MMI's 2026 Plan: Two Podcasts, More Writing, and a Bigger Conversation
A Bigger Platform for Housing, Demographics, and Middle-Class Opportunity
Highlights
More output, not a pivot: After a strong first year for reach and influence, MMI is scaling up, which will include more research reports, more op-eds, more Substack posts, and twice as many podcast episodes in 2026.
A clearer weekly rhythm: Starting in mid-January, new pieces will appear on our Substack on Tuesdays and Thursdays, while new podcast episodes will be released on Wednesdays and Fridays.
Housing… but not just housing: While housing remains core to our mission, in 2026 we will produce additional content focusing on Canada’s middle class, including income, costs, demographics, and opportunity.
The podcast doubles in size: The Missing Middle Podcast is becoming a two-show network:
Classonomics (Wednesdays): How policy choices shape middle-class life, affordability, and family formation.
DemograFix (Fridays): How generational change, demographics, and aging are reshaping Canada’s economy and culture.
Same mission, bigger ambition: We’re growing, but not changing, and will continue our evidence-based, non-partisan work focused on a core principle that a country cannot thrive without a strong middle class that can afford to raise children.
MMI’s Big Bold Plan for 2026
Year 1 of the Missing Middle Initiative was a partial success; while our content performed well, governments failed to enact the ambitious policy reforms needed to create a thriving middle class in Canada. We still believe in our guiding North Star, our mission, and our goals and strategies. Instead of a radical redesign, we will be increasing our efforts and outputs. Expect to see more research reports, more opinion pieces in mainstream media outlets, additional written pieces on our Substack, and a revamped podcast, with twice as many episodes as last year.
The short version of our plan is that we will be releasing written content on most Tuesdays and Thursdays, and podcast episodes on Wednesdays and Fridays. We think you’ll like what you see.
Substack: Housing, but not Just Housing
One of the challenges of running a small think-tank is that you can become victims of your own success. From day 1, our short pieces on housing have performed well. So we wrote more of them. Most of which also did well. It soon became that almost everything we wrote about was housing-related, despite our mission extending beyond housing. In December, we wrote a non-housing piece, What Happened to the Young Middle-Class Man?, which was our most-read article of 2025, underscoring our audience’s desire for more non-housing content on Canada’s middle class.
To ensure a balance between our housing and non-housing work, starting on the week of January 12th, Tuesdays will be housing days on the MMI Substack, where we will discuss housing policy and the ongoing crisis. Thursdays will be middle-class day, with pieces on non-housing issues affecting Canada’s struggling middle class. We’ll also have the occasional “bonus” piece on Mondays and weekends.
Growing the Podcast
The podcast continues to grow in popularity and influence, and when we’re at events or meet with policymakers, it is the thing we are asked about the most. As such, it only makes sense to give the audience more of what they want.
To fill that market need, the Missing Middle Podcast is undergoing an even bigger expansion: we are moving to two weekly shows on our podcast network, thanks to the return of Cara Stern and the addition of Sean Foreman to our team.
Starting on the week of January 12th, our existing podcast will be split into two separate shows. Each Wednesday morning, we will release an episode of our new show Classonomics. Co-hosted by Mike and Sabrina, it examines the issues and solutions affecting Canada’s middle class and the communities in which they live. Classonomics is made possible through the generous support of our Supporting Partner, the Neptis Foundation.
On Friday mornings, we’ll release an episode of DemograFix, co-hosted by Cara and Mike. Inspired by the 1990s book Boom, Bust & Echo, it explores how generational change is transforming Canada and how shifting values, economic realities, and population trends interact to reshape how Canadians live, work, spend, and plan for the future. Our past episodes examining Boomers, Millennials, and Gen Z were among our highest-performing, demonstrating a clear appetite for this type of content.
We are looking to add one or two supporting partners for the show, as currently it is a solo endeavour.
To make it easy for our viewers and listeners, both shows will appear on our Missing Middle YouTube channel and on our existing audio feeds on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, etc.
Here is what you can expect from each show.
Classonomics - Co-Hosted by Mike Moffatt and Sabrina Maddeaux
Classonomics explores what it really means to build a stable, thriving life in Canadian cities today, and why it’s getting harder. Each episode takes a clear-eyed look at the pressures facing working and middle-income families: rising housing costs, expensive childcare, higher taxes and fees, long commutes, and the growing gap between effort and reward. We also look at how families responding to these pressures are changing the face of Canada, such as the exodus of young families out of cities like Vancouver and Toronto to smaller communities across the country.
Classonomics digs into the hidden mechanics that shape opportunity, how elevator regulations affect mid-rise construction, how childcare policy influences labour-force participation, why development charges and other construction taxes matter to affordability, or how transit investments and zoning rules determine where families can live and work. We also explore less-obvious levers, such as how payroll taxes affect small-business hiring, how interprovincial trade barriers raise everyday prices, and how perceptions of crime and disorder shape the decisions middle-class families face every day.
The podcast emphasizes both the issues and solutions that impact the middle class and the communities in which they reside. The podcast’s view aligns with that of the Missing Middle Initiative: no community can be strong socially or economically without a robust middle class. In particular, the podcast argues that no community can be truly successful if the middle class cannot afford to raise children there. Despite the importance of this conversation, the challenges of the middle class often do not receive the attention they deserve, as there is a tendency to want to shift the conversation to “what about the poor?” Discussions of poverty are vitally important and must continue. However, there is a continued need to carve out a conversation explicitly focused on the middle class and the communities they live in.
Missing Middle Class offers a credible, non-partisan, research-driven platform to discuss the future of Canada’s economic backbone: the middle class that powers communities, drives innovation, and keeps the country moving forward.
DemograFix - Co-Hosted by Cara Stern and Mike Moffatt
DemograFix explores how generational change is transforming Canada; not just how today’s young adults live differently from their parents, but why. We examine how shifting values, economic realities, and population trends interact to reshape how Canadians live, work, spend, and plan for the future. This type of discussion was once common as it was a staple of the 1990s book Boom, Bust & Echo. Our goal is to resurrect that discussion and bring it into the 2020s and beyond.
For decades, Canada’s middle class was seen as stable and self-renewing: hard work led to security, education opened doors, and family life followed predictable milestones. But over the past generation, that story has unravelled. Young adults face housing markets their parents couldn’t imagine, rising living costs, and delayed opportunities for ownership, family, and independence. The question isn’t only what’s changed, it’s what caused the change.
A central theme is understanding the balance between cultural choice and economic constraint. Are younger Canadians redefining adulthood because they want flexibility, or because stability has become unaffordable? Is the rise of remote work and digital entrepreneurship evidence of freedom, or adaptation to a system where traditional pathways have closed? DemograFix unpacks these questions, drawing connections between personal stories and the structural forces that shape them.
We also explore how generational change shapes consumer behaviour and workplace culture. Gen Z’s values, such as affordability, sustainability, and autonomy, are transforming retail, housing design, and financial habits. Millennials are redefining success, prioritizing balance, purpose, and well-being over prestige or permanence. Meanwhile, employers are adapting to hybrid work, new expectations of fairness, and shifting definitions of loyalty and career progression. Through these lenses, the show captures how Canada’s economy and culture are being quietly rewritten from within.
But generational change isn’t just about youth. It’s equally about aging. As the Baby Boom generation moves into retirement, Canada is experiencing one of the most profound demographic transitions in its history. Population aging is reshaping everything from the labour force and healthcare system to housing demand and intergenerational wealth. It presents challenges, from shrinking worker-to-retiree ratios, growing fiscal pressures, and strains on care infrastructure, but also opportunities: a surge of older Canadians with experience, time, and capital to invest in new ventures, mentorship, and civic renewal.
DemograFix explores how this aging wave will redefine community life and public priorities. How will housing policy adapt to an older population that still wants to live independently? What happens when the most asset-rich generation in history transfers its wealth to its children and grandchildren? And how can Canada build a future where both younger and older generations feel secure and valued, rather than pitted against each other?
Let Us Know What You Think
What would you like to see more of, and what would you like to see less of, in 2026? Join our discussion on Reddit.