
240 - Anonymous and the World of Hackers
“We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us.” Anonymous - the hacking collective that for many put hacking on the map. Since 2007, Anonymous has hacked just about everyone: the CIA, NSA, the Federal Reserve, other governmental agency websites around the world, the KKK, the Church of Scientology as well. They've released millions of classified documents. They've disrupted business for multimillion-dollar corporations. Why do they do all this? Looking into that today. Also digging in the history of hacking and the culture of hacking they come from. Also looking into some other hacker organizations and some massive hacks they've pulled off, like hacking into ATM networks and deciding when and how much cash an ATM will kick out. The group that did that has stolen over 1.2 billion dollars to date. Hope you learn a lot with this one today. Get ready for lots of techno music and tons of cyber facts. Hail Nimrod! Thanks for helping Bad Magic Productions donate $13,300 this month to The Saint Bernard Project. The SBP will be helping those in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana as they continue to work on their recovery from winter storm Uri. To find out more, go to https://sbpusa.org/ Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/E_mYxxRosHc Thanks to Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio for the hacker sound bed "80s Retrowave Music - Hackers" Merch - https://badmagicmerch.com/ Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v Want to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever current page hasn't been put in FB Jail :) For all merch related questions/problems: store@badmagicproductions.com (copy and paste) Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcast Wanna become a Space Lizard? We're over 10,000 strong! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcast Sign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits.
19 Huhti 20212h 9min

239 - El Chapo, the Sinaloa Cartel, and the War on Drugs
What a wild one we have today. I set out, fascinated by his two escapes from prison, to only explore cartel leader El Chapo. And then I got sucked into the history of the War on Drugs. And what a crazy history it is. Saying drugs are bad and that's why they're illegal is to vastly oversimplify US drug policy. Does the War on Drugs make any sense at all to fight? Can it actually be won? Does it actually make things much, much worse and create a lot of additional crime? Even if you don't agree with me, I hope you find today's episode interesting and thought-provoking. Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera certainly led an interesting life. Thanks for helping Bad Magic Productions donate at least $12,500 this month to The Saint Bernard Project. The SBP will be helping those in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana as they continue to work on their recovery from winter storm Uri. To find out more, go to https://sbpusa.org/ Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/i0WzJDeSE1c Merch - https://badmagicmerch.com/ Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v Want to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever current page hasn't been put in FB Jail :) For all merch related questions/problems: store@badmagicproductions.com (copy and paste) Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcast Wanna become a Space Lizard? We're over 10,000 strong! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcast Sign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits.
12 Huhti 20212h 6min

238 - Mao Zedong: Father of Communist China and Worst Mass Murderer of All Time?
Mao Zedong's name is associated with one of the heinous totalitarian regimes of the 20th century - if not one of the most heinous regimes in the history of the world. Due to famines brought about directly by his brutal policies and political "purges" he authorized, roughly 45 million Chinese citizens died. Possibly tens of millions more. Chairman Mao is responsible for more noncombatant deaths than Hitler and Stalin combined. So doesn't that make him the worst mass murderer of all time? We take a look at China in today's big episode - it's history, it's culture, and how the communist came to power in the wake of WW2 with the son of a farmer as their leader. We explore Mao's life and the rise of communism in what was long an imperial nation, in today's true crime, why didn't he brush his death, yes he really tried to have all the sparrows killed, insane, tyrannical edition of Timesuck. Thanks for helping Bad Magic Productions donate at least $12,500 this month to The Saint Bernard Project. The SBP will be helping those in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana as they continue to work on their recovery from winter storm Uri. To find out more, go to https://sbpusa.org/ Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/DfBh-Q7_hfM Merch - https://badmagicmerch.com/ Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v Want to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever current page hasn't been put in FB Jail :) For all merch related questions/problems: store@badmagicproductions.com (copy and paste) Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcast Wanna become a Space Lizard? We're over 10,000 strong! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcast Sign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits.
5 Huhti 20212h 42min

237 - The Pig Farmer Killer: Canada's Filthy Robert Pickton
Robert Pickton was born in 1949 just outside of Vancouver, CA, in Port Coquitlam, on a pig farm. His parents were Helen and Leonard Pickton, two insanely filthy human beings who couldn’t have cared less about clean clothes or a house that wasn’t full of animal shit or even about bathing their children, Robert, his sister Linda, and his brother, Dave. Robert would live on the family farm his entire life before going to prison for the murder of six women. Police had evidence that he killed at least another twenty, but it was unnecessary to also try him for those crimes. Pickton killed these women and then butchered their bodies, feeding some of their remains to his pigs, and possibly feeding some of their remains to local Vancouverites as well. Today's story is such a strange one. It involves the Hells Angels, a place called the Piggy Palace Good Times Society, and so, so, so much filth. Hope you enjoy getting dirty with this Suck. Thanks for helping Bad Magic Productions give $12,500 this month to the USC Shoah Foundation. Click the link to learn more: https://sfi.usc.edu/ Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/tuQb44fh0T8 Merch - https://badmagicmerch.com/ Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v Want to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever current page hasn't been put in FB Jail :) For all merch related questions/problems: store@badmagicproductions.com (copy and paste) Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcast Wanna become a Space Lizard? We're over 10,000 strong! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcast Sign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits.
29 Maalis 20212h 15min

236 - The Yosemite Killer and the Abduction of Steven Stayner
We got a wild one today. Today's Suck is really three Sucks in one. There is the abduction of Steven Stayner, the backstory of a notorious pedophile, Kenneth Parnell, and the story of serial killer, Cary Stayner aka the Yosemite Killer. In late 1972, Steven was abducted on the way home from school, at the age of seven, and he wouldn't see his family for another seven years. And that entire seven years, he'd be assaulted by Parnell. And then, after escaping, he'd move back into the room he shared with his older brother, Cary. And years later, Cary Stayner would become a serial killer in Yosemite Park, where the Stayner kids often vacationed. A lot of moving parts in this story, and I think they all come together to form a compelling tale that also involves Bigfoot. Seriously. Thanks for helping Bad Magic Productions give $12,500 this month to the USC Shoah Foundation. Click the link to learn more: https://sfi.usc.edu/ Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/OGPK_BKuMBc Merch - https://badmagicmerch.com/ Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v Want to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever current page hasn't been put in FB Jail :) For all merch related questions/problems: store@badmagicproductions.com (copy and paste) Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcast Wanna become a Space Lizard? We're over 10,000 strong! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcast Sign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits.
22 Maalis 20212h 18min

235 - Ward MF'n Hall
Today we take a huge deviation for the type of topic we typically cover here on Timesuck. The Space Lizards on Patreon vote on two topics a month through the app, and for today, they voted in my grandfather who passed away back on December 23rd. Probably the most influential person in my life. Today, I cover how the Hall family ended up in Idaho which leads to a history of Idaho settlement. My great-great-grandfather was one of the area's first homesteaders. I also share a lot of stories from my childhood, about central Idaho, and of course Papa Ward. I take you on a timeline of this man's wonderful, inspiring life. He meant a Hell of a lot to me and always will, and I think you'll like the tale of his impressive life. Hail Papa Ward :) Thanks for helping Bad Magic Productions give $12,500 this month to the USC Shoah Foundation. Click the link to learn more: https://sfi.usc.edu/ Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ns3yVzMB7Cc Merch - https://badmagicmerch.com/ Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v Want to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever current page hasn't been put in FB Jail :) For all merch related questions/problems: store@badmagicproductions.com (copy and paste) Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcast Wanna become a Space Lizard? We're over 10,000 strong! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcast Sign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits.
15 Maalis 20212h 15min

234 - The Elan School, the Cult of Synanon, and the Troubling Troubled Teen Industry
Founded in 1974 by a man named Joe Ricci, the Elan School was supposed to be someplace where you could send your troubled teen so they could be rehabilitated and put back on the right track. But in reality, it was a cruel and chaotic nightmare where students were constantly being pressured to confess to things they’d done “wrong,” called “guilts,” which often were things as silly and not-wrong as having a crush on someone or smiling too much. At Elan, student was pitted against student in insane psychological mind-games and also pitted against each other physically. And most all of this was perfectly legal. It was considered healthy rehab! And the Elan School wouldn’t close until 2011. Today we use the Elan School as an excuse to explore the rise of the troubled teen industry in the US and how it all sprung out of a cult called Synanon. We also explore how the notion of childhood and parenting has been constantly changing for centuries in an attempt to rationalize why anyone would send their kid to the living Hell of a place like Synanon. Thanks for helping Bad Magic Productions give $12,500 this month to the USC Shoah Foundation. Click the link to learn more: https://sfi.usc.edu/ Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ha4MAnii1Yo Merch - https://badmagicmerch.com/ Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v Want to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever current page hasn't been put in FB Jail :) For all merch related questions/problems: store@badmagicproductions.com (copy and paste) Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcast Wanna become a Space Lizard? We're over 10,000 strong! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcast Sign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits.
8 Maalis 20212h 24min

233 - Blackwater and the US Private Military Industry
Blackwater. Now known as Academi. Once known as Xe Services. A private military company. One of many PMCs very active in Iraq and Afghanistan in the first decade of this century. One of many employers of "security contractors" contracted by the Department of Defense, or State Department, or the CIA to work alongside - or sometimes in place of - active military personnel in war zones around the world. What, exactly, do companies like Blackwater do? Is it a good or bad idea to privatize the military? Are PMCs a new thing? When did they become part of the military-industrial complex? We explore these questions and more and also dig into the life of Erik Prince and his family. Erik launched Blackwater, and he and his family seem to be just as controversial as the PMC he ran. A LOT to unpack here today. Hope you find it as interesting as I do. Thanks for helping Bad Magic Productions give $12,500 this month to the USC Shoah Foundation. Click the link to learn more: https://sfi.usc.edu/ Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/etGJgW9ekTU Merch - https://badmagicmerch.com/ Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v Want to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever current page hasn't been put in FB Jail :) For all merch related questions/problems: store@badmagicproductions.com (copy and paste) Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcast Wanna become a Space Lizard? We're over 10,000 strong! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcast Sign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits.
1 Maalis 20212h 23min