Now or Never

CBC STORIES

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.

  1. 2025-12-18

    Who's been answering Trevor's phone for three years?

    ‘Tis the season for exchanging greetings, sending salutations, and dashing off (humblebrag) holiday letters.  But chances are, there’s someone you haven’t reached out to yet…so what are you waiting for? Today Now or Never is nudging you to finally get those meaningful messages out into the world, starting with our own Trevor Dineen. For the past three (!) years, a complete stranger with Trevor’s old phone number, has been redirecting his birthday messages and phone calls. Trevor has never spoken to him, but today, he calls up this helpful stranger to say thanks.  When her baby boy Lewiston was diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy, Calgary’s Jessica Janzen was determined his short life would be full of joy. That meant dance parties to Can’t Stop the Feeling by Justin Timberlake. Now, Jessica is trying to get Timberlake to join her in a dance for what would be Lewiston’s 10th birthday. When Laurie Froman was a teenager growing up in Six Nations of the Grand River, her dad used to do little drawings on her lunch bags, along with this simple message: “Have a good day. Love, Dad.” Laurie tells us why she’s hung on to these paper lunchbags for 35 years, and why the message is even more dear to her since her dad Cecil passed away.  Toronto’s Cheryl Swanson didn't expect to give birth in her living room, but her son had other plans. Ever since that night she’s held onto a debt of gratitude that she needs to deliver. The question is: twelve years later, can we find the paramedic to make it happen?  When her colleagues at the University of Regina learned that Angela was fleeing domestic abuse, they stepped up and helped her feel safe. Angela shares the difference it made and how other workplaces can do the same. Keith Merker wrote a Christmas song to cheer up his wife Lindsay as she was going through chemotherapy. The couple wasn’t in the spirit to enjoy the song at the time, so it collected dust for over a decade…Until this year, when Keith was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer. The family is now on a mission to use the song to spread a message of joy and hope as widely and loudly as they possibly can.

    47 min

  2. 2025-12-11

    From the night sky to your old wedding videos, here's what you're trying to save right now

    This week, stories of people racing to save something before it disappears completely. For most of his life, Gerry Smerchanski has watched the stars from his property in the small town of Teulon, Manitoba. But now the town has grown up around his home, and the amateur astronomer’s night sky is disappearing because of light pollution. Find out how he’s fighting to preserve the night sky, and why it matters. After looking all over her Saskatoon home, Barb Rudoski finally found her old wedding video from 1991. Now that she’s transferred the VHS to digital, she’s finally able to take her daughters back in time to the big hair, shoulder pads, and 90s-tastic realness of her wedding day, with hilarious results.  Where have all the male friendships gone? According to Statistics Canada, we're seeing our friends less often, and have fewer close friends to confide in — and this is especially true for men. Find out how something called the "Wednesday Waffle" is helping Justin, Arman, Sawyer and Mike of the Toronto Dingos Aussie-rules football club stay connected, after suffering a devastating loss on their team. Life in the small town of Flatrock, N.L. used to revolve around the church — until it was put up for sale. Although they couldn’t save their beloved church, Sonya Power-Parsons and a group of volunteers now dedicate much of their lives to reviving the community cemetery where generations of family members are laid to rest, a place that was also at risk of disappearing forever. And what happens when you're a little too good at saving things? When her living room was so filled with boxes that there was only a narrow path left to walk through, Colleen Peters knew something needed to change. Hear the tips and tricks that helped her face her collecting problem. Isabell Weitman has always loved creating, but she turned to art as her creative outlet when she was diagnosed with a nervous system disorder and wasn’t able to work. The BC-based artist creates beautifully eerie pieces using items that a lot of us would never think of saving, including bones, dead insects and dried flowers, plants and fruits. And she recently found an artistic collaborator — an orb weaver spider named Gary, whose webs have become the focal point of Isabell’s works.

    54 min

  3. 2025-11-27

    So you screwed up. Now what?

    Messing things up is part of the human experience. But what happens when you fail at something so big, and so publicly...how do you come back from that? On this episode, four people confess their most epic fails, and what they're doing to dig themselves out. Edmonton’s Kayla Huszar used to cajole, bribe and beg her children to brush their teeth. But her "gentle parenting" approach led to both her kids needing emergency dental surgery, and feelings of failure. How Kayla created boundaries, stopped getting bullied by her kids, and ditched the permissive approach. When Jeremy Campbell first dreamed up the Line Spike Frontenac music festival this summer, he pictured 20,000 fans in a field, singing along to an all-Canadian lineup featuring Chantal Kreviazuk and Burton Cummings. Instead, his liquor license got revoked, fewer than 4000 people showed up, and he's now over $225,000 in debt. He tells us what went wrong, and why he still has the confidence to try again next year. Ify takes her mic to Toronto's Metropolitan University, where students confess their biggest academic fails. After years of gruelling training and international marathons, long-distance runner Natasha Wodak failed all of her attempts to make it to the 2024 Paris Olympics. Now 43 years old, the life-long competitor is learning how to accept where her body is at during this stage of her career — although she still hasn’t ruled out the 2028 Olympic Games. After an existential crisis in her early 20s, Erica Rankin decided to quit her 9 to 5 job and start a protein cookie dough business. Things were going well at first, but after a mouldy cookie dough incident and some retail flops, Erica was forced to file for bankruptcy and move back in with her parents. She tells us why she's still determined to live the entrepreneurial life, and how she's doing it despite a lot of burned bridges.

    54 min

  4. 2025-11-20

    An ex, a slob, and a real life 'Golden Girls': How to survive roommates

    Roommates. They can be great, they can save you money....and they can also make your life a living hell. Roommate households are the fastest growing living arrangement in Canada, so we wanted to know, how are people making it work? (or not) Five stories of people navigating some tricky real-life moments with their roommates. Deb King never thought she’d need to find a roommate at 67 years old, but that’s exactly what she’s doing right now. We join her on the hunt for “someone normal,” as she fends off dating requests, does background checks, and just tries to find a home for herself and her dog, Cirque du Soleil. Jewel Casey and Jordan Woodward have spent the past seven months living together in an apartment in Invermere, B.C.…as exes. Despite the rough patches, sticking out their year-long lease together has led the couple to come to some surprising realizations about where their relationship went wrong. It's move in day for Marisa, Matt, Chet, and Izabella, a group of friends in Toronto who just bought a 1.3 million dollar home together. They say that co-owning is their only way to crack the Toronto housing market. So how do they decide who takes out the garbage? And what happens if one of them gets a job in another city? They show us the whiteboard and 20-page contract that gets into the nitty-gritty of cohabitating with friends. After Bev Suek's husband passed away, she realized she didn't like to live alone. So she opened up the doors to her six-bedroom home in Winnipeg, for other 50+ women who don't want to live alone, either. Trevor drops in for a visit with the real-life Golden Girls of Winnipeg, to find out how they handle everything from making meals to overnight guests (wink wink). Sarah Scanlon and Jennifer McDonald joke that their 1000 square foot, three bedroom bungalow in Guelph is an 'eco-lesbian retreat.' Best friends for the last 17 years, they decided to buy a house together in 2021. And if you think close friends (who also happen to be exes) don’t necessarily make great roommates....Sarah and Jen are here to prove you wrong.

    49 min

  5. 2025-11-13

    Saying goodbye: How do you know when it's really over?

    Saying goodbye can be hard — whether it's to a relationship, a job, or the place you call home. On this episode, hear how people knew it was time to say goodbye, and what happened after they walked away. Ify pops in for one last visit to the Imperial Pub, an iconic neighborhood bar in Toronto that's closing its doors after 81 years. Long-time owner Fred Newman reflects on the end of an era, while regulars raise their glasses for one last toast. After Donald Trump was elected back to the Oval Office in 2024, Anthony and Dominic Sposato became increasingly uneasy about living in America as a married gay couple with a 10-year-old son. They decided to pack their life into boxes and sell their home in New Jersey, with dreams of moving to Edmonton. But they aren’t yet sure if their application to immigrate across the border will be accepted. For 21 years, Sam Corbett was the drummer in The Sheepdogs, one of Canada's most successful rock bands. But last month, he decided to call it quits to focus on being a stay-at-home dad. He tells us what it was like to break up with a band he's known since high school, how he's adjusting to life without thousands of adoring fans, and the moment he knew he had to put down his drum sticks for good. How do you know when it’s time to say goodbye to your marriage? We sit down with Kristen Clancy and Robbie Gruenbauer, who just got divorced a few weeks ago, for a real conversation about what went wrong in their 12 year marriage, and how they managed to stay friendly through the breakup.

    47 min

  6. 2025-11-06

    Do I need another job? The art and the grind of the side hustle

    Asking what someone does for work is more complicated these days. More than a million Canadians, or 5.6 per cent of the working population, are holding down multiple jobs. So today on Now or Never we’re looking at the art, and real cost, of the side hustle. After two decades in the education industry, Lethbridge, Alberta teacher Verna Mabin didn’t expect she’d still be working a side hustle…and searching for another. And just wait till you hear what she’s using her extra income to pay for. By day, Winnipeg’s Sam Davidson works for the Asper School of Business at the University of Manitoba, but by night, he transforms into the spandex wearing, hip swiveling,  Red Hot Sammy Peppers, bringing the heat inside the wrestling ring. How long can he hold on to his alter ego? Devon Flynn is an unapologetic job juggler in Prince George, B.C. With ten jobs sending him T4s, you’d think he’d have enough to make ends meet, but when things dried up a few months ago, Devon had to face some tough decisions. How he’s making side hustles work for him.  For years, Raymond Girard has dreamed about building a business around his love of lego. After getting derailed by a serious bike accident, he’s finally ready to take his side hustle to a fulltime gig.

    48 min

  7. 2025-10-30

    What would it take to face your biggest fears?

    Just in time for Halloween, stories of people being scared out-of-their-mind about something, but doing it anyway. The last time Mike Bahuaud ran a half-marathon, he went into cardiac arrest and collapsed at the finish line, where his heart stopped beating for nearly five minutes. One year later, he's determined to run the exact same marathon, to finish what nearly ended him.  It was a regular Friday afternoon in Mount Pearl, Newfoundland when Shem Evans was randomly attacked and beaten by seven teenagers while picking up his kids from school. After the attack, fear rocked his family and the community. But when his wife Bailey Rempel didn’t see enough change, she took a leap and ran for city council to try to make things safer for everyone.  Lynn Sainté has a deep fear of throwing a party where no one shows up. But she also really wants to relive her church choir days, so she's booked a venue, hired some musicians, and sent out the invitations. When Ify checks in, she's only sold three tickets with a week to go. So will anyone show up? Ify joins her friend Lynn on the night of the event, to find out if all the nerves and stress are worth it. After a traumatic swimming lesson as a child, Aaliyah Hall then discovered two of her family members died from drowning. She's been terrified of the water ever since. But now, she’s part of a group of Black women in Hamilton who are learning how to float without fear. “Everything that mattered to me in my life, was stripped.” In a matter of months Judi Rees learned of the sexual abuse her children experienced, became dangerously ill, and ended her 30-year marriage. After living through a season of terrifying events, Judi shares what she’s learned from the other side.

    54 min

  8. 2025-10-23

    "I run for everyone who can't." Runners share what keeps them moving

    If you, like us, are not a runner, it might seem nuts to risk the muscle pain, the boredom, not to mention the chafing. So we asked a bunch of people what keeps them moving, and got some really surprising answers. Four days ago, Tata Shifrin finished her first full marathon in Toronto. Which is not what her doctors would have predicted, since she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2014 and told she would likely be using a cane or wheelchair by now. The single mom tells us how what started as a sarcastic joke to her Russian grandmother is now a promise she's making to herself, and her three children. Three times a week, the Running on Faith run club gathers at dawn on the streets of Surrey, B.C. What makes this run club a little different is that everyone connected to it lives in a shelter or recovery center. Founder Andie Van Der Eerden tells us how she took her own battle with depression and anxiety and turned it into a mission of hope. The kids in the Windbreakers Indigenous Youth Running Club in St. Albert, Alberta tell us about the connection between sweetgrass and running, and why it's always a good idea to put sage in your sneakers. When Luc Zoratto stopped using drugs and alcohol, he started running. A lot. After years of non-stop training and marathon finishes, Luc is falling out of love with the sport that gave him so much. Newfoundland’s Florence Barron is running in one of the most challenging road races in the country…at the age of 87. It’s not her first time competing, and as long as her body allows her, she says it won’t be her last.

    52 min
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4.6
out of 5
117 Ratings

About

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.

Information

  • Channel
    CBC STORIES
  • Creator
    CBC
  • Years Active
    2006 - 2025
  • Episodes
    16
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    Copyright © CBC 2026
  • Show Website
    Now or Never
  • Provider
    Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

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