International Whiskey Day lands on a Friday this year and World Theatre Day is today too, which means you can go to the theatre and drink whisky and technically be celebrating two things at once. Ryan O'Donnell would like it noted that International Smashburger Day is also a real calendar entry and that smashburgers are categorically different from regular burgers, a position he holds with the conviction of someone who has clearly thought about this a great deal.

There is a pillow fight day coming. There is a world octopus day, which Ryan O'Donnell argues should technically be eight days. There is a talk like a pirate day, which raises the question of how you write a pirate email to a coworker you are trying to get into a meeting. These are the kinds of problems worth sitting with on a Friday.

Also today: the sun rose. The ecosystem cleaned the air without being asked. The cells in your body did things you are not aware of and turned them into energy anyway. International Whiskey Day or not, that is already a lot.

Topics: International Whiskey Day, smashburger debate, silly international days, World Theatre Day, Friday show

Originally aired on 2026-03-27

Canadian whisky has been reaching past its reputation and most people have not noticed yet. Stephen Beaumont says Canada is currently the most exciting whisky market on the planet, beating Ireland for that title, and the evidence runs from Crown Royal's new single malt to Lot 40's cherry wood and dark oak finishes to a hundred percent rye whisky being made right now in Windsor.

What does it feel like to realize the category you wrote off as a mixing spirit has been quietly doing something remarkable? The Glenora Distillery in Cape Breton is the first modern single malt distillery in North America. Okanagan Spirits in BC is making a bourbon-style whisky with 45 percent chocolate malt, something no American distillery can touch under their own regulations. Eau Claire in Calgary has a Stampede whisky. Alberta Distillers just released a 21-year-old.

Twenty years ago Canadian whisky went in ginger ale. Right now it is winning the argument about which country is making the most interesting spirit in the world. Stephen Beaumont has been saying so out loud and International Whisky Day is a reasonable occasion to listen.

Topics: Canadian whisky, International Whisky Day, Lot 40 whisky, Glenora Distillery, Okanagan Spirits BRBN

GUEST: Stephen Beaumont | http://beaumontdrinks.com

Originally aired on 2026-03-27

Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau's English-only statement after two pilots died had a problem that had nothing to do with language. It had to do with order. The names should have come first. Andrew Caddell says the criticism of Rousseau is fair and the timing of the politicians who piled on was tasteless. Both things can be true.

What is it like to realize a CEO has been through this exact situation before and apparently taken nothing from it? In 2021 Rousseau spoke to the Chambre de Commerce in Montreal entirely in English and told the francophone audience that he had lived in the city for twenty years and never needed to learn French. He believed this reflected well on him. It did not. That was five years ago. One paragraph on a teleprompter was all that was needed this time and he did not do it.

The NDP is choosing a new leader in Winnipeg this week. Andrew Caddell says the party is a shadow of what it was, Wab Kinew is not going anywhere, and Abby Lewis has lost two elections.

Topics: Air Canada CEO French language, Michael Rousseau 2021 Montreal, NDP leadership Winnipeg, Canadian politics, two pilots LaGuardia

GUEST: Andrew Caddell

Originally aired on 2026-03-27

Space movies like Project Hail Mary do not come around often and the box office proved it. The biggest opening day for an original film in years. Sold out on the first weekend before some people could get tickets. So here is the list of what holds up while you wait for your seat.

The Martian is the obvious starting point because Andy Weir wrote both books. It won a Golden Globe for Best Comedy, which Ridley Scott accepted with visible confusion, and it still holds up as the feel-good benchmark for the genre. Interstellar is for when you want something bigger and stranger and you have two and a half hours and somewhere to sit. Matthew McConaughey, a dying Earth, a wormhole, and children who age while their father does not. Ad Astra is the underrated one. Brad Pitt, Neptune, a car chase on the moon with laser pistols, and one of Donald Sutherland's final roles. Visually jaw-dropping and largely overlooked.

John Carter of Mars is the wildcard. One of the biggest box office flops in history. Also, according to the texts, a genuine sci-fi gem.

Topics: space movies like Project Hail Mary, The Martian, Interstellar, Ad Astra Brad Pitt, John Carter of Mars

Originally aired on 2026-03-27

What to watch this weekend starts with Morgan Freeman narrating a visually stunning dinosaur documentary on Netflix called The Dinosaurs. Ryan O'Donnell has confirmed he would listen to Morgan Freeman narrate essentially anything, which is a reasonable position to hold, and this one is actually great.

The Murdochs is the other recommendation and it is a different kind of prehistoric creature entirely. A documentary about Rupert Murdoch's parenting, his tabloids, the illegal activities that shut some of them down, and the children he pitted against each other until they were negotiating payouts in the billions. One of them accepted 3.1 billion because 2 billion was not enough. The documentary explains how a family arrives at that sentence and it explains a great deal about Fox News in the process.

Born to Bowl on HBO rounds it out. There is a moment involving a yellow shirt, a crowd heckler, and a comeback that Ryan O'Donnell calls the greatest thing that has ever happened in professional sports.

Topics: what to watch this weekend Netflix, The Dinosaurs Netflix Morgan Freeman, The Murdochs documentary, Born to Bowl HBO, streaming recommendations

Originally aired on 2026-03-27

Money and relationships break down the same way every time: two people who never had the conversation discover they are not on the same page and by then it has been years. Dr. Laurie Betito says talking about money carries the same taboo as talking about sex and most couples treat it the same way, by avoiding it until they cannot.

The Boat He Bought Without Asking

A man bought a boat. Did not mention it. His wife is a conservative spender. He is impulsive. That one purchase forced the first real financial conversation they had ever had. Dr. Laurie Betito says money is a proxy for identity, security, and power, and when one partner controls the finances down to the coffee on the way to work, that is not frugality. That is financial abuse. Death by a thousand cuts is a real thing and it usually starts with something that costs a dollar twenty-five.

What to Say Before the Legally Binding Part

For couples about to get married, Dr. Laurie Betito has one word: curiosity. How did your family handle money? Are you a saver or a spender? What do we do with the wedding gift money? These questions feel small. The ones that go unasked become the source of the resentment that ends long-term relationships years later.

Topics: money and relationships, financial compatibility couples, financial control abuse, talking about money before marriage, death by a thousand cuts resentment

GUEST: Dr. Laurie Betito | drlaurie.com

Originally aired on 2026-03-26

AI agents on your computer are already here and the checkbox most people ignore is the one that decides whether it touches one folder or everything you own. Mohit Rajhans has been watching this from the inside and his concern is not that the technology is bad. It is that the safety infrastructure around it is nowhere close to ready.

What does it mean that there is no customer service to call when an agent deletes something it should not have touched? No undo. No archive. No escalation path. That is the version of this technology that is currently being shipped to people who are still clicking OK and moving past the terms of service. A website got rewritten because an agent decided it could improve it. The old version was gone.

The human in the loop is the last line of defence. Mohit Rajhans says the hype cycle is running faster than the guardrails, and that gap is not theoretical anymore.

Topics: AI agents on your computer, AI safety guardrails, agentic AI hype, AI file risks, human in the loop AI

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

Originally aired on 2026-03-27

Declining mental health in Canada has a specific number attached to it now. Statistics Canada measured how many people reported feeling happy and interested in life. In 2015 it was 78 percent. By 2024 it had fallen to 61 percent. That is not a small shift. One in five Canadians was struggling with emotional health a decade ago. Now it is two in five.

What does it feel like to realize that the things that feel personal, the anxiety, the low-grade exhaustion, the difficulty trusting people around you, are actually part of a measurable national pattern? Dr. Perry Adler names the contributors plainly: a pandemic that isolated people at exactly the wrong developmental moment, economic pressure that did not stop when the lockdowns did, geopolitical stress, social media, and bodies that stopped moving.

Grace is the word that sits underneath all of it. Compassion for yourself and for the person beside you. The capacity to imagine the other. Dr. Perry Adler says we are losing it, and the way back starts with asking how are you and actually waiting for the answer.

Topics: declining mental health Canada, Statistics Canada functional health 2024, pandemic psychological impact, social media emotional health, grace and compassion

GUEST: Dr. Perry Adler

Originally aired on 2026-03-27