It's been an incredible run and we've read some truly terrible columns, but the time has come to say goodbye. After five years of covering the worst opinions Canadian media has to offer, Eric, Marino and Jeremy are moving on to greener pastures – hopefully there aren't any copies of the National Post lying around. Thanks to all of our guests, listeners and supporters. You made this show so much fun to do over the years. We're not going to read a column this episode, which makes this the first an...
Mar 16, 2025•1 hr 18 min
Are Canada's universities being feminized? It's a topic that's been consuming Leigh Revers – so much so that he wrote about it at length in the bad takes newspaper of record, the National Post Men are foregoing higher education and instead chopping wood in the forest and spending all their money on beard oil. This leads to an imbalance in education levels, which fuels the ongoing birth rate epidemic. Or something like that. Edmonton-based writer and educator Dani Paradis ( @DaniParadis ) joins u...
Jan 27, 2025•52 min
At this time of increased antisemitism, who better to give Jews free advice than Dr. Order and Chaos himself, Jordan Peterson? The problem is his piece, published in the Spectator (London), is riddled with antisemitic tropes and basic misunderstandings of Jewish liturgy. Polite Conversations host Eiynah ( @nicemangos ) joins us to talk about why Peterson might want to sit this one out. Plugs and Recs Polite Conversations - “The Gaza Ghetto Uprising w/Rev and Reve” Polite Conversations - “Pinker’...
Jan 11, 2025•2 hr 9 min
Jews are under attack on campuses! Actually, Zionism is, but that's good enough for Michael Geist to write about an apparent scourge of antisemitism at Canada's universities. We're joined by University of Alberta English and film professor Mike Litwack ( @mikeylitwack ) to take a look at a piece that purports that nobody who supports Israel can feel bad about things, ever. Plugs and Recs Rifqa by Mohammed El-Kurd Get Ghassan Kanafani: Selected political writings , OUT NOW! Keep an eye out for Mu...
Oct 27, 2024•1 hr 31 min
Fancying himself some sort of Judge Dredd of protecting Canadian culture, Christopher Dummitt writes in a special to the National Post how such actions as land acknowledgments or taking a plaque down in an art gallery are giving China an edge. Canadian patriot Nora Loreto joins us to explain why having a deep-seated sense of national pride probably doesn't matter that much. Plugs and Recs Nora Loreto | Substack A political podcast. Just Listen. | Sandy & Nora Talk Politics (sandyandnora.com)...
Aug 09, 2024•59 min
"Are all these bisexuals for real? Or is this 'el gee bee tee cue' stuff just a fashionable trend? I'm just asking questions." That is about the extent of the analysis in this week's column from the Phoebe Maltz Bovy in Globe and Mail. Nevertheless, we torture ourselves and writer/pal Sarah Rieger by unpacking it. Join us for yet another incoherent boomer moment. Plugs and Recs Listen to Expats & Allies | A Podcast on Nazi Refugees The Hoser | Taking On a Grocery Empire: Understanding the Lo...
Jul 10, 2024•1 hr 21 min
Oakville Town Hall is under siege from a red scourge and Sun journalist Joe Warmington is on the case after a hot tip. Can the People's Champion make sense of the situation? Will anyone talk some sense into these misguided youngsters? Freelance journalist Scott Martin (@YouCaughtScott) helps us unpack what really went on that day, since Joe failed to notice that he was actually just at the Fightback table at a pro-Palestine rally. Plugs and Recs Scott Martin - The Catch (readthecatch.ca) Read Re...
Jun 10, 2024•1 hr 4 min
Stop being mean to grocer oligarchs. Stop it! We're warning you. You should be thanking them, they stock your treats and only gouge you a to a moderate degree. Everybody's gotta make a living, and besides, they're probably creating your job anyway. Toronto-based writer Luke Savage ( @LukewSavage ) joins us to take in the view from the National Post and be properly tut-tutted as we learn about the success story that is Galen Weston being born at the right time. Plugs & Recs (The Rinse) Buy Th...
May 26, 2024•48 min
American icon Noah Kulwin (@nkulw) joins the pod to talk about one of the most obnoxious Twitter personalities of the past several months, Joe Roberts. Roberts, co-founder of the Democratic Socialists of America - Canada and former co-host of New Left Radio , has gone full neocon since Oct. 7. So much so that he wrote a column for the National Post , where he's now a regular contributor, waxing nostalgic about George W. Bush, the guy everyone famously loves. Oh, and Sarah Palin too, because he's...
May 18, 2024•1 hr 6 min
We love whinging about the fertility rate, don't we folks? The implications are grave, lowered birth rates could mean fewer DoorDash employees to bring columnists treats. BST Institute fellow Stephen @Magusiak of @pressprogress returns to pick apart a Globe and Mail opinion piece by John Ibbitson. According to Ibby, the ever-dwindling number of babies Canada produces threatens to tear the country apart. Scary stuff! Plugs & Recs (The Rinse) Get news coverage from PressProgress : Sign up for ...
May 08, 2024•57 min
Executive Director of @Wisdom2Action and @QueerMomentum and unstoppable dynamo @FaeJohnstone joins us to discuss how Sydney Sweeney's breasts fortell the death of wokeness – according to the National Post . In a column that reads like a horny Looney Tunes cartoon, Amy Hamm, who is a nurse apparently , brings the bizarre discourse around the young actress to a crescendo. Plugs & Recs (The Rinse) Read The new generation of gay Conservative sellouts by Fae Johnstone Go to +972 Magazine for news...
Apr 17, 2024•1 hr 11 min
The Big Shiny Takes Institute has returned to read a real stinker of a column by Rick Bell. Rick, a traditional dumb guy with a column, seems a little upset about how mean people are being to Calgary Chief of Police Mark Neufeld. We dig into this column (a glorified vanity piece about how the police are good, homeless people are super-criminals and everyone needs to shut up) with friend of the Institute, Drug Data Decoded's Euan Thomson. Plugs and Recs Kenneyism - Jeremy Appel Unrigged Drug Data...
Feb 24, 2024•1 hr 52 min
Polite Conversations host and leading Intellectual Dark Web scholar Eiynah, a/k/a @NiceMangos, joins us to scrape the bottom of the IDW barrel. Gad Saad, who is now a National Post columnist, is a marketing professor who fashions himself as an expert in the defence of Western Civilization. He wrote a piece in the Post about how happy conservatives are, in which he informs the reader that he is very much not mad about the woke left. Plugs & Recs (The Rinse) Listen to Jeremy on Polite Conversa...
Jan 25, 2024•1 hr 41 min
Mount Royal University academic, Al Jazeera columnist and Al Shabaka fellow Muhannad Ayyash joins us to discuss how Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek cancelled Hanukkah. Calgary pundits lost their goddam minds over Gondek's decision to back out of at a totally apolitical menorah lighting ceremony that was billed as an opportunity to demonstrate "SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL." And according to reporting from Aryn Toombs at LiveWire Calgary , it didn't disappoint. Calgary Herald columnist Don Braid, who joined the...
Dec 22, 2023•1 hr 43 min
Chuka Ejeckam joins us again, this time to discuss the ongoing horror in Gaza and how Canadian pundits have assumed the role of IDF spokespeople. There’s no better example of this trend than Andrew Coyne, who wrote a column boasting of how little he’s learned since 9/11. Plugs and Recs UN Director for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Resignation Letter The Hoser Grocery Tracker Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy Tech Won't Save Us - Elon Musk Unmasked, Ep. 1 If you enjoyed this...
Nov 16, 2023•1 hr 42 min
The Big Shiny Takes Institute has returned after the editor (Eric) spent the last month traveling the world in search of the shiniest takes. It turns out they were all right here in Canada. This week we return to an old favourite, the people's champion Joe Warmington, for a column about remembering police officers who passed away this year. Before you ask, yes Don Cherry is featured in the column for some reason. This episode was recorded in late September and is a classic example of the Nightsc...
Oct 21, 2023•1 hr 1 min
Jeremy and Marino are joined by The Breach co-ordinating editor Emma Paling (@emmapaling) to discuss a column from Carson Jerema, the National Post 's comment editor, who in accordance with Post traditions doesn't seem to do much editing. According to Jerema, Pierre Poilievre's shrieking about the globalistsat the World Economic Forum isn't a conspiracy theory at all. In fact, it's exactly like Chrystia Freeland's tepid criticisms of the WEF in her book Plutocrats , which Jerema adds is a Marxis...
Aug 23, 2023•1 hr 11 min
Things are so good in Canadian media. There's layoffs nearly every week. There's talk of the Toronto Star merging with Postmedia. The Online News Act was passed and as a result Google and Facebook are pulling Canadian news content from their platforms. (The Act isn't great and doesn't help independent media that much to begin with, but Google and Facebook pulling this move is baaaad). To celebrate the robust and healthy nature of our industry, Marino and Eric are joined by old j-school buddy Hun...
Jul 08, 2023•1 hr 47 min
What do opinion columnists in this country think about strikes? Nothing worth reading on your own. In this episode the Big Shiny Takes Institute takes a look at an awful column on the PSAC strike that took place near the end of April and extended into May. The conventional wisdom of punditry was that the public would not support a public sector strike, but in hindsight (and at the time) we could very clearly see how incorrect that opinion was. Globe and Mail columnist Andrew Coyne had some choic...
May 17, 2023•1 hr 23 min
The unthinkable has happened in Canada. A public body has offered new health recommendations and people are overreacting. How will society even function on two drinks a week? According to some, not at all. This week we are joined by author James Wilt (Drinking Up the Revolution, Do Androids Dream of Electric Cars) and co-founder of The Hoser Kevin Taghabon to read an abysmal column from Peter Shawn Taylor in the Financial Post. In this column Taylor accuses the Canadian Centre for Substance Use ...
Apr 17, 2023•1 hr 36 min
The Big Shiny Takes Institute has returned! This episode, while Jeremy is in his self-imposed book-writing exile, Eric and Marino are joined by Kristen Pue and Kyla Hewson of the Pullback podcast to read a baffling column by Jesse Kline. Jesse spends valuable column space concern-trolling about the Liberal's new luxury tax on vehicles, applicable to cars over $100k and boats over $250k. He admonishes the government for this reckless new tax, and claims that this will impact the working class muc...
Mar 26, 2023•1 hr 15 min
Our old pal Abdul ( @MarxGasol ) joins us for a public policy thought experiment courtesy of UBC business lecturer Adam Pankratz in the National Post: Should we destigmatize stigma? Maybe if drug users and unhoused people simply understood that what they were doing is bad and they should feel bad, we'd all be better off! Kidding aside, this perverse serving of inhuman hogwash from a dude whose kids will surely grow to hate him was the worst thing we've read in a while. We're always saying that, ...
Feb 24, 2023•1 hr 10 min
The last Kino standing, Evan Macdonald, joins us to talk about Dr. Jordan Bernt Peterson's latest made up scandal. The College of Psychiatrists of Ontario is asking him to take social media training, because he sucks at posting. The National Post 's opinion page says this the greatest injustice of our day, but do any real people actually care? Tune in to find out! Plugs and Recs Listen to Kino Lefter Subscribe to The Orchard Tove Lo - Dirt Femme SZA - SOS Needle Drop - Best Songs of 2022 If you ...
Jan 18, 2023•1 hr 33 min
Esteemed Twitter user and Dog Island alum Andrew Neville joins us to mock one of, and I'm not mincing words here, the worst pieces we have read. The culprit? None other than our old pal, Adam Zivo. In this piece (published in the Daily Hive lol) Zivo tries to use statistics to argue that crime is out of control. The problem? It's based on an opinion poll. It gets so much worse. Plugs and Recs The Myth Of Affordable Housing In Toronto Dubious crime statistics: a disturbing trend of police and med...
Dec 10, 2022•1 hr 10 min
The Big Shiny Takes Institute is back! We're joined by political researcher and new Friend of the Institute Chuka Ejeckam to read a very anti-union piece by the one and only Jesse Kline. Kline, the author of galaxy-brained takes about privatizing parks, is back and trying to frame striking workers as a malignant force threatening your children. To give you an idea of how emotionally damaging this column is, it starts by comparing unions to COVID-19. This episode was recorded Monday November 12th...
Nov 19, 2022•1 hr 5 min
Environmental lawyer and former Liberal Party of Alberta leader David Khan joins the Institute to talk about the ongoing rehabilitation of Jason Kenney's image. National Post pundit John Ivison writes that the reason Kenney failed as Alberta premier wasn't because he was a total slimeball who pandered to the far-right but was too much of a coward to go all the way, but because he was just too great a guy. It was a real Shakespearean tragedy, as Ivison says without irony. Plugs and Recs Palestine...
Oct 20, 2022•1 hr 17 min
Luke Savage, author of the new book The Dead Center: Reflections on Liberalism and co-host of the Michael and Us podcast , joins us to read a column from ur-smug centrist and National Observer "lead columnist" Max Fawcett. In this piece, Fawcett outlines how he thinks Pierre Poilievre is attempting to appeal to the far-right (true) and far-left (lol) by opposing vaccine mandates and talking about "elites". Naturally, it's his beloved Liberal party which has found the perfect balance in all thing...
Sep 29, 2022•59 min
The gang invites Megan Linton of the Harbinger Media Network podcast Invisible Institutions to slog through an incredibly lazy piece by Brian Lilley. It's a column that contains much hand-wringing about masks and requirements to have them. It's also basically the same as the column he wrote the week before. Also, a discussion about a certain monarch's death, its dominance of the news cycle and why that does Canadians a disservice – especially on a week that saw another mass killing event mishand...
Sep 19, 2022•1 hr 12 min
The Big Shiny Takes Institute has returned! This week, Eric, Marino and Jeremy are joined by Fae Johnstone (Executive Director of Wisdom2Action, writer and activist) to read some absolutely horrendous transphobia published in the National Post. The National Post, seemingly taking their cues from the transphobes down in the US and UK (TERF Island) are now pushing "gender critical" talking points as a way of limiting access to care. It's bullshit and whoever wrote it should have rotten produce thr...
Sep 01, 2022•1 hr 11 min
The Big Shiny Takes Institute is reporting live from the frontlines of the climate war (Eric's living room). This episode we are joined by Mitchell Thompson from PressProgress to take apart an incoherent screed written by a senior fellow of the Macdonald Laurier Institute - Jamil Jivani. The column suggests Trudeau's cultish fixation on saving the environment is causing real world suffering. We, as readers and people who exist in reality, are left to try and figure out what on earth he is talkin...
Aug 11, 2022•1 hr 1 min
