JOSH RICHARDS IS semi-sprinting down the stairs of his vast LA home. If you are under 30, this counts as a celebrity encounter. If you are over 30, the name Josh Richards is likely vague to meaningless-maybe that guy in IT? This Josh Richards has 40 million followers on social media, heads several start-ups and is 21 years old. When he extends a hand to the decidedly older legacy media reporter intruding on his crowded calendar, he is polite but wary, shaking a cloud of platinum-blond hair out of his eyes. This recent mane change is a big deal in the Josh Richards universe, prompting online comments like "Love the hair it's giving Jack Frost" and "The hair is hairing." He's followed down the stairs by his bandana-wearing dog, Buddy, a Siberian husky he got off the internet. I nod, not admitting that I've already met her on TikTok. This happens a lot around Richards: because so much of his life exists online, and has ever since he first posted, at age 14, from his basement bedroom in Cobourg, there's an uncanny feeling of familiarity in his presence-a kind of humming déjà vu, like hanging out with an avatar who has magically become a real boy.
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Esta historia es de la edición August 2023 de Toronto Life.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
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There will be blood
Bedbugs are-no exaggeration-everywhere in Toronto: our libraries, offices, schools, hospitals, hotels, transit and homes. Inside the always expensive, often traumatic, probably futile battle to eradicate the bloodsucking parasites that are ruining our lives
Work Less, Live More
The 40-hour workweek sucks. Ambition is overrated. Life is short. Confessions from the new and intentionally underemployed labour force
Dinner, Party
Four resto-clubs where you can fuel up then boogie down-all without leaving the premises
Urban Diplomat
One of my friends has started policing strangers' social lives online. If he overhears people gossiping, he'll whip out his phone and surreptitiously record.
Car Guy
Flavio Volpe built a $20-million concept car to show off Canadian auto parts. Now if only he could get someone to finance production
Lighting the way to more efficient treatment
Markham Stouffville Hospital's new GreenLight Laser is reducing hospital stays and wait times for prostate surgeries.
Saving Sila
Yara Abualjedian was nine months pregnant when the bombing started in Gaza. Her husband, Ahmad, was in Canada, 9,000 kilometres away, with no way to reach her. Then she went into labour. A story about love and perseverance in a time of war
BRUTE FORCE
Firouzeh Zarabi-Majd always wanted to be a cop, and she loved the job. Even when her fellow officers started harassing her, she said nothing at first. That's the codeyou don't go public, no matter what. But eventually she had to speak up, and it cost her everything
THE GOOD LIAR
Carolyn Krebs (alias Carolyn Goodman, alias Marian Linton) may be the city's most hated landlord. She ignores work orders, falsifies documents and evicts tenants without cause. How one woman is making a killing off a system that's too broken to stop her
THE SECRET CITY
INSIDER TIPS AND TRICKS THAT MAKE LIFE EASIER, CHEAPER, FASTER, SLOWER, TASTIER, SMARTER AND WAY MORE FUN