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Curious Canadian History

Curious Canadian History

Auteur(s): David Borys
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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.



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©Curious Canadian History
Monde Sciences sociales
Épisodes
  • S11E9 The Liberation of Bergen Belsen
    Jan 27 2026

    Names like Auschwitz, Dachau, and Bergen Belsen immediately bring to mind the horrors of the Nazi concentration camp system. At the liberation of Bergen Belsen in particular, Canadian forces contributed medical staff, engineers, and relief supplies to Allied efforts after that camp was liberated and in the dramatic weeks that followed. They helped treat survivors, bury the dead, and restore sanitation. Governing the camp meant managing disease, displaced persons, trauma, and justice while transforming a site of atrocity into emergency refuge amid shortages, chaos and reckoning.

    Dr. Mark Celinscak is the Louis and Frances Blumkin Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies in the Department of History and the Executive Directo of the Sam and Frances Fried Holocaust and Genocide Academy at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He is the author of Distance from the Belsen Heap: Allied Forces and the Liberation of a Nazi Concentration Camp, winner of a Vine Award for Non-Fiction, and Kingdom of Night: Witnesses to the Holocaust, winner of a Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Holocaust literature. He is the co-editor of the forthcoming Two Roses: A Story of Deception and Determination in Nazi Germany (University of Toronto Press). He is an elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of History. Please note that this episode will be dealing with some very graphic realities, so trigger warning!

    Check out Canyon Entertainment’s newest podcast hosted by David Borys, The Conflict and Culture Podcast, here!


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


    Amazon

    Indigo

    Dundurn

    Goodreads

    Indiebookstores.ca

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

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    52 min
  • S11E8 Curious Canadian History presents: Canadian Time Machine | The Furry Gold of Canada: The Beaver’s 50-Year Legacy
    Jan 13 2026


    In this episode, we step back in time with the Canadian Time Machine podcast to explore the 50th anniversary of the beaver becoming an official national symbol. For more than 50 years, this small but mighty animal has shaped rivers, driven trade, and quietly transformed the land. Wildlife ecologist Dr. Glynnis Hood and Jan Kingshott, director of animal welfare at Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary, take us inside the beaver’s world—from its role in the fur trade to its work as an ecosystem engineer today—and reveal why it remains one of Canada’s most remarkable and resilient symbols.


    More episodes are available at https://lnkfi.re/canadian-time-machine. To read the episode transcripts in French and English, and to learn more about historic Canadian milestones, please visit thewalrus.ca/canadianheritage. There is also a French counterpart of this show called Voyages Dans L’Histoire Canadienne so if you’re bilingual and want to listen to more, visit https://lnkfi.re/Voyages-dans-lhistoire-canadienne.

    Check out Canyon Entertainment’s newest podcast hosted by David Borys, The Conflict and Culture Podcast, here!


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


    Amazon

    Indigo

    Dundurn

    Goodreads

    Indiebookstores.ca

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

    Voir plus Voir moins
    33 min
  • S11E7 Cigarette Nation: The History of Cigarettes in Canada
    Dec 16 2025

    Cigarette smoking in Canada is a fascinating look at how consumer products, social rituals, and corporate misinformation interact. While widespread cigarette use began in the 1930s it was in the 1950s where a causal link between smoking and lung cancer surfaced in medical journals and mainstream media. Yet the best years for the Canadian cigarette industry were still to come, as per capita cigarette consumption rose steadily in the 1960s and 1970s. The persistence of smoking owes to such factors as product development, marketing and retailing innovation, public relations, sponsored science, and government inaction. Domestic and international tobacco firms worked to furnish Canadian smokers with hope and doubt: hope in the form of reassuring marketing, as seen with light and mild cigarette brands, and doubt by means of disinformation campaigns attacking medical research and press accounts that aligned cigarettes with serious disease.


    Helping us dive into this historical smoke pit is Daniel J. Robinson. Daniel is a Professor in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at the University of Western Ontario, where he teaches courses on media history, advertising and marketing. He is the author of Cigarette Nation: Business, Health, and Canadian Smokers, 1930-1975, (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2021), and has served as an expert witness for two provinces suing tobacco companies involving health-care costs recovery lawsuits.

    Check out Canyon Entertainment’s newest podcast hosted by David Borys, The Conflict and Culture Podcast, here!


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


    Amazon

    Indigo

    Dundurn

    Goodreads

    Indiebookstores.ca

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

    Voir plus Voir moins
    46 min
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As a Canadian who loves anything involving history this series is like crack cocaine for me. the narration can be pretty fast paced so paying close attention is necessary, but well worth the listen in any case.

very cool series!

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