The Gravy Train Frequency Podcast Network
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- History
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The tragic life and enduring legacy of Toronto's crack-smoking mayor.
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1: The Suburbs
This is the story of how our subject goes from the outskirts of the city to a seat in the building at the heart of its power. Before he was the Mayor of Toronto, and before all the insanity that came in the years following that, Rob Ford was just a young man working at the family business in the suburbs, looking for a spark. An unlikely business request led Rob and his family into politics, and Toronto hasn’t been the same since.
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2: City Hall
Rob Ford’s colleagues laughed off his campaign for mayor. They shouldn’t have. They assumed the numerous scandals he’d already suffered through, and the fresh ones that would dominate his campaign, would crush his chances. They shouldn’t have. They ran traditional campaigns and counted on Torontonians to make a relatively traditional choice, the kind they’d always […]
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3: Whispers
As Rob Ford began his term as mayor by ending taxes and cancelling transit plans, his colleagues on city council and the reporters who covered them were starting to gossip. As his first weeks turned to months, Ford was around less and less, and people were starting to wonder: What was going on with the […]
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4: Headlines
After months of absences and whispers and rumours, all of Mayor Rob Ford’s private life started to go public. It began with one story, which led to more, and more. The mayor’s response was denial—and to paint the media as the enemy and attack them by name. There’s a reason this strategy has become so […]
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5: Brazen
The whole world was talking about whether or not Toronto’s mayor smoked crack. You might think that the mayor would change his behaviour following the headlines about his drug use. But he didn’t. We know this because the police were watching him with a secret investigation named Project Brazen II.
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6: The Circus
Mayor Rob Ford publicly admitted to smoking crack “in one of my drunken stupors” on Nov. 5, 2013. And then all hell broke loose.
Customer Reviews
Great podcast
A good look inside the Ford family way.
Complex story that is really well told
This podcast has superb editing and story telling - it keeps you interested the whole way through and shows many sides of the complex character that is Rob Ford.
I always had a really negative perspective on Rob Ford but when I watched the Jimmy Kimmel episode way back when, I felt bad for Rob Ford... this podcast sort of does the same. He was a terrible mayor and I don’t agree with any of his policies but he was also a human being with an addiction and it’s hard to see that through all the embarrassing stories portrayed of him at the time. This podcast paints a fair picture of the good, the bad and ugly sides of Rob.
Incredible story
An incredible view from the inside of one of the more surprising campaigns of the last decade.
In hindsight, that victory was eerily indicative of things to come.