The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - Who Is Reading Your Email?

Episode Date: April 15, 2026

You know or you should know that nothing is private anymore. Whatever you load into your desktop, your laptop or your phone can be accessed by someone else or so is the warning tech experts give all the time. One of our End Bits today deals with your email messages and who can access them. 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. Who is reading your email? The answer to that may surprise you. It's coming right up. And hello there. Welcome to Wednesday. Welcome to another N-Bit show.

That's right. And you know what? Turns out you like N-Bit shows. We even get mail for N-Bit shows. Quite a bit of it, actually. I'm going to start off by reading one of them because it's kind of interesting. If you listened to Last Wednesday's program, it included the story about how in Britain drones were being used to smuggle contraband, mainly drugs, but not just drugs, some weapons

as well, into prisons in Britain. It's quite the story. It sounds like a movie, but it's true. Well, it turns out Britain's not alone in this. habit. In fact, it's quite a bit closer to home. Got a letter from Chris Reed in Nova Scotia. And here's what Chris writes. This type of activity has been occurring here in Canada for several years, and I wanted to share a firsthand example from my own community. In 2022, my son-in-law and my five-year-old granddaughter were out for a

leisurely Sunday drive on their ATV when they came across a large red drone that had crashed in their cattle pasture. The property is located directly across the road from the rear perimeter of Springhill Institution. Yes, that's Spring Hill, the birthplace of Anne Murray. The drone appeared abandoned, but fortunately my son-in-law was aware of the growing trend of using drones for smuggling contraband, into correctional facilities. He contacted the RCMP who responded promptly and retrieved the drone. Attached to the underside was a large wooden woollen sock used to suspend cargo during flight. Inside was a significant quantity of drugs.

From what I understand, the RCMP have been actively monitoring the area around the prison for some time. They have even identified a commonly used launch site, a small rural church in Rodney, just outside of Spring Hill. From that vantage point, there is a clear, unobstructed view across the valley to the institution, making it an ideal and concerningly accessible location for this kind of activity. This is no longer the stuff of movies. It's happening here in Canada, and from what your segment highlighted, around the world. I also know a few employees at the institution who have shared their various deterrence are being used. That various deterrence are being used including radio frequency

scramblers and other countermeasures, but the challenge clearly persists. I've included a recent news article, and she did from CTV that talked about the Spring Hill Institution Problems. I'm relatively new listener to your program, but I've quickly became a new news article. I've quickly become a fan. That's great to hear, Chris. I appreciate the depth and perspective you bring to these topics and we'll certainly continue listening. Thank you for your time and for continuing to shed light on important issues like this. Oh, that's very kind of you. Thank you very much. Okay. Let's get to our new topics for this week. And the first one is a headline in Doctors.com.

And the headlines it reads, is Google using my email messages to train AI? You know? A viral story from last year has been making the rounds again, claiming that Gmail automatically opted all users into a program that lets Google train its AI on your private emails and attachments. So obviously, if you use Gmail, you're going to be very interested this story. I use Gmail. The Mansbridge Podcast at

gmail.com. Here's what actually happened in November 2025. A well-respected cybersecurity firm published a report suggesting that Gmail's smart features settings were being used to train Google's AI models and that users had been silently and rolled. The story spread like wildfire. Within days, Google pushed back hard, calling the reports misleading and stating clearly that Gmail content is not used to train its Gemini AI model and that no settings had been changed.

The cybersecurity firm that started the storm issued a correction, acknowledging it had contributed to a perfect storm of misunderstanding caused by Google changing the wording and placement of existing settings. Not the settings themselves. It's been investigated and reached the same conclusion as the cybersecurity firm. Now, I don't want you to get lost in the tech of this, but this is what's important about this story and the reason it's made it on to end bits today. What is true is the Gmail does read your emails, and they have for years. Think of it like hiring a tax accountant.

If you want them to do your taxes, they have to see your most personal financial details. That's not surveillance. That's the service working. Gmail scans your messages to power spam filtering, spell check, smart replies, and inbox sorting. These are many helpful features that we've counted on for years. I'm going to keep reading this article because it's good, right? The question isn't whether Google reads your emails, it's whether you're comfortable with how that data is being used and whether your current settings reflect your actual preference. Here are the settings to check.

The controls are genuinely confusing, buried in two separate locations, and some users find themselves re-enrolled in features they had previously turned off. That's worth fixing, regardless of the AI training. debate. And here's how you do that. It's very simple, actually. It's very, listen, if I can figure it out, it's simple. On your desktop, open Gmail and click the gear icon, you know, the icon that looks like a gear. Go to the general tab and look for smart features. Uncheck it if you prefer to opt out. Then click Manage Workspace Smart Features in that same section and toggle those off as well. On your mobile, your phone, go to settings, tap data privacy, and make the same two changes there as well.

Okay, if you do all that, you're good to go, right? Okay, that's our tech section of today's NBits. Now it gets much simpler. This one comes from the telegraph. You know, the British newspaper. Here's the headline. I know you're going to love this story. Poached, boiled, or scrambled.

What's the healthiest way to eat eggs? Poached, boiled, or scrambled? You think about that. I'll give you some background. Lauren Sheriff wrote this story. Just last week in the telegraph. Okay. There we go.

we says Laura are a nation of egg addicts I love eggs I don't know about you I love eggs the only problem I have with eggs is that for some reason and this has been as far back as I can remember if I have eggs no matter how they're cooked once I've finished them I have this overwhelming desire for chocolate it's like it's unbelievable I have to have a beautiful of chocolate after I have eggs. I don't know why that is, but it is what it is. Anyway, that's not what she wrote. Let's get back to what she wrote.

We are a nation of egg addicts. The average person gets through at least two eggs a week, which makes them one of Britain's most popular foods. Plenty of us gorge on many more than this, of course. Whether you're having two scrambled eggs, crowning your toast each morning or knocking back a full dozen after hitting some serious weights at the gym? A dozen eggs in one sitting? Really? Eggs have fallen in and out of health fashion over the years, sometimes celebrated at other times vilified. Eggs had some seriously bad press over the past few

decades, but none of it is valid at all. Says Rhian Stevenson, a registered nutritionist. The main egg myths I hear have come out of the diet culture of the 90s when low-fat diets were all the rage and it was believed that high cholesterol foods could contribute to cardiovascular disease. Today we know that isn't the case at all. Yet there are healthier ways to eat an egg than others. Our experts guide us through all their benefits

and the healthiest methods to consume them. So here we go. Get your pain in the way. paper ready. A large egg has around 78 calories. 5.4 grams of fat, 7.5 grams of protein,

negligible salt, and no carbohydrates. As well as being delicious to eat, eggs come packed with health benefits. They are high in protein. A complete source of amino acids, rich in beef,

vitamins, vitamin D and A, and coline, has all that in an egg. All right, so then what is the recommended portion of eggs? Because all this doesn't mean you should eat an unlimited amount of eggs. While you might see someone who's looking to build some serious muscle, eating a dozen or more eggs a day, you know, I've never heard of that. But apparently, that's the case. A sensible upper limit is one to two eggs a day.

Research into the safe amount of eggs to eat is limited, but I would never advise on excessive use of any one food, so I wouldn't recommend 12 eggs for breakfast, one of these nutritionists said. Moderation, while not exciting, is generally key in nutrition. Okay, now we're going to get to the point of this story, right? which was the question I asked. What is the healthiest way to eat an egg? Okay, remember your choices?

Could be fried eggs, could be scrambled eggs, could be poached eggs, could be a boiled egg. So have you made your choice? We made your guess. Right? Here we go. The healthiest egg to eat is a poached egg

That's 5 grams of fat 6.5 grams of protein 72 calories Poached egg poached egg wins maybe the hardest to cook properly but it's the winner Number two

boiled eggs boiled eggs Do you have that problem when you boil an egg where okay it's boiled I know it's done to the the way I like it. Now I just got to peel the shell off, and you can't get the shell off.

Like you just spend long time trying to peel it off properly. You know the way around then? And I just found this out last year when I was in Scotland. I might have even mentioned it at the time on the bridge. I can't remember. But it still works. I just used it this weekend. When you're boiling the egg,

put a half a... small lemon in the water. Now, I don't know why it works, but it works. Put it in there right from the beginning, and when you take the eggs out and you run them under cold water and then you crack them on something, they'll peel just like that. No problem. You know, get that shell off in a matter of seconds. So just think about that.

So Peter Mansbridge taught me how to do this. So that's number two, the boiled egg. Poached egg number one, number two, boiled egg. Number three, fried eggs in butter. Wait a sec. The boiled egg, 77 calories. You go to an egg fried in butter, 113 calories. And finally, an egg scrambled in milk and butter.

128 calories. Almost twice what a poached egg does in calories. How you cook your eggs can affect their nutrient. profile, but just about any method can still be healthy if cooked with minimal oil or heart-healthy fats like olive oil. While poach eggs add no extra calories or fats to your eggs, boiling could be a safer choice if you're looking to get the most out of the vitamins and minerals in your eggs, as nutrients could potentially leach out from your eggs into the water during the poaching process.

Well, there you go. You will be able to impress your friends when you tell them, oh, I was listening to Peter Vansbridge's podcast this morning, and I learned the best way to make eggs. Because that's the kind of stuff we talk about here on Wednesdays, on the bridge. Okay, time for a little story before we go to our first break. well in fact it's our only break do you um are you one of the i'm not one of these people but i know a lot of people are my wife is she has little lists and little notes you know those sticky note things all

over the house i've got to do this this and this i've never done that but i appreciate the fact that a lot of people do and npr national public radio has this story seven tiny hacks that can improve your to-do list. Okay, so we're trying to make the to-do list more effective. Now, this story NPR originally published three years ago, but it was so popular that they've updated it and put it out again. And this is what Mariel Segarra and Audrey Ngoean write in this story. When I looked at my to-do list recently,

I noticed that it was kind of all over the place. make allergist appointment, buy razors, retile the kitchen floor, throw out compost, figure out meal prepping. Okay. It's hard to tell which tasks are our priorities, so some are urgent and some can wait.

Some are quick to complete, others take more time. Is there a more effective way to write my to-do list? I talk to time management experts, say the writers, about how to create action items that are clear, short, and doable. Here are seven surprising and useful tips. Number one, follow the two-minute rule. If it takes less than two minutes, just do it right then and there. It's not worth the bandwidth to write it down, remember it, and do it.

But that's kind of the way I feel. I don't usually leave things for later, unless they have to because of whatever. Like here in Stratford, we have a landfill site. You know, used to be called the dump, but now it's called a landfill site. And it's only open certain hours. Now, I know that I'm responsible for moving garbage to the landfill site. And I do that because I just remember to do that. And if I suddenly think of it during the middle of the day,

hey, we got enough garbage to go to the landfill site, I take it right away. So I already follow the two-minute rule. To automate what you can. If you find yourself writing buy more dog food on your to-do list every few weeks, save yourself the effort of adding it to your to-do list by signing up for a subscription to get the food delivered to your house each month. That can leave space on your list for more important tasks. Okay, that's possible. Check to make sure the difference in the price of doing it that way.

You may save money. three, break each task into smaller chunks. People aren't specific enough when they write down items on their to-do list. And what ends up happening is that we don't get them done because we're not expressing them in a doable form. For example, I want to retile my kitchen floor. That's not a to-do list item because there are too many steps packed into one big goal. Instead, the experts say I should break the project into smaller action items like call hardware store for an estimate or pick out the tile.

Decide what's a priority. The experts say, well, the experts have a trick for deciding what's important. Take one of your existing to-do list tasks and ask why repeatedly, at least five times. For example, why do I want to retail my kitchen floor? to make my apartment look better. Why? Because a space, a beautiful space, makes me feel more at peace.

Eventually you get to something that feels like a bedrock value of your life. And if you don't, maybe that's a sign that it's kind of a zombie project that could be easily abandoned. We're getting close to this list. The end of the story, I hope. Figure out whether you want to write your to-do list

on paper or digitally. Paper can be great because there are only so many tasks you can fit onto a page. So if you're the kind of person who gets overwhelmed by too many things on your to-do list, the limited space of a piece of paper, a notebook, or a physical planner, can help you narrow down your priorities. Number six, try assigning a task to a time of day. Take a look at your daily schedule and figure out when you can get your tasks done.

For example, you might write your novel from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., grocery shop from 2 p.m., to 3.30 p.m. and drop off your dry cleaning from 3.30 to 4. This method called time boxing can narrow down how much you can actually tackle on a day. That kind of awareness gets you thinking. Am I spending my time in a way that makes sense for me? Fortunately, we are now at number seven, the final item in this story. Include big life goals on your to-do list. Your to-do list isn't just for mundane everyday tasks like, sending mail and doing laundry. You can also use it to reach your big picture goals.

Ask yourself, who do I want to be? What do I want to experience? What do I want to have? If you want to be more present in your body, you might set a goal to run 5K by the end of the year. If you want to give back to your community, you might volunteer once a week. When adding these goals to your to-do list,

don't forget to break them up into smaller doable tasks. Wow. I never knew there was so much involved in writing a to-do list. But now I know. And here's something else I know. It's time to go to our break, and we'll do that right now. And welcome back. You're listening to the Wednesday episode of The Bridge.

Glad to have you with us. You're listening on Sirius XM, Channel 167, Canada Talks, or on your favorite podcast podcast, Plet. platform. Tomorrow is your turn right here on the bridge and the question of the week, which you've only got a couple more hours to send in your answer, is about how you feel about the airline industry these days. Are you a frequent flyer? I am. And I know many of you are. And even those of you who aren't are aware of the airline industry because you pick up friends at the airport or you send friends to the airport or you hear stories about the airport. So where are you on this issue about airlines? Are you feeling comfortable about how the airline industry treats its passengers and those who are frequently on airlines? Where are you on that?

I know where I am, but I want to hear where you are. You tell me how you feel about the airline industry these days. And as I said, you've only got a few more hours to. get your answers in. The cutoff is at the latest 6 p.m. Eastern Time tonight. Don't leave it to the end. You write to the Mansbridge podcast at gmail.com.

As I said, have it in by 6 p.m. Eastern Time tonight. Keep it under 75 words. Include your name and the location you're writing from. Okay. Look forward to hearing what you have to say. Okay. two more stories on our NBit special for this day. Let me tell you this first,

because it relates to this story that's coming from the BBC. And the question, which is the headline of the story, what's the most painful sting in the world? Sting. And when I read that headline, I immediately thought of, what happened to my sister? Back in the 1950s, when we lived, in Malaya over in Southeast Asia.

And we were at the beach one day. I think it was at Panang, which is kind of a resort area. I think that's where we were. But we were swimming in the ocean, what is it there, the Andaman Sea, I think, off the Malay Peninsula. And my sister was in the water.

And suddenly she was screaming. And my father, as she was at that time, she must have been, I don't know, seven or eight years old. As it turned out, she was being stung by a Portuguese man of war. That's a jellyfish. And that is a serious jellyfish. And it can kill you. In fact, there had been incidents in that same general area. where people had died as a result of being stung by a Portuguese man of war.

Well, my sister, Wendy, was being attacked by one. And my father rushed into the water, grabbed her, and ripped off what he could of this jellyfish. But she was in serious, serious trouble and had to be attended to by proper medical care. Now, clearly she lived, but she still, all these years later, has the scars on her body from the Portuguese man of war, which is pretty incredible. So that would be a painful sting. And in fact, on this list made up by the BBC, jellyfish are one of those who are the most painful.

Give the most painful sting in the world. So let me read a little bit of this. Because we tend to think of, you know, the bee in the backyard, right? Which can cause considerable pain. No doubt about that. Top contenders for the nastiest sting range from bullet ants to warrior wasps and tiny jellyfish. To find out which is most painful. some adventurous experts have spent their lives getting stung.

Would you rather be walloped by boxer Mike Tyson or take a jackhammer to the kidneys? That's what it feels like to receive two of the world's most painful stings. When it comes to which is the worst, it's all a matter of taste. Stinging animals from familiar backyard buzzers to curious sea creatures

use a cocktail of chemical defenses, including neurotoxins and inflammatory agents to defend themselves or subdue prey. While biters, such as spiders and snakes, use their fanged mouths to administer venom, for stingers it's the other end you should steer clear off. We asked experts about the most painful stings in the animal kingdom, setting aside lethality. Here's their ranking. Stinging insects, wasps, ants, and bees.

The father of the modern getting stung on purpose field was Justin Schmidt, an entomologist from Arizona. Where's this from? As I said, it's from the BBC. An entomologist from Arizona who developed a sting pain index

by subjecting himself to jabs from at least 95 or 96 species of insects including bees, hornets, wasps, and ants. He sorted stings into four tears of pain, adding evocative, almost lyrical descriptions of each unique sensation. Thankfully for us, Schmidt was an entomologist

with the soul of a poet. The first level is home to the trivial. The sting of an antherod bee, for instance, is almost pleasant. A lover just bit your earlobe a little too hard. Level two sees some heavy hitters like the honey wasp, spicy, blistering. A cotton swab dipped in Bobanero's sauce has been pushed up your nose. And the fierce black polybia wasp, a ritual, gone wrong, satanic. The gas lamp in the old church explodes in your face when you light it.

Yikes. The seven species in Level 3 carry Schmidt into real torture. Explosive and long-lasting, you sound insane as you scream. Hot oil from the deep friar spilling over your entire hand. Only three species ever earned a Level 4 designation from Schmidt. His first level four was the bullet ant, an inch-long ant from the rainforest of Central and South America, often called the 24-hour ant for how long the torment from its sting lingers. Pure, intense, brilliant pain, like walking through charcoal with a three-inch nail embedded in your heel. Next came the tarantula hawk, a spider-hunting wasp, the side of the side of the same. of a golf tea with a near worldwide distribution.

Blinding, fierce, shockingly electric, a running hair dryer has been dropped into your bubble bath. That's what Smith described it as. Finally, the warrior wasp, a colony dwelling wasp native to Central and South America. Torture. You're chained in the flow of an active volcano. Why did I start this list? That's Schmidt writing.

Okay. That list goes on and its description. All of it sounds horrible. Okay, I should say something about jellyfish. Insects don't hold a monopoly on the singing game. Jellyfish have tiny harpoon-like cells called nematosis. Nematosis that deliver punishing payloads of venom. brushes with certain kinds of jellyfish, tiny jellies, whose squishy bell can be as small as a thimble, but whose tentacles can stretch up to a meter long can lead to a syndrome that sounds like medieval torture. The sting itself is a non-event.

Most people don't even notice. It's what comes after. The delayed onset of symptoms meant that doctors struggled to identify what was caused, causing summertime beachgoers such agony for decades. The mystery was only solved after a local physician spent four years hunting the culprit, finally closing the case in 1961, by purposefully stinging himself,

his 10-year-old son, and a lifeguard. Man, I bet his 10-year-old son was really happy to be part of that experiment. Well, I don't know whether this is what my sister had, but as I said, it was awful. She had to go to the hospital, and it was touch and go there for a while. Anyway, there you go. I mean, this story goes on and on, but I don't know whether I want to read much more of it. I get cut to the quick and get to the end.

Which is the worst. To be able to crown a definitive king of sting for land, air, and sea, some foolish soul would have to volunteer to cross categories, experience both the worst insect and marine stingers, and the people that this article talked to won't volunteer for that. The jellies are simply too dangerous and carry a real risk of death, see?

Adding that some species are horrifically not worth dealing with. A different analysts here agree it would be reckless to purposefully seek out a sting from certain jellyfish since some species could cause potentially lethal reactions, including brain hambridges and heart failures. So how will we ever know which is the worst?

Perhaps the only way to find out is to invite a survivor of some of these aspects on a world tour of pain to experience level four inset stings. Sounds like a BBC Earth show in the making. I had one bad sting experience. I don't know about you, but I had one. And it too was in Malaya. It was in Kuala Lumpur, where we lived.

And, you know, you used to wear those nets. You know, wear them. The nets covered the beds you were in at certain times of the season when insects were really bad. And I got stung. I can't remember whether it was by an ant or a bee or something. something, but on my foot. And it was awful, painful. And I, you know, my foot blew up in size. But I got over it and it was nothing compared with what my sister had gone through.

All right. Time for the last one for today. You know I love airline stories. And that's part of the reason why that's the question for tomorrow's your turn. I love airlines. and I've been on some of the best, which I include Air Canada in, and some of the worst. I've been in some really bad airlines all overseas.

But the question for this particular article, which is in Travel.com, was what is the one mistake that you were, will really upset your flight attendant if you make it. Not only that, it's going to make the travel portion of your trip, even that more agonizing. I have a lot of time for flight attendants. You know, when I worked in the airline business,

back in the 1960s, when I worked for a little airline based in Winnipeg, but covering Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Northwest Territories in the high Arctic, I was great friends with a lot of the crew. I was a station agent, we called them. I did everything from, you know, working the front counter to loading baggage. Did it all. But I used to fall in love with some of the flight attendants. I remember one in particular.

When I knew she was on the flight, I would always make sure I was the one that met the flight. Her name was Linda Hart. and her nickname was poopsie. Poopsy heart. I think I told a story once a few years ago. Anyway, I always used to meet that flight, and we'd flirt as much as you could flirt in the airline world. Anyway, she ended up falling in love on a charter flight or something to Chicago.

with F. Lee Bailey, a famous lawyer. He had clients from the Boston Strangler to O.J. Simpson. She fell in love with F. Lee Bailey and married him. I can't believe she had this opportunity with this ticket agent in Churchill, but no, she chose the millionaire lawyer from Chicago. Anyway, I digress. This story is about the simplest way to ups and set your flight attendant.

And it's pretty straightforward. You know, carry-on bags, you know the rollers, the ones you roll onto a plane? I have one. I use it all the time. But the thing about those little bags, carry-on bags that roll, is you've got to know how to load them in that,

you know, above the seat luggage area. And what is the proper way to load those bags? wheels first, right? When you lift it up, but the wheels in first, so they go to the back of the thing. Not the opposite way where the wheels stick out. That really upsets flight attendants. You know why?

Flight attendants say not placing carry-on bags, wheels first, and overhead bins, creates hygiene issues and slows boarding. Proper placement with wheels inside and handles facing outside maximizes space and makes de-plaining faster. And that's what we all want, right? We're going to get off the plane as fast as we can. But I was struck by this hygiene issue.

Here's the answer. Think about it. You just wheeled your bag from your house into the street, over the airport floor, bathroom. We often have to rearrange suitcases to create room on busier flights. Guess who has to touch all of your germ-ridden suitcases? We do, say the poopsie arts of today. To keep those germs to a minimum, flight attendants have the option to wear disposable gloves, however, anyone with latex sensitivities or allergies may not be able to use what's provided. In addition, since many pre-flight

tasks involves phone and computer touchscreens and the use of bare hands. A crew member who has to constantly put on and take off gloves would probably find the process both annoying and inefficient. There you go. I'm taking a flight out of the country this week. I'll certainly be thinking of that. When I put my bag into the overhead compartment, I make sure it's wheels first. Wheels first.

Okay. there you go all these important tips as my father used to say I don't know how I've lived this long without knowing that simple fact well there you go now you know them all for this week

all right that's going to close it out tomorrow's your turn and the random ranter those will both be here for tomorrow's Thursday program I'm Peter Vansperch thanks so much for listening today well talk to you again in less than 24 hours.