This is Ottawa

Dec 02 2024 42 ep. 16 mins 100

This is Ottawa Podcast artwork

What would it take to make the Rideau Canal swimmable? Where do you go to find love in Ottawa when you've given up on online dating? Every week, host Robyn Bresnahan seeks out people to answer one question about the city we love. New episodes every Monday.

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How did Hitler’s car end up in Ottawa?

Dec 02 2024 16 mins

If you round a corner at the Canadian War Museum, you’ll come across an imposing black armoured car. It belonged to none other than Adolf Hitler. How on earth did one of Hitler’s cars end up in Ottawa? And how does the museum balance public interest with critics who say it “glamourizes Nazism”?

How is Ottawa's housing crisis putting people fleeing violence in even more danger?

Nov 25 2024 20 mins

It can now take years for someone who has escaped domestic violence to find an affordable place to live in Ottawa. Robyn Bresnahan visits a shelter that is supposed to be a temporary refuge – but has become much more permanent for one woman and her family.

Why do Ottawa's racialized and low-income neighbourhoods tend to have fewer trees and what's being done about it?

Nov 18 2024 14 mins

When it comes to trees, not all neighbourhoods are equal. Robyn Bresnahan takes a stroll from a “have” into a “have not” community with two tree experts to learn about why tree equity matters and what the City is doing to achieve it.

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 04 2024 22 mins

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.

Why is one of Chinatown’s most iconic restaurants closing?

Oct 28 2024 25 mins

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.

What’s with Ottawa’s love-hate relationship with roundabouts?

Oct 21 2024 16 mins

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.

Is Ottawa an island?

Oct 07 2024 14 mins

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.

Have land acknowledgements become “white noise”?

Sep 30 2024 16 mins

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”.

What happens when Robyn knocks on the door of her former Carleton University residence room - 27 years later?!

Sep 23 2024 20 mins

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.

What happened to the O’Brien Hotel in Gatineau Park?

Sep 16 2024 14 mins

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.