Curious Canadian History – Details, episodes & analysis

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Curious Canadian History

David Borys

History

Education

Society & Culture

Frequency: 1 episode/17d. Total Eps: 220

Historian David Borys dives deep into the fascinating world of Canadian history in this bi-weekly podcast exploring everything from the wonderful to the weird to the downright dark.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Apple Podcasts

🇨🇦 Canada - history
22/08/2026
#95
🇨🇦 Canada - history
21/08/2026
#93
🇨🇦 Canada - history
20/08/2026
#97
🇨🇦 Canada - history
19/08/2026
#99
🇨🇦 Canada - history
18/08/2026
#91
🇨🇦 Canada - history
15/08/2026
#82
🇨🇦 Canada - history
14/08/2026
#86
🇨🇦 Canada - history
13/08/2026
#96
🇨🇦 Canada - history
12/08/2026
#94
🇨🇦 Canada - history
08/08/2026
#80

Spotify

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https://open.acast.com/public/patreon/fanSubscribe/838808
189 shares

https://www.indigo.ca/en-ca/punching-above-our-weight-the-canadian-military-at-war-since-1867/80e1c1e9-efb2-331a-977d-02358de18437.html
24 shares
https://www.dundurn.com/books_/t22117/a9781459754126-punching-above-our-weight#:~:text=This%20photograph%2Drich%20history%20of
24 shares

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Score global : 39%

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S10E1 - The Oak Ridge Experiment

Tuesday, September 3, 2024 • Duration 22:01

Welcome back to Season 10!! In the first episode of the newest season we take you to Penetanguishene, Ontario along the shores of Georgian Bay where once existed the Oak Ridge ‘Criminal Insane Building.’ Oak Ridge has been deemed the ‘Alcatraz of Canada’ and ‘the most terrible institution of all.’ For decades it housed some of Canada’s most violent criminals and in particular violent criminals with serious psychiatric illnesses. Yet in the 1960s an intensive and radical therapy program arrived, promoting the widespread of drugs and treatment methods that frankly bordered on torture. The Social Therapy Unit at Oak Ridge is still remembered by some as a successful venture in utopian experimentation though for others it embodies a state-authorized subjection of the individual without any checks or balances. A place where patients became test subjects in a radical and controversial program of rehabilitation.

This week’s book recommendation is Watching the Devil Dance by William Toffan, published in 2020 by Biblioasis.

Don’t forget! You can pre-purchase a copy of Punching Above Our Weight: The Canadian Military at War Since 1867 right now at the below links:

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Special Episode 2 - Punching Above Our Weight

Tuesday, August 27, 2024 • Duration 07:19

**SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT – NEW BOOK**

Our very own David Borys has a new book coming out in September titled “Punching Above Our Weight: The Canadian Military at War Since 1867” published by Dundurn Press. The book is an easy to read, single volume history of Canada at war since 1867. This photograph-rich volume covers nearly 150 years of the Canadian military, tracing its evolution from a small, underfunded, poorly trained militia to the modern, effective military it is today

The book will be released on September 24th in Canada and October 22nd in the United States.

As part of the pre-sale campaign CCH is dropping a series of short readings by David from sections of the book.

Today’s excerpt takes us back to 1870/71 where the Canadian government has sent out a military expedition to secure the annexation of the Red River Colony. This expedition, known as the Wolseley Expedition, is not sure if they are going to encounter violence when they finally arrive in Red River after what was an arduous and challenging journey to what would become Canada’s newest province.

You can pre-purchase a copy right now at the below links:

S9E14 Hockey: The Game as We Know it Today

Tuesday, March 19, 2024 • Duration 45:15

Hockey has had both an enduring but also a complicated relationship with ideas about what it means to be ‘Canadian’. While not every Canadian skates, or plays the game, or even cares about the game, the sport itself occupies a serous place in the Canadian cultural psyche. While the game has often been seen as something to unify Canadians, or to express ‘Canadianness’, it has also been exposed for very serious flaws in its culture, its infrastructure, and its dubious place as a game of character and inspiration for Canadian youth. The game of hockey, as we understand it now, has undergone dramatic challenges and changes since its first official appearance on ice in Montreal in the 1870s. This episode seeks to understand some of the key developments in the game that we now recognize today. From the rules to the rink size, to professionalization, commercialization, internationalization, to the broadening of the hockey cultural mosaic. From its amateur roots to a game that is international in its appeal, incorporating men and women from different socioeconomic classes and ethnic groups, and one that continues to evolve alongside modern value systems while evoking serious discussion on its relevance to modern Canadians.

Book recommendation: Canada’s Game: Hockey and Identity by Andrew C. Holman published McGill-Queen’s Press in 2009.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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1867 & All That

Friday, January 17, 2020 • Duration 08:14

Friends of Cool Canadian History have just released their own Canadian history podcast focusing on the political and diplomatic history of this country. Check out the preview for this awesome podcast here!

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S5E9 Cougar Annie – The Wild Woman of Vancouver Island

Sunday, January 5, 2020 • Duration 33:02

Ada Annie Jordan was a young mother with a successful business, a growing family and a popular place within early 20th century Vancouver's emerging elite society. Yet, she threw almost all of it away when she moved her family to a remote bay on Vancouver Island and instead of living a life of relative luxury she became a legend.

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S5E8 Little Stalingrad – The Battle for Ortona, December 1943

Monday, December 9, 2019 • Duration 26:26

In December of 1943 Canadian soldiers became bogged down in a vicious street battle for the small town of Ortona on Italy's east coast. A battle so ferocious and in such close quarters that it earned the nickname ‘Little Stalingrad.'

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S5E7 Tricky Bob and the 1917 Federal Election

Monday, November 25, 2019 • Duration 20:05

In 1917 Canadian soldiers were engaged heavily on the western front yet volunteer numbers had fallen below that of the monthly casualty rates. Prime Minister Robert Borden thus carried out one of the most controversial political campaigns in Canadian history in order to win the 1917 federal election and ensure that conscription was passed.

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S5E6 Optical Aleutians – The Liberation of Kiska Island

Sunday, November 10, 2019 • Duration 19:12

Two almost totally uninhabited American islands off the coast of Alaska are occupied by the Japanese in 1942. In response, an unprecedented joint American-Canadian operation is launched to liberate those islands. This ‘Zombie' liberation will focus specifically on the island of Kiska.

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S5E5 A Murder in the Desert – The Canadian Airborne Regiment and the Somalia Scandal

Monday, October 28, 2019 • Duration 25:51

A deeply troubled regiment with deeply troubled soldiers leads to a deeply disturbing murder of a teenage boy in Somalia.

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S5E4 Amherst’s VIP Prisoner: Trotsky in the Maritimes

Monday, October 14, 2019 • Duration 22:54

While Leon Trotsky is largely known as a central figure in the Russian Revolution and the rise of the Soviet Union, a brief chapter in his life took him to Amherst, Nova Scotia as part of a British attempt to prevent the radical from returning to war-time Russia. Thus, Trotsky found himself a VIP guest of the British Empire, the Canadian state and the province of Nova Scotia.

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Curious Canadian History – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Curious Canadian History – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Acast1

Other57

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Acast1

Other57

Patreon1

Apple Podcasts

Spotify