Shane Hewitt and The Nightshift

Canada's investment summit is dangling a trillion dollars in front of the world, and journalist Matt Gurney says the real problem isn't the money, it's execution, the same kind you'd notice trying to book a contractor for a small job. The conversation turns to who actually gets tax breaks in this country, and why access to faster answers from the CRA seems to scale with the size of your bank account. One number he floats as an alternative goes back to how Canada used to fund entire wars. Matt Gurney also gets into what happened during his own five-hour hold with CRA, and the one old joke about government that he says still holds up better than anything currently coming out of Ottawa. Topics: investment summit, tax deductions, CRA, bureaucracy, tax code GUEST: Matt Gurney | http://readtheline.ca | @‌mattgurney Originally aired on 2026-09-15

Dr. Mitch Shulman does radio, television, and writing on top of working the emergency room, and he explains the specific reason behind all of it, one that has nothing to do with recognition and everything to do with keeping people out of his ER in the first place. He describes what actually happens when a patient recognizes him mid-visit, and why that moment is never quite as flattering as it sounds. Dr. Mitch also draws an unexpected line between the way ER doctors mentally separate themselves from trauma in the moment and something almost anyone in a high-pressure job has had to learn how to do. Topics: ER doctor, patient education, emergency medicine, Dr. Mitch Shulman, healthcare GUEST: Dr. Mitch Shulman Originally aired on 2026-09-15

Youth unemployment keeps trending the wrong way, and career development leader Candy Ho points to something specific that used to give young workers structure and discipline that's harder to find now. A first job at a fast food chain once meant something on a resume. She explains what's stepped into that gap, if anything has. Candy Ho also has direct advice for the adults who unintentionally poison a young person's career hopes with their own bitterness about a tough industry, and what a more honest, still-supportive version of that conversation actually sounds like. She names a specific tool built to make career conversations with young people less like an interrogation and more like an actual exchange, one that takes the pressure off any single adult having to have all the answers. Topics: youth unemployment, career development, entry-level jobs, mentorship, transferable skills GUEST: Candy Ho | ceric.ca Originally aired on 2026-09-15

Rocco Rossi had a corner office, a closing cheque in his pocket, and a life built on the idea that he who dies with the most toys wins, until an ad on a Toronto subway car cracked something open that years of work had kept buried. What came after that moment turned into a promise, one he carried into the CEO's office at the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario, and a mission to make a life-saving device as common as a fire extinguisher. Rocco talks about what that promise eventually cost him, and what it gave back. Years later a phone call arrived from a stranger, tied to that same promise in a way that still catches him off guard when he tells it. Rocco Rossi has now walked the Camino de Santiago twenty-four times, and this is the story underneath all those kilometres. Topics: Camino de Santiago, Finding Grace, Heart and Stroke Foundation, survivor's guilt, pilgrimage GUEST: Rocco Rossi | http://roccorossi.com Originally aired on 2026-09-15

Tech expert and journalist Kris Abel joins us to share his thoughts on the new iPhone duo. And questions the path that Apple is on not only from the name, not following typical conventions, but the price point and how expensive it is Kris is not the only one that's flagged to the concerns about what's going on over at Apple. If AI could run a café how would it work? We find out with an update on the AI café and what it started to do, and also stopped making for its clients. And if there was a good use of all of this computing power in AI what would you use it for? Some kids in Africa have found out that they could actually change the world by teaching robots to do something that is worthwhile for humanity. Kris Abel - KrisAbel.com @realkrisabel Originally aired on 2026-09-15

Taxes edge out housing and food as the real cost of living most Canadians never add up. Franco Terrazano of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation breaks down just how much of a family's paycheque disappears before it ever hits the bank account, and why that share keeps climbing decade after decade. Terrazano tracks the tax bill's growth since 1961 against everyday prices, then places Canada on the global scoreboard against its closest economic competitors, a ranking that lands closer to the basement than most would guess. From there, the conversation turns to where the money goes once it's collected: billions in annual corporate subsidies, a payroll tax burden small businesses carry more of than their workers, and a wealth tax debate Terrazano calls a political Trojan horse. Topics: cost of living, taxes in Canada, tax competitiveness, corporate subsidies, wealth tax GUEST: Franco Terrazano | http://taxpayer.com Originally aired on 2026-09-15

A two and a half hour commute is the kind of thing that should end a relationship with a city before it starts. Instead, it's the opening line of an actual love letter to Toronto, the honest, complicated kind that admits the traffic is ridiculous and means every other word anyway. A rooftop patio on Queen Street West full of old friends hugging like family, a suburb where kids play in the street and you forget you're even in a big city, a subway and GO Train combo that somehow worked flawlessly on the one weekend it had every excuse not to. Every piece of evidence points somewhere different than expected. There's a case made for the rest of Canada too, that Toronto isn't the only place worth this kind of affection, and that the feeling should run both directions. What that means for a bucket list gets floated and left hanging. Topics: Toronto, love letter, TIFF weekend, Blue Jays, Canadian cities Originally aired on 2026-09-14

Some AI models behave differently the moment they realize they're being tested, a pattern researchers call deceptive alignment. Andy Barrar of Handy Andy Media unpacks what that means ahead of a Calgary conference on defending Canada's critical infrastructure, from the power grid to water treatment plants, against exactly this kind of risk. A Decade-Old Lawn Problem, Solved Barrar's trip to a Berlin tech trade show turned up a robotic lawnmower that finally handles the one job the entire category has never managed, and a fur-covered companion robot from China built to remember your family and sense your mood. What a $3,000 Phone Actually Costs A new folding smartphone launched with a price tag that climbs even higher once taxes are factored in. Barrar walks through why global supply chains are pushing every phone's price up, and why monthly leasing might be how most people end up affording one. Topics: deceptive alignment, tech trade show, robot pet, foldable phone price, critical infrastructure GUEST: Andy Barrar | handyandymedia.com | @handyandymedia Originally aired on 2026-09-14

The companies warning the world that AI needs to slow down are the same ones still selling access to it. Matthew de Mota, research director at the Canadian Shield Institute, untangles how much of that warning is genuine and how much doubles as a pitch for how powerful, and expensive, these tools really are. Somewhere between the two extremes sits a real risk: tools capable of scanning an entire system for weaknesses can just as easily be pointed at breaking one instead. De Mota lays out what that looks like when the target shifts from a company's servers to a power grid or a water system. Most people are using a version of these tools that barely resembles what's being tested behind closed doors. De Mota draws the actual line between the two, and explains why it matters more now than it has in previous years. Topics: AI risk, cybersecurity, critical infrastructure, AI regulation, frontier technology GUEST: Matthew de Mota Originally aired on 2026-09-14

Meal plans for a harvest crew. Diagnosing a broken combine. Auditing hockey ice time for an entire rural league. Lesley Kelly's actual list of AI use cases doesn't look like anything from a tech keynote, and that's exactly the point. The Skeptic and the Power User Kelly explains what AI still gets wrong, and the habit that catches it. Jimmy Zoubris lays out why he's kept AI at arm's length by principle, and the one unplanned use that made him rethink that stance entirely. Billion Dollars Gets You a Shortcut A national summit aiming to attract a trillion dollars in private investment includes a perk that neither guest can get behind: faster tax processing for anyone spending a billion dollars, while small operations wait years for basic answers. Zoubris draws a comparison to a controversial citizenship-for-cash program that neither guest expected to bring up. Topics: AI in agriculture, small business, national investment summit, tax fairness, Canadian red tape GUEST: Jimmy Zoubris GUEST: Lesley Kelly | highheelsandcanolafields.com Originally aired on 2026-09-14

One Phone Call, Five Strangers Offering Help One call to a hotel front desk in Newfoundland was supposed to end at a corporate voicemail. Instead it turned into five or six people volunteering their own time and contacts, no hesitation, no hard sell, just help. Nobody seems to have a story about this place that goes any other way. Gander's airport still plays an active role today, decades after its original purpose changed entirely, still trusted for the kind of situation nobody wants to be in mid-flight. The streets nearby carry names that hint at exactly why this small town became so important in the first place. A dinosaur statue tall enough to climb, with a lookout built into its own teeth, came close to being torn down entirely in 2025. What actually happened next says something about how this town feels about its own landmark. Topics: Gander Newfoundland, Drumheller Alberta, Royal Tyrrell Museum, Canadian travel, hidden gems Canada Originally aired on 2026-09-14

Jessica Moorhouse treats September like a financial reset point, the same way she once treated the start of a new school year. With just under four months left in the year, she explains why this window makes it easier to rein in spending than waiting until January. She shares exactly what she cancelled this year to prepare for a three week trip, and the surprising amount she saved without noticing any real change to her daily life. The test, she says, is simple: give something up and see if you actually miss it. Shane and Jessica also connect small daily purchases directly to a bigger goal, walking through how a habit worth five dollars a few times a week turns into real money by the time the holidays arrive. Topics: financial reset, budgeting, subscriptions, cost of living, holiday spending GUEST: Jessica Moorhouse | http://jessicamoorhouse.com Originally aired on 2026-09-14

Ian Lee makes the case that taxes, not groceries or housing, are the actual biggest expense for working Canadians, and explains why that conversation almost never comes up compared to gas or grocery prices. Ian points to a specific example that surprised even him personally: at age 65, prescription drug costs automatically shift from private insurance to government funding, regardless of how comfortable someone already is. He argues this kind of universal benefit is part of why taxes keep climbing. There are also rumours circulating in Ottawa right now about a possible 2% HST increase and a new capital gains tax on principal residences. Ian explains why Canadians should be paying close attention to both before either becomes reality. Topics: taxes, cost of living, government spending, HST, capital gains GUEST: Ian Lee Originally aired on 2026-09-14

Superstition shows up in more places than black cats and broken mirrors. Shane runs through a long list of small, unconscious habits people carry every day, from picking lottery numbers based on birthdays to refusing to wash a lucky mug during a winning streak. New research is also challenging the assumption that Friday the thirteenth is the day to watch out for. Shane and Ryan discuss what the numbers actually point to instead, and why the reputation might not match reality. Ryan explains why he always buys the same brand of sneakers, and Shane pushes back with a reframe that turns an ordinary shopping habit into something a lot closer to superstition than Ryan expected. Topics: everyday superstitions, bad luck research, lottery habits, Friday the 11th, rituals Originally aired on 2026-09-11

A US official is telling Canada to tone down its rhetoric, and Andrew Caddell has a specific list of reasons why that message rings hollow. He runs through Pete Hoekstra's own past comments, including a profanity-laced tirade at the National Gallery and a claim that a billion dollar bridge deal Canada actually paid for was a myth. Andrew borrows a very specific Newfoundland word to describe Pete, one he picked up from a friend who policed Gander during September 11th, and explains exactly why he thinks it applies here. Dominic LeBlanc says trade conversations with the US have not stopped, but Andrew draws a hard line between quiet diplomatic contact and an actual negotiation, and explains which one is really happening right now. Topics: tone deaf, Pete Hoekstra, Canada US trade, Gordie Howe Bridge, September 11th GUEST: Andrew Caddell Originally aired on 2026-09-11

One candidate wanted to face a Democrat in the general election. The path he allegedly chose to get there involved planting evidence on someone from his own party, and it did not go the way he planned. Forty thousand fans at a recent Blue Jays road game briefly forgot about the score entirely, distracted by a stadium bit with a strict time limit and a very specific prize riding on it. Most Rubik's Cube world records reward pure speed. One Nova Scotia man found an entirely different way into the record book, and it has nothing to do with how fast he can turn a cube. Topics: election scandal, Rubik's Cube, Blue Jays, Guinness World Record, Nova Scotia Originally aired on 2026-09-11

This week's watch list runs from a witch sequel with a devoted following to a medieval uprising and a rock reunion decades in the making. Steve Stebbing walks through what is actually worth your time this weekend, and what falls short of it. Sandra and Nicole Are Back, But Is the Sequel Better? Practical Magic 2 brings Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, and Stockard Channing back together twenty eight years later, and Steve has a take on which film actually sticks the landing. He also weighs in on The Uprising, a period piece from the director of the Bourne movies, and why the camera work might work against it. Two Brothers, One Reunion, One Documentary The long-awaited Oasis reunion gets its own documentary treatment in Don't Look Back in Anger. Steve breaks down how two brothers who could barely share a city ended up back on stage together, and why the film works even if you only know the hits. Topics: Practical Magic 2, The Uprising, Oasis documentary, streaming picks, weekend watch list GUEST: Steve Stebbing | stevestebbing.ca Originally aired on 2026-09-11

Long before the last kid moves out, Dr. Laurie Betito says the empty nest has already been happening in small doses for years. She traces how those early separations quietly shape how parents react when the real one finally arrives. **Using the Transition to Reset a Relationship** Dr. Betito explains why research actually shows increased marital satisfaction during empty nest, but only for couples willing to do the work. She lays out what renegotiating a relationship after decades of parenting actually looks like in practice. **Why the Second Time Feels Completely Different** Dr. Betito shares a camp story that captures how differently parents react the second time around compared to the first, and connects it to what couples need to talk about once the house is finally quiet, from personal space to rediscovering intimacy. Topics: empty nest, marital satisfaction, parenting transition, couples advice, relationship reset GUEST: Dr. Laurie Betito | drlaurie.com Originally aired on 2026-09-11

At this year's festival season, Mohit Rajhans noticed something that does not quite add up. Filmmakers are warning about how dangerous AI technology could be, while using it at the same time to make the projects they are most excited about. That tension runs straight into a real fight happening in the acting community right now, where performers are pushing for new protections around how their likeness and data can be used to train future AI models. Mohit explains what sparked the conversation and where it got complicated. Canada recently rolled out an AI literacy initiative from its AI minister, and Mohit has real concerns about what it can actually teach in the time it is given. He lays out what he thinks is missing and what it would actually take to close the gap. Topics: AI in film, synthetic video, AI literacy, TIFF, film festival GUEST: Mohit Rajhans | http://thinkstart.ca Originally aired on 2026-09-11

Ben Harrison explains what keeps people coming back to TIFF year after year, including attendees well into their seventies and eighties who treat it as an annual tradition. It isn't really about the movies themselves, he says. It's the friendships and conversations that only happen once a year, on the same streets, at the same festival. This year's lineup includes what one acclaimed 83-year-old British director says will be his final film, alongside a personal project from a two-time Oscar winner who built it around raising a young daughter after his character's arc in a major franchise collapsed entirely. One of the festival's most talked-about premieres has been waiting decades to happen. A documentary shot in the 1970s, capturing a private conversation among some of the defining figures of an entire cultural movement, was never finished until now, and it's already been called one of the most acclaimed films of the year. Topics: TIFF community culture, Mike Leigh final film, Midnight Madness TIFF, Canadian documentary premieres, Mahershala Ali new movie GUEST: Ben Harrison | @6benharrison Originally aired on 2026-09-11

Jeffrey Rosenthal has a personal stake in this question. He was born on a Friday the 13th, and every time someone calls the date unlucky, it feels a little bit personal. So he did what a statistics professor does: he got access to a massive database of unexpected deaths from the Ontario coroner's office and checked whether the date actually holds up. The result surprised even him in a few specific ways. Friday the 13th itself came in lower than the yearly average, but a nearby date showed a small uptick, one Jeffrey has a theory about involving timing and reporting delays. He also ran the same test on Halloween, expecting a similar pattern, and found something worth explaining. The real discovery came somewhere else entirely: a specific multi-week window each winter where unexpected deaths spike well outside normal statistical variation. Jeffrey explains the medical reason behind it, and it has nothing to do with luck. Topics: is Friday the 13th unlucky, statistics and superstition, confirmation bias, winter death rates, Ontario coroner data GUEST: Jeffrey Rosenthal | http://probability.ca Originally aired on 2026-09-11

Twenty five years after September 11th, the hosts compare notes on where they were that morning, and the gap between those old enough to remember it and those who were not born yet. One documentary estimate puts a number on how fast that gap is growing. Life before that day looked different in ways that are easy to forget now. The hosts revisit what flying used to be like, from what passengers could carry onto a plane to how quickly all of it changed within months. The anniversary also brings up a personal story tied to a Canadian album released that same day, a canceled tour, and a father's warning that ended up reshaping a relationship for years afterward. Topics: 9/11 anniversary, life before 9/11, air travel, Throwback Thursday, generational memory Originally aired on 2026-09-10

Food inflation is coming, but not for the reason most people assume. Dr. Sylvain Charlebois breaks down a quiet, unwritten pricing rule grocers follow every year, and why the months right before and after it hit the hardest at checkout. Tariffs on booze are reshaping more than the liquor aisle. Charlebois explains why a well known import brewer is eyeing a move south, what that could mean for a Canadian bottling plant, and why "made in Canada" on a label is getting complicated fast. Diesel prices are climbing up to two fifty a litre in places, and that number reaches further than the gas pump. Charlebois connects it directly to the cost of getting food across the country, and what that means for grocery prices this spring. Topics: food inflation, grocery prices, tariffs, diesel prices, supply chain GUEST: Sylvain Charlebois | @‌foodprofessor Originally aired on 2026-09-10

Every so often a fast food item goes viral for its sheer excess, and Lianne Phillipson has seen this pattern before. She traces the connection between a nearly two thousand calorie shake making headlines now and a past example that caused the exact same stir for entirely different reasons. Lianne explains why the impact of a drink like this depends heavily on who's drinking it. Muscle composition, activity level, and existing metabolic conditions all change how the body handles a sudden flood of sugar, and she names exactly which group faces the most serious risk. The conversation lands closer to home with a habit most people never think twice about: a flavoured coffee order with a few pumps of syrup. Lianne explains why that daily routine can carry more sugar than people realize, and offers one simple ask that changes it. Topics: hidden sugar drinks, nutrition and blood sugar, viral fast food items, sugary coffee habits, metabolic health GUEST: Lianne Phillipson | http://liannephillipson.com Originally aired on 2026-09-10

This Throwback Thursday plays the actual ABC broadcast from just hours before the towers were hit, followed by CNN's coverage a day later, to hear exactly how fast everything changed. The contrast between those two clips says more than any recap could. There is one specific word choice worth noticing in the early coverage, before anyone knew this was intentional. That single shift in language marks the moment the story became something else entirely. Gas cost sixty five to seventy five cents a litre in 2001. The list of what dominated the news also flipped almost overnight, from tax cuts and hockey to airport security and national security. Both comparisons land harder side by side than either one does alone. Topics: September 11th, archival footage, news coverage, gas prices, before and after Originally aired on 2026-09-10

Twenty five years after September 11th, Rob Breakenridge describes waking up to a clock radio reporting what sounded like a small plane accident, and the exact moment that story turned into something far worse. He was working overnight radio in Edmonton at the time, and remembers the shift from confusion to shock in real time. A hundred year drone partnership between Canada and Ukraine just got announced, and Rob lays out why a country once thought to be on the brink of collapse is now a technology leader other nations are studying closely. He connects what Ukraine has built to Canada's own struggle to defend its north. South of the border, Rob calls out a promise from Donald Trump to hand Americans a payout if Republicans win the midterms, tying it directly to numbers on the country's soaring national debt. He lays out exactly why he sees it as blatant. Topics: September 11th, Ukraine drones, Russia Japan dispute, Trump midterms, US debt GUEST: Rob Breakenridge | robbreakenridge.ca | @robbreakenridge Originally aired on 2026-09-10

September 11th changed more than politics and airport security. It reached directly into entertainment, forcing edits to films most people have watched dozens of times, from a pulled Spider-Man poster to a spaceship sequence in Lilo and Stitch that was quietly redrawn at the last minute. Gaming changed even more. Before the attacks, shooter games leaned fantasy and sci-fi. Within a few years, military shooters set in real-world conflict zones became the industry standard, and Halo 2 itself was rewritten mid-development to carry the weight of what had just happened in the real world. A researcher's paper argues the industry's recent move away from 9/11-themed games is not actually closure. It makes the case that this is avoidance instead, and points to one specific game built to force players to confront what those decades of shooters usually let them ignore. Topics: September 11th, video games, Halo 2, gaming industry, pop culture Originally aired on 2026-09-10

Kerry Derringer-Cashin was flying home from Dublin when her plane was diverted to Gander, Newfoundland on September 11th. She was on the first of thirty aircraft to touch down, but her plane was one of the last to let passengers off. What happened next in Gander is the part she still talks about twenty five years later. Kerry describes strangers who opened their homes for showers, brought grills into the streets for barbecues, and kept trays of food coming for days without being asked. Now back in Gander for the first time since 2001, Kerry reflects on what those five days taught her and why she finally made the trip to see the town again. She brought her husband and teenage son along to hear the story firsthand. Topics: Gander, September 11th, stranded passengers, Newfoundland, hospitality GUEST: Kerry Derringer-Cashin Originally aired on 2026-09-10

Twenty five years after September 11th, the raw footage tells a different story than the highlight reels do. Ed Conroy spent the last day and a half digitizing VHS tapes people recorded live that morning, giving you a first look at how the coverage actually unfolded, not what got repeated for twenty five years. Air travel used to look nothing like it does now. Conroy walks through what flying was actually like before the towers fell, from what passengers could carry onto a plane to who was allowed into the cockpit, and how fast all of it disappeared. The footage is also ageing in ways nobody expected. Conroy talks about watching broadcasters realize live, on camera, what they were witnessing, and why he thinks a certain kind of movie about that day may never get made. Topics: September 11th, 9/11 anniversary, air travel security, VHS footage, 2001 GUEST: Ed Conroy | http://retrontario.com | @‌retrontario Originally aired on 2026-09-10

Richard Crouse breaks down why this summer turned into one of the best box office stretches in years, driven by a mix of blockbuster sequels and something nobody quite expected: a surge of Gen Z moviegoers rediscovering the theatre experience. A $750,000 Horror Movie Made Almost $300 MillionRichard explains how a tiny-budget thriller called Obsession became one of the summer's biggest surprises, and why he thinks Gen Z audiences are actively hunting for movies that feel like their own generation's stories. Practical Magic Is Back, and It's Not Quite the SameRichard reviews Practical Magic 2, a sequel almost three decades in the making, and explains where the tone gets tangled between light comedy and something much heavier. Topics: summer box office, Gen Z movies, Practical Magic 2, Richard Crouse, movie reviews GUEST: Richard Crouse | http://richardcrouse.ca Originally aired on 2026-09-10

Apple just unveiled its long-awaited folding phone, and the reaction on this show wasn't about the design. Shane and Ryan run the actual math on the price tag, and it isn't close to what either of them expected walking in. The comparison gets specific fast. One version of the phone costs more than several used cars combined, and even the smallest model outprices a MacBook that could realistically last over a decade. Once financing and an average phone plan are added on top, the real monthly cost turns into a number most people wouldn't willingly commit to out loud. From there the conversation pivots to a completely different price debate: what's actually reasonable to spend on a pair of pants, and whether buying secondhand designer activewear at a discount is a smart move or a compromise nobody should have to make. Topics: Apple folding phone price, iPhone fold cost, expensive tech 2026, pants price debate, Lululemon resale pants Originally aired on 2026-09-09

A shift in this week's tariff list caught less attention than the new bans, but Jamie Ellerton and Lindsay Broadhead argue it's the more telling detail: specific products being pulled off entirely, a sign of exactly where the pressure is landing. Boots, Grapefruit, and the Great Pants Debate Before getting into policy, the panel spends a few minutes on smaller stakes entirely, landing on a debate over the best word in the English language and whether secondhand Lululemon is ever a good idea. It's a Little Unhinged," Says a Senior US Official Jamie Ellerton and Lindsay Broadhead dig into a direct quote from inside the Trump administration reacting to Canada's own language around the dispute, and explain why that reaction might be the clearest sign yet that Canada's messaging is landing. Topics: Canada US tariffs, trade war definition, retaliatory tariffs 2026, Lululemon resale debate, trade dispute messaging GUEST: Jamie Ellerton | conaptus.com GUEST: Lindsay Broadhead | broadheadcomms.ca Originally aired on 2026-09-09

A robot ran itself straight into a wall this year, and what happened next is the kind of clip that gets shared for the wrong reasons. Carmi Levy has been watching the robot games closely enough to know the wall isn't the interesting part. What he's noticed is a technology moving faster than the label being slapped on it. That label is the real argument. If a person driving a controller counts as an athlete, does a machine with no human touching it at all get to stand next to them under the same word. Carmi Levy and Shane land on opposite sides of where that line sits, and neither one backs down. Somewhere in the disagreement, the conversation turns into a pitch session. Two sports get invented on the spot, built around the idea that nothing has to survive a crash. What they come up with says more about where this technology is headed than the games themselves do. Topics: robot Olympics, esports, robot sports, AI competition, engineering GUEST: Carmi Levy Originally aired on 2026-09-09

There's a paper being handed out in one Calgary neighbourhood right now that most people have never heard of, made by two residents with no funding and no interest in changing that. Ryan tracked it down to find out why anyone bothers. Inside, opinions get settled that nobody asked to have settled. One drink gets ranked against its competitors by taste alone. One food trend gets torn apart by someone who clearly has a grudge. None of it reads like content built for clicks, because none of it is. There's exactly one place to get a copy, and the people behind it like it that way. Whether that's stubborn or smart depends entirely on how you feel about everything else being available everywhere, all the time. Topics: community newspaper Calgary, Beltline Tribune, print-only publication, local journalism revival, hyperlocal media Originally aired on 2026-09-09

A quarter century after 9/11, Nathan Radke makes the case that understanding what happened requires going back to a Cold War strategy most people never learned about, one built entirely around bleeding the Soviet Union dry in Afghanistan rather than helping the country recover. That strategy left behind orphaned children, trained fighters, and a power vacuum that a group called the Taliban, a word meaning something far more ordinary than most people assume, eventually filled. Nathan connects that history directly to the rise of a wealthy Saudi man whose name would later become synonymous with the attacks. He also walks through some of the most common conspiracy claims about that day and explains why the questions are worth asking, while naming the specific ones he believes still deserve real answers, including a claim involving two prominent families that has never been fully resolved. Topics: 9/11 conspiracy theories explained, Taliban history, Osama bin Laden origin, questioning official narratives, Cold War proxy wars GUEST: Nathan Radke | @‌theuncoverup Originally aired on 2026-09-09

Greg Fish has a test for separating what AI is actually good at from what it's being sold as, and it comes down to one sharp question he keeps asking companies that make the biggest claims: if it can really do that, why haven't you already done it yourselves? He runs the math on one of the industry's most quoted funding pitches, and the number that comes out the other end is not small. It's the kind of figure that makes the whole subscription model look strange in hindsight. A tool that can already do ninety percent of somebody's job isn't really a story about the tool. Greg says that math points somewhere else entirely, somewhere most people would rather not look. Topics: AI hype versus reality, AI subscription model, what AI is actually good at, AI job replacement claims, AI business inefficiency GUEST: Greg Fish | cyberpunksurvivalguide.com Originally aired on 2026-09-09

A new program from Lululemon lets shoppers trade in gently used gear for a payout, but the fine print reveals exactly what the company is hoping people choose. Tony Chapman lays out why one option is worth more than the other, and what that says about the real goal behind the program. Shane brings a real example from a high-end consignment shop, where a designer item sold for a fraction of its original price with the tags still attached. It's a glimpse at how large the secondhand market around premium brands has already become, with or without a company-run program behind it. Tony also revisits an idea he once pitched to a major Canadian retailer for handling designer resale, an idea that was turned down years before anyone else tried something similar. Topics: yoga wear resale, retail brand strategy, secondhand market, Lululemon Calgary plant, consignment shopping GUEST: Tony Chapman | http://chatterthatmatters.ca Originally aired on 2026-09-09

The birth control pill does a lot more than most people realize, according to Dr. Mitch Shulman. Beyond preventing pregnancy, he explains how it can control periods entirely, ease acne, and even lower the risk of certain cancers, benefits that rarely come up in casual conversation. He also names the specific symptoms that should never be brushed off while on a combined hormonal pill, from unexplained leg pain to sudden shortness of breath, and explains exactly what those signs could point to. The conversation closes on a completely different life stage, as Dr. Shulman explains what options exist for people entering perimenopause, and why newer approaches have eased some of the fears that used to surround hormone replacement therapy. Topics: oral contraceptive uses, warning signs blood clot, contraception alternatives, perimenopause hormone options, sexual health GUEST: Dr. Mitch Shulman Originally aired on 2026-09-09

A tweet ranking the greatest dogs of all time set off a debate once it became clear some of the most obvious picks weren't included, and the argument over who got snubbed took over most of the show. Storm damage in Windsor, Ontario turned into an unexpected good news story once a local bingo tradition came up, one where a cow, not a machine, ends up deciding who takes home the winnings. A long weekend of camping near a dinosaur museum came with pouring rain and near-freezing temperatures, but a short window of clear skies turned the trip into one of the best weekends of the year. Topics: greatest dogs of all time, Bessie Bingo, cow patty bingo, Drumheller camping, dinosaur museum Originally aired on 2026-09-03

A race car driver with no arms held speeds past 100 miles an hour at one of motorsport's most demanding endurance races, and the method behind it says something about what limits actually mean once you decide to ignore them. A baby born with a failing heart is being kept alive by a device that takes over the job her own heart cannot do, buying time until a transplant can happen. Texts poured in with nominations for the best movie dog of all time, from a half-man half-dog to a Saint Bernard nobody could name right away, turning into its own runaway debate. Topics: no-arms race car driver, Le Mans, heart-assist device, baby heart transplant, best movie dogs Originally aired on 2026-09-03

A company most people assumed was long gone just became an unlikely symbol of resistance. Vass Bednar, managing director of the Canadian Shield Institute, explains why MapQuest's refusal to rename Lake Ontario turned into a genuine online moment, one that MapQuest itself has leaned into. There may be more behind Google's decision to comply than political pressure alone. Bednar draws a line between an active EU fine against Google and the timing of its naming change, raising the question of whether this was really about following an executive order at all. She also explains exactly what these mapping platforms are built to track about the people using them, information that has very little to do with actually finding your way somewhere. Topics: MapQuest, Vass Bednar, Google Maps surveillance, Trump executive order, data privacy GUEST: Vass Bednar | https://canadianshieldinstitute.ca/ Originally aired on 2026-09-03

An ordinary walk to school turned into a bigger realization for Deb Hutton, one tied to a countdown she didn't expect to be thinking about yet, and it shapes the rest of this honest conversation about raising kids. Deb names the exact parts of early parenting she now misses most, even the ones most parents are relieved to leave behind, and explains why hindsight changes how those years look. A family vacation to Japan may not happen again the same way, and Deb walks through why the timeline for that kind of trip together is shorter than most parents realize. Topics: last first day of school, empty nest parenting, cherishing childhood stages, family vacation Japan, parenting milestones Originally aired on 2026-09-03

Alberta is one of the richest fossil regions on the planet, but there is a catch that surprises almost everyone who finds one, tied to a law most Canadians have never heard explained clearly before. Inside one of the country's top dinosaur museums sits a fossil discovered entirely by accident, stained black by minerals in the soil and dated to a point in history that is difficult to even picture. A long weekend camping trip in the dinosaur capital of the world hit pouring rain and near-freezing temperatures almost immediately, and the group had to improvise just to keep the weekend from falling apart. Topics: dinosaur bone ownership Canada, Royal Tyrrell Museum, Drumheller Alberta, black beauty T-Rex fossil, camping in the rain Originally aired on 2026-09-03

Most stress isn't the workload. It's the story a person tells about the workload, and a researcher who studies wellbeing explains why the exact same amount of "too much" can either feel exciting or feel like drowning, depending entirely on that framing. She also names a slower, quieter danger: a kind of behavioural drift where people keep saying yes to things nobody actually needs, until busyness itself becomes the whole identity. The fix isn't rest, and it isn't fewer responsibilities. It's a specific, tested practice, run on roughly two thousand people across several countries, that lowers measurable stress and anxiety within two weeks without asking for one extra minute of anyone's day. There's also a case made for boredom itself, the thing modern life has almost entirely engineered out of daily routines, and why losing it might be costing more than anyone realizes. There's a ten-second mirror habit in here too, deliberately ridiculous, meant for first thing every morning. It sounds like nothing. People who try it don't agree. Topics: how to de-stress, nature and stress research, self-inflicted stress, boredom and creativity, connecting with nature GUEST: Dr. Holli-Anne Passmore | http://nmil.ca Originally aired on 2026-09-03

Imagine you're trapped under rubble after an earthquake, injured, and the first thing that reaches you is a cockroach wearing a tiny electronic backpack, followed by a second one carrying a hypodermic needle loaded with medicine, all part of a very real rescue plan researchers are calling paraborgs. There is now a machine approved to draw your blood with a needle it controls itself, no nurse, no technician, nobody standing by if something goes sideways, built specifically because there aren't enough trained people left to do the job by hand. A group of hobbyists wired an AI into a skull-shaped Halloween decoration so it can look at a kid's costume and improvise a joke about it on the spot, and there is no script, no editing, and no guarantee the joke is any good. Topics: cyborg cockroach rescue robots, paraborgs, earthquake search robots, robotic blood draw FDA, AI Halloween costume detector GUEST: Kris Abel | krisabel.com | @realkrisabel Originally aired on 2026-09-03

Matt Gurney has a theory that doesn't sit well with most people: Canada's problems mostly aren't about the United States at all. He and Shane dig into the idea that whoever is in the White House can only exploit weaknesses that already exist, and most of those weaknesses were built right here, over years, by nobody but Canadians. The comparison that sets the tone comes from two American cities nobody thinks of as tidy. Matt lays out exactly why several major Canadian downtowns no longer measure up, and it isn't about crime rates or politics. It's something closer to home, and harder to explain away. From there the conversation turns to a system Canadians are told never to question, backed by numbers that suggest the return on investment isn't what people assume, and a real story about medical records that refuse to cross a provincial border. What starts as a healthcare gripe becomes a much bigger question about why Canadians struggle to admit when something needs fixing. Topics: Canada's problems, made in Canada solutions, Canadian healthcare system, interprovincial trade, cost of living Canada GUEST: Matt Gurney | http://readtheline.ca | @‌mattgurney Originally aired on 2026-09-03

A viral ranking of famous TV and movie dogs sorts every legendary pup into five tiers, from certified greats to outright failures, and Bob Addison isn't buying half the placements. Listeners get a rapid-fire argument over which beloved dogs got robbed and which ones never deserved the spot they landed. Some fan favourites take a beating, while an all-time classic gets accused of coasting on nostalgia rather than doing anything worth the title. One near great pick draws a hard no, and a supposed great dog gets called out for barely doing more than showing up in the background. Two dogs missing from the list altogether spark their own case for inclusion, including a homegrown Canadian favourite that Bob Addison argues deserves better than an afterthought. Topics: famous TV dogs, movie dog rankings, dog ranking debate, Littlest Hobo, Canadian dog characters GUEST: Bob Addison | @‌riobobbo Originally aired on 2026-09-03

The whiteboard next to Antonietta Nobile's desk in a hospital's heart investigative unit had exactly one job: track the date and which doctor a patient was seeing that day. She started using the empty space for something the schedule never accounted for, and patients noticed immediately. By the time she left that role, she'd written and photographed roughly fifty of these notes, keeping them for herself with no plan beyond that. A gentle, repeated question from her psychotherapist is the reason those notes exist as a published book today. Antonietta is now working on a second project, pulled from reflections posted to TikTok and YouTube, including a line from her most recent post about what it actually takes to keep going on the hardest days. Topics: hospital patient care, inspirational quotes book, kindness project, healing words, TikTok reflections GUEST: Antonietta Nobile | http://www.tiktok.com/@quiet.inspiration | @‌quietinspirationbyantonietta

Flight searches, hotel bookings, and car rentals are all spiking this long weekend, and one Canadian airport alone is moving tens of thousands of people a day. The data paints a clear picture of exactly when not to travel. There is a cheaper day hiding in that same data, and it has nothing to do with luck. It comes down to timing a departure and return around the days everyone else avoids, which most travellers never think to check. AI tools are becoming one of the go-to ways people plan trips now, but a side-by-side test against real airline pricing found the recommendations kept missing the mark. The gap between what AI promises and what the fare actually costs is bigger than expected. Topics: Canadian travel data, airport traffic, flight prices, AI trip planning, long weekend Originally aired on 2026-09-03

A jobs report that was supposed to show growth instead wiped out tens of thousands of positions in a single month, and Andrew Caddell says the real story isn't the headline number, it's what's actually being measured underneath it. Trade stress, tariff threats, and a summer of confidence swings all factor into where the economy sits right now, and Andrew makes the case that Canada's productivity problem started long before this one report. There's a specific comparison he draws that reframes the entire conversation. Somewhere in the middle of all this, a Byward Market cafe crossed a word off its menu board and started something else entirely. Andrew ties it back to a moment in Canadian history that puts the whole mood of the country into perspective, right after finishing a bike ride most people half his age couldn't manage. Topics: Friday roundup, Canada jobs report, tariffs, productivity, Canadian patriotism Originally aired on 2026-09-03