Hope you enjoyed what was a glorious summer in this part of the world! With the unofficial turn towards Autumn, we're launching a raft of new shows at Story Studio Network and we're beefing up The Daily Brief!
Starting Monday, September 12th, we are re-launching this show. It will be called NOW&NEXT and it will feature co-hosts Erin and Dave Trafford as well as a a Daily Brief segment.
There's so much to talk about in the news and in the media, we decided to make more room for it here!

Today on The Daily Brief, if we’re going to have any hope of tackling poverty, there needs to be a “floor” that provides income stability.

It leads us to the main question in this episode of the 2030 Project.

What role can a basic, guaranteed income play in the ongoing mission to reduce, if not eliminate poverty?

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today on The Daily Brief, if we’re going to have any hope of tackling poverty, there needs to be a “floor” that provides income stability. It leads us to the main question in this episode of the 2030 Project. What role can a basic, guaranteed income play in the ongoing mission to reduce, if not eliminate poverty?

In this episode of the Daily Brief, we’re going to find out more about the FORGOTTEN POOR – they are working age singles who are three times more likely to live in poverty than the average Canadian.

In this episode of The Daily Brief, we explore the WELFARE WALL. It refers to the unintended consequence of social support programs  that effectively discourages people from supplementing their pension, their welfare or social assistance cheques with a part time job. Thousands of individuals with serious disabilities end up on welfare. And many of them inadvertently become trapped behind that welfare wall because it is their chief source of income and often the only route to disability supports and benefits.

Whoot! Where did the time go? It was freezing cold and dark outside when I decided to jump into a daily podcast back on January 19th, 2022. Here we are on one of the hottest days on the planet, (got to 38C in Toronto today, without a Humidex reading!) and we've been doing the podcast for 6 months. 

Big new is, we're getting set to muscle it up. We will hit the pause button on The Daily Brief in August with a view to offering a bigger and better Brief the week after Labour Day.

In the meantime, we continue to explore the challenges faced by those living in poverty as the COVID pandemic lingers and inflation rates hit generational highs. Today, we highlight another episode of the Story Studio Network podcast series, The 2030 Project.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I talked to a colleague who is travelling through the SW United States. He said the temperature in Arizona this past weekend was hovering just above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. That translate to nearly 38 degrees Celcius.

It just so happens, Toronto's humidex reading was flirting with the mid 30s C today. At the same time, we were on a call with upcoming podcast guests from the UK, where they are experiencing an exceptional heat wave. The forecast high in London was 37C. I'm not sure I remember a time when we would have said the desert in US southwest, the Great Lakes Region and Great Britain would be experiencing the same kind of heat on the same day!

Also, today on The Daily Brief, we take a look at the latest news from the Bank of Canada. Projections suggest inflation will hit 8% in this country before it starts to slide. And it will be more than 2 years before it settles in the 3% range. What is that doing to the cost of living. And what kind of added pressure does that pose for food banks across the country.

In this episode, we revisit The 2030 Project - a Story Studio Network podcast produced for Daily Bread Food Bank in Toronto.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

To hear the official Rogers explanation, the nationwide system failure that cascaded across the country last Friday happened during a maintenance update. I'm no IT expert, but I know enough to know that maintenance updates are routine. How could the "routine" have caused such a collosal collapse? Today on The Daily Brief, we continue with our cyber-security series 1 CLICK 2 CYBER CHAOS. We focus on the vulnerablilty and resilience of critical infrastructure. How much of a threat is there? Host Kym Geddes is joined by Greg Markel, CEO at Ridge Canada and veteran broadcast journlist Kevin Newman.

This week on The Daily Brief, we've hihglighted a new Story Studio Network series - 1 CLICK @ CYBER CHAOS. We did so in response to Rogers' nation-wide system failure that cut millions of people off from internet connections and cost thousands of businesses untold sums in lost revenues. Cyber-security isn't a one-and-done effort. It's an ongoing challenge. So, today, we ask the question: "How do we create resilience in cyber systems when the attacks are constant and evolving?"

The Ukrainian government says Tik Tok is the social media platform of choice for the Russian propoganda offensive in Ukraine. The Washington Post says a representative from the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation says Tik Tok is the weakest platform and the Russians are making the most of it. Mis-information and dis-information wars are being waged at the click of a mouse.  Today on The Daily Brief, we highligh the role social media now plays in international conflicts and threatens well established democracies around the world.