There are rules regualtions, codes and guidelines governing pretty much every aspect of life. And where there are rules, therer are going to be people that break them. This week, stories of rule breakers and the consequences they faced once they crossed the line.

Read on to find out what's on the show. You can also listen by clicking the player below, or download the podcast from our website (or get the "enhanced" version from iTunes).

 

 

Sook-Yin Lee conducts her own social experiment in an attempt to catch rule breakers in the act. 

 

When her grandfather died about ten years ago, Lisha Hassanali knew that she wanted to be at his gravesite.  But in her Muslim faith, the rule is "no women at the burial". She'll tell us how she negotiated the rules and managed to say her own goodbye.

There are thousands of unwritten rules about social conduct that we follow every day. But what happens when you set out to violate those rules? We'll hear from Dr. Donald Meen, an instructor at Douglas College, who regularly sends his class out to discover the consequences of breaking those social taboos, and Sheryl Wiebe, who is one of the students that rose to his challenge.

As a high school student, Anne Marie Scheffler had never met a rule she didn't like. She was president of her high school, beloved by teachers, and was an all-around "good kid." We'll find out what happens when a school trip takes her to Quebec and has her bunking with one of the coolest kids in the school.

In his new book, "Superdad: A Memoir of Drugs, Rebellion and Fatherhood", Chris Shulgan recounts the tremendous challenge of maintaining a secret life apart from his family, and how he constructed his own set of rules to juggle those two very different worlds.
Sook-Yin Lee shares a story about how she used an obscure swimming rule to her advantage.

"What's the last rule you broke?" Sook-Yin Lee hits the streets to hear your confessions.

Eleven years ago, Ruby Yudai and her sister were invited to the Philippines for a very special occasion: to serve as bridesmaids at their uncle's wedding. The thing is, Ruby hadn't been to the Philippines since she was 4 years old so she found herself on the "ooops!" side of some cultural codes. That is, until the day of the wedding itself when "ooops!" wouldn't quite cut it.

Now most families have rules like,  "you have to be home before dark" or "no eating dinner in your bathing suit". But in Rachel Sontag's family the rules were way more complex.  Her father had a list of rules that he wrote out, laminated and hung on Rachel's bedroom wall. And, as Rachel explains to Sook-Yin, they were as arbitrary as they were absolute.
 
Crazy late for a date and stuck in traffic Kaj Hasselriis turns to his mild mannered friend Charlie to help him out of a jam.

Mandy-Rae Cruikshank doesn't consider herself to be a rule-breaker. But three years ago, she found herself illegally trespassing and evading the police while working on the award-winning documentary, The Cove. We'll find out how the plight of the dolphins encouraged this world-champion free diver to break the rules.
 
So if you're given an opportunity to break a rule that you think is totally unfair, do you break it? That's the question Elianna Lev faced in Grade Three, with the all-important "picture day" approaching. We'll expose what happened on that fateful day. (Below: Elianna's school picture. See if you can spot her...)

And here's this week's playlist:

Eliza Doolittle - "Pack Up"

Minotaurs - "Caught In the Light"

Rufus Wainwright - "Rules and Regulations"

The Mohawk Lodge - "Wrong Side of the Bars"

Metric - "Help I'm Alive (iTunes Live Session)

Sun Wizard - "World's Got a Handle"

Wanda Jackson - "You Know I'm No Good"

Destroyer - "Song For America"

The Crystals - "He's a Rebel"

The Decemberists - "Down By the Water"