Some people become famous because they find a sound. Others become unforgettable because they find the truth. In this episode of Chatter That Matters, I sit down with Bif Naked for a candid conversation captured by one line: "I am who I am."

Born in New Delhi, adopted, and raised across borders, Bif shares what it means to grow up feeling different, and the moment her story came full circle when she met her birth mother at 21. From there, we get into the forces that shaped her voice, punk, poetry, feminism, and the decision to live out loud, even when it comes with a cost.

Bif also opens up about being diagnosed with breast cancer at 36, then facing a stroke two years later, and how those chapters rewired her priorities and deepened her purpose, including the peer support work that continues to ground her.

We talk about her philosophy of "save the rage for the stage," and we step into her current chapter: Champion, her first studio album in over a decade, unpacking the song Snowblind and why the lyrics matter now more than any time in our history, and her documentary BIF NAKED, which made her realize this story is still being written.

To find out more about Bif Naked: https://www.bifnaked.com

To find out more about First Up with RBC X Music: https://www.rbc.com/dms/enterprise/music/first-up.html

What happened to the truth? I find myself fixated on a troubling realization. It feels remarkably easy to win over an audience with a slogan, a promise without substance, or blatant mistruths, even when those are wildly disconnected from the audience's reality. And even more surprisingly, they are not only readily accepted but also often repeated and shared.

I wanted to understand why. Not from a political or media lens, but from a human one. What is it about human nature that makes us so vulnerable?

That question led me to two conversations on Chatter That Matters. What ties them together is a sobering conclusion. Our minds have not fundamentally changed, but the tools used to target them have. Unless we become more intentional about how we think as parents, citizens and individuals navigating the uncertainties and complexities of life, it will remain dangerously easy to sell comforting narratives that drift far from reality.

Gordon Pennycook, a highly regarded cognitive scientist whose journey from small-town Saskatchewan to a renowned thought leader at Cornell University gives him a rare lens on how ordinary people reason in extraordinary information environments. Gordon studies why we are so trusting, why misinformation spreads faster than truth, and why most of us are not irrational or malicious, just distracted. His research shows that people do not fail because they cannot think, but because the systems around them reward speed, emotion, and certainty over reflection and accuracy.

We discuss why falsehood often outperforms truth online, how social platforms exploit attention rather than intention, why news has become opinionated, and why there is still hope.

I then bring in Milos Stojadinovic, a cybersecurity and threat expert at RBC, who thinks like attackers, so the rest of us do not have to.

Milos explains how cybercrime has become organized, global, and industrialized, from ransomware-as-a-service to AI-powered scams and nation-state involvement. His insight makes one thing clear. Trust is still our greatest human strength, but it has also become the easiest point of entry for those who want to exploit it.

Robyne was a high school dropout who believed she wasn't worth saving.

Then her car plunged through the ice, trapping her 20 feet underwater and changing everything. This is the story of how choosing hope became a strategy for survival and healing.

I sit down with Dr. Robyne Hanley-Dafoe, bestselling author and one of the most trusted voices on resilience. As a teenager, Robyne battled addiction, dropped out of school, and was hospitalized in an adult psychiatric ward. At 16, a near-fatal accident gave her a second chance she refused to waste.

This is not a glossy comeback story. It is an honest conversation about becoming. Robyn shares why pain does not have to make sense to be real, why recovery is never linear, how stress can be worked with rather than feared, and what everyday resilience actually looks like.

This episode is about hope, not as a feeling, but as a practice, and choosing to show up again when life feels overwhelming.

To find out more:

Discover – Pre-Order 'I Hope So: How to Choose Hope Even When It's Hard'
Hope isn't just a feeling – it's the key to rewiring your brain for resiliency and well-being, even in the toughest times.

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