Podfather Andre Goulet (@andremarrgoulet) of Harbinger Media Network (@harbingertweets) returns to BST to talk about anti-China neo-McCarthyism, as exemplified by John Ivison, whom you may remember from an earlier episode when he wrote a column about how CERB recipients are lazy parasites, for which he was rightfully dubbed the "worst person on the internet". Ivison is mad that two Canadian MPs (Niki Ashton and Paul Manly) supported a rally calling for the release Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, ...
Dec 11, 2020•49 min•Season 1Ep. 22
Senior Big Shiny Takes Institute legal analyst Alex (@NaomiDecline) from Haus of Decline — America's foremost Calvinist pod — joins us to take on two NPCs (National Post Columnists) who are lawyers. First off, we've got Howard Levitt, whom you may know as Jordan Peterson's libel lawyer and the guy who abandoned his Ferrari in a puddle. He's here to tell you that you're not working hard enough from home, you filthy time thief! Then we talk about another Jordan Peterson-affiliated lawyer, Bruce Pa...
Nov 27, 2020•1 hr 11 min•Season 1Ep. 21
We're joined by Podcast High principal and Mount Royal University historian Roberta Lexier (@rlexier) to discuss Licia Corbella's postponed knee surgery and the only thing a Trudeau has done that she supports, invoking the War Measures Act to militarily occupy Quebec. While hospital workers went on a wildcat strike across Alberta, winning the hearts and minds of working people, Corbella writes in the Calgary Herald that she'd love to support them but was mildly inconvenienced, so alas she cannot...
Nov 13, 2020•1 hr 26 min•Season 1Ep. 20
Big things are happening down at the old podcast factory. Executive Director of the Harbinger Media Network and longtime friend of the show Andre Goulet came by to talk about Harbinger and its goals for a new, independent, left podcasting space in Canada. Yes, Big Shiny Takes is on the network as well. We're joining the ranks of some of the best podcasts in Canada, including Alberta Advantage, 49th Parahell, Kino Lefter and more. Harbinger has some ambitious and worthy goals. These goals are onl...
Nov 04, 2020•11 min
We get a bit tankie in our latest installment, featuring a dearly-departed posting legend, Ray the Red, whom you might also know as the CEO of Antifa. He got banned from Twitter for saying mean things about J.K. Rowling. The National Post has been on a red-baiting tear recently, more so than usual. We've got two batshit insane op-eds arguing that Justin Trudeau is a socialist mastermind. Huge if true. It would also be a marked improvement from his milquetoast neoliberalism. First up is third-pla...
Oct 17, 2020•1 hr 19 min•Season 1Ep. 19
If there's anything Albertans love to do, it's complain. If there's anyone who knows this, it's Scott Schmidt (@shmitzysays), who writes about Alberta's grievance politics weekly in his "Laying It Out" column. He joins us to discuss two excerpts from a recently-releases book, "Moment of Truth: How to Think About Alberta's Future," published in the National Post, of course. Although Wexit is a fringe movement of QAnon crazies, Postmedia seems to be doing everything it can to mainstream it. The th...
Oct 05, 2020•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 18
In this episode, we discuss a guy so anti-imperialist that he unquestioningly supports U.S. imperialism. That's right, we're talking about Macleans contributing editor, National Post columnist and all-around neocon ghoul Terry Glavin (Gladio). The piece in question is a masterful work of concern trolling, where he suggests that if BLM activists want to win him over, they'll have to stop wearing clothes. It's essentially a hornier, unironic version of the classic Matt Bors cartoon. Gladio comes v...
Sep 26, 2020•1 hr 14 min•Season 1Ep. 17
We're joined by our dear j-school pal Mahnoor Yawar (@mahnoorie) to talk about a familiar theme for our listeners — the complete lack of accountability for columnists at Canada's major newspapers. The spark for this discussion was Toronto Star columnist Rosie DiManno's reply-all meltdown, in which she told the entire staff at the paper what she thought of the Star's new internal ombudsperson position, which was assumed by her far superior colleague, Shree Paradkar. (Hint: it's the name of the ep...
Sep 12, 2020•1 hr 10 min•Season 1Ep. 16
We need to talk about the sock. Stephen Magusiak (@magusiak) of PressProgress joins us to explain a guy named Steven Kerzner (@EdtheSock) to our American buddy, Stephen from the Haus of Decline podcast in light of Kerzner's recent racist remarks against NDP leader Jagmeet Singh. Was Kerzner ever actually funny, or are we just nostalgic for a simpler time? We listen to some classic Fromage clips to find out. (Hint: They have not aged well.) We also discuss Kerzner's recent foray into hyperpartisa...
Aug 22, 2020•1 hr 18 min•Season 1Ep. 15
YouTuber Tristan Johnson of Step Back History joins us to talk about how incinerating tens of thousands of Japanese civillians at the close of the Second World War is actually bad. The impetus for this discussion is a chatacteristically long-winded Twitter thread from National Post opinion editor Matt Gurney, where he argues that dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which he concedes were not militarily necessary, were good. That's because it allowed his grandfather to return hom...
Aug 15, 2020•1 hr 15 min•Season 1Ep. 14
WE have returned to talk about the scandal that has rocked Canadian politics for the past few weeks. This is, of course, courtesy of a shady charity run by Canada's McPoyle twins. The prime minister wanted to hand them a $900-million contract to administer a government student summer jobs program, which some could interpret as payback for the paid speeches his mom and brother have given them. Eric read Marc and Craig Keilburger's book "ME to WE: Finding Meaning in a Material World," which WE use...
Aug 02, 2020•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 13
Big Shiny Takes is back with an episode on a columnist that is truly memorable for all the wrong reasons, Margaret Wente. But first we briefly discuss the WE scandal engulfing Canadian news, before launching into a discussion of tHe LetTeR and cAnCeL cUlTuRe to set the scene for Wente's woe-is-me shtick. If you haven't been keeping track, Wente was recently appointed to a meaningless college society/illuminati front called The Quadrangle Society. This was met with criticism due to several wrinkl...
Jul 19, 2020•1 hr 23 min•Season 1Ep. 12
We are back with a very special bonus episode, our first every Big Shiny Takes listener request! For this episode we read a column by Jonah Goldberg, an American columnist and commentator. Goldberg argues that despite many police forces in the USA originating from slave patrols, it's unfair to say the history of policing is steeped in racism. As part of this column's weird, disjointed approach to making its point poorly the reader is taken on a journey through the history of policing and law enf...
Jul 12, 2020•40 min
After a quick catch up with some old favourites, we talk about the return of Dr. Jordan Bernt Peterson after an apparent benzo addiction scare. Is he alive? Dead? Transcended the astral realm? Mikhaila assumed his form? We discuss so you can decide! We also read through his comeback National Post column, which is about how cultural Marxism has infiltrated academia at the highest levels, including —gasps — the hard sciences. In other words, the exact same one note he's been hitting for the past f...
Jul 04, 2020•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 11
In a slight departure from our regular Postmedia dunking, we talk about the nation's second-largest newspaper chain, TorStar. It may not surprise you to learn that they own the Toronto Star, which is relatively good compared with the National Post, but still part of the same corporate media ecosystem, with all the structural problems that entails. TorStar was recently taken private and purchased by four fellas who are Conservative party donors. What does this mean for the future of Canada's last...
Jun 20, 2020•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 10
We're joined by Stephen Magusiak (@magusiak) of PressProgress to talk about a real banner week for Postmedia sleaze. First, we discuss Rex Murphy's absolute dumpster fire on how racism isn't a major issue in our fake country that was built off ethnically cleansing Indigenous people, the response from some of his own National Post colleagues and the near-complete lack of accountability for Postmedia stalwarts. Next, we chat about People's Champ Joe Warmington's incoherent column on gang violence,...
Jun 13, 2020•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 9
It's the crossover you were waiting for, babeey. We watched a couple classic Simpsons episodes with Evan MacDonald (@MacDonaldTweets) of the world's #1 socialist film criticism podcast (to us), Kino Lefter. We use this to inform our discussion Postmedia bench warmer Matthew Lau's column on how Mr. Burns would support a Green New Deal. Yes, you read that correctly. Lau argues that this caricature of capitalist excess who tries to block out the sun so Springfield will have to depend on his (privat...
May 31, 2020•59 min•Ep. 8
They're really quite a pair. Wherever there's adventure you'll find Don Martin there. The gang is back with two new hot takes published in two Canadian news outlets. The first is from retired broadcaster Don Martin - who has voiced his opinion that provinces taking steps to ensure they prevent the spread of COVID-19 is bad because he won't be able to get to PEI this summer. In fairness to him, he's not the only person in Canadian media who has said something along these lines. That doesn't make ...
May 24, 2020•55 min•Ep. 7
The boys are back and joined by a friend, the great Jack Dump (aka Myer Mendelson) of Haus of Decline! We're taking a bit of a step beyond our usual scope, and looking to our neighbours to the south for a second. We talk about Dave Rubin's newest treatise on how the left has gone too far. It is full of "ideas" (some would say bad ideas), including about how "Nazi is the new N-word". Yes, that's ridiculous. That's not going to stop us from talking about it at length though. In case you were wonde...
May 21, 2020•40 min•Ep. 6
Another week, another brain-meltingly stupid column in The National Post. We had every intention of sticking to our format this episode, but recent events forced us to switch things up. For those of you blissfully unaware: Postmedia closed the doors to another 15 of its community newspapers. As this is an organization that a) owns a ton of newspapers in small towns across the country and b) has no idea how to make money with newspapers we are concerned for the well-being of local journalism in C...
May 07, 2020•50 min•Ep. 5
After a spirited discussion about a certain columnist's criticisms of Theresa Tam, Elaine (@heylaineys) sticks around to discuss Mikhaila Peterson. For those who aren't aware, Mikhaila is Dr. Jordan Peterson's daughter. She also only eats meat for some reason? I'm sure there's a reason, and a product. Why bother doing anything if it doesn't make you money right? Anyways, Mikhaila has some very well-formed thoughts about oppressive COVID-19 quarantine measures and the horrible effect they are hav...
May 05, 2020•42 min
The boys are back and they have a friend with them to laugh at the worst opinions in the country. Elaine (@heylaineys) from @format_guardian and @sportsaregay joins Big Shiny Takes to read a column by Licia Corbella that accuses Canada's top health official of being a puppet of the People's Republic of China. What proof does she have? Well for one Theresa Tam hasn't spent every minute of every press conference denouncing China. Also Jason Kenney said Tam was bad so it has to be true. Here is the...
Apr 27, 2020•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 4
These are complicated and troubling times. So why not laugh at what passes for a column in a Canadian newspaper with us? This episode we pull apart a column from an old favourite - Jonathan Kay. Jon seems to think that Theresa Tam has really dropped the ball in the ongoing fight to slow the spread of COVID-19 in Canada. He also (bravely) takes a wild swing at blaming PC culture for Canada's unwillingness to impose stricter measures earlier on in this crisis. These times truly are bringing the be...
Apr 15, 2020•55 min•Ep. 3
Another week, another terrible take that we read so you don't have to. This week the boys review some work done by Lord of Cross Harbour, former Order of Canada recipient, and ex-prison attendee Conrad Black. It's our opinion that Black is a terrible writer with terrible ideas. Typically we'd call this column a bad take, but in the spirit of the ostentatious blowhard we are talking about today, we'll refer to it as an abhorrent display of his lack of cogency and make special note that John Diefe...
Apr 05, 2020•46 min•Season 1Ep. 2
COVID-19 is changing everything we do. It's also been the subject of attention for many columnists across Canada. Many people have had very reasonable opinions about the country's approach to fighting the virus, but two people had very special takes. One took the time to call video game retail stores an essential service, and the other can't stop mentioning his wife or China Joe Warmington's take of the week: https://torontosun.com/news/local-news/warmington-is-toronto-headed-for-full-lockdown-a...
Mar 31, 2020•48 min•Ep. 1
