Canada is Boring

Rhys and Jesse explore the larger-than-life rivalry between Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams and St. John’s mayor Andy Wells, from their heated 1990s feud to Williams later appointing Wells to a provincial regulatory role. Along the way, they discuss Williams’s battles with Ottawa, his controversial political tactics, and the unlikely respect between two outspoken figures.

Somewhere in the depths of the internet, a secretive collection of audio files promises something extraordinary: the ability to rewrite who you are. They call it Bambi Sleep.For some, it's fantasy. For others, an escape. But for those who venture deeper, the lines between pleasure, identity and control can begin to disappear. Who created these mysterious recordings? What happens to the people who surrender themselves to them? And why do some claim they can never truly escape?In this first episode, we investigate the online Bambi Sleep community through personal accounts and expert perspectives. Listeners and contributors describe a range of experiences from relaxation, confidence, and consensual roleplay to concerns about pressure, dependency, lost time, and changes in their relationships or concentration.The episode also follows LS, whose two-week listening challenge gradually became a daily habit, and considers the broader questions around escapism, consent, identity, and online influence. It does not offer a simple verdict: it asks how to take reported harms seriously without reducing an unfamiliar community to a sensational story.SUBSCRIBE HEREFeatured expert voices:Amy R. Marsh, EdD, Author/Writer, Sexologist, HypnotistGiles Crouch, Digital and Cultural AnthropologistListener Support & ResourcesThe Bambi Trap explores sensitive subjects including psychological manipulation, sexual coercion, consent, identity and emotional distress. If you have experienced unwanted psychological influence, coercive behaviour, sexual exploitation or distress related to online communities, support is available.You do not need to identify your experience as abuse or establish that a crime occurred to seek advice or support.Canada: 211.ca | Crisis support: Call or text 988United States: RAINN.org | 800-656-4673 | Crisis support: 988United Kingdom: Samaritans.org | 116 123 | Sexual abuse support: 0808 500 2222 (England & Wales)Australia: 1800RESPECT.org.au | 1800 737 732New Zealand: SafeToTalk.nz | 0800 044 334If you are experiencing persistent anxiety, confusion, dissociation, memory difficulties or distress, consider speaking with a qualified mental health professional.If you are in immediate danger, contact your local emergency services.The Bambi Trap and its producers are independent of the organizations listed above.

A haunted farmhouse, flying furniture, mysterious fires, missing butter—and a ghost with a potty mouth. In this Halloween episode of Canada Is Boring, Rhys Waters and Jesse investigate the Dagg Poltergeist, an unsettling 1889 ghost story from Pontiac County, Quebec.The Dagg family’s reported paranormal activity escalates from strange disturbances to a voice claiming to be the devil. Artist Percy Woodcock visits the farmhouse to investigate, while the spirit changes its story and, eventually, promises to leave. What did the witnesses say they saw, and what might explain this Canadian haunting?Rhys and Jesse also talk ghost stories, poltergeists, paranormal theories, folklore, and cultural beliefs about spirits, before switching gears to DIY tables and Jesse’s AI-assisted experiment with scammers.

Coming soon! Rhys has a new project! Subscribe here.Somewhere in the depths of the internet, a secretive collection of audio files promises something extraordinary: the ability to rewrite who you are. They call it Bambi Sleep.For some, it's fantasy. For others, an escape. But for those who venture deeper, the lines between pleasure, identity and control can begin to disappear. Who created these mysterious recordings? What happens to the people who surrender themselves to them? And why do some claim they can never truly escape?In this five-part investigative documentary, Host Rhys Waters follows a trail of anonymous creators, devoted listeners, disturbing testimonies and extraordinary claims into a world where reality and suggestion become difficult to separate. What begins as an investigation into an obscure internet phenomenon soon raises unsettling questions about consent, manipulation and the power of the human mind.Is Bambi Sleep an elaborate fantasy, a dangerous experiment in psychological control, or something we don't yet have the language to understand?There's only one way to find out. Put on your headphones. And listen.

For Halloween, we head to Huron County, Ontario, to tell the story of Margaret “Maggie” Pollock, a local woman who said she could communicate with spirits and help people find lost things. In 1919, after a man asked her to locate missing oats, Pollock was charged under a Canadian law against fortune-telling and pretending to use occult powers—a law that remained on the books until 2018.Along the way, we discuss whether we believe in ghosts, what makes a horror movie scary, and why audiences connect with characters’ reactions as much as the monsters on screen. Plus: spooky-season banter, a Halloween movie chat, and a teaser for next episode’s poltergeist story.

In this episode of Canada Is Boring, Rhys Waters and Jesse uncover the strange true story of John Mark Tillman, an affluent Fall River, Nova Scotia man who stole historical artifacts from universities, museums, libraries, and private collections across Atlantic Canada.The case came to light after an RCMP officer spotted a rare 1758 letter by General James Wolfe in Tillman’s car. A search of his home revealed a remarkable collection of stolen Canadian artifacts—including rare manuscripts, historical books, artwork, and a first-edition copy of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. The hosts discuss how Tillman’s brazen, opportunistic thefts went undetected for years, the impact on the institutions he targeted, and the troubling details of his criminal history and Nazi memorabilia.Plus, Rhys and Jesse answer listener messages and share a fact check.