Now or Never

4.6 (125)
SOCIETY & CULTURE
UPDATED WEEKLY

In a world that can feel pretty scary, it’s easy to get stuck. This is a show that celebrates what it takes to try. To take the risk. To have the talk. To rock the speedo. Because making even the tiniest change takes courage, and hosts Ify and Trevor are here to remind you that you’re not alone when you do. New episodes every Thursday.

6D AGO

You're voting for who?!

As political divisiveness becomes the new norm, it can get harder to see the other side, and understand why people vote the way they do. But instead of demonizing those on the other end of the political spectrum, why not lean in and get curious as to why people believe what they do? On this special election edition of Now or Never, hear from five different Canadians — an 18-year-old, a pastor, a Panamanian-Canadian immigrant, a gun enthusiast, and a senior citizen — about the personal experience shaping the way they’ll be voting in this federal election. Gale Uhlmann has a job since she was 15-years-old, working as a trucker, waitress, and office worker. Now at 74, Gale's still working -- but not by choice. She doesn't have enough savings to retire, or to pay $10 000 for the new teeth she needs: "You're a statistic. And they don't - how can I put it nicely - they don't give a damn about what we're encountering." Firearms were a big part of what brought Patrick Osborne and his wife Tara together. After she passed away from cancer in 2022, it’s also shaping how he’s planning to vote in this election. Although he’s been a Canadian citizen for 20 years, Fernando Ameth Pinzon has never voted in a federal election. But Donald Trump’s comments about his home country have shifted something in him, bringing him back to a place he hasn’t been in a while: his childhood in Panama. When Jason McAllister and his family moved into their new neighborhood in Prince George, B.C., bail reform wasn’t even a thought. After five years of living near a home where he frequently witnessed drug use and police raids, it’s become a key election issue. 18-year-old Harman Banga is casting her first vote in a federal election, something she’s been looking forward to since she was a child. But recently, voting has become even more personal for Harman — her parents both work in the auto industry and their jobs are threatened by tariffs.

53 min
APR 10

Elbows Up!

As the world faces a now or never moment, Canadians are examining their values, picking their battles, and figuring out how they can stand up for their beliefs. Today on Now or Never we’re discovering how people are pushing back with big and small acts of resistance. The Trump administration’s tariff war and comments about making Canada a “51st state” has spurred a wave of defensive patriotism across the country. Meet Mike Robitaille, who refuses to spend a cent on any American products or businesses - and that includes everything, from toothpaste to Netflix. When Manitoba’s Janet Braun came out as a transgender woman, she knew she would have to find a new church because she didn’t feel safe at her old one. Then she saw the rainbows on full display in Brandon’s Knox United, and knew she’d found a home. But Reverend Craig Miller says the church’s reputation as a place where all are welcome, has made it the target of hate. For 38 years Pickering’s Shenul Williams has fought to keep her late father’s family business alive. Just last month she was on the brink of closing her Indo-African condiment business, Aki Fine Foods, when that surge of Canadian patriotism changed everything. First Nations Chief Lance Haymond knows more about radioactive nuclear waste than he ever wanted to, but he says that’s what it takes to protect his people’s land. Why he has to keep fighting “a David and Goliath battle” to stop Canadian Nuclear Laboratories from building a near surface disposal site on traditional Algonquin territory. Fighting back doesn’t necessarily have to mean joining a rally or boycotting a business. Sometimes, taking a stand can mean breaking your mom’s curfew for the first time at 18 years old. We ask young people in St. John’s, N.L. what acts of resistance they are taking part in. Plus a mashup of Canadian protest songs, Jim Cuddy’s latest, and a surprise cameo by Unreserved’s Rosanna Deerchild.

48 min
23 HRS AGO

Did this Jeopardy super-fan ever make it on the show? I'll take "Where are they now" for $500, please

For nine seasons, Ify Chiwetelu and Trevor Dineen have been with Canadians in their most personal now or never moments, when they’re on the brink of something new, striving for a goal or making a change. But what happens after the interview? Today we’re diving in with past guests to find out if they really did what they said they would, and how it all turned out. Sophie Davie was five months pregnant when she told us how nervous (but empowered) she felt having a baby all on her own. Seventeen months later, we knock on her door to meet the daughter she always wanted and see if the dream of single motherhood matches up to the reality of going it alone. In 1970 beauty queen Darlene Williams rode in a 1970 Pink Panther Dodge Challenger convertible as part of her reign. More than 50 years later, Winnipegger Pat Kanuiga had that same car in pieces in his garage, but promised Darlene she would ride in it again. So did it happen? When we last left De Vine Thomas she was months away from graduating high school and dreaming of leaving Peguis First Nation - the reserve where she grew up - to pursue her fashion dreams. Did she fulfill her dreams to move away from her community until she was “a real old lady”? Toronto’s Aaron Brown has dreamed of competing on his favourite gameshow, Jeopardy, for as long as he can remember. He applied 16 times, he hosted trivia as his job, and carried around a clicker to practice his speed. But did all that matter when the show finally called? Two weeks after Corine Mathelier moved to Montreal from Toronto, she explained to her good friend Ify it was because she wasn’t getting what she needed in her community. She wanted closer connections and more meet ups with friends in real life. Today Ify calls Corine up to find out if she got what she was looking for.

52 min
MAR 27

"It's a little tense right now." Stories of communities in flux

If your community was changing, what would you do about it? Today we're stepping into four different communities across Canada on the cusp of big change, and how they're grappling with this question: How do you adapt to what's coming, while still holding onto what matters to you? The Canadian border town of St. Stephen, N.B. has had a beautiful relationship with its American neighbours in Calais, Maine for more than a hundred years. But tough tariffs talks have both sides feeling like they're stuck in a breakup that nobody wants. St. Stephen mayor Allan MacEachern and resident Tracey Matheson describe the strain of when the political and the personal collide. Charles Reeves gives us a tour of A Better Tent City, a sanctioned tiny home community in Kitchener for people experiencing homelessness, that is fighting to keep going. Old Order Mennonite, Joseph Weber, has one son who was forced to leave Canada’s largest and most diverse Mennonite community due to inflation and the rising cost of housing — a trend among this group. Now another son is forced to move, leaving Joseph planning his escape too. And if you’ve ever thought of leaving it all behind to start your own utopian community from scratch, you might want to ask Ron Berezan for advice. After years of planning, he's months away from opening a new intentional community in Powell River, B.C., where everyone farms the same land, shares amenities, and makes decisions together. So how do you get consensus, and decide who gets to join? Ron reveals the lessons he's learned so far.

48 min
MAR 20

Living in limbo

If you're feeling stuck in limbo — about your relationship status, your job, your health, or whatever is happening with tariffs these days — you're not the only one. On this episode, stories of people stuck in between the place they don’t want to be, and the place they’re hoping to get to. Ify starts by asking strangers on the street about a time they fell into romantic limbo, and how they got out. After years of living and working in Afghanistan, former soldier Dave Lavery was suddenly detained by the Taliban, blindfolded and taken to a cell. For 77 days his family was in limbo, not sure if or when they’d see him again. We take you behind the scenes of their reunion and how Dave has been forever changed. Being in your twenties can feel like being in a constant state of limbo, as you're figuring out school, friends, and who you want to be. For 24-year old Hannah Cha, she’s under a tight deadline to find a job, and move on to the next stage of her life. For over a year, Changiz Varzi was stuck in Canada, waiting for a visa that would allow him to leave and re-enter the country so he could visit friends and family back in Iran. Stuck playing the waiting game, Changiz is questioning whether Canada is really where he wants to build a life. And 24-year-old Kaitlin Callander has been on the waitlist for shared assisted living in Ontario for six years, with no clear date of when she’ll get a bed. And that's because there are currently 52,000 people on the waiting list. We hear from Kaitlin and her mom Nicole, who believes that living in this state of limbo is inhibiting her daughter’s independence.

47 min
MAR 13

What is your faith motivating you to do?

Faith is something that motivates billions of people every single day, whether it's fasting during Ramadan, giving back to your community, or making you believe in something bigger than yourself. Today you'll hear from people whose faith has inspired them to take action in ways you might not expect. We're half-way through Ramadan, and Ify decides to try a day of fasting in solidarity with her friend (and CBC Manitoba host) Nadia Kidwai. But first she gets some advice from Nadia, on how disconnecting from the physical world allows you to connect with something higher. Former sports broadcaster Matthew Leibl tells us why getting ordained as a rabbi wasn't as big of a leap as you might think. We visit the rollicking All Nations Full Gospel Church in Ottawa, to find out how the power of music moves even the shyest of wall flowers to get up on stage and sing. Michelle Gazze grew up going to a Hindu temple in Winnipeg with her family, until she had a revelatory moment in university that compelled her to convert to Islam. She tells us how her Muslim faith is motivating her to give back to the community, and why she's roping in all her cousins (who she jokingly refers to as "Super Hindus") along for the ride. Teacher Tasha Spillett invites us to a sweat lodge, along with her grade 9 students. And former atheist Rick Loftson reveals how he ended up as a deacon in the Catholic Church. NOTE: This episode originally aired in June 2018.

54 min
MAR 6

"I quit my job because of you!" Stories of giving up everything for your art

People from all walks of life, taking big risks for their art. We start with Bee Bertrand, who says our show - and one innocent question from Ify - inspired him to quit his job six months ago to commit fully to stand-up comedy. He tells us what's happened since that fateful day. Illustrator Narges Noori shares how her fight to create art in Afghanistan under the Taliban, led her to seek safety in Edmonton. 15-year-old Hyun Byun is so determined to become the next K-pop idol, he spent a year away from family and friends to train at a K-pop school in South Korea. Now he's back home in Toronto, trying to balance life as a high school student and keeping his ambitious singing and dancing dreams alive. And 20 years into his career, Winnipeg musician Grant Davidson (of Slow Leaves) shares what it’s like to give everything to his music, and still feel like he’s fallen short.

53 min
FEB 27

Craving an escape? Come travel the world with us (without leaving your couch)

Cairo. Nairobi. Rio de Janeiro. Those are just a few of the places we're going today, to see how Canadians are making their mark around the world right now. Simran Bajwa is determined to become the youngest Canadian to hike the seven summits, the highest mountain peaks on each continent. Something that’s keeping her motivated through gruelling weather and treacherous terrains is her mom, who is living vicariously through Simran because she spent many years unable to scratch her own travel bug. Despite being born and raised in Ottawa, travel journalist Joel Balsam never felt completely himself in Canada. So he started “shopping” for a new place to live in his adult years, travelling to more than 60 countries. The place he feels most alive is Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, so he decided to stay. But Joel says there’s a difference between “staying” and “settling.” When Incia Khalid travelled to Cairo, Egypt at a low point in her life, she didn’t expect to find the healing she needed. Today, hear how she handles life, business, and motherhood between two continents. For the last 35 years, Larry Gelmon has lived and worked in Kenya. But his time here - as a doctor and researcher at an HIV/AIDS clinic in Nairobi - Is very much up in the air, after the U.S. put a hold on international aid. This winter, Katya Castillo left her hometown of Edmonton to spend a week in Puerto Vallarta and Mexico City. But for Katya, she isn’t just another tourist – she grew up in Mexico and this is her home too. She explains what it’s like for her to go there as a visitor now, and be a Mexican-Canadian among the “gringos” abroad.

45 min

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As a child, Alex Kurzem faced a choice: be killed or join the killers. In the midst of the Second World War, he was separated from his family and taken in by a group of soldiers as one of their own. He was made a member of Hitler’s army – a toy soldier with his own rifle and miniature SS uniform. But what the soldiers didn’t know and what no one would know for decades: he was a Jewish boy masquerading as a Nazi to save his life. Alex lives with this false identity for so long, he no longer remembers who he was before – forgetting his parents’ faces, his birthday, his own name. But before he dies, Alex is determined to find the identity and family stolen from him during the Holocaust. This is the story Alex would tell the world decades later, but doubts quickly took hold and wouldn’t let go. Could a story so unbelievable be true? Or is this a con to profit from the Holocaust? Eighty years on, is it possible to uncover who Alex really is? Host Dan Goldberg unravels the true story. Get lost in someone else’s life. From a mysterious childhood spent on the run, to a courageous escape from domestic violence, each season of Personally invites you to explore the human experience in all its complexity, one story — or season — at a time. Hear episodes early and ad-free on CBC Stories Premium on Apple Podcasts. Season 1 | Run, Hide, Repeat: a story of a childhood spent on the run. Season 2 | Welcome to Paradise: a courageous escape from domestic violence. Season 3 | Short Sighted: an attempt to explain what vision loss feels like by exploring how it sounds. Season 4 | Sorry About The Kid: an emotional, deeply personal meditation on the loss of a sibling.

4.5 (516)

DOCUMENTARY
Real people. Real problems. Real talk. Normally, therapy sessions are totally confidential — but this podcast opens the doors. Hillary McBride and her clients want to help demystify mental health. No actors. No auditions. No artifice. This is what people really sound like when they talk about traumatic births, turbulent divorces, eating disorders and tough childhoods.

4.5 (759)

SOCIETY & CULTURE
For years, players have been too afraid to talk about it. But now, the truth about a broom that almost destroyed curling is finally coming out. Over the course of six episodes, semi-professional curler and fully professional comedian John Cullen (Blocked Party) is exposing the unbelievable, never-before-told scandal that rocked the sport of curling. Yes, curling.

4.8 (267)

COMEDY
If you’ve ever been to Newfoundland, you know it’s a place where fog can envelop you so deeply, you don’t know where you’re going or where you came from. When two men, born in the same rural Newfoundland hospital on the same day, discover an unbelievable 52-year-old secret, it changes the way they see themselves forever. But this isn’t the end of the story. Because it turns out these men are not alone. A series of other close calls and near misses have begun to emerge, and not only at Come by Chance hospital. Come By Chance is a story about what it means to belong in a family — and how a twist of fate can upend the life you thought you knew. Hosted by Luke Quinton. Seven episodes releasing Tuesday, June 4, 2024.

4.6 (150)

SOCIETY & CULTURE
If laughter really was the best medicine, Gavin Crawford would have cured his mother of Alzheimer’s disease. As a son, his mother’s dementia has been devastating. As a comedian though… it’s been sort of funny. Honestly, how do you respond when your mom confuses you with her teenage crush and wants you to take her to the high-school dance? Well, you laugh. Because it’s the only thing you can do. In this seven-part series, Gavin tells the story of losing his mother — his best friend and the inspiration for a lot of his comedy — to a disease that can be heartbreaking, but sometimes also hilarious. He’s joined by comedian friends who share their experience caring for family members with dementia. The result is a cross between an improv act and a support group. Part memoir, part stand-up, part meditation on grief and loss, Let’s Not Be Kidding is a dose of the very best medicine for anyone dealing with hard times. Listen ad-free by subscribing to the CBC Stories Premium channel on Apple Podcasts (apple.co/cbcstories). For more content from Gavin, check out Because News: cbc.ca/becausenews

4.8 (463)

COMEDY
Who gets to compete? Since the beginning of women’s sports, there has been a struggle over who qualifies for the women’s category. Tested follows the unfolding story of elite female runners who have been told they can no longer race as women, because of their biology. As the Olympics approach, they face hard choices: take drugs to lower their natural testosterone levels, give up their sport entirely, or fight. To understand how we got here, Host Rose Eveleth (they/them) traces the surprising, 100-year history of sex testing.

4.4 (84)

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4.6

out of 5

125 Ratings

Fun and Always Relevant!

2023-12-19

Cwh56

I look forward to every episode. I appreciate how open and honest the hosts are. Keep up the great work!
Heartwarming and positive vibes

2023-01-13

Prachi in Mtl

Heartwarming. A go-to when I want a reminder of the many ways in which people are good to each other and challenge themselves to be better. And great hosts with a warm, fun dynamic.
Best thing on public radio

2022-10-13

Amanda Putz

I moved back to Canada in 2021 & heard these two incredibly warm hosts with real, unforced chemistry. Then came the stories. Every single episode has at least one cry, a laugh, nods of new knowledge, and many smiles. In the year since I first heard it I managed to doggedly work my way into helping produce the show occasionally, but the passion for the program came first!
amazing <3

2021-08-15

Raffie Smith :)

this show will instantly put you in a good mood!!