Shane Hewitt and The Nightshift

Money decisions get harder when every option feels important. Jessica Moorhouse says there's an uncomfortable contradiction hiding underneath many financial goals: we want more savings, less debt or better investments without wanting anything else in our lives to change.

So where do you start? Looking at what actually came in, where it went and what you've already changed can expose both forgotten progress and expenses that no longer deserve a place in your budget. Even one small decision can create room for something that matters more.

Then comes the harder question: what does your financial picture say about the life you're choosing? Jessica explains why understanding that story can help you decide what you want the next one to look like.

Topics: money decisions, financial priorities, spending, saving, money story

GUEST: Jessica Moorhouse |http://jessicamoorhouse.com

Originally aired on 2026-09-28

AI scam calls are changing a familiar problem: what happens when the person trying to fool you isn't a person at all? If you already hesitate before answering an unknown number, this adds another reason to wonder exactly what's waiting on the other end.

One AI scam call gets an unexpected response when someone who understands prompting starts pushing the caller away from its script. Instead of simply hanging up, he keeps manipulating its instructions to see just how far the machine can be pushed.

Phone scams used to leave you looking for the person responsible. AI makes that much murkier. When a machine can make the call, follow a script and keep responding, how exactly are we supposed to fight back?

Topics: AI scam calls, phone scams, artificial intelligence, scam prevention, AI callers

Originally aired on 2026-09-25

Canadian trade faces a deceptively simple question: are businesses waiting out a temporary disruption, or planning for a relationship that won't return to what it was? Andrew Caddell looks past the daily political fight to the economic ties that keep Canada and the United States connected.

Changing governments may not settle it. Protectionism has appeared under both major American parties, while decades of free-trade agreements complicate the idea that one election can restore the old rules.

There is another force politicians don't control: what people want to pay. Lower-cost imports compete against countries with higher wages and stricter standards, and Andrew points to Chinese automotive production as another challenge waiting for North American manufacturers.

Topics: Canadian trade, U.S. protectionism, Canada U.S. economy, Chinese imports, automotive industry

GUEST: Andrew Caddell

Originally aired on 2026-09-25

AI and robotaxis can do impressive things until an unexpected question or turn changes the script. Inside Copy starts with Tilly Norwood, a computer-generated character whose television interview takes an abrupt detour. What does the glitch reveal about the person-like image on screen?

The next detour is physical: a Waymo is reported to have driven through a farmers’ market. No one was hurt in the account, but the incident prompts a practical question. If the vehicle makes the wrong move, where does responsibility land?

Then the technology gives way to Fat Bear Week (it’s Inside Copy, afterall). There are bears to follow, salmon to catch and a contender with a name worth remembering. It is an appropriately strange finish to stories you did not need to know today.

Topics: AI characters, Tilly Norwood, Waymo, robotaxi responsibility, Fat Bear Week

Originally aired on 2026-09-25

Weekend movies and streaming picks get strange fast when Steve Stebbing arrives with six very different choices. There’s a scene-stealing dog, an original DreamWorks story, Robert Pattinson taking on Chris Hansen and a young Ted Kaczynski story with Russell Crowe.

The Dog Just Stole Brad Pitt's Movie

A dog named Odin manages something Steve says other stars haven’t: stealing the screen from Brad Pitt. Then Forgotten Island brings Filipino folklore and original animation into Steve’s strongest pitch, while Primetime takes on the complicated legacy surrounding Chris Hansen.

What If McConaughey and Harrelson Really Are Brothers?

Unibomber heads into Ted Kaczynski’s early life, Pulp revisits Jarvis Cocker’s band, and Brothers plays with the long-running question surrounding Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. Steve has thoughts on whether there might actually be something behind it.

Topics: weekend movies, Forgotten Island, Primetime, Unibomber, Brothers

GUEST: Steve Stebbing | stevestebbing.ca

Originally aired on2026-09-25

Can you love but not like your partner for a while? Clinical psychologist Dr. Laurie Betito helps you tell ordinary irritation from a feeling that deserves closer attention. What changes when “that annoyed me” becomes “I don’t enjoy being with you”?

In a long relationship, attachment, commitment, friendship and enjoyment do not always feel equally strong. An unresolved household frustration can build resentment, while an occasional bad day may pass. Dr. Laurie names the shift that should make a couple pause and take stock.

The answer may also require looking inward. Stress can leave you less patient with someone whose habits have not changed. What do you still enjoy together, what has pulled you apart, and would you choose this relationship today?

Topics: long-term relationships, resentment, friendship, stress, couples communication

GUEST: Dr. Laurie Betito |http://drlaurie.com

Originally aired on 2026-09-25

AI at work sounds impressive from a podium. Mohit Rajhans hears a different set of questions when he visits businesses, and his perspective helps you see the gap between announcements and daily decisions. What do people need answered before they can rely on these tools?

A task that had worked for a year suddenly took repeated corrections on one platform. The same instructions worked on another. If your workflow depends on a tool behaving consistently, how much time does a supposed shortcut save when it stops cooperating?

Mr. Rajhans says some companies are now asking departments to account for the tokens their AI work consumes. That turns a promise of efficiency into a question about cost and value. What should a business measure before calling its AI investment a success?

Topics: AI at work, reliability, business workflows, token costs, AI investment

GUEST: Mohit Rajhans |http://mohit.ai |http://thinkstart.ca

Originally aired on 2026-09-25

UFO documents can make an old mystery feel newly solved. Chrissy Newton helps you sort what this latest release adds from records that researchers could already access. One item reaches back to 1952, but why does it stand out among decades of material?

A UFO sighting becomes a story people repeat for generations. How much of that story comes from the witness, and how much from the words used to report it? Newton traces a familiar phrase back through the media coverage of an early sighting.

Then there are the documents drawing attention for references to wormholes and other unusual ideas. Does a record of research mean anyone found what people online say they found? Newton draws a line between the existence of a document and the answer people hope it contains.

Topics: UFO documents, UAP records, Project Blue Book, media narratives, wormholes

GUEST: Chrissy Newton |https://thedebrief.org

Originally aired on 2026-09-25

Slow burn dating asks a deceptively hard question: how much can you know after one meeting? Tony Tedesco and Jen Kirsch offer two ways to think about a connection that takes time, helping you decide when to stay curious.

Jen nearly ruled out an Uber driver after one uncomfortable ride. When chance put them together again, the experience changed. Her story raises a dating question: are you seeing a pattern, or judging someone by a single fumble?

Tony sees value in learning whether your goals fit before becoming deeply invested. He also admits he makes quick decisions himself. How do you give someone room to grow in your life while staying honest about what matters to you?

Topics: slow burn dating, first impressions, second chances, compatibility, dating apps

GUEST: Tony Tedesco | @‌tedescotony
GUEST: Jen Kirsch | @‌jen_kirsch

Originally aired on 2026-09-25

Nirvana band shirts are everywhere. Does wearing one mean you love the music, or just the design? A Throwback Thursday look at the old idea that a shirt was something you earned by going to a show or joining a fan club.

The smiley face has travelled well beyond those places. That makes it an easy target for the word “poser,” especially when someone cannot name a song. But is knowing the music a fair rule for getting dressed, and why does this shirt prompt the question so often?

The image takes you back to Nevermind and the sound behind it. Nirvana is remembered as grunge, yet there is a case here for hearing the band’s pop instincts too. How does that change what the shirt represents?

Topics: Nirvana, band shirts, fan culture, Nevermind, pop music

Originally aired on 2026-09-24

Nirvana changed who got to feel cool in 1991. Eric Alper takes you back to the moment Nevermind reached far beyond the people who first recognised themselves in it. What happened when the music industry went looking for another band like them?

Songs about alienation and anxiety found an enormous audience. But what was it like for the artists making them to suddenly face arena crowds and questions about everything they believed? Alper recalls what musicians from that era told him about the leap.

The plaid is easy to remember. Alper says the music also changed how he thought about social issues, fame and whose voices mattered. For anyone who lived through grunge, or found it later, this is a chance to hear what lasted after the fashion moved on.

Topics: Nirvana, Nevermind, grunge, fame, music and social change

GUEST: Eric Alper |http://thatericalper.com

Originally aired on2026-09-24

Canadian military planning includes extreme possibilities. So why did an acknowledgement about the United States become such a charged story? Richard Shimooka separates the need to prepare from the suggestion that a conflict is likely, giving you a way to read the headline more carefully.

Statements from the Trump administration still matter, Shimooka says. He questions whether Canadians should treat every provocation as a sign of what the US military intends to do. What deserves a serious response, and what risks drawing attention away from more immediate security work?

Then comes the uncomfortable question beneath the argument: what resources does Canada actually have? Shimooka’s answer is direct. He also points to the defence cooperation already taking place across the continent and asks where Canada’s focus would be better spent.

Topics: Canadian military, defence planning, Canada-US relations, military resources, continental security

GUEST: Richard Shimooka

Originally aired on 2026-09-24

1991 in Canada sounds like Nirvana’s Nevermind, but what else do you remember about that year? This Throwback Thursday trip puts the album beside baseball, politics and the cost of everyday life. See which parts still feel familiar and which are harder to imagine now.

The Toronto Blue Jays were a team on the rise. Looking back at that excitement from the perspective of a disappointing season today brings a question every fan knows: were the best years ahead, or already behind?

Recession, interest rates and fuel prices shaped the conversations of 1991. Compare those worries with the ones heard today, then recall another concern that seemed impossible to escape at the time: the ozone hole. How different was that year from this one?

Topics: 1991, Nirvana, Toronto Blue Jays, recession, ozone hole

Originally aired on 2026-09-24

Mark Carney is making Canada’s case abroad, but what are Canadians hearing at home? Matt Gurney makes the case for why that gap matters, even while the prime minister enjoys strong support. If you’re watching everyday costs rise, what would you want him to explain directly?

An interview with an American newspaper can reach the people Carney hopes to influence outside Canada. Gurney understands the strategy. He also sees a risk in relying on it while relationships with Canadian journalists and voters receive less attention.

Big international decisions may define a government, but so can the smaller things people live with every day. Gurney sees the government handling some major files well. What does he think could undo that work when public patience changes?

Topics: Mark Carney, Canadian media, public trust, international strategy, cost of living

GUEST: Matt Gurney |http://readtheline.ca

Originally aired on 2026-09-24

Diesel prices may be the number to watch before your next grocery bill. Dr. Sylvain Charlebois says his team’s model points to an added food inflation increase by December. How quickly could higher fuel costs reach the produce aisle, freezer case, or meat counter?

You bought Halloween candy on sale, but the bars inside look smaller again. Is buying early the smart move, or is there a better time to look for deals? Charlebois sees a wrinkle in chocolate prices that might change the answer.

Thanksgiving is close enough to start planning the main dish. Turkey, ham, lamb, or lobster: how much does that choice change the cost per person? One of those meals also raises a different question about the time families spend together at the table.

Topics: diesel prices, food inflation, Halloween candy, Thanksgiving dinner, grocery costs

GUEST: Dr. Sylvain Charlebois | @‌foodprofessor

Originally aired on 2026-09-24

Kurt Cobain is often reduced to the way his life ended. Kelly Catlin’s Forever in Bloom asks what disappears when a person becomes a headline, giving you another way to see the artist, the parent and the people he inspired.

The book began with a loss in Kelly’s own family. She knew how much of a person’s life could be obscured by one fact, and approached those who knew and loved Kurt with care. What did she find that the familiar story leaves out?

Four years of work produced a book that supports charities. But when Kelly is asked whether finishing it feels like a victory, her answer resists a tidy ending. What can it mean to honour a life while still making room for grief?

Topics: Kurt Cobain, Forever in Bloom, Nirvana, legacy, mental health stigma

GUEST: Kelly Catlin |https://www.kellycatlinauthor.com/

Originally aired on 2026-09-24

Nirvana’s Nevermind arrived at a moment Ed Conroy remembers as ready to change. His look back at 1991 gives you a reason to question the familiar story of a single band transforming music. What was already happening around them?

Think beyond plaid and guitars. Conroy recalls other records and television that made the year feel different, along with a music business that suddenly paid attention to artists outside its usual choices. How much of that change had been waiting beneath the surface?

That leads to a question for today: where would a comparable cultural shift happen now? Conroy says rebellion still appears, but audiences no longer encounter it through the same few channels. The music may break through somewhere. Would the rest of us even know?

Topics: Nirvana, Nevermind, 1991, alternative culture, shared pop culture

GUEST: Ed Conroy |retroontario.com | @‌retrontario

Originally aired on 2026-09-24

Hollywood is losing productions to other places, while a filmmaker’s starting point can now be a phone or a YouTube channel. Richard Crouse helps you make sense of the shift and picks out performances worth seeking.

What Gets a Room of Critics to Clap?
Crouse witnessed something he says he had never seen in three decades of press screenings. Which film prompted it? His festival picks lead into a bigger question: as shows move for financial reasons and technology lowers the barrier to filming, where will the next generation of movie makers come from?

Booze and Reviews: The Star With Four Paws
Brad Pitt leads Heart of the Beast, but Crouse says his canine co-star takes the spotlight. Does that connection carry a survival story whose action he found easier to predict? The review finishes with the stories behind several drinks named for dogs.

Topics: film festivals, Hollywood, filmmaking, Heart of the Beast, canine performers

GUEST: Richard Crouse |http://richardcrouse.ca

Originally aired on 2026-09-24

Loyalty points are meant to feel like a reward. Why does saving a little money now require another card, another app and another step at checkout? If you have memberships you can barely remember, this conversation puts a name to the fatigue.

A grocery membership has earned its place in one wallet, despite higher prices at that store. What makes it useful enough to change how someone shops? The answer raises a question for every other card you carry: would you miss it if you stopped scanning it?

Travel puts the question to a sharper test when ticket prices rise and a points balance can help. Is one valuable redemption enough reason to keep collecting everywhere, or would you rather choose the few programs you actually use?

Topics: loyalty points, grocery rewards, coupons, travel points, loyalty fatigue

Originally aired on 2026-09-23

Canadian affordability is the test beneath two noisy political conversations. Jamie Ellerton and Lindsay Broadhead help you weigh what Ottawa is doing against what you can feel in your own budget, even as headlines from Washington demand attention. Where should that attention go?

When does a long game help today?

Jamie Ellerton sees promise in wider trade and changes to project approvals. Gas prices, housing and the next budget make the timing harder to ignore. What would turn a national growth plan into relief people can feel?

What deserves the microphone?

Lindsay Broadhead questions how much attention Donald Trump receives and what a fight over renaming a public place accomplishes. Could telling more of a place’s history do something a new sign cannot? The choice matters when other priorities are pressing.

Topics: Canadian affordability, political attention, trade diversification, project approvals, public place names

GUEST: Jamie Ellerton | conaptus.com; Lindsay Broadhead | broadheadcomms.ca

Originally aired on2026-09-23

Parenthood can feel like a demand on time you barely have. Ryan is planning a wedding, and the baby question has already arrived. If your evenings are the one part of the day that still feels yours, how do you begin to imagine giving them up?

A free, one-night rec-centre program in New York offers parents a break while children take part in activities. It sounds like an answer to exhaustion. But is the larger problem a shortage of childcare, or the fear that family life will leave no room for anything else?

The word “losing” changes the stakes. Shane pushes back with another word for what happens to your time when you raise a child, and Ryan considers it. What changes when you question the assumption that those hours simply disappear?

Topics: parenthood, free time, childcare, family decisions, raising children

Originally aired on 2026-09-23

Childhood stories aren’t always grand. Sometimes they’re a fort, a scary movie or the night a parent discovered the video game was still running at dawn. This conversation invites you to remember what happened when your friends were in the same room.

The game was supposed to end with a virtual Stanley Cup. Instead, the night stretched past the final round, and even being told to go to bed didn’t stop the talking. What were two friends willing to stay up for after the screen went off?

Ghost stories, paper fortune tellers and games made each sleepover a little different. You can still play together online. When you think back years later, will you remember the win or the person who was beside you when morning came?

Topics: sleepovers, video games, ghost stories, childhood memories, friendship

Originally aired on 2026-09-23

Urban legends can sit in your memory for decades without ever looking suspicious. Nathan Radke uses the Phil Collins story you may have heard as a kid to give you a question that exposes what a familiar tale leaves out.

One version is simple. Another adds a bridge, a concert and a perfectly timed reveal. Why does adding detail make a story easier to believe, even as it gives you more to test? The answer says something about which stories survive being retold.

Then consider the claim that Paul McCartney was replaced. A clue in a song may sound persuasive until you ask what everyone around him would have needed to do. How many people would have to play along before the story collapses under its own weight?

Topics: urban legends, Phil Collins, Paul McCartney, celebrity rumours, critical thinking

GUEST: Nathan Radke |https://www.amazon.ca/Uncover-Up-Think-Clearly-Conspiracies/dp/1770418873

Originally aired on 2026-09-23

AI accountability sounds simple when you compare a website to a wall covered in graffiti. Greg Fish tests that comparison so you can see where it holds, and where it changes when the product is a tool capable of acting.

Rules for user posts face a difficult question: who decides what must come down? Greg warns that giving governments broad power over that decision could also suppress legitimate speech. Does the same concern apply when a company chooses to release an AI tool?

Automated cyber misuse could put new pressure on security systems. Stronger safeguards have a cost, while companies have reasons to keep growing. Can they decide alone how much protection is enough when someone else may have to deal with the consequences?

Topics: AI accountability, user posts, Section 230, cyber security, safeguards

GUEST: Greg Fish | cyberpunksurvivalguide.com

Originally aired on 2026-09-22

Loyalty points are supposed to reward you for coming back. Tony Chapman helps you look beyond the balance when every brand wants a place in your wallet, a record of your spending and a chance at your next purchase. What is the reward program getting from you?

You may have points everywhere and enough to redeem almost nowhere. If more choice is meant to help, why does it leave you fumbling at the checkout? Tony connects that fatigue to a jam shop with far more options than its customers wanted.

Then there are the points you never spend. They still matter to the company, even when you have stopped thinking about them. Before you collect another handful, whose idea of loyalty is this program serving?

Topics: loyalty points, rewards programs, loyalty fatigue, consumer data, unredeemed points

GUEST: Tony Chapman |http://chatterthatmatters.ca

Originally aired on 2026-09-23

Financial abuse in a relationship doesn't always look like control over spending; sometimes it's the quiet freeze of every account you thought you shared. Alyssa Bach, associate lawyer at Shulman & Partners, walks through the signs most people miss until a breakup forces them to look.

Some of it isn't intentional control at all. It's a financial picture built on assumptions nobody ever confirmed, until a retirement plan turns out to rest on debt no one flagged. Bach separates convenience from concealment, and names the one habit that catches trouble before separation does.

When separation turns adversarial, the tactics get specific: joint credit lines drained overnight, cards used for one last spree before they're cut off, one partner betting the other can't afford to fight. Bach lays out what the courts actually do about it, and why the law rarely cares who ended things.

Topics: financial abuse, divorce, separation, financial control, joint credit line

GUEST: Alyssa Bach |http://schulman.ca

Originally aired on 2026-09-23

Good news stories do not always arrive as big announcements. Sometimes they begin when a stranger walks up in a community hall and remembers listening years ago. Shane tells the story of that encounter and why people taking a moment to say hello matters to him.

His first stained glass class offers another kind of news: the pleasure of learning something entirely new. If you have been putting off trying a class, his account may sound familiar, even if cutting glass has never crossed your mind.

Ryan and Laura have chosen their wedding venue after plenty of back and forth. They are waiting on a date, while his brother’s wedding creates another detail to work around. It is a Good News Tuesday full of decisions, first attempts and moments worth saying aloud.

Topics: good news stories, community encounters, stained glass, wedding venue, wedding planning

Originally aired on 2026-09-22

Good News Tuesday begins with a dream job question: what would you choose if you could spend your workday testing something you love? Ryan has an answer, and it involves a lot of building.

An ice cream taste tester opportunity mentioned on air gives the conversation a new contender. Shane reveals the monthly pay he heard, and Ryan’s response comes quickly. Meanwhile, Shane is already considering a career change of his own after exactly one stained glass class.

There is good news from the animal world, too. Shane recounts a report about a baby otter that received help and introduces a record-setting Great Dane. The stories leave room for one more question: what small piece of good news would you add to the list?

Topics: Good News Tuesday, dream jobs, ice cream tasting, baby otter, Great Dane

Originally aired on 2026-09-22

Alberta politics has a fresh result to interpret: a Calgary seat previously held by the UCP has gone to the NDP. Rob Breakenridge helps you judge what that change might mean without treating one by-election as a forecast.

The referendum is another test for Danielle Smith. Rob describes frustration among people who oppose holding it and among separatists dissatisfied with her approach. That leaves a question about how the UCP holds its coalition together.

The conversation also reaches beyond Alberta. Rob considers a possible US diesel export ban and points to divisions among conservative parties in BC as an example of vote splitting in action. If you are wondering how energy prices, party loyalties and a single flipped seat fit together, this conversation offers a way to follow them.

Topics: Alberta politics, Calgary by-election, Alberta referendum, diesel prices, vote splitting

GUEST: Rob Breakenridge | robbreakenridge.ca

Originally aired on 2026-09-22

Churchill Manitoba has polar bears, belugas and a train ride that could take days. Would you still want to go if you could not count on Wi-Fi along the way? Shane wants the journey, but that one detail gives him pause.

Ryan would go for the wildlife, including an animal Shane had not thought of seeing there. Then a message arrives from someone who worked in Churchill with a less picturesque detail about the summer. If you were choosing when and how to visit, would it change your plans?

The road trip moves to Maple Creek, Saskatchewan, where driving straight through could mean missing a landscape you might never expect to find on the prairies. Have you been near a place like that without knowing it was there?

Topics: Churchill Manitoba, polar bears, Canadian train travel, Maple Creek, Saskatchewan

Originally aired on 2026-09-22

Ryan told an American friend he needed to wear his toque all winter. His friend heard something very different. What everyday word have you used without realizing someone else might have no idea what you mean?

Shane and Ryan put a few Canadian favourites to the test: pop, loonie, double-double and washroom. They even disagree about whether one American word sounds better than ours.

Which of these do you say, and which ones have you had to explain?

Topics: Canadianisms, toque, pop versus soda, double-double, washroom versus restroom

Originally aired on 2026-09-22

John Chew traces the letter Z back through French and Greek to explain how nearly every English-speaking country in the world settled on Zed, while one major country broke from that standard entirely.

He also lays out how saying Zed or Zee has quietly become a small political signal in Canada right now, whether the speaker intends it that way or not.

John points to a specific Canadian spelling that isn't borrowed from American or British English at all, a detail that reshapes what "Canadian English" actually means.

Topics: Canadian English, language and identity, Zed versus Zee, Canadian dictionary, John Chew

GUEST: John Chew |http://canadianenglishdictionary.ca

Originally aired on 2026-09-22

AI radio stations can choose songs and introduce them. But what happens when each AI decides it knows exactly what the audience wants to hear? Kris Abel has audio from two stations whose introductions took peculiar turns. Would either one survive your commute?

Now picture a shark where you did not expect one. Kris’s accounts of sightings in Quebec and Nova Scotia lead to a question he once put to a diver who regularly swims near great whites. Shane hears the answer and remains firmly unconvinced.

Then there is a cage match involving a human and a six-foot robot operated by remote control. The organisers declared a winner. Kris watched the footage and came away with a different verdict.

Topics: AI radio stations, Kris Abel, shark sightings, great white sharks, robot cage match

GUEST: Kris Abel | krisabel.com | @realkrisabel

Originally aired on 2026-09-22

Diesel prices have pulled a dollar ahead of gasoline at the pump, and energy expert Dan McTeague breaks down exactly why that gap opened up and what's actually driving it.

He also points to a surprising piece of the supply chain most people get wrong, tied to a country that claims energy independence while quietly depending on imports to keep diesel flowing.

For anyone hoping this is a short-term spike, Dan lays out the real timeline he expects these prices to stick around, and it's longer than most people are bracing for.

Topics: diesel prices, energy costs, fuel supply chain, cost of living, Dan McTeague

GUEST: Dan McTeague |http://affordableenergy.ca

Originally aired on 2026-09-22

Bob Addison is back on the ice, and this season's soreness has shown up somewhere new, a detail that says a lot about what curling actually demands from the body.

He also shares a story about a former teammate who, after hip surgery, kept watching his own games live from home, and what his curling club did in his honour after he passed.

Bob rounds it out with a detail from a BC curling club he visited this weekend, where a well-known Canadian curling movie poster has turned up in a spot nobody would expect.

Topics: curling season, curling injuries, curling community, curling culture, Bob Addison

Originally aired on 2026-09-22

A Costco discount led to two hundred and sixty chocolate bars landing in one house five weeks before Halloween, and what happens next is the exact reason nobody should buy that early.

Uncle Bob Addison pops in and shares he made this mistake a year earlier found one physical trick that actually kept temptation out of reach, and it's simple enough that anyone could steal it before their own candy disappears.

A well-known chocolate bar has quietly shrunk down to a fraction of what it used to be, and the side-by-side comparison makes it impossible to unsee once you hear the numbers.

Topics: Halloween candy, shrinkflation, seasonal shopping mistakes, fall in Canada, Happy Friday roundup

Originally aired on 2026-09-21

A break-in caught entirely on camera left one homeowner more unsettled than any theft could have, after a masked intruder defeated motion lights and AI tracking without so much as flinching.

What happened once he got inside the shed raises a bigger question than how he got past the security system in the first place, and it's one that still hasn't been answered.

The conversation shifts to cybersecurity expert insight from a major industry conference, where the average age reported for an online cybercriminal turns out to be far younger than most people would guess.

Topics: home security break-in, motion detection cameras, cybersecurity conference insights, cybercrime demographics, Andy Barrar

GUEST: Andy Barrar |http://handyandymedia.com | @‌handyandymedia

Originally aired on 2026-09-21

Cybersecurity and tech analyst Ritesh Kotak shares a scenario that's closer to reality than most people realize, where an AI could buy you something based on a single offhand comment you made in passing.

He also lays out what actually happens the other side of the 90 percent of the time everything feels smooth, and why that smaller percentage is where the real damage happens.

Ritesh points to a growing concern among experts: multiple AI agents working on your behalf coordinating with each other, without you ever knowing what they discussed.

Topics: AI agents, AI decision-making, agentic AI risk, AI purchases, Ritesh Kotak

GUEST: Ritesh Kotak |http://riteshkotak.com

Originally aired on 2026-09-21

If you're about to vote in a municipal election, there's an old line two former city hall insiders keep coming back to, and it explains exactly why so many local promises never get kept, no matter who wins.

Former Montreal mayoral advisor Jimmy Zoubris shares the one test he uses to tell which candidates can actually survive the backlash that comes with real decisions, and which ones just fold the first time someone's angry. Karen brings perspective on how to be heard from the candidate’s chair.

By the time you hit the ballot box, you'll want to know whether to bet on a bold visionary or a steady, experienced team, and two people who've lived inside both sides finally settle it.

Topics: municipal elections Canada, city hall power, voting for mayor, local politics, Jimmy Zoubris, Karen Stintz

Guests: Jimmy Zoubris, Karen Stintz

Originally aired on 2026-09-21

Longtime broadcaster John Moore has moderated Toronto election debates with as many as nine candidates on stage at once, and he breaks down exactly what happens when that many people compete for the same microphone at the same time.

He also reveals what kind of debate, John believes, is the most successful and valuable to the voter. And also, how to candidates reveal themselves within a debate.

For anyone planning to attend a local debate this fall, John lays out the one rule he actually uses to decide when a candidate has crossed the line and needs to be cut off.

Topics: municipal election debates, debate moderation, Toronto mayoral race, voter engagement, John Moore

GUEST: John Moore |http://newstalk1010.com/shows/moore-in-the-morning

Originally aired on 2026-09-21

Holistic nutritionist Alyssa B says most people are getting barely half the fiber they need each day, and breaks down the actual gram target adults should be hitting.

She also flags a habit most people don't think twice about, peeling the skin off fruits and vegetables that happen to carry most of their fiber, and names exactly which ones to stop peeling.

Alyssa shares a dessert recipe that hides an unusually high amount of fiber inside something that tastes nothing like health food, using ingredients nobody would guess are in there.

Topics: fiber intake, holistic nutrition, gut health, high fiber recipes, Alyssa B

GUEST: Alyssa B |nourished.ca

Originally aired on 2026-09-21

Carmi Levy has noticed the same thing a lot of people have lately: scam calls used to trickle in every few weeks, and now they show up in clusters, sometimes minutes apart. He points to one specific shift in technology that's letting far more people run these operations with almost no setup required.

The advice to "just don't answer" sounds simple, but Carmi explains why picking up at all can make the problem worse. A single answered call confirms a number is live, and that information doesn't stay in one place. He also breaks down why the number on your screen, even one that looks local, can't be trusted the way it used to be.

Shane shares a specific email trick he built to instantly catch fake bank messages before falling for them, and Carmi adds his own method for keeping personal and financial contact information separated so it's obvious when something doesn't add up.

Topics: scam calls increase, caller ID spoofing, AI scam calls, phishing protection tips, email alias security

GUEST: Carmi Levy

Originally aired on 2026-09-21

Ben Harrison walks through what nine days at the Toronto International Film Festival actually looks like when you're chasing dozens of premieres, and how this year stacked up against his personal record from a decade ago.

He also describes a packed 800-person theatre where the crowd kept breaking into spontaneous applause mid-film, the kind of reaction that only happens live, in a room, before a movie has even opened anywhere else.

Not every film lived up to its own hype, and Ben breaks down exactly where one heavily marketed prestige title lost him, despite a lead performance everyone was expecting to be a knockout.

Topics: TIFF film festival, film festival culture, movie recommendations, film premieres, Ben Harrison

GUEST: Ben Harrison

Originally aired on 2026-09-21

Gas prices are climbing everywhere, and this segment turns into a live, city-by-city comparison of what people are actually paying at the pump right now, with numbers coming in that are hard to believe.

From there the conversation moves to cars, breaking down how stretching a loan from four years to eight or ten quietly changes what a vehicle really costs by the time it's paid off.

Underneath all of it is a bigger shift, as the conversation turns to whether the cost of everything has pushed people past frustration and into actually changing how they live.

Topics: gas prices, cost of living, car financing terms, rising vehicle costs, cost of driving

Originally aired on 2026-09-18

There are direct flights between Germany and places like Yukon and Saskatchewan, and columnist Andrew Caddell uses that detail to explain something most Canadians don't realize about how Europe already sees this country.

He also takes on the assumption that distance always matters in trade, making the case for why a service-based economy doesn't need to be close to the market it sells into.

Andrew gives his own take on whether this EU push is a real opportunity for Canada or just another announcement with nothing behind it.

Topics: European perception of Canada, Canadian services sector, EU trade opportunity, Canada EU relations, Andrew Caddell

Originally aired on 2026-09-18

A state government agency mixed up the identities of thousands of people, printing new ID cards with the wrong face attached, and correcting it took more than a simple reprint.

An athlete had an accident mid-competition, right in front of spectators, and officials made a choice about whether to stop the event that says a lot about how these things usually go.

A driver in a lifted pickup truck crashed while trying to multitask behind the wheel, and the specific thing he was doing puts this firmly in Florida news territory.

Topics: government ID mix-up, weird news, viral news stories, only in Florida, Happy Friday roundup

Originally aired on 2026-09-18

Film critic Steve Stebbing lays out a full weekend of picks, spanning theatres, streaming, and one music documentary he calls unmissable.

A Gold Heist Steve Compares to One of His Favourite Films Ever

Steve dives into a Depression-era survival story starring Ethan Hawke and Russell Crowe, drawing a direct line to a classic thriller he's championed for years. He also covers a near-perfect horror reboot and a stop-motion sequel from a studio he trusts completely.

The Producer Behind Half of Modern Music Sits Down With Jay-Z

Steve unpacks a documentary built around one music industry legend interviewing another, tracing a career that stretches from hip hop to rock to country. He also gets into a spy drama's surprising staying power and a mob thriller's tense new season.

Topics: weekend movie picks, streaming recommendations, music documentaries, spy dramas, Steve Stebbing

GUEST: Steve Stebbing | stevestebbing.ca

Originally aired on 2026-09-18

Psychologist Dr. Laurie Betito breaks down why so many people quit dating apps, only to come back a few months later no matter how burned out they were the first time.

The Gender Gap Nobody's Talking About

Dr. Laurie unpacks a paradox playing out on dating apps right now, where men feel invisible while women feel buried in messages, and neither side realizes what's actually happening to the other. She also explains the low-level rejection that builds up with every unanswered message.

How to Actually Be a Good Wingman

Dr. Laurie lays out a simple rule for knowing how long to keep dating someone before deciding it's not working, and where friends cross the line from helpful to meddling when trying to set someone up.

Topics: dating app fatigue, dating psychology, wingman etiquette, single friends support, Dr. Laurie Betito

GUEST: Dr. Laurie Betito | drlaurie.com

Originally aired on 2026-09-18

AI strategist Mohit Rajhans raises a question most people never think to ask when a tool starts personalizing their work and their inbox: what actually happens to everything you've built once you try to detach from it.

That same personalization has a blind spot, because AI tends to latch onto the first thing it decides is important rather than what's genuinely most important, and that gap is easy to miss until it costs you.

Mohit also gets into where he draws the line between AI that genuinely helps and AI that starts quietly reshaping how a person works without them fully realizing it.

Topics: AI personalization, AI data ownership, AI summaries, AI blind spots, Mohit Rajhans

GUEST: Mohit Rajhans |http://thinkstart.ca |http://mohit.ai

Originally aired on 2026-09-18

Money expert Barry Choi breaks down why car loans have stretched from five years to eight, and what that actually does to the total price of a vehicle once the interest adds up over that much longer.

He also exposes a dealer tactic where two completely different cars end up with the same monthly payment, and the only difference nobody mentions is how many years you're actually financing.

Barry gets into what happens when a car ends up worth less than what's still owed on it, and why that situation can be far harder to get out of than people expect.

Topics: car financing, leasing vs buying, underwater car loans, dealer payment tactics, Barry Choi

GUEST: Barry Choi | @‌barry_choi

Originally aired on 2026-09-18

Dr. Christine Palmay pushes back on a common assumption heading into fall respiratory season: that being young and healthy means vaccines don't really matter. She explains why that risk is lower, not absent, and what changes once flu, COVID, and RSV start circulating through Canadian households.

She points to research on large public gatherings, the kind where crowds pack together for hours, and the noticeable rise in infectious disease that follows. It's a pattern that plays out every fall as families gather indoors for the holidays, mixing generations under one roof.

Dr. Palmay also shares a Canadian polling number that reframes the whole hesitancy conversation: a large majority say they'd get vaccinated if they understood the cardiovascular risks tied to these illnesses. The gap isn't belief, she argues, it's information.

Topics: respiratory illness season, vaccine hesitancy Canada, RSV pneumococcal COVID, preventative health fall, cardiovascular risk

GUEST: Dr. Christine Palmay | @‌dr.christine.palmay

Originally aired on 2026-09-18

What was it like to work in a music store? Ryan remembers HMV all too well…

Originally aired on 2026-09-16

Pumpkin spice coffee turns thirty four this year, and Dr. Sylvain Charlebois reveals it was never supposed to exist in the first place. It started as a marketing mistake at Starbucks, and sales have dropped five to ten percent since peaking in 2023.

One major fast food chain has just stepped back from pumpkin spice on its fall menu after ten years of serving it. Sylvain breaks down what that decision signals for the entire coffee industry and the flavour combinations companies are testing to fill the gap.

Meanwhile, a different drink category is climbing fast, and it is not what you would expect to be gaining ground. Sylvain shares the sales numbers behind it and the surprising product it now ranks just behind.

Topics: pumpkin spice, McDonald's, non-alcoholic beer, food trends, fall flavours

GUEST: Sylvain Charlebois | @‌foodprofessor

Originally aired on 2026-09-17

Mercury is shriveling up like a grape in the sun, a raisin! Dr. Sam breaks down why this is happening. 

GUEST: Dr. Samantha Yammine, PhDis a Neuroscientist turned Science Communicator better known asScience Sam 

Originally aired on 2026-09-17

A friend hands over a card. Ten tapes, practically free, just don't bother cancelling and nobody comes looking. That was the pitch, and millions of people took it without asking the one question that actually mattered.

The company built an entire model on nobody asking that question, right up until a recent headline claimed it was finally done for good. It wasn't. The story behind why gets stranger the deeper it goes.

One of those orders, years ago, came back as the wrong version of the tape entirely, no explanation given at the time. The answer turns out to trace straight back to the same unasked question everyone else skipped too.

Topics: Columbia House, record stores, 1979 throwback, Moonraker, music nostalgia

Originally aired on 2026-09-17

The Alberta separation referendum arrives in just over a month, and broadcaster Rob Breakenridge lays out what a new university report says it would actually cost, so you know the real numbers before the vote.

Behind the scenes, a leaked story about Canada chasing a closer relationship with the European Union set off a strange chain of events, and it wasn't Ottawa that ended up in Donald Trump's crosshairs this time.

The conversation also gets into why a Conservative stronghold in Calgary just flipped, and why the ripple effects of any Alberta split would reach much further than most of the country realizes.

Topics: Alberta separation referendum, Canada EU membership, Donald Trump, Calgary byelection, Rob Breakenridge

GUEST: Rob Breakenridge |http://robbreakenridge.ca | @‌robbreakenridge

Originally aired on 2026-09-17

Columbia House once had sixteen million members across North America, and music expert Eric Alper explains how a penny-CD mail order club grew into a genuine billion dollar business. The scale of it is far bigger than the nostalgic joke it's become.

Eric also reveals the reason record labels were willing to let those CDs go out for almost nothing: the artists behind them were never paid a cent, because the whole arrangement was quietly filed under promotion. He walks through the formats Columbia House sold across decades, from vinyl records to eight-track tapes, and how long each one stayed on offer.

By the end, Eric connects the company's business model to something still affecting people's bank accounts today, a habit that started with Columbia House and never really went away.

Topics: Eric Alper, Columbia House, music industry history, penny CD scam, negative billing

GUEST: Eric Alper |That Eric Alper | Home  | @‌thatericalper

Originally aired on 2026-09-17

Small business taxes get treated like an abstract line item until Corinne Pohlmann of CFIB puts real numbers on what businesses pay just to keep an employee on payroll, whether or not the business turns a profit that year.

She shares what CFIB members consistently say they would do first if their tax burden dropped, and breaks down the exact ratio employers pay into EI on top of what comes off an employee's own paycheque. The math changes how the whole conversation about business taxes should be framed.

There's also a detail about hiring your own family members that catches most people off guard, tied to a gap in coverage that only shows up once you're the one signing the paycheques.

Topics: small business taxes, employer costs, EI premiums, corporate tax, CFIB

GUEST: Corinne Pohlmann |Canadian Federation of Independent Business | CFIB

Originally aired on 2026-09-17

Columbia House recently shut down, and Ed Conroy finally explains the business model that kept it running for decades after everyone assumed it should have collapsed. It came to Canada in 1979, and the reason it worked has nothing to do with luck.

Those free cassette deals came with a catch that most people never noticed. Conroy breaks down how the physical tapes themselves were produced in a way that meant the artists on them never actually got paid.

1979 gets remembered for a handful of big radio hits, but Conroy argues the real story of the year is what never made the charts. He points to the genres quietly taking shape underneath the mainstream that would go on to define everything after.

Topics: Columbia House, 1979 music, cassette tapes, mail order records, Canada

GUEST: Ed Conroy |http://retrontario.com | @‌retrontario

Originally aired on 2026-09-17

Richard Crouse previews Heart of the Beast, a survival thriller starring Brad Pitt as a stranded special forces officer fighting to survive the Alaskan wilderness, and reveals who Pitt himself says was actually the biggest name on set.

Brad Pitt Says His Co-Star Outranked Him
Richard explains why Pitt's canine co-star topped the call sheet on this new survival thriller, and what that detail says about how the film was made.

How Prohibition-Era Bars Hid Alcohol From Police
Richard reviews The Wait, starring Ethan Hawke and Russell Crowe, then details a mechanism one real New York bar used to vanish its liquor bottles the moment police showed up for a raid.

Topics: Brad Pitt survival thriller, Prohibition cocktails, The Wait review, Richard Crouse, fall movies

GUEST: Richard Crouse |http://richardcrouse.ca

Originally aired on 2026-09-17

Your tax bill outweighs every other expense Canadians complain about, and new research backs that up. Shane and Ryan break down why the conversation around cost of living keeps missing the actual number one line item.

Ryan expected a return this year. Instead he had to pay money back, and it changed how he thinks about what his taxes should be covering. He names the one piece of healthcare he wishes was actually included.

Shane pushes the conversation further with a simple reframe: it isn't the government's money being spent, it's Canadians' money. He walks through what that shift in language changes about how citizens should be judging value for what they pay.

Topics: tax bill, cost of living, vision care, doctor access, government spending

Originally aired on 2026-09-16

A stalled trade deal with the United States gets reframed here as something other than a loss. Jamie Ellerton argues Canadians have been treating a shrinking relationship with the US as the new ceiling on what's possible, when it might actually be the floor, a starting point for figuring out where the real ceiling could be instead.

That argument runs alongside a genuine mystery in Ottawa: reports that Canada pursued a special status with the EU that nobody, including the politicians debating it, can fully define yet. Lindsay Broadhead weighs in on whether it belongs in Parliament now or once actual details exist to argue over.

None of this stopped a trip to the Rogers Centre from becoming the best day of the season, three consecutive home runs for the first time since 2012, and a moment involving Vladimir Guerrero Jr. that had the entire stadium on its feet.

Topics: Canada floor not ceiling, Blue Jays back to back, EU trade, Parliament transparency, Jamie Ellerton writing

GUEST: Jamie Ellerton |http://conaptus.com
GUEST: Lindsay Broadhead |http://broadheadcomms.ca

Originally aired on 2026-09-16

A few years ago Nike could do no wrong, landing every collaboration and dominating sneaker culture. Shane and Ryan explain how quickly that changed, and just how steep the fall has actually been.

Part of it traces back to a retail decision Nike made during the pandemic, one that left its shelves empty once shoppers went back to stores. Ryan lays out what Nike did, and what buyers found waiting for them instead when they walked back in.

Meanwhile, New Balance has quietly become one of the biggest winners in the sneaker world. Ryan breaks down the sales numbers behind that growth and why comfort and price are beating hype right now.

Topics: sneaker market, Nike, New Balance, Adidas, retail

Originally aired on 2026-09-16

Tony Chapman breaks down why Canadian sports stars keep signing with American teams once free agency hits, and it isn't only about the paycheque. He walks through how currency, cross-border taxes, and something harder to quantify, the pull toward playing for a winner, all stack against Canadian franchises at once.

Tony argues one thing is more damaging to a team's brand than years of losing seasons: a star player walking away entirely. He points to one athlete who once left a championship roster rather than defend the title, only to return to that same city years later, as proof of how fractured loyalty in professional sports has become.

Only eight percent of Canadian kids are currently playing organized hockey, a number Tony says should scare anyone who assumes the sport's grip on the country is permanent. He names what he thinks fills that gap if the number keeps shrinking, and it isn't another winter sport.

Topics: Canadian sports teams losing players, NHL free agency Canada, hockey participation decline, star player leaving team, salary cap Canadian teams

GUEST: Tony Chapman |http://chatterthatmatters.ca

Originally aired on 2026-09-16

Dr. Lee Kuhnle calls himself a skeptic, but a night spent stargazing with his young son left him with an experience he couldn't fully explain. That moment sent him looking for actual math behind the question of alien life, and what he found split into two completely different answers.

The first is the Drake equation, built in the 1960s by an astrophysicist working alongside SETI, and it produces a real number for how many advanced, communicating civilizations might exist in our galaxy right now. Dr. Kuhnle runs the current numbers live and lands on a figure that reframes the entire question of whether we're alone.

The second answer comes from a physicist behind the Manhattan Project, who asked one blunt question over lunch that became known as the Fermi Paradox. It uses many of the same assumptions as the Drake equation but arrives somewhere entirely different, including a theory for why any smart civilization might choose to stay completely silent.

Topics: is there alien life, Drake equation, Fermi Paradox, math and aliens, Dark Forest hypothesis

GUEST: Dr. Lee Kuhnle |http://amazon.ca/dp/1770418873

Originally aired on 2026-09-16

Tax fairness gets personal when Jared A. Walker explains why someone who inherits five million dollars can pay less tax than someone earning it paycheque by paycheque. He calls it a rigged structure, and the reason has nothing to do with effort.

Walker breaks down what he calls a K-shaped economy, and the specific number of Canadian families holding over a hundred million dollars sitting at the top of it. He also explains how a major Canadian CEO can earn hundreds of millions while paying almost no income tax on it at all.

The two get into how new fintech tools are starting to let ordinary Canadians borrow against their own investments the same way billionaires do, and where Walker thinks that levels the field and where it still falls short.

Topics: tax fairness, wealth inequality, inheritance tax, corporate tax, K-shaped economy

GUEST: Jared A. Walker |http://taxfairness.ca | @‌canadians4taxfairness

Originally aired on 2026-09-16

A phone notification during a work meeting nearly brought someone to tears tonight, over a video game that's been sitting untouched for more than a decade suddenly getting a second life out of nowhere.

That reaction leads into a real list, handwritten fifteen years ago, thirty-four items deep, falling apart at the folds. A few of those goals already happened without anyone realizing it until now. Others involve tanks, superheroes, and at least one driver's license that still doesn't exist.

Some entries are small and ordinary. Others are the kind of goal that only sounded reasonable at fifteen years old, and the gap between the two says a lot about how a list like this actually gets built.

Topics: bucket list, Good News Tuesday, video game remaster, dream goals, live radio

Originally aired on 2026-09-15

Musk ox spotted from the air over the Arctic. Decades of obscure adventures already lived. At seventy-eight, one bucket list is down to a single item left, and it's not what you'd expect.

That admission opens up a wider list built live through the night, pulling in scuba diving destinations, a year spent living abroad, and a stand-up set someone keeps meaning to sign up for and never does.

A high school teacher noticed something about a T. Rex that had gone unseen by scientists for years, buried in plain sight the entire time.

Topics: bucket list, good news, T. Rex tracks, dream goals, live radio

Originally aired on 2026-09-15

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 Million
Richard 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 Same
Richard 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