Now or Never

For years, Melissa MacMillan's opioid addiction brought chaos to her life - especially with her daughter Eden. Now, almost five years into recovery, Melissa and Eden share the tough conversations they're having as they try to rebuild their relationship.

What does it take to be truly 'out of the woods,' getting through one big life hurdle, only to face a whole new set of challenges? That's what this episode of Now or Never is all about.

A few weeks ago, Lisa de Lusignan wrote in to Now or Never to tell us about losing her husband to ALS, and the surprising thing helping her through her grief: pickleball. So of course we called her up, to find out how joy and sadness co-exist on the pickleball courts. “Nobody looked at me like, ‘Oh geez, I hope she’s OK today.' Which is fine! And lovely for people to do that. But sometimes I just want to be a girl coming to play pickleball, not the sad wife."

Since coming to Canada from Eritrea 23 years ago, Alazar Beyene has been giving new life to old shoes. But with the rise of fast fashion, business declined, so when his old patching machine broke down, Alazar was thinking about changing careers. Enter Marsha Shandur and her beloved winter boots. How Marsha turned to the power of the people for help to replace Alazar’s machine.

Mary Howley is on the hunt for a part-time job. She worked in the financial industry for nearly 30 years, but living as a single retiree in Ontario isn’t as financially secure or care-free as she’d hoped.

Tiffany Bird went 25 years without ever consuming a vegetable. She has ARFID, a fairly new and often misunderstood eating disorder that significantly restricts the volume and variety of foods people eat. For decades, the condition consumed her life and her health. Today, Tiffany is learning to accept that she may never be free of ARFID.

You know the feeling. You’re unsure. Stuck between two choices. The imposter syndrome is bubbling up, and you just need a little help.

So who do you turn to for advice? And how likely are you to take it?

This week on Now or Never, we’re sifting through the opinions, mantras, and clichés, to find out what works (and what doesn’t) when you get and give advice.

Ify and Trevor call up the Winnipeg senior citizens behind the Misericordia Place Life Advice Hotline, for tips on love, dating, and moose hunting. 1-800-wisdom at your fingertips!

For the past six years, Farideh Olsen has been recording voice notes full of advice for her 10-year-old daughter, just in case she dies. Farideh is completely healthy, but her biggest fear is that she won’t be around when her child needs advice, so Farideh is leaving lessons for her baby, including how to deal with her dad.

When Amanda Oake was feeling stuck in a rut working as a nurse manager, her best friend Krista told her to quit her job and buy a bee farm that was up for sale in western Newfoundland. So, Amanda did…despite knowing next to nothing about beekeeping. Years later, does Amanda regret taking her friend’s advice so quickly?

Julie Gordon, in Victoria, has always had a hard time making decisions. She would call on her friends, look for advice on the internet and when that didn’t work, she started to visit psychics. A few years ago, that search for guidance and reassurance let her down a path that cost her thousands of dollars and derailed her life.

Ten years ago, former Olympian and founder of I Challenge Diabetes, Chris Jarvis, tried to push himself to do a 160km ski marathon in Quebec; but problems related to his Type 1 diabetes meant he couldn’t finish. Now he’s challenging himself again, and pushing past all the bad advice he’s received throughout his athletic career, about what’s possible for someone with diabetes.

Plus, Winnipeggers weigh in on the best and worst advice they ever received, and what they’d tell their younger selves.

Across Canada, we've been hit with blizzards, snow squalls and extreme cold.
So what keeps you from going stir-crazy in the dead of winter?

On this episode of Now or Never, hear about the wild and creative ways people are avoiding cabin fever.

After living in the Yukon for over 40 years, Cindy Billingham and her husband, Ron, moved to a small town in Newfoundland to live out their retirement years. But not too long after they renovated their home and settled in, Ron suddenly passed away. As Cindy navigates grief and newfound loneliness, she’s on a mission to find a new group of friends who can help her avoid “getting bushed” — a slang term she picked up in the Yukon that describes feelings of isolation and restlessness during the winter months.

Maggie Glossop is an 80-year-old artist, affectionately known as the 'Bear Lady', thanks to her charming sculptures. Every winter for the past eight years, Maggie has stepped into Ottawa's Kitchissippi woods to build bears out of snow. Nearly a decade into the tradition, her sculptures continue to inspire people from near and far to get outside and hunt for the snow bears on the trail.

For members of Cat Lake First Nation, winter offers an opportunity to bring much needed supplies into the community, via the winter road. As the climate changes, Rachel Wesley is trying to help her community navigate an uncertain future — and a difficult trade-off in trying to find an alternative to the winter road.

We’re often told to fight back against peer pressure but at one work place, it’s the secret tool to get people out and moving. Trevor joins a group of colleagues in Winnipeg for their weekly workouts at Canada's windiest, coldest intersection, Portage and Main.

And, 10,000 aluminum cans. That's how many cans Jeff Hamilton needs to collect, to pay for a projector and pull off his very first “Can Film Festival” in Whitehorse. It’s all part of his plan to bring people together to watch movies in the dreariest part of winter. But with only 5 days left until opening night, he’s still 363 cans short. CBC Yukon producer Andrew Hynes brings us the story of one man’s quixotic quest, and why he's so determined to do this, one can at a time.

Are you feeling paralyzed by the firehose of terrible news?

We get it. We feel that way, too. So we did what Mr. Rogers always told us to do when we're feeling scared: look for the helpers.

On this episode, hear how people just like you are channeling their feelings of helplessness into action, doing small things in the face of big problems.

As a school bus driver in Minneapolis, Jodi has watched her bus empty out as four-year-olds of colour are too scared to come to school. Her neighbours won’t leave their house to go to the laundromat. So now Jodi, a Canadian with only a green card, has gas masks by her front door so she can take to the streets in protest against ICE actions in her city.

A group of Iranian-Canadians in Calgary are working around-the-clock to help people send messages to loved ones in Iran, during the country's ongoing communications blackout and deadly protests. Their lifeline? Satellite TV. Armin Zarringhalam and Sepidar Valian explain how it’s possible, and what it’s like trying to protest the Islamic Republic in Iran from afar.

How do you laugh through a crisis? When Sudanese-Canadian comedian Faris Hytiaa was working on what would become his Juno-nominated album, Homesick, he was more afraid than he's ever been. Every member of his family was in Sudan as the war broke out in 2023, fighting to stay alive and make their way to Canada. Faris shares how the ongoing war in Sudan is impacting his comedy, and his identity.

And last week we asked you how you're channeling your feelings of helplessness into action, and we got an earful. From attempting to organize your first benefit concert (with zero experience) to volunteering with refugees, hear what people are doing.

Five trailblazing Canadians tell us how they smashed barriers in the worlds of soccer, aviation, AI, education, and.....eating the most hot peppers in a single sitting?!?

As a kid, Zoey Williams used to tag along on her dad's flights. That planted the seed for Zoey, who went on to be the first Black female pilot at Air Canada. Zoey and her dad Captain Orrett Williams tell us what it takes to break through barriers in a profession that remains largely white and male.

22-year-old Danielle Boyer invented a robot that uses AI to teach kids her community's language, Anishinaabemowin. Thinking deeply about the ethics of AI and technology, Danielle says just because you can build it, doesn't mean you should.

Mohamed AbdAllah is on a mission to create the first Islamic private school in Newfoundland and Labrador. While the province is predominantly Christian, its Muslim population is growing substantially, meaning more and more families are searching for a faith-based education option outside the public school system.

People have called him insane, but Mike Jack has traveled around the world, breaking 20 Guinness World Records in extreme chili pepper eating. Which begs the question: why?

Jade Kovacevic made history as the first player to sign with the National Super League, Canada's first professional women soccer's league. But after getting injured, Jade was forced to retire after one season with Toronto AFC. Jade reflects on the bittersweet moment of her trailblazing career coming to an end, and what comes next.