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Nick Hune-Brown

@nickhunebrown

Toronto magazine writer and executive editor @thelocal.to. Here for smart long-form articles and dumb basketball posts. Email nick@thelocal.to

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28.09.2023
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Latest posts by Nick Hune-Brown @nickhunebrown

Preview
The Talented Ms. Goldiee Podcast Episode · Question Everything · March 5 · 28m

On today's Question Everything, a magazine editor tries to solve a mystery -- is one of his freelancers trying to trick him? Check out "The Talented Ms. Goldiee" with @nickhunebrown.bsky.social from @thelocal.to

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/q...

05.03.2026 15:50 👍 7 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
Preview
The Talented Ms. Goldiee Podcast Episode · Question Everything · March 5 · 28m

Got to make an audio version of my @thelocal.to AI journalism scammer story for one of my favourite podcasts, Question Everything.
Show: www.kcrw.com/shows/questi...
Apple: podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/q...

05.03.2026 14:33 👍 3 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0

Come cover the municipal elections with us this fall! Very proud of what we've built with The Local Fellowship program, and excited about adding a photography fellow this year. Share with your early-career journalist friends, and feel free to message me with questions.

04.03.2026 16:26 👍 2 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
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The Province Took Over Ontario’s Biggest School Boards to Fix Their Finances. The Numbers Tell a Different Story | The Local Analysis by The Local shows Ontario’s largest boards receive some of the lowest per-pupil funding in the province—raising questions about whether the real problem is mismanagement or the funding formu...

No one covering the province's school board takeovers like @wencyleung.bsky.social at @thelocal.to. thelocal.to/ontario-scho...

04.03.2026 14:00 👍 16 🔁 7 💬 1 📌 0
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The kids slowly arriving back at the shinny rink, nature is healing, etc

22.02.2026 16:54 👍 14 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
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Health811 Promises 24/7 Health Advice—If You Can Wait | The Local Data obtained through freedom of information requests show wait times have increased dramatically since Health811 replaced Telehealth Ontario, peaking at a monthly average of more than 11 hours.

Health811 is touted as a way to provide Ontarians with free, 24/7 health advice, writes @wencyleung.bsky.social. But data obtained by The Local shows wait times have risen dramatically since 2022, and it’s unclear where callers end up once they do speak with someone. thelocal.to/health811-te...

12.02.2026 12:55 👍 10 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 3

The fake AI journalists are only getting worse

11.02.2026 16:27 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Preview
When Your Dermatologist Becomes a Salesperson | The Local Getting a mole checked can takes months, but Botox appointments are readily available. Why dermatologists say their practice is the canary in the coal mine for privatized care.

Getting a mole checked can takes months, but Botox appointments are readily available. @rebeccaga0.bsky.social on why dermatologists say their practice is the canary in the coal mine for privatized care. thelocal.to/dermatology-...

10.02.2026 12:29 👍 16 🔁 11 💬 0 📌 2

Tuning into Olympics coverage takes me from “who is Hashimoto?” to, three minutes later: “wow, this really isn’t like Hashimoto.”

27.07.2024 22:12 👍 772 🔁 128 💬 2 📌 6
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Understanding the Eglinton Crosstown in Seven Illustrations | The Local From Shohei Ohtani’s salary to the tunneling rate of a mole—an unorthodox guide to the numbers behind Toronto’s newest transit line.

The tunnelling rate of a mole, Kardashian career-spans, Jamaican patties-per-capita—we had to pull out unorthodox units of measurement to understand the Eglinton Crosstown. Amazing art by the great @michaeldeforge.bsky.social. thelocal.to/understandin...

07.02.2026 13:58 👍 21 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 1
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How Ontario’s Corporate Pharmacies Are Burning Out Their Pharmacists | The Local At corporate pharmacies like Shoppers Drug Mart, pharmacists say they face overwhelming pressure from their parent companies to perform medically unnecessary tasks in the interest of profit.

Ontario's corporate pharmacies, like Shoppers Drug Mart, have faced allegations of overworking their pharmacists and setting high targets for medically unnecessary tasks to bolster profits. The resulting burnout, @kunalchaudhary.bsky.social writes, is an impending crisis. thelocal.to/shoppers-dru...

06.02.2026 13:12 👍 25 🔁 22 💬 3 📌 3
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Meet Gabrielle McMann, Our Yearlong Journalism Fellow | The Local The emerging journalist is our first early-career fellow, in partnership with The Philanthropist Journal

We're thrilled to introduce Gabrielle McMann, our yearlong early career fellow in partnership with @thephilanthropist.ca! Over the course of this year, Gabrielle will be working together with the Local team, learning the craft of magazine-style community journalism. thelocal.to/gabrielle-mc...

04.02.2026 13:34 👍 14 🔁 6 💬 0 📌 2
Graph of WaPo numbers versus the New York times that shows a drop off in late 2024

Graph of WaPo numbers versus the New York times that shows a drop off in late 2024

You can see the exact moment in October 2024, as readership is headed for an upswing, when Bezos cans the Kamala endorsement and the Washington Post loses 10 percent of subscribers. The solution, of course, is to fire all the reporters. www.natesilver.net/p/the-sad-an...

04.02.2026 15:35 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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Inside the Booming Industry Selling Lifestyle Drugs Online | The Local From erectile dysfunction medicine to hair loss treatment to weight loss drugs—a thriving online market has emerged to seamlessly deliver drugs straight to your door. But what happens when prescriptio...

I had a lot of questions about the millions of online pharmacy ads that have popped up in recent years, hawking hair loss treatment and ED medication and weight loss drugs. @royinori.bsky.social answered them! thelocal.to/online-pharm...

03.02.2026 15:03 👍 3 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 0
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Saving Rhea Seegobin | The Local For the growing number of Canadians who will get cancer in their lifetimes, the financial stress can be profound. But despite her terminal diagnosis, with the support of her community, Rhea is determi...

"It’s a certainty there will be active cancer somewhere in her body—in her brain, in her liver, in her bones—for the rest of her life, however long that may be."

@wencyleung.bsky.social @thelocal.to

thelocal.to/cost-of-canc...

30.01.2026 17:19 👍 6 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 0
Preview
how an editor uncovered an AI journalist Podcast Episode · kill switch · 01/28/2026 · 33m

I had fun talking about AI journalism and Victoria Goldiee on the kill switch podcast. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/h...

28.01.2026 14:17 👍 4 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 1
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Rhea Seegobin Can’t Afford Terminal Cancer | The Local For the growing number of Canadians who will get cancer in their lifetimes, the financial stress can be profound. But despite her terminal diagnosis, with the support of her community, Rhea is determi...

So much going on, but make time for this piece by @wencyleung.bsky.social. A gorgeous, surprisingly uplifting story that tackles an enormous subject, really the biggest subject, and tells is with such careful intimacy. thelocal.to/cost-of-canc... #longreads

27.01.2026 14:21 👍 20 🔁 7 💬 1 📌 2

How many journalists did Jeff Bezos fire while paying $40 million for an authorized Melania documentary

26.01.2026 20:29 👍 335 🔁 91 💬 16 📌 5

You have to read this. Firsthand affidavit from one of the women who was there and recording the video. She talks about how Alex Pretti was directing traffic when she arrived. She watched him be killed in front of her. She's afraid to go home, worried she'll be arrested.

25.01.2026 01:15 👍 23337 🔁 11269 💬 440 📌 692
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Live: Man shot by federal agent in south Minneapolis this morning, witnesses say More than a hundred protesters and observers have gathered near E. 26th Street and Nicollet Avenue.

There’s video floating around. You don’t want to watch it.

News feed will be updated continuously. No paywall.

www.startribune.com/ice-raids-mi...

24.01.2026 15:48 👍 1611 🔁 837 💬 45 📌 89
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And How Will You Be Paying for Your Baby Today? | The Local When I first came to the pediatrics unit as an idealistic medical student, I ran into an uncomfortable reality about our universal health-care system.

When Gautham Krishnaraj first came to the pediatrics unit as an idealistic medical student, he was immediately confronted with a piece of hospital equipment he’d never expected to see—a credit card processor. thelocal.to/uninsured-bi...

23.01.2026 13:50 👍 9 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 2
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How Privatized Cataract Surgery Helped Ontario’s Wealthiest—and Left Others Behind | The Local Why a routine surgery offers a window into the possible future of care in this province.

In 2020, Ontario began pushing some of its publicly funded cataract surgeries into private, for-profit clinics. Why what happened next, writes @alisonmotluk.bsky.social, offers a window into the possible future of care in this province. thelocal.to/cataract-sur...

22.01.2026 13:30 👍 24 🔁 22 💬 1 📌 3

I'll be talking AI and journalism at this CJF online panel later today. Should be interesting!

22.01.2026 14:10 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Preview
How Privatized Cataract Surgery Helped Ontario’s Wealthiest—and Left Others Behind | The Local Why a routine surgery offers a window into the possible future of care in this province.

Launching our "Cost of Care" issue @thelocal.to today, about the places where money and medicine collide. Here's @alisonmotluk.bsky.social writing the best, clearest thing I've seen on what a routine surgery says about the possible future of care. thelocal.to/cataract-sur...

22.01.2026 13:55 👍 21 🔁 17 💬 0 📌 1

Great, startling data story out in The Local today about the growing number of underqualified personnel working in child care roles across the province. No standardized qualifications = no universally understood practices of care & no accountability when existing standards aren't met.

20.01.2026 20:33 👍 10 🔁 8 💬 0 📌 0

Yeah, not any better a year later

18.01.2026 01:51 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Richard Warnica: In Minnesota, I witnessed Donald Trump’s American carnage made real As confrontations between ICE and protestors and activists grow more common, the tension only rises.

I spent the week in Minneapolis. About the only thing I’m sure of now is that more people are going to die. www.thestar.com/opinion/star...

16.01.2026 12:43 👍 539 🔁 269 💬 16 📌 19

"At best, this is all a very weird misunderstanding, and there's simply another journalist named Nicole Carpenter who has no online presence whatsoever... At worst, Modern Newsstand is using the names of verifiable journalists to make its work look trustworthy."

16.01.2026 03:04 👍 13 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 0

Oh geez, fascinating, thanks

16.01.2026 02:50 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0