Afternoon Pint

This week at the Oxford Taproom in Halifax, we sit down with Shannon and Mary from Hotter by the Minute to talk about what actually happens in perimenopause and menopause, why it can start earlier than you think, and why “hot flashes” is only a tiny piece of the story.  We dig into the parts nobody wants to say out loud: libido changes, intimacy getting complicated, brain fog, rage, fatigue, and t...

Vatsal Sood is a speaking coach who recently delivered a TEDx talk on psychological safety and communication. He doesn’t come from a theatre background either but in computer science. When it was pointed out he spoke way too fast, and leaned hard on filler words until he decided to treat speaking as a skill he could build. We dig into what actually moves the needle when you’re nervous: breathing t...

Grocery prices are out of control, everyone feels the squeeze, and social media somehow still expects us to live in spotless, perfectly styled homes. So we brought in Jess Creelman, a Halifax creator and new Bell Media voice on Virgin Radio and Move 100, to talk about what real life actually looks like right now, and why being unpolished can be the most useful thing you put online. From budget gro...

Sylvain Charlebois is a Canadian professor, researcher, and media commentator widely known as "The Food Professor." His successful podcast of the same name is now into its seventh season. The focus is to talk at issues in the food business including distribution, pricing and tariffs. Send us Fan Mail Your Dream Home Does Not Have to Be Just A Dream. Today's show is brought to you by...

Although our show is supposed to be on hiatus until September 15th , we spontaneously brought out the podcast gear to record this episode with Laura Flemming.  In this episode we catch up with Laura on her new venture since she was last on the show. Matt shares details about his recent trip to Portugal and Mike gives you his take on two very different styles of music events; Weezer & Stanfest...

A person can disappear in plain sight, and Kenley Matheson’s case proves it. On September 21, 1992, the 20-year-old Acadia University student is seen walking along Main Street in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, wearing blue jeans, a purple T-shirt, his ball cap, and carrying a red-and-black backpack. A friend waves as they pass, and then Kenley is gone, leaving behind one of Nova Scotia’s most enduring mi...

Afternoon Pint Presents: Brand new true crime series, DARK HARBOUR.  --  A teenage girl answers a short phone call, says “I’ll be right back,” and steps out of her Spryfield apartment in Halifax. She leaves behind her cigarettes and a fresh glass of pop. Shelley Denise Connors never returns, and for 33 years her family and friends have lived with an empty space where answers should be. We walk thr...

A sci fi looking “helmet” that helps veterans sleep, feel calmer, and reconnect with their families sounds too good to be true, so we went to Brainstim Clinic in Halifax, which just celebrated its One year Anniversary to get a better understanding of the technology and ask many questions.  Richard Pucci, a Canadian veteran and former senior leader in the Canadian Armed Forces Health Services, unpa...

The Disability Tax Credit is one of those Canadian programs that sounds simple until you’re staring at the forms, your medical records, and a list of criteria written in a language nobody uses in real life. We talk with Christine Brunson, CEO of Benefits2.ca, about why so many people who qualify never apply, and why the system often feels like it demands the most effort from people who have the le...

40 years of Halifax Jazz Festival and nearly three decades of Garrison Brewing as a partner isn’t just a fun local success story, it’s a blueprint for how a city builds culture people actually want to stick around for. We’re at the Oxford Taproom with Tenille Goodspeed (Executive Director, Halifax Jazz Festival) and Meg Brennan (VP Sales, Marketing and Retail Operations, Garrison Brewing) to talk...

Traffic, housing, and taxes are not separate problems. They are one big system, and once you see the wiring, you cannot unsee it. Over beers, we sit down at Quinns Arm Pubwith journalist Matt Stickland, a former Navy tech who has spent years watching Halifax city hall up close, to unpack why municipal politics quietly shapes your daily life more than any other level of government.  We talk about h...

Something is off when a government can win a “supermajority” while millions of Canadians stay home. We’re joined by Joanne Roberts, author of *Storm The Ballot Box: An Insider’s Guide to a Voting Revolution*, to dig into what low voter turnout really means for Canadian democracy and why people stop believing their vote counts. We talk candidly about what she learned on the inside as a candidate, h...

Fresh salmon can have around 14 days of shelf life if the cold chain stays perfect. The problem is real life is never perfect, and one small temperature slip can turn premium seafood into waste. We’re joined by Mina Mekhail from Dartmouth-based Fresher Technologies, an EY Entrepreneur of the Year, to dig into what “freshness” actually means, why bacteria accelerates with heat, and how packaging ca...

Halifax is growing fast — and Mayor Andy Fillmore says the real danger is not growth itself, but being unprepared for it. In this episode of Afternoon Pint , we sit down with Mayor Fillmore at City Hall following his State of the Municipality address to talk about what comes next for Halifax and the wider HRM. We dig into the pressure points residents are already feeling: housing costs, congestion...

Cancer research can feel like a distant world of microscopes and jargon, but the stakes are painfully everyday: can we help people live longer, feel better, and suffer less while they’re in treatment? We’re joined by Halifax-based immunology PhD Jeanette Boudreau from Dalhousie University to unpack what’s changing right now in cancer immunotherapy, especially in blood cancers, and why “hope” is st...

Former NDP Nova Scotia premier Darrell Dexter walks us through what it’s like to govern when the economy melts down, revenues disappear, and voters still expect big change on a small budget. He’s candid about how fast a government can go from popular to punished, and why that doesn’t automatically mean the work failed.  We get into the real mechanics of “transformational” government versus “transa...

You can learn a lot about high performance by listening to someone who lives in the details, and Christina Black lives there. Over pints at Jungle Jim’s, we talk with the Nova Scotia skip about how an eight-year-old in Sydney goes from watching the Scotties on TV to hearing an arena roar at the Olympic Trials in Halifax, and what that kind of pressure feels like when it’s finally real. We get into...

A must listen episode to gain perspective on Canada's Immigration Crisis. Two young men from India sit down with us and tell a story we can’t shake. They came to Nova Scotia with a plan, followed the rules, studied hard, built careers, paid taxes, and still may be forced to leave Canada because the rules changed while they were already here. We keep their identities private for their protecti...

A lot of people think “spy” means gadgets, fights, and glamour. We’ve got a different story for you, straight from a Canadian military intelligence operator who actually worked the Cold War and later returned to serve in Afghanistan. Mike Fournier, known as Intelligence Operator 230, joins us for a candid conversation about what intelligence work really is: supporting the commander, learning an in...

A pub table in Halifax is a strange place to map out a film and TV career, but that’s exactly where we end up with Taylor Olson, Bob Mann, and Adam DeViller. Between bites of a spice bag and a lot of laughter, we get into the real mechanics of building independent work in Nova Scotia: writing roles when the acting jobs don’t come, directing to control the full vision, and editing comedy with the k...

You can feel the difference between a “housing” conversation and a “homeownership” conversation the minute Donna Williamson walks us through how Habitat for Humanity Nova Scotia actually works. We’re recording from the Burnside ReStore (with local beers from Burnside Brewing), and we start by clearing up the biggest misconception: Habitat doesn’t give houses away. Families buy at fair market value...

A kid from Williamswood leaves Nova Scotia at 17, lands in New York with no connections, survives the visa pressure cooker, and ends up directing heavyweight actors in Hollywood. That’s the real arc behind our conversation with Sonja O’Hara, an Emmy-nominated writer, director, and actress who’s built her career by treating filmmaking like both art and entrepreneurship. We talk about what the highl...

Nova Scotia has big resource potential, but the real question is whether we can turn opportunity into outcomes without repeating the mistakes that still haunt the province. We talk with Dustin O’Leary, a Nova Scotian working in gold mining business development, about what “responsible mining” has to mean if communities are ever going to trust it again. We get specific about the parts people argue...

This week we are having a drink at Jellies on Quinpool Road in Halifax with screen writer and director Tyler Burns, and the conversation goes from bar stories and many random interjections to the real deal on making Canadian comedy.  Tyler walks us through what it took to build a six-episode series and then finding a place to put it where audiences would see it. Trailerparkboysplus.com happened to...

St. Patrick’s Day turned into a surprise live show when we crack a couple drinks at home and decide to hit YouTube with zero guest and no safety net. The result is a classic Afternoon Pint mix: real conversation, dumb games, and a chat that keeps pulling the night in new directions. If you like podcasts that feel like you’re sitting at the table with friends, this one is for you. The serious heart...