The Science of Swearing is Some Very Good News

The Science of Swearing is Some Very Good News

Good News Tuesday runs on the idea that good news makes more good news. Tonight it also runs on swearing. Dr. Robin Hanley DeFoe's research says dropping a casual expletive, not at anyone, just into the void, can block pain receptors and reset the nervous system. A French tennis player proved it in a post-match interview. The Calgary mayor proved it on Twitter during Stampede. It fits. The actual good news is personal and wide-ranging. A Kamloops tattoo artist built a Game Boy life counter for Magic the Gathering, put it on a hand-painted cartridge, and accidentally launched a production run of a thousand. A nervous young man asked for a blessing to propose to his girlfriend. He had the ring ready. He did not wait long. Ryan O'Donnell in Calgary has questions about what living downtown during Stampede actually looks like now. Arlene Dickinson is here to be a mirror for Canadians, and manages to swear once. Topics: Good News Tuesday, swearing research, Calgary Stampede, Arlene Dickinson, Canadian good news Originally aired on 2026-06-23

NEW - Good News Tuesday! Good News, Big Fish, Bigger Ideas

Good News Tuesday goes coast to coast this week, and the stories range from eleven hundred pounds to a cup of tea at a library table. The throughline is the same: simple things done with intention tend to matter more than anyone expects. A Chilliwack-based fishing crew pulled an eleven-and-a-half-foot white sturgeon from the Fraser Valley, the biggest catch of their run. A grade nine student in Edmonton was named one of Canada's best young scientists for developing a biodegradable plastic polymer made from pineapple and orange sugars in her backyard. A PEI library opened a seniors cafe so people who had lost their connections had somewhere to show up and play crib. In England, a group of fathers who lost children formed a football team. They play together and then carve out thirty minutes every session to grieve together out loud. The format is simple. That's the point. Topics: Good News Tuesday, Fraser Valley sturgeon, biodegradable plastic grade nine, PEI seniors cafe, community grief support Originally aired on 2026-06-23

SHIFTHEADS: Running Canada for Mental Health, One Step at a Time

Myles Dininio is running nearly eight thousand kilometers across Canada to raise funds for CAMH, and when this conversation happened he was somewhere near Agawa Bay in northern Ontario, just past the halfway mark. He stopped running long enough to talk. Then he started again. The idea has lived in Myles's head for twenty-two years, since he rode his mountain bike across the country at eighteen and decided the next big thing would be a run. What got him out the door in 2026 was simpler: the kids are old enough, his wife is working, and the clock was ticking. What he didn't expect was how much the road would give back. Strangers sharing their stories. His own grief rising to the surface with nowhere to hide. A playlist his kids made him that he describes as garbage, except for the part where every song belongs to someone he loves. He started in St. John's at the same mile zero where Terry Fox began. He has a mason jar of Atlantic Ocean. He needs one more of the Pacific. Topics: running across Canada, CAMH mental health fundraising, cross-country endurance run, grief and resilience, Canadian mental health awareness GUEST: Myles Dininio | @‌mylesacrosscanada Originally aired on 2026-06-23

NEW - Kyler Horner: Windsor's All In. So is Canada!

Less than twenty-four hours before Canada faced Switzerland, Kyle Horner called in from Windsor, Ontario, right on the American border, to talk about what this World Cup run is doing to a country that isn't used to winning at football. Kyle Horner, radio host at AM800 CKLW, makes the case that what's happening right now is bigger than the game. Windsor is uniquely placed to feel it. School across the border, lunch across the border, friends across the border. And yet when Canada scored in that first game and the flags came out at the waterfront watch party, it landed differently than anything political. The biggest Canadian flag in the country sits on Windsor's waterfront facing the US. They didn't put it up for the World Cup. It's just always been there. The Scots drank Boston dry. Egyptians partied in the streets of Vancouver after Mo Salah's win. English fans took over Texas rodeos. Kyle thinks Canada vs USA, if it comes to that, can wait. Topics: Canada World Cup soccer, Canadian national pride, Windsor Ontario border city, FIFA World Cup 2026, multicultural Canada GUEST: Kyle Horner | http://am800cklw.com [http://am800cklw.com] Originally aired on 2026-06-23

Shiftheads - Is Swearing by Politicians OK… Even if They Have a Point?

Calgary mayor Jeremy Farkas put out a video during Stampede and dropped some language that got attention. The swearing was the hook. The issue underneath it is real and a lot more specific than noise complaints. Ryan O'Donnell lives three minutes from the Cowboys tent and has something to say about what ten straight days of that actually looks like from the inside. Downtown Calgary during Stampede isn't just loud. Last year, windows broke. Things fell off shelves. And every morning after, the sidewalks outside people's homes looked like the aftermath of something nobody living there chose to attend. Ryan's point isn't that Stampede shouldn't exist. It's that downtown is a neighbourhood. There are families, strollers, schools around the corner, and people who should be able to stay in their own homes for ten days without leaving. The question of whether politicians swearing makes them more real or less professional turns out to be more interesting than it sounds. Topics: Calgary Stampede noise, downtown Calgary neighbourhood, mayor Jeremy Farkas, outdoor concerts city living, festival disruption Originally aired on 2026-06-23