The Current - A Winnipeg man shares some neighbourly love

Episode Date: June 5, 2026

David Balzer of Winnipeg is spending his summer recording people's stories of gratitude. Since 2023, the associate professor of Communications and Media at Canadian Mennonite University has set up a mobile recording studio at community events and invites people to share a story of a kind neighbour. He records in hopes they will share it with the neighbour to generate appreciation and community connection.

Imagine you've been charged with a crime, and the only witness pointing the finger at you isn't even human. I remember thinking, are you serious? What is this thing? It's something artificial, created by a mysterious Canadian. And it's coming for all of us. A life-defining technology. Crime as we know it will never be the same. I'm like, oh my God, he's lying.

From CBC's Uncover, The Expert Witness. Available now on CBC Listen or wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is the current podcast. If you happen to be in Manitoba this summer, you might see a tiny yellow and white vintage trailer parked at community events. A trailer belongs to David Belser, and he calls it the chatterbox. Inside that trailer is in many recording studio,

and he invites people to step inside the chatter box to tell him, why their neighbor is a great neighbor. What stands out for me is you're just really open to sharing your tools with me. We bought a fixer-upper, and you're always there to lend me a table saw or a chop saw or whatnot. So I'm getting a new house, and you're getting nothing in return, and I think that's great. Borrowing a table saw from the folks next door is just one of the many acts of kindness that David hears about. his mission is to capture stories of neighborly gratitude, stories like this one. I guess it felt really nice to have people that want to support me when I had nobody to support me.

I'm a single mom and I've been in school for three years. I needed to find a babysitter for during like exams. And then she's like, I'll just do it. Just very thoughtful. She gives me Mother's Day presents and it's just like that's the only person I got on Mother's Day. and that was just like so, it just felt so good. David Belzer is an associate professor of communications in media at Canadian Mennonite University.

He is in our Winnipeg studio. David, good morning. Good morning. Tools and babysitting and Mother's Day cards. What goes through your mind when you hear those stories? It's incredibly profound because when people step into the chatterbox, I have no idea what they're going to say. and then these jewels, these nuggets,

these little treasures of kindness show up, and we're at a block party. What is the chatter box? I said that it's a trailer, but describe what this thing is. Yeah, it's a 1978. If you imagine a 14-foot fiberglass little trailer with a striped awning attached to the front of it.

And I always say that it's clear. Climate controlled, whatever the climate is, that's what it is inside. So we have lots of air conditioning, so to speak. And so if you imagine a little vintage Manitoba bowler-esque type trailer, that's what it is. It's just big enough for two people at a table inside and a guy in the back seat with a mixing board. And you roll it into community events and describe where you. take the chatterbox? Yeah, we look for places. So last fall, a neighborhood association was having their annual picnic in the park. So we roll it into the park. I've got it set up with a solar power,

so we're off grid, and so we can run the equipment anywhere. And we literally roll it into the park, and we're an activity at somebody's picnic. And how do you get people to take part in something like this? To come into the chatterbox. Yeah. We, we, uh, so I have volunteers. Uh, always building a volunteer team to make this happen. It's, it's very organic grassroots, uh, kind of the band of the willing. And, uh, we have a little flyer and we say, hey, we're, you know, would you like to tell us a story about why your neighbor's a great neighbor?

And we'll help you give it to them. We'll help you share that story. And so we're literally kind of very gently working the crowd. And the word gets out at this party. at this block party with 100 people that, hey, do you want to share a story about somebody that did something kind? And then they make that big, bold move, right, to step into the, literally, to step into this little trailer and give us five, seven minutes. I want to talk more about the stories that you hear in a moment, but where did the idea

for this come from? Yeah. I mean, I love audio storytelling, and that's been part of my life. about 10, 15 years ago, I caught wind of a vintage 33-foot airstream, one of the silver bullets you see going down the highway with an organization called StoryCorps in the U.S. And they had built a full-blown, truly climate-controlled studio in there. And they were parking at community centers and capturing stories of the community. And ever since I saw that image, I'm like, one day I want to get a little trailer. Mine's not 33 feet long.

It's not, you know, rebuilt from the inside out. But it is 14 feet of goodness. That's for sure. I love it. StoryCorps is fascinating because their whole ethos is tied up in the tagline. Everyone has a story to tell, right? Yeah, yeah. What do you love about that?

Well, it, you know, I have this image in my mind of all these people walking through a neighborhood and they're carrying a story in them of something that somebody did that was kind. And they're literally walking within feet of the person who did that, but they have never given it away. And I'm like, oh, my goodness, chatterbox fills that gap. Because am I going to walk up to my neighbor and just go, hey, let me tell. you why I think you're awesome. Well, it's kind of socially awkward or whatever, but if you have this third party that kind of facilitates that, I'm discovering people will do that. And then we give them a kind of a means of giving that story back to the person, like, because the neighbor is the person you didn't choose to live beside, right? So if they do something kind, it kind of feels

authentic. Part of this is your own story as well. And part of your story is, you know, part of your story is that you had a heart attack. Yeah, yeah. Tell me about that. Oh, yeah. April of 2022, things went sideways for me, and I survived as is obvious.

And that moment, so as you can imagine, for most people who have a health crisis like that, kind of came out of nowhere other than people, you know, in the rehab process said, well, you were a prime candidate. But it truly is a heart check on both the literal and the metaphorical level. And so that prompted a conversation in the months after with my wife, Catherine,

and she said to me, you know, let's go after the things that you really and that we really care about. And you've been talking about this trailer for almost 10 years now. I'm tired of hearing about it. Let's do it. Well, and she said, so, like, let's start spending some money. So that was, like, April 22. I rehabbed for about six months. And literally April of 2023, and there's a long backstory of how I got the trailer.

But I drove to Saskatoon and picked up a Tripoli surfside 14-foot trailer, hooked it onto my RAV-4, which I find out later on. was not a good idea, but I made it back to Winnipeg because the car was a little bit too small for what I was towing. But, and then we started. That fall, I was already, I already tried an event. Just back to the heart attack just quickly. Yeah.

This was something, I mean, you say it came out of nowhere, but your father had also had a heart attack right around the same age, right? Is that right? Yeah. I mean, one of the things I discovered why I was a good candidate, so to speak, is because there was a lot of hereditary heart issues in my family. And it was a bit surreal because I only, obviously, I didn't think about it at the time,

but in the months after, I'm like, wait a minute, that's when dad had a heart attack. And he was exactly this age. So it was a really significant pause, like a full, I mean, I was in the middle of giving, I was literally in the ER texting. the registrar at the university saying, I don't think I'm going to be at the exam

tomorrow morning I need to give. Can you have somebody cover for me? And then I, you know, once I got in later, about an hour later, things really went sideways and they brought me back. Brought you back from the edge? Yeah, because I passed out, like I was waiting for a bed. It was during COVID.

So Catherine was literally out in the parking lot. And then I finally made it into a bed. And then within minutes of that, I passed out. And I woke up to people, you know, the first thing I heard was I said, oh, can you stop pounding my chest kind of thing? Because they're giving me compressions. And the first thing I heard was the doctor saying, well, we're just want to keep you alive.

So we're going to keep doing this. And I'm like, whoa, what just went down? So it was pretty real, right? So you check in on, okay, what really, really matters? And that's where this idea of the trailer, my love for stories and the idea of like, wait a minute, we've got so much pessimism and cynicism in the world. What if I could just get a neighbor to tell me why they're the next door person that they didn't choose? Tell me what happened. There's got to be something they did that they appreciate.

And when we get that story to the neighbor, often they're completely surprised. What? That was the moment that really mattered to you? I mean, it's just crazy. Imagine you've been charged with a crime, and the only witness pointing the finger at you isn't even human. I remember thinking, are you serious?

What is this thing? It's something artificial, created by a mysterious Canadian. And it's coming for all of us. A life-defining technology. Crime as we know it will never be the same. I'm like, oh my God, he's lying. From CBC's Uncover, The Expert Witness. Available now on CBC Listen or wherever you get your podcasts.

I want to hear another story. This is from a community event recording. So you can hear some people in the background. There's music and there's applause in the background. This is another one of your chatterbox recordings. My name is Grace. My name is Vicki. I think they're great because they're very helpful with us when we arrive here in Canada.

We usually walk to Altona Mall to grab groceries, but people are offering, like, if they see us pushing our cart in the winter with our groceries, like, hey, where do you guys leave? It can happen, and we can bring you, go back to your apartment. And I was like, we're good, but we really appreciate it. It was like that gesture is someone that you don't know, but you know it's part of the community. What did you say earlier? There's so much cynicism around that in some ways stories like that can puncture this, right?

Yeah. What have you learned about your fellow Manitobans in hearing directly from them and hearing stories like that from them? It's like this huge secret that really. isn't a secret, but we don't, it feels like a secret because we don't ever hear those stories or talk about it. Like, what are the odds of, like, the people who step into the chatterbox didn't know they were going to step in when they went to the block party, right? Like, they didn't even know we were going to be there necessarily. We're just an activity at a block party, and we share this idea, and all of a sudden, they're sharing a story about a kindness they received. And

And I hope it works. You know, I hope when I go to an event that people join, but I have, there's no coercion. It's like you're completely self-selecting. And people are doing it. The very, very first event I did, people were waiting for half an hour in line to get into the chatterbox to say something kind. And I'm like, what is going on? What do you think is going on? Well, I think we want to be human.

I think we want to recapture it. And somehow this, you know, I love turning the tables on technology, right? We have lots of conversation. I wanted to harness a microphone and a mixing board in a way that would let us experience being more human. And so when you're sitting in the chatterbox across from a student who's learning how to do interviews, ironic, like it's kind of a wild mix. But you have this profoundly human moment by just naming. that story by just naming that neighbor. So there's impact there for you.

People step out of the chatterbox and they are happy. And I'm not surprised because they just tasted the real thing that they are in real time, fully embodied in this little, you know, daisy-curtained vintage trailer with little blinking, you know, twinkle lights. And they walk out going, I feel more. human than I did going in. And we so desire that. So this social isolation, this, this sense of disconnect. I mean, and AI is kind of like, okay, everything's going to be deep fakes. And the chatterbox is like super real. Like, you didn't even know you were going to join it. But when you step in and you

tell a story and you walk out and then you give that story to your neighbor and you stay in that relationship. And they're like, hey, like, what is it? We've asked neighbors when they've received a story, What does it feel like for somebody to go to Block Party, enter your story just because they think you're awesome? Well, you can imagine how that feels between those two people. So how are you doing that? Are you making sure that once you, once somebody comes in and tells the story about their neighbor, that that that story ends up in the inbox of the neighbor, that it ends up in the hands of the neighbor, that the neighbor gets to hear it?

If you can help me solve that little puzzle, we'd be good. So it's it again, it's the effort of the person who gave us the story if they have some kind of contact. So we produce it. We give you a private, unlisted link. So there's a digital form. It's got your picture that we take in the chatterbox. And so, you know, and then, so what we're doing this year, this summer, we're going back to postcards with a QR link because we realize we could take that unlisted thing. We send it to the person who gave us a story.

and we're hoping they drop into their neighbor's mailbox. And then, so it's like retro, right? The whole thing's retro. We're going back to the mail. And we're hoping that will get the story to the neighbor. If they have cell or digital kinds of communication available to their neighbor, then obviously we would use that as well. But it's a bit of a riddle because it is,

you're telling the story about somebody else that they're not, the person we're talking to, we're not asking them, hey, give all of the contact information for your neighbor to us. We can't do that. So we got to figure out a creative way of making that person aware of where the story lives. So the postcard feels like it might be the answer. If you were to step into the chatter box, is there a story about an act of kindness by your neighbors that you would tell? Yeah, Monday, this week, Monday. So I get, I look outside my living room window. I'm getting, getting ready for work, and I see somebody dumping a wheelbarrel of soil in front of my front step on my driveway. So how does that happen? Then I realize, oh, that's a load of kindness landing on my driveway.

A load of kindness. Yeah. Because the day before I saw my neighbor, he had 11 yards of soil dumped on his driveway for his garden boxes, and he only miscalculated by about six yards that he. he didn't need. So I get a knock on my door the day before and he says, hey, if you want some free soil for your garden, I got like half a driveway full here that I'm given away. Super kind, right?

And I'm like, oh, you know what? I don't think I can get to it today. He says, that's okay. I will bring it over for you tomorrow morning because I'm usually up before eight. I'll bring it over. I'm like, you don't got to do that. I get up. I look outside.

he's dumping loads. He's literally like making the brakes through the traffic across the street. Morning commute traffic in front of our house. And he's weaving through that with wheelbarrows of soil onto my front yard because he wants to give it to me. How do you dream that up? Right. And they only moved in a couple years ago. I don't know them that well.

We've had cross street conversations. So yeah, it's like wheelbarrows of soil landing on my driveway. Like, you can't make this stuff up. It's just like, do I feel like I have a kind neighbor? Oh my goodness. Unbelievable. What do acts, just finally, what do acts like that and the things that you hear about in your tiny little curtained trailer?

I mean, what do they tell you about human nature? To your point, we live in this world now where, apparently it's very polarized. Apparently we're at each other's throats. Apparently we are, we're not being like human beings. We're being swayed by technology and influenced by the algorithm. And yet something is happening. What do you learn coming out of those experiences?

Yeah, I think we're, uh, we may not have the whole story yet. Because, and these are, these are small acts. They're incidental. The person who, who receives the story doesn't even. remember that it, that it would have been important. They just did it. But for the neighbor, it was a big deal. And they remember it years later.

So I think it's telling us that there's more good in the world than, than we think. And I'm, you know, this is, this is small scale, very local stuff. But one story at a time, I'm inviting people to, to think differently about what it, what we're actually living in, right? The kindness that is all around us and we're just filling that gap. The amazing part about a block party is even if you don't step into the chatterbox, everyone slowly starts saying, oh, I got a great neighbor and they start telling stories at the event. Even though they're like, oh, I'm not going to step in.

But, hey, so we listen. Our little team of three, four people literally heard tons of great neighbor stories. and then some of them were in the chatterbox, right? So I'm like, oh, that's pretty cool. I like that. I think that's a good kind of block party to go to. You should drag the chatterbox across this country. Oh, I would love to.

I'm telling you, that is a dream. That would take a few, that would take a bit of a budget and whatever. But yeah, if we're game, I'll be there. I think it's a brilliant idea. I'm really glad to talk to about it. David, thank you very much. Thank you. David Belser is an associate professor of communications and media at Canadian Mennonet University. He is the owner of the chatterbox. He was in our Winnipeg studio.

You've been listening to the current podcast. My name is Matt Galloway. Thanks for listening. I'll talk to you soon. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca.ca slash podcasts.