Before Memes Had a Name, There Was a Cat

NEW - Bob Dylan Is 85 and Back on the Road. So Is Everyone Else

Bob Dylan is 85 and just announced more tour dates. The Beach Boys are out with Mike Love at 85. Paul Simon is 84, Randy Bachman is 82, Rod Stewart and Eric Clapton are both 80. They are all on the road this summer, and concert ticket prices for all of them keep climbing. Music journalist Eric Alper says the cynical read is that they need the money. The more interesting answer is psychological. For artists who have spent fifty or sixty years performing, stopping is not a logistical decision. It is an identity crisis. There is also a concept called terror management: the idea that humans build systems to buffer the anxiety of mortality, and for these artists, the stage is that buffer. Then there is the question of what comes next. Eric Alper just saw the ABBA Voyage hologram show in the UK and thinks the concert as we know it may be unrecognizable in five to ten years. Universal announced a deal last week allowing fans to remix and duet with official releases using AI. This may be the last generation that listens to something created entirely by human beings. Topics: classic rock tours 2026, aging musicians, terror management psychology, ABBA Voyage AI, Universal Music AI deal GUEST: Eric Alper | thatericalper.com Originally aired on 2026-06-04

Before Memes Had a Name, There Was a Cat

Internet memes turned 2007 into year zero — and the evidence starts with a cat, a cheeseburger, and intentionally terrible spelling. Ed Conroy connects the cultural nostalgia of Bob Barker's final Price Is Right era to the moment the internet stopped being a place you explored and became a place four corporations manage. Something Awful, Catterday, Grumpy Cat — the lineage is weirder and more deliberate than most people realize. The word meme is a shortening of a Greek word meaning "that which is imitated." A researcher in the 1970s decided it was too long and cut it. From the very beginning, the meme concept was itself a meme. Ed Conroy maps what 2007 actually was — not just a transition on daytime TV, but a hinge point in how culture travels. Topics: internet memes, early internet history, Price Is Right 2007, meme culture, retro nostalgia GUEST: Ed Conroy | http://retrontario.com [http://retrontario.com] Originally aired on 2026-06-04

Hollywood Spent Billions. Gen Z Picked the $750,000 Movie

Canadian films are landing at the box office, and the question nobody expected to be asking is whether this country is ready to actually celebrate the people who made them. The Knight Who Should Be Luther King Charles tapped Idris Elba on the shoulders with a ceremonial sword this week, making him Sir Idris — recognized for his work as an actor, activist, and musician. Richard Crouse argues the knighthood is deserved, the Bond conversation is done, and the real move is more Luther films. He also has photographic evidence of his wife discovering Elba was standing directly behind her at the Toronto International Film Festival. The Youngest Director to Hit Number One While Scary Movie Six markets itself as a movie that cancels cancel culture, two low-budget horror films rewrote the box office rulebook. Backrooms and Obsession together prove that Gen Z will seek out strange, cheap, original films — the kind Hollywood stopped making a decade ago. Richard Crouse maps what that shift actually means. Topics: Idris Elba knighthood, Luther franchise, Scary Movie Six, Backrooms horror, Canadian film GUEST: Richard Crouse | http://richardcrouse.ca [http://richardcrouse.ca] Originally aired on 2026-06-04

Your Feed Thinks You Need Fixing

The optimization industry needs one thing before it can sell you anything: your belief that you are not enough. Tony Tedesco has decided not to provide it. Tony talks through what actually earns his attention in a feed built to amplify inadequacy, and it is not the cabbage diet or the step counter. It is people telling the truth about what they are going through. The scroll-past is instant for anything that leads with a problem you did not know you had. The concern is not for people like Tony, who have access to real nutritionists, psychologists, and fitness professionals through his work. It is for everyone else spending real money on programs sold by people with no particular expertise in anything except making the sale. Topics: optimization culture, social media algorithms, wellness marketing, self-improvement pressure, authenticity Originally aired on 2026-06-03

NEW - Zellers Is Back and Canada Might Be in a Recession. Coincidence?

Canada economy recession talk is landing at the same moment a beloved discount chain is rising from the ashes of Hudson's Bay. The hosts are not sure that is a coincidence. Zellers, Loyalty Points, and the Nostalgia Economy A Quebec retail group has acquired the Zellers name, logo, and Zeddy the bear, and plans to go national. The hosts dig into what the revival actually signals about where Canadian consumers are right now, and whether optimum points, Canadian tire money, and aeroplan rewards are doing more for the economy than anyone wants to admit. Trump, Forced Labor, and the Technical Recession Nobody Wants to Name Sixty countries are now accused of forced labor violations under a tariff authority American courts have already struck down once. The hosts trace the Uyghur supply chain connection, weigh whether Canada's recession is technical in name only, and land on one uncomfortable agreement: Trump may have done Canadian defence spending a favour nobody asked for. Topics: Canada economy recession, Trump tariffs forced labor, Zellers relaunch, technical recession Canada, loyalty points GUEST: Jamie Ellerton | conaptus.com GUEST: Lindsay Broadhead | broadheadcomms.ca Originally aired on 2026-06-03