Most men have been taught to handle it themselves. The problem is that silence has a cost.

And Canada's Minister of Health — a woman, no less — isn't willing to stay quiet about it.

Loneliness gets brushed off as nothing. The pressure to "be strong" gets handed down to sons and grandsons. Addiction and suicide rates climb, and warning signs get missed because no one was ever supposed to ask for help in the first place.

In this episode of the Don't Change Much Podcast, hosts Mike Cameron and Trevor Botkin sit down with the Honourable Marjorie Michel to talk about the federal consultation on a national Men and Boys Health Strategy, and why she decided this was a challenge worth picking.

What started as a series of cross-country conversations turned into a wake-up call. Hon. Minister Michel shares how the same word kept coming up, trip after trip, across trades workers, fathers, and Indigenous communities alike, and how that pattern convinced her — a self-described lifelong feminist — that men's health needed its own seat at the table. The conversation moves through loneliness, the pressure to perform masculinity, the addiction and suicide statistics she can't ignore as Canada’s Health Minister, and why she believes progress for men and progress for women aren't in competition with each other.

You'll hear:

• Why the Minister calls herself "the holistic Minister of Health"
• How a pattern of conversations on the road turned into a national consultation
• The link between trades work, injury, and addiction
• Why men need space to talk without women in the room, and why that's not a "boys' club"
• What the Minister wants every man and boy to know about asking for help

Because no policy, no government, and no single person can carry this alone. Sometimes leadership just means opening the door to a conversation that's long overdue.

Get your Suspenders On this June. Wear them. Share why. Donate. Invite others.

Tag @menshealthfdn #SuspendersOn #NeverAlone #MensHealthMonth

Donate to Suspenders On: https://menshealthfoundation.ca/canadian-mens-health-month/

Follow Canadian Health Minister Marjorie Michel

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/marjoriemichelplc/

Follow Canadian Men's Health Foundation
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/menshealthfdn/
Facebook - https://facebook.com/menshealthfoundation

Follow Mike Cameron
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mikecameron.ca/
YouTube - https://youtube.com/mikecameronspeaks
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/mikedavidcameron/
Website - https://mikecameron.ca/

Follow Trevor Botkin
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/gsnscreative
Muster Point IG - https://www.instagram.com/the_musterpoint
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/gsnscreative
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevor-botkin-869ab5143/

Support Men & Their Familes: https://menshealthfoundation.ca/donate/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Most men know when something isn't right. The problem is they often wait.

A checkup gets pushed to next month. A difficult conversation gets delayed. The little voice in the back of the head gets ignored until it can't be ignored anymore.

This June, the Canadian Men's Health Foundation is asking Canadians to get their Suspenders On — a simple visual reminder that men are never meant to carry everything alone. In this episode, Mike Cameron and Trevor Botkin sit down with the men behind the campaign: Graham Love and John Armstrong of Armstrong Strategy Group, who built Suspenders On from the ground up, and Andrew Jackson of Jackson Events, who's helping rally NHL alumni and other Canadian athletes to put their suspenders on too.

The idea started six weeks before launch, in a brainstorm at the Armstrong office. Graham thought of his grandfather — a Glaswegian shipbuilder who wore suspenders so often the marks were on his back. The image stuck, the campaign followed.

What the conversation reveals is everything underneath it.

John Armstrong tells the story of a pact he made with a colleague who needed to see a doctor: if you go, I'll go. The appointment that followed caught John's prostate cancer in time.

Graham wears his suspenders for his brother Andrew, who died of liver cancer in 2022 and who Graham believes might still be here if anyone had nudged him sooner.

Andrew Jackson opens up about a friend who made him promise to see a doctor before he died of stomach cancer at 56, about losing hockey alumnus Claude Lemieux just days before recording, and about a moment in his own office when a colleague asked him what the hell is wrong with you, and he finally let it out.

Some of what they talk about:

• The joke that captures the whole campaign: "Women go to the doctor for the same reason men don't; in case there's something wrong"
• Why high performers in sports, business, and the trades are especially good at carrying things they shouldn't
• The relief that arrives the moment a man finally says it out loud
• How "I'll deal with it later" becomes the most dangerous sentence in men's health

Get your Suspenders On this June. Wear them. Share why. Donate. Invite others.

Tag @menshealthfdn #SuspendersOn #NeverAlone #MensHealthMonth

Donate to Suspenders On: https://menshealthfoundation.ca/canadian-mens-health-month/

Follow Armstrong Strategy Group

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/armstrong-strategy-group/

Follow Jackson Events

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jacksoneventsinc/

Follow Mike Cameron

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mikecameron.ca/

YouTube - https://youtube.com/mikecameronspeaks

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/mikedavidcameron/

Website - https://mikecameron.ca/

Follow Trevor Botkin

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/gsnscreative

Muster Point IG - https://www.instagram.com/the_musterpoint

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/gsnscreative

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevor-botkin-869ab5143/

Support Men & Their Familes: https://menshealthfoundation.ca/donate/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Content note: This episode discusses suicide and medical assistance in dying. Support: call or text 9-8-8 anytime in Canada.

Zack Heil was at a Subway in Hamilton at 1am when something small changed his life. A homeless woman couldn't afford her sub. He bought it for her, and she told him no one had ever done that for her before. He went home and started a men's mental health movement that night. He's 19.

Trevor McLaughlin is on the other side of the conversation. In 2022, he applied for therapy in Ontario and was told the wait was 14 months. His next phone call was to ask how to apply for medical assistance in dying. He's still here. In June 2027, he's biking 8,200 kilometres across Canada with a campaign called Annihilate the Walls.

Hosts Mike Cameron and Trevor Botkin sit down with both of them. Two men recognizing each other across a twelve-year gap. One figuring it out in real time. And the other who's been to the bottom and back.

This episode kicks off Canadian Men's Health Month. Get your Suspenders On for the men in your life. Wear them. Share why. Donate. Invite others.

Donate: https://menshealthfoundation.ca/canadian-mens-health-month/

#SuspendersOn #NeverAlone #MensHealthMonth

SUPPORT THE GUESTS

Call Your Bros

https://menshealthfoundation.ca/campaign/support-mens-health/fundraiser/102/

Annihilate the Walls

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Annihilate-the-Walls-Ride/61585270212812/|

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/atwride2027/

SUPPORT THIS PODCAST AND CANADIAN MEN'S HEALTH FOUNDATION https://menshealthfoundation.ca/donate/

Follow Mike Cameron

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mikecameron.ca/

YouTube - https://youtube.com/mikecameronspeaks

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/mikedavidcameron/

Website - https://mikecameron.ca/

Follow Trevor Botkin

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/gsnscreative

Muster Point IG - https://www.instagram.com/the_musterpoint

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/gsnscreative

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevor-botkin-869ab5143/

Support Men & Their Familes: https://menshealthfoundation.ca/donate/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Fatherhood does not come with a manual. For a lot of men, it comes with pressure, fear, old patterns, and the quiet belief that they are supposed to figure it out on their own.

In this episode of the Don’t Change Much Podcast, hosts Mike Cameron and Trevor Botkin sit down with Brandon Hay and Dr. David Kuhl for a grounded conversation about fatherhood, community, and the places men finally talk. Mike brings the lens of a proud father watching his son step into adulthood, while Trevor connects the conversation to recovery, ceremony, and the power of finding yourself in a room with other men who understand.

Brandon shares the work behind Black Daddies Club, Sunday Dinners, barbershop conversations, hikes, and community spaces built with Black fathers and men, not for them from a distance. David adds his perspective on why men’s health support works best when it goes where men already are and creates the right conditions for honesty.

Together, they explore what happens when men have spaces where the mask can come down, mentorship can happen naturally, and fatherhood can be figured out in community.

You’ll hear:

• Why fatherhood can feel isolating, even when men care deeply
• How community spaces help men speak honestly without forcing it
• Why support has to be built with men, not handed down to them
• How mentorship, food, ceremony, and shared experience can change what men believe is possible

This is a conversation about men, fatherhood, and connection. Not a lecture. Not a fix. Just a reminder that men do not have to figure it all out alone

Support This Podcast and Canadian Men's Health Foundation

https://menshealthfoundation.ca/donate/

Follow Brandon Hay

• Black Daddies Club - https://theblackdaddiesclub.com/
• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/brandonhay8
• TedX - Redefining Fatherhood - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__OVH9UnDVk&
• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-hay-mes-business-021a332a/

Follow Canadian Men’s Health Foundation

• Website - https://menshealthfoundation.ca/
• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/menshealthfdn/
• Facebook - https://facebook.com/menshealthfoundation

Follow Mike Cameron

• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mikecameron.ca/
• Youtube - https://youtube.com/mikecameronspeaks
• Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/mikedavidcameron/
• X - Mike Cameron (@axiommike) / X
• LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/mikecameron
  Website - https://mikecameron.ca/
  TedX Talk - https://www.ted.com/talks/mike_cameron_redefining_badass_the_way_we_think_about_strong_is_wrong

Follow Trevor Botkin

• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/gsnscreative
• Muster Point IG - https://www.instagram.com/the_musterpoint
• Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/gsnscreative
• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevor-botkin-869ab5143/

Support Men & Their Familes: https://menshealthfoundation.ca/donate/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Why are so many young men turning to the internet for answers?

For a lot of guys, the search starts with something simple.

A question about success. A question about relationships. A question about who they’re supposed to be.

But it doesn’t take long before that search leads them into something bigger.

The manosphere.

A world of content that promises clarity, confidence, and control.

But often comes with a very different cost.

In this episode of the Don’t Change Much Podcast, hosts Mike Cameron and Trevor Botkin sit down with Dr. Paul Sharp, a researcher focused on men’s health and identity, to break down what’s really happening.

They talk about why so many men feel lost right now. The role of social media algorithms in shaping beliefs. And why this content is spreading faster than ever.

Because the reality is, most men aren’t looking for extremes.

They’re looking for connection. They’re looking for belonging. They’re looking for answers.

And when they don’t find that in real life, they go online.

This conversation explores what draws men in, what keeps them there, and what we can do differently.

Because this isn’t just about the internet.

It’s about identity. It’s about community. It’s about what it means to be a man today.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why the manosphere is growing and who it’s reaching
• How algorithms amplify extreme content over time
• What young men are really searching for online
• The impact of isolation and lack of connection
• Why traditional ideas of masculinity are being challenged
• How real-world relationships can counter online influence
• Simple ways to build stronger, more meaningful connections

Support This Podcast and Canadian Men's Health Foundation

https://menshealthfoundation.ca/donate/

Follow Dr. Paul Sharp

• Podcast - https://open.spotify.com/show/5rSzbqlPjESA63g75f1xgl
• Website - https://www.unsw.edu.au/staff/paul-sharp

Follow Canadian Men’s Health Foundation

• Website - https://menshealthfoundation.ca/
• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/menshealthfdn/
• Facebook - https://facebook.com/menshealthfoundation

Follow Mike Cameron

• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mikecameron.ca/
• Youtube - https://youtube.com/mikecameronspeaks
• Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/mikedavidcameron/
• X - Mike Cameron (@axiommike) / X
• LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/mikecameron
  Website - https://mikecameron.ca/
  TedX Talk - https://www.ted.com/talks/mike_cameron_redefining_badass_the_way_we_think_about_strong_is_wrong

Follow Trevor Botkin

• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/gsnscreative
• Muster Point IG - https://www.instagram.com/the_musterpoint
• Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/gsnscreative
• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevor-botkin-869ab5143/

Support Men & Their Familes: https://menshealthfoundation.ca/donate/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“I got this.”

For a lot of men, those three words feel like strength.

But they can also be the loneliest words you’ll ever say.

The “I got this” mentality often starts as resilience, but can turn into isolation. Learning to speak up, lean on others, and build support can actually make you stronger.

In this episode of the Don’t Change Much Podcast, hosts Mike Cameron and Trevor Botkin sit down with Shawn Underhill and James Boseley. Two men who’ve spent years working in the trades and construction industry and know firsthand what it means to push through pain, stay silent, and carry more than they should.

They share real stories from the job site. Long hours. Injuries. Chronic pain. Pressure to keep going no matter what.

And what happens when you never stop?

Because in the trades, asking for help doesn’t always feel like an option. The expectation is to be tough, to handle it, to figure it out on your own.

But that mindset can come at a cost.

Physical injuries that get worse over time.

Mental health struggles that stay hidden.

Pain that doesn’t just go away.

Because you don’t need to hit rock bottom to make a change.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why “I got this” can be both strength and a warning sign
• The hidden mental and physical cost of toughing it out
• How trades culture impacts men’s health and help-seeking behavior
• The connection between chronic pain, stress, and mental health
• Why many men avoid asking for help (and how to change that)
• How community and support can actually build resilience
• What real strength looks like in today’s world
• Simple ways to start opening up and getting support

Support This Podcast and Canadian Men's Health Foundation

https://menshealthfoundation.ca/donate/

If you, a friend or a family member is looking for support to live better with chronic pain, please reach out to Pain BC https://painbc.ca/

Follow Canadian Men’s Health Foundation

• Website - https://menshealthfoundation.ca/
• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/menshealthfdn/
• Facebook - https://facebook.com/menshealthfoundation

Follow Mike Cameron

• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mikecameron.ca/
• Youtube - https://youtube.com/mikecameronspeaks
• Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/mikedavidcameron/
• X - Mike Cameron (@axiommike) / X
• LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/mikecameron
• Website - https://mikecameron.ca/
• TedX Talk - https://www.ted.com/talks/mike_cameron_redefining_badass_the_way_we_think_about_strong_is_wrong

Follow Trevor Botkin

• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/gsnscreative
• Muster Point IG - https://www.instagram.com/the_musterpoint
• Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/gsnscreative
• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevor-botkin-869ab5143/

Support Men & Their Familes: https://menshealthfoundation.ca/donate/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.