Shane Hewitt and The Nightshift

Your 1980s toy nostalgia peaks at birthday parties where you watch your friend unwrap Castle Grayskull while holding the $2 GI Joe you brought as a gift. Eight other kids brought the same thing because $2 was the magic price point parents approved without hesitation, so now there's a pile of duplicate soldiers next to that massive $25 skull fortress. Your single figure feels worthless without the complete world to put it in, which is exactly how Hasbro designed the experience. They lost money on your $2 purchase and made their profit when your parents finally caved on the expensive base.

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Arctic sovereignty becomes real when someone else claims it first. You're watching Trump announce a Greenland deal. He says it covers the entire Arctic region, including Canadian territory. Your government ignored Arctic defense for decades, and now a U.S. president just announced plans without asking permission.

Trump says he'll explain the deal in two weeks. That's his standard answer for everything, but here's the thing: the U.S. already had access to whatever it needed in Greenland through existing agreements with Denmark. Breakenridge points out the real issue isn't what Trump wants but that Canada's Arctic...

You're standing in 1984 nostalgia right now, whether you lived through it or just admire it from afar. The Apple commercial that dropped pre-Super Bowl changed marketing forever with its "fight the man" philosophy. That same year launched the peak era of Masters of the Universe toys, and now there's a new movie trailer bringing He-Man back in a very modern version.

The original 1987 Masters of the Universe sounded cartoony. The new version doesn't. Gen X nerds and Gen Z fans are both excited, bridging the gap between those who played with the toys and those who only...

You're watching a woman sprint down an aisle toward a massive screen. She's holding a sledgehammer. You have no idea what you're watching until she throws it. The screen explodes. Cut to Apple logo. That's the 1984 Apple commercial, and it's more famous than the Super Bowl game it aired during.

Oakland Raiders 38, Washington 9. John Madden on the call. One of the largest championship blowouts ever. Can you name a single play from that game? The commercial cost $368,000 for 30 seconds and created permanent cultural memory. The game created nothing. The "we are the rebel" positioning worked because Star...

Technology and independent thinking barely coexist anymore. You pull out your phone before deciding where to eat. You open GPS before trusting your instincts about which route to take. You search symptoms before calling a doctor. When exactly did checking replace thinking?

Apple sold the idea of unleashing creativity in 1984. The Macintosh was actually a black box. Dr. Paolo Granata's claim: we're controlled not by Orwell's oppression but by Huxley's pleasure, where too much entertainment makes thinking unnecessary. The evidence: you consult your phone before making decisions, like dogs waiting for owners to feed them.

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You notice your coworker walking into a room and forgetting why she's there. Brain fog, she jokes. But she's at the top of her career, leading projects, making critical decisions. Supporting women through menopause extends beyond your partner to every woman in your workplace navigating symptoms that look like other conditions but stem from one source: fluctuating hormones.

Jordan Smith started WTF is Menopause after his friend Jackie was dismissed by doctors who missed perimenopause symptoms entirely. His mother endured a 128-day menstrual cycle 25 years ago. Today, women face identical challenges: misdiagnosis, lack of specialist access, and...

1984 Macintosh commercial runs during the Super Bowl. You're watching Apple position itself as the counterculture smashing IBM's dominance. You look at your devices today: they're all Apple. The company that threw the sledgehammer built the screen everyone stares at now. How did the rebel become the empire it promised to destroy?

Why didn't the commercial show the product? Levy explains that selling philosophy over features was revolutionary for tech advertising. The Mac introduced clicking instead of typing commands, pictures instead of code, accessibility instead of expertise. But philosophy doesn't pay bills: the computer cost $7,500 in today's money...

Part 1 - The Record-Breaking Nomination That Changes Everything

2026 Oscar nominations arrive and you notice the number next to Sinners: 16. You check the previous record: La La Land with 14 nominations ten years ago. Before that, Titanic. Before that, All About Eve 25 years earlier. The film that just broke the record is a vampire movie, and the Academy actually acknowledged it.

The previous record was 14 nominations. Crouse notes that Sinners, a January release that usually gets forgotten by year end, maintained conversation throughout Oscar season and landed 16 nominations across above-the-line and below-the-line categories. Meanwhile, Avatar Fire and...

Mark Carney's WEF speech came during active tariff negotiations with Trump. You're watching Canada's new Prime Minister deliver his first major international speech. He's supposed to be de-escalating Trump's tariff threats. Instead, he's signaling partnership with China on rare minerals. You're thinking: is this brilliant negotiation or political suicide?

Tony Chapman calls it "one of the riskiest speeches of Canada's history" because Carney sided with "Trump's greatest adversary, China" mid-negotiation. The strategy: G7 countries pooling buying power for rare minerals the way China does, the country buys for all companies. Tony's assessment of Trump: "This isn't the...

Cancer cure conspiracy theories flood your social media feeds daily. You see the testimonials. Someone's uncle cured stage four with broccoli. Another swears by lemon water. Those med bed videos keep circulating. Nathan Radke asks one question that flips the entire premise: if pharmaceutical companies are driven by greed, why wouldn't they cash in on an actual cure?

The answer reshapes everything. Any company that developed a real cure would become the wealthiest corporation on earth. Cancer isn't a single disease pharmaceutical companies can fix with one solution. It's more than 100 different diseases. The people selling you...

The curiosity conspiracy trap starts with innocent questions. You pause the movie mid-scene. That spaceship rotation in 2001: A Space Odyssey looks impossible for 1968. You need to know Kubrick's technique before you can continue watching. Your brain won't let the story proceed until you understand the mechanism. Is this healthy learning or the first step toward believing moon landing conspiracies?

One approach: pause movies to research visual effects, becoming "a walking talking bank of facts and weird things of knowledge" through constant fact-chasing. The counterpoint: magic tricks are "sacred" and revelation "destroys" the art, so some c...

Why Mark Carney's WEF Strategy Leaves Trump Isolated
Federal job cuts in Ottawa are hitting every hallway. Your neighbor works at Defense. Your friend is at the RCMP. The person across the road is at CBSA. Someone down the street is at Transport. Everyone you know is suddenly worried about their job disappearing.

Jamie Ellerton says the government needs to be "right-sized after a decade of getting bloated beyond the capacity of Canadians to pay," but acknowledges people will get "generous packages" and often find "rebirth and repurpose" after the initial devastation. Lindsay Broadhead's take: "There...

Perimenopause nutrition changes demand more fiber and protein. Your breakfast worked fine last year. Now it triggers a 2pm crash. Your favorite dinner exhausts you. The foods that sustained you for decades suddenly betray your body.

Why does joint pain worsen in your 40s? Alyssa B's answer: protein deficiency, not just age. She argues protein is "everything in our body from our skeletons and muscles to our hair and joints and cartilage." Blood sugar spikes drive mood swings women blame purely on hormones. Her mantra: "change your plate, change your fate." The beige plate problem: carbs with...

Minecraft teaches problem solving, or does it just teach YouTube dependency? Your kid has been building elaborate digital worlds for four hours straight. You're debating whether to shut it down. You grew up dumping Tinker Toys from a tin can with zero instructions and figuring it out through failure. Which approach actually prepares them for real work?

Tinker Toys have been around for over 100 years with "no instructions in that box" where "curiosity and creativity is how you get to the finish line." Minecraft is now "the greatest selling video game of all time" and h...

Technocracy versus democracy becomes tempting when you're exhausted. Another debate ends with nothing accomplished. Another promise broken. Another politician lying on TV saying "up is down and black is white." You just want groceries affordable and roads fixed. Someone offers: "What if smart people based on their resumes just ran things? No elections, no drama, just competent experts getting stuff done." Would you take that deal?

Greg defines technocracy as "government by people who are deemed most capable to do their jobs" based on resume, not votes. The current system? More like "cacistocracy" which is "g...

The difference between rich and wealthy isn't about the number in your bank account. You're grinding sixty hours a week, pulling six figures. Your neighbor works fewer hours, earns less per year, but has more freedom. You're both making good money. Why does one path feel like a treadmill?

Dr. Willie Jolley's definition: rich is money you earn from what you do, wealthy is money you generate from what you own while you sleep. The football player earns millions running up the field. The owner never leaves the owner's box but makes billions. Jolley breaks down three...

You're bald by choice (mostly). Vancouver Island earthquake warning concerns you less than protecting your melon from falls and sun exposure. Five hats in one day: regular toque, beanie, Vancouver Food Bank long toque, Voltron baseball cap, sun hat, protective helmet toque. You don't realize the record until next morning.

Bob's bonspiel: four straight losses, 12 hours between 9:15 AM and 9:15 PM games. Never left the curling club for 16.5 hours. Loaded up on breakfast, banquet dinner, Lucky beer watching playoff football. Barefoot curling at 1:30 AM across five sheets to upper left rings, kitty corner long distance. Facebook posting risks...

Trump diplomatic text leaks from Macron and NATO leaders went public. Your private conversations with colleagues stay private because trust exists. Candid feedback about performance happens in writing you wouldn't want seen. Not scandalous, just frank. Now imagine those texts published deliberately to humiliate you.

Matt Gurney calls it malicious, cruel, manipulative. Trump's doing it because he can. International diplomacy requires privacy, personal relationships, and trust. State departments, foreign ministries, embassies execute what leaders decide based on those relationships. Canada's secret weapon: close personal ties with Americans, premiers knowing governors, families crossing borders. Only works with trust...

Good News Tuesday gives you good news when your day is rough and you can't see past the struggle. You text in whatever good news you have, any size. The principle is proven: good news makes good news babies. One piece of positivity creates another.

Unlimited Olive Garden breadsticks arrive in Ontario. The recommended approach is consuming enough salad and bread to simply pack your entree for later. Winter highway crashes shut down the Trans-Canada between Headingley and Portage-le-Prairie. Manitoba residents responded by opening their homes to stranded drivers, providing food, warmth, and shelter. Winnipeg g...

Your Prime Minister stands before billionaires at the World Economic Forum to sell Canada as an investment opportunity. You hear it as a "rah rah Canada" moment. Both are true. The disconnect matters because the audience in that room isn't you, and the speech wasn't designed for working people.

Fifteen minutes of messaging includes direct moments addressed to Canadians specifically, which signals the dual purpose. Using "hegemony" instead of "dominance" makes the point harder to grasp for no good reason. The speech acknowledges what usually gets ignored: violence and greed have always driven global economics. M...

Your friends stop visiting after your dementia diagnosis. They forget to call. You get dropped from the golf list after making a few scoring mistakes. The diagnosis didn't take away who you are. Dementia stigma makes you invisible while you're still here, still living, still deserving connection and respect.

Mario Gregorio uses cheat sheets with buzzwords during conversations. When his train of thought disappears mid-sentence, he says "I forget, it will pass" without distress or anxiety. He posts phrases in front of his monitor as reminders. The duplicate strategy solves searching anxiety: five nail clippers scattered everywhere...

Mark Carney's Davos speech changed how Canada talks to the world. Your government spent months trying to lower the temperature with Trump, diffusing tensions, salvaging whatever's left. This speech did the opposite. The world's billionaires and decision makers heard Canada's leader declare the norms they pretended governed global order are finished.

The speech was substantial. Frank. Carney said what we thought the world was, it wasn't really that anyway, and now it's completely over. Vassy Kapelos warns against assuming Trump won't follow through. You have to prepare for the 30% worst case scenario, not just hope f...

Menopause emotional changes arrive before your body gives physical clues. You're standing at your sink. Water circles the drain. The thought hits: is this as good as it gets? You're emotionally plummeting and you don't know why yet. Perimenopause sneaks in through your mental state, not your cycle.

Helen Valleau noticed at 46 and completed the transition by 55. Her personality shifted. She stopped putting up with nonsense. Boundaries appeared where none existed. Emotional outbursts and easy crying replaced her normal patterns. The treatment combination: bioidentical hormones (FDA changed US regulations, Canada following), diet changes eliminating favorite comfort foods...

Tech gadget surprises happen when companies underestimate what people actually want. Your IKEA released a $70 LED floor lamp called the Slovenden. Red. Tall. Narrow arch design. Three dimming levels. Works indoors and outdoors. It sold out worldwide within hours. No anticipation. No Slovenden 1 preparing anyone for Slovenden 2. Just a quiet launch that immediately became unavailable in every IKEA store globally.

The lamp looks like a paperclip standing on end without the inside curl. The LED runs from floor to mid-room height, which differs from typical floor lamps with bulbs hanging in air. IKEA didn't think m...

Part 1 Electric Cars for Canola: The Bingo Card Nobody Had

Nobody predicted this. Canada China canola deal swaps reduced agricultural tariffs for electric vehicle market access. You're planning next year's crops wondering if Chinese trade stabilizes or if this becomes another temporary fix before more disruption.

The deal wasn't just canola. Peas, lobster, crab, now beef too. Pork and canola oil still face tariffs. Lesley Kelly anticipated long drawn-out negotiations across multiple industries. The announcement came faster than expected. Her family has significant canola inventory. China primarily purchases seed and meal. Recent cargo s...

Blue Monday hits hard. Writing for mental health sounds abstract until you're sitting alone feeling funky and realize you need something tangible. You're not depressed. The vibe just went stinky. Ottawa never gets warm, just stays below zero and breezy. Calgary had sunshine bumps. You notice the difference this time of year.

Catherine Black started at nine years old with tons of feelings and a notebook. Decades later, nothing changed. Pen and paper mean she's never alone. Coffee shop, airplane, beach. Writing becomes companionship. She tells students: spelling doesn't matter, authenticity does. Use your senses, s...

You need to cheer yourself up but Blue Monday makes everything feel harder. Your usual tricks aren't working. Music helps sometimes but today you need something different. What pulls you back when quick fixes fail?

Creative activities emerge as the unexpected solution: dumping Lego buckets and building something. Logging into Minecraft to construct towers. Watching colorful content to let the right brain take over while the left brain rests. The idea: different mood levels require different strategies. Quick pick-me-ups versus full immersion activities. Social connection tops the list when possible. Community matters: friends, wine, charcuterie b...

Winter Car Maintenance: The Tire Pressure Math Nobody Checks

Winter car maintenance gets ignored until your dashboard lights up. Your tire pressure warning flashes on during the morning commute. It disappears by afternoon. You assume it's fine. It's not. The temperature dropped 10 degrees and your tires lost 2 PSI you didn't account for.

Andy Baryer explains the physics: air contracts in cold, losing one to two PSI for every five to six degree Celsius drop. The TPMS system warns you in cold mornings but shuts off when tires warm up from driving. That afternoon s...

Perimenopause symptoms accumulate slowly. Your hair falls out in the shower. You need more coffee to get through the day. You walk into rooms and forget why. Six months of small changes add up to something unrecognizable. You wonder what's happening to your body.

Dr. Iliana Lega confirms perimenopause can last up to 10 years for some women. Hot flashes average seven years of duration. In Ontario, nothing is covered for 50-year-old women unless they have disability or private drug plans. That includes everything, not just hormone therapy. She flags the healthcare provider knowledge gap: women get told...

Your teenager lost their debit card. Teaching teens about money starts with moments like this. You could call the bank and fix it in five minutes. Instead, you hand them the phone. They panic. You stay on the couch. They figure it out.

Anita Bruinsma challenges parents to stop taking over. When kids open their first bank account around age 10, let the bank employee talk directly to them. Let them explain what they need. Intimidation drops when familiarity builds. She makes her sons responsible for all discretionary spending at college. Tuition and residence covered, but fun money...

Blue Monday coping strategies usually tell you to fight the feeling. You woke up grumpy. The vibe feels off. Fighting it makes it worse. What if leaning in works better than wrestling with sadness?

Sad music functions as cushion, not amplifier. Fleet Foxes' "Blue Spotted Tail" asks what life means in intimate simplicity. The Smiths' "I Know It's Over" mourns relationships that never started. Mac DeMarco's "Moonlight on the River" explores grief conflict. These songs listen when nothing else does. Movies like The Holdovers make you laugh five minutes after crying. Love Actually hides deep s...

Electric vehicle tariffs from China just collapsed from 100% to a quota system. You're looking at 50,000 new vehicles entering Canada annually at prices domestic manufacturers can't match. Your government chose affordability over protectionism. Now you get to choose which matters more: your wallet or where the technology comes from.

Why do plug-in hybrid owners never plug in? Lorraine Sommerfeld cites industry studies showing people haul two complete power systems and burn gasoline anyway. The consequence: wasted efficiency, extra weight, pointless infrastructure. She points out Canada already brought in 44,000 Chinese-made Teslas in 2023. The new cap for all Chinese EVs? 49,000...

Digital privacy means nothing when social media platforms own your archive. You posted freely in 2016 because the grip wasn't obvious yet. No AI curation. No constant tracking. Just you, your filtered photos, and the illusion that your digital life belonged to you. Now those companies are pulling you back into dormant content, calling it nostalgia, making you feed the algorithm with memories you thought were yours.

Rajhans explains why people are celebrating 2016 as retro: "People would have put filters on pictures in order to make them perfect. And right now when people are sharing their 2016 experiences on...

Part 1 Movies: What's Actually Worth Theater Money

Weekend movie releases force a choice: theaters or streaming. You've got three new options hitting screens, each pulling different directions. A zombie sequel that "shifted into an all new gear." A hostage thriller from the Good Will Hunting director that "never really gets to that kind of attention level." A vampire cop movie with CM Punk. Your wallet picks one.

Stebbing calls 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple the standout, claiming it exceeded expectations and positions the series as "the best modern trilogy going right now." Director Nia DaCosta...

The 2016 nostalgia trend hit your feed this week. Instagram prompted you to post a photo from 10 years ago. You scrolled through old albums, found pictures of yourself at summer camp or working retail or figuring out college. Maybe you posted it. Maybe you just looked and remembered how different life felt then. The question nobody's asking: why 2016 specifically when nostalgia usually runs on a 20-year cycle?

The hosts note Happy Days in 1974 looked back to the 1950s. That 70s Show premiered in the late 90s. The pattern holds at roughly 20 years, yet here we are celebrating 10. One...

The Canada China EV deal brings electric vehicles into the country that was labeled a security threat nine months ago. Your government negotiated tariff quotas on cars and canola with the nation whose technology was banned from cell networks. Now that same technology will fill roads in $33,000 vehicles while auto workers question if their jobs got traded for cheaper imports.

Baron explains Canada is "heavily dependent on our commerce relationship with the US" and needed diversification. China represents "the largest market in the world outside of" America. The deal uses sliding tariff scales, but pricing strategy remains...

The Ontario snowstorm response that captured national attention wasn't about accumulation totals or road conditions. You watched a CTV reporter approach a random guy on a Toronto street during 22 centimeters of snowfall. You expected complaints about transit or shoveling. Instead, he delivered the most Canadian answer possible, then walked away. That was all. Done talking. Peak Canadian in one sentence.

Ottawa got 33 centimeters. Toronto got 22. Schools closed, something Alberta kids "can only dream of" since closures don't happen there. One Calgary student remembers getting 35 centimeters overnight, checking email to find "there's no classes, but they should come...

Part 1: Canada China Trade Deal: The Surveillance Tech We're Importing

The Canada China trade deal brings electric vehicles from the country whose technology was banned from cell networks nine months ago. You're watching your government remove tariffs on "the most high tech of the retail products you can probably buy right now in the form of a digital recording device with wheels." The same surveillance concerns that kept Chinese tech out of telecom infrastructure now arrive on four wheels with batteries.

Zivo notes China "is in the midst of committing a genocide against the Uyghur...

Alzheimer's stigma kills independence before the disease does. You notice memory problems but wait years to mention them because you're afraid of what it means. Assisted living. Lost autonomy. Friends treating you differently. Meanwhile, the stigma stops you from getting help that could let you live alone, advocate for yourself, and maintain the life you built.

Jacobs trains with people living with Alzheimer's who own their diagnosis publicly. Mario, living with the disease since 2008, teaches accessibility and gives tips on maintaining independence while living alone. The catch: he got early diagnosis and sought help immediately. Jacobs' survey...

Friend advice in relationships gets complicated when their baggage clouds what they see in yours. Your closest friend gives you relationship advice. It sounds helpful. But their last breakup was brutal, and now you're wondering: are they seeing your situation clearly, or filtering everything through their own pain?

Shane talks with Jen Kirsch and Tony Tedesco about navigating friend influence, including Ashley Tisdale leaving a toxic celebrity mom circle. Jen shares how she prefaced advice with "I could be projecting here," modeling the self-awareness most skip. Tony explains why he looks for soundboards over advisors, especially avoiding...