Jan. 13, 2025

Dani Stover: Is This Thing On?

Dani Stover is back on the show for a 3rd time and she discussed her experience with AM 640's "Let's Talk with Dani Stover," a non-live, pre-recorded radio show that curated content from across The Corus Radio Network. The show, which involved creating six to seven new segments daily, was well-received but faced challenges, including a shift in station direction and a negative climate during the pandemic. Sadly, Corus decided to end the show and part ways with Dani last month. Merry Christmas I guess.

In this episode you will hear Dani express her mental shift from live radio to assembling a fully recorded show, and express her disdain for radio's reliance on text lines for audience engagement. (Can we stop this now?) She also criticized the use of AI and the negative impact of social media.

Dani plans to continue writing on Substack and is considering a future podcast.

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Transcript

Tara Sands (Voiceover)  0:02  
The sound off podcast, the show about podcast and broadcast starts now.

Matt Cundill  0:12  
Dani Stover marks her return to the show. I think Dani really typifies where a lot of radio personalities could be at these days. Recently laid off, looking to do something new or looking for the next amazing radio opportunity. She comes fully equipped to produce, write, blog, podcast and do video. But are radio stations looking for any of that? Danny appeared on this show in May 2023 when her evening show launched on 640 Toronto, which is owned by course, entertainment. They also have a number of news outlets across Canada, including global television. Sadly, Dani''s show ended just before Christmas in 2024 as she posted on her sub stack, she was dumped, but now she's looking for a new radio love. Danny Stover joins me from Toronto. The last time we spoke. It was May of 2023 and you had just sort of started a show called Let's Talk with Danny Stover. It was across a number, of course, radio stations. What was the show about, and how did it progress and evolve?

Dani Stover  1:13  
The show was really kind of taking content from across the country, like I would get a bunch of emails in the morning. This was my favorite part of the day. I'd be like, Oh, I'd be like, Oh, what are the what are people talking about? I'd go through the emails, like rundowns from other shows, and I'd be like, Oh, they're talking about self checkout machines and they're talking about a missing whale, and they're talking about some cool science thing. And I would take that audio, I would listen to it. I would usually condense it down from like, eight minutes to maybe six minutes, four and a half minutes, I would cut out any, you know, icky parts, and then if something was missed, or there was some additional context that was needed, or I had a fun story to get us into the actual interview, I would write that, I would research that I would I would call It, perform that. And then we'd start to put together the show and piece it together like a puzzle. It wasn't live, but we worked throughout the day to package a three hour show. And so everything has to be to time. I would have a producer who would work on mini features to fit that in. And so the puzzle would come together every night for seven to 10, and usually I was making like, six or seven brand new eight to 11 minute segments per day, which I think is

Matt Cundill  2:27  
a lot, wait what? It wasn't live,

Dani Stover  2:29  
not live. And that's the way, uh huh, uh huh. I like it. I was terrified to be live. I didn't like the idea. And maybe this was coming from a more podcast background. When I was doing blogto, I kind of liked the idea that I could be thoughtful and intentional and not be talking off the cuff. I think I'm good at that, but I felt like I owed it to my audio and this is not saying about anything negative about people who go live. I have nothing but respect for those people. It's just not necessarily me and this world. So yeah, I think a lot of people were fooled. A lot of people thought I was live. But my show wasn't the kind where I'd open the phones. My show wasn't the kind where I was telling people to email me after I'm like, it's 2024 2023 people know where to find me if they want, and they did. But I wasn't, like, soliciting outside info. The show is, as it was, was very collaborative in the sense that I was using audio, and you were hearing voices from all across the country, but it wasn't that kind of show. I wasn't like, what do you think about the Prime Minister stepping down, and then, you know, some guy calling up with his two cents, like it, that wasn't what I was going for, and that's not what I wanted to do. Yeah, they're calling

Matt Cundill  3:40  
up with their two cents, and then they offer like, half a cent by the time they're done speaking, or like

Dani Stover  3:44  
eight cents. And you're like, What are you talking about?

Matt Cundill  3:49  
So it's interesting that you backed off being live because you've been doing you've done live radio, morning radio for a long time, but the minute you start to record things, and then you start to make things better. It becomes a little bit addictive, and we shy away from live. That's my experience. It's interesting to know that that might be yours too. We

Dani Stover  4:09  
did one live show, and it was fun, but I spent the whole day prepping like it was just not a sustainable thing for me. And also, you know, the climate I came in to 640 Toronto, when we were very much in the depths of the pandemic. There was a lot of talk about vaccines and mandates, and I was kind of on the back end working for the Kelly catressra show, and people were down right, awful. And I don't want to open myself up to that. I was like, great. You have your opinions. I have mine. Difference is I'm paid to share mine. And at the end of the day, the show was, for me, that sounds very selfish, but really, at the end of the day, I was the one putting the most work into it. I was the one who was having to listen to it and stand up behind it with say things with my full chest. And so I was like, I'm not opening myself up to that kind of criticism. For. Really, or that kind of judgment, or I, you know, I said what? I said, You've got all kinds opportunities to have your say or comment. I mean, you know, radio has gone full. Hey, text us, and I hate that. So really, it does get addicting when you are able to sit back. And I feel privileged that I had the time and space, you know, I had the full day to sit at my desk and think and come back to stuff. If I was like, this isn't really fitting, I'm going to come back to it, and then later in the day, I'm like, Aha, I have just the story for this, or I know just how to get into this, or I know just the question to ask, or the angle to take on this or listening to audio, I'm like, That's really interesting. Let's explore that. And I think, you know, having a bit of an improv background, I'm all about the if this is true, what else is true, and finding the little interesting bits that I feel as a radio listener. I'm like, ooh, that's that's the thing. And I think with live radio, you don't often have that privilege to know what you're talking about before it goes on the air. And so I often said I had a crystal ball. I was able to say, you know what you're going to hear this, and when you do, I'm going to invite you to think about it in this way. And the way the station worked was a lot of more right of center personalities and opinions. And then it comes to my show, and I'm like, what if none of that's true? So it was kind of fun. I felt a little bit like a little shit disturber. I felt like I was able to be creative and cringy and do a lot of learning in the past couple of years, I feel very grateful for the space and time that I was given to talk about whatever the hell I wanted to.

Matt Cundill  6:47  
It's an interesting time slot too, because you get to the end of the day, and most people are irritated with their day, with their lives, whatever it is. So did the climate get better? You know, post pandemic? Yes,

Dani Stover  6:58  
I would say it did, but still, you know, there's this, and I don't want to speak like it's just a new thing, because I feel like relatively new to talk radio, but to me, it kind of felt like there was this scarcity mindset of like it was better before it's worse. Now, I warned you, and it's only gonna get more, like difficult for you and your family and your friends and your loved ones, and I really didn't like that. That's not who I am, that's not how I want to live my life, and it's not really sustainable. So when I came in, I really wanted to set boundaries for myself. I was like, you know, sure, if the only slot that's available is a seven to 10, that's great, but I don't want to work evenings, and I think we maybe talked about this at the time, I was working with Amanda capito, and she was very good at listening, processing, throwing stuff back at me, until we came to an agreement that was like, how about we try this? And that ended up being, let's talk. So I think people had to get to know me, and people had to get to know my style, which was a lot, which was very different, my opinions and my perspective on things, but I think people did warm up too. For sure, I had a lot of lovely people that reached out to me saying, you know, if I tackled an issue that I was kind of nervous about, and people would be really responsive to that, or if I got vulnerable, people were responsive to that. A lot of people would say, Oh, it sounds like I'm just listening in on a friend's conversation and the slot, I was syndicated, so it was seven to 10 Toronto, but it was like, you know, overnights in Edmonton. And so I'd get people who are like, Oh, I work the night shift. And this is a great show for me to listen to. It's not like someone pointing down the barrel of the microphone or the camera saying you should be afraid. It's like, you know what? At the end of the day, we're all just walking each other home, like, let's not be so lack state, you know? And I'm not like, Goomba, Goomba,

Matt Cundill  8:47  
yeah, Kumbaya, yeah, with a K, Kumbaya.

Dani Stover  8:51  
No, I say Goomba, yeah, but it's

Matt Cundill  8:54  
dealing with Goombas. I mean,

Dani Stover  8:56  
you're not wrong, but yeah, I think, like, people just had to get to know me. I think they say in, you know, traditional radio, it takes two years to grow a show. I feel like I was just kind of getting to that point when the rug was pulled out. But that being said, I feel like people were mad when I took over for the shift, which was a long time show from Shane Hewitt, but people did warm up, and people did come around to what I was doing, and they got it, the people who got it loved it.

Matt Cundill  9:21  
So I don't know who told you that it takes two years to build a show, because it actually takes three, but I think they probably tell you that so they can fire you after two, which is kind of what happened here. So do you feel the show is was incomplete? There was another year in it? Oh, absolutely.

Dani Stover  9:37  
I would never have walked away from that show. I loved it so much. It was so hard the building itself, you know, inside the walls, was getting really tough. Morale in the past year bad. It's

Matt Cundill  9:49  
not good when you're when you're the radio company you work for is on the business pages for the wrong reason. That just spills everywhere. It happens with auto. See in the States, this happens with, course, in Canada, it's, it's tough, I get it,

Dani Stover  10:03  
yeah, so, you know, a lot of people were leaving. A lot of people were laid off. They closed C, H, M, L, which was the Hamilton talk stadium radio station. That was like, I don't know, almost 100 years old. And, yeah, I wouldn't have left, but it did start to feel like, what are we doing? Like, is, are we okay? When it happened, I was surprised, but not shocked. I thought I was safe because I was cheap and I covered a lot of air time, but my views maybe sometimes I describe my show as rubbing a cat the wrong way. That's kind of the way it felt, sometimes, as though I was swimming upstream with some of my values and what I believed in what I wanted to say, and then the rest of the station sort of saying the opposite, which was just the way it was. But I liked that part of it too, because I was like, I don't want to be in an echo chamber. I like the idea that 640 isn't necessarily in an echo chamber. I like the idea that we all have different views and experiences, and we're all part of different generations and we can speak to the same topics. I thought that was an asset for the station. But, you know, I'm not the boss, and I don't see the other side of it. So here I am.

Matt Cundill  11:12  
You had an audio piece called The woke takeover of Remembrance Day, one of your final acts. Do you think that's was a tipping point?

Dani Stover  11:20  
Nah, I don't it would be easy to say that that was and I had a few people reach out, and they were like, Do you really think this is what did it I got called woke all the time, like it's just a word that everyone uses, and it's a word that carries a lot of meaning that I think has changed, and I think it's all too easy to use that word, and kind of shut down a conversation. And so I think that week, I was frustrated because of, you know, what continues to go on in Gaza and Palestine. And I was like, here we are at another Remembrance Day, and I'm reflecting on what that means to me, and all I'm hearing is people complaining that this wasn't right, or that wasn't right, and it's got too woke. And I'm like, I think you've lost the meaning here. And I got frustrated. So, like, four days after Remembrance Day, I wrote a piece about it, and I put it on the air, and then a big part of the job is also writing teases. And so I think my tease that day was just, like, a little bit spicy, and it ran all day. It runs like three times during Kelly's show, runs three times during Oakley Show. And it was basically like, find a new word, and it was a bit Jabby, but that was that everyone knew, like, everyone knew that was what I would do. So I don't think that's what it was. I think that's what they wanted me to do, but I just think that 640 is turning a bit of a different direction. Has turned into a different direction, and I think at this point they're just throwing things at the wall to see what sticks. And I mean, we're coming up to the first quarter meeting or announcement or something, and I don't know, I'm I don't know how long Chorus will last. To be quite honest with you,

Matt Cundill  13:00  
let me ask you, why do you hate the text line so much? Or just just telling people to text us with their opinion

Dani Stover  13:08  
on the talk side, people are mean. It just gives people a platform to spew all kinds of disgusting hate. And I really no offense. Don't think that the average person sitting in their car sounds bad. They're not an expert. I like, certainly, I appreciate people calling in with their experiences and their takes on things. And we got some amazing calls and some really good texts. I don't want to hear anyone read texts anywhere. Like, like, imagine I sat here and I was like, Hey, Matt, I'm just gonna read you some texts. No one wants to hear that. Yeah.

Matt Cundill  13:39  
And you know, so much of traditional media, whether it's, you know, the CTV morning show or, you know, it could be the view, it could be anything, even like CTV News. Why are you showing me what's on Twitter? If I want to know what's on Twitter, I'll go to Twitter. I don't need to get feedback. You're basically turning your radio station into the comments section. And if you've seen the comment section of anything, it's not very good. So I'm not sure why you would tell your audience to go to pick up their phone, unless they're listening to your station on the phone. It seems really dumb. It's like, why are you paying people

Dani Stover  14:17  
to be experts and professionals? And then you're just kind of going to a really easy medium for people to just spew. And I love thoughtful radio. I love intentional radio. And so the idea of just opening up, opening up the phone lines, like, if I hear like coming up next, we're opening up the phone lines. I'm gone unless I want to call in, but the text line, I just feel it's a cesspool. For every one quality text you might get, there's hundreds of garbage texts and people are mean, and they're able to hide behind it. And I just don't like that. It just makes me feel Ick.

Matt Cundill  14:53  
Well, there should be an element on your show of signing your name to your work, and you've signed your name to your work, it's actually. Your name is on the show, so I'm not sure why a listener or caller who contributes to the show doesn't have to do the same. Yeah,

Dani Stover  15:10  
it bothers me. And it's you said Twitter or x, and that is kind of what we've gotten to like, I remember when Twitter first started, and it was like, Oh my gosh. Like, you've got access to people you might not have had access before. Everyone has an opinion, and everybody's sharing it, but people are gonna people. And there's some people who just wanna watch the world burn, and there's some people that don't care that there's somebody else on the other side of it, and it's just for me personally, not good for my mental health. I got into radio where I was like, it's you on the radio, and you're, you know, maybe you'll bring in some guests or whatever, but the text line for me is just, if you're doing a contest, sure, if you're doing something where maybe you get a great text and you're like, can I call you back and let's do a phone segment, we'll record it great. I don't think it's all bad. I think it's good that radio is using it, but I don't like the reliance on it. I don't like when I hear radio hosts who are vamping for times start reading text messages without having read them before. Yeah,

Matt Cundill  16:08  
I just don't know who these people are, and I wouldn't even trust the source. And I just don't think it makes for great entertainment, and certainly doesn't contribute or forward the conversation, which for many radio stations is generally join the conversation. Well, the conversation is not good.

Dani Stover  16:22  
Yeah, sometimes there's like, a good perspective, something you might not have thought of before. But if that's the case, then I don't know. I just think there's such a rush to be first. There's such a rush to break things or to be on top of a story before anyone else, that sometimes the

Matt Cundill  16:40  
quality lacks. Yeah, you don't want to be first. You want to be right, yeah. Honestly,

Dani Stover  16:44  
a lot of times in my show, I would take a day it's like, oh, today's the day that everyone's talking about this thing. Well, I'm going to talk about it tomorrow.

Matt Cundill  16:52  
I thought the show, when you started, it was going to become a daily podcast as well, but I think you mentioned that it did not become a podcast. In the end, I

Dani Stover  17:00  
don't have a lot of regrets about my career stuff. I do have one about not podcasting the

Matt Cundill  17:06  
show. Was that your decision, or was that internal? We had talked a

Dani Stover  17:10  
lot about doing it. It was kind of a lack of person power, like it was just a big job, and we were already doing big jobs, and it was just kind of hard to, you know, figure out who's doing what and when, and especially as people got laid off and left, the team just got smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller. And so it was just like, there's just not enough people to help do this thing. Also part of me like the idea that it's just like, this is just ours now, and it only exists here. I think that's just something kind of romantic about that, of just like, you're not going to hear this again, and I might be a little bit more candid or honest in this medium when I know it's not going to live forever somewhere on the internet. So there was something kind of magical about that, too, and certainly, because it wasn't a live show, we did repurpose a lot of the content. If I'm spending 40 minutes on one piece of audio that's going to play for eight minutes, I might play that three or four times scattered throughout the week. So there was also that aspect to it where the show was a little bit repetitive. So yeah, I do wish that we, in retrospect, I do wish that we had podcasted it, so that I have a bit of a body of work to be like, hey, look what I've done. I don't have that. It's sitting in a burly folder that I didn't have time to clear out because I didn't think I was going to be laid off. So I definitely for that purpose. Wish I had that. I feel like too. There might have been a bit more exposure, but I don't always know that I'm in it for exposure.

Tara Sands (Voiceover)  18:31  
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Matt Cundill  19:04  
Were you more exhausted by the pettiness of people? Or Doug Ford? Doug Ford,

Dani Stover  19:11  
actually, you know what? In all fairness, Doug Ford is great for talk radio. Anytime he would say anything. It's like, I would scrap whatever I was doing, and I would listen to that, those clips, and I would have so much fun. And the best thing is, I had a producer that left to go work for the Conservative government. He said he met Doug Ford, and he's like, Oh, I used to work for Danny's show. And I think Doug Ford actually knew who I was. So that's very hilarious to me, because I was always taking the piss.

Matt Cundill  19:39  
I think he just looks for things to get people talking about him. The idea of eliminating bike lanes in Toronto, that's crazy. And I think even he knows that's crazy,

Dani Stover  19:53  
that story nearly broke my brain, because as soon as I heard it, I was like, What are you talking about? Out. This is the most insane thing I've ever heard in my life. And yet people were like, No, the bike lanes should come out. Let's rip them up. I'm like, the bike lanes are not traffic. You in your car are traffic construction, which is causing a lot of congestion. There's so much construction in Toronto, it's everywhere. I just didn't logically understand it. And anytime I talked to anybody, I was like, You're not making a good enough argument. Like, I push back, and I feel like this is insane. I don't know what Doug Ford believes. Honestly, I think that maybe he's trying to get his buddies some jobs after the Greenbelt scandal kind of dissipated, people lost some money and lost some gigs, and maybe he's trying to fill their pockets again. I don't know. I'm speculating.

Matt Cundill  20:43  
I think that's good speculation. That's actually the thing that's kept Winnipeg in the dark ages, Edmonton too, for that matter, because when you run for municipal politics, you need to grease the union. So if we can not have bike lanes, we can keep cars on the road to wreck the roads. We can keep the construction people happy if we can have green belt, you know, suburban expansion, the home builders get rich. We have more fire departments. We have more police departments. You have to keep expanding outward. And every one of those unions who is going to back you and somehow get you elected is going to get paid in the end. And that, my friends, is why Winnipeg is a shithole. You know, I'm right. I've never been to Winnipeg.

Dani Stover  21:24  
Actually, it's a suburban shit

Matt Cundill  21:26  
land. And by the way, if you think that it's rosy at its core, at Portage and Main it is not, you will get stabbed. It's all suburbia. And you know, the thing about suburbia in North America is a lot of people got paid for this. And what happened in Europe is they figured it out, right? So they're a little more organized. In Europe, they've figured out how to how to really sort of create a little bit of everything, holding out city centers getting rid of cars in the core, New York is now trying something that is involving congestion pricing for things like these are the cities that are moving ahead. Toronto is moving backwards, and will reach Winnipeg status in about five years, if they keep it up

Dani Stover  22:10  
well. And it's interesting going to cities that were developed and planned before the invention of the car. You know, a lot of places in Europe are like that. And so, yeah, I feel like with the bike lane thing, people want variety. Bike lanes provide healthy options for getting around. I think in the long term, it will help health care. People will be healthier. They're maintaining a healthy lifestyle. And you go to a restaurant and you don't want to just eat one thing, and I think of city, city of Toronto, as a bit of a restaurant. You want options. People being able to bike. You know, in the summer, I see a ton of people on the city bikes. I love that. I see people, entire families biking. I live on the Danforth where the bike lanes went in through COVID, whether you like that or not, they're the best. I as a driver, as a pedestrian, as a cyclist, it's the best. It's like, I don't worry about having to share a tiny little space with someone on two wheels. Also, when I'm on two wheels, I don't have to worry about getting doored. It's just better for everybody. And don't you want a city with robust, viable options, robust, perhaps not. I mean this, this, the transit system is a bit of a mess. I'm a big champion for Toronto. I love Toronto. I want to see it thrive, and I want it to be I want other people to talk about how good it is, but there's an interesting dynamic with Doug Ford getting his little hands in the pot, and I think you nailed it with like the unions. And, you know, there's just so much bureaucracy and ego, and I don't always think people are working for the betterment of the city and the people who

Matt Cundill  23:42  
live here. Yeah, Winnipeg takes it to a new level, and that's with pedestrians. They don't clear sidewalks properly. You look at this situation at Portage and Main, they wouldn't let people cross the street there for over 40 years, and just now, they've looked at the price tag of keeping that intersection closed, and have now changed their tune about it. There was even a referendum here about it. So when we talk about the closed, oh, I can't even get into it, they closed it because I don't know. But listen, does your city have two major highways meet at its biggest intersection? No, this is just the way Winnipeg was constructed, where the Trans Canada Highway runs right through the center of downtown and meets another highway that runs north, south, and they just got to keep traffic moving right so people can leave the city as quickly as possible, so they don't get stabbed. Oh no, I'd be a huge hit on the radio here in Winnipeg, wouldn't I? Well, you know

Dani Stover  24:32  
what we did do, a CJ op was one of the stations that I hold from. And you know, it was interesting. There was a story about 711 and I think Winnipeg is like the home of the Slurpee. Yeah. The Slurpee, Slurpee capital of North America. Yeah, but 711 was, like, we need to get out of here, like we might pull our business because we're dealing with so much crime and nothing's being done, like we're losing, like it's, it's, yeah, bizarre story. And I. Because I don't live there, that was also a little trick to the show. I'm like, Okay, I don't know what it's like. I'm basing this off of what these people are telling me and what research I've done, but that was one story I remember where it was. It was pretty bad.

Matt Cundill  25:10  
Yeah, so Hal Anderson, I had lunch with him a few weeks ago, and you know, he talked about contributing to your show a number of times, and probably that story as well. Did Hal like me? Of course, Hal likes you. I feel like

Dani Stover  25:22  
maybe I did a segment that Hal didn't like because then he stopped talking to me, and I had to, like, ask him for rundowns again. Anyway, now Hal likes you. I'm sure he doesn't think about me as much as I was like, I hope Hal likes me. You

Matt Cundill  25:35  
see, this is the thing. When you work nights, right? You have lots of time to create conspiracy theories about yourself. Yeah,

Dani Stover  25:41  
I love a good conspiracy theory too. I love all the space news that came out this year too. And now I'm thinking about, like, what were the big stories I loved? I look

Matt Cundill  25:49  
at 711 and Starbucks and some of these places that have pulled out of, you know, the center of towns in Winnipeg, yes, crime, yes to that stuff. However, I think there's just a little bit more lucrative for some of these businesses to be places where people can drive to them, so and drive throughs I know for Starbucks are more lucrative than just, you know, a downtown street corner site,

Dani Stover  26:10  
yeah. I mean, I'm a big I can tie this into conspiracy theories, one of the best performing podcasts that I did for today in to which was my little side piece was the 15 minute city, and by far it was the best performing episode, and it was because it made its rounds through the conspiracy community, and people think that the 15 minute city is an infringement on your freedom to drive through a drive through. And I live in a 15 minute city. If I wanted to go and get a phone case work out, go grocery shopping and pick up some sushi on the way home, it's all within eight minutes. And I love that. For me, I also drive, and that's a great freedom and privilege. And I think people are happier when, again, I go back to the menu thing, when you have variety, when there are options for you if you want to drive your car around. Great. I love that for you. But I've lived in Toronto for so long, and I've lived in this particular area for so long that I feel like, I'm like, I go to my parents who live, you know, where the closest grocery store is 45 minutes. And I'm like, How I don't, I could never. I'm glad

Matt Cundill  27:17  
you mentioned the 15 minute city, because there are signs when I, you know, leave town, talking about, we don't want a 15 minute city here, which basically means you don't want to have, you don't want to be able to walk to the grocery store, you know, you don't want to be able to have like, a restaurant nearby. I look, I live in inside Winnipeg, and in my home, it takes me 12 minutes to walk to the grocery store, and that's really all I have. That's it. I got a safe way nearby, and the rest of it, I have to have a car. And I think that there's a lot of new Canadians who have come to Winnipeg, they've set up shop, and whether the north side of the south side, but I think the first reality when you get here is you need to buy a car if you're going to do anything at all. And I think that's rather sad, a sad fact of everything. But here's one that I find laughable, is that most of the opponents of the 15 minute city are right wing nuts. They're just out there. Listen, you can just be out there with your right wing whatever. But I also thought that one of the parts of conservatism is less government, less money being taxed, keeping costs down. Well, that's what a 15 minute city does. Your city taxes are going to plummet and go down as a result of this taking place in a place like Winnipeg. And if you want to go and have lots of space, move to the country, that's fine. You can go out there, but inside a city you want to keep taxes down, this is the way to do it. And I don't understand why so many people who will vote conservative are kind of voting against one of their biggest principles. Something that came

Dani Stover  28:53  
up for me when you were talking about that, is just the idea of, like, what is a conservative? Like, what does that even represent anymore? Because some people, you know, I've heard a lot of people who are like, I'm a fiscal conservative. And I'm like, Well, you voted for Doug Ford. He's not fiscally conservative at all. So do you know what that means? You know, we've got Pierre poilievre stomping into town, and he's, you know, all about traditional values as a conservative. And it's like, Well, I heard Dr Jen Gunter talking about this in a post I just saw on the internet. And she was saying, you know, traditional values are a great catch all. It's something that you wouldn't push back on. You don't like traditional values. How could you not but traditional for who, for what? I think if you were to peel it back in Jen gunter's point, and I would agree is that someone like Pierre poilievre, who is a conservative is probably pushing more for Christian values. So is that the kind of traditional values you want? I mean, for me a woman, I don't know if I want polyevs traditional values. So the idea of being a conservative and what that means, and how that impacts who you vote for and what kind of ideologies you glom onto, I think a. Lot of people are just looking for a place to be and a community to be a part of, and they don't always dig deeper. And I think with the 15 minute city thing, it's like, what are you so afraid of? Choice, options? What because to your point, Canada is a big place, and it is for now, a free country. So if you want to move out to the boonies, go right ahead, you'll probably love that, but it's not for everybody. And if we want Canada to be a vibrant, diverse city, you know, Toronto is an awesome place to live, but not everybody thinks so. And I don't know, I just think that I'm surprised. I'm shocked, because the 15 minute city has been around forever, and just recently, people have been like, hold on. I don't trust it, and I don't understand that. So

Matt Cundill  30:44  
one year from now, Trudeau is going to be long gone. Likely Pierre polyv will be PM, and that contingent of the F Trudeau crowd, they'll have put away their flags. My question to you, Danny, who will they blame their shitty lives on in that moment,

Dani Stover  31:02  
I don't know, because you need a villain. And I think it's interesting that those who led throughout the pandemic either are long gone or have been blamed for everything. And you know, say what you will about Trudeau during a time where a lot of people had no idea what was going on, and there was a lot of fear, he stood outside of his house every day and spoke to the people of Canada. And I've been thinking a lot about this, because I think the convoy had a lot to do with it. And I definitely, you know, working for 640 at the time, heard a lot of perspectives on that side, and I can understand the people who were upset about the mandates for good reason, the people who had been working throughout the pandemic and putting their lives at risk on the front lines who were no longer able to go home, were stuck across the border. I'm talking like truckers who the convoy was about in the first place, but I think it was co opted. I know it was co opted, and it was gross to me how it just became we need someone to put in our crosshairs. We're frustrated and we don't know who that is, so fuck you. We've had leadership before that's dropped the ball or hasn't not everyone has liked and I don't understand the people are so angry that they're willing to spend money on a piece of fabric that says, fuck Trudeau. It's like,

Matt Cundill  32:27  
how's that helpful? No, how's it helpful at all?

Dani Stover  32:30  
I don't even know what to say about it. I just think it's weird, but people were angry. So I don't think polyev is going to be this panacea. He's not going to be like, here he comes to save the day. I think things will remain similar, and people will do back flips to say, Oh no, it's better now. Like I honestly think that that will happen revisionist history. I

Matt Cundill  32:50  
know there's people who are listening to this thinking, well, here's Matt and Danny having woke talk or left talk or liberal talk or something like that. I'm a conservative. I voted conservative all my life, and I just find though, that the more puzzling questions about people sort of reside out on the right. What are you thinking? What are you doing? And you know, they haven't been able to elect anybody in a while, and it's like, yeah, because it's your own doing. So you're actually driving a lot of conservatives to stay home, which is what's happened in the past. It won't be this time. However, if you want to know the answer to something, just look to yourself. I just find that there's more questions to answer from people on the right than people on the left at this point, because the people some of the ideas that have been proposed, they're already in play. Some work, some don't work. The French expression is Le blue sa challenge. More things change, the more things stay the same, right? Yeah,

Dani Stover  33:45  
honestly, I think, like, I'm not anti government at all, but working at 640 I was like, what? How does this work? Like, I wasn't always like, big political person. I wasn't I like issues and things like that, but I definitely learned a lot in the past couple of years about it. Yeah, it's interesting to see, you know, what's going on in the States, and how that's kind of reflective. I think, basically the bottom line is greed. People are greedy, and a lot of people are like, don't look over here at the greed. Don't look over here at the, you know, billionaires who got 500% richer throughout the four years, where everyone was losing their minds. Why don't we look at immigration? Why don't we look at drag queens? Why don't we look at queer issues instead, like, let's focus over here, so that we don't look at the real problem, which is greed, a disproportionate amount of wealth, and the rich getting richer off the backs of the lower and middle class. You

Matt Cundill  34:39  
talked a little bit earlier on, about how you put your day together with the audio pieces and the stories and the notes, did you use any AI tools to help bring that together?

Dani Stover  34:48  
No, good. No, I love a fast answer. Yeah, that's the only one you'll get from me. I

Matt Cundill  34:56  
love your sub stack. By the way, you've written a few pieces, you're gonna write more. Sure. Oh

Dani Stover  35:00  
yeah, I plan to write one today. I have a goal to finish something today. I love the writing piece of it honestly, with my show, let's talk. It was a lot of writing. I had stacks and stacks and stacks of burly scripts that was all just my writing for the radio. And so once I no longer had that outlet, I was like, I have to do this somehow. And sub stack seems a nice place for me. For now,

Matt Cundill  35:23  
were you always a good writer? Yes,

Dani Stover  35:27  
I think so. I started in writing. I did professional writing in University for a couple of years. I love grammar, I love to read. And it's 2025, I'm gonna toot my own horn. I think I'm an excellent

Matt Cundill  35:38  
writer. Do you think this will evolve into a podcast. I

Dani Stover  35:41  
think, yes, I've had some conversations. You know, a lot of people are like, when are you gonna do another podcast? Even my mom is like, I love your sub stack, but can you read it to me? So yes, I definitely think there will be a podcast in my future. What that will be about? I'm not quite sure yet.

Matt Cundill  35:56  
You know that you can get some AI to actually read it back to your mom in your voice,

Dani Stover  36:01  
and I want to do that. Okay, I don't are you using AI, like, I just feel weird about it. Yeah,

Matt Cundill  36:10  
I am. Let me think how I'm doing that. Show Notes. So this conversation we have is going to go into otter, and it will come back as show notes and a transcription.

Dani Stover  36:21  
Oh, okay, that's a great use of it. My husband the other day, used it to come up with a budget for a project. So I do think that there's good uses, but I just get nervous about the people behind it who are pushing it again, to take jobs from lower middle class people, to just get richer. But I do think it's a useful tool for sure.

Matt Cundill  36:42  
Yeah, I'm a little concerned right now about being on a platform like x, which I'm pretty sure most of my stuff is going in to be used for some form of AI and will probably be used for evil against me in the near future, perhaps.

Dani Stover  36:54  
I mean, either I on LinkedIn, there is an opt out. You can actually go into settings and say, I don't want my stuff used for AI purposes. I don't know about x. I don't really hang out there much anymore. People are mean. I felt

Matt Cundill  37:06  
I built this podcast through x and did a really good job. It was actually the number one place I'd go. But I don't think my audience is there anymore. I go

Dani Stover  37:13  
and I'm like, What? What is this like? People I don't even follow are popping up. It's usually people like, criticizing my voice or something. And I'm just like, I can't blue sky feels kind of empty. Yeah, I'm kind of chilling from social media for a bit, and I quite like it.

Matt Cundill  37:27  
The blue sky feels empty.

Dani Stover  37:30  
Oh, god, is this a foreshadowing, some sort of sad

Matt Cundill  37:33  
love song or something? Yeah,

Dani Stover  37:36  
it's like, is anyone in here? No, it's just a bunch of cat pictures. My algorithm is bust.

Matt Cundill  37:42  
Well, Danny, I love your work. Miss you on the radio. I hope you get back on one day, but if not, I hope there's a podcast I can listen to anytime. 24/7 when that becomes available on demand and your sub stack is certainly worth a subscription, we're gonna put all that in the show notes of the episode, and look forward to hearing what you have to say and think in 2025 Well,

Dani Stover  37:59  
thank you for having me third time charm.

Tara Sands (Voiceover)  38:01  
The sound off podcast is written and hosted by Matt Cundill, produced by Evan serminsky, edited by Taylor MacLean, social media by Aiden glassy, another great creation from the sound off media company. There's always more at sound off podcast.com. You

 

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