Steve Stebbing on Why Star Wars Stopped Being a Cultural Event

Good News Tuesday - The Tickle Trunk Was Doing More Than You Knew

Children laughter and play turn out to be building something permanent. The Saturday morning forts, the trunk full of random props that turned into a pirate ship, the Roadrunner that never got caught. None of it was wasted time.   Tony has an Oscar the Grouch tattoo and a theory about reply-all emails. He still calls it the tickle trunk. Shane shares he once moved the actual tickle trunk on a college shoot with Ernie Coombs and never forgot it.   Good news lands first. A daughter is visiting. A little old philosopher filled a theatre in Ottawa for two hours and sounded exactly like his podcasts. Then the texts started coming in.   Topics: children laughter brain development, Mr. Dressup tickle trunk, Saturday morning cartoons Canada, Sesame Street, kids play resilience Originally aired on 2026-06-02

NEW - The Simplest Thing You Can Do to Help Your Kid Learn Better

Six-year-olds who could not tell time. A baseline test confirming it. Then two sessions with performance visual artists teaching through play and joy. Every child could tell the time. Every child moved up an attainment bracket. Dr. Jacqueline Harding ran that experiment, and the result is not a curiosity. It is a blueprint. When children laugh, cortisol drops. Defences lower. The brain enters the relaxed, curious state where information actually sticks. Harding calls it the happiness laboratory — and the neuroscience behind it explains why people remember stories told with warmth far longer than any list of facts delivered under pressure. It also explains why a fear-based approach to education is failing teachers and children at the same time. Harding consults on some of the most-watched children's television in the world, including Peter Rabbit and Teletubbies. Her test for whether a show is working is simple: watch the child after it ends. Frantic and cranky means the pace was wrong. Calm and still talking about it means something landed. For every parent and grandparent trying to figure out what to put in front of a child, that is where to start. Topics: laughter and learning children, play-based learning outcomes, child brain development, children's TV consultant, fear-based education GUEST: Dr. Jacqueline Harding | http://drjacquelineharding.com [http://drjacquelineharding.com] Originally aired on 2026-06-02

SHIFTHEADS: West End Ottawa Born and Raised. What’s On Your Mind Stefan Keyes?

Ottawa nostalgia and urban development collide when the place that held your childhood firsts starts coming down by machine. Stefan Keyes grew up in Ottawa's West End, close enough to walk to Westgate Shopping Centre. He watched his first movie there. He got his first passport photo there. He has not been inside in years and he is going to miss it anyway.   There is a difference between a place you visit and a place that holds something for you. Stefan Keyes names it precisely: the physical manifestation of memory. When it goes, the instant recall goes with it.   The new Ottawa is bigger, shinier, and genuinely exciting. It is also missing something that the reclining seats and the VIP section cannot replace.   Topics: Westgate Shopping Centre Ottawa, nostalgia urban development, childhood memories Ottawa West End, human connection, Stefan Keyes CTV CFRA   GUEST: Stefan Keyes | cfra.com Originally aired on 2026-06-02

Good News Tuesday: She Fixed Bikes for 14 Years and Gave Every One Away

Good news Tuesday Canada brings Krista Richard out of Moncton, New Brunswick, where her Bikes and Trikes for Everyone program has put wheels under thousands of kids over 14 years. She collects them, fixes them, and sends them out the door. That is the whole program.   The phones and texts fill in the rest. Arthur was fancy. Teletubbies was a hard no. Someone watched Mr. Dressup through their teens when they were homesick and it still worked. A daughter got her physics project running tonight. The good news is small and enormous all at once.   In New York City, a Turkish restaurant owner has been letting homeless people sleep inside for eight years. Pope Leo plays tennis. The good news is not hard to find once you start looking.   Topics: good news Tuesday Canada, Krista Richard Bikes and Trikes Moncton, childhood TV nostalgia, Pope Leo Augustinian, listener texts radio Originally aired on 2026-06-02

NEW - New Fiction Book: The Peacekeeper Who Couldn't Keep His Own Peace

A Canadian peacekeeper deploys to Croatia in 1993 to separate armies that want nothing to do with peace. He comes home carrying wounds nobody can see. Decades later, a daughter he never knew existed makes her way across the country to find him. The Peace Thieves is Brent Van Staalduinen's sixth novel, built around a question the title refuses to let go of: who is stealing the peace, and can it ever truly be kept? An anti-war novel that openly celebrates the people sent into harm's way, and asks what a country owes them when they return. Topics: Canadian peacekeeping novel, military fiction Canada, PTSD veterans fiction, Croatia 1993, father-daughter estrangement GUEST: Brent Van Staalduinen | http://brentvans.com [http://brentvans.com] Originally aired on 2026-06-02