About this podcast
Canada is boring? Nope. Canada is unhinged.
Hosted by Rhys, a new Canadian with an outsider’s obsession for the country’s strangest stories, and Jesse, a proudly disengaged average Canadian, the show digs into the weirdest moments in Canadian history, politics, crime, culture, and folklore.
Part history show, part comedy podcast, part national identity crisis, Canada Is Boring is for anyone who likes their learning with jokes, their politics with chaos, and their Canadian facts deeply, deeply strange. The show has built a loyal audience by making Canadian stories feel surprising, accessible, and genuinely entertaining, earning recognition as Canada’s No. 1 Politics Podcast on Goodpods, breaking into the Top 5 Podcasts in Canada on Apple Podcasts, hitting No. 1 Trending on Spotify Canada, and reaching No. 3 in Canada for Comedy.
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Episodes
The newest 50 of 519 episodes
- Data Center Mania · 48 min · Episode 542Why are so many data centers being proposed across Canada and what do local communities get in return? Rhys Waters and Jesse Harley dig into the debate over data centers, AI’s…
- Newfoundland’s Political “S%#t-Knocking” (Premium) · 10 min · Episode 541Rhys 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…
- Just Press Play · 25 minSomewhere 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…
- The Dagg Poltergeist · 56 min · Episode 540A 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…
- Introducing: The Bambi Trap · 1 minComing 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…
- Spirits, Scams & Stolen Oats · 54 min · Episode 539For 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…
- The Man Who Stole 1,300+ Canadian Artifacts · 31 min · Episode 538In 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…
- The Parkdale Murder Mystery Part 2 · 57 min · Episode 537A mysterious Toronto murder, a disputed confession, and a trial that captivated the city, welcome back to Canada Is Boring for part two of the Parkdale murder mystery. In 1894…
- The Parkdale Murder Mystery - Part 1 · 48 min · Episode 536On October 6, 1894, 18-year-old Frank Westwood answered the door of his family's Toronto mansion, Lakeside Hall in Parkdale. Someone standing outside shot him through the gap…
- He Drove a Jet Boat Off a 40-Foot Waterfall · 35 min · Episode 535Canadian stuntman Dusty Friesen didn't just drive his jet boat off a 40-foot waterfall, he spent over a year researching whether it was legal first. Which is possibly the most…
- The Intergalactic Politics of Count Binface (Premium) · 13 min · Episode 534Rhys and Jesse dive into the surreal and surprisingly inspiring story of Count Binface, the intergalactic space warrior with a bin for a head who keeps showing up on UK ballot…
- How a Tiny Canadian Community Took on a Drug Dealer · 50 min · Episode 533In this episode of Canada Is Boring, Rhys Waters and Jesse “Two Cups” Harley dive into the wild true story of Grand Manan Island, a tiny community in New Brunswick, Canada, that…
- Eccentric Millionaire’s Bizarre Baby Contest in Depression-Era Canada · 52 min · Episode 532Eccentric Millionaire’s Bizarre Baby Contest in Depression-Era Canada In this episode of Canada Is Boring, Rhys Waters and Jesse Harley dive into the unbelievable true story of…
- Bigfoot on Trial · 38 min · Episode 531In this final episode of the Tinfoil Tuque series, Rhys and Jesse dive into the bizarre true story of Todd Standing, a filmmaker and wilderness guide from Alberta who actually…
- Thetis Lake Monster · 28 min · Episode 530In this episode, Rhys and Jesse dive into the soggy saga of the so‑called Thetis Lake Monster—a five-foot fish-man allegedly terrorizing teens near Victoria in the 1970s. From…
- The Eastern Cougar: Extinct Cat or Government Cover‑Up? · 32 min · Episode 529Rhys and Jesse dive into the mystery of the “extinct” Eastern Cougar in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick—sharing sightings, sketchy government responses, dubious DNA tests, and why…
- Project Magnet: Canada’s Secret UFO Program · 34 min · Episode 528In this episode of Canada Is Boring: The Tinfoil Touque, Rhys Waters and Jesse dive into Project Magnet, Canada’s secretly funded UFO research program from the 1950s, led by…
- The TikTok Giant · 45 min · Episode 527In this episode of Tinfoil Touque from Canada Is Boring, Rhys and Jesse dive into the viral case of Andrew Dawson, the TikToker who claimed to film a giant on a BC…
- Cattle Mutilations: Aliens, Cults, or Maggots? · 30 min · Episode 526Are aliens surgically mutilating cattle across the Canadian prairies… or is there a far more grounded (and grosser) explanation? In this episode of Tinfoil Touque, Rhys Waters…
- Burned by a UFO? The Falcon Lake Incident · 48 min · Episode 525In 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…
- The Time-Travel Hipster · 34 min · Episode 524In 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…
- Kelly the Bear (PREMIUM) · 5 min · Episode 523In 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…
- Introducing the Tin Foil Touque! · 1 minPicture 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…
- The One-Eyed Welshman Who Mapped Canada · 51 min · Episode 522In 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…
- A Gentle Crime: The Man Who Fed the Cats · 30 min · Episode 521When 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…
- Shrinking PP · 47 min · Episode 520In this episode of Canada Is Boring, Rhys and Jesse wade back into Canadian politics to unpack Pierre Poilievre’s slow slide from “inevitable” prime minister-in-waiting to a guy…
- The Psychic Scam King · 41 min · Episode 519In this episode of Canada Is Boring, Rhys and Jesse dive into the bizarre, lucrative world of psychic mail-order scams led by one of Canada’s most successful fraudsters, Patrice…
- CSIS, Oil, and the Pipeline Protestors (Premium) · 5 min · Episode 518In this special friends–only episode of Canada Is Boring, Rhys and Jesse dig into the story of how CSIS, Canada’s spy agency, allegedly spied on Indigenous and environmental…
- Bear-Proof Dreams: The Legend of Troy Hurtubise · 46 min · Episode 517Rhys and Jesse dive into the legendary Canadian documentary Project Grizzly and the life of its unforgettable star, Troy Hurtubise—the man who spent years and thousands of…
- Red Ryan: Canada’s Fake Reformed Gangster · 38 min · Episode 516Rhys and Jesse dive into the wild life of Red Ryan, a Toronto-born hooligan who grew into one of Canada’s most notorious early 20th‑century criminals. From leading street gangs…
- Our 2026 Show Trailer · 1 minHosted by Rhys, a new Canadian with an outsider’s obsession for the country’s strangest stories, and Jesse, a proudly disengaged average Canadian, the show digs into the weirdest…
- From Olympic Snowboarder to Cartel Kingpin · 38 min · Episode 515A Canadian Olympic hopeful walks away from the slopes and into the heart of a violent international drug cartel. Rhys and Jesse trace Ryan James Wedlake’s path from Thunder Bay…
- Toronto's Mystery Tunneller · 38 min · Episode 514Rhys and Jesse dig into the bizarre true story of Toronto’s 2015 “mystery tunnel” near York University. What started as a three‑metre‑deep, hand‑dug hideout with plywood…
- Toronto's Dead Raccoon Vigil · 38 min · Episode 513Rhys and Jesse return to with one of the most delightfully absurd Canadian stories ever told: the 2015 Yonge Street dead raccoon memorial. What begins as a sad little scene on a…
- From Brexit to Alberta: How The Fringe Goes Mainstream · 25 min · Episode 512When Jesse falls ill, Rhys steps in for a rare solo episode to issue a warning from lived experience. Drawing on his time in Wales during the 2016 Brexit referendum, Rhys…
- The Great Locust Apocalypse of 1874 · 10 min · Episode 511In this Patreon-only episode of Canada Is Boring, Rhys and Jesse dive into the truly biblical 1874–75 Rocky Mountain locust plague that turned the Prairies and parts of the US…
- The Sexiest Man in Winnipeg · 43 min · Episode 510In this episode of Canada Is Boring, Rhys and Jesse dive into the bizarre true story behind Amazon Prime’s The Sexiest Man in Winnipeg, following former Winnipeg TV news anchor…
- The Hollowing of Tim Hortons (Part 2) · 56 min · Episode 509In this part two of the Tim Hortons saga, Jesse Harley and Rhys Waters dig into how predatory private equity and corporate ownership have hollowed out one of Canada’s most…
- The Hollowing of Tim Hortons (Part 1) · 51 min · Episode 508Rhys and Jesse kick off a two‑part deep dive into how Tim Hortons went from a beloved Canadian community hub to something that feels strangely empty. They start with personal…
- Failed Theme Parks and Hostage Negotiations · 40 min · Episode 507In this episode of Canada Is Boring, Rhys shares the unbelievable true story of Eddie Haymour, a Lebanese-Canadian businessman who tried to build a Middle Eastern–themed mini…
- He Fought a Polar Bear in His Pajamas · 24 min · Episode 506When a 69-year-old Churchill, Manitoba resident hears screams outside his home, he steps out in pajamas, slippers, and armed with nothing but a snow shovel—only to find a woman…
- Canada’s 200 Years of Slavery · 39 min · Episode 504In this unexpectedly heavy episode of Canada Is Boring, Rhys and Jesse dig into a part of Canadian history many people never hear about: Canada’s 200‑year relationship with…
- The Man Who Remembered Everything · 43 min · Episode 504The story of John Graham, a Canadian diplomat in 1960s Cuba who became an unlikely spy during the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Because the United States had no embassy…
- Shatterproof Logic · 23 min · Episode 503In this episode of Canada Is Boring, we dive into the bizarre and morbidly iconic death of Toronto lawyer Gary Hoy, a man so confident in shatterproof glass that he used his own…
- The Secret Adventures of Emma Edmonds · 45 min · Episode 502Rhys and Jesse dive into the unbelievable true story of Emma Edmonds, a New Brunswick woman who fled an arranged marriage, reinvented herself as Frank Thompson, and fought for…
- Hockey Night, Hostage Night · 36 min · Episode 501Brian Spencer grew up in remote Fort St. James, pushed toward the NHL by a hard working, hyper-intense sports dad who saw hockey as a path to opportunity. On the night of Brian’s…
- Five Hundred Episodes (A Listener Takeover) · 21 min · Episode 500After 499 episodes proving that Canada is anything but boring, we’ve reached Episode 500, and we’re handing the microphone to the people who made it possible. This special…
- Lady Macdonald: Extreme Train Rider · 43 min · Episode 499In 1886, Canada’s first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, finally set out to see the country he had helped stitch together by rail. The Canadian Pacific Railway had just…
- Ottawa's Evil Christmas Elves · 38 min · Episode 498When a beloved Canada Post program lets kids write letters to Santa, what could possibly go wrong? In 2007, Ottawa families found out the hard way. Rhys and Jesse dive into the…
- The Universal Ostrych Affair · 41 min · Episode 497Join hosts Rhys and Jesse as they dive into one of Canada’s wildest headlines: the ostrich farm saga! When bird flu hits a BC farm, government agencies, courts, and a whirlwind…
