This one’s the inaugural Politics Is Broken with me and Lisa B… and Owen briefly fighting the intro music. Very professional. Very us.

It’s National Payroll Week (Sept 15–19). Share your best payday story with #PowerOfPayroll and #Contest, tag National Payroll Institute, and you could win a $250 prepaid card. Every eligible post also triggers a donation to Food Banks Canada—good deeds with prize potential. Enter!

In this episode

• The Power of Payroll: Real people make paydays happen. Let’s celebrate them—and win stuff while feeding people.
• Back to School, Back to Reality: Millions of students return… and the great Canadian debate: are they duo-tangs or just “those bendy paper binder things”?
• Poilievre’s New Tone (and Old Habits): Collaboration slogans meet carbon-tax-2.0 speeches. Will the CPC actually change… or just change outfits?
• Tariffs, De Minimis, and a Border Buzzkill: The U.S. yanks duty-free under $800; Canada Post partners with Zonos; small businesses (including ours) rethink shipping to the States.
• Alberta Teachers Draw a Line: 95% strike mandate. Class sizes, pay that tracks inflation, and why supporting teachers isn’t optional if you like… society.

Why listen

Because it’s smart, funny, and slightly exasperated—like September in Canada. We cut through the noise and still leave room for the important questions… like whether chalk is extinct and if we can weaponize duo-tangs.

🎧 Listen & follow the show:

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📺 Want the video version? Become a Paid Subscriber at Brittlestar.com to watch the full episode in glorious moving pictures.

It's never easy to say goodbye - and saying hello again to Poilievre isn't so fun either. Thank you for everything, Steve!

This week, Brittlestar, Steve and Lisa talk the Air Canada strike coming to an end, the return of Pierre Poilievre, schmoozers in Ottawa, and more!

Post your story on Instagram or TikTok with #PowerOfPayroll and #Contest, tag @nationalpayrollinst, and you could win a $250 prepaid credit card. Plus, for every post with those hashtags, NPI donates $1 to Food Banks Canada – up to $25,000.

The video version of this podcast is only available to paid subscribers at Brittlestar.com. The audio version is free on your favourite podcast platforms. We love all subscribers.

This week we're joined by the incredible Alison Gill, a.k.a. Mueller, She Wrote! Allison also has her own fantastic podcasts, The Daily Bean, and JACK: A Special Counsel Podcast, to talk Canadians held in ICE custody, and the National Guard in D.C., Oh - also, the sandwich guy.

Post your story on Instagram or TikTok with #PowerOfPayroll and #Contest, tag @nationalpayrollinst, and you could win a $250 prepaid credit card. Plus, for every post with those hashtags, NPI donates $1 to Food Banks Canada – up to $25,000.

The video version of this podcast is only available to paid subscribers at Brittlestar.com. The audio version is free on your favourite podcast platforms. We love all subscribers.

This week on Podcast Is Broken, Stewart, Lisa, and Steve attempt to make it all make sense. It's not going well.

This week on Podcast Is Broken, Brittlestar, Lisa, and Steve spiral into bread-cutting conspiracies, a Danish 'Wackadoo-Zoo' (Lisa's words) for their predators. Along the way: a man gets caught kayaking into Canada like it’s an Olympic event, Mexico’s president gives Canada the politest cold shoulder, and Trump and Putin plan a tension-filled meet-up.

Post your story on Instagram or TikTok with #PowerOfPayroll and #Contest, tag @nationalpayrollinst, and you could win a $250 prepaid credit card. Plus, for every post with those hashtags, NPI donates $1 to Food Banks Canada – up to $25,000.

The video version of this podcast is only available to paid subscribers at Brittlestar.com. The audio version is free on your favourite podcast platforms. We love all subscribers.

Find the podcast here: https://pod.link/1730993828

This week on Podcast Is Broken, Stewart, Lisa, and Steve attempt to make sense of Canadian politics and news… and fail spectacularly but hilariously. Topics include:

• Justin Trudeau’s dinner date with Katy Perry’s dog (yes, really)
• Alberta flirting with leaving Canada (again)
• Spent fowl fraud at the border (no, we didn’t make that up)
• A mysterious “Blue Hackle Mafia” in the Canadian military
• And why driving a trailer on Calgary’s Deerfoot is basically a live-action video game.

Plus, our “Make It Make Sense” game returns with all the accuracy of a drunk weather forecast. Spoiler: Lisa wins, Steve cries capriciousness.

Perfect for anyone who likes their politics messy, their headlines weird, and their comedy slightly unhinged.

We're off this week for Summer holidays - so please enjoy a rerelease of one of our favourite episodes! - An interview with the one, the only, the dynamo Leader of the Green Party of Canada - Elizabeth May.

May dishes the dirt on Poilievre still not getting his security clearance and tells us what Trump can do with his 51st State talk.

The video version of this podcast is only available to paid subscribers. The audio version is free here and on podcast platforms. We love all subscribers

This week on Podcast Is Broken, Steve’s off-grid, probably dodging wildfires and responsibilities, so Brittlestar and Lisa are joined by the one and only Amber Mac—tech expert, podcast host, and now… game show contestant? Together, they tackle three confusingly mashed-up headlines in the “Make It Make Sense” game, covering everything from interstellar comets and robo-taxis to a landlord's worst nightmare in PEI.

They debate whether 16-year-olds should vote (spoiler: probably), if robot cars will steal your job (spoiler: definitely), and why the Canadian government is picking a weird fight with TikTok while still cozying up to Elon’s rage platform. Also, Brittlestar nearly has an existential crisis about going down a mine shaft.

Bonus: The episode ends with possibly the finest improvised theme song ever recorded using a piece of paper, pens, and a phone dial pad. Belizeans, we see you.

This week on Podcast Is Broken, things start weird and spiral from there. We talk cat-print suits, heatstroke-induced hallucinations, and how Belize has (somehow?) made us the #2 podcast in the nation. Steve and Lisa go head-to-head in Make It Make Sense, decoding Frankenstein headlines like “Orcas Threaten Rogers Stadium During Chocolate Recall as AI Chatbot Praises Hitler” — yes, that’s real. Plus: duct tape armour, haunted stadiums, Guelph’s empty hotels, mini-fridge warfare, and the ethics of octopus farming.

Also, we debate the correct plural of “octopus,” because of course we do.

Subscribe, rate, and maybe send a sympathy mimosa to whoever sat next to us on this mental rollercoaster.