Podcast
Sickboy
Hosted by CBC · EN
Sickboy is the only place where terminal diagnoses can peacefully coexist with jokes we probably shouldn't make. Hosted by three best friends, Jeremie, Brian, and Taylor, this show smashes taboos around illness, death, and everything in between. Inspired by Jeremie’s life with Cystic Fibrosis, we dive headfirst into the uncomfortable, the hilarious, and the heartbreaking. We talk to people living with everything from chronic disease to catastrophic injury, mental health struggles to medical miracles - and we do it with radical empathy, zero BS, and the kind of unfiltered jokes that get us kicked out of support groups. If you’ve ever felt weird, broken, or like no one gets it, welcome. New episodes drop every Wednesday. Pull up a seat; it’s gonna get real.
48episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
"No, I'm Not Drunk, It's Cerebral Palsy" | Bipolar, ARFID & 10 other Diagnoses
6d ago00:59:22Tap to summarizeSurviving eight shots of Narcan at twelve years old is one hell of an introduction to chronic illness, and for Haylee, that was just the tip of the iceberg. Meet Haylee, a master’s student living with an absolute alphabet soup of diagnoses, including Cerebral Palsy, Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), ARFID, AuDHD, OCD, and a recent addition of Bipolar disorder. In this raw and intimate conversation, Haylee breaks down what life is actually like when your body and brain are constantly clashing. From surviving a 26-hour leg surgery and an accidental morphine overdose at just twelve years old, to navigating the cold, isolating reality of transitioning out of pediatric care, Haylee doesn't hold back. She opens up about the trauma of medical PTSD, getting an ableist university professor fired, navigating safe-food obsessions, and using music and song-writing to quiet her brain during manic episodes. It’s an honest, eye-opening look at disability, identity, and proving everyone, including her doctors, wrong.Follow Sickboy: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sickboypodcastTiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sickboypodcastDiscord: https://discord.gg/expeUDN
Transcribe →Cured by a Psychotic Break: Surviving a Trip to Hell & Back
2w ago01:10:46Tap to summarizeMeet Judy. She’s a real estate agent who inadvertently became an extreme sports athlete in the deadly game of "Halifax Crosswalks". After getting smoked by a car going 80 km/h, Judy somehow survived the impact. But the real nightmare was just beginning. Enter Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), colloquially and terrifyingly known as the "suicide disease". Judy takes the boys through the sheer agony of a nervous system gone rogue, where even a slight touch felt like torture and sleep became a distant memory. Refusing to go down the opioid pipeline after watching her parents suffer from severe medication side effects, Judy and her husband embarked on a desperate, sleepless, 8-day drive to Florida to escape the cold. But this isn't just a chronic illness survival story. It’s a full-blown Hollywood thriller. We’re talking a blown-up rental car, a near-death experience in a Florida ER, and a spontaneous, miraculous recovery where her disease simply vanished into thin air. And if that wasn't wild enough? A prescribed medication sent her into a psychotic break that landed Judy in a Florida mental institution for six days, firmly convinced she had been downloaded with special powers from God to heal the other patients. Buckle up for one of the wildest rides in Sickboy history.Check out Judys book here: https://books.friesenpress.com/store/title/119734000557751458/Judy-Isiah-Foran-My-Drive-Through-HellFollow Sickboy: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sickboypodcastTiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sickboypodcastDiscord: https://discord.gg/expeUDN
Transcribe →No Cortisol, No Chill: Navigating Addison’s, ADHD & C-PTSD
3w ago00:54:20Tap to summarizeWhat happens when your body suddenly decides to stop making the exact hormone that keeps you alive? Meet Sarah, a badass who trains in Muay Thai, manages ADHD and C-PTSD, and spent months wondering why climbing a single flight of stairs felt like summiting Everest. Before a life-threatening crash landed her in the hospital with a cortisol level of "less than one," Sarah was taking straight shots of soy sauce out of the fridge, dumping salt into her morning water, and getting told by urgent care doctors that her slurred words and sudden vomiting were probably just a "depressive episode." Sarah sits down with the fellas to break down the reality of living with Addison’s Disease and how an autoimmune diagnosis forced her into her "Year of Ease"—learning to drop the hustle culture, stop feeling guilty about relaxing on the couch, and give herself permission to slow down. It’s raw, messy, deeply relatable, and a vital reminder to advocate fiercely for your own health. Follow Sickboy: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sickboypodcastTiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sickboypodcastDiscord: https://discord.gg/expeUDN
Transcribe →Reclaiming the Breast: Healing Body Trauma with Prosthetic Nips
4w ago01:05:26Tap to summarizeHow do you convince the CRA that bulk silicone nipples are a legitimate business expense? This week, the fellas sit down with Miranda, affectionately known as "the boob lady”, an artist and advocate crafting hyper-realistic silicone prosthetic nipples and body casts for cancer survivors, trans folks, and anyone navigating post-surgery body trauma. Miranda opens up about her wild path to this work: from compressing her chest as an early-blooming dancer in Northern Ontario, to finding a lump at 16 and being brushed off by a doctor who told her to "only worry if it starts bleeding." Flash forward to a solo exchange trip in Denmark when her nipple actually did start bleeding, leading to emergency surgery far from home, severed milk ducts, and years of unprocessed medical trauma. From custom pierced silicone nips to calling out Canadian healthcare bureaucracy for labeling nipples as merely "cosmetic," Miranda shares how she’s using empathy, art, and humor to help people love—or at least hate a little bit less—the meat suits they're living in.Be sure to check out Miranda’s beautiful work! IG: @withmimi.caWebsite: www.withmimi.ca Follow Sickboy: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sickboypodcastTiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sickboypodcastDiscord: https://discord.gg/expeUDN
Transcribe →C***blocking Mosquitoes: The Genetic Fight Against Malaria
Jul 1500:45:54Tap to summarizeWhat happens when a deep-seated thirst for childhood revenge turns into a career in genetic engineering? You get an absolute badass who is plotting the ultimate downfall of the world's deadliest killer. Krystal is a Ugandan entomologist (aka a massive bug nerd) who has dedicated her life to taking down the mosquito. Growing up in Uganda, surviving malaria was basically a terrifying game of Russian roulette. Crystal shares the raw, heart-wrenching origin story that fueled her career: watching her little brother suffer through brutal, fever-induced seizures all night while her family simply couldn't afford the medication to treat him. Crystal completely schools Jeremie and Brian on what malaria actually does to the human body - and it is no joke. We're talking brain damage from cerebral malaria, "black water fever" (where your urine turns black from liver damage), and even gangrene that leads to amputations. We also dig into the wild fact that out of the 3,500 species of mosquitoes on Earth, only about four are the real assholes responsible for the vast majority of malaria transmission in Africa. This episode is a massive reality check about the devastating barriers to healthcare in the developing world, the literal life-saving impact of the Global Fund, and the badass science that might just eradicate this disease for good. Grab your bug spray and tune in.Follow Sickboy: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sickboypodcastTiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sickboypodcastDiscord: https://discord.gg/expeUDN
Transcribe →Placebos, Psychosis, and Why We Need Human Flesh (Not Like That)
Jul 800:51:18Tap to summarizeWhat happens when the doctor treating you is a cold, calculating AI trained on the deepest, darkest, most biased corners of the internet? This week, the boys sit down with Dr. Justin C. Key, a real-life psychiatrist and horror author who is literally writing the book on our medical doom. His new sci-fi thriller, The Hospital at the End of the World, explores the terrifying intersection of artificial intelligence and medicine. Justin joins us to unpack the big, messy questions: Is AI going to save a broken healthcare system, or is it just acting as a shiny digital band-aid for exhausted doctors who don't have the time to actually show up for their patients? We dive deep into the fascinating world of the placebo effect and why simply being seen and heard by a flawed, flesh-and-blood human is a crucial part of the healing process. Justin shares why he absolutely refuses to let AI write his clinical notes, arguing that the act of sitting down and thinking about the session is the real work. Follow Sickboy: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sickboypodcastTiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sickboypodcastDiscord: https://discord.gg/expeUDN
Transcribe →My Brain Turned Into the Devil at Age 12 | Severe ADHD & Alcoholism
Jul 100:45:36Tap to summarizeWhat happens when your internal monologue switches from a storybook narrator to a demonic bully at age 12? Live from downtown Halifax, the guys sit down with Melly, a student association president who perfectly masked severe ADHD until a shocking diagnosis at age 43. Before finding out how her brain actually worked, Melly spent her 20s and 30s chasing dangerous dopamine hits just to make that inner voice shut up. We’re talking drinking seven days a week , regularly going home with strangers , and hopping right back into a truck bed the day after a drunk driver flipped it and nearly killed her. She even moved to Malaysia for a decade to teach scuba diving, purely because being deep underwater was the only place she could find true, beautiful silence. Melly gets brutally honest about the decades of self-love she lost to internal misery , using her role in student government to check on the peers who look completely fine but are privately drowning , and how her neurodivergence gave her the absolute fearlessness to solo-travel the globe. Follow Sickboy: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sickboypodcastTiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sickboypodcastDiscord: https://discord.gg/expeUDN
Transcribe →Surviving Cancer Only to Get Decapitated by Wyoming
Jun 2401:02:39Tap to summarizeWhat would you do if you moved out to LA at 18 to chase your dreams, but got handed a non-Hodgkin's lymphoma diagnosis and a 5-year expiration date instead? Our guest Aria fought through chemo, radiation, and 16 separate surgeries, and actually beat it. But the universe wasn’t done with her. After just two months of remission, the cancer moved to the temporal lobe of her brain, and doctors gave her one year to live. Spoiler alert: she didn't die. Aria decided to surrender to whatever was going to happen and somehow beat terminal brain cancer. But just when she thought she was in the clear, celebrating her one-year cancer-free anniversary on a road trip to Wyoming, she passed out at the wheel and crashed her car at 80 mph. The impact shattered her occipital bone, essentially detaching her skull from her spine. She woke up completely blind, unable to speak, and unable to walk. Buckle up (literally and figuratively) for a real life Final Destination style episode. Aria is a radiant, unkillable badass, and this conversation is a masterclass in fearless resilience. Follow Sickboy: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sickboypodcastTiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sickboypodcastDiscord: https://discord.gg/expeUDN
Transcribe →Breathless: The Impossible Milestones | Cystic Fibrosis
Jun 1700:36:55Tap to summarizeThis week on Sickboy we bring you the first episode of the latest season of Breathless. We're proud as heck with how this panned out and feel like you will dig it! The Season 2 premiere of Breathless explores a biological and existential revolution. For decades, Cystic Fibrosis was defined by a "physical perimeter"—a list of things that were simply impossible. But with the advent of transformative drugs like Trikafta, those walls are vanishing. Host Jeremie opens with a visceral comparison between a 2017 spiritual "holotropic breathing" experience and the 2021 pharmaceutical miracle of his first dose of Trikafta. We then hear from elite athletes who shattered expectations long before the "miracle drug" existed, and we look at how Cystic Fibrosis Canada is pivoting its entire mission from "extending life" to supporting a life "without limits."
Transcribe →The Truth About Hypnobirthing (And Why It Might Be Gaslighting You)
Jun 1000:53:02Tap to summarizeWhat if you could turn off the most agonizing pain imaginable just by thinking about a waterfall? Or better yet, what if a guy in a purple silk robe could cure you by waving a magnet over your junk? This week, Jeremie takes Brian and Taylor on a wild, mind-bending trip into the billion-dollar industry of Hypnobirthing and the dark, bizarre history of hypnosis. From 18th-century "Animal Magnetism" and the accidental discovery of the placebo effect, to a 19th-century surgeon who removed 80-pound scrotal tumors while his patients literally slept through it, we’re unpacking whether the brain really has a 'mute button' for pain. Is hypnobirthing tapping into a dormant superpower of the human mind, or is it just the ultimate medical gaslight that leaves women trapped in a toxic 'shame spiral' when it hurts? Grab your pocket watch, protect your testicles, and let's get weird.Follow Sickboy: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sickboypodcastTiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sickboypodcastDiscord: https://discord.gg/expeUDN
Transcribe →