Talk:Josh Cahill

The current edit by WWGB:

"There are conflicting accounts of Cahill's early life. According to Die Welt, reported in 2008, he was born in Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

In a January 2025 article in Airliners.de, it was published that he was born in Melbourne, Australia as Aljoscha Cahill-Wendholt, but moved to Germany at the age of 7 and legally changed his name to Josh Cahill in 2016. The Australian mentioned "Melbourne-born Josh Cahill", while Focus also referred to Cahill as German-Australian."

Given that this is backed by strong sources and fact checked, I'm happy to go ahead with WWGB last edit. If you have any other recommendations or sources that should be considered, please feel free to add. I hope consensus can be achieved here. Thanks :) MilesMogul87 (talk) 12:32, 25 May 2025 (UTC)

Welp, the article has been rewound back to where we were on May 4th, so even though MilesMogul87 has been banned, I suppose this is as good a place to flesh out what we want this to look like. My two cents:

• The "German" description in the lead is fine as is: nobody disputes that he is German.
• The Early life section should mention all three sourced options in chronological order: the "born in Germany" version (Die Welt), the "Czech refugee" version (Josh's own videos), and the "born in Australia" version (the recent press release & articles).

I'm slightly conflicted on the real name. While I, personally, think plain old Aljoscha Wendholt is the most likely and best sourced option, we probably need at least a footnote noting his insistence on the Wendholt-Cahill version. Jpatokal (talk) 22:20, 25 May 2025 (UTC)

I think the place of origin chronology above would be fine, so long as the refugee part is accurate to the source as discussed prior. As for the name, would you have any objections to stating the subject's current name foremost as "Josh Cahill" and list "Aljoscha Wendholt" as either a "former" or "born as" name? I think that WP:COMMONNAME and WP:SPNC would support this. fifteen thousand two hundred twenty four (talk) 00:34, 26 May 2025 (UTC)

Sounds good to me. @WWGB: you've been actively editing as well, how does this sound? Jpatokal (talk) 00:56, 26 May 2025 (UTC)

I have updated the section per the discussion above. Jpatokal (talk) 23:33, 29 May 2025 (UTC)

Hey Jpatokal, can you please mention the exact quotes and videos which you have used as references? I couldn't find them. Would be nice to see them for clarification. Preferably with time stamps. Thanks.

Also in the Airlines.de interview I couldn't find the part where he claimed these facts but rather the publication saying so. Could you clarify here too and post the exact Cahill quote that says that he made these statements. I couldn't find them either. Thanks 2A01:599:815:84A5:157F:E5B:13E:9A6D (talk) 16:50, 30 May 2025 (UTC)

I've updated the Airliners.de part to reflect that it was not a direct response given by Cahill in the interview. I'll wait for other article editors to weigh in on the other suggestions raised. fifteen thousand two hundred twenty four (talk) 19:59, 30 May 2025 (UTC)

I think it should also be added that the Australian mentions that he is Melbourne born as well as the Focus referring to him as German-Australian as per WWGB edit. 2A01:599:815:84A5:157F:E5B:13E:9A6D (talk) 17:04, 30 May 2025 (UTC)

In a January 2025 article in Airliners.de, it was published that he was born in Melbourne, Australia as Aljoscha Cahill-Wendholt, but moved to Germany at the age of 7 and legally changed his name to Josh Cahill in 2016. The Australian mentioned "Melbourne-born Josh Cahill", while Focus also referred to Cahill as German-Australian."

I think this edit is a lot for fitting as it puts the emphasis on reliable sources making these claims as the current edit makes it look like that Cahill claims these. As per the Press Release everyone can put these out, I don't see the connection to the subject here either. No need to include it. I definitely think that this "early life" section still needs a bit of work to make it more accurate. 2003:D3:D70A:ACE3:B86A:9174:AD2F:EAA (talk) 18:59, 30 May 2025 (UTC)

• I've removed paid press release per WP:INDEPENDENT and added The Australian quote which is highly reliable and a newspaper of record. Vlierman (talk) 22:54, 2 October 2025 (UTC)

  I have no objections in principle, although I would like to see the context of the claim. The article is behind a paywall and I can't find an archived copy from the usual suspects. Asamboi (talk) 02:45, 3 October 2025 (UTC)

  ​archive.is "Melbourne-born Josh Cahill encourages his followers to “go travel your way”, while filming his adventures in Afghanistan, Iran, Russia and North Korea." Not much to see. fifteen thousand two hundred twenty four (talk) 05:32, 3 October 2025 (UTC)

Josh: we all know you read this page. Please consider signing up as Josh Cahill and requesting verification through WP:VRT. This would make it so much easier to communicate, and it would let you request that your real name is removed entirely from Wikipedia. (Mind you, I can't guarantee that request will succeed, especially now that you've published press releases about the subject, but I'm not going to be one making that call.)

I know you find this hard to believe, but nobody here is "out to get you", we're just random editors who care about having an accurate encyclopedia. So if you want to have a Wikipedia page that tells your rather fascinating life story accurately, please work with us! Jpatokal (talk) 22:11, 25 May 2025 (UTC)

"we all know you read this page" – I find it much more likely that any apparent single purpose accounts editing here would be from Cahill's large followership, rather than Cahill themselves. The above is just jawing at shadows, maybe its Cahill's shadow, but that's unknowable and unhelpful besides. fifteen thousand two hundred twenty four (talk) 22:56, 25 May 2025 (UTC)

We've previously established that videos posted on Josh's YouTube channel have been deleted in immediate response to comments made here, and another editor went to the trouble of correlating some of those IPs with Josh's known timestamps at various locations. Now I'm not saying Josh is personally behind every edit here, but it seems rather unlikely that he is not involved at all.

Anyway, my suggestion was quite serious. If Josh would like to set the record straight, then this is the way to do it, and on the off chance that all this is coming from his legions of ardent fans, maybe they can pass the message on. Jpatokal (talk) 23:58, 25 May 2025 (UTC)

Thank you for the context, that's certainly a fair amount of correlated removals, but I'm still not comfortable with wagging a finger at the article's subject specifically about it. fifteen thousand two hundred twenty four (talk) 00:20, 26 May 2025 (UTC)

I've removed the finger-wagging: I still think it's justified, but it's unlikely to be helpful. Jpatokal (talk) 00:54, 26 May 2025 (UTC)

Fascinating to follow all this! I doubt though he is following this page or is involved though. I'm sure it's rather from his followers and haters alike. I'm sure he has more important things to do. I have listened to a podcast of him recently where he speaks quite openly about his name etc. I don't think he has anything to hide. Have you tried to reach out to him or his team to get a statement? It would clear up a lot of things and ends speculation. You seem very invested into this topic so why not reach out and let us all know? That would be a great approach and would shine some light on this. 80.187.100.50 (talk) 13:52, 26 May 2025 (UTC)

Have you tried to reach out to him or his team to get a statement?" – Terrible idea, nobody do this. fifteen thousand two hundred twenty four (talk) 17:33, 26 May 2025 (UTC)

Why does he have an Irish name? - 'Cahill' obviously being as Irish as Dublin Castle. There is some discussion here about the legal status of this name, but none regarding why he CALLS himself this. When did he start doing this, and why? 2A00:23C6:70C2:801:7CDC:E485:B467:785A (talk) 21:57, 30 July 2025 (UTC)

There's a bunch of places in Sydney named after Australian politician Joseph Cahill, including the Cahill Expressway, and I've seen a forum post that claims he named himself after Cahill Park near Sydney airport, which is quite popular for planespotting. As for whether this is true or not, only Josh knows and he ain't telling. Asamboi (talk) 00:11, 31 July 2025 (UTC)

Not likely. The name of the premier, the expressway and the park is pronounced "karl" whereas Josh pronounces his name as "kay-hill". WWGB (talk) 01:51, 31 July 2025 (UTC)

It's almost as if he's not actually Australian. Asamboi (talk) 09:08, 31 July 2025 (UTC)

Yup.

Just as you have a Dan Ryan expressway in Chicago. Plus a gazillion other places with Irish connections. Interesting that he chose a name so obviously Irish though.

Why not Josh Menzies? 😀 2A00:23C6:70C2:801:7CDC:E485:B467:785A (talk) 18:29, 31 July 2025 (UTC)

Josh has talked a lot about loving football. Tim Cahill was the captain of the Australian national football team when he was growing up. That’s where I presume he got the name from. ~2026-10411-92 (talk) 05:32, 16 February 2026 (UTC)