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 on 2026-09-23

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