• There’s another Ottawa out there. In Illinois. We head across the border to ask: how are those other Ottawans feeling about the US election?
    Nov 4 2024

    For one week only we’re calling ourselves 'This is Ottawa, Illinois'. Robyn Bresnahan reaches out to the city south of the border to talk to fellow Ottawans about life there, how they’ve been thinking about the US Presidential election and what comes next.

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    22 mins
  • Why is one of Chinatown’s most iconic restaurants closing?
    Oct 28 2024

    Since 1982, Yangtze restaurant on Somerset Street has been a destination for lovers of dim sum. But the family behind it has decided it’s time to move on. Robyn Bresnahan meets its manager to find out why, what’s next and what its closure means to the families who’ve been eating there through the generations.

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    26 mins
  • What’s with Ottawa’s love-hate relationship with roundabouts?
    Oct 21 2024

    Depending on who you ask, roundabouts are either Ottawa’s answer to keep traffic flowing -- or 'pedestrian death traps'. Robyn Bresnahan heads to Ottawa’s newest roundabout in Orleans to hear why the City is in favour of building more roundabouts and how an engineer navigates criticism from those who feel they’re a dangerous waste of space.

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    16 mins
  • Is Ottawa an island?
    Oct 7 2024

    Podcast listener Matt Bell has always been curious about something. Given that a central part of the city is surrounded by two rivers and the canal - is it technically an island? We took his question to a geology expert who initially guffawed and then dug into her stash of city maps to come up with an answer.

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    15 mins
  • Have land acknowledgements become “white noise”?
    Sep 30 2024

    They’re read at sporting events, music festivals, school assemblies, corporate conferences and city hall meetings. But have they become more performative than meaningful? Robyn Bresnahan meets two women from different First Nations who share similar views on what land acknowledgements ought to include to make them more than “white noise”.

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    17 mins
  • What happens when Robyn knocks on the door of her former Carleton University residence room - 27 years later?!
    Sep 23 2024

    There are nearly 9000 students living in college and university dorm rooms in Ottawa. So what’s dorm life like? And how much has changed in the nearly three decades since host Robyn Bresnahan lived in residence? She takes a trip down memory lane to find out.

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    21 mins
  • What happened to the O’Brien Hotel in Gatineau Park?
    Sep 16 2024

    In 2018 a boutique hotel called The O’Brien opened to great fanfare in Gatineau Park. The derelict mansion overlooking Meech Lake had been given a multi-million dollar facelift - funded by taxpayers. But the following year, it was closed. What happened? Robyn Bresnahan investigates.

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    14 mins
  • What’s the new Night Mayor’s plan to revitalize Ottawa’s social scene from sundown to sunrise?
    Sep 9 2024

    Mathieu Grondin says he’s been in “listening mode” all summer since being appointed Ottawa’s new nightlife commissioner. So what did he hear? Robyn Bresnahan meets him for an evening stroll – ending up at an Ottawa speakeasy – where he gets a grilling from three night owls.

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    33 mins