Timesuck with Dan Cummins

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...

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 gang rumors, domestic violence, smuggling, and a law enforcement response so chaotic it still fuels outrage and conspiracy theories years later.

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.

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.

** NOTE! THIS EPISODE WAS RECORDED BEFORE THE RECENT ATTACKS ON IRAN. (That's why I don't mention it) ** World War I turned allies into enemies and enemies into unlikely partners — and no one embodied that chaos more than Lawrence of Arabia. Was he a heroic bridge between cultures, or a brilliant pawn in Britain’s imperial game? This week’s Timesuck explores the daring raids, political deception, and lasting consequences of one man’s role in the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

A serial predator drugs women, keeps a list of victims, and somehow keeps slipping through the cracks — while the people meant to stop him sure do appear to keep looking the other way. This week, we follow one relentless prosecutor as she pulls at a thread that unravels disturbing alleged corruption, institutional failure, and a justice system that seems more interested in protecting itself than protecting victims.

He was Australia’s most infamous bushranger - a working-class rebel to some, a violent murderer to others. This week on Timesuck, we dive into the brutal, myth-soaked life of Ned Kelly, his war with the police, and the armored showdown that sealed his place in history.