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Paulina is on the struggle bus because she needs a new babysitter! Plus, we have a tiebreaker in The Showdown!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Isaac and Caleb are back in the bar for the final outing in their 2025 Halloween Spectacular! There's trouble in the speakeasy as Caleb is too drunk to tend bar, and the Halloween patrons are getting a bit out of hand. Will watching and discussing Isaac's Halloween pick ease their spirits? And will anyone help them with these out of control customers?! Join your hosts and find out, as they discuss the first episode of Mona the Vampire!   This episode was recorded on Sept. 7th, 2025 (imagine it's Halloween!)   Email the show at thenoviceelitists@gmail.com  

Trevor reconnects with his former professor, Dr. Rupp Carriveau from the University of Windsor, to explore how Southern Ontario's agriculture and energy sectors intersect. From powering greenhouses and managing massive industrial demand to reimagining aging wind farms and testing “atomic agriculture,” together they unpack how innovation, AI, and new tech are reshaping Canada's clean energy future. Listen to episode 164 of thinkenery.    Related links Dr. Rupp Carriveau on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rupp-carriveau-b4273823/ Environmental Energy Institute: https://www.environmentalenergyinstitute.com/ Turbulence and Energy Lab: http://www.turbulenceandenergylab.org/ Offshore Energy and Storage Society: https://www.osessociety.com/    Trevor Freeman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevor-freeman-p-eng-8b612114    Hydro Ottawa: https://hydroottawa.com/en      To subscribe using Apple Podcasts:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thinkenergy/id1465129405   To subscribe using Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7wFz7rdR8Gq3f2WOafjxpl   To subscribe on Libsyn: http://thinkenergy.libsyn.com/ --- Subscribe so you don't miss a video: https://www.youtube.com/user/hydroottawalimited   Follow along on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hydroottawa   Stay in the know on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HydroOttawa   Keep up with the posts on X: https://twitter.com/thinkenergypod --- Transcript: Trevor Freeman  00:07 Welcome to thinkenergy, a podcast that dives into the fast, changing world of energy through conversations with industry leaders, innovators and people on the front lines of the energy transition. Join me, Trevor Freeman, as I explore the traditional, unconventional and up and coming facets of the energy industry. If you have any thoughts, feedback or ideas for topics we should cover, please reach out to us at think energy at hydro ottawa.com, hi everyone, and welcome back. Today's episode brings us back to a few elements of my own personal history. Now you'll have to bear with me for a minute or two while I dive into my past in order to properly set up today's conversation, I grew up in southwestern Ontario, in and just outside the border town of Windsor, Ontario. Now for those of you not familiar with this area, Windsor and its surroundings are the most southern part of Canada. It might surprise you to know that Windsor is at the same latitude as Northern California and Rome, Italy. You can imagine that after growing up in Windsor and then living in various places around the globe, when I finally settled down here in Ottawa, adjusting to the more stereotypical Canadian winters of this northern capital, took a little bit of getting used to Windsor is so far south when you cross the border to its neighboring American city, Detroit, Michigan, you actually travel north. Have a look at a map if this seems to defy logic, but I promise you, it's true. This is the area that I grew up in. It's also where I went to school and got my engineering degree. More on that in a minute. Now, if you've ever driven down to the southwestern end of the 401 going past London and Chatham, you will notice two things. First, it is flat, very flat. You will not see a meaningful Hill anywhere in sight. I often joke with people that I used to toboggan when we did get any meaningful snow off of highway overpasses, because that was the only hill we could find. I was only partly joking, and I have indeed tobogganed off of said overpasses in my young and foolish days. But that is a story for another time. That brings us to the second thing you'll see, which is wind turbines. A lot of wind turbines. They are seemingly everywhere, stretching as far as you can see, southwestern Ontario is a hotbed of wind energy generation. Finally, a hint at why I'm going on about this part of the province on an energy podcast. But before we get into it, there's one other thing to touch on, and that is the fact that this area is also home to a large number of greenhouses growing produce year-round, as well as manufacturing. Windsor and its surrounding area is the automotive capital of Canada, with a number of plants from major car companies, as well as a supporting ecosystem of parts manufacturers. Incidentally, that's where I started my career, working as an environmental engineer for one of the automakers, and many members of my family have also worked or still work in that industry. The reason I bring up greenhouses in the auto industry is because they have some very high energy demand profiles, and that is how we get for me going on nostalgically about the area I grew up in, to our conversation today, I recently caught up with one of my engineering professors, Dr Rupp Carriveau, about the work that he and his colleagues have been doing that ties all of this together. And I thought it would be great to have him on the show to talk about that. Dr. Carriveau is the director of the Environmental Energy Institute and co-director of the Turbulence and Energy Lab and the CO lead of AGUwin at the University of Windsor. Back in the day, he was my fluid dynamics professor. But today, he balances his teaching duties with research into energy systems futures and advanced agricultural systems. He is a founder of the offshore energy and storage society, a recipient of the University Scholar Award, and has been named to Canada's clean 50 for his contributions to clean capitalism. Dr Rupp Carriveau, welcome to the show.   Dr Rupp Carriveau  03:59 Trevor, great to be here. Thanks.   Trevor Freeman  04:01 Yeah. So, Rupp, the last time we chatted, well, so you and I chatted a couple weeks ago, but before that, the last time that you and I interacted, I was in third year university. You were my fluid dynamics Prof. So, in addition to your professorial duties, you're now the director of the environmental Energy Institute at the University of Windsor. So, there's two questions around that. First off, how did you end up going from my fluid dynamics prof a number of years ago, probably close to 20 years ago now, to running this institute? And tell us a little bit about what the Institute does.   Dr Rupp Carriveau  04:40 Sure. Though. So, thanks. Yeah, and very memorable Trevor, because I, you know, I remember you well. And, yeah, that was, that was a very nice class that we had. I remember, well, I remember your colleagues too.   Trevor Freeman  04:54 If there's one thing I do, well, it's, it's be memorable, and you can take that however you want.   Dr Rupp Carriveau  04:58 That is, that is. Something to be said for that. Yeah, thanks for that question. So I should point out that in addition to EEI, I am a co-director in the Turbulence and Energy Lab, which is really where all of the EEI initiatives have started from, that's a lab that I co supervise with Dr David Ting in mechanical engineering and the nuts and bolts, the very serious engineering side of things, comes out of the Turbulence and Energy Lab. EEI kind of came about to handle topics that were, frankly speaking, less interesting to Dr Ting. So, things that push more, a little bit more into policy wider systems looks at things as opposed to, you know, pure thermodynamics and energy efficiency type pursuits, which underpin a lot of the EEI policy pieces, but are sort of beyond the scope of what turbulence and energy lab does. So those two things, and then more recently, actually, I'm co lead on, AGUwin, which is like a center of excellence, emerging Center of Excellence at the University of Windsor. So, Agriculture U Windsor is a group of about 40 professors that do work in agriculture in some shape or form. And we've, we've, we've taken to organizing that movement in seeking sort of group funding proposals, developing curriculum and organized sort of platforms to help industry in agriculture. And it's, it's really taking off, which I'm really excited about my extremely hard-working colleagues and CO lead, Isabel Barrett-Ng, she in particular, has been really driving a lot of really cool initiatives ahead and all the people that work with us. So, yeah, lots, lots happening at the University since I saw you last. But you know, time has a way of helping with that, people find ways to find efficiencies and get to do and build on, build on, hopefully incremental progress.   Trevor Freeman  07:08 Yeah, very cool. And you're teasing a few of the areas our conversation is going to go today, that sort of intersection between agriculture and obviously, this is an energy podcast, and so how does agriculture and the way we're moving in with agriculture impacts energy and vice versa. So, we're definitely going to get to that in a minute, I think, for our listeners that are not familiar with Southern Ontario, and I haven't talked about Southern Ontario on the podcast a lot, but people that know me know I will gladly talk about what goes on in the very southern part of our country. It's where I grew up. Help us paint a picture of what Southern Ontario is like. So, in the context of energy, what makes this area of Ontario unique?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  07:50 Well, it's that's a really good question, and I'm glad you phrased it that way, because I think it gets taken for granted. And also, folks, folks don't know energy isn't in the headlines every day, and if it is, it's not a headline that everybody pays attention to. But the southwestern Ontario region, if you take the 401 west of London, you'll start to see a high concentration of wind. So, there's a significant wind corridor in the region, and that's because it's very flat, so the whole area used to be a lake bed, and so we have very fertile agricultural lands as a result of that. And we also have very few obstacles to fetch, which is a huge aspect of how wind carries over the lakes, and is, you know, not, not obstructed. And so it's like you have offshore resources onshore, which is completely ideal. Also, we have, as it may be, we have massive natural gas resources in the area, in sort of the subterranean space of Devonian reefs for natural gas storage. We have natural gas generation facilities down around the Windsor area that help with provincial peaking and there is some solar in the region, because it is the Leamington Kingsville area is referred to as the sun parlor of Ontario. And as a result, we have a lot of under glass agriculture there, which benefits, obviously, directly from solar resources. And then we have solar photovoltaic that takes advantage of that sun as well. So there's, there's a lot happening here energy wise.   Trevor Freeman  09:38 Yeah, and there's a lot on the demand side of things as well. So, you mentioned the greenhouses, which are an up and coming, you know, source of demand draws on our grid. There's also a big manufacturing base. Talk a little bit about the manufacturing base in the area. Yeah, yeah. And that's that gets into my next question is talking about some of the specific, unique energy needs of greenhouses. I think on the manufacturing side, you know, you mentioned the auto industry and the parts industry that supports it, you're seeing more. There's a battery plant being built now I think that, I think people have a sense of that, but greenhouses are this thing that I think a lot of folks don't think about. So, you talked about the magnitude of the load, the lighting side of things. What else is this like, a 24/7 load? Is this sector growing like? Tell us a little bit about, you know where things are going with greenhouses?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  09:53 Yeah, thanks. So, yeah, I was, I was thinking about generation and, yeah, demand is. Significant we have. You know, Windsor has laid claim to Canada's automotive capital, and while I'm biased, I'd like to think it still is. And so we have significant manufacturing around the automotive industry, either automotive OEMs or tier one parts makers that have significant draws. We have Stellantis. Every minivan comes out of this area has come out of this area. The electric Dodge Charger comes out of this area. But there are engine plants for Ford, but they're also now, you know, sort of next generation transport technologies. You've talking about battery manufacturing. So, there's an enormous LG consortium with Stellantis here that's doing battery manufacturing. And so, these are huge loads that that add to existing and growing loads in the greenhouse space, which, again, I'll just mention it now, is something that isn't well understood. And we did a, we did a study for the province a couple years, three, four years ago. Now, I think grid Innovation Fund project that looked at sort of really getting into granular detailing of the loads that come with a lit greenhouse. A lot of people don't appreciate that a lit greenhouse, when switched on, depending on the lighting technology, depending on how it's used, can be like a 50-megawatt load, which is a significant load. And just imagine that's one so they can come on quickly, and they are non-trivial, significant loads. And so, this is something that we looked at trying to develop distributed energy resource sort of solutions for, because, simply speaking, you can't put up a new transmission line overnight, and we don't want to economically constrain the growth of the sector. Sure, yeah. I mean, it's, it's not a simple thing to characterize, because what you can take away from this is that these greenhouse developers are business dynamos, and frankly speaking, many of them do very well, because they're very good at what they do, and with the resources they have, they can largely do what they want. And if, if the infrastructure isn't there, they will build it so. So, you'll have folks that are operating off the grid, essentially not off the gas grid, of course, but they're using gas for cogeneration purposes, to produce heat for their crops, but also the electricity for their lights. So that is one aspect of it that further complicates how to figure out what these loads on the grid will be. But for the most part, of course, the grid provides quite clean and quite affordable electricity in the province, and you know where they can they want to be able to connect to the grid. Now, lights are designed to extend the growing day and extend the growing season as well. So, in terms of when they're switched on and how they're switched on, that is highly variable, and that is also something that is, I would say, in development, folks are looking at different ways to use intermittent lighting to be conscious of when peaking happens. It is dispatchable in a way, in that some growers are able to turn their lights off to avoid, you know, peaking charges. But again, there's a lot to manage. And, and it's, it's very complicated, both on the grid side and, and for the greenhouse grower.   Trevor Freeman  14:38 Yeah, so you mentioned natural gas for cogen for heating as well. So, as we look to decarbonize all different aspects of the sector, we talk often on the show of what are the specific areas where decarbonization might be challenging. Is, is greenhouses one of those areas? And, and what are the options available for heating these spaces? Like, is it realistic to think that there's an electric solution here, or what? What's happening in that sector related to decarbonization?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  15:10 Again, you've hit on a real sort of hot button issue for the for the sector, the trouble with natural gas is that it's spectacular. Oh, it's storable. It's dispatchable. It's a triple threat for greenhouses in the best way possible, because you can make your heat, you can make your electricity, and the plants crave CO2, and that comes out of the flue gas on the other side of the combustion reaction. So, you know, when you swing in there and you say, Oh, I've got this great new solution. It's called hydrogen. We'll burn hydrogen and we won't have these nasty CO2 release. And they're like, Okay, who's going to replace my CO2? So, it's a difficult fuel to displace. Now, admittedly, people understand that, you know, that's where we really need to go. And is, is electric? You know, electrification the path. So, people talk about, people talk about heat pumps, people talk about electric boilers. And then, as I mentioned, people talked about, you know, we've, we've also looked at the idea of blending hydrogen into a natural gas feed for existing infrastructure to, you know, because, because not all of the CO2, that is, you know, released is, is taken down by the plants. And so could you get to a magic blend where it's just the amount of CO2 that you need is what goes into the other side, and then there's nothing left after the plants take what they need. So, there's a lot of things that are being looked at. It is again, a challenging space to operate in, because it's highly competitive. Getting really granular. Data is very sensitive, because this, this, this is a, you know, it's a game of margins, and it's in its high stakes production. So to get in there and sort of be in the way is, is difficult. So, this work is being done. We're participating in a lot of this work. We just finished a study for the province, a Hydrogen Innovation Fund study on looking at the integration of hydrogen into the greenhouse space. And it was, it was pretty revelatory for us.   Trevor Freeman  17:36 So is the exhaust from burning natural gas on site. Does that get recycled through the greenhouse and therefore captured to some degree? Do we know how much you kind of hinted at finding out that sweet spot? Do we know how much of that gets captured?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  17:53 Yeah, so the short answer is yes. So, they have the cogen engines have scrubbers on them, and these, these machines are spectacularly capable of being tuned the combustion and the professionals that operate them at the greenhouse facilities are artists, and that they can get the sort of combustion profile a certain way, and so that that flue gas will go into the greenhouse, but to know exactly how much is being taken down, that is an area of active research, and we don't, we don't know that answer yet. There are people that are looking at it, and you can imagine it's kind of a provocative number for the sector. So, they're being very careful about how they do it.   Trevor Freeman  18:36  I'm sure, I'm sure. Okay, let's, let's park that just for a minute here, and jump back to something you mentioned earlier. You talked about one how flat Southern Ontario is, and it took me leaving, leaving the county before I really knew what skiing and tobogganing and everything else was. So, there's a lot of wind power generation. And for anyone listening, yeah, as rip mentioned, if you ever drive down the 401 going towards Windsor, you'll just start to see these massive wind turbines kind of everywhere you look. So, help us understand how these turbines, you know, you look out over a field and you see, you know, 2030, of them more in your line of sight. How do they connect to our provincial grid? How do the contracts work? Like, who gets that power? Give us a little bit of a sense of how that works.   Dr Rupp Carriveau  19:28 For sure. Yeah, well, so what most people don't realize, and again, it's not something that's talked about, and if it is, I don't know people are necessarily paying attention to it, but, but you know the comment I'll get from relatives we talked about Thanksgiving. So, you know people, because they know I'm a wind person, they'll be like, 'Hey, I was driving down the road and I saw they weren't spinning with, what's going on? Are they broken or what?' Well, you know, because we, we've got some pro wind and some non pro wind folks in the in the family, so it's an exciting time for me. But you know, and I mentioned that the greenhouses I'm working with are often starved for utility supply. And they said, well, how can that be? The turbines are right there. They're sharing the same space, right? And most people don't realize that. Really, I would say 95% of the wind in our corridor is put on a transmission line and sent up to, effectively, to Toronto, to be distributed throughout the province, which is great, but it's not really a local asset. And that was sort of what inspired us when we saw these two sorts of juxtaposed. We thought maybe you could turn these assets into something that acted as really a new type of distributed energy resource, and that you've got a transmission connected asset that's currently under contract, but if that contract could be modified, then the fiscal connections could potentially be modified so you could have local distribution, let's say at a time of maybe at a time of transmission curtailment, maybe under different conditions. So again, looking into the physical plausibility of it was part of our study, and then doing some sort of economic investigation of how that would work, having a nearly 20-year-old asset all of a sudden springing into a new role in a new life, where it continues to perform transmission duties for the province at large, but it also serves local needs in the production, let's say, of hydrogen through an electrolyzer, or just plain electrons turning lights on. That is something that isn't possible yet. Regulatory reasons exist for that that would require some, some significant changes. But it was a really interesting exercise to go through to investigate how that could happen.   Trevor Freeman  22:08 Yeah, so there's just trying to understand how this work. There's someone who owns these turbines. Some conglomerate somewhere, you know, Canadian, not Canadian, who knows. They contract with the Independent Electricity System Operator who operates the grid in the province. And they basically say, yeah, well, look, we'll provide you with X amount of power on some contract, and when ISO needs it, they call on it. How long do those contracts last? Is that a 10-year contract? A 20-year contract?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  22:35 So, they are in Ontario. The ones that I'm familiar with for 20 years. So it's possible there are others. I know. I have a there's a farm that operates in PEI that has a nice 30 year PPA. So the longer you can get, the better. Yeah, and these, these power purchase agreements are, are wonderful for developers, because they're known entities, doing the math on your finances is really straightforward with these contracts. And frankly speaking, when you had a sector that needed to be brought up from nothing, they were very necessary. They were very necessary. And but those contracts, and they're and they're locked down, as much as we try to, you know, persuade the province to get crazy, to amuse us with these new, newfangled ways of of connecting to people, commerce wise, through energy, they are not interested so far, at least in and they're like, let's finish these out, and then we can talk your crazy ideas, you know, and so, but that's we're getting glare, because I would say many, many, many farms in the province will be coming up on the sun setting end of Their power purchase agreements in the coming five, six years.   Trevor Freeman  24:03 Yeah, yeah. Which brings me to my next point, of the assets themselves, the actual physical turbine, I assume last longer than 20 years. You're going to build one of these things. You know, 20 years is not its end of life. So what are the options available today? You talked about regulatory barriers. We talk about regulatory barriers on this show often, what are, what are the options today for a wind farm that is at its end of contract? Does it look at re contracting? Can it kind of direct source to someone else? Like, what are the options available for an owner?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  24:40 Yeah, well, to me, it's an exciting time, because it could be work for us. We get excited about this. I think it could be a source of anxiety for owners, because there's nothing better than that long term contract. So many of them will try to apply for things like a medium, a new medium term length contract from the. Province, like an MT two, I think they're called. There are other contract types that are possible, but there'll be, it'll be a highly competitive landscape for those, and the in the province won't be able to give everyone one of these contracts. So some of these, some of these operators, will likely have to look at other options which may be going into the spot market, potentially, you know, getting into the capacity game by getting a battery on site and firming up their ability to provide power when necessary or provide capacity. And then there's a there isn't a relatively recent regulatory development in the around the middle of July, the province said, you know, if you're a non emitting generator and you're not under contract, you could provide virtual power someone else who might need it, if they're looking if they're a class, a customer that's trying to avoid peak charges. You know, rather than that class a customer buys a battery behind the meter and physically reduce their peaks. They could potentially virtually reduce their peaks by setting up a virtual power purchase agreement with another supplier. So these, these off contract spinning assets could have an opportunity to get into this game of peak relief. Which, which could be very lucrative. Because, based on last year's provincial global adjustment charges at large, you're looking at being paid something on the order of about $72,000 a megawatt hour for the, for the for the for the megawatt hours in question, which, which, of course, you know, try to get as many as you can. .   Trevor Freeman  26:31 Yeah. So there's a couple of things there. Bear with me while I connect a few dots for our listeners. So on different shows, we talk about different things. Global adjustment is one of them. And we've been talking here about these long term contracts. Global adjustment, as you might remember from previous conversations, is one of those mechanisms that bridges the gap between the spot market price, you know, the actual commodity cost of electricity that's out there, and some of the built-in cost to run the system, which includes these long term contracts. So there's a there's a fixed cost to run the system, global adjustment helps bridge that gap. The next concept here that is important to remember is this class, a strategy where the largest the largest customers, electricity customers in the province, have the opportunity to adjust how they are build global adjustment based on their contribution to the most intensive demand peaks in the province over the course of a year. So during a really high demand period, when everybody needs electricity, if they can reduce their demand, there's significant savings. And so what you're saying is there's this new this new ability for kind of a virtual connection, where, if I'm a big facility that has a high demand, and I contract with a generator, like a wind turbine that's not in contract anymore, I can say, hey, it's a peak time now I need to use some of your capacity to offset, you know, some of my demand, and there's those significant savings there. So you're absolutely right. That's a new thing in the province. We haven't had that ability up until just recently. So super fascinating, and that kind of connects our two topics today, that the large demand facilities in southern Ontario and these these generators that are potentially nearing the end of their contract and looking for what else might happen. So are you guys navigating that conversation between the greenhouses or the manufacturers and the generators?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  28:49 I'm so glad you asked. And here comes, here comes a shameless plug. Yeah? So yes. So there's a spin off company from the turbulence and Energy Lab, and it's called jailbreak labs. And jailbreak labs really represents sort of the space that is more commercial than research, but it also was sort of spurned, spurred from research. So jailbreak Labs has developed a registry, and we've been providing some webinars as well. So this, again, this is a company that that is essentially run by students, that this registry allows generators and consumers to ultimately find each other so that, so that these kinds of connections can be made. Because, as you may well imagine, there is no guarantee that the wind will be blowing at the time that you need it so, so and your load may be such that you need a different type of generation profile. So it needs to be profiling on the generation side. There needs to be profiling on the customer side. Yeah, and, you know, we've been doing this on our own for years. It was the time was right for us to sort of step in and say, because we were following this, we were real fanboys of this, of this reg, even before it came into play. And we kept bugging, you know, OEB for meetings and ISO and they, begrudgingly, to their credit, would chat with us about it, and then the next thing we know, it's announced that it's that it's happening. Was very exciting. So, so, yes, so we're really interested in seeing this happen, because it seems like such a unique, we're thrilled, because we're always interested in this sort of Second Life for assets that already have been depreciated and they're clean energy assets. Let's get everything we can out of them and to have this dynamic opportunity for them, and that will help Class A customers too hard for us to ignore.   Trevor Freeman  30:56 And you mentioned the last time we chatted about building a tool that helps evaluate and kind of injecting a little bit of AI decision making into this. Talk to us about that tool a little bit.   Dr Rupp Carriveau  31:08 Yeah. So we have a, we have a tool called quantract which is basically playing on the idea of quantifying all the risk and opportunity in in a contract. So it's really a contract visualization tool. Another way to think of it as a real time Net Present Value tool that allows renewable energy stakeholders to really, evaluate the value of their investment by not only understanding the physical life left in an asset. Let's say that a wind farm that's, you know, at 20 years and it looks like we may need to replace some blades. Do we just walk away and say, look at it. We had a good run contracts over, you know, we made some money. Let's sell the assets as they are. Or do we say, you know, I'm looking into this vppa game, and we could do okay here, but I'm not exactly sure how that's going to work and when. And so this, this tool that we've developed, will do things like will first of all identify all risk factors, and risk includes opportunities and then we'll profile them, and then builds them into basically what is more or less a glorified discounted cash flow model. So it is a way of measuring the potential value of investment in the AI space. I mean, the AI piece of it is that we have developed agents that will actually identify other things that are less, less sort of noticeable to people. In fact, this regulatory change is one of the things that our AI agents would have been looking for. Okay, now it pre it predated our tool going online, so we didn't see it, but it's the kind of thing that we'd be looking for. So the agents look for news, they look for changes online, and then, and then what happens is, they got brought, they get brought into a profiler. The profiler then determines the probability of or makes an estimate of the probability that this risk will occur. IE, a regulatory change will happen. IE, battery plant will come to town at a certain time. IE, a Costco facility will come in. Then we'll determine the potential magnitude. So there'll be uncertainty in the occurrence, there'll be uncertainty in the magnitude, and there'll be uncertainty in the timing. So we have basically statistical distribution functions for each one of those things, the likelihood of it happening, the magnitude and the timing. And so those are all modeled in so that people can push a button and, say, with this level of certainty your investment would be, would be worth this much. And that's dynamic. It's in real time. So it's changing constantly. It's being updated constantly. And so no so that that is something that goes in, and one of these virtual power purchase agreements would be one of the types of things that would go into this sort of investment timeline?   Trevor Freeman  34:22 Yeah, so it's giving these owners of these assets better data to make a decision about what comes next, as you said, and as we're talking I'm kind of doing the math here. If these are typically 20 year contracts, that's bringing us back to, you know, the mid, early, 2000s when we were really pushing to get off coal. So a lot of these assets probably started in and around that time. So you've probably got a whole bunch of customers, for lack of a better term, ready to start making decisions in the next you know, half a decade or so of what do I do with my. Sets. Have you seen this? Has it been used in the real world yet? Or is, are you getting close to that? Like, where are you at in development?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  35:07 Yeah, it actually started. It's funny. It started a little a little bit even before this craze. A couple years ago, we had, we had a manufacturer in our county come to us with, they had a great interest in, in just, just they were trying to be proactive about avoiding carbon tax and so, and they wanted to develop a new generation technology close to their facility. And so we used it there since that time. Yeah, so, so it was field proven that was a still a research contract, because they were the technology that they were interested in was, was, was not off the shelf. But since that time, we got a chance, because we represent Canada in the International Energy Agency, task 43 on wind energy digitalization. And so one of the mandates there was to develop a robust and transparent tools for investment decision support using digital twins. And we had a German partner in Fraunhofer Institute that had developed nice digital twin that would provide us remaining useful life values for things like blades, you know, towers, foundations, etc, and those are, again, those are all costs that just plug into our but they did. They didn't have a framework of how to work that into an investment decision other than, you know, you may have to replace this in three years. Okay, well, that's good to know, but we need the whole picture to make that decision, and that's sort of what we were trying to bring so the short answer is, yes, we're getting a lot of interest now, which is thrilling for us, but it's, I'll be honest with you, it's not, it's not simple, like, you know, I I've talked about it a bunch of times, so I'm pretty good at talking about it, but, but the doing it is still, it's computationally intensive and in the end, it's still an estimate. It's a, it's a, it's a calculated, quantified estimate, but it's an estimate. I think what we like about it is it's better than saying, Well, I have a hunch that it's going to go this way, but we could get beat by the hunches too. Yeah, totally, right. So, so, you know, I'm not trying to sell people things that, like I we have to be transparent about it. It's still probability.   Trevor Freeman  37:35 Well, I think if there's, if there's one thing that is very apparent, as we are well into this energy transition process that we talk about all the time here on the show. It's that the pace of change is is one of the things that's like no other time we are we are seeing things change, and that means both our demand is growing, our need to identify solutions is growing the way that we need to build out the grid and utilize the ers and utilize all these different solutions is growing at a rate that we haven't seen before, and therefore uncertainty goes up. And so to your point, yeah, we need help to make these decisions. We need better ways of doing it than just, as you say, having a hunch. That doesn't mean it's foolproof. It doesn't mean it's a guarantee.   Dr Rupp Carriveau  38:27 Nope, it is not a guarantee.   Trevor Freeman  38:30 Very cool. So Rupp, this is a great conversation. It's really fascinating to talk about to me, two areas of the energy sector that aren't really understood that well. I think the agriculture side of things, not a lot of people think about that as a major demand source. But also wind, I think we talk about solar a lot. It's a little bit more ubiquitous. People's neighbors have solar on their roofs. But wind is this unless you drive through Southern Ontario or other parts of the province where there's a lot of wind, you don't see it a lot. So it's fascinating to kind of help understand where these sectors are going. Is there anything else that the Institute is working on that that's worth chatting about here, or is what we've talked about, you know, kind of filling your day, in your students days?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  39:15 Well, actually there is something we haven't talked about the nuclear option. Literally, literally the nuclear literally the nuclear option. Yeah, so we've been really thrilled to have a growing relationship with Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, which is much closer to you than it is to me. And specifically in the connection of small modular reactors to meet these growing agricultural loads. So I have a science colleague at the University of Windsor, Dr drew Marquart, who was all hot and bothered about these s. Mrs. And he's like, we should drop one of these SMRs in Leamington. Then I this, this part I really enjoyed, because it's obviously so he came from Oak Ridge National Laboratories in the States, and he's and he's been at CNL as well. So he's fully indoctrinated into the nuclear space. But it just didn't occur to him that that would be provocative or controversial at all, that there wouldn't be some social he, you know, he's like, we can do the math. And I said, Oh yeah, yeah, we can do the math. But I'm like, I think you're missing something. I think you're missing something, right? So, but so it's, it's a super fascinating topic, and we're trying to connect, physically connect. So just before the weekend, I was in the turbulence and Energy Lab, and we were trying to commission what we believe is North America's first we're calling it a model synthetic, small modular reactor, synthetic being the key word, and that it's non nuclear, okay? And so it's non nuclear. What it what it is really and if I'm going to de glamorize it for a second, it's a mini steam thermal power plant, which doesn't embody every SMR design, but many SMRs are designed around this sort of where you've got a nuclear reaction that provides the heat, and then after that, it's kind of a steam thermal power plant. Our interest is in this physical little plant being connected to small electrolyzer, being connected to small thermal battery, being connected to a lab scale electric battery and being connected to a lab scale fully automated inlet, cucumber, small cucumber, greenhouse, mini cubes greenhouse, all this in our lab. The exciting thing around this is, you know, I I've said that I think nuclear technology needs to get out from behind the walls of nuclear facilities for people to start to appreciate it, and by that, to start doing that, you have to take the nuclear part out, which, to me, is not necessarily a deal breaker in terms of these dynamic issues that we want to solve. You know, because nukes have traditionally been said, Well, you know they're not that. You know, you can't just ramp them up and down, and that's true, you know, and small modular reactors are supposed to be considerably more nimble, but there's still lots of challenges that have to be solved in terms of having how it is an asset that is provides copious energy, but does so maybe not, not as dynamic, certainly, as a gas turbine. That how does it? How do you make it nimble, right? How do you partner it up with the right complimentary other grid assets to take advantage of what it does so well, which is crank out great amounts of heat and electricity so, so effortlessly, right? And so that's, that's sort of what we're trying to do, and connecting it to what we're calling atomic agriculture. I don't know that's a good name or not. I like it, but, but, but, yeah, so that that's another thing that we're that we're flirting with right now. We're working on. We've done a few. We've had a few contracts with Canadian Nuclear Laboratories to get us this far. We did everything computationally. We're continuing to do computational studies with them. They develop their own hybrid energy systems, optimizer software, HISO, which we use, and we are now trying to put it into sort of the hardware space. So again, just the idea that physically looking at the inertia of spinning up a turbine, the little gap, the little sort of steam powered turbine that we have in the lab that's run by an electric boiler. But our hope is to, ultimately, we're going to get the electric boiler to be mimicking the sort of reaction heating dynamics of a true reactor. So by, but through electrical control. So we'll imitate that by having sort of data from nuclear reactions, and then we'll sort of get an electrical signal analog so that we can do that and basically have a non nuclear model, small modular reactor in the lab.   Trevor Freeman  44:14 Very cool, very neat. Well, Rupp, this has been a great conversation. I really appreciate it. We do always end our interviews with a series of questions here, so I'm going to jump right into those. What's a book that you've read that you think everyone should read?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  44:31 I would say any of the Babysitters Club. That's as high as I get in the literary hierarchy. I'm barely literate so and I thoroughly enjoyed reading those books with my daughters that they were great. So I recommend any, any of the Babysitters Club titles. I mean that completely seriously, I that was the peak of my that are dog man, yeah,   Trevor Freeman  44:56 I'm about six months removed from what i. Was about an 18 month run where that's, that's all I read with my youngest kiddo. So they've, they've just moved on to a few other things. But yes, I've been steeped in the Babysitter's Club very recently.   Dr Rupp Carriveau  45:11 So good. So, you know, absolutely.   Trevor Freeman  45:14 So same question, but for a movie or a show, what's something that you recommend?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  45:17 Everyone thrilled with that question. If you're looking for a good, good true story. I've always been romantically obsessed with the ghost in the darkness, the true story of, I guess, a civil engineer trying to solve a problem of man eating lions and Tsavo. That's a, that's a, that's a tremendous movie with Val Kilmer and Michael Douglas. Yeah, that's good then, and I think for something a little more light hearted and fun, a big fan of the way, way back and youth and revolt, nice.   Trevor Freeman  46:03 If someone offered you a free round trip flight anywhere in the world, where would you go?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  46:05 I don't really like flying, I got to be honest. But if, if I was forced onto the plane, I think, I think I go to Japan. Nice. Have you been before? No, I haven't. I'd like to go. Okay, cool. You're not the first guest that has said that someone else was very That's understandable. Yeah, who is someone that you admire? I would say truly selfless people that help people when no one's looking and when it's not being tabulated for likes those people are who I aspire to be more like nice.   Trevor Freeman  46:47 And last question, what's something about the energy sector or its future that you're really excited about?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  46:53 I think maybe power to the people I really like, the movement of distributed energy resources. I'm sure there's a limit to it, but I think, I think if we have more responsibility for our own power production, and again, I can see there are limits where it's probably, you know, there's, there's a point where it's too much. I'm all for, for major centralized coordination and the security in the reliability that goes with that. But I think a little bit more on the distributed side would be nice, because I think people would understand energy better. They would they would own it more, and I think our grid would probably increase in its resiliency.   Trevor Freeman  47:37 Yeah, that's definitely something that no matter the topic, it seems, is a part of almost every conversation I have here on the show. It works its way in, and I think that's indicative of the fundamental role that decentralizing our energy production and storage is is already playing and is going to play in the years to come as we kind of tackle this energy transition drove this has been a really great conversation. I appreciate you taking the time to talk to us, and that's great to catch up. Great to chat with you again.   Dr Rupp Carriveau  48:11 Total privilege for me. Trevor, I really appreciate it. Outstanding job.   Trevor Freeman  48:15 Thanks for having me. Yeah, great to chat. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the thinkenergy podcast, don't forget to subscribe. Wherever you listen to podcasts, and it would be great if you could leave us a review. It really helps to spread the word. As always, we would love to hear from you, whether it's feedback comments or an idea for a show or a guest. You can always reach us at thinkenergy@hydroottawa.com.  

Fresh off their victory over the Baby-Sitters Agency, the girls of the BSC turn on each other in this month's entry. Quiet Mary Anne has to get the group back together, negotiate with her well-meaning but strict single father, make and repair a new friendship, and engineer an unlikely meet-cute. And, of course, she needs to tend to some babysitting, including one job that will prove to be her toughest yet!These episodes posted first for our Patreon supporters! If you want to hear the rest of them ahead of time (and a bunch of other stuff besides), visit Patreon.com/overduepod.Here's the full Sit Me Baby One More Time reading list:Kristy's Great IdeaClaudia and the Phantom Phone CallsThe Truth about StaceyMary Anne Saves the DayDawn and the Impossible ThreeHello, MalloryJessi's Secret LanguageWelcome to the BSC, AbbySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

You're listening to Burnt Toast! I'm Virginia Sole-Smith. Today, my conversation is with Lisa Sibbett, PhD. Lisa writes The Auntie Bulletin, a weekly newsletter about kinship, chosen family and community care. As a long time Auntie herself, Lisa often focuses on the experiences of people without children who are nevertheless, in her words, "cultivating childful lives." We've been talking a whole bunch about community on Burnt Toast lately, and Lisa reached out to have a conversation about the systems that get in the way of our community building efforts—specifically our culture's systemic isolation of the nuclear family. This is one of those conversations that isn't "classic Burnt Toast." But we're here to do fat liberation work—and so how we think about community matters here, because community is fundamental to any kind of advocacy work. Plus it brings us joy! And joy matters too. I super appreciate this conversation with Lisa, and I know you will too.Join our community! Today's episode is free! But don't forget, if you were a Substack subscriber, you have until October 28 to claim your free access to our paid content. Check your email for your special gift link! Episode 216 TranscriptLisaSo my newsletter is about building kinship and community care. I live in cohousing, and I've been an auntie for many years to lots of different kids. I've always been really involved in the lives of other people's children. And people who have lives like mine, we often don't really have even language for describing what our experience is like. It's sort of illegible to other people. Like, what's your role? Why are you here?And all of this has really blossomed into work that's definitely about loving and supporting families and other people's children, but I also write about elder care and building relationships with elders and building community and cohousing. And I have a chronic illness, so I sometimes write about balancing self-care and community care. VirginiaI have been an instant convert to your work, because a lot of what you write really challenges me in really useful ways. You have really made me reckon with how much I have been siloed in the structure of my life. It's funny because I actually grew up with a kind of accidental–it wasn't quite cohousing. We had two separate houses. But I was the child of a very amicable divorce, and my four parents co-parented pretty fluidly. So I grew up with adults who were not my biological parents playing really important roles in my life. And I have gotten to the point where I'm realizing I want a version of that for my kids. And that maybe that is just a better model. So it's fascinating to consider what that can look like when not everybody has those very specific circumstances. LisaIt's a dreamy setup, actually, to have amicably divorced parents and extra parents.VirginiaI'm super proud of all of my parents for making it work. My sister —who is my half sister from my dad's second marriage—has a baby now. And my mom made the first birthday cake for them. There are a lot of beautiful things about blended families. When they work, they're really amazing. And it always felt like we were doing something kind of weird, and other people didn't quite understand our family. So I also relate to that piece of it. Because when you say "cohousing community," I think a lot of folks don't really know what that term means. What does it look like, and how does it manifest in practice? What is daily life like in a cohousing community? LisaThere are different synonyms or near neighbor terms for cohousing. Another one is "intentional community." Back in the day, we might think about it as kind of a commune, although in the commune structure, people tended to actually pool their finances. I would say that cohousing is a much more kind of hybrid model between having your own space and being up in each other's spaces and sharing all of the resources. Join the Burnt Toast community! So I really think of cohousing as coming frpm where so many dreamy social policies come from: Scandinavia. In Denmark and I think other countries in Northern Europe there is a lot of intentional urban planning around building shared, communal living spaces where there are things like community kitchens and shared outdoor space for lots of different residences. So that's kind of the model that cohousing in the US tends to come from. And sometimes it's people living together in a house. Sometimes it's houses clustered together, or a shared apartment building. It can look a lot of different ways. The shared attribute is that you're attempting to live in a more communal way and sharing a lot of your familial resources. In my cohousing community, there are just three households. It's really, really small. We really lucked into it. My partner and I were displaced due to growth in our city, and needed to find a new place to live. And we had been talking with some friends for years about hoping to move into cohousing with them. But it's very hard to actually make happen. It takes a lot of luck, especially in urban environments, but I think probably anywhere in the United States, because our policies and infrastructure are really not set up for it. So we were thinking about doing cohousing with our friends. They were going to build a backyard cottage. We were thinking about moving into the backyard cottage, but it was feeling a little bit too crowded. And then my partner was like, "Well, you know, the house next door is for sale." So it was really fortuitous, because the housing market was blowing up. Houses were being sold really, really fast, but there were some specific conditions around this particular house that made it possible for us to buy it. So we ended up buying a house next door to our friends. And then they also have a basement apartment and a backyard cottage. So there are people living in the basement apartment, and then, actually, the backyard cottage is an Airbnb right now, but it could potentially be expanded. So we have three households. One household has kids, two households don't, and our backyard is completely merged. We eat meals together four nights a week or five nights a week. Typically, we take turns cooking for each other, and have these big communal meals, and which is just such a delight. And if your car breaks down, there's always a car to borrow. We share all our garden tools, and we have sheds that we share. There are a lot of collective resources, and availability for rides to the airport ,and that kind of thing. VirginiaThere are just so many practical applications! LisaIt's really delightful. Prior to moving into cohousing, we never hosted people at all. I was very averse to the idea of living in shared space. I was really worried about that. But because we have our own spaces and we have communal spaces, it sort of works for different people's energies. And I certainly have become much more flexible and comfortable with having lots of people around. I'm no longer afraid of cooking for 12 people, you know? So it just makes it a lot easier to have a life where you can go in and out of your introversion phases and your social phases.VirginiaI'm sure because you're around each other all the time, there's not the same sense of "putting on your outgoing personality." Like for introverts, when we socialize, there's a bit of a putting on that persona.LisaTotally. It's much more like family. We're kind of hanging around in our pajamas, and nobody's cleaning their houses. VirginiaYou have that comfort level, which is hard to replicate. It's hard even for people who are good friends, but haven't sort of intentionally said, "We want this in our relationship. "There are all those pressures that kick in to have your house look a certain way. This is something I've been writing about —how the hosting perfectionism expectations are really high. Messy House Hosting! LisaAbsolutely, yeah. And it's just such an impairment for us to have to live that way.VirginiaFor me, it took getting divorced to reckon with wanting to make some changes. I mean, in a lot of ways, it was just necessary. There were no longer two adults in my household. The moving parts of my life were just more. I suddenly realized I needed support. But it was so hard to get over those initial hurdles. Almost every other friend I've had who's gotten divorced since says the same thing. Like, wait, I'm going to ask people for a ride for my child? It's this huge stumbling block when, actually, that should have been how we're all parenting and living. But it really shows how much marriage really isolates us. Or, a lot of marriages really isolate us. Our beliefs about the nuclear family really isolate us and condition us to feel like we have to handle it all by ourselves. So I would love to hear your thoughts on where does that come from? Why do we internalize that so much? LisaVirginia, you've been cultivating this wonderful metaphor about the various things that are diets. VirginiaMy life's work is to tell everybody, "everything is a diet."LisaEverything's a diet! And I feel like it's such a powerful metaphor, and I think it really, really applies here. The nuclear family is such a diet. You have done, I think, the Lord's work over the last couple of years, helping us conceptualize that metaphor around what does it mean to say something is a diet? And the way that I'm thinking of the Virginia Sole-Smith Model of Diet Culture is that there's an oppressive and compulsory ideal that we're all supposed to live up to. If we're not living up to it, then we're doing it wrong, and we need to be working harder. And there's this rewarding of restriction, which, of course, then increases demands for consumer goods and forces us to buy things. Then, of course, it also doesn't actually work, right? And all of that is coming out of a culture of capitalism and individualism that wants us to solve our problems by buying stuff. VirginiaI mean, I say all the time, Amazon Prime was my co-parent.LisaI think the nuclear family is just part of that whole system of individualism and consumerism that we're supposed to be living in. It really benefits the free market for us all to be isolated in these little nuclear families, not pulling on shared resources, so we all have to buy our own resources and not being able to rely on community care, so we have to pay for all of the care that we get in life. And that is gross. That's bad. We don't like that. And you also have written, which I really appreciate, that it's a very logical survival strategy to adhere to these ideals, especially the farther away you are from the social ideal. If you're marginalized in any way, the more trying to adhere to these ideals gives us cover.To me, that all just maps onto the nuclear family without any gaps. Going back to your specific question about why is it so hard to not feel like in an imposition when you're asking for help: We're just deeply, deeply, deeply conditioned to be self reliant within the unit of the family and not ask for help. Both you and I have interviewed the wonderful Jessica Slice in the last few months, and she has really helped me.Jessica wrote Unfit Parent. She's a disabled mom, and she has really helped me think about how interdependence and asking for help is actually really stigmatized in our culture, and the kind of logical extension of that for disabled parents is that they get labeled unfit and their kids get taken away. But there's a whole spectrum there of asking for help as a weakness, as being a loser, as being really deeply wrong, and we should never do it. And we're just, like, deeply conditioned in that way. VirginiaSpeaking of community care: My 12-year-old was supposed to babysit for my friend's daughter this afternoon, she has like a standing Tuesday gig. And my younger child was going to go along with her, to hang out, because she's friends with the younger kiddo. I was going pick them up later. But then we heard this morning that this little friend has head lice. And that did make the community care fall apart! LisaOh no. It's time to isolate!  VirginiaWhile I want us all to be together....LisaThere can be too much togetherness. You don't want to shave your head.VirginiaThat said, though: It was a great example of community care, because that mom and I are texting with our other mom friends, talking about which lice lady you want to book to come deal with that, and figuring out who needs to get their head checked. So it was still a pooling of resources and support, just not quite the way we envisioned anyway. LisaIt always unfolds in different ways than we expect.VirginiaBut what you're saying about the deeply held belief that we have to do it all, that we're inconveniencing other people by having needs: That myth completely disguises the fact that actually, when you ask for help, you build your bonds with other people, right? It actually is a way of being more connected to people. People like to be asked for help, even if they can't do it all the time. They want to feel useful and valuable and and you can offer an exchange. This sounds so silly, but in the beginning I was very aware, like, if I asked someone for a ride or a play date, like, how soon could I reciprocate to make sure that I was holding up my end of the bargain? And you do slowly start to drift away from needing that. It's like, oh no, that's the capitalism again, right? That's making it all very transactional, but it's hard to let go of that mindset. LisaYeah, and it just takes practice. I mean, I think that your example is so nice that just over time, you've kind of loosened up around it. It's almost like exposure therapy in asking for help. It doesn't have to be this transactional transaction.VirginiaAnd I think you start to realize, the ways you can offer help that will work for you, because that's another thing, right? Like, we have to manage our own bandwidth. You wrote recently that sometimes people who aren't in the habit of doing this are afraid that now I'll have to say yes to everything, or this is going to be this total overhaul of my life. And  No. You can say no, because you know you say yes often enough. So talk about that a little bit.Community building for introverts!LisaAbsolutely. I come at this from a perspective of living with chronic illness and disability where I really need to ration my energy. I've only been diagnosed in the last few years, and prior to that I just thought that I was lazy and weak, and I had a lot of really negative stories about my lack of capacity, and I'm still unlearning those. But over the past few years, I've been really experimenting with just recognizing what I am capable of giving and also recognizing that resting is a necessary part of the process of being able to give. If I don't rest, I can't give. And so actually, I'm doing something responsible and good for my community when I rest. You know, whatever that resting looks like for me or for other people, and it can look a lot of different ways. Some people rest by climbing rocks. I am certainly not one of those people, but...VirginiaThat is not my idea of relaxation. LisaBut, whatever, it takes all kinds, right? And I think that the systems of community care are so much more sustainable the more that we are showing up as our authentic selves. VirginiaYou talked about how you schedule rest for yourself. I'd love to hear more about that. LisaThat was an idea that I got from a really, really, really good therapist, by far the best therapist I've ever had, who herself lives with chronic illness and chronic pain. She initially suggested to me that whenever I travel--I have a hard time with travel--that, like, if I travel for three days, I need to book three days of rest. If I travel for two weeks, I need to book two weeks of rest. That's a radical proposition to me, and one that I still am like, yeah, I don't know if I can quite make that happen. But it did inspire me to think about what would work for me. And the reality of my life for many, many years, is that on a cycle of one to two weeks, I have at least one day where I just collapse and am incapable of doing anything. I can't get out of bed. So this conversation with my therapist inspired me to go, you know, maybe I should just calendar a day of rest every week. Instead of having an uncontrolled crash, I can have a controlled crash, and then I'm making the decision ahead of time that I'm going to rest, rather than having to emergently rest when other people are relying on me for something, right? It just actually makes me more reliable to rest on a calendar.VirginiaAnd it honors that need. You're not pretending that's not going to happen or hoping you can skip by without it. You're like, no, this is a real need. This is going to enable me to do the other things I want to do. So let's just embrace that and make sure that's planned for. It's really, really smart.LisaWell, and you know, I'll say that not having kids makes it much easier, of course. But I hope that there are ways that parents can schedule in little pieces of rest, even, of course, it's probably not like an entire Saturday. But, the more that families lean into aunties and community care, the more that that space can be carved out. VirginiaSo let's talk about the auntie piece. Is it just something, like, because these friends live next door and they had kids, you found yourself playing that role? How do you cultivate being an auntie? LisaThat's a great question. For me it was kind of both always going to happen and a conscious choice. I grew up in a big family. I'm one of six kids. I spent a lot of time babysitting as a kid for both my siblings and all the kids in my town, and some of my siblings are a lot older than me, so I became an aunt in my teens, and so I've always had kids in my life. Really, I can't think of a time when I didn't have little ones around, which I think is a real benefit, not a lot of people have that kind of life. And I was raised by early childhood educators. My mom is a teacher. My grandma was a preschool teacher. My other grandma is a teacher. There are a lot of teachers in my family, and a lot of them worked with little kids, so there are a lot of resources available to me.But then I also did have to make some conscious choices. I think that one of the early things that happened for me was one of my best friends asked me to be her child's godmother, and that kid is now 17. I know, she's a teenager, oh my god. So that relationship in my 20s started to condition me to think: How do I really show up for a family? How do I really show up for a child that's not my own child? And then when we moved into cohousing, which was in 2019 right before the pandemic started. We knew that we would be involving ourselves more in the life of a family. More on Lisa's childful lifeAt that time, my partner and I were hoping to have kids, and I ended up losing a lot of pregnancies. We decided to not become parents, but so we were initially envisioning sort of raising our kids together, right? And then when my partner and I decided not to have kids, one of the things that we sort of decided to pivot toward is like, well, we're going to really invest in these kids who live in our community, which we already were, because the pandemic hit and we were a bubble. So many people know the story. All the adults are working full time. There's no childcare. There are little kids. So it was really all hands on deck during that time, and it really pushed our community into a structure of lots and lots of interdependence around childcare and I spent a lot of time with these kids when they were really little, and that really cemented some bonds and forced us to make some very conscious decisions about how we want to be involved in each other's lives. To the point that once you get very involved in the lives of kids, you can't exit. Like, even if you wanted to. And so that changes your whole life trajectory. Moving to Mexico is off the table for me and my partner until these kids are at least out of the house, and that's many years down the road, right? It would be harmful for us to separate from these kids at this point. So, there are conscious decisions and just sort of happenstance. And I think for anybody who's interested in becoming an auntie or recruiting an auntie: Every situation is kind of different. But the piece about making conscious decisions is really important and requires sometimes scary conversations where we have to put ourselves out there and be vulnerable and take risks to let our loved ones know that we would like to form these kind of relationships. VirginiaAs someone on the side with the kids, my fear would be that I'm asking this huge favor, and like, oh my gosh, what an imposition. Because kids are chaos and these friends have a lovely, child-free life--I love my children, standard disclaimer. LisaKids are total chaos.VirginiaKids are always in whatever vortex of feelings and needs that that particular age and stage requires and asking someone to show up for that is, it's big. It's big.LisaWell, I definitely can't speak for all childless people, definitely not. But there are a lot of aunties who read The Auntie Bulletin, several thousand people who read The Auntie Bulletin, and a lot of shared values there in our community. Something that I think is a common feature among people who are aunties, or who want to be aunties, is: We really recognize how much we benefit from being in relationship with families. There are a lot of people, myself included, who were not able to have children and really want to have a child-ful life. We would feel a loss if we didn't have kids in our lives. And so this was something that I was reckoning with during the pandemic, when my partner and I were providing really a lot of childcare for another family. People would ask me: Do you feel like you're getting taken advantage of? What are you getting in return? What I realized during that time was, I'm getting paid back tenfold, because I get to have these kids in my life for the rest of my life, but I don't have to do the hard stuff. And that's really important. Parenting, I don't have to tell you, is very hard. As a person with chronic illness and disability at this point, I'm very glad that I don't have kids, because I don't think actually that I have the stamina. It's not about capacity for love, it's just about straight up physical energy. And so I'm able to have the benefits as an auntie of being parent-adjacent, without the cost. So I'm the winner in that transaction. And I think a lot of aunties think that way.VirginiaWell, that's really encouraging to hear. And I think, too, what you're talking about is just having really good communication, so people can say what they can do and also have their boundaries honored when they have to set a limit. That's key to any good relationship, so it would apply here too. Subscribe to Burnt Toast! LisaYeah, totally.VirginiaThinking about other barriers that come up. I've been reading, and I know you're a fan too, of Katherine Goldstein, and she's been writing such interesting critiques right now of how youth sports culture really derails families' abilities to participate in community. That's a whole fairly explosive topic, because people are really attached to their sports. So, I'll save the specifics of that for some time I have Katherine on to discuss this. Are youth sports a diet? Yes, absolutely. And we are not a sports family, but when she wrote about it, I immediately recognized what she meant, because every fall I noticed that my kids' friends become much less available for play dates because it's soccer season. And it's like, waiting for when soccer practice will be over, so that so-and-so might come over. Suddenly, even as a non-sports family, I feel like I'm loosely revolving around these schedules. And to bring it back to your work: That is one aspect of parenting culture that is really feeding into this isolation problem and this lack of community problem. This way that we've decided parenting has to be so intensive and performative around sports makes people actually less available to their communities. So this is a long way of asking my question: Do you think what we're really talking about here is a problem with the institution of marriage or the institution of parenting, or is it a bit of both?LisaThat's so interesting. I do think that youth sports is, like, by far, the kind of biggest engine of this. But there also are families that are, like, deep, deep, deep into youth performing arts that would have the same kind of function.Virginia Dance is another big one. Competitions taking up every weekend.LisaOr youth orchestra, sometimes those can be incredibly consuming and also incredibly expensive. So going with the grain of the parents that are really hyper investing in their kids activities: They will find community in those places often, right? It's a sort of substitute community for the length of the season, or whatever. And then my question is: What's the culture within those spaces? Is it like, hyper competitive? Is it about getting to the national championship? Is there a sense of community? Is there a sense of supporting kids around resilience when things don't go the way that they want them to? The cultures within these spaces matter. And I think it just ties back to the way that the nuclear family is a diet. Because we are so deeply incentivized to be fearful in our culture and to treat our problems with money, goods, services, activities. And the fear, I think, for a lot of parents, is that their kids are going to not have a good and happy life. So then there's what Annette Lareau, an educational researcher, calls concerted cultivation, particularly among more bourgeois middle class families of trying to schedule kids to the hilt, to make sure that they get every opportunity in life, and they can therefore succeed through every hurdle, and never have any adversity. Or that the adversity that they have is character building adversity in some way. And so I think that the hyper-involvement in kids activities does come from fear that's motivated by capitalism. And is that an issue of parenting culture or marriage culture or capitalist culture or gender culture?VirginiaAll of it. Yes. I mean, one thing I think about, too, is how these activities create their own community. But it's a very homogenous community. The child-free folks aren't there, because it's only soccer families or dance families or whatever. And you're only going to get families who can afford to do the activity. So it's a self-selecting group. This is not to say I'm doing a great job cultivating a more diverse community for my kids. I live in a white majority town. This is hard for all of us. We're not saying you all have to quit your sports! But if that's your primary community, that is going to narrow things in a in a way that's worth reflecting on. To bring this a little more fully into the Burnt Toast space, where we talk about diet as metaphor, but also diets specifically: One question I am asked a lot from the aunties in the Burnt Toast community, is, "How do I show up for the kids in my life that are not my own, I don't get to make the parenting calls, but for whom I still want to model anti-diet values?" Maybe there's stuff the parents are doing with food that's sending a weird message, or dieting in the home, that kind of thing. LisaWell, my sense is for myself—and I try to preach this gospel at The Auntie Bulletin— is that there are a lot of these moments for non-parents who are really deeply invested in the lives of kids, where it's not our call. And it's just a tricky terrain for aunties or any kind of allo-parental adults who are involved in the lives of kids who aren't their own kids. I'm really fortunate that most of my friends are pretty on board with an anti-diet philosophy. The people who are close to me, where I'm really involved in feeding kids are on the same page. But it comes up in other ways, right? Where I might have a different perspective than the parents. My sense is really that aunties do need to follow parents' lead that it's actually quite important to honor parents' decision makings for their kids. And we can be sort of stealthy ninjas around how we disrupt cultural conditioning more broadly. So I'm not super close to their parents, but we've got some kids in our neighborhood who are buddies with the kids who are a big part of my life. And those neighborhood kids get a lot of diet conditioning at home. There's this little girl, she's in fourth grade, and she's always telling me about her mom's exercise and saying that she can't get fat and she can't eat that popsicle and things like that, which is really heartbreaking to witness. And it's exactly that kind of situation where it's like, I'm invested in this as a just a member of our society, but I also care about these kids, and it's just not my call, you know? So I can just say things like, "Well, I like my body. I feel good that I have a soft body and I'm going to have another brownie. It tastes really good." And just kind of speak from my own experience, where I'm not necessarily trying to argue with their parents, or trying to convince the kid of something different. I'm just modeling something different for them. And I think it's totally fine to say, "In my house, you're allowed to have another brownie if you want one!" VirginiaThat modeling is so powerful. Having one example in their life of someone doing it differently, can plant that seed and help them reframe, like, oh, okay, that's not the only way to think about this conversation. That's really useful.LisaAnd I think affirming difference whenever we have the opportunity to do so is important. When a kid comments on somebody's body size or shape, you can just always say, "Isn't it great how people are different? It's so wonderful. There's so much variety."VirginiaRelated to modeling and fostering anti-diet values: I think there is a way that this collective approach to living and being in community with each other runs quite counter to mainstream narratives around what is good behavior, what are social expectations, and which groups do we let take up space. I'm thinking about how the group of soccer moms is allowed to be a community that everyone has paid to participate in, while the Black neighborhood having a block party might have the cops called on them. So, talk a little bit about how you see collectivism as also an act of radicalism.LisaYeah, thank you for that question. It's such a good one. A soccer community that is literally pay to play, where there are increasing tiers of elitenes—that is coded as very respectable in our society. Whereas a block party in a neighborhood of color is coded as disrespectable, unrespectable, disreputable. The music is loud and the people are being inconsiderate and their bodies are hanging out. There is all of this stigma around collectivism. I find for myself it's very insidious and subtle, the ways that collectivism is stigmatized. I have a theoretical allegiance to collectivism, but it takes having to actually ask for help to notice our friction and our resistance to that. You were talking about that earlier in the follow up to your divorce. And I've had that experience, when I've needed to ask for help around my disability and chronic illness, and there's all of a sudden this feeling of like, oh, I shouldn't ask for help. Oh, there's something wrong with that. And I think that there actually is a dotted line there between our resistance to asking for help and that feeling like we're doing something bad and anti-Blackness, anti-brownness, anti-queerness. Community is so, so essential for queer folks who have had to find their own family, choose their own community for for for generations. There's this kind of whiff of disreputability around collectivism, and these narratives around these kids are running wild and bodies are hanging out and the music's too loud, and like, what's going on there? What are they eating? VirginiaThere are so many ways we police it all.LisaIt's all really, really policed. I think that's really well put. So I think it's important to reclaim collectivism and reframe collectivism as legitimate, valuable, important, meaningful. Collectivism is something that a lot of people who live in dominant white communities have actually had taken from us through the medium of compulsory individualism. We need to reclaim it, and we need to not stigmatize it in all the communities that are around us and our neighbors.VirginiaMaybe instead, we should be looking at other communities as examples to emulate.LisaAs resources, absolutely. The disability community as well. VirginiaI think that's really helpful, and I'm sure it gives folks a lot to think about, because it just continues to show up in so many small ways. Even as you were describing that I was thinking about the stress response that kicks in for me after I host a gathering, and my house is left in whatever state it's left in. And it's like, of course, the house is messy. You just had 12 people over, and there are seltzer cans laying around and throw pillows out of place. That's because you lived in your house. You used it. But there's this other part of my brain that's so conditioned to be like, well, the house has to be tidy. And now it looks like you're out of control. But it's that kind of thing, that inner policing we do, that is very much related to this larger societal policing that we participate in.LisaAbsolutely, yeah.VirginiaAny last tips for folks who are like, okay, I want to be doing more of this. Particularly folks who want to connect with child free folks, or for child free folks who are listening, who want to connect with more families with kids. Any little nudges, baby steps people can take towards building this?LisaMy big nudge is to practice courage, because it's scary to put yourself out there. You have to be vulnerable when you ask to build a relationship that's deeper with people. And I think it actually is analogous, in some ways, to forming romantic relationships. You have to take some risks to say what you want, and that's a scary thing to do, but there are lots and lots of people out there who want to be more involved in the lives of families. And there are lots and lots of families out there who need more support.VirginiaWhen you were talking about the pandemic, I was like, I would have killed for an auntie. LisaEvery family needs an auntie. Two adults I love, Rosie Spinks and Chloe Sladden who both have wonderful newsletters, have been writing about this lately, that even having two adults is just not enough to run a household in the structure of society that we live in. I think that that's right, even if you've got a man who's pulling his weight, to crack open a whole other can of worms.Why Fair Play didn't work for ChloeVirginiaWhich, yeah.LisaThey're rare, but it does happen, and even then, it's not enough. We actually need more adults to make communities run than we get with the way nuclear families are set up. So it's a really worthy thing to seek out aunties, and for aunties to seek out families, and it's just a little bit scary. And you also have to be persistent, because when we offer, parents will usually say no. Like they don't believe us. They think their kids are too wild and whatever. So parents have to persist and and families need to persist in being welcoming. VirginiaI would also add on the parent side, as much as I appreciated what you said before about aunties have to respect parents having the final call on stuff: It's also an exercise in us having to loosen up a little. Not everything is going to go exactly the way you want it to go. The bedtime might look differently, meals might happen differently, there might be more or less screens, and we have to be less attached to those metrics of parenting and touchstones of our parenting day, and realize that the benefits of our kids getting to be with other people, way outweighs whether or not they eat three cookies or whatever it is. LisaYeah, the more that we live in community, the more we all learn to be flexible.VirginiaWhich is really the work of my life, learning to be more flexible. Work on flexibility with us!

A Michigan woman is facing nearly 50 criminal charges in what authorities are calling a deeply disturbing case of long-term child sexual abuse.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's the heart of spooky season, and Weekly Spooky is bringing you a triple feature of full-length Halloween horror stories that will keep you up all night. Each of these novellas dives deep into mature, unsettling terror—from cursed soil to haunted technology to the return of one of Strickfield's darkest legends.• Dirt Babies — by Bruce HaneySomething terrible is sprouting in the earth, and it's hungry for more than sunlight. What happens when life—and death—take root in the same soil?• ERASURE — by Morgan MooreA group of teens discovers a mysterious VHS tape that doesn't want to be turned off. Once it starts playing, it starts rewriting reality… and them.• Return to the Cry Baby Bridge — by Rob FieldsThe Strickfield legend continues when a group of thrill-seekers crosses the bridge after midnight—and learns that some urban legends cry for real.These scary Halloween novellas are perfect for long autumn nights, pumpkin-scented candles, and anyone who loves mature, atmospheric horror stories. Turn off the lights, turn up the volume, and spend the night in fear with Weekly Spooky.

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“Have you checked the children?” That single question has haunted sleepovers, campfires, and horror movies for decades. On this Wicked Wednesday, Amber and Gina unravel the terrifying urban legend of The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs.You know the story: a teenage babysitter alone in a house, creepy phone calls, and the shocking twist that the calls are coming from inside the house. But what if this wasn't just a campfire tale?In this episode, we explore the chilling real-life murder of Janett Christman, a 13-year-old babysitter brutally killed in Columbia, Missouri in 1950. Her unsolved case bears an eerie resemblance to the legend and may have inspired its spread. From true crime origins to Hollywood adaptations like When a Stranger Calls and Scream, we break down why this story continues to terrify generations. Expect creepy narration, sarcastic commentary, and a shallow dive into the folklore that turned one babysitter's nightmare into horror legend.

Cole (Judah Lewis) is a somewhat nerdy but good-natured boy who is turning into a young man. When Cole's parents leave town for the weekend, he's beyond excited to spend time with his mega-crush babysitter, Bee (Samara Weaving). Bee is the whole package for Cole. She's funny, she's pretty, and she can talk nerd culture with ease. When Cole stays up one night to see what the cool kids do, he is surprised to find out that Bee is dealing with the devil and her friends are crazy as hell killers. Cole, now being hunted down, runs, hides and gets assistance with his friend Melanie (Emily Alyn Lind). Blood and explosions ensue! RTS flips cars and burns demon books. Jeremy is insta-bewitched and spins a bottle. La-Mar shows the world the fat dragon! Collin dances himself out of the way of eggs and BMX bullies. Will we ever figure out why Max (Robbie Amell) is shirtless? Will this be your first question? Are you too old for a babysitter? 

A look at an urban legend and it's possible origin. Sun King seeks a path home but all is not as it seems. The Cruise returns as Mackenzie Guffin encounters a strange visitor. [Ep 590]

Netflix faces backlash for pushing transgender themes in kids' shows like Babysitter's Club and Dead End: Paranormal Park. PBD and the crew compare Netflix's resilience to Disney's stock crash, boycotts, and Elon Musk's war on “woke mind virus.”

Schuyler Fisk joins Reel Insights to talk about Hallmark's The Chicken Sisters, her iconic roles in The Baby-sitters Club and Snow Day, and her career as a singer-songwriter. She reflects on three decades in entertainment, from Jack Black memories to Loretta Lynn collaborations, while teasing what fans can expect from her new music.Visit ⁠⁠⁠Nerdtropolis.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠

** Have you made the 'Kids or No Kids' decision yet? **      → → Our latest podcast edition covers how to plan for either scenario, including our experiences, compromises, and clear communication strategies.    → → This podcast is for engaged couples who are stressed out with wedding planning and family expectations, but want a fun wedding day.   → → By the end of this edition, you'll discover unique options, solutions, and how to communicate your choices with finesse.   Stress-free Wedding Planning Podcast #167: Kids or No Kids? Charting a course for a Child-Free Wedding Host: Sal & Sam Music: "Sam's Tune" by Rick Anthony   TIMESTAMP 00:00 Introduction to Kids or No Kids? Charting a course for a Child-Free Wedding 01:00 Podcast Overview and Goals 03:00 The Big Debate: Kids or No Kids? 05:00 Your Vision 06:30 Logistics of Planning a Kid-Friendly Wedding 07:30 Babysitters 09:15 Wedding Tip Wednesday: wedding vendor team 11:00 Navigating a Kid-Free Wedding 12:45 Kid-free Wedding Wording 14:45 Compromises and Creative Solutions 15:30 Final Thoughts and Community Engagement 16:00 Closing Remarks and Farewell   Get your FREE no-obligation report TODAY: "8 QUESTIONS YOU MUST ASK A WEDDING PROFESSIONAL BEFORE BOOKING THEM" http://forms.aweber.com/form/55/756659955.htm Music List Giveaway  https://www.afterhourseventsofne.com/guestcontact *** Join us in the Stress-free Wedding Planning Facebook group https://urlgeni.us/facebook/stress-free-wedding-planning Copyright © 2025 Atmosphere Productions LLC All Rights Reserved. Produced by Atmosphere Productions in association with After Hours Events of New England https://atmosphere-productions.com https://www.afterhourseventsofne.com  #2026Bride #2027Bride #WeddingPlanning #NewEnglandWedding #WeddingPreparations  #weddingpro #weddingexperts #WeddingInspo #WeddingIdeas #KidFree #WeddingGoals #WeddingWisdom #WeddingTips #DreamWedding #WalkDownTheAisle #StressFreeWedding #StressFreeWeddingPlanning #StressFreeWeddingPlanningPodcast #WeddingPodcast #WeddingTipWednesday #WeddingAdvice  #WeddingDay #CTweddingdj #WeddingDJ #AtmosphereProductions #AfterHoursEventsOfNE  

Welcome to Out of the Shadows, a series that dives into the world of (mostly) 80s horror movies. Join Chris Chavez and Jim Clark as they explore the best and worst of what made the 80s the golden age of horror. On this episode, as they gear up for the upcoming 5th annual 31 Days of Horror, Chris and Jim each bring a movie to close out the month of September. First up, Jim's pick as they check out the 2017 Netflix horror comedy The Babysitter.

What's worse than being a nerdy teen with a crush on your babysitter? Finding out she's the bloodthirsty leader of a Satanic cult… and you're the sacrificial lamb. THE BABYSITTER (2017) flips the slumber party script into a gory game of survival, blending outrageous kills, devilish humor, and one seriously unhinged game of spin the bottle. We're talking fire poker fatalities, shirtless cult bros, and enough blood spray to repaint the suburbs. On The Blind Rage Podcast, we're popping open a juice box and breaking down this batshit babysitting gig from hell.

The Club has encountered (gasp) competition! How will they manage to beat their new rivals, the Baby-sitters Agency? Also, Stacey's ready to spill her truth: her parents need to chill out. She's successfully managing her diabetes AND making friends AND crushing it as a baby-sitter, but their plan to see a new doctor in New York could ruin everything.These episodes posted first for our Patreon supporters! If you want to hear the rest of them ahead of time (and a bunch of other stuff besides), visit Patreon.com/overduepod.Here's the full Sit Me Baby One More Time reading list:Kristy's Great IdeaClaudia and the Phantom Phone CallsThe Truth about StaceyMary Anne Saves the DayDawn and the Impossible ThreeHello, MalloryJessi's Secret LanguageWelcome to the BSC, AbbySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Two five-year-old twins were found locked in a dark shed off of a busy Florida highway—malnourished, abandoned, and left with nothing but fear. Their own mother, Tamara Stoiber, and grandmother, Sabine Thrift, now face charges of neglect and false imprisonment.Listen to the full, sad case now.**************************************Do you have thoughts about this case, or is there a specific true crime case you'd like to hear about? Let me know with an email or a voice message: https://murderandlove.com/contactFind the sources used in this episode and learn more about how to support Love and Murder: Heartbreak to Homicide and gain access to even more cases, including bonus episodes, ad-free and intro-free cases, case files and more at: https://murderandlove.comMusic:℗ lesfreemusicBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/love-and-murder-heartbreak-to-homicide--4348896/support.

... Babysitter Cosplay?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the special segment "Mom Wins!," Laura and Shanna celebrate their recent parenting achievements, including surprising successes inside a hotel lobby, at a big-kid's birthday party, in the presence of a claw machine and more! Also, Laura dives into a late-night crafting project that blows the minds of many children (and adults), and Shanna hires a non-family babysitter for the very first time. Finally, the moms share their BFPs and BFNs for the week. Shanna's kids are 6.5 and 9.5 years old, and Laura's kids are 6.5 years old and 4.5 years old.Topics discussed in this episode:-KPop Demon Hunters-Making crafts on the Cricut-Hiring babysitters-Allowing self-expression in your children-Managing your kids' meltdowns-Hiring food-delivery robots-Finding time and space for hobbies when you're a momProducts, links, resources mentioned in this episode:-KPop Demon Hunters Movie on Netflix-"The Carpool Detectives: A True Story of Four Moms, Two Bodies, and One Mysterious Cold Case" by Chuck HoganPast BFP episodes mentioned in this episode:-Ep. 350 (For the episode where Shanna talks about her family's trip to Lake Arrowhead)-Ep. 347 (For the episode where Shanna talks about taking Cece to an ice-skating party)-Ep. 371 (For the episode where Laura talks about discovering food-delivery robots in her neighborhood)-Ep. 19 (For the episode where Laura talks about spinning wool - before it made her nauseous)This episode's full show notes can be found here.Want to get in touch with Shanna and Laura? Send us an email and follow us on social! Instagram, Facebook or TikTok at @bfppodcastJoin our Facebook community group for support and camaraderie on your parenting journey.Visit our website!Big Fat Positive: A Pregnancy and Parenting Journey is produced by Laura Birek, Shanna Micko and Steve Yager.https://bit.ly/bfp-initoSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week it's all about MOMs. We have Don't Tell Mom, The Babysitters Dead (15:59) and Trading Mom(48:14), a Sissy Spacek lead movie that's been lost to time(maybe for good reason??). We also talk Spike Lee, what kind of mom is the coolest mom, and what might be the worst movie mom in cinema history

Der vierjährige Diego hat schon eine richtige Profi-Fußballer-Ausrüstung. Das Problem ist nur: er hat überhaupt keine Lust Fußball zu spielen. Aber Ronja will unbedingt seinen tollen Lederball ausprobieren. (Eine Geschichte von Ulrike Klausmann, erzählt von Sina Reiß)

You know the movie When a Stranger Calls? The one about the babysitter who receives a creepy phone call, and the call is coming from inside the house? Well, it was LOOSELY, based on a true story. There have been countless stories, and probably even more film depictions of a teenage girl hired to babysit, and after the children have been put to bed, the babysitter is alone, watching a movie, doing homework, on the phone with a boyfriend, whatever.  Then the phone rings, the caller asks, something along the lines of “have you checked on the children lately”, the babysitter is scared. She locks the door, turns on the light to see if anyone is there, nothing. She eventually calls the police and once the call is traced, she's told the call is coming from inside the house. None of that happened in this story, but somehow this is the source of the urban legend of the babysitter. This is the story of Janett Christman.    Check out our other shows!: Cryptic Soup w/ Thena & Kylee Strange & Unexplained True Crime Guys YouTube EVERYTHING TRUE CRIME GUYS:   https://linktr.ee/Truecrimeguysproductions True Crime Guys Music: True Crime Guys Music on Spotify OhMyGaia.com Code: Crimepine Patreon.com/truecrimeguys Patreon.com/sandupodcast Merch: truecrimeguys.threadless.com     Sources: https://thoughtcatalog.com/christine-stockton/2021/07/the-call-is-coming-from-inside-the-house-horror-trope-is-based-on-a-sady-true-story/ https://medium.com/omgfacts/the-truth-behind-the-babysitter-the-man-upstairs-urban-legend-d41d1722c9e9 https://www.columbiatribune.com/story/news/politics/government/2010/03/07/who-killed-janett-christman/984978007/ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/52836495/janett-christman/photo https://cindyparmiter.substack.com/p/a-babysitters-worst-nightmare-the https://truecrimearticles.wordpress.com/2018/03/30/the-unsolved-murder-of-janett-christman/

"GOSH!" Jack and Corey are joined by hilarious writer/actor/comedian Gilli Nissim (Twisted Metal, The Other Two, Gabby's Dollhouse) to talk Jared Hess' awkward teen indie smash NAPOLEON DYNAMITE (2004)! The three talk nunchucks, Napoleon impressions, secret screenings, PG comedies, John Heder's iconic performance, being awkward in highschool, thrift store chik, Idaho Tater Tots, Jon Gries and the White Lotus Connection, side ponytails, Napoleon Dynamite 2, MTV Films, great needle drops, tetherball, identical twins, Napoleon is Carrie, Babysitter's Club, running for class president, Vampires in school, Jnco Pants, chain guys, llamas and taters in films.Support the pod by joining our Patreon at patreon.com/cinemapossessedpod and unlock the Cinema Possessed Bonus Materials, our bi-monthly bonus episodes where we talk about more than just what's in our collection.Instagram: instagram.com/cinemapossessedpodTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cinemapossessedpodEmail: cinemapossessedpod@gmail.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Maya wohnt in einem wunderschönen Haus und hat ein riesiges Kinderzimmer. Der Haken ist: Ronja und Elif müssen nicht nur auf sie, sondern auch auf Mayas verwirrte Uroma aufpassen. (Eine Geschichte von Ulrike Klausmann, erzählt von Sina Reiß)

More Project Down and Dirt Speculation, BOOB TUBE: "The Paper," we play Would You Rather, and "The Babysitter's Club" goes BroadwaySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Eigentlich sollte Gretas Geburtstagsfest erst einen Tag später sein. Aber es kommen immer mehr Kinder mit Geschenken! Hat Gretas Mutter schon wieder die Tage verwechselt? Sie ist in die Stadt gefahren und hat ihr Handy vergessen. (Eine Geschichte von Ulrike Klausmann, erzählt von Sina Reiß)

In 1981, Kelly took a job to babysit for Bill Christensen. The 15-year-old was never seen alive again. What most people don't know is that Kelly was not the killer's first choice. She was the “backup babysitter.” Christensen's first choice was a 17-year-old girl, but she already had plans so she turned him down. Christensen then asked about other babysitters in the area. The original target, who we'll refer to as Stacey, had never spoken to a journalist about what happened until she joined Global News senior crime reporter Nancy Hixt to share how the case impacted every aspect of her life in this rereleased episode. Police are still waiting for the tip they need to solve it. If you know anything that can help police as they investigate Kelly's homicide, call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477. Contact: Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@nancy.hixt⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/NancyHixtCrimeBeat/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Email: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠nancy.hixt@globalnews.ca⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sal recounts a disastrous date night with his wife and young child, where the meal was overshadowed by a fidgety four-year-old and his own frustration over the Mets' game. He contrasts this with his decision to go to an Adam Sandler concert alone, a choice he says he made because it was cheaper and easier than coordinating a date night. While acknowledging that some might find it weird to go to a concert solo, Sal justifies his choice by highlighting the exorbitant costs of a night out, from babysitters to the meal itself, and the fact that going alone ensures a more relaxed and enjoyable experience. The segment then shifts to a brief and spirited debate about the merits of "going solo," a practice that BT admits he's never tried.

This segment is a whirlwind tour through the emotional and on-field struggles of New York sports, framed by Sal's personal life updates. The show opens with a frustrated discussion about the Yankees likely losing the division due to their loss, questioning their ability to succeed in the postseason with a struggling Anthony Volpe at shortstop. The conversation then shifts to the New York Giants and Jets, with insider Brian Baldinger dissecting their week two losses and highlighting glaring issues in both teams' performances. Interspersed throughout the serious sports analysis are comedic anecdotes from Sal, including a disastrous family dinner and his decision to go to an Adam Sandler concert alone, a detail that becomes a running joke and serves as a humorous contrast to the week's grim sports news.

Ronjas Perlenkette scheint dem kleinen Kasper zu gefallen. Er zieht daran und alle Perlen hüpfen durch das Zimmer. Kasper sammelt eine rote Perle auf und steckt sie sich in die Nase. (Eine Geschichte von Ulrike Klausmann, erzählt von Sina Reiß)

Sie sind zehn Jahre alt und brauchen das Geld - für ihre Reitstunden. Deshalb haben sie einen Zettel in den Hof gehängt: BABYSITTER-SERVICE RONJA UND ELIF. Mit der kleinen Emma gehen Ronja und Elif zu einem besonderen Spielplatz. Aber irgendetwas ist dort mit ihrem Kinderwagen geschehen. Und Elifs Handy ist auch verschwunden! (Eine Geschichte von Ulrike Klausmann, erzählt von Sina Reiß)

It's one of the perennial questions of parenting, how much should I pay my babysitter? According to Jen Hogan, Irish Times Columnist and Host of the “Conversations with Parents” Podcast, the cost of babysitters is becoming too high, pricing parents out of a chance to go out without the kids.

Marshall Smith, PhD, and Laura Patterson, PhD, offer a sociological discussion of McG's 2017 film The Babysitter. The post The Babysitter (McG 2017) appeared first on Collective Nightmares.

In this shocking episode of Dirty Little Secret, a caller reveals how one innocent greeting from the babysitter turned into a scandal that spiraled way out of control. From hidden affairs to unexpected long-term connections, this confession will leave you questioning trust, temptation, and boundaries. Tune in now to uncover the jaw-dropping secret that’s never been told before. Perfect for fans of juicy real-life confessions, shocking relationship twists, and secrets too wild to keep quiet. The juiciest, most outrageous confession podcast from The Jubal Show! It's the Jubal Show's Dirty Little Secret! Listeners spill their wildest, weirdest, and most scandalous secrets anonymously—no judgment, just pure entertainment. From shocking revelations to hilarious mishaps, you never know what you'll hear next! Hosted by Jubal Fresh and the team, every episode is packed with jaw-dropping confessions, witty reactions, and unexpected twists. Got a secret? Share it with us… we promise we won’t tell!➡︎ Get on The Jubal Show with your story - https://thejubalshow.com This is just a tiny piece of The Jubal Show. You can find every podcast we have, including the full show every weekday right here…➡︎ https://thejubalshow.com/podcasts The Jubal Show is everywhere, and also these places: Website ➡︎ https://thejubalshow.com Instagram ➡︎ https://instagram.com/thejubalshow X/Twitter ➡︎ https://twitter.com/thejubalshow Tiktok ➡︎ https://www.tiktok.com/@the.jubal.show Facebook ➡︎ https://facebook.com/thejubalshow YouTube ➡︎ https://www.youtube.com/@JubalFresh Support the show: https://the-jubal-show.beehiiv.com/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this shocking episode of Dirty Little Secret, a caller reveals how one innocent greeting from the babysitter turned into a scandal that spiraled way out of control. From hidden affairs to unexpected long-term connections, this confession will leave you questioning trust, temptation, and boundaries. Tune in now to uncover the jaw-dropping secret that’s never been told before. Perfect for fans of juicy real-life confessions, shocking relationship twists, and secrets too wild to keep quiet. The juiciest, most outrageous confession podcast from The Jubal Show! It's the Jubal Show's Dirty Little Secret! Listeners spill their wildest, weirdest, and most scandalous secrets anonymously—no judgment, just pure entertainment. From shocking revelations to hilarious mishaps, you never know what you'll hear next! Hosted by Jubal Fresh and the team, every episode is packed with jaw-dropping confessions, witty reactions, and unexpected twists. Got a secret? Share it with us… we promise we won’t tell!➡︎ Get on The Jubal Show with your story - https://thejubalshow.com This is just a tiny piece of The Jubal Show. You can find every podcast we have, including the full show every weekday right here…➡︎ https://thejubalshow.com/podcasts The Jubal Show is everywhere, and also these places: Website ➡︎ https://thejubalshow.com Instagram ➡︎ https://instagram.com/thejubalshow X/Twitter ➡︎ https://twitter.com/thejubalshow Tiktok ➡︎ https://www.tiktok.com/@the.jubal.show Facebook ➡︎ https://facebook.com/thejubalshow YouTube ➡︎ https://www.youtube.com/@JubalFresh Support the show: https://the-jubal-show.beehiiv.com/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

THE MAN IN BLACK!! Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers Full Movie Reaction Watch Along:   / thereelrejects   LIQUID IV: Visit http://www.liquidiv.com & use Promo Code: REJECTS Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Aparrel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ BACK to continue their Halloween Movie Marathon, The Scream Queens head back to Haddonfield for their Halloween 5 Reaction, Recap, Analysis, & Spoiler Review! Roxy Striar & Tara Erickson dive into one of the most infamous sequels in the Halloween franchise with Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989), directed by Dominique Othenin-Girard. Picking up directly after the shocking events of Halloween 4, the film continues the story of young Jamie Lloyd, played by Danielle Harris (Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead, Hatchet II), who is haunted by visions of her murderous uncle. Still traumatized and rendered mute after stabbing her foster mother, Jamie once again becomes a target of the unstoppable Michael Myers. Donald Pleasence (The Great Escape, THX 1138) returns as the obsessed Dr. Sam Loomis, determined to end Michael's reign of terror once and for all. Ellie Cornell (House of the Dead) reprises her role as Rachel Carruthers, Jamie's foster sister, while Beau Starr (Goodfellas, Due South) is back as Sheriff Ben Meeker, leading the fight to protect Haddonfield. Wendy Kaplan plays Rachel's friend Tina Williams, who quickly becomes another central figure in Michael's path of destruction. This sequel is remembered for its brutal kills, its atmospheric Gothic tone, the infamous “Man in Black” subplot that set up future installments, and Michael Myers' relentless pursuit of Jamie through the chilling finale at the Myers house. Though divisive among fans, Halloween 5 remains a cult classic for its suspenseful chases, shocking deaths, and eerie portrayal of Michael as an unstoppable evil force. Join us as we break down the kills, analyze the performances, and discuss how this entry shaped the future of the Halloween franchise! Follow Roxy Striar YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@TheWhirlGirls Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/roxystriar/?hl=en Twitter:  https://twitter.com/roxystriar Follow Tara Erickson: Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TaraErickson Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/taraerickson/ Twitter:  https://twitter.com/thetaraerickson Intense Suspense by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Apparel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ Follow Us On Socials:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/  Tik-Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@reelrejects?lang=en Twitter: https://x.com/reelrejects Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ Music Used In Ad:  Hat the Jazz by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Happy Alley by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! Head Editor: https://www.instagram.com/praperhq/?hl=en Co-Editor: Greg Alba Co-Editor: John Humphrey Music In Video: Airport Lounge - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ask Us A QUESTION On CAMEO: https://www.cameo.com/thereelrejects Follow TheReelRejects On FACEBOOK, TWITTER, & INSTAGRAM:  FB:  https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thereelrejects Follow GREG ON INSTAGRAM & TWITTER: INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/thegregalba/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thegregalba Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Daly Migs Download is here! Let's get going and talk about inspiration.

Aug. 15- 21: Who is Keyser Söze, Stephen Colbert's first show, Rachel McAdams has a bad flight, the Babysitter's Club goes big, an animated pigeon war movie, Jesse Eisenberg is a better hitman than Agent 47, Bill Hader and Fred Armisen make documentaries, the best country song ever, MTV gives up on rap, and the Six Feet Under finale makes at least one host cry on air. All that and more from 30, 20, and 10 years ago.

It's one of the most heated debates in craft beer culture: should kids be welcome in breweries, or should taprooms stay adults-only?In this episode of Arsenic Culture, Matt, Jason, Drew, and Pierre take on the “crotch goblin” question with their usual mix of humor and honesty. From breweries that embrace families to taprooms that feel like bars, the guys share their own takes as parents (and non-parents) on where kids do (and don't) belong in drinking spaces.Where do you stand: family-friendly breweries, or keep it 21+?#BreweryDebate #CraftBeerCulture #ArsenicCulturehttps://www.youtube.com/@arsenicculturehttps://instagram.com/arsenicculturehttps://tiktok.com/@arsenicculturehttps://www.facebook.com/arsenicculture/https://x.com/arsenicculture

In 1950, a teenage babysitter's frantic call to police was cut short by her brutal murder - a real-life horror that would evolve into one of America's most chilling urban legends and inspire countless retellings, including the classic horror-thriller film "When a Stranger Calls."Join the DARKNESS SYNDICATE: https://weirddarkness.com/syndicateTake the WEIRD DARKNESS LISTENER SURVEY and help mold the future of the podcast: https://weirddarkness.com/surveyIN THIS EPISODE: Joyce Vincent was a 38-year-old woman from London with a family and friends. So why did it take over two years for people to realize she had died? (No One Noticed She Was Dead) *** A castle in Scotland is so cursed that it has continued for several generations. (The Centuries Old Curse of Fyvie Castle) *** Year after year a 1950 photo from a German newspaper has continued to circulate amongst Ufologists and UFO enthusiasts. The story claims to show a short extraterrestrial humanoid standing next to two full-sized men. So why hasn't Germany admitted to the photo's validity? (The Little Green Man That Refused to Die) *** “The call is coming from inside the house.” These eight words have been uttered by countless children, and mark one of the most popular urban legends of all time. This legend, unfortunately, is rooted in a real unsolved murder case from 1950. (Who Killed Janett Christman)CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Lead-In, “The Babysitter”00:05:49.736 = Show Open00:07:37.828 = Who Killed Jannett Chrisman?00:22:16.562 = No One Noticed She Was Dead00:27:59.594 = The Centuries Old Curse of Fyvie Castle00:35:03.333 = The Little Green Man That Refused To Die00:38:53.371 = Show CloseSOURCES AND RESOURCES FROM THE EPISODE…“The Babysitter Urban Legend” analysis by David Emery for Live About: https://tinyurl.com/y982kbmo“Who Killed Janett Christman” by T.J. Greaney for Columbia Tribune: https://tinyurl.com/y8mbbhyq“No One Noticed She Was Dead” by Kara Goldfarb for All That's Interesting: https://tinyurl.com/ycwa7w8r“The Centuries Old Curse of Fyvie Castle” by A. Sutherland for Ancient Pages: https://tinyurl.com/y7dch3qz“The Little Green Man That Refused To Die” by Adam Gorightly for Chasing UFOs Blog: https://tinyurl.com/yaxm455z=====(Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)= = = = ="I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." — John 12:46= = = = =WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2025, Weird Darkness.=====Originally aired: October 29, 2022EPISODE PAGE at WeirdDarkness.com (includes list of sources): https://weirddarkness.com/WhenAStrangerCallsABOUT WEIRD DARKNESS: Weird Darkness is a true crime and paranormal podcast narrated by professional award-winning voice actor, Darren Marlar. Seven days per week, Weird Darkness focuses on all thing strange and macabre such as haunted locations, unsolved mysteries, true ghost stories, supernatural manifestations, urban legends, unsolved or cold case murders, conspiracy theories, and more. On Thursdays, this scary stories podcast features horror fiction along with the occasional creepypasta. Weird Darkness has been named one of the “Best 20 Storytellers in Podcasting” by Podcast Business Journal. Listeners have described the show as a cross between “Coast to Coast” with Art Bell, “The Twilight Zone” with Rod Serling, “Unsolved Mysteries” with Robert Stack, and “In Search Of” with Leonard Nimoy.DISCLAIMER: Ads heard during the podcast that are not in my voice are placed by third party agencies outside of my control and should not imply an endorsement by Weird Darkness or myself. *** Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised.NOTE: Some of this content may have been created with assistance from AI tools, but it has been reviewed, edited, narrated, produced, and approved by Darren Marlar, creator and host of Weird Darkness — who, despite popular conspiracy theories, is NOT an AI voice.#JanettChristman #WhenAStrangerCalls #TrueCrime #UnsolvedMurder #ColdCase #UrbanLegend #BabysitterMurder #1950sMurder #TrueCrimeStory #MurderMystery

Kelly Cook was a young girl who was abducted from Standard, Alta., 38 years ago. She had taken a job babysitting someone new — and then, she was gone. Her body was found June 28, 1981 in an irrigation canal south of Taber. Investigators said it was obvious someone had gone through a lot of work to make sure Kelly would never be found. In this rerelease of Kelly Cook The Backup Babysitter Global News senior crime reporter Nancy Hixt takes you through the abduction and murder of Kelly Cook Contact: Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@nancy.hixt⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/NancyHixtCrimeBeat/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Email: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠nancy.hixt@globalnews.ca⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're taking a break from new episodes this week, but we didn't want to leave you without something to watch over you. So consider us your trusty babysitters, keeping you entertained while you flip through your reading list. In honor of National Read a Book Day on September 6, we're giving you a Hot Take from our Season 9 episode, Best Baby-sitters Club Book. Want to hear more form this episode (originally released in August 25, 2024)? Click here to listen to the full episode. For more episodes, blogs, Top 10s, and more, ⁠⁠visit our website by clicking here. ⁠⁠Make sure to ⁠⁠SUBSCRIBE to the show⁠⁠ so you don't miss any upcoming episode. CREDITS: Editor: Bob Erlenback Intro/Outro Music: "Dance to My Tune" by Marc Torch #books #babysittersclub #bsc #annmmartin #youngreaders #80sbooks #90sbooks #teenbooks #keepoutclaudia #dawnandtheimpossiblethree #bscclaudia #bscdawn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Club has been humming along for two months until a spat of terrifying phone-based burglaries have our sitters sittin' scared! Also, it's Claudia time! Between gigs, she must repair her relationship with her sister and figure out how to catch the eye of the dreamiest poet around: Trevor Sandbourne.These episodes posted first for our Patreon supporters! If you want to hear the rest of them ahead of time (and a bunch of other stuff besides), visit Patreon.com/overduepod.Here's the full Sit Me Baby One More Time reading list:Kristy's Great IdeaClaudia and the Phantom Phone CallsThe Truth about StaceyMary Anne Saves the DayDawn and the Impossible ThreeHello, MalloryJessi's Secret LanguageWelcome to the BSC, AbbySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome!

The job seems simple—watch the kids, keep the house in order, and wait for the parents to come home. But sometimes, a night of babysitting turns into a nightmare you'll never forget. In this episode, hear real stories from babysitters who faced strange noises, terrifying phone calls, eerie figures in the dark, and children who weren't quite what they seemed. These are the nights that still haunt them… and might make you think twice before saying “yes” to your next babysitting gig.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/uncle-joshs-true-scary-stories--1977911/support.

Get ready for a jam-packed Wedding Q&A show, full of your planning questions & concerns!  Here's a sampling of what's on the menu this week: How much alcohol to buy? >>> click here for one of my favorite hosting tools ever (and tune in to my full answer for lots more helpful tips on the topic!) What can we expect for the price of flowers? Who pays for the bridal shower, & should I offer to help? >>> click here for blog post "Practical Bridal Shower Gift Ideas" Fiance doesn't want any wedding party at all, but I do.  How to proceed? Rehearsal dinner options are way too expensive.  Advice on making it more affordable? Should we hire a babysitter for our reception? What's a good way to ask for cash instead of gifts?  Spoiler alert, I don't think there's a "good" way, but creating cash funds that you can share on your gift registry is an option with Honeyfund.  There are no fees, and you can even link directly to your Venmo or PayPal accounts.   Do we have to seat wedding party members with their dates? Wedding questions on your mind, or topics you'd like to hear more about?  Submit your wedding questions here Thanks for being here, and we'll meet again next week! Cheers, Kara  

14-year-old honor student Chris Routh was a beloved babysitter for 23-month Emily Woodruff and her three-year-old brother, Hunter. On July 25, 2001, Emily suddenly stopped breathing while in Chris's care. Chris was charged with murder and child molestation. At trial the defense would present a dramatically different theory and call a witness who defied all expectations. “48 Hours" Correspondent Harold Dow reports. This classic "48 Hours" episode last aired on 5/7/2003. Watch all-new episodes of “48 Hours” on Saturdays, and stream on demand on Paramount+. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices