Shiftheads - The Bridge Deal Where Nobody Gets Paid Until Debt Clears

NEW - The Last Space Shuttle Flew the Same Year Vancouver Burned

NASA closed out thirty years of space shuttle missions the same year Vancouver's streets filled with flipped cars after a Stanley Cup Game 7 loss. 2011 packed in more than it gets credit for, and laying it side by side makes that obvious fast. Stephen Harper won a federal majority that spring. Jack Layton led the NDP into official opposition for the first time in the party's history months later. Meanwhile people were still sharing music through file-sharing sites that don't exist anymore, and an iPhone in Canada was still something not everyone had. One listener's message cuts through the nostalgia entirely: a stepson starting 25 months of chemo that year, treatment so severe it required two hip replacements afterward. He's cancer-free today, building a career as a sous chef, a reminder that behind every throwback year are real people who lived through it. Topics: 2011, space shuttle, Canadian politics, Vancouver riots, technology in 2011 Originally aired on 2026-07-16

NEW - Flying for Free Isn't Dead. It Just Got Harder

Four years of saving points. One redemption. And the taxes and fees still took a $900 bite out of a flight that was supposed to be free. That's the moment most people quietly give up on the whole idea. Patrick Sojka never did. He's built a specific combination of cards and programs that gets a flight to zero dollars, taxes and fees included, and it has nothing to do with hoarding points for years. It comes down to which two tools you pair, and most flyers only ever use one. There's also a fare-class habit almost nobody checks before booking, and it's costing people money in the exact opposite direction they'd expect. Sojka walks through both, live, with real numbers from real flights. Topics: flying for free, travel rewards, credit card points, Aeroplan, WestJet points Originally aired on 2026-07-16

Shiftheads - The Bridge Deal Where Nobody Gets Paid Until Debt Clears

A $6 billion bridge, a private partner, and a new rule that changes the usual math entirely: no profit until the debt gets repaid first. Tim Powers breaks down why this Gordie Howe Bridge deal reads differently than the profit-first agreements Canadians are used to seeing. Powers walks through the accounting sleight of hand that could reshape how the debt actually looks on paper, from asset valuation to depreciation, and why a complicated deal might work in the Prime Minister's favour by being hard to challenge in a soundbite. He argues political support around Windsor may shield the deal from serious pushback regardless of the fine print. The conversation also drifts back to 2011, when Jack Layton led the NDP into official opposition for the only time in the party's history, before cancer cut his tenure short within months. Powers reflects on what Canadian politics might look like today had Layton had more time. Topics: Gordie Howe bridge, Jack Layton, Stephen Harper, Canadian politics, infrastructure deals Originally aired on 2026-07-16

ICYMI - A Human Tripod Once Caught a Falling Satellite

Normally a spacewalk sends out two people. One time in NASA history, it sent out three, because a massive satellite wasn't cooperating and somebody suggested becoming a human tripod instead. Robert Pearlman still has the footage in his head, and he's not the only one who does. He was also one of the last journalists to get that close to a space shuttle before it flew for good. Not press-line close. Launch-pad close, training-room close, the kind of access NASA only hands out once everyone already knows it's ending. What he watched that day wasn't just a rocket leaving the ground. Down the road from a real 184-foot shuttle on display sits a brand new museum full of Star Wars props. Pearlman has stood in front of both, and only one of them stopped him cold the second he turned the corner. Guess which. Topics: space shuttle, Atlantis final flight, NASA history, Endeavour exhibit, spacewalk Originally aired on 2026-07-16

The Year Bitcoin Hit a Dollar and Investors bought Pizza

Bitcoin crossed a dollar in 2011 and almost nobody blinked. Ed Conroy revisits the year that felt completely ordinary at the time and turns out to have been quietly loaded with the moments that changed everything after it. Conroy traces why 2012, not 2011, is the year most people point to as the smartphone tipping point, and why Steve Jobs died just before his own invention rewired how people talk to each other. He also recounts buying a jailbroken iPhone from a stranger in Florida before they were sold in Canada, then sitting at his kitchen counter with no idea how to turn it on. There's a bigger thread running underneath it all: why space travel felt like old news to an entire generation until someone made it exciting again, and what that says about how quickly the future gets ignored right up until it doesn't. Topics: 2011 throwback, smartphones, Bitcoin, space shuttle, Steve Jobs Originally aired on 2026-07-16