Tod Maffin

Tod Maffin
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Born	Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Citizenship	Canadian
Occupation	Commentator, writer, radio host, producer, entrepreneur
Known for	Former CBC Radio host; social media and digital marketing commentary
Title	President of engageQ digital

Tod Maffin is a Canadian commentator, writer, and former national CBC Radio host and producer. He is president of the social media engagement agency engageQ digital and is known for his writings on Canadian identity., digital marketing, podcasting, and community projects based in Nanaimo, British Columbia.

Early life and education

Maffin was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, and grew up in the Vancouver region.

He began his career in journalism in the early 1990s, first at KBS Radio in Creston, British Columbia, where he worked as a reporter and weekend anchor, and later at the Sunday Press, a community newspaper in Sechelt, British Columbia.

Technology and entrepreneurship

In the mid-1990s, Maffin served as director of new media at the Haibeck Group, a Vancouver public relations firm, where he developed early web strategies for corporate clients.

He later joined internet services firm Emerge Online as a senior strategist and vice-president of marketing. In 1997 he moved to IMEDIAT, later rebranded as Communicate.com, serving as executive vice-president of marketing.

In 1999, Maffin founded MindfulEye, an artificial intelligence company that developed "Lexant," software that analysed public sentiment and news coverage to gauge market “mood” around stocks. MindfulEye went public roughly 18 months after launch, but later shut down when it could not secure further funding after the dot-com crash.

Broadcasting career

Maffin has held a number of national host and producer roles at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canada's public broadcaster. He hosted CBC Radio One’s live interactive national technology program todradio.com, which used online chat and direct audience input during live broadcasts. The show aired uniquely live in every time zone, which meant doing the show four separate times each night, one for each regional time zone.

He created and hosted the documentary series Real Life Chronicles for CBC Radio, which began as part of CBC Vancouver’s North by Northwest before later airing on the national Sounds Like Canada program. He also worked as a national producer for CBC Radio One’s arts and culture show Definitely Not the Opera and served as CBC Radio’s national technology columnist.

During coverage of the 2004 federal election, Maffin travelled across Canada on CBC’s “Canada Votes” election bus, producing stories about public reaction to the campaign. He later contributed weekly technology segments to CBC Television’s Canada Now newscast.

During the 2005 CBC labour dispute, Maffin launched an independent blog and podcast that became a central source of news about the lockout. Following the dispute, CBC hired him to create and write the corporation’s official blog, InsideTheCBC.com, which featured interviews with staff and behind-the-scenes segments for superfans.

Podcasting

Maffin was one of the earliest advocates of podcasting and helped promote the medium across Canada in the mid-2000s, including organizing meet-ups and training sessions for new producers. CBC Radio hired him to develop its national podcast strategy and internal publishing tools as the network developed its early on-demand audio offerings.

Over the years he created several independent podcast series, including "Egg McMaffin" (among the first podcats in the world), How To Do Stuff, and others. From 2019 to 2025 he hosted Today in Digital Marketing, a daily podcast summarizing developments in online advertising, social media, and e-commerce. He has also produced niche regional series such as The Nanaimo Chronicles, focused on life in Nanaimo, British Columbia.

Digital media

Maffin is president of engageQ digital, a social media engagement and digital marketing agency. The firm has worked with clients such as the Grey Cup, Mountain Equipment Co-op, Abbott, OK Tire, and other national brands, providing services in social media engagement and moderation.

Keynote speaking

Maffin spent 22 years working as a professional keynote speaker, presenting at dozens of conferences each year in Canada, the United States, Europe, and Australia. His talks covered digital marketing trends, artificial intelligence in business, human-centred leadership, and crisis management in social media.

He has been represented by several speaker agencies, including Speakers Spotlight and is currently represented by Talent Bureau

Publications

Maffin is the author or co-author of several non-fiction books on media and business, including works on public radio production, social media, and organizational leadership. Titles include:

• From Idea to Air: A Field Guide to Writing for Public Radio
• Bashtagged! Surviving a Twitter Attack
• DRIVE! A Busy Realtor’s Guide to Social Media
• TOUCH: Five Factors to Growing and Leading a Human Organization

Nanaimo projects and healthcare recruitment

After moving to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, Maffin began using his online audience to promote local tourism and cross-border goodwill. In early 2025 he posted a TikTok video inviting Americans frustrated with United States politics to spend a weekend in Nanaimo as a gesture of support for Canada.

The video went viral and led to “Tod’s Nanaimo Infusion”, a weekend event in April 2025 that saw hundreds of visitors, largely from the United States, travel to the city to help the local economy. Local media reported that the event generated significant attention for Nanaimo.

Because many attendees were healthcare workers, Maffin later reworked the project into “Tod’s Healthcare Infusion”, a volunteer-driven effort that provides information and community support for nurses, physicians, and other health professionals considering relocation to Nanaimo and other Canadian communities. The initiative includes an information website and a Discord server that connects potential newcomers with local residents, health authority recruiters, and immigration advisers, and has been credited in local reporting with helping some U.S. healthcare workers secure positions and move to Vancouver Island.

He has since adapted the local movement into a national network of local Infusion chapters across the country.

Current work as Canadian commentator

From the early 2020s, Maffin shifted his focus from marketing keynotes toward full-time commentary on Canadian identity, politics, and culture. He produces a weekly email newsletter, From Far and Wide, and short-form videos on platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram that examine Canadian history, identity, and Canada–US relations.

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