Canada is Boring

In this episode of The Tinfoil Tuque, Rhys and Jesse dive into one of Canada’s most famous UFO cases: the Falcon Lake incident.Was Polish immigrant and amateur prospector Stefan Michalak really burned by a UFO in 1967—or was it a bizarre self‑inflicted hoax?Along the way they rant about conspiracy theories, flat‑Earthers, media bias, cops, and how the internet turned every would‑be investigative journalist into an online conspiracy-hunter. They also talk about the legacy of the case, from government investigations to a literal glow‑in‑the‑dark Canadian coin, and finish off in the Small Talk Dimension with vacation chaos in the Alps and smoked cocktails.

In this debut episode of Canada Is Boring Presents: The Tinfoil Touque, Rhys and Jesse dig into one of Canada’s most famous “evidence of time travel” photos: a 1941 crowd scene at a bridge reopening in British Columbia featuring a mysterious man in wraparound shades, a logo sweater, and what looks like a modern camera.Was he really a time traveler… or just a fashion-forward hockey fan with a new Kodak? The pair break down how this single image went viral in the 2010s, why people are so eager to see the fantastical instead of the obvious, and how gravity makes “unsexy” time travel (a.k.a. time dilation) very real.Along the way, they riff on aging and fashion, internet conspiracy culture, superhero flame wars on Reddit, and Rhys’s new favourite church-parking-lot ice cream stand, Holy Cones.Stay to the end for a tease of next week’s story: the Falcon Lake incident, a classic Canadian close encounter of the second kind.

In this premium “special friends” episode of Canada Is Boring, Rhys shares a surprisingly heartwarming Disney-level story from his own Nova Scotia neighborhood: a mother black bear and her two cubs, one of which, soon christened Kelly the Bear, ends up roaming alone through suburbia and ultimately being “relocated” to a wildlife park.Rhys also announces their upcoming summer mini-series, “Tin Foil Touque” a run of conspiracy- and paranormal-themed episodes featuring UFOs, frogmen in lakes, radiation burns from glowing aircraft, and even a real-life legal battle involving Bigfoot.

Picture this: it’s too hot to think, the news is depressing, and your brain wants something fun and strange that still feels entertianing. That’s Tin Foil Touque.This summer series is Rhys and Jesse taking a detour from “respectable” Canadian history into all the stuff your high school textbook pretended didn’t exist.It’s not the usual “9/11 was an inside job” sludge or hour-long Illuminati diagrams. It’s the fun side of paranoia, a weird Canadian summer of conspiracies, cryptids, and campfire stories you probably shouldn’t believe… but definitely should hear.

In this episode of Canada Is Boring, Rhys and Jesse dive into the life of David Thompson, the Welsh-born orphan who became one of the most important mapmakers in North American history. Along the way, they detour through tales of the Lake Louise Tea House, roast the bizarre social-media energy of Justin Trudeau and Katy Perry, and debate whether Thompson was more cat or rat on the Katy-cat/Katy-rat spectrum.You’ll hear how Thompson:Went from a charity school in Westminster to an apprentice with the Hudson’s Bay CompanyBroke his leg, wrecked his eyesight, and still became a master surveyorQuit HBC when they tried to pull him off mapping and walked 130 km through a snowstorm to join the North West CompanyHelped define key sections of the Canada–US border and mapped huge swaths of the West, including the Saskatchewan River system, the Rockies, and the Columbia RiverBuilt a long, complicated life with his Cree-Métis wife Charlotte, traveling and mapping as a teamPlus: a small-talk detour featuring awkward chats with other people’s kids, Kenny vs. Spenny live, and aging sketch comics still acting like teenagers.

When 33-year-old Christopher Hiscox ran out of money halfway across Canada, he didn’t rob a bank—he stole a truck, found a ranch, fed the cats and horses, did some laundry, made coffee, and settled in like he lived there. Rhys and Jesse dive into the viral “gentle crime” that captured headlines, what it says about desperation, comfort, and mental health, and why the weirdest part might just be the toothbrush.