Sick Man Talking Podcast

Episodes

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  Episode 89 26.10.2026 1h 2m

  In this episode, the Sick Man talks about drugs. In the first of a three-part series, he traces the arc from ancient poppy fields and shamanic rituals through empires weaponizing substances for control - the British Opium Wars in China, CIA heroin operations in Marseille and Vietnam, Iran-Contra cocaine trafficking, and the Sackler family’s systematic destruction of North American communities. Then he describes how he got caught in the crossfire. This is a series on how drugs stopped being...
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  Episode 88 03.10.2026 42m

  In this episode, the Sick Man puts you to sleep, Sick Man style. Guided meditations for sleep are everywhere these days - millions of people listen to them every night. Now he’s decided to get into the market. Your host hasn’t slept since 2019. And yet he’s confident this will work on you. Contains totally absurd language, graphic images of cereal, and professional concern. Support the show Host: Brad Cartner Show Producer: Greg O’Brien Sound Engineer: Derek Wels...
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  Episode 87 16.09.2026 51m

  In this episode, Fake Cop returns for the shocking and explosive final chapter of the latest Fake Cop Trilogy, Frontier Fake Cop: Part III Dead Eye Dolan gets his shot. Fake Cop gets his gun - from a very unconventional holster. Jasper Creed gets… exposed. Karate is involved. So is Connor McDavid. Again. This is Frontier Fake Cop: Part III - Bottoms Up. Support the show Host: Brad Cartner Show Producer: Greg O’Brien Sound Engineer: Derek Welsman Music: Brad Cartner Officer...
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  Episode 86 08.09.2026 54m

  In this episode, Fake Cop returns for Part II of the shocking and explosive new Fake Cop Trilogy: Frontier Fake Cop. Fake Cop is on the run in Devil’s Kettle, 1887. He teams up with an outlaw. Things escalate. An awkward horse ride is involved. So is a coffin. So is Connor McDavid… Somehow. This is Frontier Fake Cop: Part II - Coffin Break. Support the show Host: Brad Cartner Show Producer: Greg O’Brien Sound Engineer: Derek Welsman Music: Brad Cartner Officer...
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  Episode 85 29.08.2026 44m

  In this episode, Fake Cop returns for Part I of the shocking and explosive new Fake Cop Trilogy: Frontier Fake Cop. Fake Cop wakes up in a Wild West town called Devil’s Kettle in 1887 - no explanation, no room temperature water, no Froot Loops, no pizza, but somehow a hockey league. He gets arrested for existing too loudly, and he totally doesn’t use his shoelaces to strangle somebody. Or maybe he does. Kind of. Sort of. Allegedly. This is Frontier Fake Cop: Part I. You ain’t from...
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  Episode 84 08.08.2026 55m

  In this episode, the Sick Man goes looking for the greatest library the ancient world ever built - and finds out how little of it actually made it to us. Hundreds of thousands of scrolls. Centuries of mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, entire plays we’ll never read. Gone, mostly, long before anyone could agree on who to blame. It’s a story about how knowledge disappears - not in one dramatic fire, but through decades of neglect and war nobody thought to stop in time. And about a ...
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  Episode 83 27.07.2026 49m

  In this episode, the Sick Man descends into Dante’s Inferno. Nine circles. Demons. Fire and ice. It’s one of the most famous stories in literature - and one of the most misunderstood. Beneath the nightmares, it’s a story about being lost… about the moment the person you thought you were and the person actually making your choices become strangers to each other. And about what refuses to let you stay lost. Along the way, he explores heresy, violence, treachery, greed, other rings, ...
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  Episode 82 17.07.2026 26m

  In this episode, the Sick Man returns to ancient Greece to tell the myth of Demeter and Persephone. On the surface, it’s a story about the changing seasons. Beneath that, it’s about the moments that divide life into before and after - the experiences that change how we move through the world, even when the world itself appears unchanged. Along the way, he explores grief, transformation, identity, and why some of the oldest stories ever told still understand us better than we understand ...
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  Episode 81 05.07.2026 33m

  In this episode, the Sick Man talks about the Canadiana Roller Rink. For a generation of kids growing up in Aurora, Newmarket, and the surrounding area, the Canadiana Roller Rink was more than just a a place to skate. It was a place almost everyone seemed to pass through, and decades later it’s still one of those places people immediately start talking about when it’s mentioned. Along the way he explores the history of roller skating, why the Canadiana became such a fixture of local childh...
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  Episode 80 27.06.2026 50m

  In this episode, the Sick Man talks about space. He follows the history of how human beings have looked up and tried to figure out what exactly is going on up there - from early humans sitting under the night sky making sense of patterns, to ancient astronomy, Greek cosmology, Ptolemy, Copernicus, Galileo, telescopes, modern space exploration, and where all of that leaves us now. Along the way he talks about how people assign meaning to the sky, why the universe keeps getting bigger eve...
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  Episode 79 17.06.2026 30m

  In this episode, the Sick Man examines an old Chinese parable called “We’ll See”. If nothing else, this is a great episode for sleep therapy. What started off as a powerful philosophical meditation on an old Chinese parable about how good and bad events may not mean what we think they mean, quickly spiralled out of control to the point where the Sick Man’s audio engineer phoned him and literally asked, “Where is this going?” The Sick Man replied: “We’ll see.” Support the show Host: Brad...
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  Episode 78 07.06.2026 1h 6m

  In this episode, Fake Cop returns in an absurd satire of the 1976 film Taxi Driver. Working nights as a deeply unqualified Uber driver in Newmarket, Ontario, Fake Cop descends into obsession as he battles unleashed dogs, a collapsing Uber rating, local politics, hockey players, and his own increasingly questionable grip on reality. A tale of loneliness, delusion, civic responsibility, room-temperature water, shoe polish abuse, and a night at the movies that goes terribly wrong, Taxi Dri...
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  Episode 77 08.05.2026 55m

  In this episode, the Sick Man returns with the shocking and explosive finale of the latest Fake Cop Trilogy. The Toucan Man is still on the loose and Fake Cop can’t find him. So he does something he hates more than anything: he gets introspective. So he’s going to do what he usually does: double down in the worst possible direction. Going deeper. Not into the streets, but into whatever the hell is going on inside his mind. Trying to track down the Toucan Man the only way left… by ...
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  Episode 76 29.04.2026 52m

  In this episode, the Sick Man returns with part two of the shocking, explosive, new Fake Cop Trilogy. Will Fast Bobby return with information about the Toucan Man? No idea. Will Fake Cop finally confront his role in the death of his son? He doesn’t really know how to, so probably not. Will the Bonanza survive the night? Unlikely. Most importantly, will any of this actually lead somewhere … for once? Maybe. Depends on your definition of “somewhere”. This … is Warning Label. Support...
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  Episode 75 20.04.2026 55m

  In this episode, the Sick Man returns with part one of the shocking, explosive new Fake Cop Trilogy. Will Bobby find information on the Toucan Man? Probably not. Will Fake Cop finally confront his role in the death of his son? Probably not. Most importantly, will he finally get rid of that body in the trunk? Same answer. This is the Last Breakfast. Support the show Host: Brad Cartner Show Producer: Greg O’Brien Sound Engineer: Derek Welsman Music: Brad Cartner Officer ...
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  Episode 74 11.04.2026 36m

  In this episode, the Sick Man talks about a story we all think we know; Pandora, the box, and the moment everything went wrong. But instead of telling it the usual way, he slows it down and looks at what actually happened in that moment. Not just what escaped … but what stayed behind, and why that matters. How does hope actually survive? From there, he moves into the modern world and the “boxes” we deal with every day - physical ones, social expectations, technology, even the ones we create ...
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  Episode 73 02.04.2026 36m

  In this episode, the Sick Man talks about the ancient Greek concept of hubris; an excess of pride that distorts judgment and pushes individuals and systems beyond their limits; how certainty can override caution, and how ambition, when left unchecked, begins to reshape reality in ways that can’t be ignored. Using myth, literature, history, and personal experience, this episode looks at hubris as both a personal and collective force, something that appears whenever people or institutions begin...
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  Episode 72 24.03.2026 48m

  In this episode, the Sick Man talks about the invisible choreography of modern life. Navigating bureaucracies has reached the level of an Olympic sport. Government agencies, banks, corporate offices, and customer service all insist you follow rules that change while you’re watching. Let’s explore the absurd perfection of these systems and what it means to try to stay human in a world that already assumes you’re not. This is Catch-22. Support the show Host: Brad Cartner Sh...
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  Episode 71 15.03.2026 1h

  In this episode, the Sick Man steps onto the ice to talk about one of hockey’s strongest traditions: fighting. How it began. How it survived. Who does it. And why the sport that prides itself on speed and skill still makes room for a man whose job description includes punching people in the face. Along the way, he examines the culture that produced it, and the enduring legend of the “Polite Canadian.” Featuring real-life hockey enforcer Steve Hughes, who explains the mentality, du...
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  Episode 70 05.03.2026 1h 7m

  In this Very Special Episode, the Sick Man talks about the summer of 1987, and his very first job working for a printing factory in Toronto’s Financial District. Before there was ambition, before there was a crash, before there were podcasts recorded in basements, there was ink. Industrial ink. The perfume of capitalism. And there were cigarettes. Lots and lots of cigarettes. A coming of each story about paper, panic, and pretending. This is the summer of ‘87. Support the show Hos...