The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - What Should You Be Asking Your Aging Parents?

Episode Date: February 18, 2026

The latest of our Wednesday End Bits Specials has everything for everyone today.  From counting heads on planet Earth to charging heads at Rome's Trevi Fountain.  All that and a lot more on this week's collection of news you can use.   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. If you were asked how many people live on planet Earth, and you guess, well, somewhere around $8 billion, you may be wrong, and by quite a bit, we'll tell you about that. On our Wednesday end bit special coming right up. Yes, it's Wednesday.

It's hump day. It's the middle of the weekday. We're almost at the weekend already. and it means Wednesday's end-bit special. And for those of you who are just wondering, what is an end-bit special? Veteran bridge listeners know what it is. It's that collection of stories that don't normally make it onto the news.

But in some ways, they're kind of news you can use, or at least news you can be amused by. So we'll get to those in a moment. But first of all, I've got to remind you of what the question of the week is. Monday we had the day off so we didn't get to tell you. And yesterday, during that fabulous more buts conversation, we kind of left it to the middle there. So if you missed it, this is your chance to grab onto it and answer it.

It's a simple week. This week it's a, what's on your mind? What are you thinking about this week? And it could be literally anything, right, from some big world event to a national political source. story or might even be the Olympics. But what's on your mind? That's the question for this week.

The rules are just like they always are. You've got to have 75 words or fewer in your answer. The shorter the better. You got to remember to include your name, full name, and the location you're writing from. You've got to have it in by 6 p.m. Eastern time today. So that doesn't leave you a lot of time, right? 6 p.m. Eastern time this Wednesday. I'd like to have your answers.

What else do we need to know? That's it. Those are the basics. Oh, you write to the Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com. The Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com. And I'd love to hear from you. And I realize this is a short time, but listen, it's what's on your mind? Boom.

What is it? What are you thinking about? Send it along. Love to hear it. All right, I've got quite a few end bits. I teased one off the top. It's not the first one. But there are quite a few really interesting stories here today.

The first one is actually news you can use, and you should probably be thinking about it. And I say this from somebody who is of a very. to be considered for this question by one's family or friends. It was a piece in the New York Times the other day, and I found it really good and very useful to be thinking about. And it's kind of under the heading of what to know about aging parents. All right.

So there's kind of three areas here. The New York Times is suggesting, that we all consider about aging parents. Now, I'm of age where I've, in fact, already lost my parents, but when I read this, I think, you know, I didn't really think about this, and I perhaps I should have.

So the first one is ask about their health, all right? Beyond the sort of how are you feeling today, you know, sort of beyond that. It could be a difficult conversation, but in an emergency a doctor may have only a snapshot of your parents' health, so it's important for you to get a clear picture. If you understand their routines and medical history, and I'm reading here from the New York Times piece,

you can help the health care team treat your parents more effectively. Start with the everyday stuff. What does a normal week look like for your parents? And then ease into questions about mobility and memory changes. Sometimes it's best to assert. circle around the issue and ask what they avoid now. Taking the stairs, going on long walks, driving at night. And what's gotten harder? Managing bills, going on long walks, keeping track of appointments, and explain why you're asking. You're not prying. You just want to be able to help

in the future. So it's not a grilling, you know, you're not testing them. It's also important to build a simple in case of emergency list. Now, this one's really important. Do you know what medications your parents are on? Do you know their list of pills, how often they take them and why they take them? Do you know their physician's names? Do you know what their allergies are?

Do you know what surgeries they've had in the past? Include your parents' pharmacy name and numbers so that if needed, a doctor can verify what's being filled. This is kind of all obvious stuff, but you know, it's obvious stuff that many of us don't think of. Save the list on your phone. Doctors say it's important to keep a paper copy in your wallet as well, in case you run out of battery in an emergency. Number two, discuss their living environment. The second step is to ensure their home is still safe for them.

Parents often end up in hospitals or care facilities because their abilities no longer align with their house. So talk to your parents about ways to extend their independence. And they desperately want their independence, right? Well, there are ways to extend that independence, you know, like clearing clutter, removing loose rugs, improving lighting or adding handrails, especially, you know, in the shower, in the bathtub. A fall can set off a chain reaction, hospitalization, rehab, nursing home. So frame these tweaks as a way for your parents to stay in control. Once again, I'm reading here from the New York Times piece.

It's also worth discussing where your parents could live if they ever needed to move. Would they want to stay in their home or at any cost? Would they be open to downsizing? Would they consider moving in with family or trying assisted living? those are tough conversations to have. I know I had them with my parents before they passed. They're really hard conversations. It's like having the conversation with, in my case, with my dad about, you know,

maybe you shouldn't be driving anymore. That was really hard. And, you know, I keep thinking one day Will's going to come to me and say, you know, Dad, you know, I don't know. Maybe you should consider not driving anymore. That'll be hard. Having these conversations early can help maximize your parents' options, since facility waiting lists can be long

and some places can accommodate people with more serious illnesses. Can't accommodate. Okay, here's the final point. Point three. Make a plan. Prepare for a medical emergency. While you can't rehearse every possible decision, you can be clear about who will speak for your parents

if they're incapacitated. what they care about most. Ask your parents to designate a point person and make sure everybody knows who it is. When families aren't aligned or no one's clearly in charge, messages can get muddled and care can get delayed. This isn't about picking a favorite. It's about choosing the person best positioned to carry out your parents' wishes,

even under pressure. That may not be you or one of your siblings. Just as important, talk to your parents about their goals, and values. Explore what brings your parents' joy and meaning, what their biggest worries and their priorities for medical treatment are, and what they want to avoid. For example, a parent might want to maximize time spent at home,

do everything possible to survive or avoid being kept alive by machines in the intensive care unit. You can make this a group activity to avoid your parents feeling singled out. Okay. You know, I told you this is a tough. This is a tough one, but it is one that we all have to go through, either talking about our parents or about imagining our kids talking to us, right?

But it's better to have these discussions or at least be thinking about them than not at all. Okay, let's try something a little, a little less heavy. There are a few heavy ones in here today, but none as heavy as that. But here's one that's not heavy at all. And this one is in popular mechanics.

Remember that? So here's the headline. Oops. Scientists may have severely miscalculated how many humans are on Earth. Okay, this is the one we teased off the top of the program. but this is interesting. This may have happened.

So let me read this the way popular science, or sorry, popular mechanics writes it, because this too is an interesting one. Homo sapiens is the most successful mammalian species in earth history. It's not even close. The species thrives on nearly every continent in a variety of adverse conditions and outnumbers the second point, the second place contender, the rat,

by at least a cool billion. I didn't know that. There are more humans on Earth than there are rats, but the rats are in second place. However, a new study suggests that the impressive nature of humanity's proliferation may have been vastly underreported. Most estimates place Earth's human population

at around 8.2 billion. But a postdoctoral researcher at Alto University in Finland, his name is Josius Lang Ritter. He's also the lead author of the study published in the journal Nature Communications, claims that these estimates could be underrepresenting rural areas by a significant margin. We were surprised to find, this is him talking, that the actual population living in rural areas is much higher than the global population data indicates. Depending on the data set, rural populations have been underestimated by between 53 to 84% over the period studied.

The results are remarkable, he says, as these datasets have been used in thousands of studies and extensively support decision-making, yet they're actually. Accuracy has not been systematically evaluated. So how exactly do you test the accuracy of global data sets used to derive population totals in the first place? Well, with a background in water resource management, Lang Ritter looked at a different kind of population data, gathered from rural dam projects,

300 such projects across 35 countries, to be precise. This data focused on the years 1975 to 2010. Have I lost you on this? I'm kind of losing myself. But he studied dam projects. All right? And these population tallies

provided a significant data set to check against other population totals calculated by organizations like world population. A whole bunch of them. When dams are built, large areas are flooded and people need to be relocated, Lang Ritter said in a press statement.

The relocated population is usually counted precisely because dam companies pay compensation to those affected. That makes sense. Unlike global population data sets, such local impact statements provide comprehensive on-the-ground population counts that are not skewed by administrative boundaries. We then combine these with spatial information from satellite imagery. Okay, I've heard enough about how you did this. What's your conclusion? The conclusion is that it's not $8.2 billion,

that it may well be more than $9 billion. We're kind of out a billion. A billion people. Somehow a billion people didn't get counted. That's according to the scientists who's been in charge of this investigation. All right. I believe you.

whatever you suggest. Moving on. Give me another end bit. Okay, this is interesting. This comes from the BBC. I must say, I better put my BBC voice on then. The headline in this story is

the number one sign you're watching an AI video. You know this? You know the issue, right? We're so doubtful now, but what we're watching that we assume everything's fake. Well, this BBC article is telling us what the number one sign is that you're watching an AI video.

So let's get into this, see what it has to say. Your social media feed is being taken over by AI video slop. There's one giveaway that can help you spot the fakes. Does it look like it was filmed on a potato? This is what the giant brains of the BBC have come up with, that if it looks like it was filmed on a potato, the odds are it's an AI video. I don't know.

But you know what the issue is. It really is that we're now doubting everything we see. I know I am. You know, I see something that looks incredible, and I go, it's got to be a fake. So let's dig a little deeper into this piece. Get past the introduction here. because the sad truth is that AI videos,

artificial intelligence videos, will eventually get even better. And some of this advice will be, well, could soon be useless. That could happen in months, or it could take years. It's hard to say. Sorry, but if you swim around in the nuance with me for a minute, this is the BBC writer talking,

this tip could save you from some AI junk until you learn to change how you think about the truth. Let's be clear, this isn't evidence. AI videos are not more likely to look bad. The best AI tools can deliver beautiful polished clips and low-quality clips aren't necessarily made by AI either. If you see something that's really low-quality, that doesn't mean it's fake, it doesn't mean anything nefarious.

Instead, the point is that blurry pixelated AI videos are the ones that are more likely to trick you, at least for right now. It's a sign you may want to take a closer look at what you're watching. Even today's most advanced models often introduce problems such as uncannily smooth skin textures, weird or shifting patterns in hair and clothing, or small background objects that move in impossible or unrealistic ways. It's all easy to miss, but the clear the picture is, the more likely you are to see those telltale AI errors.

Let me read a little bit more. This is interesting, right? Over the past few months, a few high-profile AI videos fooled huge numbers of people. They all had something in common, A fake but delightful video of wild bunnies jumping on a trampoline got over 240 million views on TikTok. Millions of other online romantics

hit the like button on a clip of two people falling in love on the New York subway, only to face the same disappointment when it turned out to be a fake. I personally, this is the BBC writer, I personally fell for a viral view video of an American priest at a conservative church giving a surprisingly left us sermon. Billionaires are the only minority we should be scared of, he bellows in a southern accent.

They have the power to destroy this country. I was stunned. Have our political boundaries really grown that blurry? Nope, just more AI. Every single one of these videos looked like it was shot on a potato. The AI bunnies, presented as cheap security camera footage filmed at night. The subway couple pixelated. That imaginary preacher, the video looked like it was zoomed in just a bit too far. And it turns out those videos had other giveaways too. The three things to look for, and this is how I'll close out this piece, the three things to look for are resolution, quality, and length. Length is the easiest. For the most part AI videos are very short, even shorter than the typical videos we see on TikTok or Instagram,

which are about 30 to 60 seconds. The vast majority of videos are six, eight or 10 seconds long. That's because generating AI videos is expensive. So most tools max out with short clips. Plus the longer a video is, the more likely the AI is to mess up. You can stitch multiple AI videos together, but you'll notice a cut every eight seconds or so. Okay, I did not know that. Now, this is a long piece on the BBC, and a lot of the items on broadcast online services

aren't necessarily that long, but this one is. And you can look it up on the BBC. Anybody can watch, you can read the BBC. You know, it's like the CBC. It's a public broadcaster. you get access to it. You pay, you pay in different ways, but you don't pay per item. So the BBC logo is the number one sign you're watching an AI video.

So you can go to the BBC to find that one. All right. Should we take a break here? We should. We're kind of halfway in here. Are you finding any of this interesting? Sure you are. Of course you are.

The Wednesday, you know, N-bit specials are too extremely well. Not that I'm fixated by ratings, but I do look at them. And you certainly like N-bit specials more than you like Encore editions. So much for my Wednesdays off. All right. We can take a break, but we will be right back after this. And welcome back. You're listening to The Bridge for this Wednesday, and it's an NBit special.

Hope you're enjoying it. You're listening on Sirius XM, Channel 167, Canada Talks, are on your favorite podcast platform. A reminder, you've got until 6 p.m. Eastern time tonight. You get your answer in for the Your Turn Program tomorrow. The question is, what's on your mind? What are you thinking about? What's on your mind this week?

It can be anything, right? It could be anything. Could be national, international. Could be sports. Could be news. It could be entertainment. Whatever you're thinking about. But you've got to have that answer short.

It's got to be fewer than 75 words. Include your name in the location you're writing from. And you write to the Mansbridge podcast at gmail.com. Hansbridge Podcast at gmail.com. Looking forward to seeing your answers, so let them come. All right. Now, I think we've all heard this before. I've heard this countless times during my lifetime.

As a kid, I used to hear stories that would claim this. Somebody reaches end of life, but somehow miraculously, they come back to life. Or at least they think that's happened to them. And it's in the interim between death and re-life that they remember seeing things, hearing things, having images of life from the position of being dead. So you've heard these stories before, right?

So here's the headline in the Washington Post. These patients saw what comes after death. Should we believe them? Okay. Let's read a little bit of this. Washington Post. After she dropped to her knees outside her home in Midlothian, Virginia, suffocating after she was lifted into the ambulance

and told herself, I can't die this way. And after emergency workers of the hospital cut the clothes, off her to assess her breathing. Misha Gilliam L. a 37-year-old nurse and mother of six blacked out. What happened next has happened to thousands

who've returned from the precipice of death with stories of strange visions and journeys that challenge what we know of science. Last year, a team of researchers from Belgium, the United States, and Denmark, launched an ambitious effort to explain these experiences on a neurobiological level, work that is now being contested by a pair of researchers in Virginia. At stake are questions almost as old as humanity,

concerning the possibility of an afterlife and the nature of scientific evidence, questions likely to take center stage at a conference of brain experts in Porto, Portugal, in April. The next thing I knew, I was out of my body above myself, looking at them work on me, doing chest compressions, Gilliam L. said. Recalling February 27, 2012, the day she suffered a rare condition,

creating a risk of heart failure. Okay, this is what she remembered. She remembered staring at the machine showing the electrical activity in her, her heart and seeing herself flatline. Her breathing stopped. And then it was kind of like I was transitioned to another place. I was kind of sucked back into a tunnel. It is so peaceful in this tunnel. I'm just walking and I'm holding someone's hand. And all I'm hearing is the scripture, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. While neural scientists have discovered more

and more about the inner workings of the brain in recent decades, a deep mystery still surrounds near-death experiences like Gilliam L's. Okay, this is another long article, right? I'm not going to read it all, but I will read a couple more parts of it. This is what Jeffrey Long, he's a radiation oncologist and co-author of the 2011 book, Evidence of the Afterlife, the Science of Near Death experiences. That's what he says about all this. Do we have some evidence, he asked, and how strong is that evidence that we have life after death, that our consciousness survives bodily death?

Long, who was not involved in either the major paper here or the critique of the paper, said he's studied more than 4,000 near death. experiences. The main researchers here had cited several studies showing that about 10 to 23% of near-death experiences occur after a heart attack, 15% after a prolonged stay in intensive care, and 3% after a traumatic brain injury. Others occur after electrocution, near drowning, and complications during childbirth. For most of them, it's a life-transforming experience. Typically, they are less afraid to die afterward.

This is one of the researchers. They tend to develop greater interest in spirituality and can become more empathetic to others. I don't know. Some of this, I think, is, who knows? Some people believe strongly that there's an afterlife. Others think it's a wish. It's something we want to believe in.

We want to believe that there's somewhere to go when we're gone. Hey, if it makes you feel better, believe it. Here's something I want to believe. It's another story, different story. This is from Associated Press. It says, how to create a calming nature nook with indoor plants. I don't know about you, but do you have a place in your home where you like to go and be alone? And it's calming.

And you can read or think, maybe even listen to something on your device. But a calming nature nook. That's what they call it in this piece on Associated Press. Let me read a little bit of this. This is a short piece. I'll only read a little short part of it. But it has a very calming picture of a kind of a very comfortable looking chair in the middle of a whole bunch of plants. Have you dreamed of creating a calm and cozy spot at home to relax and recharge but don't think you can spare the space?

You don't need a man cave, a she shed. I've never heard that expression, but I have now. or even a whole room to retreat, just one corner will do. One corner, warm lighting, a cozy chair, and some plants, says interior and plant stylus Hilton Carter, who specializes in nature nooks, tiny wellness sanctuaries that calm the mind, body, and spirit. Nature nooks, he says, improve a home emotionally as well as aesthetically.

Carter's 46 years old, okay? He obviously has a nature nook. Not long after Carter moved to New Orleans, he bought a fiddle leaf fig tree that he named Frank. I was at a crossroads in life, which all of us face, and I faced it with this plant, he said, adding that he made a vow to love it and keep it alive. Everything I've accomplished since then was all due to that moment,

that he set up his nature nook. Now get this. Today, Carter, who lives in Baltimore, with his wife and two children, has roughly, wait for it, 150 plants at home and another 200 or so in his studio, including Frank.

Frank's now 14 feet tall. That's the fig plant. And he's incredibly calm. Here's some things to think about if you're going to create a nature. your nook for yourself. Consider how tall plants will grow and how high the ceilings and windows are in the room you're going to do this in. Carter also advises being mindful of the type of flooring you've got. Use planters that will protect the floor in case water drains out. That's a problem.

Toxicity is another important matter. Do you have pets? Do you have kids? What kinds of plants will thrive and keep them safe? You know, I like this article. I picked it up. wanted to read it on this program because last week some of you will remember I was in Winnipeg. And one evening I went out for dinner and had dinner with my grandson and my daughter. One of my daughters, if you know Winnipeg, you know of Sinaipei in, if you know of Sinne Park. right, beautiful park in the middle of Winnipeg, literally in the middle of the city. It's not on the outskirts, in the middle.

But in, and I hadn't been to this, I've been to Sinborn Park many times in a fantastic zoo there. But I hadn't been to this place. It's called the Leaf. And it's like a giant, it's not a tent, but it's like a giant tent in the middle of the park. That's all heated and warm.

It has a beautiful little restaurant. But it has the, this area that's, how would you describe it? It's all plant life and it's spectacular. And it's the kind of place people go and this was in the evening and they just sit in there. You know, just relax. They can walk around it. It's, you know, it takes quite a while to walk around. It's a huge area. Spectacular tropical plants, you name it, plants of all kinds. They even have one area that's for for butterflies. Butterflies.

And they've got to be very careful to keep them enclosed in that particular area. And it's not a small area. You know, it's a big area. But the butterflies are flying around. And spectacular butterflies, big, colorful, huge, incredible designs on them. But it is a place that gives you much inner peace being in there. It's wonderful. So the next time you're in Winnipeg, you know, mark it down.

I want to go to that area in the Cine Park that Mansfrews was talking about on the bridge. The area is called the Leaf. Stop and have a meal there in the little restaurant. Fantastic food. Okay. What have I got time for? Well, I got time for two more. Let me see.

I'm just seeing what my choices are here. I like this one. This will be the last one for now. See, I'll do on letters tomorrow. I might squeeze in a couple tomorrow if we don't get a lot of letters. This is from Agence France Press, A-F-P news. How many of you been to Rome?

How many of you haven't been to Rome, but you know Rome? You know Rome because you've read about it. You've seen movies about it. You know what the Trevi Fountain is, right? It's that incredible, fountain in the middle of Rome. The tourists line up at for hours to have their moment where they can toss a coin usually over their shoulder backwards into the pond. And you know, you

think good thoughts and it's said that if you toss a coin into the Trevi fountain, it means you will come back to Rome again. And Rome is Rome. I get this incredible. It's such a great city. And, you know, there are lots of famous movies that include the Trevi Fountain. What was that one? The Dolce Vita. Anita Eckberg takes a dip in the waters of the fountain. Anyway, why am I telling you the story about the Trevi Fountain?

They're charging for it now. You've got to pay two euros for the right to toss a coin into the Trevi Fountain and there are restricted hours when you can do that. Really? Come on, Italy. What's going on? They say they make millions of euros a year from the coins that are collected in the Trevi fountain.

Why they have to charge you to do it as well. That's a bit much. But they do. It hasn't stopped the crowds. It also hasn't stopped those who stand back a bit and toss the cross. toss the coins over the heads of the paying customers and over the, you know, the ticket collectors into the fountain and feel pretty good about having achieved that. But there you go.

Most of the square is still open to the public. People snap pictures. They don't have to pay to take pictures. But my guess is some of you are listening who have been to Rome in your lifetime. no Trevi Fountain and you've tossed a coin in there yourself and felt pretty good about doing it and I've never forgotten the moment

or who you were with I'm trying to think of how many times I've been I've been to Rome a lot and I think on every trip I've ever been to Rome I've been by the Trevi Fountain because it's the Trevi Fountain it's where Anita Eckberg bathed in the waters

Rome. Gotta love it. Okay, that's going to wrap it up for this Wednesday, this special, end bit special. The Wednesday end bit special. Hope you've enjoyed it. We've had a cross-section of different kinds of stories in here. Some will make you sad, some that'll make you happy.

All of them of some use, right? News you can use, that's what we call it. Tomorrow, your turn, plus the round. Random Ranter. He'll be by. Friday, it is a good talk with Chantelle and Bruce. That one is available on YouTube. Just as was yesterday's.

More Butts conversation. It's a good one. It's an important one. If you missed it on YouTube, you can find it. It's very easy to find it. It's on our YouTube channel. Just if you go to YouTube, just go to the search engine, put my name there, Peter Mansbridge, and you'll see all the different YouTube specials that pop up.

And the latest one will have been yesterday's Moor-Buds conversation. And the one before that would have been last week's good talk. So enjoy. Look forward to talking to tomorrow. Can't wait. In the meantime, have a great day. Take care. Stay safe.

I'm Peter Mansbridge. for listening. Talk to you again in less than 24 hours.