Timesuck with Dan Cummins

In just a year as captain of his own fleet of pirates, Blackbeard made one hell of a name for himself. A name that's lasted to this day. Pistols, cutlasses, looting, plundering - even the lawless Buccaneer island of Tortuga and pirate city of Nassau explored on this swashbuckling edition of Timesuck! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection...

Yup. ISIS. We're talking about them Timesuckers! A brief explanation of Islam, what's going on in Syria, and how President Assad may be even worse than ISIS (and they're pretty bad). An intense, controversial, and entertaining edition of Timesuck! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It's the Skunk Ape from Shreveport, the Bigfoot from Bremerton squaring off against the Sea Creature from Scotland, the dinosaur of Drumnadrochit. Sasquatch versus The Loch Ness Monster! Which legend do you believe? Which creature’s believers are more insane? Two of the world's most famous mythological creatures get sucked… today on Timesuck! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswi...

How did Hitler and his Nazi Party ever gain political power in 1930s Germany? Why didn't the German people revolt? Why didn't America or any other countries intervene? How did the Jewish persecution begin? The foundation for Hitler and WWII examined and explained on this bonus episode of Timesuck! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection an...

Who has a murder castle!?! 19th century serial killer H.H. Holmes, that's who. Dubbed "America's first serial killer", Holmes' terrorized Chicago during the 1893 World's Fair, killing an estimated 200 women in his literal house of horror. Trap doors, a gas chamber, and a cellar full of torture devices awaited young women tricked into staying in Holmes' evil lair. A truly terrifying editi...

William Bonney aka Billy the Kid killed several men while still a teenager and shot his way out of a New Mexico jail when he was 21. He shot a man for insulting him,  gunned down another in a saloon, and was shot dead himself before reaching his 22nd birthday. He stole cattle and killed a sheriff and several deputies. But was he really a bad guy? Or just a product of circumstance and the time he l...

Ever wondered who's sending you those crazy emails from someone claiming to want share a large sum of money with you or be tracking you down for a huge inheritance? Why are they almost always supposedly from Nigeria? Why are they so poorly written? Find out who these scammers are, why the scam became popular in Nigeria, how much money they're making, who they're making it from, why they word them...

On Feb. 14th, 1929, seven men were found dead in a North Side Chicago garage. The scene was grisly - each man had been shot anywhere from nine to fifteen times, mowed down with shotguns and Thompson "Tommy Gun" sub-machine guns. Who were they? Why did it happen? What did Al Capone have to do with it? Learn about the history of organized crime in Chicago and so much more in this underworl...

When did humans first claim to be contacted by extraterrestrials? What really happened at Roswell? What is going on at Area 51? Why do aliens want to stick things in our butts? Is it all made up!?! Take a listen to a thoroughly researched (and very sarcastic) investigation into whether or not we've made contact with outer space. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for inf...

In the early 1920s, world renown escape artist and master magician, Harry Houdini, became obsessed with exposing seance-holding mediums as frauds and imposters, sometimes cancelling his own shows to attend their performances and debunk them. Who was Houdini and what drove him to discredit all who claimed they could speak with the dead? Find out in the biggest Timesuck so far! Hosted by Simplecast,...

What started off as a listener suggested look into the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, West Virginia became a disturbing timesuck into the dark history of mental health patient mistreatment, especially in late 19th century America. A diagnosis of reading too many novels or being prone to day dreaming could end up getting you an "icepick lobotomy". Seriously. All this and so muc...

Welcome to a Flat Earth Society edition of Timesuck! Think the Earth is a floating disc being propelled upwards by something you can't define? Think gravity is a myth? Do you have no respect for science in general and/or empirical evidence? Well, then I hope you have a thick skin because I take a big factual dump all over your silly beliefs. Find out why your world only makes sense when it's round...

In 1969 Charles Manson convinced Tex Watson and several young women to brutally murder seven innocent people in Los Angeles, including rising star/model Sharon Tate. Why did he do it and how did he become the crazy guy we see now with a swastika on his forehead talking nonsense in prison? How could this obvious maniac convince anyone into giving him a ride down the street let alone into murdering...

Is Walmart destroying middle class America? Is it the problem or merely a symptom of a larger economic disease? Find out who's bending over working class Americans and how hard they're sticking it to the them in this ear-opening edition of Timesuck! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What happened to the good old days when dumb, lazy fucks used to just die in the pre-industrialized, non-welfare state world of yesteryear?  It’s never been easier for the least motivated members of society to stay alive and procreate. Is our gene pool getting shallower as a result?  Find out as I try to answer one of society's most important questions: IS we getting dumberest!?! Hosted by Simplec...

Old porcelain dolls weird me out. Especially the kind whose eyes blink when you move them around. Those all too realistic looking glass eyes that seem to be truly watching you. Just thinking about it gives me the chills. Certain dolls are just creepy. And one of the creepiest of those dolls is named Robert. He talks, he trashes your house, he might kill your aunt in her sleep, and he’s probably th...

It was a crazy time in America in the 1960s.  JFK was assassinated in Dallas, we were entrenched in Vietnam - a war that deeply divided the nation, the civil rights movement was in full swing, and, from 1963 - 1969, our 36th president, Lyndon Baines Johnson, was apparently showing his big, "Jumbo" dick to just about everyone who set foot in the White House. Get ready for a rock hard, ful...

In the mountains of central Europe, jolly old St. Nick doesn’t work alone. He leaves the handling of the naughty list to Krampus - a horned, goat-legged, split tongued, whip holding, Christmas demon draped in chains who beats and sometimes kidnaps wicked children. Krampus throws kids in the sack on his back and takes them to Hell and occasionally even eats them. Yup. This is a real tale that has b...

Timesucker and British archaeologist Rebecca Pridmore sent me some fascinating articles on what we’ve learned from the excavation of various ancient tombs and incredibly well preserved corpses. Bog people, a 12,000 year old funeral, and more on this rotten, decaying, and totally dead episode of Timesuck. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collec...

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk wants to have a million people living on Mars by 2070 and wants to send the first 100 people to permanently live on Mars by 2024.  Can he make this happen? And would you really want to live on that cold, red, dusty shithole of a planet? Find out on this interplanetary episode of Timesuck! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for informati...

Ted Bundy is perhaps the most disturbing serial killer of the 20th century. Why? For starters, he didn’t look like a serial killer, so you can’t convince yourself you would’ve seen him coming. He was well-educated, well-liked, charismatic, and handsome. And evil to the core. And unlike most sociopathic killers, Ted knew he was evil. He described himself as the “the most cold-hearted son of a bitch...

Will we see robots that look, feel, and communicate in such lifelike ways that we won’t be able to tell them apart from other humans in our lifetime? When did the artificial intelligence movement begin? Is our progress with artificial intelligence leading to an inevitable, Skynet-like confrontation with future Terminator robots doomed to turn against us? Where are we at now with robot progress? (H...

Corey Haim went one from a teen heartthrob and one of the most bankable child stars of the late 80s to being a junkie and out-of-work actor labeled as a “has been” by the early 90s to being virtually homeless before he was thirty. Find out what happened to Dan’s onetime favorite actor in this tragic (and fascinating) edition of Timesuck! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.co...

John Quincy Adams was the sixth President of the United States, a Massachusetts State Senator, a Harvard professor, the Secretary of State, and a member of the House of Representatives for the last 17 years of his life. He was also a man who hoped to fund an expedition to travel into the center of the Earth via the North Pole and possibly establish trade with mole people. Yup. Hosted by Simplecast...

What is Halloween? Where does it come from? When did people start asking for candy? When did it become an excuse for women to dress like porn stars?? All of this and more answered on a very informative and hopefully equally entertaining episode. Shove work up your ass - it’s time for Timesuck!! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and u...