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  • The Globe and Mail names Bad Singer to most anticipated books list

    The Globe and Mail names Bad Singer to “most anticipated books” list

  • Bad Singer cover

    My next book, Bad Singer: The Surprising Science of Tone Deafness and How We Hear Music, will be out May 14, 2016. Here’s the cover.

  • Talking to the ‘rents about death

    Talking to the ‘rents about death Talking about how we want to die is not easy for anyone. But we do need to talk about it, as I argued in this piece for Hazlitt called “Bringing Death to the Table.” I wrote it in March 2015, a few weeks after the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that we have a […]

  • The dangerous pride of the innumerate journalist

    The dangerous pride of the innumerate journalist “I suck at math–that’s why I went into journalism” is a line I’ve heard for decades. And I’ve always hated it because journalism is no place for people who hate numbers and science to hide. After all, most good stories need numbers. So I wrote a little rant […]

  • What I loved listening to in 2014

    What I loved listening to in 2014 I’ve been doing an annual “middle-aged teenager picks his best music of the year” post for a while now. It’s always been a list, though I haven’t ranked my choices and the number of albums I picked varied. It wasn’t that I like lists so much — I don’t — […]

  • Definitely Not the Opera, Indeed

    Definitely Not the Opera, Indeed DNTO, or Definitely Not the Opera, the excellent CBC Radio show did an episode called “Raise your voice: why is singing so powerful?” on Thanksgiving weekend. I was part of it, talking about bad singing. The producer who did the pre-interview didn’t say anything about wanting me to sing, but once […]

  • “The Ballad of Tin Ears”

    “The Ballad of Tin Ears” As part of my Bad Singer book project, I helped make a radio doc called “The Ballad of Tin Ears” for CBC Radio Ideas. It airs Tuesday, May 6 at 9 pm on CBC 1. If that’s not a convenient time for you, the show is available for streaming anytime (also […]

  • Bad Singer Speaking Engagement

    Bad Singer Speaking Engagement I’m writing a book called Bad Singer. It won’t be out until 2015, but I guess it’s never too early to start the publicity. So I’m speaking at the Farmhouse Pottery Gallery and Cafe near Orangeville, Ontario, on May 1. Despite what this promotional material says, I won’t be singing. But […]

  • Drop the Worry Ball released again

    Drop the Worry Ball released again Because the publishing industry is weird, Drop the Worry Ball, the parenting book I helped psychologist Alex Russell write, is out again. With a new cover. From a new publisher. At a new lower price. Here’s what happened: Wiley, our original publisher, decided to get out of trade books […]

  • Spring 2014 issue of the Ryerson Review of Journalism

    Spring 2014 issue of the Ryerson Review of Journalism I said I wouldn’t do it again. In fact, in December, 2011, I wrote “A Fond Farewell,” a post saying goodbye to the Ryerson Review of Journalism after being the instructor on the award-winning magazine five times. But last September, I took the job again. And I’m glad […]