On this episode of The Brian Crombie Hour, host Brian Crombie is joined by Dr. John Cappucci, President and Vice Chancellor of Assumption University, for a timely and wide-ranging conversation on faith, ethics, and the rapid rise of artificial intelligence. The discussion centres on Pope Leo XIV’s landmark encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence,” released on the 135th anniversary of Rerum Novarum — the Church’s historic reflection on labour, industrialization, and human dignity. At the heart of the conversation is a defining question of our time: will AI serve humanity, or will humanity begin serving AI? 🧠 Part 1 — AI, Power, and Human Dignity
Dr. Cappucci explores why this encyclical extends far beyond the Catholic Church, touching on global concerns about technology and society. Topics include: ⚠️ The concentration of AI power among a small number of corporations and technologists
🤖 The absence of moral reasoning within AI systems
💼 Job displacement and widening economic inequality
⚔️ The rise of AI-driven warfare and autonomous weapons
🌎 Ethical questions surrounding innovation and environmental impact
📚 The transformation of education and academic integrity in the AI era Rather than rejecting technology, the encyclical calls for balance — insisting that technology must remain subordinate to human dignity, truth, justice, and the common good. ⛪ Part 2 — Community, Communion, and Human Connection
The conversation then turns to a broader cultural concern: the erosion of genuine human connection in an increasingly digital world. They explore:
🤝 The decline of face-to-face interaction
📱 Digital isolation and fragmentation
🏛️ The role of community institutions in civic life
🙏 The difference between communion and mere participation
🧠 Why empathy, moral judgment, and presence cannot be replicated by machines As Dr. Cappucci notes, while technology can support human life, it cannot replace it. 🎯 The Bigger Question
As artificial intelligence reshapes work, education, media, warfare, relationships, and even identity itself, the episode asks: what moral framework should guide this transformation — and who gets to define it? Because the real risk may not simply be that AI becomes more intelligent, but that humanity becomes less human.

On this episode of The Brian Crombie Show, host Brian Crombie speaks with award-winning Canadian author Mike Poliwoda about his new non-fiction book, The Performed Man: When Financial Responsibility Becomes Identity. The conversation explores what happens when responsibility stops being something a person does and instead becomes who they are. Poliwoda examines how many men—and providers more broadly—gradually fuse their identity with provision, stability, emotional composure, endurance, and financial responsibility. Over time, what begins as strength can evolve into emotional armor. The discussion looks at how this “performance of responsibility” can lead to internal disconnection, burnout, irritability, and emotional fatigue, even in those who appear highly functional on the outside. The episode also considers the pressures placed on providers within families and relationships, and the often-unseen emotional cost of sustained responsibility. A key focus is the difference between strength and rigidity, and why emotional presence matters alongside financial provision. In the second half, Poliwoda discusses his book’s central message: not the rejection of responsibility, but the integration of emotional awareness and identity. He outlines a framework for recalibration that includes awareness, balance, and sustainable emotional health while maintaining real-world obligations. The conversation also touches on stoicism, vulnerability, emotional suppression, men’s mental health, and the quiet struggles of high-functioning individuals. Poliwoda describes the book as a practical “field guide” for those who are performing well externally but feeling the internal cost of that performance. Ultimately, the episode asks a larger cultural question: in a world that rewards productivity and resilience, how do people remain connected to themselves—and what is lost when survival is mistaken for living?

On this episode of The Brian Crombie Hour, Brian Crombie is joined by Aaron Clopton, PhD in organizational behavior and sport management, for a thought-provoking conversation about the deeper role of sports in society. While stadiums and arenas are often seen as places of entertainment, this discussion explores a bigger idea: sports are powerful engines of community building, identity, and social cohesion. From packed stadiums to local arenas, sports create something that modern life often lacks — shared experience, belonging, and collective meaning. Together, Brian and Aaron explore how sports function as modern-day “third places,” and why they matter more than ever in an increasingly fragmented world. Key themes include:

• How sports build identity, trust, and civic pride
• Why stadiums can revitalize downtown cores and entire cities
• The concept of “psychic income” and “basking in reflected glory”
• How sports increase volunteering, engagement, and social trust
• The role of shared cultural spaces in strengthening communities
• Why gathering places are essential for resilient societies
• The historical comparison between modern arenas and the Roman Colosseum

Aaron explains that people are not simply looking for events — they are looking for connection, shared identity, and a sense of belonging to something larger than themselves.

On this episode of The Brian Crombie Hour, Brian closes the show with a powerful commentary titled “Canada’s Problem.” Stepping back from the daily headlines, Brian examines a deeper national question: how can a country with so many advantages feel increasingly stuck? Canada possesses extraordinary strengths — vast natural resources, political stability, educated citizens, energy abundance, and strong global credibility. Yet despite those advantages, productivity is stagnating, housing affordability is collapsing, infrastructure projects face endless delays, and public trust in institutions continues to erode. Young Canadians are increasingly questioning whether hard work still leads to stability, home ownership, and upward mobility. Meanwhile, political frustration is growing across the country, including rising separatist sentiment in Alberta and widening regional divisions. In this commentary, Brian explores Canada’s productivity crisis, housing dysfunction, energy paralysis, wealth inequality, and declining confidence in leadership and execution. His conclusion is direct: Canada’s challenge is not a lack of opportunity or potential — it is a failure to execute.

Brian Crombie is joined by Kari Norman of Desjardins to examine Canada’s housing affordability crisis. The discussion focuses on rising home prices in major cities such as Toronto and Vancouver, and the growing gap between established asset owners and younger Canadians struggling to enter the market. Topics include development charges, taxation, zoning and land constraints, immigration pressures, limited housing supply, and rising youth unemployment. The conversation highlights concerns that long-term affordability challenges could reshape Canada’s middle class and economic mobility.

Brian Crombie interviews Stéphane Dion for a wide-ranging conversation on Alberta separatism, national unity, and the future of Canada. Drawing on his experience as the architect of the Clarity Act, Dion explains why Quebec nationalism and Alberta separatism represent fundamentally different political movements, and why separation could carry significant economic, political, and investment risks for Canada. The discussion explores key national issues including pipelines, climate policy, equalization, western alienation, Canada–U.S. relations, and trade diversification in an increasingly uncertain global environment. Dion argues that rising separatist rhetoric may deepen regional divisions and weaken national confidence at a time when Canada faces growing geopolitical and economic pressure. The conversation ultimately raises difficult questions about sovereignty, unity, and whether Canada can maintain cohesion amid rising regional frustration.

On this episode of The Brian Crombie Hour, Brian Crombie explores two powerful conversations about freedom — one rooted in exploration and connection to nature, and the other in emotional self-respect and personal sovereignty. In Part 1, Brian is joined by filmmaker Alison Reid to discuss her acclaimed documentary The Art of Adventure, which tells the remarkable story of legendary wildlife artist Robert Bateman and biologist Bristol Foster. The film follows the lifelong friendship between Bateman and Foster, who first met as teenagers at the Royal Ontario Museum before embarking in their twenties on an 18-month expedition across 19 countries in a Land Rover known as the Grizzly Torque. Filmed using a Bolex camera, the journey became a rare archival portrait of a disappearing world and a meditation on curiosity, adventure, environmentalism, and wonder. The conversation also explores Bateman’s influence on wildlife art, the connection to Anne Innis Dagg and The Woman Who Loved Giraffes, and why reconnecting younger generations to nature may be more important than ever. In Part 2, Brian delivers a personal commentary on emotional sovereignty — the ability to remain connected to oneself inside relationships, conflict, and emotional pressure. He reflects on emotionally destructive dynamics, boundaries, accountability, self-erasure, and the slow process through which people reclaim trust in themselves after spending years trying to maintain peace at the expense of their own identity. The episode ultimately asks a deeper question: how do people remain connected to what is real — in nature, relationships, and culture — without losing themselves in the process?

On this episode of The Brian Crombie Hour, Brian Crombie is joined by leading economists Don Drummond and Parisa Mahboubi for a major discussion about Canada’s slowing economy, falling immigration targets, and deepening productivity crisis. The episode begins with an examination of Canada’s post-pandemic immigration reset and why the federal government reduced immigration levels after years of rapid population growth. The panel discusses the pressures created by housing shortages, healthcare strain, infrastructure limits, and affordability challenges — while also exploring how slower immigration could reduce GDP and employment growth in the near term. The conversation also looks at Canada’s aging population, declining birth rates, and the growing consensus that immigration alone cannot solve the country’s long-term demographic and economic challenges. The discussion explores why immigration policy may need to be more closely aligned with housing capacity, labour market needs, healthcare systems, and productivity growth. In the second half of the program, the focus shifts to Canada’s long-standing productivity problem. Don Drummond explains why Canada has struggled for decades to close the productivity gap with the United States and why many Canadian companies fail to scale into globally competitive businesses. The panel examines weak investment in technology and innovation, regulatory barriers, interprovincial trade restrictions, tax policy concerns, and what some describe as an “ambition deficit” in the Canadian economy. One of the central discussions explores why many Canadian businesses plateau instead of pursuing aggressive long-term expansion. As population growth slows, the episode asks a defining economic question for the country’s future: Can Canada still build a high-growth economy based on productivity, innovation, investment, and competitiveness rather than simply adding more people?

On this episode of The Brian Crombie Radio Hour, Brian Crombie is joined by Jeanne Milne and Erin Waite for an in-depth discussion on the growing conversation around Alberta separatism and the broader political tensions reshaping Canada. The panel examines why increasing numbers of Albertans are expressing frustration with Ottawa, the role Premier Danielle Smith and the UCP government are playing in the debate, and how economic pressures, populism, and regional alienation are fueling calls for greater autonomy — or even separation. The conversation also explores the potential economic and constitutional consequences of Alberta leaving Canada, including concerns around pipelines, trade access, investor confidence, Indigenous treaty rights, and comparisons to Brexit and past Quebec sovereignty movements. As Alberta remains one of the country’s wealthiest provinces, the episode asks a critical question: Is separatism a serious political movement, or a reflection of deeper distrust and polarization spreading across Canada?

On this episode of The Brian Crombie Hour, Brian Crombie is joined by Charles Burton for a wide-ranging discussion on the rapidly evolving geopolitical struggle between the United States and China — and what it could mean for Canada and the global order. The conversation begins with President Donald Trump’s recent visit to China and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s reference to the “Thucydides Trap” — the theory that conflict often arises when a rising power challenges an established one. Together, they examine China’s long-term ambitions, the growing tensions surrounding Taiwan, the concept of strategic ambiguity, and whether the world is entering a more unstable multipolar era marked by rising authoritarian influence and weakening global consensus. The discussion also explores China’s internal pressures, including economic slowdown, demographic decline, military instability, and youth unemployment — and whether these challenges could shape Beijing’s global behaviour in the years ahead. In the second half of the program, the focus shifts to Canada’s relationship with China following Prime Minister Mark Carney’s recent diplomatic engagement and discussions around strategic cooperation. The episode examines difficult questions about economic dependence, foreign influence, espionage concerns, democratic values, and whether Canada risks becoming strategically vulnerable in an increasingly competitive world. As global alliances shift and tensions rise, the episode asks a larger question: Does the West still understand the realities of power, deterrence, and authoritarian ambition — and where does Canada fit in this new geopolitical landscape?