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PODCAST

The Unorganized Township of Bootstuck

Richard Vandentillaart / Nick Vardon

The Unorganized Township of Bootstuck is a documentary-style audio descent into a place that shouldn"t exist—but very much insists that it does.Once a forgotten military outpost in the depths of Northern Ontario, Bootstuck has taken on a life of its own. Discovered only through a pile of mislabeled cassette tapes at a Sudbury garage sale, the story of Bootstuck slowly unravels through scattered interviews, cryptic clues, and increasingly bizarre residents. The deeper you listen, the more you realize

comedy comedy interviews

All Episodes

4:20

TAPE 36 - "Traffic Lights in The Amazon"

The Unorganized Township of Bootstuck ·

2025/08/03

In this unusually musical instalment, the town confronts the potential arrival of a Walmart with its usual level of deeply flawed logic and overly enthusiastic planning. The tape opens with a morning anthem, improvised in real time and including references to jackets, wolves, and " Walking your Steven" Things escalate quickly from there. Concerned about the rise of future tourism and traffic, the gang discusses installing traffic lights in the center of town. There’s only one problem: B...

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4:20

TAPE 35 - "Lasagna Hut with a Flock of Potatoes"

The Unorganized Township of Bootstuck ·

2025/07/31

EPISODE SUMMARY (Tape 35): A long-distance call with questionable audio quality spirals quickly into fashion advice, livestock comparisons, silent Caleb, and a surprisingly long telephone cord. Listeners are introduced to a popular local garment made of lamb wool and allegedly topped with a rabbit testicle pom-pom. If no rabbits are available, a Ferret substitute will do. The logistics are unclear. Music preferences in Bootstuck are discussed, but the town’s recent shipment of broken Bluet...

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4:48

TAPE 34 - "The Lollipop Song"

The Unorganized Township of Bootstuck ·

2025/07/27

A long-distance call with questionable audio quality spirals quickly into fashion advice, livestock comparisons, silent Caleb, and a surprisingly long telephone cord. Listeners are introduced to a popular local garment — a fleece-lined “chook” (hat) — made of lamb wool and allegedly topped with a rabbit testicle pom-pom. If no rabbits are available, a fairy substitute will do. The logistics are unclear. Music preferences in Bootstuck are discussed, but the town’s recent shipment of brok...

en-ca

4:20

TAPE 33 - "Rita Comes To Visit"

The Unorganized Township of Bootstuck ·

2025/07/24

This recovered tape opens with a critical musical analysis of Led Zeppelin (mistakenly called Heavy Blimps), accused of using “pots and pans” as instruments and expressing “a lot of love” — roughly 600 loves, by one count. Rita, a long-anticipated seasonal force (or possibly a person), rolls into town early, knocking over Caleb in the process. Her arrival is announced by screaming, thuds, and a haunting playback from last Christmas. The conversation wanders through town-wide blackouts, mismat...

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4:20

TAPE 32 - The Shared Reading Bulb

The Unorganized Township of Bootstuck ·

2025/07/20

Tape 32 begins mid-conversation as usual, with someone attempting to introduce the mayor before getting sidetracked by vague mouth-based declarations. The bulk of the recording centers on an impromptu town council meeting about real estate agents coming to Bootstuck and the possibility of building 50 new homes. This is seen as “good for business,” though what business that is remains unclear. The meeting quickly derails into a spirited debate over Bootstuck’s communal reading bulb, a single l...

en-ca

4:20

Tape 31 - The Bubble Games

The Unorganized Township of Bootstuck ·

2025/07/17

Send us a text www.bootstuck.com

en-ca

4:20

Tape 30 - The Annual Crash Site Trip

The Unorganized Township of Bootstuck ·

2025/07/13

Found another tape in that old box from the Sudbury garage sale. I’m still trying to figure out why these people even bothered to record any of this. This one opens with our familiar Bootstuck correspondent ranting about “training your ears to hear fast” by imitating rap music—he actually says rap rap rap rap like that’s instructional. Then he goes on about lines, arrows, and their life purpose (apparently good for Tuesday, Wednesday, and...Tuesday?). There’s a bit about the air and sky (noth...

en-ca

4:20

TAPE 29 - Jumbo 99 Cents Or Less Video Production House

The Unorganized Township of Bootstuck ·

2025/07/10

Another tape cleaned up and transcribed, another mind bending conversation from the 'Stuck. It opens in classic Bootstuck fashion with a baffling promise to “pleasure a man with a musical number,” before drifting into talk about the arrival of Spring—though any meaningful plans from Caleb seem vague at best. There's also an extended and pointless analysis of Dave’s calves, which are apparently “like bushes,” before the recording is interrupted by Steven in the other room loudly watching Of Hu...

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4:20

Tape 28 - "Bills Topless Billboard"

The Unorganized Township of Bootstuck ·

2025/07/06

Another tape and I'm not sure if the numbering is sequential because the subject matter certainly isn't. No introduction, no real context and no interviewer—just Don ranting about Bill's “topless billboard.” He claims it lost the entire top half in a storm, leaving only the bottom and needing a rebuild from a topless neighbour. There’s back and forth about whose job it is to fix it, if anyone even reads it, and whether a warning sign telling people to stay away is worth the trouble. Pa...

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4:20

TAPE 27 - "Supply Drops and the Ace of Spades"

The Unorganized Township of Bootstuck ·

2025/07/03

Tape 27: "Supply Drops and the Ace of Spades" Another tape showed up, and I had to listen through the usual haze of static, crosstalk, and a phone call that cut in halfway through. I’m still trying to figure out who is calling them, or how they even have service out there. The conversation is hard to follow, but there are offhand mentions of aerial supply drops. They talk about waiting for things to “fall out of the sky” like that’s their normal supply chain. No schedule, no pilot contact—jus...

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4:20

TAPE 26 - " Tires and Carrots "

The Unorganized Township of Bootstuck ·

2025/06/29

Tape 26: “Tires, Carrots, and Other Local Crops” Got another recording today—this one opens with them claiming to have reached my “secretary” (the voicemail, I assume), asking if she has good penmanship. After that, the call wanders through Bootstuck’s new agricultural report: apparently they’ve got a backfield full of “wild tires” that “grow” in the mud, plus a bumper crop of unexpected carrots. Dave’s supposedly writing a musical number about the tires. Plans are also underway for a roller ...

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3:57

Tape 25 - "Bruise Your Bum?"

The Unorganized Township of Bootstuck ·

2025/06/26

Tape 25: “Bruise Your Bum?” There was a voicemail waiting this morning. I still have no idea how they got my number. No callback info, no explanation—just another rambling dispatch from Bootstuck. It opens with a commotion in one of the backrooms and quickly derails into a story about beach injuries sustained from excessive waving. When pressed for any kind of local wisdom, they suggest an owl could probably handle that sort of thing. A brief airshow takes place—unverified—before a scuffle br...

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5:16

Tape 24 - Airshow, an Air Crash and some Hot Air

The Unorganized Township of Bootstuck ·

2025/06/22

It starts innocently enough: Hat Guy claiming there’s going to be an airshow. This, naturally, turns out to mean one plane seen from very far away, a helicopter that might’ve been a goose, and a deflated rainbow-shaped hot air balloon salvaged from wherever such things land when they've had enough. Still, it’s more organized than the ski hill. Things then veer into a community talent show where Caleb will be judged — possibly for sport, possibly for population control. No prizes, just the cha...

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4:34

“Time, Pills, and the Sears Catalogue”

The Unorganized Township of Bootstuck ·

2025/06/19

This tape starts with snowmobiling. Or rather, the sound of snowmobiling — since the machines don’t move, the locals just make noises and call it “Skidoo.” Caleb provides ear-wind simulation. What follows is a baffling rundown of Bootstuck’s print-based “social media flyer” (which might be Facebook, or a hand-drawn newspaper), an attempt to replicate the Sears catalogue by hand, a supplement run “from the mothers,” and a local philosophy that includes boots falling off, yelling “John!” into t...

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4:20

Tape 22 - Pop Top Balls and Recreational Olympics

The Unorganized Township of Bootstuck ·

2025/06/15

I’ve been cataloguing these tapes for months now, and I’m still not sure if Bootstuck is a functioning township or an elaborate performance art piece. This tape starts with something called a "snowman minute"—a unit of time defined by how long it takes to both build and melt a snowman—and somehow drifts into what can only be described as a failed Winter Olympics bid… held in someone's backyard. There’s talk of a ski hill (five feet high), a chairlift (manual, powered by Caleb), and skis fashi...

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4:05

Tape 21 - “The Mayor’s Haircut and Other Red Flags”

The Unorganized Township of Bootstuck ·

2025/06/12

I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t this. This latest tape kicks off with a brief mention of Titanic 2 (apparently still unreleased in Bootstuck), and only gets murkier from there. There’s discussion about avoiding spoilers—of both the cinematic and automotive variety—followed by a story about someone named Stephen who didn’t wave and has now been entered into a “wishy-washy book,” which I suspect is a very real, very serious document in Bootstuck governance. And then we get to the ha...

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4:23

Tape 20 - Fish Each, Friction Water & The King of Canada

The Unorganized Township of Bootstuck ·

2025/06/05

Send us a text The latest tape starts with caps. Specifically, hat inventory. Apparently, the King of Canada (real or dream-based, unclear) has advised the residents to prepare for winter with new ice scraper-equipped toques. From there, it veers. There’s mention of a new goldfish-based restaurant called Fish Each—the name refers to a strict one-fish-per-person policy and modelled after Red Lobster or Red Monster as Hat Guy calls it. Later, a moving truck that doesn’t move needs to be moved...

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4:20

Tape 19 - House of Cards with a runway

The Unorganized Township of Bootstuck ·

2025/06/01

Send us a text This one kicks off like a 1940s social hygiene film before it collapses into a tale of unstable real estate, gravy-based adhesives, and existential architecture. Hat Guy shares a nursery rhyme, forgets how houses work, and constructs a two-bedroom, zero-bed home entirely out of playing cards. No one moves in. Fortunately. Elsewhere, Hat Guy may be opening a business, launching a sport, or reinventing the economy—it’s hard to say, because halfway through his pitch, Steven interr...

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4:56

Tape 18 - Buckles, Boats and Bootstuck Currency

The Unorganized Township of Bootstuck ·

2025/05/29

Send us a text The Bootstuck tape machine coughs up another bewildering recording featuring a long, one-sided voicemail, a heated discussion about boot buckles, and a serious deep dive into gravy economics. The townsfolk debate the practical dangers of decorative footwear, the true purpose of a “gravy boat,” and whether Canadian Tire money can be legally used when the nearest Canadian Tire is 400 miles away. Meanwhile, we meet Luke Warm (from Yonder), who apparently measures up at six acorns ...

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4:35

Tape 17 - The Secret Light Show and Dave Juggs

The Unorganized Township of Bootstuck ·

2025/05/25

Send us a text The holiday spirit arrives in Bootstuck with all the confusion and homemade flair you’ve come to expect. Tape 17 crackles to life with a musical tribute to the humble jug—an instrument that can be played anywhere, anytime, and preferably without warning. Meanwhile, townsfolk debate the ethics of inflatable lawn décor (giant possums included) and hatch plans for an unsanctioned Christmas light show featuring Caleb, an axe, and a concerning number of flashlights. Things only get ...

en-ca

56 results

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