Would you choose to have an identical twin? Someone who looked so much like you, that even your own mother couldn’t always tell the two of you apart? Someone whom friends and even lovers couldn’t distinguish you from? Someone who experienced the world in a way so similar to your own, that no one else could ever possibly be able to relate to you quite like they could. Could be fun! But as you'll see... it could be also dangerous. For Merch and everything else Bad Magic related, head to: https://w...
Apr 25, 2025•55 min
Today we talk about moral panics. Specifically, the "Video Nasty" moral panic that happened in the UK in the early 1980s, and then again in the 1990s, when there was widespread fear that by kids watching horror movies with titles like Cannibal Holocaust, Flesh for Frankenstein, I Spit on Your Grave, and The Last House on the Left, they would literally be turned into rapists and killers. Was there any justification for this panic? Can hyper-violent or hyper-sexualized media in general erode the m...
Apr 21, 2025•3 hr 31 min
Pee Wee Gaskin's diminutive size of 5'2" tall and 130 pounds soaking wet didn't stop him from brutally killing at least eleven people, and possibly up to 105. The South Carolina serial killer murdered for a lot of reasons: revenge and personal vendettas, fits of rage, but mostly to satisfy a deep-rooted urge to rape, torture, and kill young women. An urge Pee Wee called, his "bothersomeness.” Merch and more: www.badmagicproductions.com Timesuck Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v Want to join th...
Apr 14, 2025•3 hr 43 min
Today we're we’re gonna tackle a bunch of questions you never knew you needed answering, questions like: Why does the middle finger mean “fuck you”? Why do we blow out candles at birthday parties? Why do we cover our mouths when we yawn? And where does the whole making "bunny ears" with your fingers behind someone's head when they're getting their photo taken come from? The answers to these questions are often so strange, and so ancient. For Merch and everything else Bad Magic related, head to: ...
Apr 11, 2025•47 min
How much of what you read online has been planted there by Russian propagandists? How many times have you followed a social media account, or reposted information from an account, that's controlled by a Russian Troll Farm? How aware are you of Russia's ongoing (and shockingly successful) attempts to cripple and then topple America from within? This episode is a different, much more dystopian kind of scary. Merch and more: www.badmagicproductions.com Timesuck Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v W...
Apr 07, 2025•3 hr 58 min
On the afternoon of February 13th, 2017, in the sleepy little 3000(ish) person town of Delphi, Indiana, two local junior high girls and best friends, 13-year-old Abigail Joyce Williams and 14-year-old Liberty Rose Lynn German, went missing nearing an abandoned bridge near the edge of town. Their bloody bodies would be found the next day, but their killer wouldn't be caught for over five years. And when he was, the town would be shocked for a second time, when they learned that the killer was one...
Mar 31, 2025•2 hr 18 min
Today we take a peek at the interesting life of author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the man who invented the world's most famous and influential literary detective, Sherlock Holmes. However, Doyle was never really that interested in the fictional creation that made him famous. He was very interested, though, in spiritualism, and took part in hundreds of seances and wrote dozens of books, pamphlets, and newspaper articles attesting to a belief he saw as indisputable fact: that the dead surround us and...
Mar 28, 2025•47 min
Have you ever been to one of those Shen Yun traveling traditional Chinese dance performances? Have you ever seen one of their blitz marketing campaigns? What about the Epoch Times - is that where you or someone you know get their news? Did you know that both of these companies are directly connect to the Falun Gong, a strange cult that originated in China in 1992, and is now based in a massive compound less than a 100 miles north of New York City? Merch and more: www.badmagicproductions.com Time...
Mar 24, 2025•3 hr 1 min
Today we examine the beloved host of the long-running children's television show, Mr Rogers' Neighborhood. Was Fred McFeely Rogers truly as wholesome as he seemed? Could anyone be that good? Or was it all just an act? When the cameras turned off, did a completely different emerge, and who was that person? Merch and more: www.badmagicproductions.com Timesuck Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v Want to join the Cult of the Curious PrivateFacebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult...
Mar 17, 2025•2 hr 15 min
Luis Alfredo Garavito Cubillos was a ruthless, sadistic Colombian rapist and serial killer who became known to the task force searching for him as… The Beast. This sadistic monster would be convicted of sexually torturing and murdering 142 boys. He would confess to 221 murders, and to raping another 200+ children. And after all that, he was nearly released after serving just 22 years in prison. For Merch and everything else Bad Magic related, head to: https://www.badmagicproductions.com...
Mar 14, 2025•1 hr 3 min
On July 22nd, 2011, Norwegian alt-right gamer Anders Behring Breivik carried out the deadliest attack on Norwegian soil since WW2, when he detonated a car bomb in Oslo and then snuck onto the nearby island of Utoya and opened fire on a large group of teenagers attending a political summer camp. Why did he do this? And how was no one able to stop him? Merch and more: www.badmagicproductions.com Timesuck Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v Want to join the Cult of the Curious PrivateFacebook Group...
Mar 10, 2025•3 hr 45 min
How much do you know about Nelson Mandela and South Africa's brutal, racially oppressive system of apartheid? Mandela became the first black president of South Africa in 1994, just four years after serving 27 years in prison for demanding equal rights for the black citizens of the predominantly black nation of South Africa. Mandela would do so much to help dismantle the South African system of apartheid that led to his incarceration, and we'll learn about how apartheid worked, who Nelson Mandela...
Mar 03, 2025•2 hr 26 min
Ching Shih, born as Shi Yang, was quite possibly the most powerful pirate of all time. While famous UK pirates like Blackbeard, Black Bart, Calico Jack, Sir Francis Drake, or Captain Kidd get much more name recognition, none of them ever commanded a confederation of pirates up to 80,000 men strong, with around 2,000 ships. Learn some of the history you never learned in school, today, on Timesuck. For Merch and everything else Bad Magic related, head to: https://www.badmagicproductions.com...
Feb 28, 2025•50 min
On November 20th, 1993, the sexually violated and mutilated corpse of a young woman is found on Long Island, New York. The first of over ten bodies found in the coming decades of young, petite, sex workers, whose murders will later be attributed to "The Long Island Serial Killer." But no suspect will be arrested until July of 2023. Why did it take law enforcement three decades to find this guy, how did they find him, and who is he? All this and more on this week's true crime deep dive. Merch and...
Feb 24, 2025•3 hr 49 min
Ganas is an intentional community founded in 1979 in Tompkinsville, Staten Island that is still active. Is it also a cult? What is an "intentional community" And why was one of the founding members, Jeff Gross, shot and nearly killed (allegedly) by a disgruntled, former member, in 2006? Visit CrimeWaveatSea.com/SCARED to claim your fan code in order to register and join us November 3rd-7th, 2025!!! Merch and more: www.badmagicproductions.com Timesuck Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v Want to j...
Feb 17, 2025•3 hr 45 min
Happy Valentine's Day! Let's talk about love. Kind of. But not really. Not all actually. Let's instead, talk about how and why we humans have castrated each other and ourselves throughout human history. This one's not for the squeamish. But, I also can't remember laughing this often in any other recent episode! For Merch and everything else Bad Magic related, head to: https://www.badmagicproductions.com
Feb 14, 2025•46 min
Have you heard of Hiroo Onoda? The Japanese 2nd Lieutenant was sent to the island of Lubang in The Philippines at the end of 1944. And he kept fighting for Imperial Japan for the next 28+ years, hiding out in the jungle, occasionally running raids on local villagers, shooting and killing random people he thought were enemy combatants, and refusing to believe that the war had ended back in 1945. Visit CrimeWaveatSea.com/SCARED to claim your fan code in order to register and join us November 3rd-7...
Feb 10, 2025•3 hr 43 min
On the night of May 3rd, 2007, three year-old British girl Madeleine vanished from her bed in her parents villa at a Portuguese vacation resort. What follows will be what The Daily Telegraph will describe as "the most heavily reported missing-person case in modern history." Listen to find out why. Visit CrimeWaveatSea.com/SCARED to claim your fan code in order to register and join us November 3rd-7th, 2025!!! Merch and more: www.badmagicproductions.com Timesuck Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89...
Feb 03, 2025•3 hr 30 min
Comedian, actor, author, and producer Bill Cosby... affectionately nicknamed as "America's Dad" for his portrayal of Dr. Cliff Huxtable on the hit, iconic sitcom, The Cosby Show, has now been accused by over sixty women of rape, drug-facilitated sexual assault, sexual battery, child sexual abuse, and/or sexual harassment. The assaults allegedly began in the mid-1960s, but never got much publicity until 2014. Why? Merch and more: www.badmagicproductions.com Timesuck Discord! https://discord.gg/tq...
Jan 27, 2025•3 hr
Can you imagine being stranded for years on a remote uninhabited island with almost nothing but a few simple tools and the clothes on your back? Some people haven't had to imagine this scenario, like Alexander Selkirk, the inspiration for Robinson Crusoe, and Fernão Lopes, who would actually live alone for a total of several decades on the remote Atlantic island of St. Helena. Could you survive like they did? For Merch and everything else Bad Magic related, head to: https://www.badmagicproductio...
Jan 24, 2025•52 min
Was aspiring investigative journalist Danny Casolaro murdered in his Sheraton hotel room in Martinsburg, West Virginia on August 10th, 1991 because he was very close to exposing a conspiracy involving CIA, DOJ, and Whitehouse players involved in numerous murderous, illegal arms deals, espionage and more as truth? Are there shadowy power players in the highest ranking levels of government who won't hesitate to have anyone who threatens to expose their nefarious wheelings and dealings killed? Merc...
Jan 20, 2025•3 hr 37 min
Peter Sutcliffe, dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper in the press, attacked woman after woman with a hammer and a knife (and sometimes also a screwdriver), primarily in West Yorkshire, England, from 1969 to 1980. Murdering 13 women between 1975 and 1980, he left many other women alive but badly battered and traumatized. The search to find one of England's most heinous serial killers became the largest manhunt in British history. And I share the whole crazy story today. Merch and more: www.badmagicproduc...
Jan 13, 2025•2 hr 29 min
A look at how we humans have chosen to incarcerate those who break the rules and how certain rule breakers have busted out of incarceration over the years. Life rafts, helicopters, sexing up prison employees and more! For Merch and everything else Bad Magic related, head to: https://www.badmagicproductions.com
Jan 10, 2025•59 min
Do you ever think about where your poo goes once you flush it down the toilet? Or about how not having access to toilets... or the sewer systems beneath them... would dramatically (and negatively) impact your life? Today, we cover the history of how we humans have dealt with our (literal) shit. Another reminder of how life in the present is so, so, SO much better than life in the past. Merch and more: www.badmagicproductions.com Timesuck Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v Want to join the Cult ...
Jan 06, 2025•3 hr 43 min
Time for some year end inspiration from the incomparable Dolly Parton! A true living legend. If all you think about when you think of Dolly is big hair, bigger boobs, and some catchy songs, I hope you give this one a listen. She is so much more than that. A truly incredible, inspiring soul who has built an incredible life on a foundation of generosity, kindness, and her faith. Merch and more: www.badmagicproductions.com Timesuck Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v Want to join the Cult of the Cu...
Dec 30, 2024•3 hr 35 min
On September 13th, 1848, a dynamite blast rocketed a 43-inch long, 13-pound iron bar completely through the skull of 25-year-old railway worker Phineas Gage. It landed some eighty feet away, covered in Phineas' blood and brains. And after a few minutes, Phineas got up, started talking, walked over to an oxcart, rode it to the hotel where he was staying, sat on the porch and waited to speak with a doctor. Not long after the doctor arrived, he vomited and more of his brain fell out of his head. An...
Dec 27, 2024•50 min
Have you heard about the recent case of Shelby Hewitt? The 32 year-old Massachusetts Social Worker enrolled in two different Boston area public high schools as a sixteen year-old sophomore, and then later enrolled in another Boston area school as a 7th grader, spending nearly a year as a fake teen student before her real identity was uncovered. How??? And more importantly... why??? Merch and more: www.badmagicproductions.com Timesuck Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v Want to join the Cult of t...
Dec 23, 2024•2 hr 55 min
On June 22nd, 1983, 15-year-old Emanuela Orlandi disappeared after attending a music lesson in Rome. Following her disappearance, a mystery surrounding it has deepened for over four decades, involving the KGB trying to assassinate the Pope, an allegation of a satanic sex cults within the Vatican, Catholic prophecies in Portugal, anti-communist revolts in Poland, the Holy See being involved in money laundering, and Italian mob bosses being in cahoots with top Vatican officials. Merch and more: ww...
Dec 16, 2024•2 hr 29 min
What a tale I have for you today! In 1518, a very peculiar form of madness fell over the people of the city of Strasbourg (modern day France) in the Holy Roman Empire. People started... dancing. A lot of people. As in hundreds. And out in public in full view of anyone who wanted to watch! And many of them only stopped when they died. They literally danced themselves to death. What happened and why??? For Merch and everything else Bad Magic related, head to: https://www.badmagicproductions.com...
Dec 13, 2024•53 min
Have you ever heard of serial killer Gerald Stano? For years, he sat on death row in Florida, just a few cells down from Ted Bundy. He's also believed my most sources to have killed more girls and young women than Bundy did. So why is this monster, whose first six months of his life were so brutal he was deemed "unadoptable" by the government agency that removed him from his mother's care, almost entirely unknown in the world of true crime? Merch and more: www.badmagicproductions.com Timesuck Di...
Dec 09, 2024•2 hr 24 min
