The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - A Wednesday End-Bits Special

Episode Date: October 8, 2025

At popular request, no encore this Wednesday, but instead an end-bits special. News you can use, and some you probably will choose to ignore! Everything from what's best to do - shower in the morning or evening, to which car colour holds it resale value best? And a lot more -- enjoy. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

And hello there, Peter Mansbridge here. You're just moments away from the latest episode of The Bridge. It's Wednesday, but it's not an encore Wednesday. It's an N-bit special. Coming right up. And hello there. Welcome to Wednesday. And if you've been listening to The Bridge for the last couple of years,

you know that Wednesdays is on. often an encore program. We get the day off. But I decided this year, out of the goodness of my heart, that I'd actually work the odd Wednesday. Because we have this thing called NBits. Long-time listeners will know that

end-bits are kind of like fillers. And we're a couple of minutes short, we throw in an N-Bit. Some story that's popped up on the wires, or is available online somewhere that my good friend Mark Bulgutch has found and sends along, saying here's some NBits possibilities. Well, over time, those really build up

because most of our shows go to time, right? So this is going to be one of those days where we load up a bunch of NBits and put them out here for you to listen to and consider. Now, NBits can be anything. they can be kind of news you can use they could be just kind of interesting stuff or they could be you know significant in in some way but there are a real mix there's light and heavy okay so that's what we're going to do on this on this wonderful Wednesdays you know where that phrase

came from well at least in my background it came from When I was working in the Ottawa Bureau as a correspondent for CBC in the 70s and early 80s, Wednesdays were termed on Parliament Hill, wonderful Wednesdays. Maybe they still are, I don't know. They were wonderful Wednesdays in those days because the House didn't sit in the evening. And therefore, Wednesday evenings were kind of for fun, you know, dinners and what have you. and so they coined this phrase wonderful Wednesdays it was a different era

it wasn't quite as polarized then as it is now between media and politicians between political parties there was more of a camaraderie everybody still did their job and they did it well as far as I'm concerned but on Wednesdays there was kind of a truce

and it would not be you know would not be impossible to go to a restaurant in Ottawa and see members from different parties having dinner together and laughing and what have you and talking and chatting it up and looking for common ground didn't always find it

but occasionally they did Anyway, there you go. So this is a wonderful Wednesday in the sense that we have some info. We have some n bits. And as I said, they cover the spectrum of, you know, important to not necessarily important, but interesting. So let's get started. This first one was a piece in AFP, Azure. France, Press, the news agency.

And it's about Sweden. And this is how it starts. Swedes are stocking up on food items in case of war. As more conflict in Europe no longer feels like a distant possibility and authorities encourage measures to boost resiness, readiness. at a civil preparedness fair in southwest Stockholm, 71-year-old Circa Petrokowska told AFP that she's taking the prospect of hostilities seriously

and preparing as much as she can. Here's what she said. I've taken a course on preservation in an old-fashioned way where you can preserve vegetables, meat, and fruit that lasts for 30 years. years without a refrigerator. That's hard to believe. I've set aside blankets for warmth.

I bought a gas burner for heating. I've also stocked up at my countryside home. In late September, Sweden held its annual preparedness week, where authorities seek to raise awareness as part of the country's total defense strategy. The country revived the strategy in 2015 following Russia's annexation of Crimea, and more measures were introduced, including the appointment of a minister for civil defense, after Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The idea is to mobilize all of society,

from authorities to citizens and businesses, to collectively resist armed aggression while maintaining essential functions. the focus as it often is in Sweden is on individual responsibility everyone is encouraged to stockpile enough food to live independently for at least seven days without external aid in the event of a crisis

you know Europeans based on their history certainly have that mentality much more so than we do except for Europeans who've moved to Canada they still think that way too

but generally we in North America do not but there have been increasing numbers of these kind of stories in Europe in the last couple of years certainly since the invasion of Ukraine

and the continuing war between Russia and Ukraine supported on the Ukraine side by so many NATO countries, including Canada. That's interesting, though, right? I didn't know that you could preserve food without a refrigerator for 30 years. I do remember once, as a kid, he had, you know, young boys. I can't remember how old we were, 11 or 12. growing up in Ottawa,

ventured out into the kind of remote lands out near Carleton University. There was a train trestle there and everything, and we walked across it like that scene and stand by me, you know, scared stiff that a train could come along. But when we got into the bush, we hid cans of beans in the bush. And the next year we went back,

And, of course, they were still there. And we opened them up, and they were still good. So we were very impressed. Anyway, moving on, as I said, these stories are all very different. When you sell your car, have you ever thought of, what difference is it? what color it is. It's really what a new buyer cares about is, or the tire's good, does the engine work?

Is there any rust? Et cetera, et cetera. But apparently, one of the big values on resale can depend on the color of your car. So this is from iStalk. two car colors hurt resale value steer clear of these shades okay so you have a moment before

I give the answer to make your guesses right two colors what do you think they are well here you go a study by Nexus media using insights from Easy Search, these are websites, compared depreciation across 10 best-selling models, from sedans to SUVs to EVs. Average five-year depreciation

has surged to 45.6% in 2025. That's up from 38.8% in 2020 with electric vehicles losing nearly 60% of their value. Within that,

stands out as a key factor. So here we go. Here's the number one average depreciation of this particular color. This is the number one color, depreciation. Blue cars depreciate

27.11%. 27.11%. The average value lost with blue cars, $12,449. Blue cars rank as the worst performers for resale, coming with the steepest average drop among popular colors. According to Kelly Blue Book, blue vehicles are also harder to help keep clean since water spots, scratches and swirl, marks show very quickly.

That extra upkeep doesn't help their resale prospects. Despite these drawbacks, blue still lands in the top five most popular car colors with a 9% market share last year. According to Edmonds, which is another one of these car sites that follow stuff. Number two, I can tell you my car is this color. Black cars. Average depreciation, 23.3%. Average value loss, $10,804.

Same kind of problem, right? Shoppers may be drawn to the size. sleek look, but used buyers show less enthusiasm dragging down trade-in and resale prices because they mark up so easy. So easy. Black cars look best right out of the wash, but dirt pollen on dust settle almost immediately. Yes, I can vouch for that. The study also tracked appreciation on red, silver, and white vehicles, unlike black and blue, These shades are easier to care for in terms of maintaining their look.

Red cars fall 21%. Silver drops just slightly lower than that. White proves the most stable on the list, dropping 18%. And it tops the list of most popular colors, at 25% of the market share. That's white. So there you go. There's everything you need to know about the impact the color of a car has on the resale value of that vehicle. Okay, here's one of these stories that you dream about.

You dream about being this guy. This story comes from AFP once again. And it comes from Frankfurt. A German man has won 15.3 million euros. That's a lot of money, right? That's what is that? $22, $23 million, Canadian. A German man has won that amount of money,

15.3 million euros in the lottery after discovering a forgotten ticket in his coat pocket six months after he bought it. I rarely buy lottery tickets. I don't know. Sometimes I get motivated when I'm in a corner store or something. I go, oh, I'll buy one. And then I'll put it in the glove compartment of my car,

and I tend to forget about it, or I put it in my pocket, the coat I'm wearing, and I forget about it, like this guy obviously did. His explanation. After six months, he said, there wasn't until the weekend that I found the ticket, folded up in the inside pocket of my jacket. When I checked the numbers on my phone

and saw the winning amount, I was completely shocked. No kidding. Luckily, I was sitting down. Otherwise, my knees would have given way. Yeah, sure, buddy. The man had even heard about the campaign, pain to find the lucky winner he said i heard about it on the radio at the time and thought to myself how stupid can you be not to collect it it never occurred to me that i could be the person

they were looking for now here's here's what this guy unidentified said when asked what he was planning to do with his winnings he said i'm going to buy in your new sofa. Now really, you win 15 million euros and you go, I want to buy a new sofa. Beyond that, he and his wife were planning to use the bulk of the money to provide for their children.

Well, good for them. Both have sworn not to tell anyone else about their win. and that's why he's unidentified. Have you ever won anything on the lottery? Like, I mean, you know, more than a couple of bucks. Years ago, when I used to play, was it like Lotto 649 or one of those things?

I used to buy a ticket every week. And then I got a pool. in a pool of the office that went on forever. People were afraid to drop out because they were convinced if you drop out, they're going to win and you're out of it. So we kept going. We never won anything. And I'd say we must have played.

We must have had that pool for at least 10 or 15 years. Imagine how much money we flushed down the drain on that one. Anyway, one year on the 649 on the ticket I bought myself, I got five of the six numbers, right, and I was, like, pretty excited. And you had to, you couldn't, you know, you couldn't cash in online or by mail. I don't think even online existed at that point. Anyway, off I went down to the 649 offices, and they cut me a check for, I think,

it was like $23 or $2,400. It was a big deal. I don't think it ever covered how much I'd contributed to the lottery over time, but nevertheless, it was an exciting moment. Okay, enough with that story. We were in Sweden, we were in Germany. How about this one in Switzerland? Never been to Switzerland?

Been to Zurich? The good people of Zurich vote to restrict leaf blowers in pollution realm. The leaf blowers bother you. Something like worse than waking up on a weekend morning. You've been trying, you've been looking forward to the weekend. You're going to sleep in and suddenly your neighbor is blowing leaves off their driveway or their porch or what have you. Well, that happens. That happens to a lot of us, right?

Well, apparently in Zurich, they said, The hell with this. Excuse me. To heck with this. We're not going to have that happening in our town. So noisy gas-powered leaf blowers will become a thing of the past in Switzerland's city of Zurich after more than 61% of citizens voted in favor of banning them in a referendum. Well, at least severely restricting the use.

And the restrictions are going to limit noise and dust pollution. Gas-powered leaf blowers and leaf vacuers will be fully banned in Zurich, Switzerland's most popular city. Only electric devices will be used to blow away dirt and debris. This will only be possible from October to December to disqualify. three months out of the year. Well, those are the kind of months where you have leaves on the ground, right?

According to authorities, special permission will be required to use the devices at other times, and permission will only be granted under exceptional circumstances. Supporters of the move complained that leaf blowers and leaf vacuums are loud and spread fine dust, causing both noise and air pollution. They also claim that the devices are harmful for microorganisms such as bacteria and recommend using rakes to remove leaves and trash. Opponents of the ban, however, had said the proposed ban would make life unnecessarily difficult for many people.

They believe the vote was an expression of a nonsensical and anti-social culture of prohibition. Okay. All right, we're going to take a break in a minute, but here's one. From the New York Times, but it's not about New York. It's about Copenhagen, which has become this incredibly popular city in Denmark over the last, well, it's always been popular, but it's become a real tourist hotspot in the last few years. However, there's one thing that Denmark and the Danish capital wants to limit. And that's the number of foreign couples who think it's such a beautiful city

that they've decided that's where they want to get married. Now, it's not just the beauty of the city, but it's also the fact that there's a lot less documentation needed to get married in Denmark, in Copenhagen When Karen, this story, as I said from the New York Times, when Karen Doolong began planning her wedding last winter, she

intended to say, I do on March 8th. She wanted to honor International Women's Day in the sixth anniversary of when she told her partner that she really liked them. So she called the City Hall in Copenhagen where she and her partner live as soon as registration opened to reserve

a slot. Immediately she was disappointed. When I called it was already booked, said Ms. DeLong, 28 years old, who owns a gallery. How could it be booked already? Ms. DeLong is hardly the only bride in Denmark to find City Hall overwhelmed. In recent

years, a surging number of foreign couples have flocked to Denmark, in part because it requires fewer documents and has a more streamlined process than many other countries. There's so many people from other countries coming to Denmark to get married.

It's really crazy, said a Danish wedding planner, Cecile Jilbel, who said some of her local clients could not find a good time slot in Copenhagen. The competition has grown so intense that Danish authorities have struggled to accommodate everyone who wants a civil wedding, prompting Copenhagen to announce in June that it would start reserving the United. slots for locals. Now, this is a much lengthier article, and you can find it in the

New York Times by searching for it if you're considering going to Copenhagen to get married. And you'll see how they're working on trying to come up with guaranteed slots for locals in a situation

that's been kind of crowded by internationals. We're coming that way. Okay. We're going to take our little break. But you're going to want to hear the next one coming up out of the break. It's from the BBC in the headline, Is it better to shower in the morning or at night?

Now, think about that. And we'll be right back. And welcome back. Peter Mansbridge here with the Bridge special Wednesday N-Bits special. Hope you're enjoying it. Lots of news you can use, like really important stuff, right? We're trying to have a little bit of fun with some of it too. You're listening on Series XM, Channel 167, Canada Talks,

or on your favorite podcast platform. Glad to have you with us. A reminder, tomorrow, Thursday, is your turn. A question of the week, which you only have a few hours left now to get your answers in. Has to be in before 6 p.m. Eastern time tonight. What are you thankful for? This is Thanksgiving weekend.

What's special about this year? that makes you grateful for something, could be anything. Don't be obvious. Think about that for a second. Send it to the Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com. Keep it under 75 words. Include your name and your location that you're writing from and send it to the Mansbridge podcast at gmail.com.

That's for tomorrow's your turn. And the random renter, of course, will be by as well. So let's get to, let's get back to the end bits. And I like this one as soon as I saw it on the BBC. And the question is, is it better to shower in the morning or at night? I know you're all guessing at this one. So let's get, let's get to the answer. In this increasingly polarized world, writes the BBC,

there is one question that perhaps divides us more than any other. Really, I don't know what's that, but nevertheless. Do you shower first thing in the morning or last thing at night? Or perhaps you are one of the 34% of the American population who do not shower daily. whichever camp you belong to you may wonder what impact your choice has basically on your health

for many of us we wake up blurry-eyed in the morning one of the first things we do is jump into the shower morning shower advocates often argue that standing for 10 minutes under a torrent of hot water helps them to wake up and feel fresh and ready to start the day yet nighttime bathers argue that showering before bed

helps them wash the day's grime away before they slip under the covers and succumb to blissful sleep. So what does the science say on which is actually more beneficial for us? Showering helps to remove the dirt, sweat, and oil from your skin. This can accumulate throughout the day along with pollutants, dust, and pollen from the environment. If you don't shower before bed, this is deposited onto your sheets and pillowcase. This isn't all. Your skin is teeming with microbial life.

Zoom in on any square centimeter of skin, and you'll find between 10,000 to 1 million bacteria living there. This is disgusting. They feed off the oil secreted from your sweat glands, while sweat itself doesn't smell, the sulfurous compounds produced by bacteria, like staphyloculus, certainly do. So showering before bed may seem like the more hygienic option.

However, as ever, the truth is more complicated than that. If you shower at night, you go to bed nice and clean, but you'll still sweat overnight, says Primrose Freestone, a microbiologist at the University of Lester. Sorry. According to Freestone, even in cold weather,

a person will still sweat up to half a pint of sweat into the bed and deposit 50,000 or more skin cells. In all, you can eat buffet, and all you can eat buffet for dust mites. you're still going to create a sort of sweaty microenvironment that the bacteria on your skin are going to eat and produce a minor level B.O. So when you wake up in the morning after showering at night,

you're still slightly on the smelly side, says Freestone. Did you want to know all this? The benefits of a nighttime shower also only apply if you regularly wash your bed linen. This is important. Bacteria can survive on duvets, sheets, and pillows for weeks. Desmites also can accumulate over time, as can fungi, especially on moist areas such as your pillows.

While people with a fully functioning immune system can cope with this microbial assault, up to 76% of people with severe asthma are allergic to at least one fungi-speople. Exposure to a exposure to a fumigatus can cause chronic lung disease in people suffering from TB or smoking related lung disease. Okay.

So this kind of sounds like you're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't. So where does this leave us in answering the question? is a morning or evening shower best. The experts prefer a morning shower, as this will scrub away much of the sweat and microbes picked up during the night from the bed, allowing you to start the day fresher and cleaner.

However, it's probable that your decision will make very little difference to your health. It's more a case of whether you prefer being fresh and clean during the day or at night. if you're showering once a day it probably doesn't really matter what time of day you do it so is one expert okay so we went all the way through that article to get to a conclusion

says it doesn't really matter so I wouldn't change anything in terms of the way you do it based on that okay um i got a few more do you meditate i know an increasing number of people who do and maybe that's just because the older you get

the more you're looking for ways to calm down so there's this thing called mini meditations it's kind of interesting actually of course everything we do here on the bridge is interesting well let's

try and sort this one out where does this come from I'm trying to find where we found this okay I don't really know but it looks all very official oh no it's AP Associated Press The idea of meditating can be intimidating

Beginners may imagine sitting uncomfortably in silence while breathing deeply and scrubbing all thoughts from their minds The prospect of trying those techniques at work may feel embarrassing But there are ways to bring short inconspicuous sessions into the workday if you want to see if meditation can help you deal with

challenging customers or reduce anxiety while preparing for presentation and experienced practitioners say there's no right or wrong way to do it. Meditation is quite easy. As a matter of fact I think there's a stigma around it that you have to be in complete silence and you have to have some room set up or do some chanting or some serious breathing, said Michael Beyer, or sorry, Michelle Beyer, a wellness coach who owns the Brooklyn Women's Gym, Alana Life and Fitness.

There's one-minute meditations you can do to make yourself feel great. Nobody will even know you're doing them. Okay, well, let's try and figure out where some of these are. Here are some easy meditations to try out on the job. There's the pre-work pause. Commuters can consider getting to work a little early and taking a pause in their cars or a quiet location to decompress from getting out the door and to your destination,

said Catherine Ramati, a meditation teacher and author of Befriend Yourself. If you only have a memory, minute or two, that's still enough time to try Ramadi's instructions for a quick reset. Close your eyes, take a long, slow, deep breath to fill your tummy and lungs with air, she said. Hold the breath for a second and then slowly breathe out like you're blowing out a candle. You'll immediately feel a shift and you'll feel like a human again. While repeating that process, consider setting a positive intention or goal for the day.

Instead of focusing on a to-do list, think about how you want to behave towards others. Some intention examples are, today I'm going to be productive, but I'm also going to be a good listener, or I want to have a positive attitude. Okay, that's easy. See? Picture your bliss. Visualization is another technique that experience meditators use. Picture yourself succeeding at the challenges you'll encounter that day.

If there's an upcoming deadline, envision yourself finishing the task 10 minutes early. Jumping for joy. Get specific like a movie director and imagine the colors in the room or the feeling of wind in your face. Throughout the day, you can bring up that image any time you need it to refocus. You can also use visualization to reframe your perspective on colleagues or clients. A technique, Romadi, the expert we were talking to,

recommends putting into practice before meetings, may seem quirky. Envision a white light over the meeting room's doorway that showers the people entering with brightness. Ramadi says it may help you imagine them in a better light you can even put some sort of pink bubble around people she added here's another one body scan

another short meditation that can be done almost anywhere involves breathing deeply and mentally scanning your body for sensations a technique popularized in the U.S. by mindfulness practitioner, John Kabat-Zinn. Depending on your location and comfort level, you can keep your eyes open or closed. Inhale through the nose and out through the mouth. Start with your feet and work your way up.

Noticing any areas with pain, tightness, tingling, warmth, or other sensations, think about relaxing the muscles of any spots where there is tension. You're intentionally scanning your body, you're thinking about how do you how do your feet feel and your shoes how do your ankles feel knees hips ribs shoulders wet neck head and by the time you know what you checked in with every part of your body okay here's one more finger and thumb this is a

Discrete meditation technique is breathing deeply and joining your pointed finger to your thumb to form a circle. You can do this if you feel stress level rising. Say to yourself, whenever I put my finger and thumb together, I will be able to be peaceful and open-minded. If you're in a meeting and start to feel resentful or left out, you can do it under the table. And no one will know. Ramadi does this herself. She says she's becoming judgmental or short-tempered. Whenever that happens, she puts the finger on the thumb.

You just do the finger and thumb, take a nice deep breath, get grounded, and then back into the meeting and feeling positive. Actually, it was, there's one other one. It's easy. inhaling and humming out. One expert's favorite technique is best done when there aren't a lot of people nearby. Truck drivers can do it in traffic. You inhale and then when you're breathing out, you hum with your lips closed, she said.

It's going to immediately take down stress levels in the body and even in the mind. when you inhale and you focus on humming, then your brain is focused on that, not the what-ifs or the worries that can occupy your mind and make you stressed. Yeah, it works. Well, I feel great. So let's all do that.

Let's breathe in. Hmm. Meditation with Peter Mansbridge, right here on the bridge. Okay, last one. Last one for this day on this special, Wednesday and bit. This is from Axios, and the headline is the benefits of waking up without your phone. This is all about delaying the morning phone scroll.

How many of you wake up? Don't even get out of bed. You grab your phone and you see what's going on. Well, this suggests delaying that morning phone scroll, even by just a few minutes. could do wonders for your brain. We know staring at a screen all day isn't healthy, but even if a full digital detox isn't realistic, an offline morning can still go a long way.

Blocking smartphone access for two weeks or even three days is linked to more dopamine and serotonin and improved well-being studies show. Limiting phone usage to two hours a day had similar effects. but even doing something else in the morning before looking at your phone can be hugely helpful. Behavioral scientist Zalina Montmini, the author of the new book Finding Focus, tells Axios. Your brain sort of wakes up like wet cement, said Monmini. The first imprint you make matters, she says.

Instead of checking messages, she suggests checking in with yourself. Are you well-rested? Can you remember your dreams? Even better, can you step outside, breathe, and soak up sunlight? Try to stay in a relaxed, open mind frame for as long as possible. That's the advice moment he tells Axios. Okay, all of that makes sense to me. Here's one I'm not going to read.

But I'll tell you what it suggests. It's an add-on to this story. It says, reading your phone while on the toilet could potentially lead to haemorrhoids. A new study finds. Yeah, no, I didn't click on that. I didn't want to read about that. But I'll leave that to you. I'm sure if you Google it, you'll find it.

No, my takeaway is this one. I'm going to try that. I like the sound of that. I like the feel of that. Take a deep breath. Hum. All right. That was our special.

Wednesday. Oh, bits. Oh, bits. N bits. Special. The NBid special for this week. I'm sure we'll get to replay this. I'm sure this will be an encore someday.

And if it is, I hope you enjoy it a second time. Tomorrow, your turn and the Random Ranter Friday, Good Talk with Chantelle Iber, Bruce Anderson. Hope you join us for both. I'm Peter Mansper, thanks so much for listening today, and we'll talk to you again in less than 24 hours. Thank you.