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.

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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.

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Featured expert voices:

Amy R. Marsh, EdD, Author/Writer, Sexologist, Hypnotist

Giles Crouch, Digital and Cultural Anthropologist

The 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 988

United States: RAINN.org | 800-656-4673 | Crisis support: 988

United Kingdom: Samaritans.org | 116 123 | Sexual abuse support: 0808 500 2222 (England & Wales)

Australia: 1800RESPECT.org.au | 1800 737 732

New Zealand: SafeToTalk.nz | 0800 044 334

If 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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A 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, 18-year-old Frank Westwood was shot and killed, and Clara Ford, a Black woman who made her living as a seamstress, was arrested for the crime. Ford reportedly confessed to detectives, but later claimed her confession was fabricated under hours of police questioning. Her alibi fell apart, the physical evidence was inconclusive, and the case became as much a spectacle about Ford’s race, gender expression, and reputation as it was a search for the truth.

Rhys walks Jesse through Clara Ford’s arrest, the sensational press coverage, the courtroom drama, and the role of a very famous visitor to Toronto: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes. Ford was acquitted by an all-male jury, but did she really shoot Frank Westwood, or did the case turn an unconventional woman into the perfect suspect? The murder remains unresolved, and the truth is still uncertain.

After the murder mystery, step into the Small Talk Dimension for Jesse’s stories from Tuscany, including painting the countryside and discovering an underground garage in a tiny Italian village. Rhys also tells the story of seeing Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond at a Top Gear recording, and helping Tom Cruise when someone in the audience fainted.

Plus, a preview of next week’s episode: a bold, clever gentleman thief with an unusual accomplice.

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On 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 left by the door chain. In part one of this two-part Victorian true crime story on Canada Is Boring, Rhys Waters takes Jesse Harley through the Parkdale Mystery, the Toronto murder that caused a newspaper frenzy in 1890s Canada. Before Frank died of his stomach wound, he described the gunman as a man in dark clothes with a thin mustache. The only name he gave police was Gus Clark, a "stone hooker" his family had chased off their shoreline for digging out shale. We cover the crowded funeral and the chaotic inquest. We meet amateur sleuth W. H. Hornberry, whom the papers mocked as "Parkdale's Sherlock Holmes." We also look at how newspapers begged Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, to solve the case. Then there's the Listowel Horror, the murder of 13-year-old Jessie Keith, which set off rumours that Jack the Ripper had moved to Canada. Part one ends on a cliffhanger: police arrest a surprising new suspect, a 32-year-old woman.

After the story, the Small Talk Dimension Zone covers Jesse's Tuscany wine festival trip, inspired by The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine. Jesse also shares a trick for quitting smoking with ice-cold ginger ale. Rhys helps elderly nuns at Rome's Ciampino airport, and the two trade TIFF celebrity sightings, including Jay Baruchel at the Ken Carter film Stuntman. It closes with Danny Elfman's story of writing the Batman theme in an airplane bathroom. If you like Canadian history, historical true crime, unsolved mysteries and a comedy podcast, subscribe so you don't miss part two.

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Canadian 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 Canadian thing that has ever happened.

On May 25, 2026, Dusty (aka Dusty Dozer) of Dawson Creek, BC took his battered jet boat Dent down the Crowsnest River in southern Alberta and straight over Lundbreck Falls, landing upright in front of a hollering crowd and simply carrying on downstream. He's calling it the highest naturally flowing waterfall ever descended in a jet boat, an unofficial world record, since Guinness doesn't have a category for it. The RCMP and conservation officers investigated. The maximum penalty? A $350 fine for careless operation of a small vessel. There was no warrant, and Dusty says he's just getting started: he wants to jump bigger than Niagara.

Rhys and Jesse break down the jump, the legal loophole, the ocean-cleanup fundraising angle, and why Canadian history deserves better movies. Plus a Small Talk Dimension segment featuring a terrified golden retriever, a noisy roof flap, and the worst rental bike in Montreal.

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Rhys 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 papers. Starting from the obscure 1984 sci‑fi film Hyperspace and the original character Lord Buckethead, they trace how a low‑budget movie villain evolved into a viral political figure who has stood against multiple UK prime ministers and, most recently, Nigel Farage.

Along the way, they unpack the darker side of UK politics—anti‑immigrant sentiment, media manipulation, and shady political donations—contrasted with the joyful absurdity of a “joke candidate” who ends up uniting voters, humiliating extremists, and actually outperforming some serious far‑right parties at the polls.

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