SHIFTHEADS: Why Cats Got a Bad Reputation (And Kept It)

SHIFTHEADS: Why Cats Got a Bad Reputation (And Kept It)

Thirty percent of people don't like cats. Only five percent feel that way about dogs. Rod Phillips has spent years figuring out why, and the answer goes back further than most people expect. Phillips, a historian at Carleton University and author of Cats: A History, makes the case that cats haven't changed in thousands of years. What changed is what people decided they meant. The Middle Ages turned them into devil's accomplices. Walt Disney named his most famous cat Lucifer and went on record saying he didn't like cats because you can't tell them what to do. The bias didn't start there, but it stuck there. The conversation comes down to one distinction that reframes everything: dogs attach to people, cats attach to place. Once that lands, the grouchiness, the ignoring you, the walking away mid-eye-contact, all of it starts to make a different kind of sense. Topics: history of cats and humans, cat behaviour explained, cats versus dogs, medieval cats witchcraft, Rod Phillips Cats a History GUEST: Rod Phillips Originally aired on 2026-06-30

NEW - Why Newfoundland Starts Canada Day With the Dead

In Newfoundland, Canada Day doesn't begin with fireworks. It begins with Memorial Day and the memory of a generation of young men sent over the top at Beaumont-Hamel, France, one hundred and ten years ago tomorrow. The Royal Newfoundland Regiment numbered eight hundred going in. The field between the trenches was maybe three hundred meters wide. Most of them never made it across. This conversation puts that history into the present tense, from a new Danger Tree built by Memorial University engineers and installed at the battlefield on the eve of the anniversary, to the story of a Christmas Day truce when soldiers on both sides put down their rifles and played soccer in no man's land. It is heavy material for Canada Day Eve, and exactly the right kind. Topics: Memorial Day Newfoundland, Beaumont-Hamel, Danger Tree, Royal Newfoundland Regiment, Canada Day history GUEST: Tim Powers Originally aired on 2026-06-30

Shiftheads - Booze and Reviews: Three Canadian Movies. Three Canadian Drinks. Go!

Film critic Richard Crouse builds a Canada Day weekend watch list from the ground up: three Canadian films, each with a drink to match. Goon pairs with a Bloody Caesar, invented in Calgary in 1969 and consumed by Canadians over 400 million times a year. Richard walks through the recipe and the history, including why he draws the line at horseradish in the straw. A History of Violence, David Cronenberg's darkly violent Toronto-shot thriller starring Viggo Mortensen, gets the Toronto Cocktail: rye whiskey, Fernet Branca, maple syrup, Angostura bitters, and an orange twist expressed over an open flame. And Strange Brew, the Bob and Doug McKenzie classic about a mind control plot inside a brewery, gets the only drink that makes sense: a cold Canadian lager. Three movies, three drinks, one very Canadian long weekend. Topics: Canadian movies Canada Day, Booze and Reviews, Bloody Caesar cocktail, Goon film, Strange Brew GUEST: Richard Crouse | http://richardcrouse.ca [http://richardcrouse.ca] Originally aired on 2026-06-30

ICYMI - A Psychologist on Why Sports Fans Need the Losses Too

A psychologist makes the case that the highs and lows of being a sports fan are not just entertainment, they are doing real work for your mental health. The conversation traces what happens physiologically when a game gets tense, why grief and joy need each other to feel like anything at all, and why losing as a fan might matter just as much as winning. From there the discussion turns to the line between healthy fandom and something more dangerous, including a direct warning about what sports gambling is doing to people's relationship with the games they love. It closes on a question worth sitting with: is it better to live life in the stands, on the field, or somewhere in between. Listeners get a grounded, research-backed reason to stop feeling guilty about caring this much about a game. Topics: fandom mental health, sports emotional outlet, sports gambling, stands versus the game, collaboration GUEST: Dr. Perry Adler | http://humanexus.ca [http://humanexus.ca] Originally aired on 2026-06-30

You Bought the Box. There's No Game Inside

Grand Theft Auto 6 pre-orders are live and the box is real, but open it and there's only a download code. No disc. No trade-in value. No physical copy. Ever. A tech columnist who argued against this exact model with a Microsoft Xbox executive twenty years ago breaks down why it's finally happening, what the auto-renewing subscription buried in the fine print actually costs, and why gaming companies treating their own culture as disposable is the real problem here. From there the conversation moves through Meta's new line of smart glasses, now in twenty-six styles and colours including a Kylie Jenner collaboration, and closes on a hotel in China staffed entirely by robots, with the same robot cat waiters that started showing up in Canadian restaurants a few years back. Three stories about a world that keeps asking you to pay more for less, and keep smiling about it. Topics: Grand Theft Auto 6, digital game ownership, Meta glasses, robot hotel, video game subscriptions GUEST: Chris Abel | krisabel.com | @realkrisabel Originally aired on 2026-06-30