Big Names and Big Conversations

This is it, our last episode. So, we're going back to where TVO started: Queen's Park. Fifty years ago, the provincial broadcaster was created by former Minister of Education Bill Davis -and it still falls under the responsibility of that ministry.

Two former education ministers - Sandra Pupatello and Kathleen Wynne - and the former minister of training, colleges and universities, Dianne Cunningham, join Steve to gossip (remember when everyone thought Pupatello was cutting TVO's funding?) and swap stories.

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Lisa de Wilde was TVO's longest-serving chief executive, spending over 14 years in the job. Her main goal was to bring the broadcaster into the 21st century. She joins Steve Paikin to discuss leading the digital transformation, the difficult process of cancelling shows, and what it was like to work with a government bent on budget cuts.

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Ontario is massive - the riding of Kenora alone is almost the size of Germany. And despite what some Torontonians might tell you, the provincial capital is not the centre of the universe.

That's why former chair and CEO Isabel Bassett saw covering the entire province as a huge part of her mission. She joins Steve to discuss her term, pushing TVO to speak to all Ontarians, and what she learned along the way.

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What do you do when you are chair and CEO of a public broadcaster, and you hear your organization might be privatized? That was just one of the challenges Peter Herrndorf faced during his time at TVO. Steve speaks with Peter about his time at the helm and how he used backroom politics to keep the broadcaster public.

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When TVO launched in 1970, it had a mandate to educate Ontarians. It did that primarily by using television. Today the medium has evolved, but the mandate hasn't. Steve speaks with Karen Grose, who helped lead the digital transition, about adapting a legacy organization to new technology.

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The host of a television series gets a disproportionate amount of attention - both good and bad. The reality is that a team of producers and technical crew are responsible for getting a show to air. Steve speaks with producer Wodek Szemberg and makeup artist Diane Rowe, two of TVO's longest serving employees.

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TVO's documentary team creates and commissions films designed to delight and enlighten Ontarians. Executive producer of documentaries Jane Jankovic joins host Steve Paikin to discuss the broadcaster's long history of documentary production - and what comes next.

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For 15 years, "The Agenda" has offered in-depth coverage of issues that matter to Ontarians. Host Steve Paikin speaks with founding executive producer Dan Dunsky about the show's notoriously prickly first guest and the principles behind the program. Then, they debate who was the bigger diva: the executive producer or the host?

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Years ago, TVO was in a bit of a conundrum. It covered provincial affairs, but stories from beyond our borders also affected the lives of Ontarians. How could a small public broadcaster cover foreign affairs in a unique way?

On this episode, Steve Paikin speaks with Janice Stein, founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, who has been at the centre of TVO's foreign affairs coverage from the very beginning

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Maureen Taylor and Mary Ito remember the tiny set of TVO's phone-in talk show "More to Life" - but the conversation was much bigger. They join host Steve Paikin to discuss some memorable episodes, tackling tough conversations, and the time Steve guest-hosted the program while drunk.

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