Tracy dives into the history of sex work in the settlement of the Canadian prairies. Here she talks about how sex workers were foundational to the economic and cultural function of early settlements, with special emphasis on Winnipeg, Saskatoon, and Calgary.

Sources and Further Reading

Bourgeois, N. (2018). Race, space, and prostitution: The making of settler colonial Canada. POWER. https://www.powerottawa.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Bourgeois-2018.pdf

Gray, J. H. (1971). Red lights on the prairies. Macmillan of Canada.

Lee, G. (2015, June 17). Prostituted words: Time for a new style guide. Rabble.ca. https://rabble.ca/columnists/prostituted-words-time-new-style-guide/

Nichols, J. (2022). The other little house: The brothel as a colonial institution on the Canadian prairies, 1880–93. Journal of Social History, 56(1), 58–84. https://doi.org/10.1093/jsh/shac014

Stella, l’amie de Maimie. (n.d.). Language matters: Talking about sex work [Information sheet]. Global Network of Sex Work Projects. https://www.nswp.org/sites/default/files/StellaInfoSheetLanguageMatters.pdf

Although Walter Raleigh is famous for founding the first permanent settlement in North America, history has largely forgotten his half-brother who was a genius, a fool, a bloodthirsty psychopath, a terrible explorer, and somehow founded the British empire.

Sources and Further Reading

Chidsey, D. B. (1932). Sir Humphrey Gilbert: Elizabeth's racketeer. Harper & Brothers.

Gosling, W. G. (1911).The life of Sir Humphrey Gilbert: England's first empire builder. [Electronic Version]. https://archive.org/details/lifeofsirhumphre00goslrich/page/n1/mode/2up

Gilbert, H. (1576). A discourse of a discouerie for a new passage to Cataia [Electronic version]. Henry Middleton for Richarde Ihones. https://archive.org/details/discourseofdisco00gilb

Elizabeth I. (2025, August 27th). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_I

Schulman, M. (2022). A timeline of the age of exploration. Historycentral.com. https://www.historycentral.com/explorers/Index.html

Canadian Museum of History. (n.d.). Jacques Cartier 1534-1542. Virtual Museum of New France. Retrieved from https://www.historymuseum.ca/virtual-museum-of-new-france/the-explorers/jacques-cartier-1534-1542/

Jen tries her best to gross out Dave and Tracy with bizarre tales of the preservation of human body parts for “educational” (?) purposes. Please note that you might not want to be eating while you listen to this one.

CW: Suicide

Please check www.thewonderkamer.ca for sources and further reading.

https://www.thewonderkamer.ca/episodes/2anatomicalspecimens

In 1931, several RCMP officers responded to a complaint in the Northwest Territories. A man probably called Albert Johnson had been hanging another man’s traps. What followed is the greatest manhunt in Canadian history.

Sources and Further Reading

Anderson, F. (2025, March 19). The Death of Albert Johnson in the Arctic. https://www.jkcc.com/albert/

Butts, E. (2019, April 28). Albert Johnson, “The Mad Trapper of Rat River”. The Canadian Encyclopedia. https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/albert-johnson

Healy, J. J. (2007). Case overview of the murder of RCMP Constable Newt Millen and the capture of the Mad Trapper: A 90th year anniversary: 1932 to 2022. RCMP Graves. https://www.rcmpgraves.com/vetcorner/madtrapper.html

North, D. (2005). The Mad Trapper of Rat River: A true story of Canada’s biggest manhunt. Lyons Press.