CBC Now or Never

This is what community looks like.

It’s a community dinner in Jasper that we were lucky enough to be invited to. Good people, good food, good music..that’s what the night was all about.

Over 600 people filled the rec centre as kids ran and played with friends. The food (roast, mashed potatoes, veggies, brownies) was delicious and just kept coming.

Everyone seemed to know everyone and I even got to break out my old serving skills.

It was a very real reminder that the heart of Jasper is very much still there, even after all they have had to endure.

After a disaster, how do you rebuild your life?

This week we head to Jasper, Alberta, to find out how people are finding their way to a new normal after one-third of the town was lost to a wildfire this summer.

First stop, Old Fort Point with tour guide Joe Urie for views of the mountains, rivers, and a bird's-eye view of the path of the fire. More pictures of the people we met, and the places we went, coming this week!

Listen here: https://link.chtbl.com/8rNgx1Pd

If you think you've got a tough bike commute to work, imagine trying to transport 30-foot ladders, table saws and cans of paint while you're doing it. Meet the crew behind Velo Renovations, who get to job sites on two wheels. Year-round. In Winnipeg.

Hear the whole story on this week's episode of Now or Never - click the link here to listen! https://link.chtbl.com/3dNdlr5D

Mathusha Senthil has made it her personal mission to make the bedroom a safe space for exploring your health AND pleasure.

Mathusha started the website Thaen Pot. Thaen means 'honey' in Tamil, and the website focuses on raising awareness and starting conversations in the South Asian Diaspora.

Its a business she started from her own bedroom during the pandemic- and the way she told her parents she started a s*x toy business? Takes a lot of nerve!

Listen to Mathusha's story on this week's episode of Now or Never!

Scott Wabano had a powerful message for the models at their history making New York Fashion Week debut - you better walk.

Watch the full fashion show here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgKd6Z1Seqg

Hear how life has changed for Scott since, this week on the Now or Never podcast. Click link in bio.

At her wedding last year, Brianna Seewald walked to the altar - something that she could have never imagined three years earlier.

After she was partially paralyzed in a car crash, her partner Ryan proposed as she lay in her hospital bed. In that moment, she made a promise that she'd walk to him on their wedding day.

She kept her promise, (plus, she danced!). Click here to hear her story on this week's Now or Never podcast, or read more about it on our website. https://link.chtbl.com/6uFEYXTO

📸: Oats and Honey Photography

Walk — don't run — to your nearest soccer pitch, where you might find a familiar game being played... in a slightly different way.

We spent a morning with the Toronto Walking Soccer Club to find out why the sport is gaining popularity — without sacrificing skill.

Meet founder Kerrin Hands and the players on this week's podcast, all about walking. Click link to listen https://link.chtbl.com/6uFEYXTO

Meet Lynn Lau (right),and her roommates, Borys and Dariia. After Lynn found herself struggling to pay the rent as a newly single parent, she opened her home to guests to help pay the bills.

Find out how hosting strangers has helped Lynn glue the pieces of her life back together, on the latest Now or Never podcast - click here to listen: https://link.chtbl.com/qyfhCPmN

Colleen Sharpe was all smiles at her matriculation ceremony just a few months ago because, at 56 years old, she's finally chasing her dream of going to college.

For years Colleen believed she just wasn't smart enough to go back to school so she focused on her family, making sure her kids had every opportunity she didn't. But now, it's Colleen's turn. Just days before the deadline, with no idea if she could truly afford it, she applied to the University of King's College Foundation Year Program. Some loans, grants, and one gruelling school year later, Colleen is now in her second year of a Bachelor of Arts degree!

There is so much more to Colleen's story, hear it on the "That's Mine!" episode of the Now or Never podcast: https://link.chtbl.com/qyfhCPmN

Mohammed Aljadba’s seven-year-old daughter, Zina (bottom right), lost a year of her childhood in Gaza when the war began last October. They managed to escape to Canada after a grueling journey, and Mohammed is now trying to give his daughter and some of her cousins pictured here — who escaped with them — the childhood they missed out on.

Click here to listen to the story now: https://link.chtbl.com/qyfhCPmN

It’s World Mental Health Day today….and as many of you may or may not know, I’ve struggled with my mental health for decades.

I have OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) and anxiety and I was joking with my wife the other day that if I were to ever write a book about what it’s been like, I’d call it, “OCMe” because as much as I hate having it…it’s a part of me.

But it’s also a part of everyone around me, who’ve ever worried about me, tried to help me, sat with me while I cried, hugged me when I felt hopeless, and laughed with me when I thought I couldn’t smile.

It’s hard to function when all you feel is an intense fear and worry but it’s just as hard to watch someone you love fall apart without any clue how to help them.

So this is me saying thank you, for all the love and kindness that has been given to me over the years.

Thank you to my wife. You’re my everything. You’re my nightlight when things get dark. Not everyone is lucky enough to have a partner that they can lean on much less one that props them up. I love you fully and completely.

Thank you to my kids, who have seen me breakdown and just walk over and hug me so tightly, with so much love and say things like, “It’s gonna be alright Dad” followed by, “can we have a cookie!”

Thank you to my parents, for being there from the start and continue to be there when I show up on their steps broken and just needing a hug from my mom and dad.

Thank you to my brother and sister, for always picking up the phone and staying on the line when I just need to get the thoughts out of my head, even when you are dealing with things in your own life.

Thank you to my friends who are like family to me. For always accepting me and my mental health issues and for finding ways to not only listen when I need it, but tease me about them, and make me laugh like no one else can.

Thank you to my work family for always having my back. Working when you are struggling mentally is made so much easier when you know you are surrounded by people who you know are supportive, caring and want nothing but the best for you as a person, not an employee.

Thank you to all the listeners and Facebook/Instagram friends who have reached out over the years, sharing their stories about their mental health journeys. You often say it made you feel less alone because I shared my story, but please know, I’ve felt less alone when you’ve shared yours as well.

And thank you to my psychiatrist who never made me feel crazy and always made me feel like there was hope even if I couldn’t see it.

The one thing he would always say to me is, be kind to yourself. It’s how he ended most calls with me. So if you have managed to make it through this long post, and you are struggling right now…..be kind to yourself. You aren’t alone.

And when you get a second…can I have a cookie? ;)

When Litia Fleming broke up with Richard Kemick after 10 years together, it came as a shock to Richard. But two weeks later, they got an even bigger jolt: Litia was pregnant. Find out how these exes are juggling new parenthood, dating, and the joys and challenges of living together after breaking up, on the latest Now or Never podcast. Click here to listen to the story now: https://link.chtbl.com/nMKxungq

Saba Ahmad grew up in Saskatoon with traditional parents from Pakistan. When she got married it was important for her to marry someone who shared her culture.

But when she got divorced it became hard to explain her situation to others. She vowed to go to law school and become the lawyer she never had, someone who could support South Asian women facing the end of a marriage. She graduated last spring and now she's pursuing her last steps to becoming a lawyer. You can hear her story and find out how other people worked through painful break-ups on this week's show: https://link.chtbl.com/nMKxungq

Do you have a break up story?

Cause Jessyka and Jordan Hagen do. It starts like any love story. Two strangers meet, fall in love, and want to spend all their time together cause they are happy. Truly happy.

But then after getting married, life shifts. They put more pressure on themselves, start fighting, arguing, nagging.

Communication breaks down. Drinking goes up. The house becomes silent and they no longer like each other anymore or the people they’ve become. So they break up. And their love story comes to an end.

Or does it?

This week on the show, find out how breaking up and being apart for over a year actually saved their marriage and how they are happier now then they ever could have dreamed.



https://link.chtbl.com/nMKxungq

This is Kuno. He's very good dog. A prize winning dog.

He and his sister Chesnyy compete in dog shows all over Alberta.
And when they're not on tour, they have another job, as service animals to their owner Marla Smith. She's the only competitor at these shows who uses a wheelchair to get around.

Listen to this episode about just how far people go for their animals, where Marla tells Ify how Kuno and Chesnyy inspired her to learn how to drive an accessible van: https://link.chtbl.com/mXyBp9ty

I want to see your pets!

This week our show is all about the length we go to for animals , so we thought it would be fun to share the furry friends of the Now or Never team!

So, say hello to Sophie, Millie, Birdie, Papillon and Rocky!

So whether you have a dog, a cat, a rat in a hat. A chinchilla, a snake or a goldfish named Jake. A lizard, a gerbil, or any kind of furball! Share it here so you can say we met, every single one of your pets!

(It’s just felt right to make that part rhyme)

What's your favourite song to listen to in the middle of the night?

We want to make a night time playlist for anyone who is up working a night shift, can't fall asleep, or just needs to quiet down their mind in the middle of the night.

If we can put together a big enough list, I'll create a Spotify playlist and share it with everyone to enjoy.

So...I'll go first (because true story...I sleep with headphones in my ears almost every night)

My go to is anything by Jeffrey Martin....so I'll recommend Quiet Man or the heartbreaking I Didn't Know.

Now it's your turn!

How did musician Boy Golden get stuck with a broken tooth on his video shoot?

What does he do to kill time while he's stuck in a van on tour?

Click the link and find out on this week's episode all about being stuck and how to move through. https://link.chtbl.com/xvmb-ANY

Golden

It's always irked Toronto journalist Adrian Ma that there is *another* Adrian Ma out there, a journalist and podcast host who is more famous, more accomplished, and “approximately 20% better looking" than him. So this summer, Adrian reached out to his doppelganger, and flew down to Washington, D.C. to meet him in person. Hear the surreal moment when Adrian Ma meets Adrian Ma: https://link.chtbl.com/5mmpNUwf

At 15, Bee Bertrand's life was changed when he went to a Bif Naked concert. Finally, he was able to see "weirdos" just like him: q***r people living loudly and proudly.

For decades, her music got him through the highs and lows of life. But after a late-night DM, Bee went from Bif's fan to one of her best friends. Hear the story of how their incredible friendship was formed: https://link.chtbl.com/xtLIiAxb