Cussler Hustlers

Two strangers, American and Canadian, go through EVERY Clive Cussler novel, from a (hopefully) modern progressive viewpoint. They also get off on tangents and talk about BETTER books, but there’s so much to love with these nerdy macho time capsules.

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Episodes

Sunday Oct 12, 2025

Grab your Soup Helmets, everyone, and buckle in for some high-flying, robot-zapping, Toshie-squeezing high-octane excitement! Bombs go off, but nothing gets damaged. Dirk dogfights the Japanese military, but no-one gets hurt. And finally, the villainous villains at the heart of our story drop the hammer and NUKE AMERICA... destroying one farmer and his horse. Honestly, it's probably a good thing Dirk gets to go back underwater at the end here. He's a little out of his depth. 
Twitter: ⁠https://www.twitter.com/CusslerHustlers⁠Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/CusslerHustlers⁠Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/people/Cussler-Hustlers/100094911757286/Bluesky: ⁠https://bsky.app/profile/cusslerhustlers.bsky.social⁠Mastodon: ⁠https://mastodon.social/@CusslerHustlers⁠Email: ⁠cusslerhustlers@gmail.com⁠

Saturday Sep 27, 2025

The caper has been foiled, people! Everyone has been captured, all of America's plans were for naught, and now Dirk is going to be hunted for sport. But first... Welcome To The Great Kaiten Bake-Off! Your hosts, Topper and Nancy, are here to be your guides through the unnecessarily detailed world of Japanese haute cuisine and supervillain monologues.
Twitter: ⁠https://www.twitter.com/CusslerHustlers⁠Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/CusslerHustlers⁠Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/people/Cussler-Hustlers/100094911757286/Bluesky: ⁠https://bsky.app/profile/cusslerhustlers.bsky.social⁠Mastodon: ⁠https://mastodon.social/@CusslerHustlers⁠Email: ⁠cusslerhustlers@gmail.com⁠

Saturday Sep 13, 2025

We've finally got a caper, people! High-tech hijinks! The US government decides to send the COMPETENT spies into Ajima Island and Project Kaiten (after some... questionable plastic surgery), and our plucky heroes Al and Dirk are press-ganged into being a distraction, something they're uniquely qualified for. Artificial intelligence proves that it's a sound investment. Toshie proves that she's a sound investment. Dirk blows up a bunch of fish with high explosive.
Twitter: ⁠https://www.twitter.com/CusslerHustlers⁠Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/CusslerHustlers⁠Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/people/Cussler-Hustlers/100094911757286/Bluesky: ⁠https://bsky.app/profile/cusslerhustlers.bsky.social⁠Mastodon: ⁠https://mastodon.social/@CusslerHustlers⁠Email: ⁠cusslerhustlers@gmail.com⁠

Saturday Aug 30, 2025

And suddenly... a FAX arrives! Terrible, horrible, no-good very-bad fates await most of the secondary characters in this episode, which I feel is a nice way to cull the chaff and keep Dirk focused! In the middle of it, though, Dirk has to fly to West Germany and relieve a former Nazi tank-driving farmer of his accidental Nazi loot. And maybe a fighter jet. And a painting. Really, it all seems a little convenient. How many more episodes until we get some SICK robot sword-fighting action? Who knows! We sure don't!
Twitter: ⁠https://www.twitter.com/CusslerHustlers⁠Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/CusslerHustlers⁠Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/people/Cussler-Hustlers/100094911757286/Bluesky: ⁠https://bsky.app/profile/cusslerhustlers.bsky.social⁠Mastodon: ⁠https://mastodon.social/@CusslerHustlers⁠Email: ⁠cusslerhustlers@gmail.com⁠

Saturday Aug 16, 2025

Dirk and Al start recruiting their Avengers Super Team. The Pitt family tree expands to include one of the men who helped create the atomic bomb. What's better, sushi or sausage pizza? Who's the real sidepiece, Dirk or Loren? How many classic cars does it take to make every woman on the planet horny? And perhaps most importantly, the final essential piece of the Cussler Formula has finally appeared... Cussler Himself! We hit the brakes on the racism this episode, so we can hit the gas of ACTION!
Twitter: ⁠https://www.twitter.com/CusslerHustlers⁠Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/CusslerHustlers⁠Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/people/Cussler-Hustlers/100094911757286/Bluesky: ⁠https://bsky.app/profile/cusslerhustlers.bsky.social⁠Mastodon: ⁠https://mastodon.social/@CusslerHustlers⁠Email: ⁠cusslerhustlers@gmail.com⁠

Saturday Aug 02, 2025

Longer episode time! Dirk finally allows himself to feel emotion, then decides to make it his whole personality. A woman dares to have a secret, and must be punished accordingly. Japanese far-right ultra-nationalists decide to try American-style diplomacy. Clive predicts the Department of Homeland Security, except in his utopia they're understaffed and underfunded. Also, check out Nancy on Dork Forest with Jackie Kashian this week!
 
Twitter: ⁠https://www.twitter.com/CusslerHustlers⁠Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/CusslerHustlers⁠Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/people/Cussler-Hustlers/100094911757286/Bluesky: ⁠https://bsky.app/profile/cusslerhustlers.bsky.social⁠Mastodon: ⁠https://mastodon.social/@CusslerHustlers⁠Email: ⁠cusslerhustlers@gmail.com⁠

Saturday Jul 19, 2025

Short episode this week, folks! Nancy caught the plague, and following the plot of a Cussler novel was too physically and mentally taxing (we've all been there, right?) Dirk Pitt goes for a leisurely Sunday drive at the bottom of the ocean. Giordino rages at the heavens and rends his clothes asunder. Flandecker eats a cigar. The full might of the US Government manages to figure out which country tried to nuke them (the choices being Japan and Finland). Nancy makes a timely Cab Calloway reference. It's all here!
Twitter: ⁠https://www.twitter.com/CusslerHustlers⁠Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/CusslerHustlers⁠Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/people/Cussler-Hustlers/100094911757286/Bluesky: ⁠https://bsky.app/profile/cusslerhustlers.bsky.social⁠Mastodon: ⁠https://mastodon.social/@CusslerHustlers⁠Email: ⁠cusslerhustlers@gmail.com⁠

Saturday Jul 05, 2025

It's Hot Dirk Summer as we dive into a new book! We dive into the extreme action with not one, but TWO different atomic weapons (though to be fair, only one of them goes off). Submarine disasters? You bet! Secret underwater lairs? And how! Prolonged digressions into the quantum existence of the female protagonist's breasts? I mean, it wouldn't be a Cussler book without it! Dirk faces death with a stoic grin, while Giordino rends his garments and wails at the cosmic unfairness of losing his heterosexual lifemate. 
Twitter: ⁠https://www.twitter.com/CusslerHustlers⁠Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/CusslerHustlers⁠Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/people/Cussler-Hustlers/100094911757286/Bluesky: ⁠https://bsky.app/profile/cusslerhustlers.bsky.social⁠Mastodon: ⁠https://mastodon.social/@CusslerHustlers⁠Email: ⁠cusslerhustlers@gmail.com⁠

Sunday Jun 22, 2025

International Terrorism: It's everywhere you want to be! It's certainly anywhere DIRK goes! Seriously, they should have a global travel warning permanently attached to Dirk Pitt, like he's Vash the Stampede or something. America speedruns the false flag attacks, the migrant caravans, the extrajudicial killings, and the anti-democratic foreign meddling, because that's what heroes do. Oh, and Dirk has creaky old man sex. ¡Qué padre!
Twitter: ⁠https://www.twitter.com/CusslerHustlers⁠Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/CusslerHustlers⁠Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/people/Cussler-Hustlers/100094911757286/Bluesky: ⁠https://bsky.app/profile/cusslerhustlers.bsky.social⁠Mastodon: ⁠https://mastodon.social/@CusslerHustlers⁠Email: ⁠cusslerhustlers@gmail.com⁠
 

Saturday Jun 07, 2025

VIOLENCE! Oh baby, the promise of the premise is finally paying off! Dirk gets blown up by a grenade, but fortunately he was near a filing cabinet, so he's fine. Everybody gets shot, but our heroes are wearing bullet-attracting vests. Rudi gets sent on an important mission, and manages to succeed by being racist. And Ammar... well... I don't think I'm allowed to say what happens to him in this description. It might get the episode banned. Join us, won't you?
Twitter: ⁠https://www.twitter.com/CusslerHustlers⁠Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/CusslerHustlers⁠Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/people/Cussler-Hustlers/100094911757286/Bluesky: ⁠https://bsky.app/profile/cusslerhustlers.bsky.social⁠Mastodon: ⁠https://mastodon.social/@CusslerHustlers⁠Email: ⁠cusslerhustlers@gmail.com⁠
 

Topper Sundquist

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