Timesuck with Dan Cummins

Gary "The Green River Killer" Ridgway is currently in prison in Walla Walla, Washington, having been convicted of 49 different murders, most of which took place in the early and mid-1980s. It took investigators nearly 20 years to catch this seemingly normal suburban married Seattle-area father and big rig painter by day and young prostitute murdering monster by night. But thankfully, he was caught...

The Spanish Inquisition started in 1478 and lasted all the way until 1834 - and it was terrible the whole time. But it was at its worst in the first hundred years, when thousands and thousands of innocent people living in the new Spanish Empire were ruthlessly tortured and many of them burned alive for, mostly, maybe being Jewish in a country that was aggressively Catholic. Find out how the Cathol...

In 1973, 21 year old German college student Anneliese Michel began to descend into an existence of pure and utter madness. She had begun to see the faces of demons appear around her with increasing frequency. She awoke more and more often in the middle of the night, unable to move, unable to scream out, feeling an evil presence overtake her body. Her life had become a never ending parade of visits...

Anneliese Michel would die in a small, German town on July 1st, 1976. The official cause of death? Malnutrition and dehydration. But why did she stop eating? Mental illness? She’d seen a plethora of doctors for years, none of whom could determine, beyond epilepsy, exactly what was wrong. Brain scans revealed nothing abnormal. Why was she hearing voices? Was she simply suffering from a mental illne...

The Lost Books of the Bible! Is that really what we’re talking about today on Timesuck? Yes. Was I super excited to dive into this topic when I found out our Space Lizard listeners voted it in on the app? No! I mean, we just did an episode last week with a strong Christian theme! And now we’re doing another? Yep. And it's awesome. Turns out, once again, the wisdom of the Space Lizard community has...

The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), founded by hatemonger Fred Phelps, is an American church (cult) known for protesting funerals with preposterously homophobic signs and for its use of inflammatory hate speech, especially against LGBT+ people. They also hate Catholics, Jews, Muslims, soldiers, America, and more. They hate almost everyone. The Southern Poverty Law Center has called the WBC, “arguab...

The Stanford Prison Experiment is one of the most famous psychological studies ever conducted. In 1971, newly tenured psychology professor Richard Zimbardo turned the basement of the Stanford University psychology department into a fake prison where young male volunteers were divided into the roles of Prisoner and Guard . The study was meant to last two weeks. But the brutality of the Guards and t...

Serial killer Richard Ramirez killed at least 14 people and raped and tortured at least two dozen more, mostly during the Spring and Summer of 1985. He robbed to support his coke habit and and he tortured, raped, and killed to both sexually satisfy himself and to appease Satan. Ramirez was WAY into Satan. He’d actually pray to the Devil for protection before sneaking into some innocent family’s ho...

Toughest topic I’ve tackled so far. Marches going on across the country to ban assault rifles. School walkouts. Gun rights advocates staging their own protests. Celebrities posting all kinds of feel good, emotional quotes. But are we looking at this issue the right away? After my research this past few weeks, I don't think so. Let's stop polarizing this discussion. The current issue runs a lot dee...

On Friday, April 25th, 1986, the Soviet city of Pripyat, built to support the local nuclear power plant Chernobyl, had 13,414 apartments, a hospital, a movie theater, an art school, a central park with a giant ferris wheel, and over 50,000 residents. And then, at 1:23AM on Saturday, April 26th, 1986, the number 4 reactor heated up to more than 100 times its usual operating power. Which is very, ve...

The Bielski brothers led the largest Jewish-led rescue operation of Jewish civilians in ALL of World War II. They saved over 1,200 men, women, and children by hiding them in the forests of Western Belo-russia, from 1942-1944. More than 20,000 descendants of the survivors the Bielski’s helped save are alive today because of the ingenuity, heart, and perseverance of these men. They led numerous atta...

Aleister Crowley was many things: an author, an artist, a poet, a mystic, a student, a mountaineer, a world traveler, and a notorious occultist. He shocked Victorian and post-Victorian England and the Western World at-large with his "Satanic" ways. He was permanently banned from both Italy and France before his death. He believed in magic, real magic, and tried to conjure mythical spirits into our...

What in the shit are we talking about this week? Norse Gods! Turns out they’re still being worshipped today. Who knew? Well, our own Timesuck editor Jesse Dobner for one, who is a practicing Asatruar. Apparently a lot of people in Iceland also knew and quite a few in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. Even a few Timesuckers. I didn’t. I thought Thor was a comic book character whose Marvel mythology kick...

Tupac and Biggie - two of the biggest hip hop stars of all time. And neither of them would see the age of 26. Their West Coast/East Coast rap feud helped sell millions of records, helped launch the career of Puff Daddy. It cemented Death Row Records as one of the greatest hip hop labels of all time. I listened to a ton of Tupac growing up. And who hasn’t heard some Biggie? But how much do we reall...

Feb. 28th, 2018 will mark the 25th anniversary of the ATF raiding the Branch Davidian Compound in Waco Texas, setting off a 51 day armed standoff between federal agents and militant Christian fanatics. Over 80 people would die, most in the final day of the siege when a fire would burn the compound to the ground, killing nearly all of the men, women, and children still inside. Tanks versus citizens...

When murder investigators entered the rural farm house of loner Ed Gein just outside the tiny town of Plainfield, Wisconsin on November 16th, 1957, they found a scene like nothing any American investigator had ever seen before. A scene of outlandish, unimaginable horror. Body parts stored in bags and boxes. And so much skin. Human skin crafted into the stuff of nightmares. How could all of this ho...

The Irish Republican Army. Guys and gals who have, since their inception, been viewed as a liberation force by some and a terrorist group by others. They fight for the liberation of Northern Ireland from whom they view as British oppressors. But, as you’ll find out today - their case isn’t so simple. Their cause not obviously just. They’ve been lighting up Northern Ireland and England with bombs a...

I recently watched the new 4th season of Black Mirror on Netflix, and, if this season has a theme, I’d say it’s the concept of digital immortality. Can human consciousness be transferred into digital form? And, if so, is this digital version of ourselves as alive as the old carbon-based model? I keep thinking about this possibility, because, for the first time in human history, it does seem possib...

Before this week I knew very little about Africa’s history. It’s a continent of many nations, nations whose boundaries and governments are near constantly in some state of transition. It’s a beautiful continent rich in wildlife, natural resources, and culture but suffering under perpetual war, famine, and chaos. There are currently 15 African countries experiencing either war or post war tension....

"I'm your huckleberry." Did the real Doc Holliday actually say that? Or was that some Hollywood dramatization added to Tombstone? Turns out he did tell Johnny Ringo he was a huckleberry when he tried to step in for Wyatt Earp in a showdown. Val Kilmer's performance may have been much more accurate than I ever realized. John Henry Holiday, better known as Doc Holliday, was a Wild Western anomaly. H...

Joseph Stalin. Icon of the 20th century. Personification of Soviet might. Catalyst of the Cold War. Hero to some, monster to many. The Man of Steel who brought the Soviet Union to the world stage and helped end WWII while simultaneously terrorizing his own people (including Chikatilo!) and bringing his fellow communists to their knees. What was previously viewed as a backwards country, quickly ros...

The Jersey Devil. Is it a kangaroo-like creature with the head of a goat, horse, or dog? Most agree that it has wings, hooves, horns, and a tail. Where does it come from? Many describe a dragon-like creature. Or does it walk on two legs like others have reported? Some say it can fly. Legends say it has killed. It supposedly once survived a cannonball blast. It emits a blood curdling scream. It mig...

Do the Freemasons work hand in hand with the illuminati? Are the Freemasons and the Illuminati one and the same? Is Alex Jones a Freemason? Was Jack the Ripper a Freemason? Did George Washington, definitely a Freemason, build the Washington D.C. monument as a tribute to the Dark Lord Lucifer? Is Alex Jones actually Bill Hicks? Do Jewish Zionists control the Freemason illuminati? Who are the Trilat...

Who are the Freemasons? An ancient, Satanic organization who are part of the illuminati and intent of destroying Christianity and ruling the world? A harmless fraternal organization that gives its members a sense of community and encourages them to become the best versions of themselves? What do they do in their secret meetings? How long have they been around? How do you join? Today, in the first...

John Wayne Gacy aka Pogo the clown aka Patches the clown aka the Devil himself. This outgoing member of his Chicago community, this Democratic Party volunteer, high ranking member of the Jaycees, parade organizer, and successful contractor by day was a living monster by night. He abducted, handcuffed, raped, strangled, tortured, and suffocated at least 33 young men and teen boys in the 1970s. Twen...