The Agenda with Steve Paikin (Audio) - A New Season of The Thread

Episode Date: March 19, 2025

The TVO program "The Thread with Nam Kiwanuka" is now heading into Season 4. Let's get the lowdown on what viewers can expect with the show's host, Nam Kiwanuka.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Renew your 2.0 TVO with more thought-provoking documentaries, insightful current affairs coverage, and fun programs and learning experiences for kids. Regular contributions from people like you help us make a difference in the lives of Ontarians of all ages. Visit tvo.me slash 2025 donate to renew your support or make a first time donation and continue to discover your 2.TVO. The TVO program, The Thread with Nam Kiwanuka is now heading into season number four. Let's get the lowdown on what viewers can expect with the show's host. There's Nam Shine right there. Hello. Hi Steve.

Lovely to see you again in our studio. Tell us some of the stories you're going to be working on this year on the thread. Thanks so much for having me. So this year we've traveled to Wawa, Sault Ste. Marie, Barrie, London. And I have to look down the topics because menopause. This season we focused on health care, gun violence, deep fakes, the climate crisis. I'm learning so much about you. Dating and immigration. I learn so much about you when we have these little get-togethers. And we focused on healthcare, gun violence, deep fakes, the climate crisis, dating and immigration.

I'm learning so much about you. I learn so much about you when we have these little get-togethers. Keeping it 100. Keeping it 100. Yes, indeed. Okay, so I interrupted there. Go through that list. That's a very serious list of stuff you've got going on.

Yeah, healthcare, gun violence, deep fakes, the climate crisis, dating and immigration. Okay. Is there, I mean, I know when you do these stories, you talk to lots of people and the subjects are all pretty heavy, but is there one that stays with you more than any other? Above and beyond deep fakes. We spoke to some teen girls in Toronto who had their faces manipulated through AI on nude bodies and the images were shared and this was done allegedly by a classmate. And of course the impact to their mental health,

their well-being was immense. And we're really grateful that they spoke to us. And in the deep fakes episode, I learned a lot. I learned that because of how AI and technology, how fast it's moving, that the law is actually trying to play catch up. Can't keep up. Can't keep up. So unfortunately, these girls, the law

couldn't really help them. And so we take a deep dive into deep fakes and talk about the implications. Because we're parents, and having to talk to your children about the dangers of just putting an innocent picture online and how that could be manipulated by bad actors, I think it's something that everybody needs to know.

It's interesting. My older kids never had to deal with any of this. My youngest did, because she's, as they say, a digital native as opposed to a digital immigrant. Kids today have got so much, I mean, stuff that we could not have imagined when we were kids that they have to deal with, particularly this. Yeah, it's really, really hard what they're having to navigate and then to just speak to them and what this means for their future prospects because we know that the Internet never forgets and so I think a lot the people that we spoke to there's a lot of tech companies

They need to be more responsible. They need to be more proactive in protecting young people from situations like this because even as adults You know we grew up in a time where I didn't have to worry if I did something in my 20s and I did stuff in my 20s because you're in your 20s, right? But you shouldn't be penalized. You shouldn't have to have that follow you for the rest of your life. Is the law able to keep up at all with what's going on? We find out that it's having a hard time.

And so this is why it's important for us to do the show. You got around, eh? You went to a lot of places, a lot of places far away from Yonge and Eglinton. And that's the thing about The Thread, we want to go to people in the province, the show, this is their stories and we want to go to them and it's important. Toronto is not Ontario. Ontario is very big, very diverse and it's important for us to be in different communities and we did that too with healthcare.

We went up north because the situation there is really different from here in southern, southwestern Ontario. For sure. How can viewers tune in and watch what you do? The first episode of season four, 730 this Wednesday on TVO and you can always catch up on Sunday at 830 p.m. or online on YouTube at The Thread with an Am. I just want to give a shout out to everybody on the team because TVO is a small team, but we do great work. Small but mighty. Small but mighty, so thank you to everybody on the team

who worked really hard to make this season happen, including people here in studio who also were camera ops. So thank you, everyone. Fantastic. Shall we do a preview? Yes, please. Here is a preview of season four, episode one, debuting tomorrow night before the agenda.

Roll it. More extreme heat events. From extreme heat, nonstop rain, droughts, wildfires, and smoke. This is big for Ontario, Hamilton, Toronto, Windsor, our highly exposed cities. Nobody can stop a tornado. I noticed it was raining in the house.

So the roof was gone. The roof was completely gone. I jumped in the truck, and all of a sudden, chunks of tree were landing on top of the truck. And I drove like crazy to get out of there. The evidence is in front of our face.