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The Wonderkamer

The Wonderkamer

By: Jen Rempel David Powell Tracy Anderson-Powell
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Jen, Dave, and Tracy are three dilettantes who are interested in everything! Join us bi-weekly for a new story.

Social Sciences World
Episodes
  • 04 - The Other Little House on the Prairie
    Feb 26 2026

    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

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    1 hr and 37 mins
  • 03 - The Many Failures of Sir Humphrey Gilbert
    Feb 12 2026

    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/

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    1 hr and 41 mins
  • 02 - The Punished Dilettante
    Feb 12 2026

    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

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    1 hr and 27 mins
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