It's time for Tech Talk with Adam Oldfield!

Daydreaming is a natural state of the human brain. It is a byproduct of our “default mode network,” which allows us to produce imagery and simulation that is separate from the reality in front of us. For many, it’s a state that allows us to freely imagine our future and channel our creativity without restrictions.

But the monotony of life under COVID-19 has halted many of our daydreams, and in some ways, changed and restricted what we fantasize about entirely as we struggle to envision our lives during and after the virus. Researchers have begun to look at how this area of our subconscious has been changed by the pandemic, and interestingly, where our brain’s default mode has sought refuge and comfort as we began to cope with our new reality.

GUEST: Dr. Donna Rose Addis, Senior Scientist at Baycrest’s Rotman Research Institute, Canada 150 Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory and Aging and a Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto

The Bill Kelly Show Podcast:

One year after the pandemic began, much of the focus has been on vaccines. But what progress has been made on treating people who are already infected?

GUEST: Rachel Gilmore, Journalist with Global News

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All three Ontario opposition leaders are demanding Premier Doug Ford apologize for accusing an Indigenous NDP legislator of vaccine queue-jumping. Ford alleged that NDP legislator Sol Mamakwa, who represents the riding of Kiiwetinoong, cut the line to get a COVID-19 vaccine in a Northern Indigenous community. Mamakwa says he was invited by community elders to take the shot to help combat vaccine hesitancy among Indigenous residents in Ontario.

ALSO: Tim Hudak to head a new provincial tourism task force promoting Ontario destinations

GUEST: Richard Brennan, Former Queen’s Park and Parliament Hill Journalist with The Toronto Star

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U.S. President Joe Biden used his first prime-time address to outline his plan Thursday night to make all adults vaccine-eligible by May 1 and get the country "closer to normal" by the Fourth of July.

ALSO: As vaccine rollout continues to ramp up in Canada and the United States, some American politicians are calling on the Biden administration to reopen the Canada-U.S. land border by this summer.

GUEST: Rob Goodman, Professor with the Dept. of Politics and Public Administration at Ryerson University

Governments are generally secretive about giving handouts to business, but the Trudeau government has come up with a particularly sneaky way to deliver corporate welfare — through its Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB).

Of course, municipalities badly need new infrastructure so the bank, endowed with $35 billion in public money to help finance infrastructure, should be a godsend.

But it isn’t — except for business and investors.

That’s because of the business-friendly way the Trudeau government designed the bank. Municipalities that want the bank’s financial support for an infrastructure project must “partner” with a private business.

These public-private partnerships (P3s) ultimately drive up the cost of the projects and leave municipalities with less control over their own infrastructure.

But if municipalities don’t want to “partner” with business — if they want instead to handle the projects themselves, raising the money through municipal bonds as they’ve traditionally done — Canada’s new public bank won’t help them.

GUEST: Moshe Lander, Senior Economics Lecturer with Concordia University

One year after the pandemic began, much of the focus has been on vaccines. But what progress has been made on treating people who are already infected?

GUEST: Rachel Gilmore, Journalist with Global News