Show Notes
Mary Kay Ash turned a $5,000 investment into a cosmetics empire that promised generations of women financial independence, recognition, and—if they climbed high enough—that famous pink Cadillac. But.... behind the makeup parties and “girl power” sales pitch, DID Mary Kay create a revolutionary path to female empowerment? Or did she prey on her own sales force and help perfect the highly manipulative and exploitative multi-level marketing machine that would leave countless aspiring entrepreneurs buried in unsold inventory and broken promises?
More from Timesuck with Dan Cummins
Lou Pearlman helped launch two of the biggest boy bands of the 1990s, the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC, while secretly building a massive empire of lies, exploitation, and financial fraud. This story is crazy. From his bizarre obsession with blimps to his outrageous spending, allegations of sexual misconduct, and a Ponzi scheme that literally stole hundreds of millions of dollars, discover how one of pop music’s most influential kingmakers became one of world's biggest con men.
As the Atlanta Child Murders continue, investigators finally begin uncovering physical evidence that could lead them to the person responsible—and a mysterious splash beneath a bridge puts a young Atlanta man named directly in their sights. But will he ultimately prove to be the monster who had been hunting Atlanta’s children, or will his arrest leave some of the case’s biggest questions unanswered?
Just last week, on September 30th, 2026, Tennessee tried to execute convicted murderer Christa Pike—twice—and somehow, she survived. This Short Suck, before deciding whether Pike deserves sympathy for what happened inside that execution chamber, we’re going back to 1995 to examine the extraordinarily brutal murder of nineteen-year-old Colleen Slemmer that put her there.
Between 1979 and 1981, thirty Black children, teenagers, and young adults all disappeared from the streets of Atlanta, triggering one of the largest and most terrifying serial murder investigations in American history. Sadly, nearly everyone who had went missing would be found, but not found alive. In this first of two episodes, we explore the killings that shocked not just the city of Atlanta, but the nation.
Anthony Bourdain went from a heroin-addicted line cook bouncing between chaotic New York kitchens to a bestselling author and beloved world traveler who changed the way millions of people thought about food, culture, and the people who connect the two. Today, we explore the wild, restless life of a man who seemed hungry for everything—adventure, knowledge, danger, love, connection, and whatever might be waiting around the next corner—and the complicated final years that ended with his shocking death.