American history, leaving behind shattered bodies, corporate lies, and a legal bat...

Rudolf Steiner founded the Waldorf education movement more than a century ago, inspiring thousands of schools around the world with a philosophy centered on creativity, imagination, and holistic learning! But... behind that influential educational system was a man who also claimed clairvoyant insight into Atlantis, reincarnation, and unseen cosmic beings guiding human evolution. Today we dive into...

For years, a calm, calculating predator stalked the suburbs of Melbourne, leaving behind almost no evidence — only terrified families and a growing legend known as "Mr. Cruel." Decades later, his crimes remain unsolved, and the questions surrounding Karmein Chan’s murder still haunt Australia. This week on Timesuck, we examine one of the most chilling unidentified offenders in Australian history....