Hal Niedzviecki built the heartbeat of North America’s zine movement — then lost it all for defending free expression.

In the mid-90s, his magazine Broken Pencil championed DIY art, radical self-expression, and underground culture. For nearly 30 years, it gave a voice to Canada’s creative outsiders. But in 2017, Hal published a short editorial questioning the new rules around “cultural appropriation,” and within hours, he was blacklisted by the literary establishment. Then came October 7th, 2023. When he defended Israel’s right to exist, he was labeled a “Zionist” and told to surrender his magazine to activists. Instead, he shut it down.

In this conversation, Hal reflects on founding Broken Pencil and the early zine scene that shaped him, the personal and professional fallout from his 2017 cancellation, and what it’s like being a Jewish writer in Canada after October 7th. We talk about the collapse of tolerance in the arts, the new moral orthodoxies gripping Canadian institutions, and what it costs to stay true to free expression in an age of conformity.

About Hal Niedzviecki

Hal is the founder and former editor of Broken Pencil. He’s the author of multiple books, including The Lost Expert, and is currently writing his memoir for Cormorant Books. His Substack, Hal, I’m Special, offers deeper reflections on writing, culture, and identity, and he recently wrote a deep dive, long form essay describing his full story in the Australian publication, Quillette.

Hal’s Links

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Cormorant Press

Quillette Essay

Bad Canadians Website and Zines

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Opening Song: Aria 51 by MicroBongo Soundsystem, used with permission.

STEPHEN R. BOWN is one of Canada’s leading writers of non-fiction, and the winner of the 2024 Governor General’s Award for Popular History (the Pierre Berton Award). His books The Company and Dominion stand among the most vivid retellings of Canada’s origins; stories that remind us how ambition, ingenuity, and brutality often shared the same frontier.

In this conversation, we use The Company and Dominion as a foundation to explore the wider art of writing popular history: how to bring the past to life without bending it to modern sensibilities, and how to tell stories of exploration, commerce, and empire in a way that lets readers see themselves reflected in those who came before.

Stephen speaks candidly about the genre itself, the challenge of recapturing nuance in an era that demands moral certainty, and the need to return to a middle ground that acknowledges the good, the bad, and the ugly of history. It’s a conversation about balance, complexity, and how the ambitions and contradictions of the past still echo in who we are today.

STEPHEN R. BOWN is a popular historian and author of 12 works of literary non-fiction. His books have been published throughout English-speaking territories and have been translated into nine different languages; he has also written more than 20 feature magazine articles highlighting lesser-known characters and events in Canadian history. He strives to make the past accessible, meaningful, and entertaining by applying a narrative and immersive style to his writing, which blends story-telling with factual depth.

Stephen R. Bown’s Website

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Opening Song: Aria 51 by MicroBongo Soundsystem, used with permission.

What hidden costs does inflation place on families, savers, and communities?

On Bad Canadians, Jared Michael sits down with Seb Bunney, Bitcoin author and educator, to unpack the ideas behind his book The Hidden Cost of Money. Together they explore how today’s debt-based monetary policy quietly shapes our lives — driving up the cost of housing, reshaping family choices, and distorting the incentives that ripple through society.

Seb makes the case for a different kind of world: one where saving is rewarded, long-term thinking is encouraged, and innovation thrives. At the center is Bitcoin, a fixed-supply asset designed to resist debasement and offer an alternative to the inflationary cycle we’ve come to accept as normal. Far from just another tech fad, Seb argues Bitcoin is a tool for human thriving — a foundation for stronger families, healthier communities, and real progress.

If you’ve heard about Bitcoin but never taken a deeper look, this conversation is a great place to start — an accessible way to understand the problem it was designed to solve.

Seb Bunney is the author of two books on Bitcoin, The Hidden Cost of Money and B is for Bitcoin. He is also the co-founder of Looking Glass Education, an educational hub for all things Bitcoin.

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Opening Song: Aria 51 by MicroBongo Soundsystem, used with permission.

Amy Hamm is a Canadian nurse, National Post columnist, and co-founder of CaWsbar, a women’s sex-based rights organization.

In this episode, she recounts her years-long battle with the BC College of Nurses and Midwives, which disciplined her for publicly affirming that biological sex is real. What began as personal expression escalated into a high-stakes test of whether Canadian institutions can silence dissent on a matter most citizens currently accept as common sense.

Our conversation traces how regulators, the media, and the majority of Canadian institutions frame this disagreement as hate speech and professional misconduct, and why that matters for women’s spaces, health care, and the future of open debate in Canada. Along the way, Amy’s story reveals how professional and cultural authority can be wielded to punish rather than persuade.

If you care about free expression, the boundaries of institutional power, and Canada’s ability to hold civil disagreement, this episode is essential listening.

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Opening Song: Aria 51 by MicroBongo Soundsystem, used with permission.

What happens when knowledge is treated as sacred dogma?

On Bad Canadians, Jared Michael sits down with internationally renowned theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss, editor of the new anthology The War on Science, to explore why ideas must remain open to challenge. The book brings together voices from physics, biology, mathematics, philosophy, and the humanities. Across these fields, Krauss argues that progress depends on questioning everything, even when it is uncomfortable.

Midway through, the discussion drifts into possible disagreement, but in the best sense. Rather than divide, it becomes a respectful exchange that shows how ideas can be tested without hostility. Civil exchanges of this kind remain as necessary as ever in today’s culture.

About Lawrence Krauss

Lawrence Krauss is one of the most celebrated theoretical physicists and public intellectuals in the world. He earned his Ph.D. from MIT, was a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows, and later served on the faculties of Yale and Case Western Reserve University. He founded Arizona State University’s Origins Project and today serves as President of the Origins Project Foundation. He is also Chair of the Board of the Free Speech Union of Canada. Krauss is the author of bestsellers such as The Physics of Star Trek and A Universe from Nothing, and has received numerous awards including the Richard Dawkins Award. His latest book, The War on Science (2025), gathers 39 leading voices to defend free inquiry against dogma.

Learn more about Dr. Krauss and his new book The War on Science here:

https://lawrencemkrauss.com/

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Opening Song: Aria 51 by MicroBongo Soundsystem, used with permission.

Eva Kurilova is a Canadian writer and thoughtful critic of today’s gender ideology.

In this episode, she explores how the word “queer” is often misunderstood as a sexual orientation, when in fact it represents a broader ideological identity—one rooted in opposition to normativity and permanence in grievance. We dig into how this framework has helped justify the medicalization of vulnerable children, particularly through gender-affirming care, even as countries like the UK, the United States, and Sweden move toward far more cautious, evidence-based policies.

We also highlight Canada’s silence—and how our media and institutions have largely abandoned this conversation, leaving the public unaware that the global conversation has already moved on.

If you’re worried about the erosion of biological reality, the medicalization of children, and the consequences of turning identity into ideology, this conversation is essential listening.

Find Eva on X:

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https://substack.com/@evakurilova

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Opening Song: Aria 51 by MicroBongo Soundsystem, used with permission.

In this solo minisode, host Jared Michael takes a step back to reflect on the deeper mission behind Bad Canadians.

Drawing on the work of social psychologist Jonathan Haidt and the metaphor of the “rider and the elephant,” Jared explores why rational arguments so often fail—and how emotional connection, humility, and lived experience can move us more than facts ever could.

This is a short reflection on tribalism, certainty, and the question we might all need to ask more often:

Am I the hater?

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Lisa Bildy is the Executive Director of the newly launched Free Speech Union of Canada—a non-partisan organization defending freedom of expression in an era where that principle is increasingly under pressure. Prior to this, she spent years at the forefront of Canada’s free speech battles—helping overturn the Law Society of Ontario’s mandatory DEI pledge and representing clients like Amy Hamm and Dr. Gill in some of the country’s most high-profile civil liberties cases.

In this conversation, Lisa shares how she re-entered the legal profession after homeschooling her children, only to find a climate of growing ideological conformity. We discuss what led her to challenge institutional orthodoxy, the roots of the new Free Speech Union of Canada, and why free expression is a master principle worth protecting—even (and especially) when it’s unpopular.

If you’re concerned about the shrinking space for dissent and debate in Canadian life, this is a conversation worth hearing.

Join the Free Speech Union of Canada:

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Corrections: In the intro, I accidentally referred to Dr. Gill as a lawyer. Dr. Gill is a physician. My apologies for the error.

Lisa Bildy mentions there are five Free Speech Union chapters worldwide, but there is actually six.