Sept. 14, 2026

New Episodes, 2026 Wildfire Recap, Gary Stronach’s Story and New Canadian Training

Send us Fan Mail This Quickbits update is packed. Tim shares details on two new episodes - including Gary Stronach’s powerful story of returning home after a major wildfire where homes on both sides of his property were destroyed, and Jenn McEachen’s upcoming accessibility video episode featuring an ASL interpreter. Tim also announces the relaunch of CanadianTraining.ca, now home to dozens of courses including the 12‑week Operational Communications program and the Become the Broadcaster works...

Show Notes
Transcript

Send us Fan Mail

This Quickbits update is packed. Tim shares details on two new episodes - including Gary Stronach’s powerful story of returning home after a major wildfire where homes on both sides of his property were destroyed, and Jenn McEachen’s upcoming accessibility video episode featuring an ASL interpreter.

Tim also announces the relaunch of CanadianTraining.ca, now home to dozens of courses including the 12‑week Operational Communications program and the Become the Broadcaster workshop. Pre‑sales are open, with a 30% discount using the code COMMUNICATIONSPODCAST.

This episode also marks a major milestone: 30 podcast episodes, over 24 hours of audio, and 16 hours of video. Tim recaps his summer wildfire fieldwork, including footage from three mega‑fires with helicopter and fixed‑wing attacks.

Finally, he invites listeners to submit guest ideas and future episode topics at CommunicationsPodcast.com.

Short, sharp, and full of momentum - a snapshot of everything happening across the Wildfires, Floods & Chaos Communications podcast.

Visit www.communicationspodcast.com for more detailed show info including photos and videos.

00:00:00:01 - 00:00:22:19
Tim Conrad
Hey, Hi dee. Weytk Weytkp. Hola. It's Tim Conrad of the Wildfires, Floods and Chaos Communications podcast here with a Quick Bits update. New episodes! First up is Gary Stronach, who was evacuated during my first major wildfire 18 years ago. Gary shares a unique perspective on returning home, where properties on both sides of his home were destroyed.

00:00:22:23 - 00:00:48:15
Gary Stronach
the Friday night I got ahold of my brother in law, who lives on the other side of the lake, and he was a fireman and a volunteer fire department. And I came in, I came into his house, I walked in the road, walked police coverage down to the bottom of the road. The cop was standing there and I just walked, walked in and I walked down to his house.

00:00:48:21 - 00:01:12:02
Gary Stronach
We we talked about what's going on and all that, and we went down to the end of the road and met with the another RCMP officer who filled us in on where trucks were and what they were doing, and how they had to pull back from the fire in a hurry, because it was when it came over the hill.

00:01:12:04 - 00:01:17:16
Gary Stronach
It was it was big. It was fast. It was scary.

00:01:17:21 - 00:01:22:01
Tim Conrad
Gary shares stories of community resilience and changes over the years.

00:01:22:05 - 00:01:26:01
Tim Conrad
You'll hear the audio episode from him this week.

00:01:26:03 - 00:01:52:06
Tim Conrad
Next up is Jenn McEachen with a video episode about accessibility. Jen's audio episode has been the most popular this year, and I'm happy to share that her video episode will include an ace interpreter. Watch for both episodes at www.CommunicationsPodcast.com. Over the next week, sometime ago, I teased a new online training platform I was building.

00:01:52:08 - 00:01:56:18
Tim Conrad
And then, well, life took a wicked turn and I parked it for over a year.

00:01:56:22 - 00:02:09:07
Tim Conrad
Canadian Training is designed for Canadian course creators and learners from everywhere. A place where you can come and learn to grow together. I have my first set of courses available, including an intensive

00:02:09:10 - 00:02:22:11
Tim Conrad
12 week operational communications course that shows you how to build more with less. It launches in October, and this will take all of the lessons that you've learned from other training and education.

00:02:22:11 - 00:02:38:00
Tim Conrad
Package them into action so you can get more communication out there more often on your own channels. Learn more about the Operational Communications course at www.CanadianTraining.ca Pre-sales have already opened. Become the

00:02:38:00 - 00:02:49:20
Tim Conrad
is a workshop I created years ago that is highly rated by those who have taken it. You can now take it online and learn how to create and broadcast content across multiple platforms.

00:02:50:01 - 00:03:04:06
Tim Conrad
It also includes an additional workshop with all the camera equipment, mix and lights you need to get you started. Plus lessons on how to use them, that's kind of handy. Become the Broadcaster is also open for pre-sales at CanadianTraining.ca

00:03:04:08 - 00:03:10:06
Tim Conrad
You'll find dozens of courses available over there at Canadian Training, including baby massage, dog grooming, and health and safety.

00:03:10:07 - 00:03:13:09
Tim Conrad
It's a little bit of everything, so keep checking back often.

00:03:13:11 - 00:03:25:20
Tim Conrad
Use the code in all Caps COMMUNICATIONSPODCAST. That's cCOMMUNICATIONS with an S PODCAST. All one word, all in all caps. Get 30% off most courses over at CanadianTraining.ca.

00:03:25:22 - 00:03:40:14
Tim Conrad
Watch for an upcoming episode reviewing the 2026 wildfire season in Canada. It was one to watch for new practices, challenges and results, and I've collected a load of information to share and some of it will be kind of surprising.

00:03:40:16 - 00:04:05:12
Tim Conrad
We had a big podcast milestone this summer, 30 episodes. Now, you may not know, but most podcasts never make it to three episodes. So getting to 30 has been a full team effort and it took two years of wandering and learning. So thank you for being there and joining me along this path. Today. We have over 24 hours of audio content available and over 16 hours of video podcasts.

00:04:05:14 - 00:04:14:18
Tim Conrad
We've posted more content this year than ever before and more is coming. That includes some footage. I was so excited to capture this summer.

00:04:14:20 - 00:04:31:02
Tim Conrad
I'd been out there to three wildfires where I captured mega fires and helicopter and airplane attacks in action. You can find them and most of that other stuff at the Butterfly Effect Communications channels. You'll see it on the our YouTube channel and on our TikTok.

00:04:31:04 - 00:04:40:23
Tim Conrad
In the meantime, I'm looking for your guest topic and show ideas to share knowledge on future episodes. Jump over to www.CommunicationsPodcast.com to learn more.

00:04:41:01 - 00:04:42:11
Tim Conrad
Goodbye. Hear me later.