About Cost of Living

Air Times

CBC Radio One
Sundays at 12:05 p.m. (12:35 p.m. NT)
Rebroadcast Tuesdays at 11:31a.m.

Sirius XM
Sundays at12:05p.m. ET and 11:05 p.m. ET
Mondays at 4:07p.m. ET
Tuesdays at 11:31a.m. ET

About the show

The Cost of Living s money how it makes (or breaks) us.We untangle the economic forces at play and transform our understanding of how money shapes our lives.

Discover how everyday decisions connect with the larger economy in ways big, small, good, bad, obvious and unseen onThe Cost of Living.

About the team

Paul Haavardsrud, Host

Paul Haavardsrud has been a business reporter for most of his career, starting in print with Dow Jones, the Financial Post, and the Calgary Herald before taking to the airwaves with CBC Radio in 2010. Paul grew up in the windiest part of southern Alberta and in Grade 11 hit the game-winning 3 in the Crescent Heights Cowboys Invitational basketball tournament. No big deal. He doesn't really bring it up that much unless it comes up organically in conversation.

Paul has a wide variety of interests as illustrated by his four (?!) university degrees, ranging from commerce to English lit to journalism. He's ghost written two Canadian non-fiction best sellers covering two of his favourite topics, economics and sports.

He loves basketball and Joan Didion. Roughly 11 per cent of the things he says are also quotes from The Big Lebowski. More than anything, he loves his twin daughters, who are, empirically, the cutest children in the world.

Jennifer Keene, Senior Producer

Jennifer started her career with CBC Edmonton, after being asked to write an opinion piece arguing that Fringe Theatre Festivals are a bad idea. She did although she didn't believe a word of it. Since then, she's worked as an arts reporter, writer-broadcaster, and senior producer. She has written and produced documentaries about everything from the Keystone XL pipeline to Fraggle Rock. She also wrote and produced the true crime podcast, "Ambushed".

Jen has never written another opinion piece, although she is always happy to argue either side of any issue, which is,she is sure,delightful for her colleagues. She has two daughters who are the best thing in her world, and a small dog who reminds her constantly that she is a cat person at heart.

Danielle Nerman, Producer

Danielle grew up in Vancouver, but left at the ripe age of 18 to swim with sharks in Australia, Fiji and the Cook Islands. After being stung several times by jellyfish, she abandoned the idea of becoming a career scuba diving instructor and moved back to Canada to attend the journalism program at Carleton University.

After graduation, Danielle loaded her belongings in the trunk of her hatchback and drove from Ottawa to CBC Fredericton for a summer gig as a reporter. She was eventually lured west by CBC Radio in Calgary, and has been firmly planted in the city since 2004. Over the years she's won awards for her radio documentaries and has taken leave to work as a journalist in China, Japan and Mongolia.

When Danielle is not swimming, cooking or growing garlic she's burning turns on ski hills with her husband and young daughter who is very loud, clever and free-spirited. Danielle has no idea where her daughter inherited those personality traits from.

Tracy Johnson, Executive Producer

Tracy started her career working as a trader for one of Canada's banks while moonlighting as a freelance writer for the Report on Business Magazine, Chatelaine, and Salon.com, among others. Admittedly, public radio isn't the typical trajectory from a trading job but she's been happy (if somewhat poorer) ever since, working to make business and economics stories relevant and entertaining to Canadians.

She has three lovely kids, including a set of twins, so she has lots of advice for Paul, which he really appreciates.

Images from Animoji by iOS, Apple Inc.