This is Ottawa

People have done some pretty weird things during the past 50 years of the Ottawa Race Weekend. But Hugh Neilson’s stunt might take the cake. Robyn joins the theatre director to hear why he intends to run 42 kilometres whilst singing and playing a ukulele. Plus a short history of other oddities.

If you shop at a farmers market or get a local veggie delivery, you may have noticed something. Those behind the stalls are fairly young. Robyn Bresnahan digs into why organic farming is an attractive career for a new crop of first generation farmers.

When Ottawa hosted its first PWHL game, it broke an attendance record for a women’s professional hockey game. It’s a night Hayley Scamurra won’t forget - not least because she scored the first goal for Ottawa. Robyn Bresnahan recruits a young player with the Nepean Wildcats to interview Hayley about that goal, living in Ottawa and having to switch her Ottawa jersey for her Team USA jersey to face-off against her teammates. 

As you drive to the Ottawa airport, there’s a sign for Thad Johnson Private. It’s a small road with an incredible story. Robyn Bresnahan dives in with an amateur historian who began researching after seeing a particular photo of one of the world’s most famous aviators' visit to Ottawa.

It’s a popular travel route for pleasure boaters…But not many people dare to dip a toe into the canal, let alone swim. Should they? An 80-year-old triathlete shares how he swam in the canal and lived to tell the tale, and a biologist tells Robyn what’s REALLY in that water. 

He’s a professor at Algonquin College. His husband is a nurse. But home ownership remains out of reach. In the same week the federal budget gives a nod to renters, we’ll meet a couple who feel they’ve done everything right, but still can’t climb onto Ottawa’s housing ladder. 

Ottawa used to have a plethora of movie theatres downtown. What ever became of them? And what does a city lose when most of its downtown theatres are shuttered? Robyn Bresnahan meets the man who literally wrote the book on the history of Ottawa's cinemas.

Black bears in the Byward Market. Beavers on Sparks Street. Wild turkeys disrupting traffic in Barrhaven. Ottawa frequently contends with wildlife. But sometimes it ends badly - usually for the animals. Robyn Bresnahan explores how we can better live in harmony.

Ottawa has some mighty fine breweries. And while most are in the business of selling booze, some have started crafting alcohol-free options to cater to a generation re-thinking their drinking. Host Robyn Bresnahan finds out whether brewmasters see the sober curious movement as a threat or an opportunity. 

It’s been decades since the late columnist Allan Fotheringham dubbed Ottawa “the town fun forgot.” So why does that stale old stereotype persist? Host Robyn Bresnahan meets a cast of characters with theories and ideas of the story the city should be telling about itself.