The boys are back with another terrible column! This week they are joined by Alex from Haus of Decline to read another awful piece by Adam Zivo in which he makes the argument to let the police march in the Toronto Pride Parade. I say he makes the argument, but really what he does is list all the very valid reasons people don't want the police there and shrugs. This episode was recorded in early July, so during Plugs and Recs Jeremy talks about a fundraiser for his substack. It's over now but tha...
Jul 16, 2022•1 hr 24 min
The Big Shiny Takes Institute has returned! Joined by Friend of the Institute Gordon Katic the boys read a particularly awful column by Vinay Menon about the aftermath of the horrific school shooting in Uvalde. Instead of having something useful to say, Vinay decided to write a column about Matthew McConaughey's moral obligation to run for president. We feel like he's sort of missing the point. Plugs and Recs Darts and Letters Imperial News - Bad Books by Bad People Tech Won't Save Us - Privatiz...
Jun 20, 2022•1 hr 26 min
Jeremy’s Forgotten Corner co-host Scott Schmidt joins BST this week to talk about pensions and starving seniors to buy shitty fighter jets. Plugs and Recs Listen to The Forgotten Corner Go see Peace by Chocolate Jeremy - Canada’s Noxious Conservatives Are Duking It Out for Party Leadership Jared Sexton - The World They Wish To Build If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to leave us a five star review on Apple Podcasts and give us a follow on Twitter and Instagram ....
May 07, 2022•1 hr 12 min
If you read the latest IPCC report, you know it's time for the latest episode of Big Shiny Takes. This week, the Big Shiny Takes Institute is joined by columnist and writer David Moscrop to read an insufferably bad column from Conrad Black. Yes, we are aware that doesn't narrow it down. This temper tantrum is directed at the federal NDP and Liberal parties for unparliamentary behaviour (acting like parties in a parliamentary system). Thankfully, Conrad breaks up the monotony by expressing dismay...
Apr 08, 2022•1 hr 25 min
Good news everyone, the pandemic is over because the government said so! Everything is great! Of course, like all responsible adults, we know better than to let ourselves get tired of winning so much so we are punishing ourselves with another insipid Jon Kay column. This one was published in the Wall Street Journal. In this latest instalment of Canadian pundits explaining Canadian politics poorly to an uninterested audience, Dog Shampoo Boy writes about Justin Trudeau being a "Woke Donald Trump"...
Mar 11, 2022•1 hr 17 min
Do you hear that horrible honking sound? No my friends, that is not the sound of freedom. It's the sound of another episode of Big Shiny Takes! This week, Canadaland Commons host Arshy Mann joined us to talk about the dumbest political action in the entire world: the Trucker Convoy. This convoy, which is not astroturfed at all, is demanding that avowed Marxist-Leninist Justin Trudeau remove any vaccine mandates for truckers. This conveniently ignores the fact that 90% of truckers that cross into...
Feb 06, 2022•1 hr 25 min
It's 2022 and things are bad! We're kicking off a new year of reading bad takes with Shama Rangwala. Shama is an Assistant Professor at York University and co-host of Replay, a new podcast on the Harbinger Media Network. The column we read this week is one of the dimmer takes in the National Post's year-end series called The Capitalist Manifesto, and was written by Joanna Baron. Baron runs the Canadian Constitution Foundation, a group of idiots pushing for important things like no mask/vaccine m...
Jan 15, 2022•1 hr 30 min
Nora Loreto makes her triumphant return to BST and she's got a new book! As the title suggests, Spin Doctors: How Media and Politicians Misdiagnosed the COVID-19 Pandemic deals with how the media created a sea of confusion that obscured the major fault lines of the pandemic. To illustrate Nora's case, we brought an absolutely reprehensible column from Matt Gurney at the website Ontario's public broadcaster, TVO. He wants you to know that he cares about COVID deaths, he really does, but at the en...
Dec 19, 2021•1 hr 47 min
That is the question asked by a column written by Diane Francis in the Financial Post that talks about the risks Covid-19 and one Vladimir Putin both pose to our beloved economy. Yes that is a stupid question. But this is a very stupid column. Marino, Jeremy and Eric read this column on Russia's involvement in Ukraine written by the impartial observer Diane Francis, who just so happens to have helped found the Canadian-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and also is a senior fellow on the Atlantic Cou...
Dec 11, 2021•5 min
The Big Shiny Takes Institute is back with a great episode with the incredible Aaron Giovannone. We read a lot of terrible columns, but we rarely get to take a deep dive into the psyche of one of the country's more established columnists. Aaron brought an essay Rosie Dimanno wrote in the late 90's about growing up in Little Italy in Toronto. We go into it, and talk about the points she fixates on, and the points she may have missed. This is a super fun episode and you shouldn't miss it! Plugs an...
Nov 22, 2021•1 hr 12 min
We are back, and have an episode for you that we recorded in person! Jeremy came back to the very nice and fun city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada for a visit, so instead of hanging out we recorded an all-timer episode. We were joined by the amazing Bronwen Tucker (@bronwentucker) from Climate Justice Edmonton and the incredible Stefan Hostetter (@Steho)_ of Green Majority Radio to talk about Canadian punditry's pathetic attempts to talk about the climate. The first column we cover this week is one...
Nov 05, 2021•1 hr 9 min
Future Alberta Senator Duncan Kinney (@duncankinney), whom you also may know from fellow Harbinger pod The Progress Report, joins us to talk about the hellish nightmare of Alberta's COVID response. ICUs are overflowing, people are dying, but the Edmonton Journal's David Staples — always with his finger on the pulse — wants to know what this means for Premier Jason Kenney's political fortunes. Staples has devised nine rules for political life, all of which he says Kenney has violated. To hear par...
Oct 09, 2021•1 hr 8 min
In case you missed the 12 hour livestream telethon to raise money for Harbinger Media, here's the audio for our part of the event! Big Shiny Takes (minus Eric, he was at a wedding lol) took part in this great event. Our friends from PressProgress Stephen Magusiak and Emily Leedham joined us to read a column arguing for the platforming of fascists in mainstream media. If you missed this insipid column by John Ibbitson (a "national treasure" according to Justin Ling) and the subsequent blowback on...
Oct 01, 2021•59 min
It's our opinion at the Big Shiny Takes Institute that billionaires have it too hard. Yeah sure they have unlimited access to resources, are able to shape policy to benefit themselves and have the power of small nation-states – but have you considered how difficult it must be to have someone be mean to you on the internet? Paris Marx (@parismarx) , host of Tech Won't Save Us (@techwontsaveus) explains why there should be room for criticism of all billionaires while we read through one of the mos...
Sep 11, 2021•1 hr 47 min
Head to patreon.com/bigshinytakes to unlock this and all of our other bonus episodes for as little as $3 a month! Rob Rousseau joins us to read one of the most fun columns we have had the pleasure of reading in this very grim timeline. We go through Josh Freed's column in the Montreal Gazette on why customers should be paid by supermarkets for using self-checkouts. Now this isn't a typical Big Shiny Takes infuriating read. Josh actually has a bit of fun with the column. He also brushes up agains...
Sep 09, 2021•5 min
This week we've got Rob Rousseau (@robrousseau) on the show to talk about the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan after taking a detour through volunteer scabs, Calgary Herald ace Licia Corbella and who Rob thinks will take home the gold in our Worst Pundit contest. Former British soldier David Mack writes in the Globe and Mail that the U.S. must stay in Afghanistan for at least another 20-30 years, crying crocodile tears for all the Afghans who will now be under Taliban rule. We've let down Afghan...
Sep 01, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Season 2Ep. 12
Aliya Pabani of the Encampment Support Network, and host of We Are Not the Virus, joins us to talk about Toronto Mayor John Tory's "reasonable, firm, but compassionate" war on homeless encampments in the city. We come by this through a column from newly-minted National Post ghoul Adam Zivo, who writes that the violent displacement of unhoused people from the city's encampments, like the one at Lamport Stadium, were in fact a victory for the working class, as if no working people are unhoused. In...
Aug 07, 2021•1 hr 34 min
Head to patreon.com/bigshinytakes to unlock this and all of our other bonus episodes for as little as $3 a month! Jeremy, Marino and Eric continue their conversation with Erica Ifill for a hilarious read of Jon Kay's latest anti-diversity screed. Dog Shampoo Boy scolds Sobeys for its "Woke Initiatives," then he gets distracted and starts rambling about churches burning. For just a few dollars a month you can get double the Big Shiny Takes content, and we would really appreciate it. We love makin...
Jul 24, 2021•5 min
Erica Ifill (@wickdchiq) of the Bad + Bitchy podcast joins us to talk about ex-CBC host Wendy Mesley's woe-is-me shtick in the Globe and Mail after she got canned for getting caught saying the n-word repeatedly over two years. How many times over her 40-year career did she say it without getting caught? Melsey argues that firing her alone won't solve systemic racism at our state broadcaster. True, but it's not like it would it would hurt either. To hear part two, where we talk about dog shampoo ...
Jul 16, 2021•1 hr 24 min•Season 2Ep. 10
We're back for hopefully the last time reading one of Rex Murphy's ramblings. Literally the day after a Muslim family was murdered by a white supremacist, Rex is here to tell us about the real scourge of our time — anti-white racism. While he denied last year that there was systemic racism in Canada, he appears to have changed his mind. We also talk about Postmedia's role in fomenting the hatred that continuously leads to Islamophobic murder. Plugs and Recs Frank Magazine - Portapique 911 calls ...
Jun 16, 2021•58 min•Season 2Ep. 9
Canadian media does a lot of things poorly. Its cowardice when it comes to talking about Palestine is right at the top of the list. We’re joined by our Palestinian friend Hammam Farah (@HumHum83) and our Israeli friend Eytan Tobin (@RabbiDieHardman) to talk about how Israel, like Canada, is a fake ass genocidal settler state. For those who haven’t been paying attention, Israel attacked Gaza recently, killing about 250 people, including dozens of children, after provoking violence at al-Aqsa Mosq...
May 29, 2021•1 hr 40 min•Season 2Ep. 8
Abdul Malik (@socialistraptor) makes his triumphant return to the Big Shiny Takes Institute to talk about two simpletons writing in newspapers to let the public know that diversity is bad, actually. One columnist is Intellectual Dark Web C-lister, furry enthusiast and Jon Kay podcast co-host Dr. Debra Soh, who's writing in the Globe and Mail to warn us of white genocide, coming to a university campus near you. The other is Lawrie Macfarlane in the Victoria Times-Colonist. We're not sure he actua...
May 11, 2021•1 hr 32 min•Season 2Ep. 7
The Big Shiny Guests keep on coming. This time we’ve got famed musician, podcaster and poster Dan Boeckner, joining us to talk about a little country called China, specifically Canadian pundits’ obsession with it. First up is a piece in the Globe and Mail from Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong, who’s very not mad about China sanctioning him. Next up is J. Cole, not that rapper, unfortunately, but a Macdonald-Laurier Institute spook who writes about China like it’s his ex-wife try...
Apr 18, 2021•1 hr 43 min•Season 2Ep. 6
PULL THE EMERGENCY BRAKE, IT'S TIME FOR ANOTHER EPISODE OF BIG SHINY TAKES! Marino, Eric and Jeremy are joined by the great Nora Loreto to review columns by two incredibly talentless hacks: Konrad Yakabuski and Kelly McParland. Yakabuski covers Quebec in a completely addled column which is both infuriating and disorienting. He manages to jam in references to Mordecai Richler, Matt Green, Amir Attaran, The University of Ottawa, The Bosnian War, and a specific word that he seems particularly annoy...
Apr 03, 2021•1 hr 20 min
John Robson tried to write some lyrics He was so incensed he wouldn't even hear it The issue at hand? Cancel culture of course He shouted so loud that his voice became hoarse "They're coming for Seuss, the woke crowd, the leftists" "These books are such classics, I'm left the bereft-ist" But one simple truth escaped the columnist's glare Nobody with a brain would actually care. Also, a painful advertorial by Mikhaila Peterson. Be sure to not check out what she does next! Big Shiny Takes is a pro...
Mar 12, 2021•1 hr 5 min
Head to patreon.com/bigshinytakes to unlock this and all of our other bonus episodes for as little as $3 a month! We decided to unlock this bonus episode, because everyone deserves to celebrate Rush Limbaugh's death. Finally, a representative of a modern organization (the Catholic Church) we can trust to cover current events weighs in with a terrible, terrible column. Of course last week you may have heard that notable right-wing crank and tobacco enjoyer Rush Limbaugh died of lung cancer. Reliv...
Mar 06, 2021•47 min•Season 2Ep. 4
The boys are back with two trash columns. One is written by a pretentious hack desperately shoehorning disjointed allusions to ephemera rattling around his decaying brain in yet another unfocused rant ending with him shouting about climate change not being real. The other is written by an unpretentious hack who actually thinks that COVID quarantine hotels are an attack on civil liberties. Of course we are talking about Rex Murphy and Joe Warmington - truly two of the dimmest bulbs in the malfunc...
Feb 13, 2021•1 hr 10 min•Season 2Ep. 3
Our pal Elaine Pauls (@heylaineys) joins us again to talk about Derek Sloan's donation from white supremacist douche Paul Fromm. Former UCP bad boy Derek Fildebrandt, who was kicked out of the party after getting caught renting out his publicly-funded Edmonton apartment on AirBnB, doing a hit-and-run, and illegally hunting, to talk about how Derek Sloan did nothing wrong, or if he did do something wrong it wasn't a big deal. Now why would a notorious neo-Nazi want to donate money to the Conserva...
Jan 30, 2021•1 hr 9 min
New year, new theme music, new BST! We've got a couple 2020 in review pieces that suggest maybe the hell year we're all traumatized from wasn't so bad after all. We start off with Never Trumper-turned-Trumper Hugh Hewitt's piece in the Washington Post, which contends that, sure, there was the whole pandemic thing, but there were also some bright spots, such as the amazing work Trump has done combatting the virus. We challenge you to name a U.S. president who has handled COVID-19 better. Next, we...
Jan 09, 2021•1 hr 18 min•Season 2Ep. 1
It's a Christmas miracle — a new BST episode right on schedule! We start off with a little apertif in the form of BST favourite Barbara Kay and her review of the Queen's Gambit. It turns out, a fictional show isn't entirely accurate. But Babs says this is because women can't play chess. Then, special guest Clinton Hallahan (@StoicRomance) of Alberta Advantage fame tells us about right-wing Canadian YouTuber and Washington Post columnist. J.J. McCullough, who happens to be a close friend and form...
Dec 25, 2020•1 hr 24 min•Season 1Ep. 23
