Buckle up, because this episode is what happens when Back to the Future gets filmed behind a Missouri trailer with a stolen transformer and absolutely zero adult supervision.

In this week’s Conspiracy of Two, Ryan drags Nick into the electrified fever dream of Mike “Madman” Markum—the redneck backyard genius (or backyard menace) who allegedly built a time machine out of coat hangers, scrap metal, and enough voltage to make OSHA faint. Forget MIT. Forget CERN. This man said, “What if I just crank it?” and then actually did.

What starts as a humble Jacob’s Ladder experiment turns into energy vortices, couches vanishing into thin air, hamsters achieving interdimensional travel, and police wondering why the power grid in Missouri suddenly looks like it’s being siphoned by Doc Brown’s drunk cousin. Then comes the jail time. Then comes Art Bell. Then comes the claim that Markum stepped into the vortex… and something stepped back out.

Nick and Ryan unpack it all the only way they know how: bourbon in hand, side-eye locked in, and absolutely no respect for basic electrical safety. We get into:

• The “science” (heavy air quotes) behind the machine
• Coast to Coast AM fame and late-night radio chaos
• The teleportation tests that may or may not have fried the couch
• And the ultimate question: did Madman Markum crack time travel… or just crack?

Somewhere between whiskey reviews, Yeti inventory checks, and calling Missouri’s power company the real victim here, the brothers accidentally invent a new business model: redneck junk removal via space-time portal.

Was Markum a misunderstood genius? A charismatic bullsh*t artist? Or just the only man alive bold enough to look at a humming vortex of death and say, “Bet.”

Grab your Busch Light, your Marlboro Reds, and maybe unplug your garage before listening.

Bottom line: it’s less “theoretical physics” and more “hold my beer and watch this”—a booze-soaked tale where two slightly buzzed uncles try to explain quantum mechanics, Missouri electrical theft, and a man who might’ve ripped a hole in time… all without spilling their drinks.

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