The Weird Canadian

08/24/2026

What happens when AI can handle more tasks, but a founder still needs someone to understand context, catch mistakes, and own the result?

Renee Hastings, founder of Executive Help Now, joins The Weird Canadian for a direct conversation about AI and jobs, business automation, virtual assistants, and the human ex*****on layer that keeps work moving.

Renee argues that AI replaces tasks and workflows, not judgment. Cody presses her on the harder questions: which assistant role is changing fastest, why she refuses to automate her own team out of the business, how control issues keep founders trapped in follow-up, and what `trust but verify` means when AI touches daily operations.

The conversation also covers:
- AI delegation for small business
- Human-in-the-loop AI and accountability
- Founder burnout and letting go of control
- Billing for capacity instead of the clock
- Renee's path from the executive office to entrepreneurship
- Growing up in an Amish community as part of the only Black family for miles
- Using AI for dreams, reflection, and difficult questions

GUEST
Executive Help Now: https://executivehelpnow.org
Livestream Editors: https://livestreameditors.com
Renee on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reneehastings17/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/executivehelpnow/
Renee Speaks podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/renee-speaks/id1710622671

WATCH ON YOUTUBE
https://youtu.be/lcAyE6GGDWE

SPONSORS
PodMatch: https://www.joinpodmatch.com/the_weird_canadian
Async: https://async.com/?ref=zjdlyzn

Disclosure: The PodMatch and Async links are affiliate links. I may earn a commission if you sign up through them.

Episodes, sources, and more: https://theweirdcanadian.ca
Official Rumble channel: https://rumble.com/user/TheWeirdCanadian

Renee's statements and examples reflect her perspective in this interview. This episode is a general business discussion, not legal, financial, employment, medical, or mental health advice.

08/23/2026

If you've ever pirated a movie, song, TV show, video game, software, book, etc., you are never be allowed to complain about how AI used your data

08/23/2026

A 50% U.S. duty is now live on Canadian goods, and the people who pay for it first will never show up in a national statistic. 🇨🇦

The Weird Canadian's new report reads the primary documents themselves: the proclamations, the CBP guidance, and the actual U.S. customs list, line by line. The picture for the communities on that list is ugly.

👉 Up to 90,000 jobs at risk if the duties persist. Ontario about 36,000. Quebec about 18,000. B.C. about 11,000. Alberta about 9,000 through service links.

👉 In the hardest-hit industries, up to a fifth of production and jobs are exposed. For a single-industry town, that is not a statistic. That is the mill.

👉 There is no expiry date. Section 338 duties run until a court, a deal, or a proclamation stops them.

👉 Ottawa's answer cuts both ways: from about September 8, the $20B counter-tariff starts nudging up prices on listed U.S. goods. Carney himself admits it "will raise costs and reduce choice for Canadians."

👉 And if a layoff comes, the first EI payment still takes about 28 days to arrive, waived waiting week or not.

Ottawa says Washington "asked too much and offered too little." Washington says Canada declined to finalize what was on the table. Both stories are self-serving. Both cannot be the whole truth.

The report doesn't pick the villain. You get to. Whose failure is this, and is a dollar-for-dollar counter strength or self-harm? Drop it in the comments 👇

Worried your job or your town is on the list? The full report walks the customs annex line by line so you can check.

https://theweirdcanadian.substack.com/p/tariffs-at-the-kitchen-table-what

08/23/2026

08/20/2026

Your employees may already be using AI tools the business never approved. That does not automatically make them reckless. It may mean the approved tools do not let them finish the work.

Cody speaks with Dr. Margaret Cunningham, VP of Security & AI Strategy and Field CISO at Darktrace, about shadow AI in business, AI-powered phishing, human behaviour in cybersecurity, data classification, access controls, and the difference between an LLM and an AI agent.

The practical lesson is to start with visibility. Understand which tools people use, identify the company's crown-jewel data, limit who can access or edit the context behind AI systems, and provide safer alternatives that meet the real need. Blocking every unapproved tool without fixing the workflow can push the same behaviour further into the shadows.

Guest links:
- Darktrace profile: https://www.darktrace.com/people/margaret-cunningham-phd
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/margaret-cunningham-phd/
- Darktrace: https://www.darktrace.com

Episode partners:
- PodMatch: https://www.joinpodmatch.com/the_weird_canadian
- Async: https://async.com/?ref=zjdlyzn
- Plaud: https://www.plaud.ai/products/plaud-note-ai-voice-recorder

Disclosure: The PodMatch and Async links are affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission if you sign up through them.

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwvKSUD5np8

New episodes from The Weird Canadian every Monday and Wednesday. Subscribe and stay weird.

This interview is for education and general discussion. Security, privacy, and compliance decisions should be evaluated for your organization's systems, data, risk, and legal obligations.