Over the last couple of months, the provincial governments in both New Brunswick and Saskatchewan have made controversial changes to their LGBTQ+ policies at schools. Parental consent is now needed when a student under 16 wants to use a different name or pronoun in the classroom. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has also been saying that schools should leave conversations about LGBTQ issues to parents. This is all happening at a time when the concept of “parental rights” is a top issue for U.S Republicans. A parental rights bill was passed in the Republican-held House earlier this year and more than two dozen statehouses have passed similar legislation. Today on Front Burner, the Washington Post’s Emma Brown on the origins of the parental rights movement in the U.S. and how it became a massive political force and how that might help us understand the implications in Canada. Looking for a transcript of the show? They’re available here daily: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Germany may have won gold this weekend, their first FIBA Men's Basketball World Cup ever, but it was Canada’s overtime upset against the United States in the bronze medal playoff game that has fans and sports writers breathlessly arguing that Canadian men’s basketball has finally hit the world stage. Today we’re talking about the long road to success, the volume of Canadian talent in the NBA and what this new victory means for Canada’s chances at the 2024 Paris Olympics with Oren Weisfeld, a freelance sports journalist in Toronto. Looking for a transcript of the show? They’re available here daily: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

On Tuesday, a judge in the U.S. will begin hearing arguments in what’s been called the first monopoly trial of the modern Internet era. At the heart of the case is whether Google used its search engine dominance to illegally throttle competition – an accusation Google denies, claiming “competition is just one click away.” Leah Nylen is an antitrust and investigations reporter with Bloomberg News, and today, she explains what the U.S. government is alleging, how Google is responding, and what this case could mean for the future of the Internet. Looking for a transcript of the show? They’re available here daily: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

“A breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery.” That’s how a statement from a UN special rapporteur described Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program last week, focusing particularly on low-wage and agricultural workers. The TFWP allows Canadian employers to bring in workers from abroad if they couldn’t fill a position domestically, and Canada has recently expanded the program to allow more workers to stay longer. But migrant workers have complained about abuse and exploitation, as well as a reliance on employers that can leave them powerless. Today, UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery Tomoyo Obokata explains his findings from two weeks on a fact-finding mission in Canada, and why some migrant workers’ situations amount to debt bondage and slavery. Transcripts of this series are available here

On Tuesday, U.S. House Speaker, Republican Kevin McCarthy announced he is launching a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. Republicans accuse Biden and his son, Hunter, of business dealings that benefited their family while he was Vice President. Though McCarthy says he is acting on “credible allegations” that Biden is entrenched in “a culture of corruption,” months of committee investigations led by the GOP failed to uncover any evidence of criminal wrongdoing. Today, CBC Washington Correspondent Paul Hunter joins the show to discuss the inquiry, the allegations, and the politics driving it all. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

It’s been a devastating summer of climate events in Canada, and the world. Canada saw its worst wildfire season on record, and the country was abnormally dry. There were also dramatic floods: on July 21st, Halifax got three months worth of rain in 24 hours. That’s the backdrop for the large-scale global climate action protests we saw this past weekend. Arno Kopecky is a longtime environmental journalist who attended the protests in Vancouver. After this summer, he decided that he wouldn’t just write about the environment, and the dangers it faces…he wanted to be part of trying to save it. Today on Front Burner, he’ll share what led to that decision, the challenges facing the climate action movement, and what it means to figure out how to respond in the face of escalating climate change. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he "could have" and "should have" moved faster on making affordable housing a priority for his government, but asks how much worse the situation would be without his policies. The concession comes as his government faces the worst polling it has seen since coming to power. Host Jayme Poisson returns for this special in-depth interview where Trudeau answers questions including: why he waited until last week to enact a 2015 housing promise, why his support from young people is tanking and whether his government's attempts to force grocery stores to stabilise prices will amount to anything. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot and killed outside his gurdwara in Surrey in June just after evening prayers. While the Sikh community has been urging investigators to get the bottom of what happened, it’s been quiet until a bombshell announcement from Prime Minister Trudeau on Monday: Canada believes there are “credible allegations” the Indian government was behind it. Since then it’s been a diplomatic firestorm. Diplomats are being pulled from both Canada and India and Canada’s allies are weighing next moves. But who was Hardeep Singh Nijjar and why do some, particularly members of the Sikh community, believe the Indian government wanted him dead? Jaskaran Sandhu from Baaz News and the World Sikh Organization takes us through who Nijjar was, the reasons he feared for his life and the long-standing tensions between India and the Sikh community. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The port city of Derna, Libya, has been devastated by flooding, with thousands of people killed. Mediterranean Storm Daniel brought torrential rain to the region last week, but it was the collapse of two dams that caused some of the worst damage, with entire sections of Derna washed away. Now, as rescue turns to recovery, we speak with Anas El Gomati, director of Sadeq Institute, a Libyan think tank, about the political situation in Libya since Moammar Gadhafi was ousted, and how that may have contributed to the scale of the disaster. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

A call from a group called “1 Million March 4 Children” drew protestors in dozens of cities across Canada over LGBTQ-inclusive education and school policies. According to the organizers’ website, the day was supposed to be about advocating for the elimination of a number of things in schools: the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) curriculum, pronouns, “gender ideology” and mixed bathrooms. Coast-to-coast, they were met with counter-protesters who said they were there to defend LGBTQ rights. Today, Mel Woods, a senior editor with Xtra Magazine, recaps what they saw at the Vancouver protests and what turnout looked like across the country. Then we speak with Alex Harris, a grade 12 student in New Brunswick, about how the controversy over inclusive education policies and curricula is affecting LGBTQ students. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

It’s been just over two years since four members of the Afzaal family were killed after a truck drove into them on a summer evening in London, Ontario. Now, 22-year-old Nathaniel Veltman is on trial for four counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted murder and terrorism charges for what prosecutors are calling an attack motivated by “white nationalism”. An earlier version of this episode incorrectly stated that Anders Breivik killed 77 people in Norway in 2021. That date is incorrect. The killings happened in 2011. So far, the jury has heard testimonies from the detective that interviewed him, arresting officers, audio of the 911 call and have seen footage Veltman’s statements to police hours after the attack. Kate Dubinski of CBC London takes us through the details of the trial, what members of the Muslim community are saying about the case and the impact it could have on the country’s terrorism laws.

Canada’s Parliament gave two standing ovations to a Ukrainian man who fought for a Nazi division. What is this division, why are its fighters in Canada, and why is it receiving modern day memorials? Ottawa Citizen journalist David Pugliese explains.

How did Rupert Murdoch build one of the most successful and politically influential media empires in the world? David Folkenflik, media correspondent for NPR News, tells the story of Murdoch's astonishing rise, the growth of Fox News, how world leaders flew around the globe in hopes of his support, and — from sexual harassment to phone hacking — how his companies got embroiled in scandal.

A dispute with India over assassination allegations. A Nazi fighter in Parliament. Plus a housing and cost of living crisis. What damage has been done? Can Justin Trudeau find a path forward? Or will his party and the country lose faith? Catherine Cullen, senior reporter and host of CBC’s political podcast The House, answers those questions and more. 

One of Canada’s first military sexual assault cases to be transferred to a civilian court since late 2021 will never go to trial because it took too long to get there. Is this a foreshadowing of what’s to come, in addressing the Canadian Armed Forces’ decades-long sexual misconduct crisis?CBC senior reporter Ashley Burke explains. 

Today we bring you a bonus episode of The Naked Emperor, our spinoff miniseries about the rise and fall of the crypto exchange FTX. As Sam Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial kicks off in New York, host Jacob Silverman is back to bring you up to speed on the latest. What’s happened at the courthouse in the lead-up to the trial? And what’s expected in the weeks to come? Joining Jacob is Zeke Faux, an investigative reporter at Bloomberg, and the author of “Number Go Up: Inside Crypto’s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says there are credible allegations linking India to the murder of a Canadian Sikh leader. CBC’s South Asia correspondent Salimah Shivji answers: how has Canada’s accusation played in the India media? What does the coverage tell us about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s politics? What could it mean for India’s Sikh community?

It's been 27 years since rapper Tupac Shakur was shot near the Las Vegas Strip, dying in hospital less than a week later. No charges were ever laid – that is, until Friday, when the police arrested long-time suspect Duane "Keefe D" Davis. Today, author and journalist Santi Elijah Holley explains how the Shakur legacy continues, and weighs in on the question we're all asking about the investigation: what took so long?

How did Wab Kinew, leader of the Manitoba NDP, win his province’s election to become the first First Nations premier of a Canadian province? What burden does this place on him in a province struggling with reconciliation? Ian Froese, a reporter with CBC Manitoba, breaks down the campaign.

What was MK-ULTRA? What brought the CIA to McGill University? What effects did the covert mind-control program have on its unwitting test subjects? How were the experiment results used in Guantanamo Bay? Why are survivors and their families still fighting for justice? Lisa Ellenwood, a producer with CBC’s The Fifth Estate and co-author of the book Les cobayes oubliés: l’histoire du programme MKULTRA à Montréal, tells the story. For more information on MKULTRA, you can check out the CBC Podcast Brainwashed that investigates the CIA’s covert mind control experiments. All episodes from the series are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/brainwashed

Brainwashed, hosted by Michelle Shephard, veteran national security reporter, investigates the CIA’s covert mind control experiments – from the Cold War and MKULTRA to the so-called War on Terror. It’s the story of how a renowned psychiatrist used his unwitting patients as human guinea pigs at a Montreal hospital, and the ripple effects on survivors, their families, and thousands of other people around the world. The series is an exploration of what happens in times of fear, when the military and medicine collide. And what happens when the survivors fight back. More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/RM_zRWn-

Host David Ridgen joins victims' family members as they investigate cold cases, tracking down leads, speaking to suspects and searching for answers. In the highly-anticipated 8th season of Someone Knows Something, award-winning investigator David Ridgen delves into a cold case that has haunted Whitehorse for more than 15 years. Angel Carlick was a vibrant youth worker, nicknamed ‘Happy-Go-Lucky’ by her loved ones. She had plans after graduation to become legal guardian of her brother and work to support struggling youth at her local resource centre. But just days before she was set to graduate in 2007, at age 18, Angel disappeared. Months later, her remains were found in a remote area in the Canadian north. As David works alongside Angel's family, friends, and community, he uncovers details surrounding her death and strives to bring her justice, while honouring the legacy of her late mother, Wendy. More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/6PZExn6H

In today's episode, we take a closer look at Hamas, the militant group behind this weekend’s assault on Israel. How did it end up governing Gaza? What are its origins and its goals? Lawrence Pintak — former CBS News Middle East correspondent and author of five books on religion, media and the Middle East — is our guest. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

After Hamas launched thousands of rockets, broke through the Israeli border and took hostages in southern towns in a surprise attack on Saturday, Israel has retaliated with its own missile strikes and declared war. Now, Hamas has threatened to execute an Israeli captive for every unannounced strike on civilians, and Israel says it will block food, water and fuel from entering Gaza in a “complete siege.” As Israeli troops amass near Gaza, what could come next? Shayndi Raice is the Wall Street Journal’s deputy bureau chief for the Middle East and North Africa, and she’s based in Tel Aviv. An earlier version of this episode stated Hamas paragliders landed at the center of an Israeli music festival before opening fire. As CBC has not independently verified the involvement of paragliders in shootings at the festival, the reference has been removed.

The U.S is cracking down on fentanyl’s global supply chain by targeting Mexican and Chinese individuals with indictments and sanctions. Officials from those countries insist it’s largely an American problem. What’s actually happening on the ground in China and Mexico? What impact will U.S. retaliation have? Today, journalist Zachary Siegel explains. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

After Hamas’ attack on Israel, Israeli officials announced a full siege of Gaza, cutting off all supplies, including water, electricity and food. Intense missile attacks continue to hit the territory. Today, three people who call Gaza home tell us how they’re coping. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

In October 2018, Canada legalized cannabis after decades of prohibition. The goals were to improve safety, public health and curb the illegal market. There were great expectations for a thriving cannabis industry. What’s changed in the industry since legalization? What challenges does it still face? And where does it go next? Solomon Israel, a journalist covering the cannabis industry for MJBizDaily, explains. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

As Israeli forces sit poised for a land invasion into Gaza in their campaign against Hamas, hundreds of thousands of Gazans are facing displacement or worse. Ishaan Tharoor, global affairs columnist with the Washington Post, brings us a recap of the latest developments, and where things could be headed next. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

A former peace negotiator who worked on a high-profile prisoner swap on what it could take for captives in Gaza to be returned. Middle East director for the International Communities Organization Gershon Baskin also explains what he’s hearing from his contacts in Hamas. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Avi Asher-Schapiro, tech reporter with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, takes us through some of the reasons fake news or misleading content about the fight between Israel and Hamas is being amplified on social media feeds. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

In the 1920s, something nefarious started happening to members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. Within four years, at least 60 people were murdered or disappeared. Journalist David Grann takes us through the true crime story that inspired his book, and now a movie, Killers of the Flower Moon. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

This weekend, a limited number of aid trucks finally began moving through the Rafah border crossing from Egypt, toward Gaza. Resources are critically low in the region. Today, the CBC’s Margaret Evans, who’s currently in East Jerusalem, on the status of aid there, escalating airstrikes in Gaza and the West Bank, and how tensions are growing in the region. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

With housing supply low and rent going up across the country, Canada’s rental crisis is getting worse. And it’s given rise to people who feel rent trapped — stuck in less-than-ideal and difficult living conditions. Front Burner’s Elaine Chau and Shannon Higgins bring you stories from Toronto and Vancouver. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

With high living costs and rising rents, governments are going after Airbnb and Vrbo. British Columbia is the latest, along with New York and Quebec. How much are short-term rentals to blame? Will this action be enough? David Wachsmuth, a researcher and professor at the School of Urban Planning at McGill University, joins us. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Buffy Sainte-Marie’s claims to Indigenous ancestry are being contradicted by members of the iconic singer-songwriter's own family and an extensive CBC investigation from The Fifth Estate, making her the latest high-profile public figure whose ancestry story has been contradicted by genealogical documentation, historical research and personal accounts. Geoff Leo is a senior Investigative Reporter with CBC Saskatchewan. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

The village of Richmound, Saskatchewan, is struggling to get rid a QAnon cult that moved into a former school in the community. But how do you convince Romana Didulo, the self-styled ‘Queen of the Kingdom of Canada,’ and her followers to hit the road? Mack Lamoureux, a reporter with Vice News, brings us the latest on Didulo’s group, after paying a visit to Richmound. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

A report commissioned by Alberta’s UCP government says if it left the Canada Pension Plan, the province is entitled to take over half the plan’s hundreds of billions worth of assets with it. Why have analysts ridiculed the estimate? Why is the UCP spending millions on a push to leave the CPP? What could an Alberta exit mean for pensions across the country? CBC writer and producer Jason Markusoff explains.

After CBC’s The Fifth Estate released a bombshell documentary last week calling Canadian music icon and activist Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Indigenous ancestry into question, the reaction has been swift and complex. Drew Hayden Taylor and Kim Wheeler join us to talk about why the revelations have been painful and difficult to process for many in the Indigenous community. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

As Israel’s ground war in Gaza escalates, there’s another conflict threatening to spill over. Israel and Hezbollah continue to exchange fire on the Lebanon border, stoking fears that a second front may open up. What is Hezbollah? Why does it present a growing threat to Israel? How could an escalating conflict between the two could spark a wider regional war? Journalist Rebecca Collard in Beirut explains. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

After weeks of Israeli bombardment, and now a ground invasion, Gaza is in desperate need of food, water, fuel and electricity. We hear about the humanitarian crisis on the ground. Today, a first hand account of the conditions at the center of Gaza from Amjad Shawa, coordinator for the Palestinian NGO Network. Details on the UN World Food Program’s struggles to get aid to those who need it in Gaza from spokesperson Alia Zaki. And Gaza Medic Voices founder Dr. Omar Abdel-Mannan shares the accounts of health workers in Gazan hospitals as fuel shortages make some care impossible.

Iconic first-person shooting game, Call of Duty, is one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time. As it turns 20, the Washington Post’s Gene Park joins us to talk about its enduring cultural and societal impact. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

From BBC Sounds and CBC Podcasts. Syria. 2018. ISIS is on the brink of defeat. A toddler disappears in the chaos. In London, his grandad needs answers. Poonam Taneja investigates. More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/XSnmvZ1n

A jury has found FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried guilty on seven counts, from conspiracy to fraud, following the collapse of his crypto exchange last year. Jacob Silverman, host of The Naked Emperor podcast, walks us through Bankman-Fried’s trial and explains what the verdict means for FTX customers and the cryptocurrency industry. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s carbon tax exemption for home heating oil has renewed criticism of the entire scheme — a cornerstone of Canada’s plan to curb greenhouse gas emissions and address climate change. CBC’s Aaron Wherry weighs in on how the Liberal government is weathering a storm of its own making. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

In 2017, an RCMP unit called the Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) was created to police resource-related protests in B.C. Since then, it’s been subject to lawsuits and hundreds of complaints. Critics argue that it’s a de facto private security force for resource companies. So what exactly does C-IRG do? And who does it serve? The CBC’s Steven D’Souza brings us his findings from The Fifth Estate investigation. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

WeWork was buzzy from the beginning. The coworking company was sold not just as office space, but a lifestyle. Its leader, Adam Neumann, not just as a CEO – but a revolutionary. Now, as the company files for bankruptcy, Eliot Brown, a reporter with the Wall Street Journal and co-author of the book The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann and the Great Startup Delusion, joins us to chronicle how the tech unicorn fell so far. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Inside the trial of former RCMP intelligence director Cameron Ortis, who’s facing allegations he tried to sell secrets to some of the very people police were targeting. What sensitive documents do police say Ortis exposed? For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. How are an encrypted phone dealer and international money laundering network involved? What’s behind the defence’s bombshell claim that Ortis was acting on foreign intel? CBC Parliamentary reporter Catharine Tunney returns to explain.

More than 80 women from around the world have accused the fast-fashion mogul Peter Nygard of rape, sexual assault, and human trafficking in incidents across four decades and at least four countries. He has been charged for sex crimes in three Canadian provinces and the state of New York. He denies it all, and has claimed his accusers are lying as part of a vast conspiracy. In his words, the acts he is accused of are things he “would never do.” Nygard had built a sprawling international retail empire over the past 50 years — but his professional achievements are now overshadowed by a sinister personal life, one that has earned him the moniker, ‘Canada’s Jeffrey Epstein’. Listen to the Podcast Evil by Design at: https://link.chtbl.com/AKYfQMOA

Demonstrators around the world are calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, as the destruction and death toll in Gaza continues to climb. Meanwhile, some of Israel’s allies, including the United States and Canada, want ‘humanitarian pauses’ in the fighting. Jonathan Guyer, senior foreign policy writer at Vox, explains the difference, and why the calls for a ceasefire are being rejected. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

In 2007, military historian Sean Maloney was commissioned to write Canada’s account of the war in Afghanistan. Unlike other official histories, this one would be documented as it was being fought. The three-volume The Canadian Army in Afghanistan, was set to be published in 2014, but it didn’t see the light of day for nearly a decade due to, according to Maloney, concerns within the military. The book was quietly, and some say reluctantly, released last summer. CBC senior defence reporter Murray Brewster on the long delay, what’s actually in the book, and why historical accounts of war can be so divisive. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Protests that began over a mining contract with a Canadian company have seized Panama for weeks, with key highways blocked, schools shut down, and a port choked with boats. Why has the situation reignited a century of anger over North American interests?  Freelance journalist Michael Fox has been covering the protests from Panama. The first season of his upcoming podcast, Under the Shadow, looks at the lingering impact of U.S. intervention in Central America. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

After years of superhero films dominating the box office, The Marvels just had the worst opening weekend the Marvel Cinematic Universe has ever seen. Sam Adams, culture writer and senior editor at Slate, joins us to talk about why audiences might finally be sick of superhero movies and what that could mean for the film industry as a whole.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsTranscripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Snus in Sweden, Zyn all over TikTok and now, Zonnic in Canada. Nicotine pouches have been gaining profile, from Major League baseball dugouts to Joe Rogan’s podcast. What are they? How are they different from vapes, dip and cigarettes? Are they a helpful tool for people looking to quit, or just hooking a new generation? First, freelance journalist Ashwin Rodrigues takes us through the product’s rise in the U.S. and then CBC’s Marina von Stackelberg tells us why Zonnic, the brand being sold in Canada, is already controversial. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Of all the young revolutionaries in Syria during the Arab Spring, Amina is different. An out lesbian in a country where homosexuality is illegal, she bravely documents her life on the blog Gay Girl in Damascus. Her candid posts attract readers from around the world, and soon she has a wide, ardent following. But then a post appears saying Amina has been abducted. Her fans mobilize, desperate to track down and save their fearless heroine. What they find shocks them. Journalist Samira Mohyeddin investigates what actually happened to the infamous Gay Girl in Damascus in this 6-part series. The result is a twisted yarn that spans the globe and challenges our thinking on love, politics and identity in cyberspace. More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/Bm2uZHLZ

Nathaniel Veltman has been found guilty of four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder, after violently hitting a Muslim family in London, Ontario, with a pick-up truck in 2021. What is the reaction to the verdict from the family and community? And how has this trial tested Canada’s terrorism laws? First we hear from Hina Islam, a member of the Afzaal family and a registered psychotherapist who has provided trauma support for members of London’s Muslim community. Later in the episode, CBC’s Kate Dubinski explains what led up to the verdict. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Nearly 50 years ago Nur Chowdhury was at the centre of an assassination and coup that killed Bangladesh’s first president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. He was convicted by a court in Bangladesh, but now he lives in a Toronto suburb. Mark Kelley, co-host of CBC’s The Fifth Estate, shares his investigation into why the Canadian government still hasn’t deported Chowdhury to face justice. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

When ChatGPT was released last year, artificial intelligence was suddenly a reality in our everyday lives. The company, OpenAI, and its CEO, Sam Altman, seemed to be on a meteoric rise. So why was Sam Altman just fired by a board tasked with keeping AI in check? Steven Levy, Editor at Large for Wired, joins us to talk about the chaos at OpenAI, and who controls the artificial intelligence that could change our world. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Known as “Chainsaw Man”, “El Loco” and “The Wig”, Argentina’s new far-right president is a controversial economist that’s often compared to Donald Trump. And he’s promised to slash government, kill the central bank and ditch the national currency. So, who is Javier Milei? How did the self-described libertarian manage to win? And what does his presidency mean for Argentina’s devastating economic crisis? Buenos Aires-based freelance journalist Natalie Alcoba explains. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

On Tuesday, the federal government’s fall economic statement was overshadowed by this year’s deficit and Ottawa’s skyrocketing debt. How did it get so bad? What does it mean for Canadians? And what’s the economic outlook in a climate of uncertainty? Armine Yalnizyan, an economist and the Atkinson Fellow On The Future Of Workers, breaks it all down. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

How did Israel and Hamas reach a deal that led to a brief pause in fighting and the release of dozens of captives on both sides of the conflict? Julian Borger, a Washington-based world affairs editor with the Guardian takes us through the tense negotiations. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Since 2020, state-level politicians in the U.S. have passed dozens of bills that LGBTQ advocates say are anti-trans. When it comes to defending these laws in court, states have been turning to an unlikely ally: Toronto psychologist James Cantor. He’s testified in more than 20 cases in the U.S. involving transgender issues. Today on Front Burner, CBC investigative journalist Jonathan Montpetit on Cantor’s influence, and how his scientific expertise is being weaponized by conservative Christian groups and Republican politicians to roll back trans rights in the U.S. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Canada is betting big on electric vehicles. Ahead of COP28, we’re asking why the government is pouring billions of dollars into EVs, despite debate about the industry. Just how critical is the switchover to electric vehicles? What does major investment mean for Canada’s ability to hit critical emissions targets. And what happens if we don’t make the move to zero-emissions vehicles fast enough? Ottawa-based climate reporter for the National Observer John Woodside explains. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

A spike in seismic activity and the imminent threat of a volcanic eruption in Iceland has displaced the town of Grindavik, located near the country’s famous Blue Lagoon and a massive geothermal power plant. We hear from Hanna Evenson who’s been going into the danger zone to rescue residents’ pets and Ragga Agustsdottir, the co-founder of Lava Show Iceland, about the challenges and benefits of living in a hotbed of volcanic activity. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

On Wednesday, the federal government announced an agreement with Google over Bill C-18: The Online News Act. The tech giant had threatened to limit Canadians’ access to news on its platforms — similar to the one Meta imposed. Under the deal, Google will pay news companies $100 million annually. But is it enough? Who got the better deal? And what does it mean for the future of journalism in Canada? Alfred Hermida, a digital media scholar and professor at the UBC School of Journalism and the co-founder of The Conversation Canada, explains. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Millions of Canadians will soon feel the impact of jumps in interest rates as their mortgages come up for renewal. In some cases, their payments could go up by 40% or more.  What will happen to Canadians already struggling to make mortgage payments? What could the impact be on real estate prices?  And as banks set aside hundreds of millions more in reserves for bad loans, are there risks to Canada’s economy and financial institutions?  Ron Butler, mortgage broker at Butler Mortgage and host of the Angry Mortgage Podcast, explains.  For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Prosecutors in New York accuse an employee of the Indian government of conspiring to assassinate a member of the movement to create an independent Sikh state. The plot was foiled in the U.S., but the indictment sheds light on murder that was carried out in Surrey, B.C., in June. CBC’s Alex Panetta details what we learned from the indictment, and what it says about India’s alleged assassination plans in North America. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

A bankruptcy deal for OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma gave a legal shield to the Sackler family that ran the company. Now, a challenge to the settlement has gone to the U.S. Supreme Court. Why are families of opioid victims split on whether they want the multi-billion dollar settlement to stand? How could the ruling change who can get immunity from lawsuits in massive corporate settlements? Why have the Boy Scouts of America and U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops submitted briefs calling for Purdue’s deal to stand? David Ovalle is a national reporter with the Washington Post focusing on opioids and addiction. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

As fighting in Gaza resumed, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued strong words of caution for Israel to obey international humanitarian law and to minimize civilian casualties. It was a significant shift in tone compared to the total support Blinken had delivered earlier in the war. And it’s a message that’s been echoed by U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Are the long-time allies at odds over Gaza? What does strain in that relationship mean for the future of the war – and for the civilians caught in the middle? Gregg Carlstrom, Middle East Correspondent for The Economist, explains. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Genetic testing company 23andMe says attackers were able to gain access to the profiles of nearly 7 million of its users. What kind of information was exposed? How did hackers try to sell the info? What broader and future concerns do experts have about sending DNA to services like 23andMe? Jason Koebler is a co-founder of the independent tech website, 404Media.co. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Fraud. Abduction. Murder. Every week, Crime Story host and investigative journalist Kathleen Goldhar goes deep into a tale of true crime with the storyteller who knows it best. From the reporter who exposed Bill Cosby, to the writer who solved one of Australia’s most chilling cold cases — Crime Story guests include: Gilbert King (Bone Valley), Eric Benson (Project Unabomb),Carole Fisher (The Girlfriends), and many more. More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/X8TdLQoi

Lubna Al Rayyes, was in the third trimester of a high risk pregnancy when the war in Gaza started. She was frightened of what that meant for her and her baby. How do you plan for your delivery, when you’re living with airstrikes and having to uproot your life? That’s when she connected with reporter Gabrielle Berbey, who documented Lubna’s journey…from attempting to get medical care in a warzone, to trying to make her way to Canada, where she has family. Gabrielle’s reporting is featured in the most recent episode of the critically-acclaimed podcast Reveal, from the Centre of Investigative Reporting.

Last week at COP28 the Canadian government announced a framework that will put a concrete limit on the amount of CO2 that oil and gas can emit. The idea is to accelerate how quickly Canada reduces its emissions. But the plan has sparked harsh criticism from all sides, including climate activists, the Conservatives, the NDP and oil and gas companies. How will the cap work? Does it go far enough? Will it impact production? And how does it fit into Canada’s climate targets? CBC senior writer Aaron Wherry explains. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is heading to Washington to make a desperate plea for weapons, as a $60 billion military aid package for Ukraine is tangled up in U.S. domestic politics. Meanwhile, trench warfare with Russia grinds on. With international support faltering, and a failed counter-offensive, can Ukraine win its war with Russia? Francis Farrell, a reporter with The Kyiv Independent, details Ukraine’s dire situation. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Rap mogul Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ long-time ex-girlfriend Cassie has filed a lawsuit against him, alleging years of sexual assault and physical abuse. She’s not alone. Three other women have filed similar suits. Andre Gee, staff writer at Rolling Stone, joins us to go through the details of the cases and what it could mean for the music industry. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Unions in Quebec have united for one of the largest strikes in Canadian history, with more than 6% of Quebec’s population currently on strike. Is the public blaming unions or Premier François Legault for widespread school closures and delays in healthcare? How does the unions’ “Common Front” moniker invoke Quebec’s deep history of labour solidarity? If deals aren’t reached soon, how long could strikes continue? CBC Montreal journalist Jennifer Yoon explains.

As fighting in Gaza continues, civilian deaths are rising and those that remain face worsening conditions that include a severe lack of food and clean water, overcrowded shelters, floods and disease. As Canada and other Western nations show their support for a ceasefire, Bushra Khalidi, a policy lead with Oxfam, paints a vivid picture of what she’s hearing from family and colleagues on the ground in Gaza. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Housing Minister Sean Fraser says he’s bringing back a housing idea from the Second World War that helped build over a million homes. Could catalogues of pre-approved blueprints create more homes, faster? What other lessons should we be taking from Canada’s post-war housing effort? How has mass construction of ready-made designs impacted housing in other countries? Carolyn Whitzman is a housing policy consultant and expert advisor to the Housing Assessment Resource Tools project For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Elon Musk kicked off 2023 by losing $200 billion in wealth. And the South African entrepreneur is ending the year with a series of blunders. X, formerly known as Twitter, is absolutely bleeding advertisers. Tesla, once his bread and butter, is facing a massive recall. And Musk’s reputation has shifted from media darling and climate saviour to ill-tempered, eccentric rich guy. So, what exactly went wrong in 2023? How has Musk derailed his public persona? And is there any hope that the CEO can turn things around in 2024? Paris Marx, host of the podcast Tech Won’t Save Us, explains. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

The trial for Hong Kong media tycoon and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai began on Monday. Lai is charged under China’s national security legislation, which has been used to crack down on dissenters in the city-state since 2020. Many activists have been prosecuted under the law already, but this is arguably the most high-profile case yet. Sebastien Lai, Jimmy Lai’s son, joins Front Burner senior producer Elaine Chau for a conversation about the work that led up to his father’s arrest, and what this case might mean for Hong Kong’s future. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

In 2023, Taylor Swift dominated the music industry. Beyonce had a Renaissance. HBO’s Succession ended. Tina Turner died. Online, we debated how much men think about The Roman Empire and Martin Scorsese went viral on TikTok. But more than anything, there was an extreme amount of pink thanks to Greta Gerwig’s Barbie blockbuster. For better or worse, what drove pop culture in 2023? And when we look back on the art we consumed this year… What was it that we were collectively looking for? Culture writer and podcaster Niko Stratis and Elamin Abdelmahmoud, host of CBC’s Commotion, explain. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Hip-Hop celebrated its 50th anniversary this year. What started out in the South Bronx, became a best-selling, record-breaking, and globally influential art form. But for a long time, the genre and its innovators were not only debated but often dismissed. We look back at 50 years of art form with rapper and broadcaster Shad. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Does it feel harder these days to find the info you need on Google? Do the Amazon products that show up at the top of your search turn out to be poorer quality than the ones you really wanted? Cory Doctorow calls that 'Enshittification.' Today, an encore of our interview with Doctorow, explaining how the big internet companies have changed their profit-making strategy over time in ways that are making our experience of the internet worse.

The Daily Bread Food Bank in Toronto had their worst month on record last March: more people used their services than at any other time in their 40-year history. The situation is similarly dire at food banks across the country. Today on Front Burner, producer Imogen Birchard heads out to a food bank in Etobicoke, to find out who’s using the service now and what’s driving them there. This is an encore of that documentary.

In 2018, under bombardment in Syria, a 2-year-old boy named Salmaan disappeared along with his mother. At the time, the Islamic State was at the brink of defeat. For years, ISIS led a brutal campaign across Syria and Iraq, killing and kidnapping thousands of people. After the war against the Islamic State was won, many of the wives and children of its fighters were placed in prison camps in Northeast Syria. Today, BBC investigative journalist Poonam Taneja on her journey to those camps to find out what happened to Salmaan, and the fate of the thousands of children left behind in the Syrian desert.

The Dose is a weekly look at the health news that matters to you. Dr. Brian Goldman brings you the best science from top experts in plain language. This episode examines the many factors that influence our mood, including one we may not think about: our diet. It turns out the emotions you feel have a lot to do with what’s happening in your gut, or your gastrointestinal tract. Dr. Mary Sco., a family doctor with a PhD in nutrition, breaks it all down. More episodes of The Dose are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/PNoxliEC

From the Arab Spring that swept across the Middle East and North Africa to the fare increase protests in Brazil that snowballed into much more, the 2010s started off with a wave of mass protests all over the world. But why did so many of them end in ways the activists behind them didn’t intend? That’s what journalist Vincent Bevins tries to answer in his new book, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

2024 is an election year in the U.S., but the country is still dealing with the fallout of their last election. Could former President Donald Trump’s legal troubles and accusations of insurrection interfere with his bid to return to office? Why are some Democrats questioning whether current President Joe Biden should be their nominee? Could a close election result trigger another violent, January 6-style reaction? Cameron Joseph is a freelance political reporter writing for the Guardian. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

The brand new Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) kicked off its inaugural season this week, with Toronto hosting the team from New York. Hailey Salvian, a senior writer for The Athletic, walks us through the promise of the fledgling new league — but also the challenges ahead for the organization, which is hoping to succeed where others have failed. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Jeffrey Epstein died in a New York prison cell in 2019, before he could stand trial for allegedly running a sex trafficking ring involving underaged girls and dozens of high-profile clients. Now, court documents including names of Epstein's known associates are being unsealed, shedding new light on the nature and scale of his network. Senior Washington Post editor Marc Fisher walks us through the list so far — which includes Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton and Donald Trump — and why further document releases might never fully answer the remaining mysteries. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Yemen’s Houthi militias are attacking commercial shipping vessels in the Red Sea, and say the attacks will continue until Israel ends its “crimes in Gaza.” Who’s backing the Houthi rebels? Why is the U.S. sinking Houthi ships and sailing naval destroyers in the region? What could the attacks mean for fears of a broader regional conflict? Iona Craig is an investigative journalist who’s been covering Yemen and the Arabian Peninsula for over a decade.

A few weeks ago, Syrian-Canadian doctor Anas Al-Kassem, along with 5 other doctors from the U.S and Canada, went on a medical mission to southern Gaza. They were stationed at two hospitals in Khan Younis. With explosions nearby, they closed wounds, amputated limbs, and saved the lives that they could. Today, Dr. Anas Al-Kassem on what he saw during the mission, the state of the hospitals in Gaza, and the continuing health and humanitarian crisis in the region. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

While Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has been campaigning across the country, gaining momentum in the polls, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s message of positivity and progress is failing to connect. After eight years in power, is the long-time Liberal leader in dire need of a new story? What political narrative could captivate Canadians in 2024? And what story is Poilievre betting on? CBC’s Aaron Wherry explains. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Thirty-three churches have burned to the ground across Canada, since the discovery of possible unmarked children's graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in May, 2021. In most cases, officials have blamed arsonists. CBC’s Terry Reith details his investigation into the pattern of arson, and how it’s tied to Canada’s dark residential school history. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

For more than three decades, Wayne LaPierre has led the National Rifle Association — turning gun policy into a deeply partisan political issue. But now, facing a civil trial on corruption allegations, he's announced his resignation. With membership and revenue dropping, could this be the end of the NRA? New York Times investigative reporter Danny Hakim explains the rise of one of America's most influential lobby groups — and how, even if this is the end, the NRA's biggest battles may have already been won. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

In hearings at the International Court of Justice last week, South Africa accused Israel of genocide in Gaza. A potential final ruling at the court could take years, but within weeks, judges could order Israel to stop its military operations So what's behind South Africa’s argument? Why is Israel saying the case should be dismissed? And in a court without a mechanism to enforce orders, why would a ruling really matter? Canadian academic William Schabas, a professor of international law at Middlesex University recognized with the Order of Canada as a foremost authority on genocide, explains. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

For over a week, Ecuador has been in a state of emergency. Armed gang members have set cars on fire, taken people hostage, and attacked staff at a major TV station during a live broadcast. These acts of violence came after the disappearance of a notorious gang leader with ties to the illegal drug trade. Today, freelance journalist Carolina Loza León, based in Manta, Ecuador, on what’s been happening on the ground, the gangs at the heart of escalating violence, and whether the government’s approach is likely to quell the chaos. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

After mounting political pressure, last weekend Immigration Minister Marc Miller acknowledged that the number of non-permanent residents in Canada is putting a strain on housing. As Canada brings in a historic number of temporary residents and population growth sets records, some of the country’s top bank economists and even the Bank of Canada say that the federal government’s immigration policy is significantly affecting housing affordability. So how did we get here? What is Canada’s immigration policy? Would a cap on non-permanent residents help alleviate the housing crisis – or could it hurt the economy as some critics say?  Canadian Press economics reporter Nojoud Al Mallees explains.  For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

The trial of Richard Mantha, 59, is set to begin this week in Calgary. Mantha is charged with more than two dozen counts related to seven women, including drugging, kidnapping, and sexually assaulting his alleged victims. In this episode, CBC Calgary reporter Meghan Grant walks us through the troubling case, and the allegations levelled against Mantha by women working in the sex trade. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

The prairies are just emerging from a record-breaking cold snap, with multiple days of temperatures well below -30. But that didn't stop the City of Edmonton from proceeding with its plan to dismantle eight homeless camps across the city. CBC Edmonton's Wallis Snowdon explains why the city is so keen to remove the camps, in a city where more than 300 people died in connection to homelessness in the last year alone. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Less than a year and a half after a mass stabbing devastated James Smith Cree Nation and surrounding communities in Saskatchewan, a coroner’s inquest began last week into how Myles Sanderson killed 11 people and hurt 17 others. What happened in the days prior to the attacks? What do police analysts say the motive could have been? What supports do community members need now? Jason Warick is a reporter with CBC Saskatoon. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Pascal Siakam was traded to the Indiana Pacers in a blockbuster deal last week that, for many, marked the end of the team’s 2019 championship era. So, what direction are the Raptors headed in? And how are fans feeling about saying goodbye to one of the most beloved players in franchise history? Freelance NBA writer and author of “Prehistoric: The Audacious and Improbable Origin Story of the Toronto Raptors”, Alex Wong, explains. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Invasive Group A strep is a rare form of infection that happens when the usually harmless bacteria invades parts of the body where it's not normally found. This can lead to complications like flesh-eating disease, meningitis and even death — and case numbers are on the rise in Canada, with 10 children dead of the disease since October. CBC health reporter Lauren Pelley breaks down what you need to know about invasive strep A and the multiple factors that could be behind the recent surge in cases. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

A scheme called HyperVerse attracted more than a billion dollars in investments and endorsements from celebrities including Chuck Norris and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. But a Guardian Australia investigation found that the CEO of HyperVerse didn’t even exist. Sarah Martin, a senior correspondent with Guardian Australia, explains how the scheme worked, who was behind it, and how regular people lost a lot of money. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

A new investigation by the CBC’s Fifth Estate sheds light on who might have been responsible for a devastating and fatal human smuggling case two years ago. On January 19, 2022, police found four people frozen to death, just metres away from the US border in Manitoba. RCMP confirmed all four were Indian citizens, and all from the same family. Today, Fifth Estate co-host Steven D’Souza on his search for answers about the smugglers that sent that family, the Patels, into a blinding snowstorm.

The public inquiry into foreign electoral interference begins today. The independent commission was sparked by allegations that China had interfered in Canadian elections — a bombshell accusation that ignited a major political battle in Ottawa. The inquiry is already facing hard questions about who gets to take part and how, and how much of the findings can actually be shared with the public. CBC parliamentary reporter Catharine Tunney on what’s ahead, and what’s at stake with the inquiry. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Pokémon is the single biggest grossing media franchise on the planet. So when a game best described as "Pokémon with guns" was released earlier this month, it's perhaps no surprise that it quickly became one of the most played — and talked about — video games in the world. Washington Post video game critic and reporter Gene Park explains why the game has blown up, and whether the developers might find themselves in Nintendo's legal crosshairs for copying their homework. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

According to a new study published in Science, operations in Alberta’s oilsands are pumping out as much as 64 times more air pollutants than officially reported. How could industry estimates be missing these huge amounts of chemicals? What could the health and environmental consequences be? How does this study add to other concerns that don't we truly understand the impact of the oil sands? Drew Anderson is the Prairies reporter for The Narwhal, whose team of investigative journalists report on the natural world. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

The Trudeau government’s announcement in 2021 that they would bring daycare fees down to $10 a day within five years was a massive relief to many parents across the country. But two years after all the provinces signed on, this extremely popular program is clearly facing some bumps in the road: staffing shortages, massive wait lists, and daycares that can’t cover their costs. Today, Martha Friendly, executive director of the Childcare Resource and Research Unit, speaks to us about the growing pains confronting affordable daycare. The Trudeau government’s announcement in 2021 that they would bring daycare fees down to $10 a day within five years was a massive relief to many parents across the country. But two years after all the provinces signed on, this extremely popular program is clearly facing some bumps in the road: staffing shortages, massive wait lists, and daycares that can’t cover their costs. Today, Martha Friendly, executive director of the Childcare Resource and Research Unit, speaks to us about the growing pains confronting affordable daycare.

Four NHL players, and one pro European player, are charged with sexual assault, in a troubling story that began years ago. The charges relate to the alleged group assault of a woman in 2018, that took place when the accused were members of Canada’s world junior hockey team. Katie Strang is a senior investigative writer with The Athletic and walks us through these new charges — and whether anything has actually changed in hockey since this scandal first came to light. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

From the BBC World Service and CBC Podcasts comes Hollywood Exiles. Host Oona Chaplin tells the story of the decades-long campaign to root out communism in Hollywood. It’s a campaign that eventually drove her grandfather, Charlie Chaplin, and many others out of tinseltown. Hollywood Exiles is a tale of glamour, duplicity and political intrigue that reverberates to this day. It’s the story of how Tinseltown became an ideological battleground. The toll of the fight was enormous – reputations, careers and families were torn apart by the campaign to drive communists from the movie business. More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/zeWK1tTg

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion nearly two years ago, most men have been banned from leaving Ukraine. That hasn’t stopped thousands from making illegal border crossings to escape. Why are so many Ukrainian men risking these journeys? How is Ukraine trying to stop them? What could the crossings signal about Ukrainians’ attitudes toward a new phase of this war? CBC’s Briar Stewart went to neighbouring Moldova to find answers. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Elon Musk says a person has had a computer chip implanted in their brain as part of Neuralink’s first human trial. The billionaire’s company is racing to develop a device, in an attempt to catch up to competitors in the brain-computer interface industry. Marisa Taylor, an investigative journalist with Reuters, joins Front Burner to separate fact from fiction, as Neuralink tries to revolutionize brain implants.

Alberta premier Danielle Smith has frequently said that she doesn't want to politicize issues around the rights and personal decisions of transgender youth. But then, last week, she unveiled the toughest set of policies affecting trans teens in the country. The proposed rules would have wide-ranging impacts for gender-affirming medical care, sports, sex education and the use of preferred pronouns in schools. Today, CBC Calgary's Jason Markusoff joins us for a look at the reaction in Alberta to the proposed policies, and why Smith may have so dramatically changed her position on this issue now.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate was set to vote on a sweeping national defense bill. It included reforms to immigration, in reaction to a surge in migration across the U-S southern border. It also included military support for the war in Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. It came together through months of bipartisan meetings. But the vote failed. Why? The CBC’s Alex Panetta is here with the answers. He’s a reporter with our bureau in Washington D.C. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

The Super Bowl is this Sunday, and the teams on the field are no surprise. What is surprising is that the off-field mania around Taylor Swift dating a Chiefs player has gotten deeply, deeply weird. Some American networks have been stirring up conspiracy theories that Swift and Kelce’s relationship is a deep-state psy-op. The Super Bowl has morphed into a sort of singularity-level conspiracy, pulling in everything: vaccines, the CIA, light beer, billionaire investor George Soros, and President Joe Biden. Drew Magary is an author and a columnist with Defector and SFGate. He writes a lot about football, and he’s one of the hosts of Defector’s Distraction podcast. He’s here to dig into it. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Auto thefts have been spiking in Canadian cities, with criminals using and disposing of the vehicles or selling them to fund organized crime, even exporting them overseas. . Why have cars become so easy for thieves to steal? What systems are organized crime using to take vehicles in large quantities? Will the federal Liberal’s national summit on auto theft last Thursday provide lasting solutions? Peter Edwards is a crime reporter with the Toronto Star and the author of numerous books on organized crime.

Canada’s Auditor General says the government paid too much for the pandemic era travel app, ArriveCan. By how much? She can’t figure out the final figure. Canada’s Auditor General has found the government overpaid for the ArriveCan app. And poor record keeping has made it impossible for her to figure out that final total. Catherine Cullen, the host of “The House” joins Front Burner to talk about how an app that was supposed to make pandemic travel easier has ended up costing millions.

Rafah, a tiny city at Gaza’s border with Egypt, is currently sheltering more than half of the territory’s population. Many, crammed together in tent cities, have already relocated multiple times, as Israel’s war with Hamas has pushed them further and further south. Now, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledges to move ahead with a major assault on Rafah, the civilians sheltering in the city say there’s nowhere else to go. Today our guest is Haaretz reporter Yarden Michaeli. He and his colleague Avi Scharf recently investigated the vast devastation that the Israel Defense Forces’ operations have left in Gaza. He talks to us about the path of destruction that kettled 1.4 million people into Rafah, and what it could mean if a full-scale invasion goes ahead. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Last week, paramedics in Belleville, Ontario responded to 13 drug overdoses in a single hour. By the time the city declared a state of emergency two days later, the total had reached almost two dozen.So how did these near-simultaneous overdoses unfold? What caused them? And how can we stop the spikes of drug poisonings that have been happening in cities across Ontario?Dan Taekema is CBC’s reporter covering eastern Ontario communities from Belleville, to Kingston, and beyond.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsTranscripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

When Jon Stewart stepped down as host of the Daily Show in 2015, it seemed pretty conclusive. For nearly 16 years, he guided the show through 9/11, the Iraq war, the 2008 financial crisis and more, becoming a voice of reason for many amid growing political divisions — but it was time to move on.This week saw him back in the host's chair once again, where he'll now be every Monday. But things have changed a lot in the last nine years — especially politics. Does Stewart's brand of Bush-era both-sides-ism still work in 2024? Slate writer and senior editor Sam Adams unpacks the legacy of the Daily Show and whether the world still needs it.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsTranscripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

The Kremlin says Alexei Navalny died Friday in an Arctic prison. After surviving a poisoning and still making the decision to return to Russia, President Vladimir Putin's most significant opposition figure was serving 19 years on extremism charges.What do we know about how Navalny died?Amid accusations that he was murdered, what motivations would Navalny's enemies have for acting against him now? Not long after a number of Western commentators predicted Putin's demise over the Ukraine war, what does Navalny's death mean for Putin's tightening grip on Russia?CBC's Briar Stewart explains.

 OpenAI has just introduced a new tool, Sora, which turns text prompts into short, shockingly realistic videos. Sora hasn’t been released to the public yet, but it’s already sparking controversy about its potential implications for industries like animation and video games, as well as for deepfake videos — and for democracy as a whole.Today, Gary Marcus — a cognitive scientist, AI researcher and entrepreneur, and author of the forthcoming book Taming Silicon Valley — talks to us about the promise and potential consequences of Sora and other generative AI video tools.

 In 2013, Rana Plaza - an eight-storey garment factory collapsed in Bangladesh, killing over 11-hundred people.It's a tragedy that led to a lot of public anger towards the brands that made clothes there. Brands like Zara, Walmart, and Joe Fresh, owned by Loblaw. And at the time, Loblaw promised safe working conditions and fair wages.But ten years later has it followed through on those promises? The Fifth Estate's Mark Kelley tells guest host Daemon Fairless about the investigation.

On paper, the Liberals’ deal for the NDP’s support is supposed to prop up their minority government until next summer.But in exchange, the Liberals agreed to a bill on pharmacare, and NDP leader Jagmeet Singh is threatening that the deal could be done if they miss an approaching March 1st deadline.So could the coming weeks see the end of the deal? Would the Liberals really risk an election right now? And did the deal deliver wins for the NDP that voters will remember?CBC’s chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton returns to unpack it all.

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre says his party supports a bill from an independent senator that would require websites to verify users' ages before allowing them to see sexually explicit content — similar to laws recently passed in the U.K., several E.U. countries and numerous American states. But critics say the law would be disastrous for privacy and civil liberties — and industry titan Pornhub says it might force them to block Canadians from the site altogether, as they've already done in some of those other jurisdictions.Sam Cole — a journalist with 404 Media and the host of Front Burner's upcoming spinoff podcast, The Pornhub Empire: Understood — explains the controversy around a seemingly simple push to protect children online, and what it could mean for the future of the online porn industry.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsTranscripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

The debate over whether or not Joe Biden is too old to be president is getting heated.He has struggled to collect his thoughts, mumbled incoherently at press conferences, referenced recent conversations with long-dead politicians, and recently, had to be reminded of Hamas' name.It’s not a good look for any president. But it’s especially bad for the presumed Democratic nominee during an election year.Today, CBC Washington senior correspondent Paul Hunter explains why an 81-year-old with memory lapses might be the only option the Democrats have.

Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent premiered last Thursday.The series, adapted by CityTV, features cases that are 'ripped from headlines' from Canada's largest city, Toronto. It films in Toronto neighbourhoods and has a very Canadian cast and crew.It is also part of a long-running network TV franchise that premiered back in 1990, and one that seems to have weathered the changes in TV as a medium, and changes in attitudes towards police and the justice system. Today, Vulture TV critic Kathryn VanArendonk on Law & Order's Toronto spinoff, and why the franchise still draws a big audience.

The Liberals originally promised a bill tackling online harms would come within 100 days of their re-election in 2021.Instead, Justice Minister Arif Virani tabled their new act on Monday, which aims to create a new commission and regulate content from hate, to extremism, bullying and child abuse materials.So did the Liberals learn lessons from a previous bill criticized for the risk of censorship? And will this current bill actually make the internet safer for children?CBC senior reporter Raffy Boudjikanian explains.

This week, the International Court of Justice wrapped up a set of historic hearings into the legality of Israel’s decades-long occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza.The proceedings were requested by the UN General Assembly back in 2022, and so the timing of them — almost five months into Israel’s bloody war with Hamas — is in essence coincidental. But many believe that finding a resolution to this question is fundamental to securing a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians.While many are familiar with the term “occupation” in relation to this conflict, it’s another thing to understand the specific legal meaning of that term, or its practical implications. Or why Israel argues that this term doesn’t actually apply to them.Today we’re going to explain all of that, and then look at how these questions played out at these recent hearings at the UN’s top court. We’re joined by Nahlah Ayed, host of the CBC Radio show Ideas. Among other things, Nahlah was previously a foreign correspondent based in the Middle East, and she has covered other cases at the Hague, most recently one relating to the conflict in Gaza.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsTranscripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

After two years of leading a country at war, Ukraine’s president remains popular. But as support for the fight wavers both inside and outside the country, Volodymyr Zelensky faces a new set of high-stakes challenges.Does demoting a popular general signal a shift in military strategy? Will international allies deliver the support Zelensky says he needs? If not can he negotiate a popular end peace?Today we’re joined by Tim Mak, founder of the Kyiv-based publication The Counteroffensive.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsTranscripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Brian Mulroney, Canada's 18th Prime Minister, has died at the age of 84.He had an incredibly eventful nine-year tenure, from 1984 to 1993, at a time when the governments in the U.S. and the U.K. were shifting towards more deregulation and privatization.He was a champion of free trade, his work on the Canada-U.S free trade agreement, and NAFTA later, had an indelible impact on Canada's economy, but was also met with a lot of criticism along the way.Today, Peter Mansbridge, who covered much of Mulroney's time in office, is here to talk about his legacy. Mansbridge was the chief correspondent at CBC News for many years, and now hosts a podcast called The Bridge.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsTranscripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Gaza health authorities say 118 people were killed and 760 people were injured while trying to get food staples like flour from aid trucks on Thursday, after Israeli soldiers opened fire.The Israeli military claims most people were killed in a stampede of people around the trucks, but accounts from witnesses and medical workers say most of the victims were shot.So what precipitated this deadly search for aid? How close is Gaza to famine? And what would it take to get food to the people there who are starving?Yarden Michaeli explains. He’s a reporter with Haaretz based in Tel Aviv. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsTranscripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

The legal proceedings between ex-spouses Johnny Depp and Amber Heard made nonstop headlines in 2022 — and online discourse at the time seemed to be overwhelmingly in favour of Depp. The tweets in particular caught the eye of investigative reporter and Tortoise Media editor Alexi Mostrous. They seemed to be part of a coordinated effort to smear Heard. And the closer he looked, the weirder it got.What's the connection between that trial, Johnny Depp’s friendship with the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, and a legion of Twitter bots for hire? Mostrous, who hosts the new podcast Who Trolled Amber?, walks us through his investigation and what it says about whether you can ever really trust what you read online.

Since 2019, questions have swirled around why two scientists, originally from China, were marched out of a high-security infectious disease lab in Winnipeg. They were later stripped of their security clearances and fired, in a case that has raised suspicions about Chinese espionage, and prompted calls for the Liberal government to release more information.Now, at least some questions have been answered. Last week the federal government released hundreds of documents, largely from Canada’s spy agency, CSIS, about the scientists’ dismissal. The documents contain revealing insights — but also leave many questions unanswered, putting further pressure on the government to allow a deeper investigation into this story.Today CBC reporters Karen Pauls and Catharine Tunney join us to dive into the revelations in these documents, the political firestorm they’re causing, and what questions remain unanswered.

Pierre Poilievre does not hide how he feels about Canadian mainstream media. His numerous, testy exchanges with reporters earn lots of online traction.Is the relationship between Poilievre and the media different from politicians that came before him? When Poilievre takes on reporters, who is he talking to?Today we explore those questions with journalist and author Paul Wells.

Orlan-10 drones are arguably one of Russia’s most important assets on the battlefield. Which is why the West has sanctions in place to keep the tech needed to build the drones out of Russian hands.So why do hacked emails show that a Russian arms dealer was seeking out parts made by Canadian tech companies? And how are Western parts ending up on the frontlines of Russia’s war with Ukraine?Today, Ben Makuch shares his CBC investigation.

March break, one of the busiest travel times of the year, just started in Ontario. It’ll kick off across much of the country in the next few weeks. Chances are, if you’re flying out, you’re probably worried about something going wrong. It seems like everyone has a horror story about delays and cancellations, extra fees or tiny seats.Today on Front Burner, author and law professor Ganesh Sitaraman on how air travel became such a frustrating and unpleasant experience for so many, and whether there’s a solution in sight. Sitaraman is the author of Sitaraman is the author of Why Flying Is Miserable and How to Fix It.

Kate Middleton is one of the most photographed people in the world. But for months she’s been out of the public eye, recovering from what Kensington Palace says was abdominal surgery.However, many people are not buying that everything is fine with the Princess of Wales. Bizarre choices by the palace’s PR team have only fueled speculation — like releasing a photo of Kate that major new agencies refused to use because it appears to have been manipulated.So what’s really going on?Ellie Hall was the official royal correspondent for BuzzFeed News until it shut down, and she’s going to help us unravel the mystery.

On Wednesday, the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly in favour of a bill that could lead to the forced sale or nationwide ban of TikTok in the U.S. To become law, the bill still needs to pass the U.S. Senate, and that’s not guaranteed.All of this has massive implications for the social media platform’s 170 million users in the U.S, and millions more around the world, including here in Canada.Today, NPR tech correspondent Bobby Allyn on the arguments for and against the bill, how realistic a forced sale or ban would be, and what all this might mean for TikTok’s users.

On Monday, Haiti's Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced from Puerto Rico that he would be stepping down. He’s been unable to return to Haiti since January, because heavily armed gangs have shut down the airport and taken over much of the country.Today, Haitian reporter and editor-in-chief of AyiboPost, Widlore Merancourt, explains what it’s like on the streets of Port-au-Prince, what the gangs want, and whether more foreign intervention is really the answer.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsTranscripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

From emergency landings to mechanical failures, airplane manufacturer Boeing has been in the news a lot recently. Earlier this year, a panel flew off mid-air on a flight, and just this month, a former employee turned whistleblower died while a key legal proceeding was underway.So what exactly is going on?Today, Washington Post reporter Lori Aratani on how Boeing went from being the crown jewel of the American aviation industry to being mired in a seemingly endless series of problems with their planes.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsTranscripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Ahead of its event at a Thornhill, Ontario synagogue, the “great Israeli Real Estate Event” seemed to list settlements in the occupied West Bank on its website – settlements which the UN and Canada consider a violation of international law. On March 7th, Front Burner’s team made their way into the event and confirmed the marketing of West Bank real estate.So how did some real estate enterprises discuss properties in the West Bank? How did protesters outside the synagogue react? And what can their face off outside a synagogue tell us about how the conflicts in Gaza and the West Bank are reverberating in Canada? Front Burner host Jayme Poisson explains. 

Vanessa had her entire life put online during the 2000s “mommy blogger” era. She’s in her 20s now. And as she tells influence culture journalist Fortesa Latifi, her life was anything but glamorous.The TikTok generation of child influencers is a multi-billion dollar industry. And with that money, comes concerns of exploitation.Fortesa Latifi recently published a three part series and mini-doc for Cosmopolitan called “The Sharenting Reckoning”. She joins us to talk about it.

This week, the NDP introduced a motion to recognize Palestinian statehood. The negotiations went into the night with last-minute amendments made. Why did it get so messy? What ramifications could we see come out of the passed motion?Plus, a growing number of provincial leaders are pushing for the Liberal government to cut the carbon tax, or to pause the scheduled increase for it in April. What might happen next?Senior writer Aaron Wherry joins us from the CBC’s Parliamentary bureau.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsTranscripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

How did a handful of competitive foosball players in Montreal create the world’s largest online porn site? And what do a picturesque Dutch cabin, thousands of pornographic VHS tapes, and the subprime mortgage crisis have to do with it?This is episode 1 of The Pornhub Empire: Understood. Hosted by Samantha Cole.More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/Dey46feN

What is the point of Hollywood? There are two obvious answers, right? To make good stuff that entertains people. And to make money for the big studios and the people who work for them.Those two things don't have to be mutually exclusive. But Daniel Bessner believes increasingly they have been.Bessner spent a year working on a deep dive into how Hollywood has evolved for Harper's Magazine. Bessner is also a historian, writer, and host of the podcast "American Prestige".For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsTranscripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

On Friday night, gunmen stormed the packed Crocus City concert hall on the outskirts of Moscow, where thousands had gathered for a rock concert. At least 133 people were killed, making it the deadliest attack in Russia for the last 20 years.ISIS-K, an ISIS affiliate, has claimed responsibility — although Russia is casting doubt on those claims.Today, the CBC’s Briar Stewart takes us through what we know so far about the Crocus City Hall attack, and the many questions that remain.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsTranscripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

After a warm, dry winter, Albertans are preparing for what could be a devastatingly dry summer. Snowpack is low, reservoirs around the province are well below seasonal levels, and farmers are already anticipating a difficult growing season.But this isn't a one-off. Experts say the multi-year drying trend is likely to continue, which will have major implications for water use in the province — the biggest of which is agriculture. Is the future of the province's biggest industry at risk? CBC Calgary's Joel Dryden explains what a deepening drought could mean for life in Alberta in the decades ahead.

Canada's inflation numbers have once again come in lower than expected, and are nearing where our central bank wants them. But to get here, the Bank of Canada has kept interest rates high to slow the economy.So was it actually the Bank's rate hikes that brought inflation down? Is the sting of high rates worth the success so far? And how much further does inflation — and the economy — need to slow before the Bank drops rates? Armine Yalnizyan is an economist and the Atkinson Fellow On The Future Of Workers.

This week, for the first time since the start of the Gaza war, the UN Security Council passed a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire. It passed after the U.S. abstained from voting, rather than using their veto power — as they did three times before. For many watching, it was a very big deal — and the strongest sign yet of a fracture in the long and special relationship the US has with Israel. But is it really?Today the Guardian’s world affairs editor, Julian Borger, joins us to talk about that pivotal UN vote, and whether it’s just symbolic — or if it means something more.

When Beyoncé took the stage at the 2016 Country Music Awards, alongside the Chicks, the racist backlash was immediate. Eight years later, she alluded to that experience when she announced her new album, Cowboy Carter. In recent years, we’ve seen some pushback against the genre’s whiteness. And with Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé is reminding us once again that at its roots, country music is Black. Today, music, pop culture, and politics writer Taylor Crumpton joins us to talk about how for decades, country music has been packaged for a white audience. And how that’s starting to change. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Not only did Pornhub become a massive moneymaker, it also helped push porn into the spotlight by using data, clever PR, and the power of celebrity. How did Pornhub make itself a household name? This is episode 2 of The Pornhub Empire: Understood. Hosted by Samantha Cole.More episodes are available here.

 At a time when major sports leagues are embracing online betting, the MLB’s biggest star and a player for the Toronto Raptors are now involved in gambling investigations.So what do we know about Shohei Ohtani and Jontay Porter? How could gambling partnerships be impacting fans and athletes? And have these leagues opened a Pandora’s box of betting culture that could threaten the future of their sports? Declan Hill is an associate professor of investigations at the University of New Haven, an expert on match fixing and corruption, and the author of CrimeWaves on Substack.

In a Canadian first, four Ontario school boards are taking the companies behind Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and TikTok to court, alleging the platforms are knowingly harming students and disrupting the ways schools operate. The claims haven’t been proven in court, and all three companies say they do their best to keep young people safe online.Our guest today has been speaking for years about the kinds of issues raised in the Ontario school board lawsuits. In 2021, Frances Haugen quit Facebook, took tens of thousands of internal documents and leaked them. She later testified to the U.S. Congress, and alleged the company’s products were harming children.Today, we’ve got Haugen on the podcast to discuss the Ontario school board lawsuits, the harms she believes these companies are causing to children, and what she thinks should be done about it.A previous version of this episode included an anecdote about a boy who was bullied, and later took his own life after videos of his bullying were posted online. That anecdote has been removed. In fact, the boy was murdered by two other boys, in an attack that investigators say was planned on social media, and was triggered by an online conflict in a chat group. 

On Monday, an Israeli military airstrike hit an aid convoy from World Central Kitchen. The IDF killed 7 workers, including Canadian veteran Jacob Flickinger, and said it was a “mistake” and “misidentification.”So why didn’t the extensive steps WCK says it took to coordinate its movements stop the IDF from firing on them? And what does this breakdown of the way aid is delivered during war mean for getting help to Gazans on the brink of famine?David Miliband is the CEO of the International Rescue Committee, a humanitarian group partnering to deliver aid and medical help to Gazans. He says it’s time for a “paradigm shift” in how we think about aid during conflict.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsTranscripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

The Israeli military has been using an artificial intelligence tool to identify human targets for bombing in Gaza, according to a new investigation by Israeli outlets +972 Magazine and Local Call. Intelligence sources cited in the report allege that the AI system, called Lavender, at one stage identified 37,000 potential targets — and that approximately 10 per cent of those targets were marked in error. The sources also allege that in the early weeks of the war, the army authorized an unprecedented level of “collateral damage” — that is, civilians killed — for each target marked by Lavender. The investigation was also shared with the Guardian newspaper, which published their own in-depth reporting. Israel disputes and denies several parts of the investigation.Today, the investigation’s reporter, Yuval Abraham, joins us to explain his findings.

After 20 years representing Timmons, Ontario, federal NDP MP Charlie Angus announced last week that he’s leaving politics. Angus has also spent much of his career fighting for indigenous rights, particularly for Indigenous children. He’s also served in the critic role for labour, agriculture and digital issues.Today, Charlie Angus on his career and departure from politics, as well as the future of the NDP and the popularity of Pierre Poilievre.

Tesla is having its worst year since the pandemic. The company is selling fewer cars, and its stock is plummeting.And it’s not just Tesla. We’re seeing a cool down in North America’s EV industry as a whole.Why is this happening? And as Canada pours billions of dollars into the industry, will that bet pay off? Senior CBC business reporter Peter Armstrong explains.

Abortion is a topic that many analysts believe could present the biggest threat to Donald Trump’s political comeback. This week, he made two major statements that attempted to put distance between himself and the issue.But what does it mean that Trump is now running away from a policy Republicans spent decades fighting for?Today, CBC Washington correspondent Alexander Panetta joins us for a look at a problem Trump helped create, and what it could mean for the November presidential election.

Politicians, staffers and intelligence officials have been testifying in Ottawa over the last several weeks in a public inquiry into foreign interference in Canadian elections in 2019 and 2021. While many details remain classified, it appears from the testimony that China, India and even Pakistan made attempts. But did those attempts have meaningful impacts?CBC senior parliamentary reporter Janyce McGregor explains what the inquiry has shown about Canada's ability to recognize and repel foreign interference in its elections — and what that could mean for the next one.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

On Saturday night, Iran launched its first-ever direct attack into Israel, firing off some 300 drones and missiles. While Israel says it intercepted some 99 per cent of them, shrapnel from one drone hit a seven-year-old girl, who as of this writing is in critical condition. Iran’s attack follows a major escalation by Israel earlier this month, when a strike at Iran’s consulate in Syria killed 16 people, including a top commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.Today, the Guardian’s Julian Borger joins us to explain how these latest events have ratcheted up a long-simmering shadow war between the two powers — and the risk that they could bring the region into a much broader, and even more dangerous, conflict.

Today, the government unveiled their federal budget. And they are spending big on housing.They pledged billions of dollars for low-cost loans to increase rental construction, 30-year mortgages for first-time home buyers, and programs to spur non-profit housing.All in all, they’re promising to build 3.87 million homes by 2031.But will it fix the affordability crisis? We ask Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Minister Sean Fraser.

If you're pregnant but not sure who the father of your baby is, you might turn to a DNA testing company for a prenatal paternity test for some certainty — a company like Viaguard Accu-Metrics, based in the Toronto area. But for years, Viaguard was selling tests that sometimes identified the wrong fathers — and the company's owner knew.CBC investigative reporter Jorge Barrera walks us through his team's investigation into the company, and some of the expectant parents whose lives were upended by incorrect paternity test results.

The single biggest election in the history of democracy is happening right now in India. Just shy of one billion people are eligible voters, but it's not just big from a numbers perspective. It's also being called one of the most pivotal elections in Indian history.Incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi is projected to win. But Modi's commitment to Hindu nationalism has many questioning what a third term might mean for the future of India’s democracy, and the idea of a pluralistic Indian society.Salimah Shivji is the CBC's South Asia correspondent. She’s also working on a new CBC podcast about Modi and the fundamental ways he’s changing his country. It’ll be part of our Understood feed, you can subscribe here. Salimah spoke to host Jayme Poisson about why the stakes of this election are so high.

Today we are joined by Beirut-based journalist Kim Ghattas, author of the bestselling book Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry that Unraveled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East. She is also a contributing editor at the Financial Times.We’re speaking to Kim about the unprecedented, overt attacks exchanged this month between Israel and Iran — most recently an Israeli strike on Friday near the Iranian city of Isfahan. Where is this dangerous tit-for-tat headed next, and what’s at stake? What do Iran and Israel’s leaders actually want here? And what does it mean for the wider region?For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsTranscripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

For some time now, there’s been a growing trend on TikTok and Instagram of young women sharing about their daily lives as “trad wives.” “Traditional wives” forego the workplace, extol the virtues of homemaking, and often talk about the ways they “submit” to their husbands.So why do these women say they’ve chosen a life at home? How does their messaging cross into religion and politics? And is this “movement” a reaction to the burdens on modern women, or a threat to feminism’s progress?Journalist Sophie Elmhirst recently published a piece in the New Yorker titled “The Rise and Fall of the Trad Wife.”For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsTranscripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Donald Trump's first of four criminal trials is underway in New York, where he is accused of improperly disclosing money supposedly paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016 to cover up an alleged affair. It's the first time a former U.S. president has been tried criminally.Washington Post court reporter Shayna Jacobs has been covering the trial. She walks us through what the court has heard in the opening week, what to expect as the prosecution builds its case, and how the defense plans to counter it.

Earlier this month, the Ontario legislature banned the keffiyeh, a checkered black and white scarf long worn by Palestinians and often seen at pro-Palestinian protests.The ban was brought in because of a longstanding policy against clothing items that make overt political statements. But that decision has ignited a massive debate.So, is the keffiyeh a political statement? Is it traditional regalia? Is it both? Today, we unpack those questions with Vox correspondent Abdallah Fayyad.He recently wrote a piece called "How the keffiyeh became a symbol of the Palestinian cause."

The controversial reality TV show known as ‘Kid Nation’, which borrowed its premise from Lord of the Flies, was cancelled shortly after its 2007 debut. Producers took 40 kids into a makeshift desert town to fend for themselves and create their own society. Was the series an opportunity to discover what kids are capable of? Or simply a ploy for ratings? With access to former ‘Kid Nation’ contestants, their families, and the show’s creators, culture journalist Josh Gwynn uncovers how this cult TV show became a lightning rod for an ongoing debate about the ethics of reality TV. Welcome to Split Screen, an examination of the utterly captivating, sometimes unsettling world of entertainment and pop culture. From reality TV gone awry, to the cult of celebrity, each season of Split Screen takes listeners on an evocative journey inside the world of showbiz. Ex-contestants, producers, and cultural critics uncover complicated truths behind TV’s carefully curated facades, and question what our entertainment reveals about us. Split Screen: sometimes reality is twisted. More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/-vGm-quA

 On April 17th, pro-Palestinian protesters set up an encampment on the lawn of Columbia University in New York, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, and for their administration to divest from ties to Israel. The next day, their university’s president called on the NYPD to clear the encampment. They arrested more than 100 students. That event caused an eruption of solidarity encampments, protests, and faculty walk-outs at colleges and universities across the U.S. Now, the encampments and solidarity protests have spread even further — including at McGill University in Montreal, and universities in Europe and Australia.Today, we’re going to talk about why students in multiple countries feel compelled to face arrest or suspension for this movement — and why others feel the protests are creating a dangerous climate that is fueling antisemitism.Our guest is Arielle Angel, editor-in-chief of the magazine Jewish Currents.

When Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre visited a convoy camp on the border between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia last week, he was filmed in front of a “F--k Trudeau” flag.It was another moment of visibility for a slogan that’s encroached on the mainstream, appearing on bumper stickers and flags scattered across the country.So when did this visible hate for the Prime Minister start? What’s the relationship between extremist groups and mainstream anger? And is there any way for Justin Trudeau – or his opposition – to heal the divisions?Journalist Justin Ling has spent many hours listening to groups who profess hatred for Trudeau. He’s the author of Bug-Eyed and Shameless on Substack, and he recently spoke to the Prime Minister about these divisions.

In early April, after Israeli troops withdrew from the area surrounding the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, Palestinian recovery teams were able to assess the destruction. And just last week, mass graves were uncovered on the hospital grounds. There’s been similar reports at Al-Shifa hospital in Northern Gaza as well.United Nations officials are calling for independent investigations into the matter. A statement by the Israeli Defence Forces has said accusations that they had buried the bodies were "baseless and unfounded".Freelance journalist Akram Al-Sattari has been reporting from the grounds of the Nasser Medical Complex. He spoke to Front Burner about what he witnessed.

In April, a hospital memo was released by the British Columbia’s official opposition party. It was from July 2023, a few months after the possession of small amounts of certain hard drugs were decriminalized in the province under a three-year pilot project.And it advised nurses to not impede patients using illicit drugs within the hospital.The province said the advice in the memo had been walked back. But it became another example used by the plan’s critics for why progressive drug policies were failing.Then, last week, B.C. Premier David Eby asked Health Canada to recriminalize the use of hard drugs in public spaces, such as hospitals and restaurants.So how did growing backlash from residents, health-care workers, police and conservative politicians end a key component of decriminalization?Today, we unpack those questions with CBC British Columbia reporter Moira Wyton.

A long-simmering feud between Toronto's Drake and Compton's Kendrick Lamar has finally erupted into open lyrical warfare. The bars being traded on diss tracks like "Push Ups" and "Euphoria" bring to mind some of the most iconic rap beefs in history — and it's far from the first time the 6 God has found himself in the crosshairs.Shadrach Kabango — you may know him as the rapper Shad — weighs in on the feud, and the role of big-name beefs in hip hop culture.

Unless it was dismantled last night after we put this podcast to bed, the pro-Palestinian encampment at McGill University is now entering into its 11th day. It's just one of several across Canada, and one of many more across North America.So last Tuesday, we headed to Montreal to check out the McGill encampment for ourselves. We went to speak to students there about their central demand: divestment. We wanted to learn more about what it means, why the students are calling for it, and why the broader push that “divestment” is part of — the movement known as BDS — is so controversial.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

On May 1st, the people behind a subreddit called r/loblawsisoutofcontrol launched a nationwide boycott of Loblaw-owned stores for the month.The very same day the boycott began, Loblaw Companies Limited released its first quarter earnings numbers. Its profits went up by almost 10%, and its revenue by over $13-billion.Today on Front Burner, why did Loblaw become the primary target of Canadians’ grocery anger? Can something like a boycott or more competition really keep it in check? And should we think of Loblaw less like a retailer, and more like Amazon?Vass Bednar is our guest. She's the executive director of McMaster University's Master of Public Policy and Digital Society program.

In June of 2023, Sikh activist and Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar was gunned down outside a gurdwara in Surrey, B.C., after evening prayers. Three men have now been arrested and charged with his murder, and all three are affiliated with a gang with ties to Punjab. But sources close to the investigation believe these men were just hired guns, acting on orders from the top levels of the Indian government's intelligence service.CBC senior reporter Evan Dyer breaks down his exclusive reporting on this story and the increasingly blurring lines between organized crime and Indian foreign policy.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

On Friday, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre published an op-ed criticizing Canadian businesses’ use of lobbyists. He’s also called out the Liberals for high-priced fundraisers and "undue handouts” to the business lobby.But since Poilievre became leader, dozens of federal lobbyists have also paid to attend the roughly 50 private fundraising events he’s spoken at.So despite all the critiques of big money and lobbying in politics, why do they still seem to be everywhere? How has lobbying shifted power in our democracy? And if parties are concerned, why haven’t any of them made bigger efforts to reform it? Duff Conacher has been pushing for MPs to close lobbying loopholes for almost three decades. He’s a co-founder of Democracy Watch, a non-profit advocating for government accountability. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Whether it’s a complex network of fake online designer shops set up to get your credit card details, a scammer impersonating your bank’s fraud department to get more personal information, or a simple “How are you today?” text that might lead to asking you to invest in a crypto scheme…scams are on the rise. And they are getting more sophisticated.Today on the show, David Reevely, who covers cybersecurity for The Logic, on the evolution of scamming and what you can do to guard against it.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsTranscripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

There were scenes of celebration in Gaza last Monday, as word spread that Hamas had accepted the terms of an Egyptian-Qatari ceasefire proposal.But the same day, Israel rejected the deal. Its military has since ordered more evacuations and pushed further into Rafah, considered a last refuge for over 1 million Gazans displaced by the war.  So what would it take for Israel to agree to a ceasefire? If it wants the safety of hostages, why didn’t it take a deal to release them? And what could the human cost of this last push for Israel’s “total victory” be? Julian Borger is the Guardian's world affairs editor.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsTranscripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Eurovision might best be described as “the Olympics meets American Idol”: a singing contest where countries face off for the number one spot in musical glory. It’s incredibly campy, silly, and mostly very fun.But this year’s Eurovision — which wrapped on the weekend — was dogged by controversy, as organizers faced protests for allowing Israel to compete amid the ongoing war in Gaza.The European Broadcasting Union, which runs Eurovision, insists the contest is “non-political”. But our guest today argues that geo-political ideals and tensions have coursed through this competition since its inception in 1956.Tess Megginson — a PhD candidate studying central and eastern European history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — explains.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsTranscripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

The Women's National Basketball Association has been around for 30 years now, but has long struggled to stand out in an increasingly busy marketplace. The league has also struggled with viewership, and pay equity. But they may have finally found a star transformative enough to break out of the pack. Her name? Caitlin Clark. Just before Clark's professional debut with the Indiana Fever, CBC's Shireen Ahmed joins the show to discuss the WNBA's talismanic star, what some are referring to as a 'golden age' for women's basketball, and Canada's role in it all.

CBC’s chief political correspondent, Rosemary Barton, returns to explain the latest dust-ups in Ottawa.Will the tax changes the Liberals are promising impact only Canada’s richest?Why is a fight over public service workers returning to the office three days a week leading to threats about government services?And why are the NDP accusing the Conservatives of attacking women’s reproductive health?

OpenAI is showing off the latest version of its ChatGPT software in a new set of promotional videos, sounding almost human in the way it talks to users, inviting all sorts of sci-fi comparisons. But AI chatbots are already here, using large language models to simulate human speech, emotion — and even relationships.As this technology goes increasingly mainstream, what will it mean for our "real life" relationships? Can you actually have a meaningful relationship with a computer program? And if you can… is that something you want to trust a tech company with? Philosophy instructor Jill Fellows tackles the big questions about the future of AI companions.

How did Narendra Modi, the son of a humble tea seller rise up the political ranks to become one of the most powerful leaders India has ever seen? And did bloody religious riots damage his political future, or turbocharge it? This is episode 1 of Modi's India: Understood. Hosted by Salimah Shivji.More episodes are available here.

Europe has a reputation as a place that is generally ahead of the curve on things like social housing. So it might surprise some Canadians to learn that much of the EU is well into the throes of a full-blown housing affordability crisis — and the general patterns bear a striking resemblance to our own.Senior Politico reporter Aitor Hernandez-Morales explains just how bad things are getting, and what we might learn from how it's unfolding.

The International Criminal Court’s top prosecutor is requesting arrest warrants for top Israeli and Hamas leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defense minister. Officials on both sides are being accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity — claims they strongly deny and argue benefit their enemies.Could these requests make a difference in the war? And what goes into building a war crimes case at the ICC? Michael Lynk, a former UN Special Rapporteur for the human rights situation in the Palestinian Territories, breaks down what comes next.

Red Lobster used to be one of the biggest names in the world of casual dining — but now the restaurant chain is on the brink of collapse as it files for bankruptcy protection. Was its famous "endless shrimp" promotion really too much for the restaurant to handle? Or is this more about the business decisions of a private equity firm and a major Thai seafood company?Business Insider senior correspondent Emily Stewart takes us through the story of Red Lobster's years-long fall from glory — and how it joins a club of other businesses knocked out by private equity.

For months, Haiti has been ravaged by out-of-control gangs, especially in the country’s capital of Port-au-Prince. But international forces are expected to arrive any day now, led by Kenya.Getting in and out of Haiti is dangerous — and for many, impossible. But CBC’s Paul Hunter managed to go inside the gang-controlled capital and tells us what life is like for Haitians struggling to escape the brutal conditions and how they feel about the looming international intervention.

Standing in the pouring rain, and drowned out by protest music, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak stood in front of 10 Downing street with an announcement: the British public would be heading to the polls for a snap election on July 4th. British Politics has been a whirlwind for the last decade, with several conservative governments, and the polarizing passage of Brexit. And after nearly 15 years in the political wilderness, the Labour Party looks primed to deliver a historic election victory. The BBC’s UK Political correspondent Rob Watson joins the show to discuss an election that stands to deliver change, however moderate, to the British public. 

As Alberta struggles to navigate several years of dry conditions in the province, its historic water license system has come under scrutiny. In short, whoever got water rights first has first dibs on the water today.One of the small towns that really benefits from this system is Magrath, established in 1899 by Mormon settlers from Utah and Idaho. But its senior water rights are becoming more contentious as other communities are forced to buy water amid an increasingly taxed supply.We hear from CBC Calgary reporter Joel Dryden, who visited the town and tells us what the water rights debate is like today and whether any changes to those rights are on the table.Help us make Front Burner even better by filling out our audience survey.

It’s been six years since Jaskirat Singh Sidhu crashed a truck into a bus carrying the Humboldt Broncos hockey team — killing 16 people, injuring 13 others and forever changing the victims’ families.Sidhu, a former permanent resident of Canada, has spent years in prison. Now, he’s been ordered to be deported to India — which critics say is a systemic problem in our legal and immigration systems that leaves noncitizens facing a ‘double punishment.’The Narwhal’s Prairies Bureau Chief, Sharon J. Riley, joins us to discuss Sidhu’s case and how it's raising questions over fairness and justice, including whether Sidhu has faced enough punishment for his actions.Help us make Front Burner even better by filling out this audience survey.

You might be hearing some positive-sounding headlines about Canada's economy recently. Inflation is coming down, and we've (so far) managed to avoid the recession many were predicting following the pandemic. So why do so many Canadians still feel like they're struggling to get by?In a word: productivity. The Bank of Canada has called the country's economic productivity situation an "emergency," and economists say there's a direct link between productivity and standard of living.BMO chief economist Doug Porter explains.Help us make Front Burner even better by filling out this audience survey.

Earlier this week, an Israeli airstrike that set off a huge blaze in a tent camp in Rafah killed dozens of Palestinians and prompted outrage around the world. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the incident a “tragic mistake,” and promised a thorough investigation.His words echoed previous pledges of investigations and accountability, after past incidents involving the Israel Defense Forces that caused similar global outrage. But when Israel investigates itself, what happens? Who is held to account, and what kinds of changes are implemented?Today we’re speaking to Kenneth Roth, the former executive director of Human Rights Watch, about the results of previous Israeli investigations, and whether he believes they are sufficient.Help us make Front Burner even better by filling out this audience survey.

A New York jury has found former U.S. president Donald Trump guilty of 34 charges of falsifying business records to conceal payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels.This makes Trump the first American president to be found guilty of a felony.Just six months out from election day, voters are left with an unprecedented scenario in which a convicted felon could become the next President of the United States.Perry Stein is a justice reporter for the Washington Post, where she is also the co-author of the Trump Trials newsletter. She's here to talk about the conviction and what comes next for Trump and America. Help us make Front Burner even better by filling out this audience survey.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has announced the province will pay at least $225 million to get beer and wine into corner stores over a year ahead of schedule. But why does the province need to pay at all, and why has Ford spent so much time and energy on this issue over his six years in power?Our Ontario provincial affairs reporter Mike Crawley joins us to explain the massive payment, Ford’s political history with alcohol sales and how the new announcement may tie into rumours that an early election is on the horizon.

Four years ago, George Floyd was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His death sparked a massive movement in the U.S. and around the world as protestors passionately rallied against police violence and systemic racism. Not only that, but companies and politicians promised to enact change.But since that reckoning, has progress really been made? Or is there now a cultural backlash that’s cutting down progress? Washington Post journalist Tolu Olurunnipa, who wrote a Pulitzer Prize winning book on Floyd’s life, joins us to talk about Floyd’s legacy.Help us make Front Burner even better by filling out this audience survey.

It’s no secret the Liberal Party is Canada is unpopular. Poll after poll shows the Liberals between 15 to 20 points behind the Conservatives, led by a surging Pierre Poilievre.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau isn’t faring any better, hitting record low approval ratings after nearly ten years in power. Is it time to replace him? And if so, who can take over the sinking ship?David Herle, a partner at Rubicon Strategy and chief campaign strategist for the Liberals under Paul Martin, joins us to answer those questions and gives us his thoughts on the politicians whose names are floating around to take over the party.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.Help us make Front Burner even better by filling out this listener survey: https://forms.gle/JpaGc3RyiaYKqMmw6

Tent encampments have been around in Canada for a long time. But since the pandemic, the number of camps have grown drastically as Canadians struggle with soaring housing prices and homeless shelters often operating at full capacity.Meanwhile, cities have gotten more aggressive in removing these camps — claiming they’re lawless, unhealthy environments. So how did the city of Vancouver end up with a fully legal tent community in CRAB Park? Sarah Berman, an investigative journalist based in Vancouver, explains what the story of CRAB Park reveals about Canada’s war over encampments and the effects of cutting off these makeshift communities.Help us make Front Burner even better by filling out this audience survey.

An interest rate cut of a quarter of a percent might not sound like much. But as the first cut in four years following the COVID-19 pandemic and all the economic upheaval that followed, it's a big deal. And it could be the first of several in the months ahead.But what does that mean for you? How does that affect your ability to afford things like a mortgage, a car, groceries, or growing your business? And after a rocky couple of years, do people even have faith in the Bank of Canada's ability to keep things under control anymore?CBC senior business correspondent Peter Armstrong breaks it all down, including insights from an exclusive interview with BoC governor Tiff Macklem.Help us make Front Burner even better by filling out this audience survey.

A new report accuses parliamentarians of aiding foreign governments to interfere in Canadian politics, which some national security experts say would amount to ‘traitors’ at the heart of our democracy.  Will we ever get the names of the MPs in question?How has it already created a chill between parliamentarians and their colleagues?And if the primary goal of interference is to destabilize Canada, is this report just another success for foreign actors?CBC’s chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton returns to explain.Help us make Front Burner even better by filling out this audience survey.

We dive into the wild story behind The Epoch Times, a fringe conservative newspaper turned right-wing propaganda machine with ties to a mysterious dissident Chinese meditation movement. What are its aims? How did it become one of the biggest pro-Trump ad spenders and a destination for the likes of Candace Owens and Conrad Black?And what will happen now that its CFO is charged in a $67-million money laundering scandal.NBC disinfo reporter Brandy Zadrozny explains.Help us make Front Burner even better by filling out this audience survey.

Over the past few months attacks that hit Jewish schools, community centres and synagogues have shaken Canada’s Jewish community.For some Jewish-Canadian parents, there is now a question of whether it’s safe to send their children to Jewish schools.“Right now, it's a bit fraught to be very Jewish out in the broader world,” says Kim Werker, a Jewish-Canadian mother with a 13-year-old son. We speak to Werker and another Jewish-Canadian mother about these concerns, how they’ve been coping and how challenging it has been to talk to their children about the war in Gaza and antisemitism in Canada.

Everyone knows who Céline Dion is. You can’t forget her incredible power ballads, her iconic outfits at the Met Gala or her quirky conversations with journalists and fellow singers alike.But what fans didn’t know for years was Céline was suffering from stiff-person syndrome. It was causing her body to tense up and spasm, making it hard to use her famous vocal chords. She went public with the diagnosis a year and a half ago, and then stepped away from showbiz and the public eye.Now, she’s opening up about her story and how stiff-person syndrome has affected her life in a new documentary. Ahead of its release, we hear from CBC’s Adrienne Arsenault, who got an exclusive interview with Céline and tells us what she learned about Celine’s life and her plans to sing in the future.Help us make Front Burner even better by filling out this audience survey.

In 2014, a U.S. brainwave scientist claimed he could increase people’s creativity and cure their traumas. And he got permission to experiment on Indigenous children in Canada, offering an all-expenses-paid trip to Victoria, B.C.But a decade later, some study participants say the testing they went through — which included staff attaching electrodes to their heads and being asked to talk about the most traumatic moments of their lives — wasn’t what they signed up for and may have left side-effects.We hear from CBC’s Geoff Leo about what his investigation turned up and why critics are demanding more accountability and transparency over how the study was approved in the first place.Help us make Front Burner even better by filling out this audience survey.

Over the weekend, tens of thousands marched in the streets of Tel Aviv to protest against the Israeli government. This particular protest was calling for early elections and a hostage deal now. Demonstrations similar to the one over the weekend have been a regular occurrence across Israel for months now.Today on Front Burner, Amir Tibon on how representative these protests are of broader Israeli sentiment, and what that says about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s grip on power. He’s the diplomatic correspondent for Haaretz in Tel Aviv.

On the weekend, more than 90 countries held a conference in Switzerland billed as a “peace summit” for Ukraine.But Russia was not in attendance. The summit failed to reach a consensus on a final statement. And the way forward on a peace process remains totally unclear, with Russia and Ukraine drawing intersecting red lines on territory and security.So after over two years of war, what do Ukrainians feel like the path is to ending it?How are they coping with mounting losses and strains on resources?And what would they – and Russia – be willing to sacrifice to finally reach peace?CBC’s Briar Stewart brings us the view from the northeastern city of Kharkiv, where Russia began a new offensive last month.

 If price is one of your top reasons for why you haven’t bought an electric car, China is looking to solve that problem. Chinese consumers can buy high quality electric cars for as little as $10 -thousand USD and Chinese carmakers are looking to expand their reach globally.But American and European governments are hoping to put a stop to it with high tariffs to give local manufacturers a fighting chance. But is it too late?Steve LeVine, the author of The Powerhouse: America, China and The Great Battery War and editor of the Electric, joins us to talk about why China’s electric vehicle market is booming and what that could mean for western automakers.For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Simone and Malcolm Collins are pronatalists: they believe many countries are headed toward a catastrophe of shrinking population, and that we need to have more babies to save them. Other supporters of the movement include Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.By choosing embryos with the genetic traits they want, are they practicing eugenics?Is their push to boost babies in rich countries really different from racist conspiracy theories about immigrants?Jenny Kleeman is a journalist and broadcaster, as well as the author of books including The Price of Life: In Search of What We're Worth and Who Decides. She recently visited the Collins’ home in Pennsylvania.For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Calgarians are still rationing water more than two weeks after a catastrophic pipe break — and the city says they’ve got at least two more weeks to go before it’s fixed.There’s still much we don’t know about why this pipe broke down, but what experts do know is that other Canadian cities should be gearing up for similar crises. Huge amounts of their infrastructure — from roads to subway cars to schools and community centres — hasn’t been properly maintained for decades, and it’s nearing the end of its life span.Matti Siemiatycki, the Director of the Infrastructure Institute at the University of Toronto.For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

After going down three games to zero against the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup final, the Edmonton Oilers won the next three games in a row to tie the series.It’s a feat that’s only been accomplished twice, and both times were in the 1940s.Can the Oilers complete one of the greatest comebacks in pro sports in game seven tonight?After a long cup drought for both Edmonton and Canada, what would the win mean for the city and the country?And what would a ring for Connor McDavid’s status among the best players ever?Daniel Nugent-Bowman is the Oilers reporter for the Athletic. Mark Connolly is the host of CBC’s Edmonton AM. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Canada announced last week that it has added Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to its list of terrorist organizations under the criminal code. It now joins the United States as the only Western countries to do so. Unlike most groups on Canada’s terror list, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is an official arm of the Iranian government. The designation is something some Iranian Canadians and Conservative MPs have been calling for many years. So who are the IRGC? And, why now?Kaveh Shahrooz, senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and activist, joins us to explain what the IRGC is and why he’s been pushing for this move.For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The last time a Conservative won a federal vote in the riding of Toronto-St. Paul’s, it was 1988. The Soviet Union was still together. Brian Mulroney was Prime Minister. The territory of Nunavut wouldn’t be created for more than a decade.But on Monday, in a by-election in the riding, the Conservatives took the Liberal stronghold riding back for the first time in over thirty years. Does this spell electoral doom for the Liberals? Where does the party go from here? And despite his insistence that he’ll stay on, can Justin Trudeau really remain the party leader? John Paul Tasker is a senior reporter with CBC’s parliamentary bureau.For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

When Alex Cyr was growing up on Prince Edward Island in the early aughts, the capital Charlottetown was a pretty quaint and homogeneous place.But in 2024, the city looks very different. In the last few years, the provincial government has made it easier for immigrants to flock there – and they have, more than any other city in the country.The city is younger and more diverse, and it’s solved a lot of the problems caused by its aging workforce. But housing prices have gone up, and the healthcare system is stretched.These challenges that Charlottetown faces now are familiar to so many cities across the country. Journalist Alex Cyr wrote about the city’s immigration growth for Maclean’s. His piece is called: “How Charlottetown Became an Immigration Boom Town”.For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

It was déjà vu all over again in Atlanta, Ga., on Thursday night as Donald Trump and Joe Biden squared off in the first presidential debate of the 2024 campaign. Biden will be looking to secure a second term in November, while Trump will be looking to take the office back for a second term of his own. And indeed, much of the debate focused on rehashing both men's records in office — to varying degrees of veracity and coherence.The CBC's Washington correspondent Katie Simpson breaks down both candidates' performances, the debate's biggest moments, and what it could all mean for the campaign ahead.For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

It was the biggest gold discovery in history...until it wasn’t. In 1995, Canadian mining company Bre-X announced to the world it had found a significant amount of gold deep in the jungles of Indonesia. Stock prices soared as investors worldwide fought to stake their claim. But when Bre-X’s chief geologist mysteriously fell from a helicopter over the jungle, the story of the billion dollar discovery began to unravel. Nearly three decades later, no one has ever been held accountable. In the new podcast, The Six Billion Dollar Gold Scam, host Suzanne Wilton takes you from the jungles of Indonesia to small town Alberta, Canada, to investigate what really happened and find out more about the man behind the biggest goldmine fraud of all time. Produced for the BBC World Service and CBC by BBC Scotland Productions. More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/Duo5eihh

A little over three years ago, a roaring, rapidly spreading wildfire burned through Lytton, a B.C. town of around 200 residents. It essentially burned to the ground. And even though at least $239 million dollars have been promised or poured into the recovery – rebuilding has been slow, and people are frustrated.CBC Vancouver reporter Yvette Brend just returned from Lytton. She tells us about the town’s delayed recovery, and how it might be a cautionary tale of climate disaster recovery.For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

A landslide caused by a heap leach failure at the Eagle mine site in the Yukon has been called a “disaster” by some local residents.Hundreds of workers are currently laid-off and there’s a chance that it has leaked cyanide and/or other heavy metals into the river, endangering the nearby environment and wildlife. Meanwhile, Victoria Gold, the company that owns and operates the mine, is facing charges and their stock has tanked, raising concerns the mine could close for good.Cali McTavish and Julien Greene from CBC Whitehorse join us to talk about how the incident fits into a long, troubling history with mining in the Yukon. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

After his centrist coalition suffered a humiliating loss to the far right in European elections early last month, French President Emanuelle Macron called snap elections for France’s own Parliament in hopes of pushing back.Instead, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally continued their momentum and won the first round of voting last Sunday.So will Macron’s election gamble backfire? Why are the far right surging? And what would it mean for Europe and the world if they took power in the final round of voting this weekend?Don Murray is a freelance journalist currently in Southern France. For years, he covered Europe for CBC as a reporter and documentary maker.For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The U.S. Supreme Court’s latest ruling grants presidents the ability to break the law without fear of criminal prosecution as long as it counts as an “official” act. It’s the latest in a string of wide-ranging decisions, from abortion to corporate deregulation, that critics say are reshaping America.We take a look at some of those cases with University of Michigan law professor and co-host of Crooked Media’s Strict Scrutiny, Leah Litman, and break down what motivates this majority conservative court, and how these decisions will impact the lives of Americans now and for years to come.For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

On Friday, in an exclusive interview with ABC news anchor George Stephanopoulos, U.S. president Joe Biden insisted that only the “Lord Almighty” could get him to quit. But as calls for him to step down grow following a disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump, how long can he hold on — and what might it do to the Democratic party?CBC Washington correspondent Paul Hunter joins us to talk about what’s next for Biden, and if there is any way for his party to stanch the bleeding.For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The Canadian men's soccer team is set to take on Lionel Messi and Argentina, the current holders of the World Cup and No.1 ranked team in the world, in the semi finals of the Copa America soccer tournament. The game is arguably the biggest match in Canadian soccer history.James Sharman is a longtime soccer journalist and host of The Footy Prime Podcast. He'll share how this marks the culmination of a years-long project which has taken the Canadian program from relative obscurity to legitimacy.For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The late Canadian author Alice Munro remains one of the best-known fiction writers in the English language. She won a Nobel prize for her work, and was celebrated for her intimate portrayals of the lives of women and girls. But for decades, Munro hid a dark secret: her husband had sexually abused her youngest daughter when she was a child, and Munro stuck by him — even after her daughter stopped speaking to her, and even after her husband was convicted of sexual assault.Now, Munro’s daughter, Andrea Robin Skinner, has published an explosive essay in the Toronto Star, detailing the abuse and the ways that her mother — and the rest of the family — kept silent about it. Today we’re going to unpack what all of this means with Zoe Whittall, a TV and fiction writer whose books include Wild Failure, The Best Kind of People, The Spectacular, and others.If you or someone you know has been sexually abused, and you’re looking for support, you can find a list of local sexual assault centres, crisis lines and other resources across Canada at https://endingviolencecanada.org/sexual-assault-centres-crisis-lines-and-support-services/. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

<p>In 2022, a convoy of truckers angry with COVID-19 measures staged an 18-day blockade, shutting down a busy border crossing with the U.S. in Coutts, Alberta. It ended with the RCMP arresting 13 protesters and finding a stockpile of guns, ammunition and pipe bombs.</p><p><br></p><p>Now, two men are standing trial for possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose and conspiracy to commit murder in connection with their involvement with the blockade. The prosecution says the two men believed they were preparing for “war”.</p><p><br></p><p>Bill Graveland with the Canadian Press has been covering it from the beginning and takes us through the details of the trial so far, and the lasting impact that the blockade has had on a tiny southern Albertan community.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts</p>

<p>As the NATO summit wraps up in Washington, D.C., this week, Canada has finally committed to spending two per cent of its GDP on defense, as required by the treaty. But NATO is an alliance forged in a post-WWII world at the dawn of the Cold War. Is it still relevant in a modern, post-Soviet world? Or has Russia's increased aggression in recent years given the alliance a renewed purpose?</p><p><br></p><p>Andrea Charron, director of the Centre for Defence and Security Studies at the University of Manitoba, explains how NATO got to this point, what could be next, and Canada's role in it.</p><p><br></p><p>For transcripts of this series, please visit: <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts</a></p>

In the wake of the apparent assassination attempt on former U.S. president Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, we look at the potential for an event like this to ratchet up further political violence, and how pivotal this moment could be for a democracy already in crisis.Vox senior correspondent Zack Beauchamp is our guest. His forthcoming book, The Reactionary Spirit, looks at global challenges to democracy.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit:  https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

At this point, it's still unclear what motivated Thomas Matthew Crooks to climb a nearby roof with an AR-15-style rifle and attempt to shoot former U.S. president Donald Trump. But he is far from the first person to make an attempt on the life of an American president. From the high-profile assassinations of Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy to attempted assassinations of Ronald Reagan and Theodore Roosevelt, acts of politically motivated murder — whether successful or otherwise — are often major turning points in the nation's history.Centre College associate professor Jonathon L. Earle walks us through the legacy of political violence in the United States, and what that history could teach us about what could happen next.For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

This is a big year for national elections around the world. More than 80 countries have gone to the polls, or will before 2024 is over. The volley of elections comes as incumbents struggle to remain popular amid economic challenges, high migration rates and surging challengers.We speak with political scientist, author and commentator Ian Bremmer about what’s at stake with so many elections and what social and economic forces are driving change.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsTranscripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Nine months into the war, Gaza sees one of its deadliest weeks after Israeli air strikes hit several schools and camps throughout the strip and a ground offensive on Gaza City.One of the attacks was an air strike on an IDF-designated humanitarian safe zone in Al-Mawasi, targeting a busy tent camp and market where Israel says two top Hamas commanders were located. Freelance journalist Akram Al-Sattari was there as more than 90 people were killed and 300 were wounded, according to the Gaza health ministry.He takes us through the destruction, the difficult decisions Gazans are making to survive, and how people there are feeling as ceasefire stalks continue to stall.For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

It was a Republican National Convention unlike any other in Milwaukee, Wis., this week, taking place just days after an assassination attempt on the party's now-official nominee for president, Donald Trump — an event that loomed large over the proceedings. But beyond that, the convention also offered a glimpse into what is rapidly solidifying as the party's new identity. In 2016, establishment Republicans may have been split on Trump, but at the 2024 RNC, it's clear that this is now the party of Trump, of MAGA — and now of Trump's newly announced running mate, J.D. Vance.CBC Washington correspondent Alexander Panetta joins us for his analysis on the convention, and what it tells us about where the party is headed from here.For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

After a disastrous debate performance in June, the chorus of questions and doubts have been steadily building — is Joe Biden really the man to beat Donald Trump in this Fall's American presidential election? Biden himself has finally answered: no, he's not. On Sunday, he announced he wouldn't be seeking re-election in November, and nominated his vice-president Kamala Harris in his stead.What's next for the Democrats, and what does it mean for an already chaotic election? Washington Post political reporter Patrick Svitek breaks it all down.For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

After President Biden announced that he was stepping down from the 2024 presidential race, he and other prominent democrats threw their support behind Vice President Kamala Harris. The former prosecutor and senator is no stranger to the campaign trail but hasn’t generally polled well…until now. Is this finally her moment? Vox senior politics reporter, Christian Paz, joins us to talk about Kamala’s track record as a prosecutor and politician, whether she has what it takes to take on Donald Trump and why everyone’s talking about coconuts all of a sudden.For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Vincent Lam is a Canadian addictions doctor and award-winning author who's written a couple of op-eds in the Globe and Mail on the opioid crisis in recent months, and his most recent novel, On The Ravine, is about the subject. Over 44 thousand people in Canada have died since 2016. Some see safer supply, or the prescription of pharmaceutical-grade opioids to drug users, and supervised consumption sites as crucial parts of curbing this crisis. Lam talks to host Jayme Poisson about the backlash to those measures, and what he thinks is missing from the conversation about it.For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a long-awaited and contentious speech to a special joint session of U.S. Congress. He had been invited by all four top congressional leaders — Democrat and Republican — to speak. But not everyone was happy about it. More than 80 Democratic lawmakers skipped the speech, and thousands of people protested outside the Capitol. Netanyahu’s visit comes at a moment when the US’s relationship with Israel, and support for the war in Gaza, are facing unprecedented scrutiny. So today we’ve got the first of a two-part series looking at the past, present and future of the ties that bind Israel and the United States.In part one, the history that built this relationship into what it is today.For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Jasper is a historic resort town in western Alberta's Rocky Mountains, surrounded by towering peaks and vibrant turquoise lakes. But this week, heartbreaking images are emerging from the town and the surrounding national park: buildings turned into charred rubble; trees scorched to the point that they look like matchsticks.Alberta Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis described a "wall of fire" that bore down on the town on Wednesday night, estimated to be up to 100 metres high, with firefighters powerless to stop it.CBC Edmonton reporter Travis McEwan spoke to host Jayme Poisson about how the fire got so destructive, the challenges of fighting it, and what's next for residents there.

It’s more important than ever to sort out what’s real, what’s relevant and what’s truly new — and Your World Tonight does exactly that every night, seven days a week, with correspondents around the world. Our colleagues at YWT set the bar on the daily news catch up. Every night, they offer context, analysis, surprise — all in about 25 minutes. More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/FJTUitZQ

This is the second episode in our two-part series on the past, present and future of the US-Israel ‘special relationship.’ In Part 2, we’re going to look at how that relationship affects Americans living in the US — sometimes in surprising ways. In this episode, we refer to a few previous episodes of Front Burner, which you can find here:The US and Israel’s ‘special relationship’ — Part 1 Apple / SpotifyAt the McGill encampment: Calls to divest from Israel Apple / SpotifyThe growing wave of campus protests Apple / SpotifyTwo Jewish parents on recent school attacks Apple / SpotifyFor transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Canada's women's soccer team went into the 2024 Olympics with their title as defending gold medalists on the line — but they now find themselves mired in allegations of cheating after a team analyst was caught flying a drone over a New Zealand training session.Canada is certainly not the first soccer team to be caught spying on rivals' practices.But why would they try it at such a highly scrutinized tournament?And what could it mean for the future of the sport in Canada as allegations continue to emerge that this may be something Canada's national teams have been doing for years?James Sharman, host of the podcast Footy Prime, breaks it all down.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

After the Bank of Canada hiked interest rates at an unprecedented pace the last couple of years, there’s been a lot of talk about whether we’ll be tipped into a recession. Now, as rates have finally started to come down, a lot of people are struggling. Unemployment’s gone up, people are accumulating debt, and despite inflation cooling, everything still seems really expensive. So, it can start to feel like we’re in a recession. But most experts aren’t calling it one. So what is it? BMO Financial Group’s chief economist Doug Porter joins us to talk about the state of the Canadian economy and how to make sense of it.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

On Tuesday, the leader of Hamas’s political wing, Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated in Iran. The killing is widely believed to have been an Israeli strike, although Israel has not claimed responsibility. News of Haniyeh’s death came just hours after Israel announced it had killed a top Hezbollah commander in Beirut, Lebanon, which it said was in retaliation for a deadly attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights a few days before.Now, the two attacks — coupled with Hamas and Hezbollah’s ties to the Iranian government — are stoking fears that a broader regional war could be closer than ever.Today we’re speaking about all of this with Khaled Elgindy, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, and the author of the book Blind Spot: America and the Palestinians, from Balfour to Trump.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Since US President Joe Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to take over as the next Democratic nominee, the US election campaign has been awash in memes.Memes about coconut trees, weirdos, Brat and even intimate relationships with couches.  But as both U.S. and Canadian political parties are learning, the power of the internet is a double edged sword that can energize campaigns or severely backfire. So when do memes work? Why do they fall flat? And what is the risk of trying to manifest the internet in real life? Rebecca Jennings is a senior correspondent at Vox covering internet culture, and Elamin Abdelmahmoud is an author and the host of CBC’s Commotion.

Olympic FOMO is your daily Olympics recap, in 20 minutes or less hosted by longtime radio duo and media best friends Mark Strong and Jemeni. Together they provide a fresh perspective to the Olympic conversation as they chat with athletes, entertainers and celebrities to get their take on the Games. In this episode, Mark and Jem chat about how Simone Biles battles haters left and right and still manages to score gold, and how a Turkish sharp shooter went viral for his hitman vibes. Mark and Jem also talk with Soca queen and legend Alison Hinds about her favourite Olympic sport. And it continues to be ‘Summer time’ — with McIntosh taking home another gold on August 1st, her third medal of the Games. More episodes of Olympic FOMO are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/j5kfQhRc

Tested is a new podcast series from CBC and NPR that asks the question, who gets to compete? Since the beginning of women’s sports, there has been a struggle over who qualifies for the women’s category. Tested follows the unfolding story of elite female runners who have been told they can no longer race as women, because of their biology. As the Olympics approach, they face hard choices: take drugs to lower their natural testosterone levels, give up their sport entirely, or fight. To understand how we got here, we trace the surprising, 100-year history of sex testing. More episodes of Tested are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/xY7QrHco

Last week’s boxing match between Italy’s Angela Carini and Algeria’s Imane Khelif lasted just 46 seconds. But it has ignited a firestorm online, and led to a slew of misinformation about Khelif’s sex and gender — leading commentators from Elon Musk to Donald Trump to Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling to allege that the International Olympic Committee is allowing a man to compete in women’s boxing.Those claims are not true. Imane Khelif is a cisgender woman, something both she and the IOC have been extremely clear about. But these debates around sex and who qualifies for women’s sports are nothing new. In fact, they’ve been going on for nearly a century. Today, we speak to Rose Eveleth, host of the new podcast Tested, from CBC and NPR, about the controversial 100-year history of sex testing in women’s sports, and the many complex questions this story raises.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

By ideas, dollars and in personal connections, Republican vice-presidential candidate J.D. Vance is intimately tied to an amorphous ideological movement known as the “New Right.”Some of its major players, which include billionaires and tech elites, want to gut the US’ institutions and upend democracy in what they see as necessary, radical action to reverse the tyranny of liberalism. So what is the New Right? How far would JD Vance be willing to go to advance its ideas in the White House? Or do Vance’s allegiances lie elsewhere? Matthew Sitman is a writer based in New York City and co-host of the podcast Know Your Enemy.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The condo market in Greater Toronto, whether it’s resale or new, is struggling.According to a recent CIBC Economics study, sales have “have dived off a cliff” to their lowest level since the late 1990s. Some condos in Toronto are now sitting empty for six to seven months, despite an ongoing housing crisis in the country.John Pasalis has been looking into why this is happening. He’s the president of Realosophy, a realty brokerage in Toronto. He’ll talk to us about the road that led to this point…and what can be done about it.

Online rumours and disinformation surrounding the identity of the suspect in a mass stabbing incident that left three little girls dead in a British seaside town led to an explosion of anti-immigrant and anti-migrant riots throughout the U.K. The unrest was led by mostly white far-right groups.As sudden as the riots came, the festering of resentment towards immigrants and anti-migrant rhetoric has been circulating online and throughout British politics for years. Freelance journalist and regular commentator on the politics podcast ‘Oh God, What Now?’, Zoë Grünewald, joins us to talk about the political context of this past week’s violence and what figures like Nigel Farage and Elon Musk have had to do with it. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Shortly before Vladimir Putin was re-elected for a fifth term as Russia’s president he eliminated his last possible rival for power, Alexei Navalny, who from all available evidence was murdered in an Arctic labour camp. The deaths of dozens of Putin's opponents, often in mysterious circumstances, have been a hallmark of his time in office. Tortoise’s Giles Whittell sets out to find out why so many of Putin’s enemies have met an early end.This is episode 1 of Putin's Murders from Tortoise. You can listen to episodes 2 and 3 wherever you get your podcasts by searching for The Slow Newscast.

ChatGPT took the world by storm when it launched in November of 2022, prompting massive investment in generative AI technology as tech companies rushed to capitalize on the hype. But nearly two years and billions of dollars later, the technology seems to be plateauing — and it's still not profitable. After tech stocks took a hit in early August, concerns are growing in both the tech press and on Wall Street that generative AI may be a bubble, and that it may soon burst.Paris Marx — author of the newsletter Disconnect and host of the podcast Tech Won't Save Us — has been warning about this for a long time. He explains why, and what these recurring hype cycles tell us about a tech industry increasingly focused on value for shareholders over good products for users.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

It’s been a year since Meta banned Canadian news on platforms including Facebook and Instagram, punching a significant hole in how audiences engage with outlets online.  At the same time, the continued descent of the outlets’ revenues has meant mass layoffs and closures, and the rise of news deserts around the country. Today, two journalists weigh in on whether Ottawa should further intervene and increase its financial support of news media, or whether it should heed worries about conflicts of interest and let hemorrhaging outlets fail. Justin Ling is a contributing columnist for the Toronto Star and the author of Bug-eyed and Shameless on Substack. Paul Wells is also on Substack, and spent decades writing for publications including Macleans and the National Post.

The arrest of a father and son north of Toronto accused of being in the late stages of planning an attack for the benefit of the Islamic State. A canceled stop in Vienna on Taylor Swift’s Eras tour after the threat of an attack with the main suspect allegedly inspired by ISIS. A deadly attack in March on a Moscow theatre leaving over 100 dead, allegedly committed by members of an ISIS affiliate. While the Sunni Muslim militant organization hasn’t been in the headlines regularly since 2018, and was actually declared defeated by former U.S President Donald Trump in 2019, it appears to be having a resurgence. Clara Broekaert, research fellow at The Soufan Center, takes us through what ISIS has been up to in recent years and why they are a growing threat again.

Israeli prisons have been making headlines in recent weeks, after far-right protesters stormed the gates of the notorious Sde Teiman detention facility to protest the arrest of nine soldiers accused of sexually assaulting a Palestinian prisoner. The incident reportedly left the man in life-threatening condition, and it has led to a furious debate within Israeli society, with some defending the use of torture against Palestinian detainees.But the case is far from isolated, according to investigations by several media outlets, who in recent months have documented numerous incidents of abuse, medical neglect and deaths in Israeli prisons.Now, a new report by the Jerusalem-based human rights group B’Tselem goes further, accusing the Israeli government of turning its prisons into a “network of torture camps” in the wake of October 7th. B’Tselem interviewed 55 former detainees, the vast majority of whom had not been charged with a crime.Today, B’Tselem’s executive director, Yuli Novak, speaks to us about their findings.You can read the report, Welcome to Hell, here.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit:  https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Over the last two weeks, Liberal Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault has said he's considering tightening Canada's temporary foreign worker program.This is amid criticism of its growing use and the conditions facing those who are in it.Since the Liberals first loosened the rules in response to the pandemic in 2021, the program has played a bigger part in our labour market, including with staff at large food and retail chains.Some Canadians believe that that’s suppressing wages and taking away jobs from young people. So how valid are those fears? And is the program also exploiting the migrant workers themselves, who so often see their rights violated or ignored? Armine Yalnizyan is an economist, a columnist for the Toronto Star, and the Atkinson Fellow on the Future of Workers.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit:  https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Two and half years after Russia first invaded, Ukraine has launched what might be its boldest counterattack yet: a push into the Kursk region. It's the first military incursion across Russian borders since the Second World War, drawing Russian troops away from key battle zones in eastern Ukraine.Tim Mak, a Kyiv-based journalist who publishes the newsletter The Counteroffensive, explains why Ukraine is betting big on such a risky strategy, and whether it could change the course of this protracted war.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

After the events of Sept. 11, sweeping changes were made to U.S intelligence and counterrorism practices as part of the American-led 'war on terror'. Agencies like the CIA started focusing less on traditional forms of espionage, and became more of an organization centred on assassination and hunting non-state actors.As part of that broader effort, a plan was born: what if the CIA were able to conscript a white American man to infiltrate the inner workings of Al-Qaeda? Journalist Zach Dorfman spent years investigating one such deep cover operation — and tells us how the program reached the desk of then President George W Bush, and would chart the secretive intelligence agency on a course that would go on to define its future. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

 A new federal political party, the Canadian Future Party, is pitching itself as a centrist alternative for voters disillusioned with the Conservatives and Liberals.It’s already announced candidates for two upcoming byelections.Front Burner host Jayme Poisson spoke with the party’s interim leader, Dominic Cardy, about why he believes voters are so dissatisfied with the major parties, how he says there’s a “drive towards more and more extremism” among the Liberals and Conservatives, and why he thinks centrism can satisfy Canadians looking for change.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

In politics, a “third rail” is an issue that’s so volatile, so dangerous, that politicians are afraid to touch it. The firm Abacus Data has just come out with a new poll that looks at the “third rails” of Canadian politics — the issues that would make people vote for or against a political party who promised that idea. And some of their findings — and the way they cut across the political spectrum — are actually pretty surprising.David Coletto, the founder, chair and CEO of Abacus Data, breaks down those findings and what they may mean about the state of the country.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit:  https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Just one month ago, the Democrats were a deeply divided party, caught in a tailspin after President Joe Biden's disastrous performance in the first presidential debate. But in the wake of him dropping out and endorsing his vice president Kamala Harris, the party has found new optimism about its chances in the next election.All that excitement came to a head in Chicago this week at the Democratic National Convention. But excitement aside – is this still an uphill battle for the Democrats? And what can the convention tell us about the future Harris and her running mate Tim Walz have in store if they win? CBC Washington correspondent Alex Panetta shares his thoughts from the convention floor.

Earlier this month, Ottawa mayor Mark Sutcliffe warned the provincial and federal governments that his city was facing a public transit funding crisis. He says that at this rate, the city won’t have enough money to run the light rail lines currently under construction.From Metro Vancouver to Toronto, we’re seeing similar issues in major cities across Canada.These cities are dealing with what planning experts call a “transit death spiral”. When ridership drops, they can’t keep up with the costs of the current system that commuters rely on, let alone the big projects that could attract new riders.David Cooper is the founder and principal of the Canadian transportation planning firm, Leading Mobility. He co-wrote a recent report on the state of transit funding in Canada’s biggest cities.David talks to guest host Jonathan Montpetit about just how dire the situation is and what solutions are on the table.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsTranscripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Liberal ministers are hunkered down in Halifax right now for their annual end-of-summer cabinet retreat. It’s a chance for the party to get together and set the agenda ahead of the fall session of parliament. But this year, a shadow hangs over the retreat, as the party contends with dismal polling numbers, calls for leader Justin Trudeau to step down, and the looming reality of a general election that’s at best a year away.Today, JP Tasker, a senior reporter with the CBC’s parliamentary bureau, speaks to us about how the Liberals are trying to reverse their fortunes, the changes people are calling for from inside the party, and whether or not they’ve got enough time to turn things around.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsTranscripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Robert Land Academy is a “military-style” school in Wellandport, Ontario. Since it opened in the 1970s, it’s used military-like structure and uniforms in a bid to mould struggling boys into confident, capable citizens.But last week, The Walrus contributing writer Rachel Browne published a piece with former students' allegations that they experienced violence, sexual abuse and racism at the school. The school maintains it has a zero-tolerance policy regarding corporal punishment.Today, Browne details the promise of Robert Land Academy, the allegations of overlooking abuse she heard from students, and takes a big picture look at how parents struggling for help with their kids has led to a booming ‘troubled teen industry’ in North America.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

On Wednesday, Telegram founder Pavel Durov was charged in France with a wide range of crimes related to illicit activity on the app. His detainment is part of an ongoing investigation by French authorities into the social media app. Telegram, with its more than 900 million users, often offers a window into what’s happening on the ground in countries where state censorship is rampant. At the same time, it can be a haven for hate speech and criminality because of the app’s encryption and lack of content moderation.Durov’s arrest has already lit up a firestorm of debate on whether tech leaders are accountable for what happens on their platforms. Tech journalist Chris Stokel-Walker looks at what Telegram has come to represent, the scrutiny of its founder, and what this case might tell us about the limits of free speech online.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

It's hard to overstate just how big a global phenomenon Oasis were at their peak in the mid '90s, but it wasn't just the music that made them compelling — it was the rock star antics and dramatic love-hate relationship between Liam and Noel Gallagher, the brothers who fronted the band and wrote the songs, respectively.After years of mini-breakups and potshots at each other in the press (and fistfights in real life), they disbanded seemingly for good in 2009. But now, after 15 years, they've announced they're getting back together for a run of shows in the U.K. and Ireland.Steven Hyden — culture writer at Uproxx and Oasis superfan — and Paolo Hewitt — music journalist and author of two books on the band, "Getting High: The Adventures of Oasis," and "Forever the People: Six Months on the Road With Oasis" — join guest host Jonathan Montpetit to explain why, when nostalgia reunion tours are a dime a dozen, this particular one is such a big deal.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

If you’ve ever been to Newfoundland, you know it’s a place where fog can envelop you so deeply, you don’t know where you’re going or where you came from. When two men, born in the same rural Newfoundland hospital on the same day, discover an unbelievable 52-year-old secret, it changes the way they see themselves forever. But this isn’t the end of the story. Because it turns out these men are not alone. A series of other close calls and near misses have begun to emerge, and not only at Come by Chance hospital. Come By Chance is a story about what it means to belong in a family — and how a twist of fate can upend the life you thought you knew. More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/hdwP5zJ3

The B.C. United Party has suspended its election campaign and encouraged supporters to join forces with the Conservative Party of B.C., with the aim of bringing together the right-of-centre vote ahead of next month's provincial election.This is a dramatic turn of events given that the two parties' leaders – Kevin Falcon of B.C. United, and John Rustad of the B.C. Conservative Party – were bitter rivals.Rob Shaw covers B.C. politics for CHEK news and Glacier Media. He explains the dramatic reversal, how it came to be, and what this shifting political landscape might mean for the upcoming election.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

As part of Premier Danielle Smith’s plan to dismantle the provincial health authority, Alberta Health Services, the first of four new replacement agencies began operating this week.Last month, Smith also talked about transferring some hospitals away from AHS to third-party health services. And with a government grant, a private company is developing a business case for a health services “campus” in Airdrie.So why does Smith want to divide up the health care system when other provinces are struggling to unify theirs? What role does she see for private companies in the system? And is her vision of “competition” in health a solution or threat for Canadian care?CBC Calgary producer and writer Jason Markusoff is back to explain.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Since 2022, Jagmeet Singh's New Democrats have backed Justin Trudeau's minority Liberal government with a confidence and supply agreement where the NDP would support the Liberals on confidence votes in exchange for the Liberals passing some of the NDP's policy priorities, like dental care and paid sick leave.That deal came to an end on Wednesday with an announcement from Singh, leaving the Liberals in a much more vulnerable position and opening up the possibility of an election as soon as this fall.Brian Platt, who covers Canadian politics for Bloomberg, explains the NDP's reasons for breaking up with the Liberals, why they've chosen to do it now, and why it could — but doesn't necessarily — mean an election well before September 2025.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

 Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the street in Israel, demanding a return of all remaining hostages in the custody of Hamas. The demonstrations are the largest seen in the country since the start of the Israel-Gaza war. We take a closer look at the changing nature of public opinion currently driving these protests in Israel, and why calls for a ceasefire are complicated by Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu's war aims. Our guest Dahlia Scheindlin is a political analyst, pollster, author, and columnist for Haaretz and The Guardian based in Tel Aviv.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The U.S. Department of Justice has accused Tenet Media of being financed and influenced by a state-backed Russian news network.Two Russian employees of RT – the state broadcaster – are alleged of spending $10-million to secretly pay the company to spread pro-Russia propaganda.According to the indictment, the company never made it clear to its crew of commentators, some of whom are Canadian, about its ties to RT and the Russian government. Freelance reporter Justin Ling is here to explain what was in the indictment and what it says about Russian influence in the upcoming U.S. election.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

A group of former international students with soon-to-be expired work permits in Brampton, Ontario are protesting a series of measures by the Canadian government meant to curb the number of temporary residents entering and staying in the country.We hear their stories and also from Syed Hussan, executive director of Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, talks about how growing anti-immigrant sentiment could be fuelling the government's actions and why linking migrants and international students to housing and jobs might not give the whole picture.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Before tonight, U.S. presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris had never met in real life. But they took the stage in Philadelphia, Penn., last night for their first — and possibly only — televised debate of the campaign.Keith Boag, a former longtime Washington correspondent for CBC News, breaks down the biggest moments of the debate and what it could mean for the candidates' campaigns going forward.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

This week, the Trudeau government announced they’ve brought in a new “special advisor” on economic growth: famed former central banker Mark Carney.The appointment has kicked the rumour mill into gear, because Carney’s name has often been floated as a potential successor to Justin Trudeau, if the beleaguered Liberal leader ever steps down.Whether or not there’s any grounding to that speculation, plenty of questions remain: will Carney’s appointment help or hurt the Liberals? And, as the party continues to flail, what’s in this for Carney?To dig into those questions we’re joined by Catherine Cullen, host of CBC Radio’s The House.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

During the presidential debate this week, Donald Trump once again talked about how he didn’t lose the 2020 election.It’s a false claim that many Americans believe. And some of those believers are getting ready to fight following what they think could be another stolen election in November.ProPublica’s Joshua Kaplan has been reporting on the American Patriots Three Percent, or AP3, and one of the largest active militia groups in the U.S. Despite a wider crackdown on paramilitary groups after January 6th, AP3 has so far managed to avoid much scrutiny.Joshua gives host Jayme Poisson an inside view of the militia group, perspective on how much of a threat they are, and what the stakes are ahead of the U.S election.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

More than 80 women from around the world have accused the fast-fashion mogul Peter Nygard of rape, sexual assault, and human trafficking in incidents across four decades and at least four countries. He has been charged for sex crimes in three Canadian provinces and the state of New York. He denies it all, and has claimed his accusers are lying as part of a vast conspiracy. In his words, the acts he is accused of are things he “would never do.” In November 2023, Nygard was found guilty of four counts of sexual assault in a Toronto court after being accused of attacking five women in his downtown Toronto office, and has now been sentenced to 11 years in prison.Nygard had built a sprawling international retail empire over the past 50 years — but his professional achievements are now overshadowed by a sinister personal life, one that has earned him the moniker, ‘Canada’s Jeffrey Epstein’. Listen to more episodes from the podcast Evil by Design at: https://link.chtbl.com/oKSjIkpB

The inclusion of ‘Russians at War’ in this year’s Toronto International Film Festival has been met with a firestorm of controversy and backlash, including criticism from the Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland.The first person documentary follows Russian Canadian filmmaker, Anastasia Trofimova, as she embeds herself with a group of Russian soldiers fighting on the front lines of the war in Ukraine as they grow increasingly disillusioned with the battle. But after Freeland and other Ukrainian-Canadians spoke out against the film, accusing it of ‘whitewashing’ Russia’s role in the conflict, TVO, one of the films financial backers, announced it would no longer be screening the film. Anastasia Trofimova joins us to talk about the making of the film, the criticism it received and why she thought it was important to give a different perspective on the war in Ukraine.

Former U.S. president Donald Trump was golfing on his course in Palm Beach, Fla., Sunday afternoon when the Secret Service say they spotted the barrel of a gun in the bushes. It was what they believe to be the second potential attempt at assassinating Trump in just two months.The suspect, arrested after a brief pursuit, was Ryan Welsey Routh: a 58-year-old from North Carolina who's been interviewed in the past about trying to recruit Afghan fighters to join the war effort in Ukraine.Marin Cogan, a senior correspondent for Vox, walks us through what happened, what else we know about the suspect and the tinderbox of a highly polarized and heavily armed America.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Not long ago it seemed like the carbon tax was a fait accompli in Canada. Two elections were fought where this was a major issue, and the Liberals came out on top in both of them.But now, things are suddenly looking very different. It’s not just Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives hammering the Liberals about “axing the tax,” a growing number of Canadians have negative views of it too. And last week, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh — who has previously voted with the Liberals on their carbon pricing scheme — seemed to cast doubt on it too.So how did Canadians turn against the carbon tax, a scheme where most people actually get more money back than what they put in?Today we’re speaking to climate journalist Arno Kopecky about the life, and possible death, of Canada’s carbon tax.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

In November of 2023, R&B singer Cassie sent shockwaves through the hip hop world when she filed a lawsuit against her former boyfriend, producer and mega-mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs. She accused him of years of abuse and sexual violence, and since then a further nine lawsuits have been filed along similar lines.This week, Diddy was arrested in New York City on charges of sex trafficking and racketeering, the latter charge carries a potential life sentence. In the indictment, prosecutors accuse him of decades of abuse — sexual, physical and emotional. And they say he used his status as a titan in the industry — and head of the influential Bad Boy Records empire — to commit these crimes, and to cover them up.Vanity Fair staff writer Dan Adler breaks down what Diddy has been accused of, and how he built the power and connections that allegedly facilitated it.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

This week in Lebanon, a series of attacks targeted personal communications devices — like pagers and walkie talkies — belonging to members of the political and paramilitary organization Hezbollah. At least 37 people were killed and more than 3,000 injured, according to the Lebanese health ministry. Among the dead are at least two children.Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, referred to the attack as an ‘act of war’ and a ‘major terrorist operation.’ Israeli officials have said the country has entered a ‘new phase of the war.’ For a better picture on the ground in Beirut, as well as a sense of how the Israeli intelligence service managed to sabotage thousands of devices in Lebanon we’re joined by two journalists. Edmund Bower is in Beirut and has reported for The Guardian, The Times of London and the Atlantic. And Yossi Melman is the co-author of Spies Against Armageddon as well as numerous other books on Israeli intelligence. He’s also an analyst for the newspaper Haaretz.In this episode, we refer to a previous episode of Front Burner, which you can find below:What is Hezbollah? For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsTranscripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Wake up to what's going on in Canada and the world. Each morning, World Report will give you a 10-minute dose of the biggest news stories happening now. Our CBC News colleagues will tell you about the political actors trying to make change, the movements catching fire, and the cultural moments going viral. Start your day with the very latest.More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/nN5xp_ZK 

Last week, telecomms giant Rogers Communications became a majority owner of Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment, putting them at the helm of the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Toronto Raptors. The historic deal ensures a huge chunk of Canada’s sports star power is now all in Rogers’ hands.It’s the latest in a series of major acquisitions after a dramatic family struggle left Edward Rogers at the the helm of the company his father founded. Today, Christine Dobby with Bloomberg Canada talks to guest host Catherine Cullen about the Succession-like manouvering that’s led to Rogers becoming an ever powerful force in Canadian business. 

B.C Premier David Eby says that, if re-elected, he would expand involuntary care for those with severe addiction and mental health issues. The announcement came just a few weeks after a couple of unprovoked, violent attacks in downtown Vancouver where one man died, and another was severely injured. Many Vancouverites were shaken by what happened, and Premier Eby cited the attacks when he spoke about the need for more involuntary care in the province.But many public health experts and civil liberties advocates question whether this is the best approach to dealing with public safety concerns and a drug poisoning crisis.Journalist and writer Anna Mehler Paperny has done a lot of reporting on Canada’s mental health care system. She helps us navigate the complex debate.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsTranscripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

 A recent rise in hateful online posts directed towards South Asian immigrants in Canada and cases of South Asians being harassed and attacked in public has many in the community raising the alarm.Jaspreet Dhaliwal, a recent international student turned post-graduate work permit holder, talks about a concerning encounter at a local park. Press Progress reporter, Rumneek Johal, takes us through more examples of hateful online content about South Asians and recent cases of real-life harassment.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsTranscripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Israel Defense Forces released a video of their top commander telling troops on the northern border to prepare for a ground invasion of Lebanon. The mid-week Lebanese death toll, following Israel’s air strikes that began Monday, is more than 600 people. Hezbollah on Wednesday also shot a ballistic missile towards Tel Aviv for the first time, although it was intercepted and caused no injuries.The Israel-Hezbollah conflict is escalating in a serious way.Today, we’re speaking to Tasnim Chaaban. She is a reporter for L’Orient Today, Lebanon’s long-running English-language newspaper, and she and her family made a harrowing journey to Beirut this week from an area of southern Lebanon under heavy bombardment.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsTranscripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Over the next two years, baby boomers will pass a reported 1 trillion dollars down to their heirs, who, in most cases, are their millennial children. This intergenerational transfer of wealth is expected to be the largest in Canadian history. The nature of homeownership in Canada has changed many times over in the last half century, and these changes have contributed to widening gulfs in wealth and prosperity. Baby boomers came into their adult years through an economic golden age, in which many were able to invest in homeownership well before prices became prohibitive. And as many now enter older age, they are sitting on homes worth many times more than what they paid for them. Katrina Onstad is a freelance reporter and producer for the Globe and Mail’s tech business podcast, Lately. And she’s just written a cover story for Maclean’s about inheritance, and an incoming millennial windfall that she calls the ‘Jackpot generation.’

Award-winning reporter Justin Ling tracks the rise of right wing radio in the U.S. from fringe preachers and conspiracy peddlers of the 1930s to the political firestorm that rages today. Our story begins with Canadian priest Charles Coughlin — a populist crusader who winds up espousing conspiracy and hate. Right-wing radio flexes its muscle with a boycott of Polish Ham. And the Kennedy government almost wipes right-wing talk off the map. The Flamethrowers was originally produced in 2021. More episodes of The Flamethrowers are available here.

While the Liberals survived the first non-confidence vote tabled last week, the Conservatives are already trying again. The Bloc Quebecois have issued an ultimatum to the Liberals for their party’s support. The Prime Minister has accused Conservative MP Garnett Genuis of making a homophobic comment during question period. NDP leader Jagmeet Singh confronts Pierre Poilievre after repeated accusations of selling out. And Pierre Poilievre goes after Bell Canada and CTV News over the editing of a clip of him in a recent news item.CBC’s J.P. Tasker joins us from the Parliamentary bureau to go over a rollercoaster week in Canadian politics.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsTranscripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Last Friday, Lebanon-based militant group, Hezbollah, confirmed that their secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut. As a significant political and cultural leader in the region, the death of Nasrallah poses a number of questions. Where does this leave the “Axis of Resistance”, the Iran-led coalition of militias united against Israel, of which Hezbollah is a crucial part? Does this open the door for an Israeli ground invasion in Lebanon? And what does it all mean for the fate of the Palestinians as the war in Gaza rages on?Kareem Shaheen, the Middle East editor of New Lines Magazine, joins us to unpack the significance of Nasrallah’s death its potential ripple effects throughout the region. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsTranscripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

In most American elections, the vice presidential debates are almost an afterthought — but this has not been a typical election. Republican J.D. Vance and Democrat Tim Walz are relative newcomers on the national stage, both making headlines since their selection, and this will likely be the only time they face off in a one-on-one debate.CBC Washington correspondent Alex Panetta breaks down the debate's biggest moments, and what it can tell us about the parties' strategies for the final month of the campaign.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsTranscripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

China’s economy has changed drastically in the last four decades. When China started to open up to the world in the late ‘70s and ‘80s, it went from one of the world’s poorest countries, to one of the world’s fastest growing major economies.But now, that same economy is struggling. Home prices are in freefall, retail sales are slowing down, unemployment is up. Things have gotten so rough that last week the Chinese government announced a set of stimulus measures that are meant to give the economy a big boost.Jonathan Cheng is the Wall Street Journal’s China bureau chief. He walks us through what these economic challenges mean for China, its citizens, and the global economy.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsTranscripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

The war in Afghanistan is the longest in both Canadian and American history. The U.S.' withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, signaled not only the end of a 20-year war, but it also marked the re-introduction of a familiar era in the country's history: the return of the Taliban, and the widespread subjugation of women. Three years into Taliban rule, CBC News chief correspondent Adrienne Arsenault brings us inside a secret mission, led by a group of Canadian MPs, to rescue Afghanistan's last female politicians, and bring them to safety in Canada.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsTranscripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

In the second episode of The Flamethrowers, host Justin Ling explores how President Ronald Reagan takes the shackles off right-wing radio and inaugurates a golden era of conservative politics. And Rush Limbaugh — almost by accident — becomes a kingmaker in the Republican party and changes radio forever.The Flamethrowers was originally produced in 2021. More episodes of The Flamethrowers are available here.

‘Time stopped on October 7th.’Jonathan Dekel-Chen was a longtime resident of Nir Oz, an Israeli kibbutz near the Gaza border. Nearly a quarter of the residents there were either killed or taken hostage on October 7th, 2023, when members of Hamas and other armed groups killed around 1200 people, and took 251 Israelis and foreigners hostage.That set off Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza, which has now killed an estimated 41,500 people, according to Palestinian health authorities.Jonathan’s son Sagui was taken hostage on October 7th, and he’s believed to still be in Gaza today. He speaks to host Jayme Poisson about the attack on his kibbutz, the challenges he’s faced in trying to get his son home, and the escalating conflict in the Middle East.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

NOTE: In yesterday’s episode, we promised to bring you a conversation with a man who’s spent the last year in Gaza, both living through and reporting on Israel’s military campaign there. We were logistically unable to bring you that today, but we will do so as soon as we possibly can.For decades, the Darién Gap, a jungle crossing straddling the Colombia and Panama border, was considered impossible to cross.Today, it’s a path that many migrants take, risking their lives, to try and make it to the United States. Eight hundred thousand people are expected to use it this year, nearly 200,000 of them are children.This is all happening at a time when immigration is among the most pressing issues for voters in the upcoming U.S election, with presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.The Atlantic’s Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Caitlin Dickerson recently took three trips to the Darién Gap over the course of five months.She spoke to host Jayme Poisson about her report, Seventy miles in hell, which focuses the experiences of those caught in the middle of this ongoing immigration debate.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Floridians are packing up and evacuating their homes as Hurricane Milton, one of the biggest hurricanes ever recorded, bears down on Tampa Bay. A major hurricane hasn't hit the region in more than 100 years, during which time the city has grown massively in population and built up significant residential developments along the waterfront — all as climate change has made hurricanes bigger, stronger and more frequent.Thomas Mantz, president and CEO of Feeding Tampa Bay, tells us what's happening on the ground in preparation for Wednesday night's anticipated landfall. Then, meteorologist and climate journalist Eric Holthaus explains why the Tampa area is uniquely vulnerable to a hurricane of this size, and the scale of what could happen in the days and weeks ahead.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Canada’s fertility rate just hit a record low: 1.3 babies per woman, placing us among some of the lowest birth rates globally. While discourse around declining birth rates has been dominated by the likes of Elon Musk and Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance, it’s not just tech billionaires and social conservatives paying attention to this issue. Governments around the world have tried to enact policies to encourage their citizens to have more children, in most cases to no avail. So why is the world’s population shrinking and what can be done about it?Jennifer Sciubba, a political scientist and demographer from the Population Reference Bureau, joins us to talk about the myriad of factors behind the global trend and the dangers of politicizing the issue of reproduction. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

'The Apprentice' premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and received an eight minute ovation. The film follows a young, awkward, ambitious Donald Trump during his bid for respect among New York City's elite, and his formative relationship with notorious NYC lawyer and political fixer Roy Cohn.But in the time since its Cannes debut, team Trump has unleashed a pressure campaign to keep the film from the public.Dan Beckerman is a producer of 'The Apprentice', and joins us for a discussion about the film's complicated journey to theatres, and the challenges of making art about powerful people.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Welcome to the world of conspiracy and paranoia. A horrifying act of domestic terrorism brings right wing radio some unwanted attention, which pushes one fan of the supernatural away from politics, while a pair of anti-government broadcasters dig their heels in.This is episode 3 of The Flamethrowers, the story of how radio energized and then radicalized a conservative base. This series was originally produced in 2021. Hosted by Justin Ling. More episodes are available here.

A TV crew offers 12 ordinary people the chance to take part in the adventure of a lifetime. But there’s a catch. The audience knows everything but the contestants are kept in the dark. As the cameras roll, no questions are allowed. Split Screen: Thrill Seekers is a new 6 part series that exposes how a TV show left contestants struggling to trust what’s actually real.Host Nick van der Kolk (Love + Radio) asks: does reality TV only succeed when it exploits those involved? He talks to the set designers, crew, and the contestants themselves to learn what it took to permanently distort their sense of reality.Welcome to Split Screen, an examination of the utterly captivating, sometimes unsettling world of entertainment and pop culture. From reality TV gone awry, to the cult of celebrity, each season of Split Screen takes listeners on an evocative journey inside the world of showbiz. Ex-contestants, producers, and cultural critics uncover complicated truths behind TV’s carefully curated facades, and question what our entertainment reveals about us. Split Screen: sometimes reality is twisted.More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/ztducTr-

Al Jazeera reporter Hani Mahmoud is currently based in Deir al Balah, in central Gaza. He’s spent the last year reporting on Israel’s war against Hamas in the territory.Hani has told the stories of families displaced by the war, struggling to access food and water, and grieving relatives who have been killed, while living those hardships himself.One year into Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, more than 42,000 people have been killed, according to local health authorities. It’s estimated that another 10,000 may be buried under the rubble.Today, father and reporter Hani Mahmoud shares his family’s story of surviving this past year.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The Thanksgiving long weekend ended with a bombshell from the RCMP and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: Accusations that agents from the Indian government are linked to, and helped orchestrate criminal acts in Canada. These allegations include acts like murder and extortion against members of the country’s Sikh community.It’s the latest development in an ongoing row between Canada and India that started last year. Now as diplomats are expelled from both countries, the fallout has just begun.Meanwhile, there is a growing movement within the federal Liberal caucus to oust Trudeau as leader, involving a secret document being passed around. Catherine Cullen, CBC senior parliamentary reporter and host of CBC Radio’s The House, joins us to talk about how everything is playing out on Parliament Hill and beyond. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Republicans have already filed over 100 lawsuits in US courts, in what critics say is an attempt to overturn the upcoming election. Ari Berman, national voting rights correspondent with Mother Jones, brings us the latest on how the 2020 Stop the Steal movement shaped the 2024 election.He also talks about the fifteen years he’s spent reporting on this topic. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Tomorrow, British Columbians head to the polls in a provincial election that’s seen plenty of twists and turns.There was the collapse of the B.C. United party, formerly the B.C Liberal party, which really opened the door for the further rise of the B.C. Conservative Party, and its leader John Rustad.Rustad, who’s running to be premier of B.C., is in a tight race with sitting B.C. NDP premier David Eby. Controversial and conspiracy-laden comments by Rustad himself, and a number of his candidates have taken up a lot of oxygen.CBC’s B.C. provincial affairs reporter Katie Derosa joins host Jayme Poisson to sort through all the political drama.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The terror attacks of September 11th have Americans turning the dial to talk radio, where a whole new generation of broadcasters are eager to capitalize on anxiety and fear.This is episode 4 of The Flamethrowers, the story of how radio energized and then radicalized a conservative base. Hosted by Justin Ling. More episodes are available here.

In the last few months, U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump has appeared on shows with huge audiences of young men. He’s been doing interviews with people like influencer Logan Paul, comedian Theo Von, video game streamer Adin Ross…all people outside the usual political media, and all with millions of followers.These appearances are just part of a deluge of efforts to court Gen Z men, in what some have called the bro or frat vote in the upcoming U.S election.Polls show that an enormous gulf has opened up between young men and women this election season - with young men way more likely to support Donald Trump.The Guardian U.S.’ senior features writer Sam Wolfson on why and how young men have shifted to Trump, and how this shift to the right is part of a global trend.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The allegations from the RCMP and the federal government last week are nothing short of explosive: That agents of the Indian government had been involved in “widespread violence” against Canadians on Canadian soil.But these kinds of allegations aren’t just coming out of Canada. High-level agents within the Indian government have allegedly been linked to assassination attempts, surveillance and harassment in the US, Pakistan, Germany, the UK and Australia. Many of the targets are Sikh activists in the Indian diaspora, who had sought exile abroad.We’re joined by Greg Miller an investigative foreign correspondent for the Washington Post, and Gerry Shih, the Washington Post’s India bureau chief, to talk about what their reporting into India’s campaign of “transnational repression” has revealed.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

As you’re probably well aware, traffic in cities across Canada is mind-numbingly bad.  The geolocation firm TomTom recently ranked Toronto as having the worst traffic in North America with Vancouver, Winnipeg and Montreal also in the top ten. And as the debates about how to fix it rage on, it’s only seeming to get worse. That issue is being brought into sharp relief in Ontario right now, where a new bill would force municipalities across the province to get permission before installing any new bike lanes.So here’s a conversation with Jennifer Keesmaat. She’s the former chief planner of Toronto and one of Canada’s most renowned voices on urban issues.We’re going to talk about the solutions to traffic that don’t work and the ones that do.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Justin Trudeau is facing arguably his biggest political crisis. Some two dozen of his own MPs have signed a letter calling on him to step down as leader of the Liberal Party. After a three-hour caucus meeting in Ottawa on Wednesday, Trudeau said his party is "strong and united" — words echoed by other Liberals throughout the day.But are they? Political reporter and author Stephen Maher breaks down the growing tensions within the Liberal Party over Trudeau's leadership and just how numbered his days as party leader might be.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Céline Dion is having a moment. It’s not her first. And millions of fans are hoping it won’t be her last. While Céline’s international stardom seems obvious now, it was all so unlikely. This is the first episode of the four-part series from Understood, the anthology podcast that takes you out of the daily news cycle and inside the events, people, and cultural moments you want to know more about. Hosted by Thomas Leblanc. Listen to episode 2 here.Follow Understood here.

This year’s Burning Man festivities were more chaotic than usual when rain poured down in the Nevada desert, turning the usually dry, dusty terrain into a thick sludge. Thousands of revelers were trapped onsite, as organizers encouraged attendees to shelter in place and conserve food, water and fuel until the grounds dried on Monday and roads were passable. Meanwhile, much of the reaction on social media had a whiff of schadenfreude. To understand more about Burning Man’s origins, how it has changed, and why it provokes derision amongst some outsiders, host Tamara Khandaker speaks with freelance journalist Keith Spencer, who’s written about – and attended – Burning Man. Looking for a transcript of the show? They’re available here daily: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Doug Ford’s Greenbelt scandal continues to deepen. In the past few weeks, there have been two high-profile political resignations, revelations about a mysterious consultant known as “Mr. X”, and another provincial watchdog who panned the Greenbelt land swap as rushed and flawed. It’s all related to Ontario’s decision to allow construction on previously protected farmlands, forests and wetlands that would allow a small group of well-connected developers to make an estimated $8.3-billion. Today we’re joined by Emma McIntosh. She’s an Ontario environment reporter at The Narwal, who has been closely following this story. Looking for a transcript of the show? They’re available here daily: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

As Canada deals with high inflation and a housing shortage, the world’s second-largest economy is grappling with a nearly opposite reality. China has been booming for over 40 years as Beijing invested heavily to build up the country. But now, demand for housing is sinking amid overbuilding and developers mired in debt, and consumer prices have recently fallen into deflation. Today, Wall Street Journal China bureau chief Jonathan Cheng explains the signs that China’s economy is slowing down, and what it could mean for the boom that changed the world to come to an end. Looking for a transcript of the show? They’re available here daily: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Conservatives from across the country will gather this week in Quebec City for their party convention. There are some heated issues on the agenda; like a policy pushing the party to oppose gender-affirming care for minors and one advocating for the right to refuse vaccine mandates, and there are less controversial resolutions on things like housing affordability and tax reform. Today, J.P. Tasker, a reporter with CBC's parliamentary bureau, walks us through what’s at stake for Poilievre in his first Conservative convention as leader, what the party’s grassroots is asking for and what it could mean for the future of the Conservative Party. Looking for a transcript of the show? They’re available here daily: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

As Canada’s top consumer watchdog, CBC Marketplace looks out for your health, your safety and your money. Hosts Asha Tomlinson and David Common bring you inside eight action-packed investigations, uncovering the truth about popular products and services — and pushing hard for accountability. Phone scammers have stolen millions from Canadian victims and the losses are staggering. This episode takes you inside an investigation the team has been working on for more than five years and introduces you to an inside man at an illegal call centre who’s putting his life on the line to help people. More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/L9v9gHxq

The ChatGPT hype cycle has died down a bit lately. There are fewer breathless headlines about generative AI’s potential and its risks. But in a recent American survey – one in five post-secondary students said they had used AI to complete school work. Today, a closer look at what this means for the academic experience with Simon Lewsen, journalist and the author of a recent piece in Toronto Life titled ‘CheatGPT.’ We discuss if AI’s use really constitutes an epidemic of cheating, or if it’s simply a new technological tool for students to take advantage of. Plus, how post-secondary institutions might adapt, and what might be lost along the way. Looking for a transcript of the show? They’re available here daily: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

This week – Ontario police charged Kenneth Law, of Mississauga, with 12 counts of counselling or aiding suicide. That’s on top of the two counts he was charged with when he was first arrested in May. Law is accused of running several websites that were used to sell sodium nitrite and other items that can be used for self harm. He’s alleged to have sent at least 1,200 packages to people in more than 40 countries, and is being investigated by police forces from the UK to New Zealand. Thomas Daigle has been covering this story extensively for CBC News. He’s here to explain this complicated case, and what we know about the man at the centre of it. If you or someone you know is struggling, here's where to get help: Talk Suicide Canada: 1-833-456-4566 | Text 45645 (between 4 p.m. and midnight ET) Kids Help Phone: 1-800-668-6868, live chat counseling on http://www.kidshelpphone.ca/ Find a 24-hour crisis centre, via the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention: https://suicideprevention.ca/need-help/ Looking for a transcript of the show? They’re available here daily: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Since new Housing Minister Sean Fraser said Canada “ought to consider” a cap on international students last week, the impact of the program on the housing market has dominated the affordability debate. This year, the number of international students entering Canada is expected to be 900,000, almost triple the total from a decade ago. Some, including the Prime Minister, have cautioned against blaming students for housing problems. But as some students are forced to live in unsafe housing or fall victims to scams, housing experts are questioning whether it’s ethical to welcome this many students until Canada fixes its planning failures. Today, York University gender, sexuality and women's studies professor Tania Das Gupta tells us what she’s learned about the experience of international students through her research into Punjabi migrants, and explains how Canada relies on their tuition and labour. Looking for a transcript of the show? They’re available here daily: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

As wildfires burn in the Northwest Territories, premier Caroline Cochrane called out Ottawa for failing to respond to decades-long requests to address basic infrastructure gaps. And as the residents who were forced to evacuate know, things like safe road systems and strong telecommunication networks are essential for emergency management. Today we’re talking about how this lack of infrastructure combined with other barriers have affected access to vital communication on the ground. Ollie Williams is the Editor of Cabin Radio, an independent internet radio station and an online news service based in Yellowknife that’s become a beacon of information during the crisis. Looking for a transcript of the show? They’re available here daily: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Russian officials said on Sunday that genetic tests had confirmed that Wagner Group head Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in a plane crash last week. Just two months ago, Prigozhin led an armed rebellion in Russia, in a mutiny that lasted less than 36 hours. Now – many, including western intelligence, are speculating that this crash could have actually been an assassination – ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin himself. Today, the Washington Post’s Russia correspondent, Francesca Ebel, discusses Prigozhin’s death, what it means for the future of the notorious Wagner group, and Putin’s Russia. Looking for a transcript of the show? They’re available here daily: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Sharing your skincare routine, whether it’s on DermTok or Instagram, is a hugely popular trend on social media. These days, there is one product that you’ll hear talked about religiously: sunscreen. You’ll find dermatologists and skincare influencers alike evangelizing about the importance of cancer- and wrinkle-preventing SPF. But there’s another reason why sunscreen is top of mind this summer — it’s become a political issue in the United States, thanks to Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She recently took to TikTok to talk about how few quality sunscreens are available in America, compared to Asia and Europe. And it’s not just the U.S. — it’s a problem that’s also playing out here in Canada. Today we’ll be talking about the rise of sunscreen as a skincare must-have and the fight for better SPF options with Julian Sass. He is a cosmetic research and development professional and a content creator focused on sunscreen in Montreal. Looking for a transcript of the show? They’re available here daily: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

On Monday, as people were still reeling from the devastation of the wildfires in B.C. and in the Northwest Territories, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lashed out at Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, over its decision to block news from its platforms in Canada. The ban started a few weeks ago, in response to the federal government passing the Online News Act, Bill C-18. It’s a law that’s meant to get tech companies like Meta and Google to pay news outlets when their content is posted on their platforms. But rather than comply, Meta is choosing to block the sharing of news content on its platforms. Today on Front Burner, Alfred Hermida, a digital media scholar and professor at the UBC school of journalism, tells us how the ban has been working so far, and the kind of political and community reaction it’s brought out. Looking for a transcript of the show? They’re available here daily: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Over the last month, the percentage of COVID tests coming back positive started going up again, and wastewater COVID signals are also rising, suggesting a fall COVID-19 wave could be starting in Canada. Today on Front Burner, Dr. Allison McGeer, infectious disease specialist at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital and professor at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health, discusses the state of COVID-19 in Canada and what you need to know. Looking for a transcript of the show? They’re available here daily: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Unpredictable and unrelenting wildfires have destroyed blocks of homes, stores and buildings in West Kelowna and part of the Shuswap region in British Columbia. The province is currently under a state of emergency. 30,000 people are on evacuation order across B.C. and 36,000 more are under evacuation alert. This is happening against the backdrop of the country’s worst wildfire season on record, with ongoing evacuation efforts in the Northwest Territories, as fire approaches Yellowknife. Today, we head to Fort Providence in the Northwest Territories and Kelowna, B.C., to hear about the human cost of these unprecedented wildfires. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The Liberal cabinet retreat is underway in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, with ministers discussing fall priorities amid flagging poll numbers. Once a source of strength for the party, the Liberals appear to be losing ground with Canadians in their 20s and 30s who are concerned with affordability. Abacus Data says the Liberals have fallen over 10 points behind the Conservatives with millennial voters. Today, CBC senior writer Aaron Wherry explains how a leader once obsessed with the middle class ended up on the opposite side of affordability anger, and what the Liberals could still do to reclaim their 2015 image. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The Dose is a weekly look at the health news that matters to you. Dr. Brian Goldman brings you the best science from top experts in plain language. This episode answers listener questions about perimenopause and menopause symptoms and treatments. Dr. Shafeena Premji, a family doctor and medical director of Mahogany Clinic in Calgary, shares her best advice on how to manage symptoms and when to speak to a health-care provider. More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/mOAbEQfT

This week, Donald Trump and 18 of his associates were charged under the state of Georgia’s RICO Act. RICO stands for Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, and it was originally designed to crack down on organized crime. And while Trump’s at the center of these latest charges, a lot of the heat is also on his former attorney, Rudy Giuliani. The former mayor of New York made his name in the 80s as a federal prosecutor for using the RICO act to take down the city’s mob. So how did this tough-on-crime anti-mafia crusader end up being charged with a legal tool he himself pioneered? Today on Front Burner, VICE News reporter Greg Walters on what led Giuliani to this point, and what these charges in Georgia could mean for his future. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

For tourists interested in a beach vacation, Maui residents have a simple message: this is not the time to visit Hawaii. The wildfires that decimated the historic town of Lahaina, leaving at least 111 people dead and hundreds more still missing, have also laid bare the long-simmering tensions between native Hawaiians, and wealthy tourists and developers. Today we’ll be talking about why many Hawaiians have been asking tourists to stay out long before the fires and why many are afraid recovery will open the door to even more outside ownership. Savannah Harriman-Pote is an energy and climate change reporter and the lead producer of This Is Our Hawaiʻi, a new podcast from Hawai‘i Public Radio. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

It’s been a busy month in Alberta energy politics. In early August, the provincial government caught many by surprise with a six-month pause on any new solar and wind projects that would produce more than one megawatt of power. Since then, Premier Danielle Smith has doubled down on her vow not to go along with the federal government’s plan to get to a net zero power grid by 2035. Meanwhile, Canada is experiencing its worst wildfire season on record. Today, CBC’s Jason Markusoff discusses these recent developments and the politics at play. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Last month, the African nation of Niger became the seventh government in Western and Central Africa to suffer a military takeover in the last three years. And as of today, virtually every country in Africa’s Sahel region is governed by a current or former military officer. The Sahel is a part of the world that was dominated by France through the colonial period — and many leaders of military governments that have taken over, from Mali to Burkina Faso, have identified the unresolved legacies of colonialism as a source of their dissatisfaction. For decades, Niger, and countries in the Sahel more broadly, have received enormous investment from both France and the U.S. They have been called a “strategic partner” by both nations in the fight against islamic extremism in West Africa. Niger specifically was long touted as West Africa’s last bastion of democracy. So what happened? Today, BBC journalist Beverly Ochieng, whose reporting has long focused on the region, on what’s happening in Niger, and whether this era of insurrection in the Sahel is evidence of an anti-colonial renaissance, or something a little more complicated. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Last Wednesday, Ontario auditor general Bonnie Lysyk delivered a scathing report about the province’s plans to build on parts of the protected Greenbelt. While Premier Doug Ford had promised to preserve this vast network of vulnerable greenspace, he announced in November that the province would lift protections on thousands of acres to build more houses. The auditor general’s report finds there’s no evidence the land was needed to meet the government’s housing target and says that it was chosen under heavy influence from a small group of well-connected developers. The report goes on to say that those same landowners now stand to make a lot of money and could “ultimately see more than a collective $8.3 billion increase to the value of their properties”. To make sense of the report, we’re joined by an Ontario reporter with The Narwhal, Fatima Syed.

Singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie has announced that she's retiring from live performances. For 60 years Buffy’s music has quietly reverberated throughout pop culture and provided a touchstone for Indigenous resistance. This five-part series, hosted by Mohawk and Tuscarora writer Falen Johnson explores how Buffy’s life and legacy is essential to understanding Indigenous resilience. In this episode, Buffy is traveling from gig to gig in the 60s, armed with her guitar and little else. She makes a splash on the coffeehouse folk scene, rubbing shoulders with artists like Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan. Tectonic changes are around the corner, and her rising success comes with some hard lessons about who to trust — and what it means to be a Indigenous woman in the music business. More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/v_Eag6h4

Taylor Swift has been on tour for months but finally, Canadian fans have been given a chance to see her here. She’s having not one or two but six shows at the Rogers Centre in Toronto next year and even though there are 300,000 tickets up for grabs, fans have been likening the scramble to the Hunger Games. Swifties may be known for their dedication but those outside the fandom might be wondering: what is it about Taylor Swift that commands this kind of hype? Elamin Abdelmahmoud, host of CBC Radio’s Commotion and known Swiftie, breaks it down for us. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

A metallic orb scans your iris and turns it into a numeric code, providing a unique ID that confirms you as human. This is the process people in dozens of countries are undergoing for Worldcoin, a new cryptocurrency project that’s handing out free tokens and even local currency in exchange for biometric verification. The project claims it can prove our personhood online and enable voting, financial equality or even the distribution of a universal basic income. But even before its official launch late last month, Worldcoin was already facing accusations of deception, exploitation and crypto-colonialism in countries like Kenya and Sudan. Today, Jacob Silverman explains the utopian promises and dystopian fears surrounding Worldcoin. Silverman is co-author of Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud, and he’s also the host of Front Burner’s special series The Naked Emperor. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Right now, some 3,700 workers from 27 Metro grocery stores across the Greater Toronto Area are on strike – and they’re not alone. From British Columbia’s ports to Manitoba’s liquor stores to Hollywood, a wave of people across different industries have gone on strike this summer. Today on Front Burner, we head to a Metro picket line in East Toronto. We talk to workers there about what’s at stake for them as they strike, and take a closer look at what’s driving this recent labour unrest with McGill University’s Barry Eidlin, author of ‘Labor and the Class Idea in the United States and Canada’ For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

In June, a group called YYC Muslims organized a large protest in front of Calgary's city hall. They were there to oppose what they call "gender ideology" in schools. They chanted, “leave our kids alone” saying they don’t want it imposed on young children. They were joined by seniors wearing T-shirts with biblical verses on them, and others sporting shirts with slogans about “government tyranny.” Counter-protesters were there too, many baffled by the unlikely alliances between the different groups of people there. This protest in Calgary is just one example of Muslim parents pushing back against LGBTQ representation in schools. Today, Omar Mosleh, a Toronto Star reporter based in Edmonton, walks us through this pushback, the people behind it, and how it has spurred a challenging conversation within the wider Muslim community in Canada. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Throughout its reign, the British Empire stole a lot of stuff. Today the Empire's loot sits in museums, galleries, private collections and burial sites with polite plaques. But its history is often messier than the plaques suggest. In each episode of this global smash hit podcast, Walkley award-winning journalist, author and genetic potluck, Marc Fennell, takes you on the wild, evocative, sometimes funny, often tragic adventure of how these stolen treasures got to where they live today. These objects will ultimately help us see the modern world - and ourselves - in a different light. This is a co-production between the ABC and CBC Canada. More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/aqZlF7l1

It has been five years since Japanese phenomenon Shohei Ohtani left Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball to fulfil his dream of playing for Major League Baseball in the U.S. The 29-year-old has been compared to the great Babe Ruth for his ability to bat and pitch with equal prowess. In fact, some say he’s the greatest baseball player of all time. Fans are flocking to his games to catch a glimpse of Ohtani in action, and he has sparked renewed interest in the struggling MLB. But as a player with the Los Angeles Angels, Ohtani has had to get used to losing. The team hasn’t made the playoffs in nearly a decade and hit a 14-game losing skid in the 2022 season. With Ohtani’s contract coming to an end, Ben Lindbergh, a senior editor at The Ringer, explains why the player is so impressive, and where he could go from here. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Crashed crafts, non-human biologics, and the Pentagon in possession of UFOs. Last week, former military and intelligence figures appeared as whistleblowers at a U.S. congressional hearing, testifying about the government’s apparent secrecy around UAPs: unidentified anomalous phenomena. But one former air force intelligence official, David Grusch, claimed the Pentagon collected non-human organic material and that he knew where it was keeping UFOs. Researchers searching the universe for alien life say this is far from proof they’re among us. Today, Seth Shostak explains. He’s the senior astronomer for the SETI Institute – the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence – and the host of its radio show and podcast, Big Picture Science. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

In January, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis seemed like a real contender to win the GOP presidential nomination over former U.S. president Donald Trump. His team pitched his Florida track record, electability and “war on woke” ideals as a Trump-like candidate without the baggage. But now, just two months into his White House bid, DeSantis’s campaign is in trouble. A New York Times/Siena College poll found the Florida Governor is trailing Trump by 37 percentage points nationally. Meanwhile, the campaign has undergone a reboot, firing staff, cutting costs and reevaluating its strategy. Today, Isaac Arnsdorf, a national political reporter for the Washington Post and the author of Finish What We Started, takes us through the hype, the strategy and where the DeSantis campaign has gone wrong. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Were the ‘Freedom Convoy’ protests in Ottawa a “peaceful protest against a tyrannical ruler,” or a bunch of people driven by “lies and misinformation, disturbing the peace of everyone, and being bigoted”? These two conflicting perspectives help illustrate Canadian polarization in a new report from the Public Policy Forum, authored by journalist Justin Ling, titled ‘Far and Wider: The Rise of Polarization in Canada.’ Ling joins guest host Tamara Khandaker to discuss political polarization in Canada, what’s driving it, and how it’s impacting young Canadians. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

TikTok is one of the biggest, most influential social media networks in the world — and its parent company ByteDance is making moves to capitalize on its enormous cultural influence. The company has announced plans to launch a music streaming service, a book publishing division and an e-commerce platform, all of which would allow people to connect directly to the music, books and products they see in the app's most viral videos. It's a move that puts them in direct competition with tech heavyweights like Spotify, Apple and Amazon. What will this kind of vertical integration mean for the musicians, authors and content creators who are garnering those billions of views in the first place? Insider senior media reporter Dan Whateley breaks down ByteDance's big plans, and whether TikTok could truly become the "everything app" of the Western world. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Despite months of mass protests, Israel’s far-right government pushed through a law weakening the country’s Supreme Court on Monday. Under it, the Court is no longer able to strike down some government decisions. Fears over the effect this and other planned changes could have on Israel’s democracy have driven hundreds of thousands of demonstrators to the streets, and a growing number of military reservists are refusing to report for active duty. Allison Kaplan Sommer is a journalist at Haaretz and host of Haaretz Weekly podcast. Today, she discusses where Israel goes from here, whether the country has fundamentally changed, and what this all means for Palestinians. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Australia is leading the way on normalizing the use of some psychedelics. The country’s medical regulator has approved M-D-M-A for use for people suffering from PTSD. Regulators in the US – just last month – published guidance into the use of psychedelics for possible use treating some medical conditions. How does a drug, known for its use on the dance floor, make its way to the medicine cabinet? To find out more about all this we have Rachel Nuwer on the pod today. She’s a freelance journalist and the author of “I Feel Love: MDMA and the quest for connection in a fractured world." For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet is almost entirely different than it was just two days ago. In Wednesday’s shuffle, all but eight of Trudeau’s 38 ministers stepped into new files. Some ministers were forced out after controversial missteps. Other star MPs got bigger economic assignments. And a number of new faces were sworn in from important election regions. Today, Catherine Cullen – the host of CBC’s political podcast The House – returns to explain why Trudeau has transformed his cabinet, and what it says about his strategy to stay in power. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

This summer a humanitarian crisis played out on the streets of downtown Toronto. With city and federal shelters at capacity, dozens of asylum seekers resorted to camping on the sidewalk, in the busy entertainment district, sleeping outside in the blistering heat and through thunderstorms, for weeks. Last week, the federal government announced a one-time $212 million dollar injection into an existing program that helps provide temporary housing to refugee claimants. And most of that funding goes to Toronto. But the city’s mayor and the Ontario premier want more funding and resources from Ottawa. While the funding is being negotiated, about 200 asylum seekers are now staying at two churches in North York, thanks to mostly Black-led community organizations and faith groups. Today on Front Burner, producer Shannon Higgins visits one of those churches to hear from the refugee claimants themselves. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Floods, fires, storms and droughts are all upending lives around the globe. And at the centre of it all is a warming planet. Heat – is the driving force. We are living through the Earth’s hottest month on record. Extreme heat has led to flash floods and property destruction in northern Italy and the Balkans, and fueled wildfires in Croatia and Greece. Nova Scotia’s dealing with historic flooding, much of B-C is engulfed in wildfires and parts of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Yukon and the Northwest territories are under heat warnings. Our guest today warns: heat and the chaos it can unleash is serious and often deadly. Jeff Goodell is a climate reporter and contributing editor of Rolling Stone magazine. He’s also the author of the book The Heat will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., John F. Kennedy’s nephew, is running for U.S. president. Like his forefathers, he’s vying to lead the Democrats – but his political focus is noticeably different. For decades, RFK Jr. has been spreading false information about vaccines, and has more recently been peddling conspiracy theories about COVID-19 and 5G. Vera Bergengruen, a senior correspondent at TIME, recently interviewed RFK Jr. Today, she explains why RFK is campaigning on conspiracy theories and how he reflects a conspiratorial shift in U.S. society. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Jason Aldean is one of contemporary country radio’s most played voices, and he’s no stranger to controversy. He’s been accused of misogynist comments, worn blackface at Halloween, taken an anti-mask stance during the pandemic and, last year, his wife’s transphobic comments got him dropped by his long-time PR firm. Now, his latest single, “Try That in a Small Town” is facing backlash. Depending on who you ask, it’s either an ode to old-fashioned community values, or a racist dog-whistle. Today, Elamin Abdelmahmoud, the host of CBC’s Commotion, is here to talk about the song, where the controversy is coming from, and how it all connects to a deeper divide that’s hounding country music. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Forever Chemicals, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), have been around since the 1940s and are used in everything from non-stick pans to take-out containers to cosmetics and fire retardant. But flash-forward to today and the long-lasting, man-made substances have been found inside Canadian blood samples – brought in through the air and dust we breathe, and even in our drinking water. And now the federal government is proposing to list them as toxic. Today on Front Burner, we’re asking why forever chemicals are seemingly everywhere, what can be done about them, and why it’s taken so long for the government to act. Joining us is Miriam Diamond, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Department of Earth Sciences and School of the Environment. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The union representing almost 160,000 actors, SAG-AFTRA, is striking after negotiations fell through with the group representing most major Hollywood studios. The news comes about two months after 11,000 members of the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) announced their strike. Studios say the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of streaming services like Netflix, Crave and Disney+ has caused financial strain. Meanwhile, actors say the shift to streaming has led to decreasing residuals, meaning they aren’t being paid for repeats of films and television shows. They're also concerned about proposals from studios to use their images and likeness in combination with artificial intelligence to create new content without their involvement. Maureen Ryan, a Vanity Fair contributing editor and author of “Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood,” explains why Hollywood actors are striking and what it could mean for the future of television, film and the labour movement as a whole. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

It's a well-established scientific fact that humans have had a massive impact on the planet. But has it been big enough to warrant the definition of a new geological epoch? It's an idea that's been hotly debated in the scientific community for years — and now, a group of researchers are arguing that a small lake in rural Ontario provides the best evidence for defining that new epoch. Crawford Lake, about 60 km southwest of Toronto, captures the history of the world in its sediment deposits, calcified like tree rings. Scientists say those layers show dramatic changes starting in the 1950s and that they mark a new geological epoch called the Anthropocene. Canadian Geographic contributing editor Alanna Mitchell explains the latest research, what makes Crawford Lake so special, and why defining the Anthropocene has been causing scientific controversy for more than two decades. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Our brains aren’t wired to save the world. But if you’re ready to make changes that actually stick, 10 Minutes to Save the Planet will show you the way. Co-hosts meteorologist and climate reporter Johanna Wagstaffe and broadcaster Rohit Joseph work through the UN’s 10 actions for a healthy planet, but in a way that won’t shame, overwhelm or bore you. Think of each episode as a bite-size guide to fight climate change, rooted in behavioural therapy. More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/Gs-5DFiM

It's been a week since protesters began a blockade of the Brady Road landfill in Winnipeg. They're calling on the government to search the Prairie Green landfill — a privately owned dump outside the city — for the remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran, two murdered Indigenous women. But the government says that, despite police believing the two women's remains are there, the site won't be searched, primarily due to safety concerns. But for Cambria Harris, that's not good enough. Her mother Morgan, along with Myran and two other women whose remains were found at the Brady Road landfill, are believed to be the victim of an alleged serial killer, Jeremy Skibicki. He’s been charged with four counts of first-degree murder in connection to their deaths. In refusing to search the landfill, Harris says the government is perpetuating a long history of systemic racism that has led to the ongoing crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG) in Canada. With tensions flaring as the city seeks an injunction to remove the protesters, CBC reporter Josh Crabb takes us inside the story, and where things could be headed next. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

There’s a growing chorus of critics of the central bank’s decision to increase interest rates, as things like food and housing are keeping inflation up, and seem largely unaffected by higher rates. This comes as the Bank of Canada increased its key interest rate on Wednesday. It’s the 10th time the central bank has hiked the rate since March, 2022 — bringing it to five per cent. The move is all part of an effort to rein in high inflation, but that has come down significantly since its peak last year. Armine Yalnizyan, economist and the Atkinson Fellow On The Future Of Workers, explains on today’s episode. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

“Boundaries,” “trauma,” “holding space,” “gaslighting” — These are all examples of what’s known as “therapy speak”: Phrases and buzzwords that have made their way out of the therapist’s office, onto social media and into our everyday lives. But what happens when those same words are misunderstood or used in manipulative and harmful ways? That’s what many are asking after Jonah Hill’s ex-girlfriend, professional surfer Sarah Brady, posted screenshots of text messages from their past where the actor allegedly asked her to respect his “boundaries,” which included not posting swimsuit pictures or surfing with men. Today, we sat down with Rebecca Fishbein, a culture writer that’s been following the “therapy speak” phenomenon, to unpack the benefits and pitfalls of relationship discourse in a moment where so many use the language of psychotherapy. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

After Twitter caused chaos by limiting how many Tweets users can see, the company behind Instagram and Facebook made a play for its audience last week. On Wednesday, Meta released Threads, an app also centered around short text posts. With its built in connection to Instagram accounts, CEO Mark Zuckerberg says Threads already has 100 million users. But Threads is already experiencing the same privacy concerns as other apps, and Twitter owner Elon Musk is threatening to sue over intellectual property. Today, Mashable reporter Matt Binder discusses whether it's possible for Threads to truly replace Twitter, and the good and bad of its audience fracturing across the internet. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

In two parts of the world, the future of nuclear power plants and their remains are causing alarm for very different reasons. In Ukraine, Europe’s largest nuclear plant has become a battleground in the war. Further east, Japan is one step closer to releasing 1.32 million tonnes of radioactive wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear meltdown into the Pacific Ocean. Meanwhile, for many, nuclear power is one of the tools we have to wean ourselves off fossil fuels. Today, Jim Smith, a Professor of Environmental Science at Portsmouth University joins us to discuss whether nuclear power in an unstable world is a net positive, or a terrifying liability. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Canadian nurse and sex educator Sue Johanson, who died last week at 93, was best known for her unapologetic and taboo-breaking advice on radio and TV shows like ‘Sunday Night Sex Show’ and ‘Talk Sex with Sue’ From opening a birth control clinic in a Toronto high school in the ‘70s and traveling school to school teaching sex ed seminars, to becoming a media sensation, Sue made it her mission to destigmatize sexual desire and health, one question at a time. We take a look back at her iconic life and career with her daughter, Jane Johanson, and sex advice columnist, Dan Savage, and explore why her work is even more relevant today. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Two months ago, Jerry Martin opened up a shop in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside selling a clean supply of drugs like cocaine and heroin. His store was shut down by B.C. police less than 24 hours later. Last Friday, Martin himself died from a suspected fentanyl overdose. For the last several months, safe supply has been the subject of fiery debate in the House of Commons. Conservatives like Pierre Poilievre say that safe supply policies lead to an increase in drug-related deaths. But many experts and B.C. officials disagree. Today on Front Burner, VICE News reporter Manisha Krishnan discusses the life and legacy of Jerry Martin, as well as the current state of safe supply policies in Canada. Two months ago, Jerry Martin opened up a shop in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside selling a clean supply of drugs like cocaine and heroin. His store was shut down by B.C. police less than 24 hours later. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

After Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Wagner Group’s rebellious march towards Moscow was cut short over a week ago, questions have been swirling about how it could happen and what it reveals about Russia’s stability right now. The Kremlin and Vladimir Putin have been working in overdrive to project an image of calm and control. But behind the scenes, a top general is missing and the military is facing Ukraine’s counteroffensive without Wagner’s crucial support. Is Putin losing his grip on power? Could what happened with The Wagner Group and its leader Prigozhin end up costing Russia the war? The Financial Times’ Polina Ivanova joins us to discuss the aftermath of the mutiny and what could happen next.

It's a Canadian media power play unlike any other: Alphabet and Meta are fighting back against the Canadian government's Bill C-18. And caught in the middle is the news media.  The Online News Act – was supposed to make tech giants pay for posting news stories to their platforms.  Now Google and Meta say they aren't going to pay. Instead — they'll remove Canadian news from their sites and apps. It's a move that will make it more difficult for Canadians to access news. And may very well plummet news companies further into the red. This all comes as news companies are cutting back, looking at mergers, trying to get out of obligations of providing local news to Canadians. Chris Waddell joins Tamara Khandaker to sort through this. He's a former professor at  the School of Journalism and Communication at Carleton University. He's also the publisher at J-Source, a website dedicated to the Canadian media industry. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

As Canada’s top consumer watchdog, CBC Marketplace looks out for your health, your safety and your money. Hosts Asha Tomlinson and David Common bring you inside eight action-packed investigations, uncovering the truth about popular products and services — and pushing hard for accountability. CBC Marketplace has your back. More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/PQR2eJr0

There’s been a lot of buzz about the latest show to fill HBO’s prestigious Sunday night slot, The Idol. Co-created by a team including Euphoria’s Sam Levinson and Canadian pop-icon the Weeknd, the series follows a pop star played by Lily Rose Depp who’s working on her comeback after a mental health crisis. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts But what was initially sold as a sexy satire of the music industry’s dark underbelly has been panned by critics and mocked on the internet. Today, Vox senior correspondent Alex Abad-Santos and Lucy Ford, a culture writer with British GQ, take us through the series so far and why it’s garnering attention for all the wrong reasons.

This month, New Brunswick’s Department of Education announced changes to a policy meant to protect LGBTQ students. As of Saturday, the minister responsible says staff can’t call kids under 16 by their preferred pronouns or names unless they have parental permission, though the actual text of the changes differs. Premier Blaine Higgs has added to the controversy with misleading comments about coming out as transgender being “trendy” and the risks of gender-affirming care. For these changes and a number of Higgs’ past moves, two of his cabinet ministers have resigned, and more than half the party’s riding presidents have signed letters that could trigger a vote on his leadership. Today on Front Burner, CBC New Brunswick reporter Hadeel Ibrahim and provincial affairs reporter Jacques Poitras explain the upheaval amoung LGBTQ advocates and Higgs’ own MLAs, and the fears for backsliding of rights beyond the province. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Gurduwara leader and Khalistani separatist advocate, was gunned down in his car just outside his temple last week after evening prayers. Now, as investigators search for two suspects and a possible motive, some in the Sikh community are saying they think the Indian government could have been behind it. The killing comes after similar murders of Sikh leaders over the past year in Canada and abroad. Independent journalist Gurpreet Singh joins us to talk about who Nijjar was, why he was afraid for his life and how this incident could impact the separatist movement and the greater Sikh community. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

When Matthew Michel was 14, he was subject to a device called the Wrap for the first time, while in youth detention in Saskatchewan. It’s essentially a series of straps that bound his torso, legs and ankles. A shoulder harness would keep his body in a forward-sitting position, with his hands cuffed behind his back and clipped in. According to provincial records, Michel was in the Wrap 12 times. CBC investigative journalist Joseph Loiero talks about Michel’s story, wider concerns about the Wrap itself, and what its use might say about Canada’s youth detention system. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

After the Wagner Group’s leader made threats against Russian military leadership on Friday, Wagner mercenaries came over the border from Ukraine, captured a military headquarters, and marched toward the capital. The world discussed whether a coup was unfolding. But after just 36 hours of rebellion, Belarus announced it had brokered a deal for the Wagner Group to turn around, and for its leader to leave the country unscathed. It was a confusing end to a chaotic insurgency. Today, Washington Post reporter Mary Ilyushina returns to discuss why the Wagner Group stopped, why President Vladimir Putin was so soft on a “mutiny,” and what this could mean for the future of the Kremlin and the conflict in Ukraine. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

From the host that brought you The Band Played On, The Banned Teacher is a new investigation, in a different city. He says it was consensual sex. She says it was rape. He was her music teacher. She was a teen. And it wasn't just once, with one girl. He had sex with students in closets, classrooms, and cars. The Banned Teacher begins with one victim's search for justice but turns into a full investigation by host Julie Ireton. Warning: This series contains graphic descriptions of sexual assault. More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/2atEYzri

Canadian and U.S. Coast Guard officials are undertaking a desperate search in a vast swath of the North Atlantic, after five men in a small sub embarked on a risky dive to the wreck of the Titanic, 3,800 metres below the surface. Passengers each paid $250,000 for a spot in the cramped submersible, which has no chairs, one small portal, a consumer-grade gaming controller to operate the vessel, and a limited amount of oxygen to sustain life. On this episode, Timothy Bella, a national reporter with the Washington Post, shares the latest details of the search, the expedition that’s gone awry, and the company offering the pricey opportunity for tourists to see the Titanic for themselves, OceanGate. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Skyrocketing housing costs, decaying infrastructure, anxiety over public safety and budgets stretched thin. On June 26, Canada’s biggest city goes to the polls to decide who will lead Toronto’s approximately two-and-half-million residents amidst all these issues and more. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts A lot of the problems that the Toronto mayoral candidates are going to have to confront are felt in cities across the country. Today on Front Burner, CBC Toronto municipal affairs reporter, Shawn Jeffords, discusses the problems Toronto’s facing and how the big names in the mayoral race are saying they’ll tackle them.

In recent years, Pride Month has seen a flood of corporations using rainbow logos and products to show LGBTQ support. Whether the brands are being helpful or opportunistic has been cause for debate. But this year, amidst a wave of hate against queer and trans people, boycotts and threats are leading some brands to walk back their Pride marketing and merch. Today, Xtra Magazine senior editor Mel Woods discusses whether corporate support for Pride matters, and what brands giving in to homophobic demands could signal about rising hatred. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

To the frustration and hurt of the families of Paul Bernardo’s victims, the notorious rapist and murderer has been moved from a maximum security prison to a medium security one. Conservatives are calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to intervene and move Bernardo back to a maximum security facility. They also want Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino to resign over how his office handled information about the transfer. Ashley Burke is a senior reporter at the CBC’s Parliamentary Bureau. She’s been looking into how the Liberals handled Bernardo’s move and the controversy that has followed. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

There’s a growing sense that the internet – or at least the big sites we use all the time like Amazon, Facebook and Google – is becoming worse. Instead of seeing what’s best for us at the top of our searches, we’re seeing more and more of what makes the tech giant the most money pop to the top. Cory Doctorow calls it ‘Enshittification.’ He explains how it works. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Before his death, John Lennon recorded a demo of a new song, "Now and Then" on a cassette. His Beatles bandmates later tried to repurpose it for release, but abandoned the project in part because of the poor voice quality. This week, Paul McCartney revealed that, 43 years after Lennon's death, the song will drop – thanks to AI technology. It's just the latest example of artificial intelligence's increasing presence in the music industry. Fake Drake songs, AI-generated Kanye covers and posthumous Biggie collabs have raised alarm about copyright, and existential questions about songwriting and creativity. Today, Saroja Coelho speaks with the host of Vulture's Switched on Pop podcast, Charlie Harding, about what the technology means for the music industry and art itself. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

This week, Silvio Berlusconi died at the age of 86. He served as Italy’s prime minister three separate times, leaving a permanent mark on the country’s politics, media, and culture. Berlusconi created an empire for himself, based on money, sex and a willingness to push legal limits — and in many ways, he created a template for billionaire populist political leaders. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts On this episode, Alexander Stille, professor of journalism at Columbia University and the author of The Sack of Rome: How a Beautiful European Country with a Fabled History and a Storied Culture Was Taken Over by a Man named Silvio Berlusconi, discusses how Berlusconi changed Italy and the world.

Former U.S. president Donald Trump pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to 37 federal criminal charges that he unlawfully kept national-security documents when he left office and lied to officials who sought to recover them. CBC’s Washington Correspondent Alex Panetta explains the evidence against him and the ramifications of this case for the next presidential election. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

As smoke from wildfires in Ontario and Quebec blanketed the nation’s capital early last week, air quality advisories caused residents to wear masks and kids to stay inside for recess. Most debate in the House of Commons, however, remained around the economy and inflation – including arguments that climate change measures should be stopped or curtailed. Smoke and burning skies in Toronto, New York, Philadelphia and Washington have since sparked international conversations about our changing climate. Today, CBC senior writer Aaron Wherry joins us to discuss why – even as Canada itself burns – our environmental policy debate continues to stagnate around the merits of carbon taxes. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

After more than eight weeks of fighting, the power struggle between two rival military groups continues in Sudan. The conflict has turned the capital of Khartoum into a battleground. With hundreds of civilians killed and thousands wounded, people are migrating en masse to bordering countries in search of safety. Tens of thousands of people have headed southward into South Sudan, the world’s poorest nation. CBC News Foreign Correspondent Chris Brown spent several days at the border between the two countries. Today, he joins us to share what he learned from refugees and humanitarian workers about concerns the conflict’s spillover effects could destabilize an already vulnerable region. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

For many of us, coffee is an essential part of our day. So what impact is it having on us, beyond just waking us up in the morning? To try to answer that question, Dr. Brian Goldman from the CBC podcast The Dose speaks to Thomas Merritt, a geneticist and professor at Laurentian University in Sudbury. More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/AogMj1Af

The biggest crypto exchange in the world is being sued by an American regulator accusing Binance and its Canadian billionaire founder of breaking a string of laws and misusing investor funds. Changpeng Zhao and his company say they will fight back “vigorously.” Today on Front Burner, Jacob Silverman, who you may know from our podcast The Naked Emperor, joins us to talk about what all this means for crypto’s future. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

MPs have just a couple weeks before Parliament is set to break for the summer, but there’s still a lot going on in Ottawa. David Johnston continues to fend off calls to step aside as special rapporteur on foreign interference, Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre is signalling Conservatives will continue to protest the Liberals’ budget in the Senate, despite its passage in the House of Commons, and the People’s Party of Canada leader is trying to make his return to the Parliament. On this episode, guest host Saroja Coelho dives into the top political stories with Catherine Cullen, host of the CBC political podcast, The House. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

There are two rent strikes underway in Toronto, where some tenants have organized and are withholding rent to protest against above-guideline rent increases. But the strategy carries serious risks – including potential eviction. Today, we hear from one tenant in Thorncliffe Park on why he’s taking part in the strike, and Ricardo Tranjan of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives talks more about the radical tactic, and tenant organizing in Canada. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Forest fire season has come in with a bang. A record-setting blaze in Nova Scotia, plus sprawling fires in Alberta and now Quebec have claimed homes and forced tens of thousands to flee. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned this week federal modeling shows we’re entering an especially severe wildfire season. He also pledged the Canadian government would be there with “whatever it takes to keep people safe, and provide support.” But do we have the capacity? What is the plan to fight the fires of the future? Wildfire ecologist Robert Gray explains why Canada should get on a “war footing” to address these climate-change enhanced super-fires. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Warning: This story contains anti-trans comments and deals with suicide. Today on Front Burner, CBC investigative reporter Jonathan Montpetit goes inside a fundamentalist Christian movement deeply conservative in its social values and radical in its ideas for reform – one that came together in the pandemic, and has since joined the backlash to LGBTQ rights. You can read more on this story at cbc.ca/1.6793677 This documentary was produced by Jonathan Montpetit and Julia Pagel at CBC’s Audio Doc Unit. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Earlier this month, one of football’s brightest stars was targeted with an unprecedented amount of racist abuse during a game. Real Madrid superstar Vinicius Junior — the heir to the throne of Brazilian football — was called a monkey and abused with monkey noises by tens of thousands of fans during a game in Spain’s La Liga. But rather than punish those abusing the athlete, it was Vinicius who was shown a red card. In the aftermath of the incident, everyone from the Spanish press to the president of the Spanish football league seemed to blame the victim of the racist attack, rather than his attackers. On this episode, guest host Jodie Martinson talks to sports journalist Shireen Ahmed about one of the brightest stars in world sports, but also about the broader tradition of racism in soccer, and why it remains an ugly issue in the beautiful game. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Orcas ramming boats and chewing on rudders pierced the hull of a yacht near Spain last week. They've also brought down three vessels in the surrounding waters in the last year. Many experts are suggesting the killer whales could be playing. Others have wondered whether a matriarch named White Gladis could be teaching her pod the behaviour, following a traumatic incident with a ship. The internet, meanwhile, can't stop joking about the orcas taking revenge on humanity. If this is a case of psychological projection, it might be because orcas have reason to be mad at us. Today, Raincoast Conservation Foundation senior scientist Peter Ross tells us about the health of the orca population including the one we understand best, the Southern Resident killer whales near our west coast, and discusses why humans see so much of themselves in these neighbours. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Ukraine has been dealt some blows in the last month. Kyiv has seen the most air strikes since the start of the war, and the city of Bakhmut is almost entirely occupied by the Russians. However, a shift could be coming. After receiving billions of dollars worth of international military aid, Ukraine may be ready to launch its much anticipated spring counteroffensive. And after a drone strike hit an apartment block in a Moscow suburb, some are asking whether it’s already underway. Plus, tensions between the powerful mercenary organisation, The Wagner Group, and the Kremlin are increasing, after more than 20,000 of their soldiers were killed in Bakhmut. Could Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin be a threat to Putin’s leadership? Paul Adams, the BBC’s diplomatic correspondent, has been watching this all closely and helps us make sense of the latest developments — and where the war in Ukraine could be headed. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

COVID-19 disrupted almost everything about our lives when it struck. Now, as the WHO says the global emergency over the novel virus is over, how dangerous is the virus and what will it be like to live with it into the future? Helen Branswell is a world-respected reporter who has spent her career writing about infectious disease and global health. She writes for STAT News and takes us through the latest science. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Danielle Smith and her United Conservative Party have been returned to power in Alberta, as voters reject the NDP and Rachel Notley's vision for the province. Smith overcame a slew of stumbles and hiccups in her first seven months as premier, and won over enough people to secure another four years in control for her party. On this episode, CBC Calgary's Jason Markusoff shares his analysis of how Smith won, what it means for Alberta, and for the rest of the country. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Argentina's annual inflation rate reached a staggering 104.3 per cent in March. It's one of the highest rates in the world, resulting in a cost-of-living crisis for many in the country. It's not a new problem in Argentina, where the market has been volatile for decades, especially during the 1980s debt crisis.From bartering to stocking up on goods before inflation spikes, Argentines have found inventive ways to cope with this economic reality. But there's also been growing discontent with the government, and the country's relationship with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) — especially as a general election approaches this fall. This episode from Nothing is foreign looks at how people on the ground deal with this sky-high inflation rate, the historical conditions that led to this and what happens to a society when it's trapped in a cycle of debt and austerity. More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/M-fZk-5h

It’s been nearly four years since Jeffrey Epstein died in jail while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. Yet more of his ties to the world’s rich and powerful are still being uncovered, and attempts to obtain some measure of accountability continue. One route is through Epstein’s former bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co., which is currently embroiled in two lawsuits, including one from the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Epstein kept an estate. The Virgin Islands has issued subpoenas to a number of billionaires in connection with the case – including Google co-founder Sergey Brin, and more recently, embattled Tesla CEO Elon Musk. And there are new revelations about Epstein’s relationship with Microsoft co-founder, Bill Gates. Today, Wall Street Journal reporter David Benoit speaks with guest host Alex Panetta about these lawsuits, Epstein’s history with America’s biggest bank and what we’re still learning about the convicted sex offender’s web, years after his death. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

As some prospective home buyers watched prices climb to dozens of times their income during the pandemic, they pinned their hopes of ownership on a market crash. And for nearly a year starting last April, prices did fall – in Toronto, the average price of a home dropped about 18%. But now, for the last two months, prices have been on the rise again. So with houses still historically unaffordable, what would it take for Canada’s home prices to drop or crash toward affordability, and would the economic damage do more harm than low prices can help? Today, Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives senior economist Marc Lee explains the paths that remain to ownership for the low and middle class. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Former governor general David Johnston — now serving as a special rapporteur — says a public inquiry into foreign interference in Canadian elections would not satisfy the public, because so much of the material is classified and can’t be shared. Will the decision to reject a public inquiry on foreign interference in Canadian elections darken the cloud of mistrust, or help clear it? On this episode, David Fraser, a reporter with the Canadian Press, details what Johnston is recommending instead of an inquiry. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Violent crime is up in Canada. The country’s homicide rate jumped 42 per cent from 2013 to 2021, and attacks have increased on public transit. With crime in the headlines, public safety has become a real concern for many Canadians. Last week, federal Justice Minister David Lametti introduced new bail-reform legislation to address that anxiety. If passed, Bill C-48 would make it more difficult for some repeat violent offenders to get released from prison on bail. But reviews for the plan are mixed. Today, CBC parliamentary bureau reporter JP Tasker and Vancouver-based criminal defence lawyer Kyla Lee take us through the Liberals’ bail reform legislation and the political pressure campaign that preceded it. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

If laughter really was the best medicine, Gavin Crawford would have cured his mother of Alzheimer’s disease. As a son, his mother’s dementia has been devastating. As a comedian though…it’s been sort of funny. Honestly, how do you respond when your mom confuses you with her teenage crush and wants you to take her to the high-school dance? Well, you laugh. Because it’s the only thing you can do. In this seven-part series, Gavin tells the story of losing his mother — his best friend and the inspiration for a lot of his comedy — to a disease that can be as hilarious as it is heartbreaking. He’s joined by comedian friends who share their experience caring for family members with dementia. The result is a cross between an improv act and a support group. Part memoir, part stand-up, part meditation on grief and loss, Let’s Not Be Kidding is a dose of the very best medicine for anyone dealing with hard times. More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/bBtOceaA

Not all Canadian history happens in Canada. Over 70 years ago, nearly 30,000 Canadians volunteered to fight in the Korean War. It was the third-deadliest overseas conflict in Canada’s military history — so why is it often referred to as “The Forgotten War”? In this episode from The Secret Life of Canada, friend of the pod and producer Eunice Kim joins in to explore what led to the conflict, why Canada got involved, the lasting impact of a war that technically never ended, and how some Korean Canadians are making sure we never forget. More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/34eva0d5

This week, Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed yet another bill targeting the state’s education system into law. In this case, the law will defund state college programs that encourage diversity in higher education and limit the discussion of race in many courses. Under his leadership, Florida has become the epicentre of the culture war in America — a struggle that often focuses on classrooms and public education. On this episode, guest host Matthew Amha speaks with Alex Ingram, a high school teacher who taught in Jacksonville, Florida, for a decade, before deciding that teaching there had become untenable. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

This week, Vice Media filed for bankruptcy. According to reports, the company may be bought for $225 million, plus its sizable debt. At its peak not long ago, Vice was valued at nearly $6 billion. It was shaping the media landscape, had a huge influence on culture, fashion, and how to draw young audiences to news stories around the world. On this episode, Reeves Wiedeman, writer with New York Magazine, explains how Vice rose to such stunning heights, and what contributed to its downfall. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Albertans are suffering an unprecedented wildfire season. Tens of thousands have been evacuated out of the path of massive blazes. Across the province, skies are smoky and air quality is poor. Author John Vaillant is watching it unfold with a terrifying comprehension of the science of these super fires and just how dangerous they can be. He has spent years investigating what happened in 2016 when parts of Fort McMurray burned to the ground. His new book, ‘Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast,’ explains why the fires we battle today are hotter, faster and more destructive than the fires of before. He joins Alex Panetta for a conversation about the future of fire in our changing climate. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The Daily Bread Food Bank in Toronto had their worst month on record in March: more people used their services than at any other time in their 40-year history. This, at a time when Canada’s unemployment rate is at a near-record low. The situation is similarly dire at food banks across the country. So today on Front Burner, producer Imogen Birchard heads out to a food bank in Etobicoke, to find out who’s using the service now and what’s driving them there. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

For a year and a half, almost 50,000 migrants had walked into Canada via Quebec’s Roxham Road to seek asylum. Then, at midnight on the morning of March 25th, Roxham Road – and the immigration loophole that made it a famous irregular border crossing – effectively closed. CBC Montreal reporter Verity Stevenson has been speaking to migrants who arrived at Roxham soon after the change, only to suddenly discover their journey would be cut short. Today, she brings us their stories, as well as what she saw in towns south of the U.S. border that are hosting hundreds of asylum seekers rejected from Canada. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Shortly after George Santos was elected to Congress in 2022, the New York Times found that he had fabricated almost every aspect of his life story – personally and professionally.  On Wednesday, this once rising star was hit with 13 charges including fraud, money laundering, and theft of public funds. Santos, echoing the words of former President Donald Trump, calls it a "witch hunt." Despite calls for him to resign, he vows to continue to serve in Congress and pledges he will run again in 2024.  Today, Washington Post national reporter Azi Paybarah joins us to explain Santos' lies, the criminal charges he now faces, and how the American political star-making machine can sometimes attract fraudsters. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

When it comes to classic video games, there are names everyone’s heard of. There's Mario. Donkey Kong. And of course there’s the Legend of Zelda. The game made its pixelated debut over thirty-five years ago and, in the decades since, the Zelda series has come to represent the spirit of adventure for millions of gamers. But, six years ago, the influential franchise managed to outdo itself with the release of Breath of the Wild – a game that redefined gaming for the modern age by giving players unparalleled control and creativity. Today, the long-awaited sequel is out. Lucy James, a senior video producer for Gamespot and Giant Bomb, joins Front Burner to explain the hype of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and the series’ influence on the highest grossing industry in entertainment. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

A growing crisis between Canada and China has led to the expulsion of diplomats from both countries, following revelations that a Chinese official reportedly targeted Canadian MP Michael Chong’s family. CBC parliamentary reporter Catharine Tunney joins Front Burner to sort through what happened to Chong, what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his government knew about the 2021 incident, and how the two countries are now handling it. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The weather turned hot suddenly this year in Alberta and it is already remarkably dry. Wildfires, some burning out of control, have forced people to flee their homes, triggered a provincial state of emergency, and now there’s a request for the military to move in. CBC Edmonton host and producer Nancy Carlson is no stranger to wildfires in her home province. She covered the 2016 fires that swept Fort McMurray. She was evacuated last week when fires threatened her neighbourhood. Nancy explains what led to this season and how Albertans like her are managing with the threat of what’s already being called an ‘unprecedented’ fire season. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Artificial intelligence is developing at such a rapid pace that leading figures in the field are warning about the mortal threats of losing control. Among the trio known collectively as the “godfathers of artificial intelligence,” two researchers – both Canadian – are calling out the economic, ethical and existential risks of the tech they pioneered. University of Toronto scientist Geoffrey Hinton recently announced he’d quit his job at Google to speak out, and Yoshua Bengio is calling to pause the development of powerful AI systems like GPT-4. Today, Bengio joins us to explain the near-term dangers of AI, and what it would take for the tech to be a threat to humanity. Bengio is a professor at Université de Montréal and scientific director at Mila - Quebec AI institute. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

On Saturday, pomp, circumstance and royal wealth will be on display in the official crowning ceremony of King Charles III. The ceremony’s estimated price tag is 100 million pounds and comes at a time when so many people are struggling to put food on the table. This has led to questions about just how wealthy the royal family is and why they aren’t footing the bill. Reporter David Pegg has worked with The Guardian on a comprehensive investigative series into the royal finances called Cost of the Crown. Today, he takes us through where the monarchy gets its money, explains the secrecy around the Windsor fortune and breaks down the confusion about what belongs to the royals and what belongs to Britain. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has announced new measures to get more police “boots on the ground,” including covering the costs of mandatory training and scrapping the post-secondary education requirement to be hired as an officer. Ford has also been making headlines for his plans for the redevelopment of a parcel of public land on Toronto’s waterfront which include a sprawling private spa. Today, provincial affairs reporter Mike Crawley brings guest host Alex Panetta up to speed on both issues, and discusses the role Ford could play in Toronto’s upcoming mayoral election. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

On Monday at midnight, over 11,000 television and film writers with the Writers’ Guild of America officially went on strike. The strike has triggered a sense of déjà vu in the TV world, in part because Saturday Night Live and late night talk shows are headed into reruns. But it’s also rekindling memories of the last major work stoppage in Hollywood: the 100 day writers’ strike in 2007 which caused a boom in reality TV and – by some estimates – cost the California economy over $2 billion USD. Lucas Shaw covers media and entertainment for Bloomberg, and today he’ll explain why writers are striking in an industry changed by streaming, and what parallels exist with other job action happening across the economy. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Two women who have both served as Alberta premier are the leading candidates in a tight race to run the province. The United Conservative Party’s Danielle Smith, is facing rival Rachel Notley of the NDP. Elise von Scheel, provincial affairs reporter for CBC Calgary, explains why the race is shaping up to be a very close one. And how the changing demographics of Calgary could be a huge factor. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Pras Michel, the rapper known for being one third of the famed ‘90s-era group, the Fugees, has been convicted of 10 criminal counts connected to a web of international political influence, conspiracy, and embezzlement. As Front Burner guest Michael Ames wrote for Rolling Stone magazine, the wild story of includes former U.S. president Barack Obama, actor Leonardo DiCaprio, and a wealthy Malaysian fugitive. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

For more than a year the possibility of peace in Ukraine has seemed out of reach. But this week, a new world leader stepped in with an offer to mediate. After months of waiting, this week Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping over the phone. Zelensky described the call as "meaningful" and as a potential step toward the elusive goal of peace. China says it plans to help facilitate communication between Russia and Ukraine. Emma Graham-Harrison is the senior international affairs correspondent for The Guardian and The Observer. She has lived in China and is currently reporting from Ukraine. Today, she takes us through what Xi Jinping is proposing, whether China could bring peace to Ukraine and whether there is reason to be skeptical.

Two years ago, Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, the creator and star of the show, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, bought Wrexham AFC. The small Welsh soccer team had been languishing in the lowest possible division of football in the U.K. This week, the team celebrated a triumphant victory that earned it promotion out of the game’s backwater. On this episode, Richard Sutcliffe, a writer for The Athletic covering Wrexham AFC, discusses how the Hollywood touch has helped turn the relatively obscure team into a global sensation. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

This episode deals with details of violence. In August 2015, 33-year-old Myles Gray was making a delivery for his wholesale florist business in B.C. when he confronted a woman who was watering her lawn in the midst of an extended drought. The police were called. Within an hour, Gray – who was unarmed – was dead. His list of injuries – including a fractured voice box, several broken bones, brain hemorrhaging and a ruptured testicle – was so extensive that forensic experts could not pinpoint the exact cause of death. The officers involved are speaking publicly for the first time since Gray’s death at a coroner’s inquest. CBC’s Rhianna Schmunk joins guest host Alex Panetta to explain what we’re learning about what happened to Myles Gray, and his family’s hopes for answers and accountability. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

For over seven years on Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight leveraged immigration, vaccines and racial tensions to divide viewers’ worlds into “us” and “them”. Carlson became a kingmaker who could make or break Republican primary campaigns or set the policy agenda. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Then, this week, the show’s incendiary reign atop cable news ended, when Fox News sent him packing. Today on Front Burner, New York Times political and investigative reporter Nicholas Confessore explains the political transformation that informed the world of Tucker Carlson Tonight, and what could be next for one of the most powerful voices in right-wing politics.

According to new reporting on the trove of leaked documents known as the ‘Pentagon Leaks,’ Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau privately told NATO officials that Canada will never meet a two per cent defense-spending target. A secret document, accessed by the Washington Post, also details criticisms leveled at Canada by its NATO allies. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts On this episode, Amanda Coletta, who covers Canada for the Washington Post, discusses what the leaks mean for Canada’s military standing among its peers, and what shortcomings have been identified by those allies.

The concept of 15-minute cities — where a person’s daily needs in a city are accessible within a 15-minute walk, bike or transit ride from their home — is a few years old. It’s been picked up by many cities to guide urban planning and design. But in recent months, the 15-minute city idea has also been seized on by people who fear it’s an elaborate conspiracy to limit individual freedoms, mobility, and to create barricaded sectors to keep them trapped. In this episode, Tiffany Hsu, a reporter who covers disinformation for the New York Times, breaks down the actual idea, where it came from, and how it got twisted into a dystopian conspiracy. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Fox News is the most watched news network in the United States. In the days after the 2020 Presidential election, it broadcasted Donald Trump’s ‘Big Lie”: that the election was stolen from him and voting machines were partly to blame. The company that makes some of those voting machines, Dominion Voting, pushed back suing Fox for defamation and settling for $787-million. Today, CBC’s Washington-based correspondent Alex Panetta takes us through what court filings revealed about how Fox’s most powerful people knew they were telling their audience was untrue, but did it anyway for ratings. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Picket lines have been set up at major government buildings and ministers' offices across the country as more than a hundred thousand public servants go on strike. After nearly two years of bargaining without a contract, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) says Ottawa has failed to propose a reasonable agreement and wage increases that keep apace with inflation. But the government says the union's demands are untenable. Meanwhile, Canadians could see delays in accessing government services as passport office workers, immigration processing staff and most Canada Revenue Agency employees will be off the job in the biggest labour action the federal government has seen in nearly 20 years. Today, J.P. Tasker, a reporter with CBC's parliamentary bureau, walks us through the points of contention, how the government is responding and the possible consequences. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

This year alone, hundreds of new laws targeting trans people have been introduced by Republicans in the United States. Many of them make it harder for doctors to provide gender-affirming care for young people, or ban it completely. On this episode, Ryan Sallans, a transgender author and consultant focused on gender diversity based in Nebraska, and Dr. Hussein Abdul-Latif, an endocrinologist who works with trans kids in Alabama, discuss the impact of the new bills. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation has been pulled into the ongoing controversy surrounding allegations of Chinese meddling in Canadian elections. Last week, the foundation’s president and board of directors resigned en masse, saying in a media statement that “the circumstances created by the politicization of the foundation have made it impossible to continue with the status quo.” Today, Catherine Cullen explains how a $140,000 donation to the foundation in 2016 led to these resignations, the implications of the ongoing controversy, and the calls for further investigation. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Ten years ago this week, Justin Trudeau took over the Liberals’ top job. He won it in a landslide. In his acceptance speech to the excited room, Trudeau swore that unlike Stephen Harper’s Conservatives, he heard Canadians’ pleas for something better, and vowed that he was going to devote his leadership to addressing the issues of “the millions upon millions of middle class Canadians and the millions more who work hard to join the middle class.” Now, a decade into Trudeau’s tenure, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is arguing that far from getting better, “everything feels broken.” Today on Front Burner, CBC senior writer Aaron Wherry looks back at the Trudeau of ten years ago, compares him to where he’s at today, and talks about what it means for his political future. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Last week, classified U.S. military documents largely about the Ukraine war started circulating around the internet and making headlines. But the files appear to have started out on Discord, a platform mostly known for its popularity with gamers, where some were posted months ago. And by Thursday afternoon, the FBI had swooped into a North Dighton, Massachusetts home and arrested Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old member of the intelligence wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard. Today, Julian Borger, a Washington-based world affairs editor with the Guardian, takes us through how and why this leak may have come out, how it compares to past ones and the real world consequences of the breach.

Last weekend The Super Mario Bros. Movie had the biggest global opening weekend for an animated movie ever. The story of how Nike brought the world Air Jordans is also raking it in at the box office. And the internet was abuzz last week after the teaser trailer for Barbie dropped. It all begs the question: when did Hollywood movies start looking like a ten year old's Christmas list circa 1993? Host of CBC Radio's Commotion, Elamin Abdelmahmoud, joins us to dig into this growing trend of movies about products.

In late September of 2022, the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines — which supply Russian natural gas to Germany and the rest of Europe via the Baltic Sea — were hit by a series of underwater explosions. Against the backdrop of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing tensions that have resulted, officials soon concluded that it was an act of intentional sabotage. But by whom? More than half a year later, there's still no clear answer. Today, Washington Post reporter Shane Harris takes us inside this high-stakes whodunnit, explaining the various theories, and the evidence supporting or undercutting them — and how it all hinges on an unassuming 50-foot sailing yacht known as the Andromeda.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced that intelligence now indicates that a missile likely brought down the Ukrainian airliner that crashed in Iran - killing 176 on board, including 63 Canadians. Today on Front Burner, host Jayme Poisson talks to arms control expert Jeffrey Lewis about missile detection, and CBC senior writer Aaron Wherry about how the Canadian government might seek accountability.

George Floyd’s death under police officer Derek Chauvin’s knee sparked global protests over race and policing. Now, the world is watching Chauvin’s murder trial. Minneapolis Public Radio’s Brandt Williams breaks down the key moments so far.

For 36 years, Alex Trebek hosted the trivia show ‘Jeopardy!’ with gravitas and wit. On Sunday morning, Trebek died of pancreatic cancer. He was 80 years old. Today, we discuss Trebek’s legacy and what he meant to his fans with Andy Saunders, a ‘Jeopardy!’ superfan and the operator of TheJeopardyFan.com.

As COVID-19 cases go down, pandemic restrictions are loosening across the country, including in Ontario, but concerns about variants remain. Today on Front Burner, what that means for the safety of kids at school.

Former U.S. vice-president Joe Biden is denying an allegation that he sexually assaulted a Senate staffer twenty-seven years ago. The allegation was made by Tara Reade in March. Reade was among the women who came forward last year to accuse Biden of inappropriate touching. With the 2020 U.S. election coming up, CBC Washington correspondent Paul Hunter reports on how the Democratic Party is responding to the allegation against their presumptive presidential candidate.

As the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approaches, ProPublica’s Tim Golden fills us in on why families of those killed are suing Saudi Arabia, and what secrets are contained in documents they want released.

Eleven people have died, including a suspect, and at least 18 injured after a brutal attack that started in James Smith Cree Nation, Saskatchewan on Sunday. Two brothers, Damien and Myles Sanderson, were charged with first-degree murder and were being sought for the attack. On Monday, the RCMP confirmed Damien, 31, has been found dead, while Myles, 30, is still at large. The RCMP have asked residents across the province to remain vigilant. At this stage of the investigation, they believe some victims were “targeted by the suspects” while others were attacked “randomly.” Today on Front Burner, we talk to CBC Saskatoon’s Dan Zakreski on what we know so far about the suspects, the victims, and the investigation into the attack.

Over 50 nations arrived at COP26 with net-zero emissions targets, but many rely on high hopes for carbon capture tech. Today, a reality check — will carbon capture help us, or provide excuses for more pollution?

What happens when your fragile parenthood dream is not in your control? In the second part of our series on surrogacy in Canada, we look at how the surrogacy industry affects parents. The costs can reach more than $100,000. There’s a fear that they’re breaking the law. The pressure to not rock the boat is high. Jayme talks to Chris Glover and Chelsea Gomez about the ways surrogacy is not working for parents.

The Chinese government says the Lop County Hair Product Industrial Park in the country's northwest is a place where people make wigs and other hair products that get shipped across the globe. Others say what’s happening at the park is forced labour, and that it’s just the latest in a pattern of grave human rights abuses committed in recent years against the country’s Uighur Muslim population — including the use of detention camps, mass surveillance and even forced sterilization. The Lop County Hair Product Industrial Park in Xinjiang province is an incredibly secretive, highly guarded place, yet Globe and Mail journalist Nathan VanderKlippe managed to travel there. Today on Front Burner, VanderKlippe discusses what he saw.

As the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs face off in the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 1979, CBC Montreal reporters Jonathon Montpetit and Antoni Nerestant break down the historic rivalry between the two teams.

With one week to go before Canadians head to the polls, words like “strategic voting” and “coalition government” are dominating the news. CBC poll analyst Éric Grenier answers listener questions about Canada’s electoral system.

This week's federal budget laid some initial groundwork for the possibility of a national pharmacare plan in Canada. But with a contentious election year ahead, there are still plenty of questions around how a strategy could be implemented. Today on Front Burner, Globe and Mail health reporter Kelly Grant explains how the pharmacare debate is unfolding and what we can expect from the Liberals in the coming year.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was protested by dozens of young women with political aspirations who were visiting the House of Commons. This came just hours after expelling Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott from caucus. It's just one example of the kind of frustration that's surrounded the SNC-Lavalin controversy. CBC opinion columnist Robyn Urback and freelance journalist Jen Gerson share their thoughts on that, and what it means for Canadians' expectations of government.

Alberta leads Canada with a COVID-19 case rate nearly twice that of Ontario, and doctors warn Alberta is headed for a similar crisis in its ICUs. Today, what’s keeping Premier Jason Kenney from imposing tougher restrictions.

This week, as COVID-19 cases continue to climb across the country, there is a glimmer of hope for returning to normal life: a vaccine. Pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and BioNTech say that results from a Phase 3 study of their vaccine candidate look promising and that immunity could last a year. Today, we hear from CBC science and technology reporter Emily Chung on what we know about the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine that early results suggest is 90 per cent effective in preventing COVID-19.

For decades, First Nations children on reserves had to live with less child welfare funding than other kids in Canada. And that led to kids being taken from their communities at higher rates, often for problems that could have been solved with better supports. This week, after years of court battles, the federal government made a $40 billion promise to First Nations leaders. $20 billion of that will go to compensate kids who were unnecessarily removed from their homes on reserve or in the Yukon. The other $20 billion will go to long-term reform of the on-reserve child welfare system. Cindy Blackstock, the executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society and a professor at McGill University's School of Social Work, has made it her mission to make sure First Nations kids get care that matches up with care received by other kids in Canada. Today, she talks about the long fight for this agreement, and why she’s still waiting to celebrate.

Microsoft soft-launched its new AI-powered search engine in early February. After years of playing second fiddle to Google, the new Bing seemed to finally have something exciting to offer. More than a million people signed up on a wait list to try out the new feature. But it wasn’t long before some early testers reported that their interactions with the chatbot had taken an unsettling turn. For some, the bizarre interactions were disconcertingly similar to depictions of AI gone sentient straight out of science fiction. Today, Chris Stokel-Walker, a technology journalist and contributor to the Guardian’s TechScape newsletter, explains this latest chatbot, what the technology is doing and whether it’s as terrifying as it sounds.

Oil prices in Canada skyrocketed this week as sanctions on Russian energy effectively shut the world’s third largest oil supplier out of the market following its invasion of Ukraine. The United States and the United Kingdom moved to ban Russian oil imports. Even the European Union, Russia’s biggest oil customer, announced its plan to slash Russian oil imports by two-thirds this year. Although Canada has never really relied on Russian oil, the impact of sky-high oil prices is already being felt in Canada, as prices at the pumps remain at record highs across the country. It’s forcing a moment of reckoning inside Canada’s oilpatch, an industry facing a choice — transition away from fossil fuels or ramp up production. Today on Front Burner, we speak with CBC’s Kyle Bakx about the fork in the road for Canada’s energy future.

A mysterious noise frustrating an affluent Alberta community sparked the discovery of a secretly set up bitcoin-mining operation. CBC Calgary’s Sarah Rieger explains.

It's been seven years since British teen Shamima Begum, then 15 years old, entered Syria with two school friends to join ISIS. One of Begum's friends has since gone missing, and the other was reportedly killed in an airstrike on Raqqa. Begum herself disappeared for years before encountering a journalist in al-Hawl prison camp in 2019, begging to return to the U.K. for the safety of her child, who subsequently died. Now, the BBC says the man who smuggled the girls into Syria was actually a double agent, providing information to Canadian intelligence as he trafficked for ISIS. A new book by U.K.-based writer Richard Kerbaj also accuses Canada of asking British officials to help cover up the connection. BBC journalist Joshua Baker has been interviewing Begum for the upcoming podcast, I'm Not A Monster: The Shamima Begum Story. Today, what he's learned about Begum's journey and Canada's involvement from a dossier on her alleged smuggler.

Journalist Robyn Doolittle has a new book out called ‘Had it coming.’ It’s been two years since the first stories alleging sexual abuse by Harvey Weinstein were published, sparking an unprecedented conversation about sexual assault. Now, what’s fair in the age of #MeToo? It’s a question Doolittle tackles in the book.’ Today on Front Burner, she talks about the #MeToo movement, what came before it, and why she thinks we need to talk about consent as a moral and ethical issue, not just a legal one.

Even as most businesses in Canada have shut their doors, grocery stores remain open. And workers in those stores – who are often in low-wage positions – are worried about their own safety as COVID-19 continues to spread. Today on Front Burner, CBC reporter Haydn Watters talks to guest host Michelle Shephard about how grocery store staff are coping with the crisis, and what their companies are aiming to do about it

Brazil is nearing two million confirmed cases of COVID-19. The country is second to only the United States in its number of cases and deaths and, recently, Brazil's leader himself tested positive. Despite this, President Jair Bolsonaro continues to downplay the threat of the virus. Today on Front Burner, we're joined by Gustavo Ribiero, a journalist with the Brazilian Report and host of the Explaining Brazil podcast. He'll tell us how COVID-19 overtook Brazil, and why he thinks its president is unlikely to acknowledge the danger.

Hicham Alasbachi is a Syrian refugee who lives in a one bedroom, first-floor apartment on Weston Road in North York, Ontario. He’s been there for a couple years now, but he’s not sure how much longer he’ll be able to stay. Alasbachi’s had problems paying his rent for a long time, and now, seven months into the pandemic, he’s facing the possibility of eviction. As part of Year K, our ongoing series exploring how the pandemic could make Canada a less equal place, today we’re focused on evictions and why the COVID economic downturn is hitting renters so hard.

Theresa May's Brexit plan is one step closer to reality. But members of the British Prime Minister's party are resigning and she could be removed from power. CBC London correspondent Nahlah Ayed explains how we got here and what it means for the future of the United Kingdom and the EU.

After 20 years, the last U.S. troops have left Afghanistan. Ali M. Latifi, a correspondent for Al Jazeera English, brings us a view from the ground in Kabul.

Our behaviour online creates a lot of data that's useful for tech companies - what we buy, what videos we watch on YouTube, what movies we see on Netflix. Author Glen Weyl says if tech companies make money off this information, we should get paid for it.

As case counts rise across the country, health experts warn that the COVID-19 fourth wave is very much here. But who will bear the brunt of it?

He won a majority of his party’s support in the United Conservative Party leadership review, but it wasn’t enough for Jason Kenney to remain leader of the party he co-founded. Kenney stepped down last night after the results were announced, despite winning 51.4 percent of the vote, saying "it clearly is not adequate support to continue on as leader." Today, CBC Calgary Opinion producer and analyst Jason Markusoff walks us through Kenney’s spectacular fall from power and what this shocking result means for his party and the province of Alberta.

Joe Biden is now U.S. president-elect. But Donald Trump is still in the White House. And there are no signs of a co-operative transition on the horizon. Today, longtime CBC Washington correspondent Keith Boag returns to explain the uphill battles Biden is facing on everything from the coronavirus response to uniting a divided country.

Despite its name, the Inflation Reduction Act is in large part a climate bill, with $369 billion US earmarked primarily for investments in green innovation in the U.S. and cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The U.S. Senate narrowly granted its approval last weekend, paving the way to a House of Representatives vote where political observers anticipate it will pass and be signed into law by President Joe Biden. Today on Front Burner, guest host Jason D'Souza speaks with Time magazine senior climate reporter Justin Worland to learn more about how the historic — albeit watered down — climate investment, before hearing from Eddy Pérez with the Climate Action Network Canada to better understand how Canada's efforts now stack up against the U.S.

This week, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited Canada as part of his mission to shore up alternative sources of energy to reduce Germany's dependence on Russian natural gas. Scholz finished the trip in Newfoundland, where he and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau agreed to form what Trudeau called the “Canada-Germany hydrogen alliance.” Meanwhile, Scholz also said he wanted more liquified natural gas from Canada. Today, CBC’s Peter Cowan and J.P. Tasker explain what happened during this trip and what it means for the future of Canadian energy.

Across Canada, there's never been a Green Party government federally or provincially. But on Tuesday, that could all change when people on Prince Edward Island cast their ballots. If the polls are right, the P.E.I. Green Party is out in front, beating out the ruling Liberals and the Progressive Conservatives. Kerry Campbell is CBC's P.E.I. provincial affairs reporter. Today on Front Burner, he joins guest host J.P. Tasker to walk us through how a Scottish-Canadian dentist leading a party that's never won before? could end up the next Premier of P.E.I.

False claims about COVID-19 have people calling up Alberta farm supply stores looking for a livestock dewormer called ivermectin. Vera Bergengruen tells us why.

Toni Morrison's literary and academic career was honoured with a Pulitzer Prize, Nobel Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Her writing explored, celebrated, questioned and critiqued the space of black lives in America, up until her death on Monday at the age of 88. Today on Front Burner, we speak with Halifax's former poet laureate El Jones and former poet laureate of Canada George Elliott Clarke about the importance of her work, both as a source of art, and form of activism.

Demonstrations across the US protesting the death of George Floyd are coinciding with a global pandemic and an economic crisis. And it’s a moment when many Americans are calling on the president for leadership. Keith Boag, a longtime political correspondent and a contributor to the CBC on US politics, joins us to talk about how Donald Trump is responding to this critical moment — and what lies ahead as the November election date looms.

COVID-19 has sent an economic shockwave through this country with countless livelihoods impact in the short term, and maybe permanently. To help, the federal government announced an $82-billion aid package. Today, one woman who has been laid off tells her story. And CBC senior business correspondent Peter Armstrong unpacks how the federal response is intended to help.

As much of Canada begins easing pandemic restrictions, we look into the delta variant. It’s a COVID-19 strain that’s concerning experts and emerging all over the country, from a hospital in Calgary, hotspots in Ontario and a mine in Nunavut. Global health epidemiologist Raywat Deonandan weighs in on the latest.

More than a million people have fled Ukraine into countries to the west, as Russian attacks continue. The refugee crisis has spurred an outpouring of international support, as neighbouring European countries open their borders and homes. But the support this time is strikingly different from how some countries have responded to refugees from other conflicts — like Syria and Iraq — who were kept out, in some cases with violence. The distinction is especially stark, after stories have emerged of some Black and Asian refugees fleeing Ukraine facing violence, harassment and racism at the border. This week on Nothing is Foreign, CBC’s new, weekly world news podcast, we hear from people on the ground including those who have experienced discrimination and explore how governments can treat skin colour as a visa. Featuring: Tatiana, Alexandra, Nastia, Rubi, Ahmed, all refugees from Ukraine. Sara Cincurova, a journalist covering humanitarian issues at Ukraine-Slovakia border. Chris Melzer, the senior spokesperson of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) Poland.

Ten years ago, an eccentric Santa Fe art dealer named Forrest Fenn says he hid a treasure chest somewhere in the American Rocky Mountains – and then he wrote a poem with clues to tell people how to find it. Hundreds of thousands have tried. At least five have died on their search. And now, Fenn says the treasure has been found. But is the story really over? Today we’re joined by Robert Nott, a reporter for the Santa Fe New Mexican who’s been on the Forrest Fenn beat for the past five years, and Zachary Crockett, a journalist who made a documentary for Vox about his own quest to find the Fenn treasure.

"People are frustrated and they're upset and frankly, they're scared," says CBC business correspondent Peter Armstrong about workers in the oil and gas industry following months of record-low oil prices. On Tuesday the Canadian government announced a $1.6 billion support package for the struggling energy sector. Today on Front Burner, Armstrong explains what's at stake for Canada's oil patch and breaks down how far the funds will really go.

In the days since the Trump administration ordered a lethal drone strike in Baghdad on Iran’s second-most powerful man, Qassem Soleimani, Iranian officials have promised “vigorous vengeance” against the U.S. and chants of “death to America” were heard in the Iranian parliament. On Sunday, as anti-war protests broke out across the United States, a funeral for Soleimani brought thousands of mourners to the streets in the Iranian city of Ahvaz. Today on Front Burner, as tensions ratchet up, we talk with national security expert Heather Hurlburt about what could happen next.

Last night, Vice-Presidential candidates Mike Pence and Kamala Harris faced off in their one and only debate of the 2020 campaign. The debate comes less than a week after Donald Trump was diagnosed with coronavirus, and in a race between the two oldest presidential candidates in US history. Today, CBC Washington Correspondent Katie Simpson recaps the unusually significant VP debate.

The first Hong Konger to be charged under China’s National Security Law has been found guilty. Today on Front Burner, two pro-democracy activists from the city-state reflect on China’s tightening grip on Hong Kong.

Democratic Institutions Minister Karina Gould on Canada's plan to deal with interference and disinformation ahead of the fall election.

Violent confrontations at Hong Kong’s universities are yet another escalation in almost six months of demonstrations. Today on Front Burner, we talk to the former head of the Democratic Party of Hong Kong, Emily Lau, about the longstanding tensions between Hong Kong and China, what’s at stake for the protesters, and whether there’s an appetite for a peaceful solution.

The Flamethrowers captures the punch-you-in-the-mouth energy and sound of right-wing talk radio. Host Justin Ling takes us from the fringe preachers and conspiracy peddlers of the 1920s to the political firestorm that rages today. With humour and candour, Ling examines the appeal of broadcasters like Rush Limbaugh, who found a sleeping audience, radicalized it, and became an accidental kingmaker — culminating in the election of Donald Trump. More episodes are available at smarturl.it/theflamethrowers

As civilians try to flee a Taliban-held Afghanistan, Canadian veteran Ryerson Maybee reflects on our country’s historic role there, and what our government’s responsibilities should be to the Afghans who risked their lives to help Canadians during the war.

Suspected neurological illness is debilitating and even killing patients in New Brunswick, but provincial health officials are questioning whether a mysterious brain disease is really behind it.

Erin O’Toole was elected as the next leader of the Conservative Party of Canada in the early morning, on the third ballot. O’Toole’s victory wraps up an unprecedented race. But despite the obstacles presented by campaigning in a global pandemic, Conservatives participated in record numbers. Today on Front Burner, Power and Politics host Vassy Kapelos on O’Toole’s win and what it means for the future of the party.

It’s a historic moment in Wuhan, China: After 76 days, the city where COVID-19 first emerged has ended its extreme lockdown, allowing people to enter and leave the city. We speak to a Wuhan resident who has just been able to leave her apartment complex for the first time since January, and to a journalist who tells us how government authorities are trying to prevent future spikes of COVID-19.

This December, Front Burner hosted a live show at the CBC’s Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto. In this second part, host Jayme Poisson was joined by CBC personalities Peter Armstrong, Elamin Abdelmahmoud, Piya Chattopadhyay and Tom Power for a freewheeling news quiz.

Back in 1995, a 12-year-old in Thornhill, Ontario, was so moved by a newspaper story about the death of a boy in Pakistan who fought against child labour, that he created a charity called Free the Children. Craig Kielburger, along with his brother Mark, went on to create a mass movement of youth activism. But 25 years later, and following a political controversy related to a student volunteer grant program, the Kielburgers announced they were stepping down and closing the Canadian arm of WE Charity. Today, Marie-Danielle Smith and Jason Markusoff of Maclean’s magazine report on the stratospheric rise – and the unexpected fall – of WE.

David Wallace-Wells, the acclaimed science journalist and author of The Uninhabitable Earth, says the past few years have given him reason to feel both "buoyant optimism" and "abject despair" about the future of climate change. As the COP27 climate summit kicks into gear, we're speaking to Wallace-Wells about both — and we're going to start by talking about the good news. While we aren't currently on track to keep global warming down to the levels the scientific community has called for, the worst-case scenarios are also looking far less likely than they did even a few years ago. There's more and more evidence that the actions the world has taken so far really have made a difference — and that we still have significant capacity to determine the kind of world that lies ahead.

Once a darling of Silicon Valley, Theranos’s Elizabeth Holmes is now facing prison time for fraud. Host of ABC’s The Dropout podcast Rebecca Jarvis on what you need to know about the upcoming trial.

The UK election campaign is entering its final days. On Thursday, the country will head to the polls for the third time in under five years. The incumbent Tory, Boris Johnson, is promising to “get Brexit done.” Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is proposing another referendum. Both leaders are grappling with grim popularity ratings. Today on Front Burner, BBC’s Rob Watson lays out the high stakes, saying “the UK has never faced a peacetime challenge like Brexit.”

Over 800 companies, including Microsoft, Lululemon, Pfizer and Canada’s five biggest banks are pulling their ads from Facebook this month. They’re just a few of the companies responding to the Stop Hate for Profit boycott, led by civil rights groups who want white supremacist content and misleading climate and vaccine information off the platform. Today on Front Burner, we talk to McGill’s Beaverbrook Chair in Media, Ethics and Communications and Big Tech Podcast co-host Taylor Owen on whether a threat to the tech giant’s bottom line is the right incentive to deal with hate speech on the platform.

U.S. President Donald Trump was permanently banned from Twitter after the platform cited “the risk of further incitement of violence” following the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol last week. Facebook previously banned him for the remainder of his time in office, and many other tech companies have followed suit. Today on Front Burner, Julia Angwin joins host Jayme Poisson for a conversation about Trump’s ban from multiple social media platforms and what consequences that might have. Angwin is editor-in-chief of The Markup, an American non-profit that takes on data-driven investigations about the ethics and impact of technology.

Last week, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called out oil companies for raking in “monster profits” and expanding production instead of focusing on renewable energy. 2022 was a record-breaking year for oil producers. According to the International Energy Agency, global gas and oil profits went from a recent average of $1.5 trillion to four trillion dollars last year alone. And in the wake of those profits many oil companies are walking back on climate-friendly pledges. Today on Front Burner, we’ll be talking about why Big Oil is raking in so much cash, how long a fossil fuel resurgence could really last. Geoff Dembicki is an investigative climate reporter who has been following this closely for DeSmog and the author of The Petroleum Papers.

For more than 60 nights, protesters have gone out on the streets of Portland, Ore. to fight anti-Black racism and police violence. It seemed like things were calming down, but then U.S. President Donald Trump sent federal agents into the city. Today on Front Burner, we're joined by Tuck Woodstock, an independent journalist who has spent the majority of the last two months out at the protests. They tell us what it looks like on the ground, and how the violence has escalated since federal agents arrived.

On Monday, news broke that Iran violated a key part of the 2015 nuclear agreement. This comes about a year after the U.S. unilaterally pulled out of the deal. Iran says it breached the agreement because Europe hasn’t done enough to counter the heavy U.S. sanctions imposed on the country. Today on Front Burner, The Independent’s Negar Mortazavi explains how the heavy sanctions are affecting regular Iranians and shares her opinion on the strategy of the United States.

The election in India, the world's largest in history, has just wrapped up after a month of voting. Many see it as a referendum on sitting Prime Minister Narendra Modi's last five years in power. New Delhi journalist Murali Krishnan explains who Modi is, and why his brand of populism raises the stakes of this election.

As Amazon’s profits soar during the pandemic, The Fifth Estate’s Mark Kelley gives us an inside look at the dire conditions inside its warehouses that are driving workers’ to unionize.

Canada has granted asylum to Rahaf Mohammed, a Saudi teenager who fled to Thailand to escape alleged abuse from her family. CBC's senior correspondent Susan Ormiston shares the inside story of Mohammed's plight and her plans for the future.

A new investigative series from CBC Podcasts and the Norwegian newspaper VG. Hunting Warhead follows an international team of police officers as they attempt to track down the people behind a massive child-abuse site on the dark web. Listen at hyperurl.co/huntingwarhead

The major parties are all promising big action on climate change, but their plans and targets look different. Today on Front Burner, we compare the parties’ strategies and take a closer look at their credibility.

This week, hearings were held on Quebec's secularism bill - which aims to ban public workers in positions of authority from wearing religious symbols. There were fiery exchanges: some say the bill institutionalizes discrimination, while others think secularism is crucial to keeping Quebec's distinct identity. Today on Front Burner, the CBC's Jonathan Montpetit brings us highlights from the debate - and we hear from a young Muslim woman who worries her livelihood will be affected by the bill.

In late May, the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation shocked Canadians with a preliminary finding of unmarked graves near the former site of the Kamloops Indian Residential School. Yesterday, the nation released more details. An expert said some 200 possible graves have been identified, but added that number might rise since 64 hectares remain unsurveyed and more forensic investigation and excavation work is needed. CBC Vancouver's Angela Sterritt breaks down what we now know — and tells us what's next.

Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine - two drugs touted by U.S. President Donald Trump, who says they could be game changing treatments for COVID-19. But around the world health experts have tried to temper expectations for these medications. Today, on Front Burner, we talk to infectious disease specialist, Dr. Isaac Bogoch about these drugs and the testing being done to determine if they hold any promise at all.

As scientists worldwide scramble for COVID-19 treatments and cures, some see promise in antibody-rich plasma of survivors. In Canada and beyond survivors are donating their blood for new, fast-tracked, clinical trials. Today, CBC senior correspondent Susan Ormiston joins us from Washington, D.C., to explain why antibody-rich plasma could be useful in the fight against COVID-19.

After the shocking interception of a commercial flight to arrest a dissident journalist, CBC’s Moscow correspondent explains Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko’s escalating crackdown on opposition.

This week, hundreds of fans gathered in London to celebrate the launch of The Testaments, the much-anticipated sequel to Margaret Atwood's best-selling novel, The Handmaid's Tale. Similar events took place around the world, and the novel has already been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Today on Front Burner, Slate's book critic Laura Miller on the political and cultural relevance of The Handmaid's Tale, and why there's been so much anticipation for its sequel.

Today on Front Burner - we speak to the CBC's Evan Dyer about an attempt to oust Nicolas Maduro as well as Columbia University Professor, Jeffrey Sachs, who says the United States, and others, need to stay out of this conflict.

Hours-long lines, polling place closures, and voter roll purges are just a few of the ways that this upcoming U.S election is challenging voting rights in the country. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there is also an unprecedented demand for mail-in ballots, adding many logistical challenges and complications to vote counting. Many voters are also concerned about the effectiveness of the post office. Today on Front Burner, we explain voter suppression in this U.S election with CBC Washington correspondent Alex Panetta and CBC New York correspondent Steven D’Souza, and who is disproportionately affected by it.

As a kid in the Winnipeg suburb of Transcona, Tyson Smith was obsessed with hockey and the Winnipeg Jets. He dreamed of being a professional goaltender. Decades later, Smith – now known as “Kenny Omega” – has made his way to the Jets’ home arena for a different reason: he’s performing as a professional wrestler. Omega is the headliner for a show with All Elite Wrestling, the wrestling company he helped build into the first direct competitor to the WWE in almost 20 years. Before he stepped into the ring, Omega joined Front Burner host Jayme Poisson to discuss the culture of wrestling in Winnipeg, his path to fame in Japan, his push to expand inclusivity and storytelling in the sport, and swirling rumours about what he’ll do next. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

More than a decade ago Canadian comedian Mike Ward told a joke about a disabled young singer named Jérémy Gabriel. Marie-Danielle Smith on the questions it raises about freedom of speech versus discrimination.

Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale tries to fact check everything U.S President Donald Trump says. It keeps him working at all hours and his reporting has drawn attention all over the world. Dale talks about how he builds his database of false claims, which is up to 4,210 as of today, and why he believes pointing out Trump's dishonesty is crucial journalism.

After years of fervent campaigning from fans, director Zack Snyder’s cut of the 2017 Justice League movie has been greenlit for release in 2021. Culture critics John Semley and Tina Hassannia on why this campaign struck a cultural chord, and what it says about fandom today.

The Canadian government has already admitted that it probably won’t be able to meet its Paris climate targets, the international agreement Canada signed promising to significantly reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. As part of a new CBC News project called In Our Backyard, reporter Connie Walker has been using climate modelling to investigate different policy options to find out what it would actually take for Canada to meet its goals. Today on Front Burner, she shares her findings.

With the House of Commons adjourned and the federal election just months away, summertime hours mean Members of Parliament and hopeful candidates will be out campaigning on the BBQ circuit. The writ drop is expected for September and voting day is slated for on or before October 21. So what issues are shaping the election so far? Today on Front Burner, CBC’s Power and Politics host Vassy Kapelos joins us to explain.

On Sunday, L.A. Lakers star LeBron James took home his fourth NBA championship and his fourth finals MVP award. He also became the first player to have won a championship on three different teams. Those wins are reviving an old debate over who gets to claim the title of the greatest basketball player of all time: Is it LeBron now, or does His Airness, Michael Jordan, still reign? Today Ben Golliver, the Washington Post’s national NBA writer, and Alex Wong, a freelance sports writer, debate it.

Jason Kenney will be Alberta's next premier after leading the United Conservative Party to a majority government in the province.Today on Front Burner, CBC Calgary's Allison Dempster breaks down last night's election results, and Maclean's Paul Wells shares a deep look at Jason Kenney's career so far, and how he came to be a driving force behind conservative political ideas in this country.

In September, schools across the country will reopen — many for the first time since the pandemic shut them down months ago. And while provinces have released their plans to keep students and teachers safe, parents are still struggling with whether to send their children to class. Today on Front Burner, Emily Oster, an economics professor at Brown University and author of parenting books like Cribsheet and Expecting Better breaks down what the data says about the risks of opening up schools.

Canada’s Supreme Court has sided with a former Ubereats driver in his quest to pursue a class action lawsuit against Uber. At the heart of that lawsuit lies a long-standing question: Should drivers become employees or remain, as Uber maintains, independent contractors? The latest ruling opens the door for that question to be answered - and with that, the potential for drivers to secure benefits that they are not entitled to right now. Today on Front Burner, we speak with labour law professor Veena Dubal on what this could mean for Uber drivers and the wider gig economy.

A New York City jury has found Harvey Weinstein guilty of a criminal sexual act in the first degree and of third-degree rape. Today, Megan Garber of The Atlantic joins Front Burner to unpack the court proceedings that led to Weinstein's conviction and discusses whether this trial is a watershed moment for the #MeToo movement

People in London waited in kilometres-long lines for the chance to pay their respects to Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's longest reigning monarch who died on Sept. 8, during her lying-in-state. Hundreds of leaders, dignitaries and royals travelled from around the world to attend her funeral. Queen Elizabeth II was just 25 when she took the throne in 1952. At 73, King Charles III — the Queen's son and longtime heir — is the oldest monarch to assume the British throne. Today on Front Burner, Stephen Bates, author and former religious affairs and royal correspondent for The Guardian, takes us through what's shaped King Charles's character and what his reign could mean for the future of the British monarchy.

The "Afghanistan Papers," released last week by the Washington Post, contain hundreds of interviews with high-ranking officials involved in the ongoing 18-year war in Afghanistan. The documents reveal that many insiders knew the war was dysfunctional and unwinnable. That comes as no surprise to CBC's Murray Brewster, who spent 15 months on the ground in Afghanistan covering the war. Today on Front Burner, he describes Canada's role in the war, the challenges the Canadian military faced there, and why he thinks there are still important questions to be answered about this country's involvement.

Cryptocurrency traders are relying on a stablecoin — a digital cryptocurrency backed with real-world assets — with ties to a Mighty Ducks star and the co-creator of Inspector Gadget. Today, we look at the search for the supposed billions of dollars backing its value, and what a shortfall could mean for the entire financial system.

In the first wave of the pandemic, Alberta was one of the provinces that seemed to have things relatively under control. Now, the province has daily case rates three times as high as Quebec or Ontario, and ICUs in Calgary and Edmonton have been hitting 90 per cent capacity. But Premier Jason Kenney hasn't addressed the province at a COVID-19 briefing for almost two weeks, and has resisted repeated calls for lockdowns from doctors and other experts. It's leading some Albertans to tweet the hashtag #WhereIsKenney. Today, Jason Markusoff of Maclean's Magazine joins us to talk about how Alberta got here, and what happens now.

It's been nine months since marijuana was legalized in Canada, and illegal dispensaries are not only prevalent across the country — but in many cases, thriving. Today on Front Burner, CBC investigative reporter Zach Dubinsky and Sol Israel from The Leaf News on illegal pot shops that brazenly defy the law and why they exist in the age of legal weed.

Some of the best-known names in music are selling the rights to their entire catalogues of songs, netting tens and even hundreds of millions of dollars. Today, why so many artists are cashing in now, and why investors are betting billions on music.

Brainwashed investigates the CIA’s covert mind control experiments – from the Cold War and MKULTRA to the so-called War on Terror. It’s the story of how a renowned psychiatrist used his unwitting patients as human guinea pigs at a Montreal hospital, and the ripple effects on survivors, their families, and thousands of other people around the world. It also examines the cultural impact — how the CIA brought LSD to America and inadvertently created counterculture influencers such as author Ken Kessey and poet Allen Ginsberg. It’s an exploration of what happens in times of fear, when the military and medicine collide. And what happens when the survivors fight back. More episodes are available at: smarturl.it/brainwashedcbc

The last time Salman Rushdie won the Booker Prize, it was 1981. It's been 24 years since his last nomination. After his new book, Quichotte, came out, he was pleasantly surprised to find himself back on the list of nominees. "It's like, finally!" says Rushdie. "They remembered I was around." The new book is a retelling of Don Quixote, with an Indian-American salesman travelling across the United States on a quest. His journey touches on issues like the opioid crisis, our addiction to reality TV, and the end of the world. Rushdie joins Jayme Poisson to give his unique perspective on these hectic times.

Late last week, a director-general with the RCMP was arrested and charged with breaching Canada’s secrets law, for allegedly preparing to share a cache of classified intelligence material with a foreign entity or terrorist organization. Today on Front Burner, we speak with CBC reporter Catherine Tunney on what we know so far about what Ortis is alleged to have done, including his alleged contacts with a shady encryption company based in BC that was used by murderers and drug traffickers, and with former CSIS analyst Stephanie Carvin about what this could mean for national security.

Neil Young's music is being pulled from the streaming platform Spotify. That's after he told the platform to either remove his music, or take action on vaccine misinformation — specifically from podcast host Joe Rogan. Spotify ultimately sided with Rogan, saying Wednesday it would begin removing Young's catalogue but that it hoped he would come back soon. "We want all the world's music and audio content to be available to Spotify users," the company said in a statement. "With that comes great responsibility in balancing both safety for listeners and freedom for creators." The Joe Rogan Experience is the world's biggest podcast, famous for its long-format, wide-range interviews with eccentric and sometimes controversial guests. But its host has come under fire for his relentless questioning of widely shared scientific agreement about COVID-19. Nicholas Quah, podcast critic for Vulture and New York Magazine, joins us to explain the rise of vaccine skepticism on Rogan's show — and the reasons why Spotify may have taken this side.

It’s been 30 years since an explosion of violence and the death of a Quebec provincial police officer on an early July morning marked the beginning of the Oka Crisis. That summer, thousands of Canadian soldiers surrounded two Mohawk communities, just outside Montreal, who were trying to protect a forest and burial ground from the expansion of a golf course. Today on Front Burner, we speak to Mohawk filmmaker Tracey Deer who grew up in Kahnawake, Quebec. She shares what it was like living through a standoff that came to be a defining conflict in Canadian history.

Why have benzodiazepines like Valium and Xanax been involved in a large number of Canadian opioid overdose deaths? Zachary Siegel, a journalist and fellow at Northeastern University, breaks down benzos, why they're having a moment in the rap world and what role the drug plays in the overall overdose crisis.

Journalist Harvey Cashore on the revelation of SNC Lavalin employees who made illegal campaign donations worth more than $100,000 to the Liberal Party of Canada.

Negotiators from Russia and Ukraine met in Turkey last week to discuss an end to the ongoing hostilities. Since then, Russian attacks have continued and Ukraine has brought forward new allegations of atrocities committed by Russian troops. Disturbing images have emerged from Bucha, a town outside Kyiv, showing charred streets and bodies left in the open. Residents say civilians were killed by Russian troops, and Ukraine’s foreign minister has called it a “deliberate massacre.” BBC diplomatic correspondent Paul Adams joins Front Burner to explain the latest out of the war in Ukraine, what’s on the negotiating table and whether a deal is possible amidst the devastation.

After the revelation of unmarked graves at a former residential school in Kamloops, former Truth and Reconciliation Commissioner Marie Wilson speaks to us about what needs to happen next.

Self-isolation and physical distancing are straightforward public health orders for most Canadians, but it's a near-impossible challenge for people without adequate housing. That's clear in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, a dense neighbourhood with a large population of homeless people, who are now at risk of COVID-19. But the challenges don't stop there — the community has been battling another public health crisis for years: drug poisoning and overdoses. Today on Front Burner, Garth Mullins, host of the podcast Crackdown, tells us what that means for drug users.

For more than a month, one of the biggest women’s basketball stars in the world has been detained in Russia. Russian officials are alleging that Brittney Griner, a centre for the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA, brought cannabis oil into the country. Much remains unknown about Griner’s case — including whether there’s any evidence to those charges. But with Russia continuing its war in Ukraine, the timing could hardly be worse. Today, ESPN investigative reporter T.J. Quinn joins us to talk about Griner’s detention, why so many WNBA stars go to Russia and the heated debate over whether talking more about Griner’s case would harm her — or help bring her home.

As the international climate change conference COP26 continues, we take a look at Canada’s 2030 emissions reduction target, and whether or not we’re actually on track to hit it.

Throughout the week hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong residents took to the streets to protest a proposed extradition bill. Many fear it will be used to target dissidents who speak out against the Chinese state. Protests escalated to violent clashes between police and young demonstrators. Today on Front Burner, Hong Kong Free Press reporter Jennifer Creery on what this means for the region’s fight to resist China’s influence.

With the holidays approaching and the Omicron variant spreading rapidly in Canada, people are reconsidering their response. In a busy week of Omicron warnings, Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam said cases are expected to “rapidly escalate”; in her fiscal and economic update, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland committed a $4.5 billion “variant response” contingency; and Canada advised against all non-essential international travel. Provinces are expanding testing and booster access. Today on Front Burner, a discussion with Globe and Mail health columnist André Picard about our pandemic cycle of delay and panic, and the lessons and tools that still might make us better prepared for Omicron.

The fall sitting of parliament is in full swing, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau facing off for the first time against new Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre. And the hottest topic for debate remains how to deal with the affordability crisis. Today, Power & Politics host Vassy Kapelos is back on the pod to talk about what’s on the agenda in Ottawa, and the shape this new session is taking.

The Oxford-AstraZeneca is hailed as a cheap and easy jab to fight COVID-19. But a series of corporate stumbles have clouded it's promise, and science backed results.

Today on Front Burner, professor Taylor Owen helps us understand the changing nature of online extremism and what we learned from dealing with ISIS.

The United States’ new and historic climate law is being hailed by some Canadian politicians and environmental advocates as a chance to turn Canada into a global hub for electric cars and their components. That’s thanks in part to money and incentives which could potentially give a boost to companies mining in Canada for the minerals used to make electric vehicle batteries. If that sounds like a big green win for Canada — it is. But it’s also more complicated than that. Today, we’re taking a look at one example where the promise of mining for nickel to power electric vehicles is presenting a climate conundrum: the Ring of Fire, a mineral-rich but ecologically sensitive region in northern Ontario. Our guest is Emma McIntosh, The Narwhal’s Ontario environment reporter.

The wildfire spread of misinformation about COVID-19 on social media is giving critics of Big Tech ammunition in their fight. It comes at a time when Facebook and Google face major antitrust lawsuits in the U.S., and some are calling on Canada to do more to regulate tech giants. Our guest is Taylor Owen, director of the Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy at McGill University, and host of the Big Tech podcast.

Notorious stalking and harassment site Kiwi Farms has been hacked and taken offline again, less than a month after the website security and hosting provider Cloudflare dropped it, citing an "unprecedented emergency and immediate threat to human life." Kiwi Farms had risen to prominence after Canadian trans activist and Twitch streamer Clara Sorrenti was swatted in her London, Ont. home this past summer. Sorrenti organized a pressure campaign to remove Kiwi Farms from the internet, calling it "a matter of public safety for every single person online." Today, Alejandra Caraballo of the Harvard Law Cyberlaw Clinic explains how Kiwi Farms was able to operate for so long, and outlines the efforts to keep it offline.

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in one of the most important cases on reproductive rights in decades. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the last remaining abortion clinic in Mississippi, has challenged a state law that would ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The Supreme Court case could determine not just the fate of the clinic, but of the monumental 1973 ruling Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide. Today, legal historian Mary Ziegler breaks down the Mississippi case, and explains what its potential impacts could be for reproductive rights across the United States.

Gang violence is on the rise again in Metro Vancouver, fueling worries about recruitment in the region’s South Asian community. Today on Front Burner, host Jayme Poisson talks to two people working in anti-gang intervention, with a focus on South Asian youth and families.

The Brazilian city of Manaus has been dealing with a raging outbreak of COVID-19, one that has left hospitals overrun and oxygen supplies dwindling; and not for the first time. The city was hit so hard by the coronavirus in the spring, that researchers estimated that 75 per cent of the population had been infected, which makes the severity of this recent outbreak unexpected and concerning. Today, Atlantic writer and Yale University public health policy lecturer Dr. James Hamblin explains the potential threat posed by new variants of the coronavirus popping up around the world, how they could upend expectations about herd immunity, and the need for a truly global vaccination response.

There's a lot of bad news in Canadian health care. We're still in the midst of a pandemic, RSV and flu season are hitting families hard, and headlines across the country have been dominated by reports of staffing shortages, severe burnout, overrun emergency rooms, and long wait times for surgeries. Front-line health-care workers and patients are raising alarms about a system breaking under the pressure. Dr. Brian Goldman is the host of CBC Radio's White Coat, Black Art and CBC podcast The Dose. He's also an emergency physician in Toronto and has spent a lot of time thinking about the issues that plague the system. Monday on Front Burner, Dr. Goldman joins us to talk about possible solutions and why some in the field are worried about a health-collapse, rather than a crisis.

This week, the Alberta government detailed cuts to the province’s health service, including up to 11,000 layoffs. While all of Canada’s provinces have taken an economic hit because of COVID, Alberta in particular has been clobbered. Oil and gas revenues have tanked. Liquor sales are projected to bring in more than bitumen royalties from the oil sands this fiscal year. Support for United Conservative Party Premier Jason Kenney is down, too. According to a late summer poll, he’s got the second lowest approval rating of all the premiers in the country. Today, CBC’s Carolyn Dunn in Calgary on how Alberta’s faring, and how Jason Kenney plans to bounce the province back.

CBC defence reporter Murray Brewster on the upcoming trial of Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, and why it might turn into a political circus, right before the next federal election.

Quebec’s premier, François Legault, has announced a plan to re-open the province in May, and he says the province’s COVID-19 crisis is now under control — at least, outside long term care facilities. But is it really under control? And will reopening the province trigger deepen community transmission of the disease? CBC Montreal’s Kate McKenna and Jonathan Montpetit join us to talk about what’s happening in the epicentre of Canada’s coronavirus pandemic.

Ontario has fallen far behind when it comes to testing residents for COVID-19; Quebec and BC are testing about twice as many residents, per capita. Today on Front Burner CBC science reporter Kelly Crowe explains how Ontario found itself in this predicament and how the province is trying to catch up.

A nuclear war cannot be won and should never be fought,” warned NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg last Wednesday. It’s a prospect that many in Canada haven’t had to consider since the end of the Cold War, but experts say the risk hasn't disappeared. A few weeks ago, Front Burner did an episode about no-fly zones, and how some experts argue that the U.S. shouldn’t enforce one in Ukraine because it could lead to an escalation that could put Russia and the United States, two nuclear powers, in direct conflict. Today, guest host Jason D’Souza speaks with nuclear weapons expert Tom Collina about the state of these major powers’ nuclear arsenals and the destruction they could cause. Collina, the director of policy at the Ploughshares Fund, says nuclear weapons are enabling Russia to “take Ukraine hostage and keep other nations out.

"We can't go through this again." Thousands of people across Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick are dealing with serious floods this week. And not for the first time. Today on Front Burner, we hear from one Quebec mother on her family's difficult decision to leave their flood-ravaged home for good -- and a disaster prevention expert who thinks governments should buy homeowners out of their flood-prone houses.

This week, Canada hit a grim milestone: more than 10,000 people in the country have died from COVID-19 — although experts say the true number could be higher. Today, we hear about three of the many who have been lost: Shawn Auger, the first recorded Canadian in his 30s to die from the disease; Gurinder Anand, who made his mark on Montreal with his cooking and community spirit; and Bontu Abdulahi, a personal support worker and devoted mom.

Governments around the world are making extraordinary moves to get COVID-19 under control -- including the curtailing of individual freedoms. In most countries, people are willing to go along with these measures, as long as they’re temporary. But what about when leaders use the coronavirus to grab more power? Today, we’re joined by Anne Applebaum, a historian and staff writer at The Atlantic, who has concerns about the potential lasting consequences of some governments’ pandemic responses.

For weeks, most of Shanghai’s 26 million residents haven’t been able to leave their apartments, due to a strict lockdown meant to curb a massive COVID-19 outbreak. There have been reports of food and medicine shortages, of unsanitary conditions in the city’s giant quarantine facilities, and of authorities forcibly separating parents from children who test positive. All of which is leading to rare public displays of anger against the government. Today, Reuters reporter Engen Tham joins us to explain what life has been like in Shanghai, why China is sticking to its “dynamic zero COVID” strategy, and where things could go from here.

On Sunday, doctors at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center briefed the media on the health of U.S. President Donald Trump. The news conference came after a whirlwind weekend where a growing number of the president’s inner circle, including first lady Melania Trump, tested positive for COVID-19, and where the president's doctors and team issued conflicting messages about his medical status. CBC’s senior Washington editor Lyndsay Duncombe joins us to explain what’s known about the president’s health, how this outbreak could impact the U.S. election and what this means for the nomination of the next U.S. Supreme Court justice.

It’s been a historic week in Washington, D.C., for Donald Trump. On Monday, the January 6 House Committee wrapped up its investigation into the capitol insurrection and after months of speculation over whether they would, referred the former president for potential prosecution. And on Tuesday, a different U.S. committee voted to release six years of Trump’s secret tax returns. CBC’s Susan Ormiston has been covering this story. Today on Front Burner she joins us to unpack these two big developments and to explain what this could all mean for a Trump 2024 presidential run.

Kristian Ayoungman, from Siksika First Nation in Southern Alberta, was shot and killed on a rural highway in March. CBC investigative journalist Connie Walker travelled to meet with the young man’s friends and family, as well as the leaders of the two communities he straddled. As she tells host Jayme Poisson, what she found was unexpected. Connie also reflects on her time at the CBC covering Indigenous communities across the country.

Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott are advocating for a less partisan political system and will run as independent candidates in the next election. Co-host of CBC's The National, Rosemary Barton, explains why they're doing it and what challenges might be ahead for them.

According to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, an unstable world demands a stable Canadian Parliament. Trudeau pointed to the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and financial and trade woes yesterday, before announcing a “confidence-and-supply” deal between the Liberals and NDP. Essentially, in exchange for moving forward on NDP policy priorities, the NDP will back the Trudeau government in votes that could defeat it until June of 2025. But the opposition Conservatives are already decrying the deal as a “power grab.” NDP leader Jagmeet Singh says the deal will end if the Liberals don’t hold up their end of the bargain. Questions remain about whether the agreement can create any kind of lasting stability, and whether it safeguards — or jeopardizes — the parties’ future influence. Today, a look at how this deal changes Canada’s political landscape with the reporter who broke the story, Power and Politics host Vassy Kapelos

Today on Front Burner, an intimate look at mental health struggles amongst workers in Alberta’s oilpatch with the co-producer of a new documentary on the subject, ‘Digging in the Dirt.’

It's been almost 20 years since four jets were hijacked mid-air and crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York, the Pentagon in D.C., and a field near Shanksville, Penn., killing nearly 3,000 people. Pretrials have begun, and a full trial date for the surviving alleged plotters of the attack is set for January 2021, at Guantanamo Bay. But the legal case — and the logistics of holding it at the notorious U.S. military base — are complicated. Today on Front Burner, longtime national security reporter Michelle Shephard on the preparations for what could be the trial of the century.

Fans are grieving the loss of actor Chadwick Boseman, best known as the star of the groundbreaking blockbuster Black Panther. Boseman died on Friday, at the age of 43. According to his family, he was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer in 2016. Boseman never spoke about that publicly, and the knowledge now of the diagnosis is giving new meaning to his work. Today on Front Burner, Rolling Stone senior writer Jamil Smith on Chadwick Boseman’s legacy.

"The tone here is that this is an an innocent woman. So why would you treat her like a criminal? And the idea is, if you have handcuffed someone you have presumed their guilt," says Nathan VanderKlippe, the Globe and Mail's Asia correspondent. Tensions between Canada and China are high after the arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou and the subsequent detention of former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig. Today on Front Burner, Nathan explains China's side of the diplomatic dispute and breaks down how this story is playing out in Beijing.

This week, Lebanon’s prime minister announced his resignation, along with his entire cabinet. The announcement follows massive anti-government demonstrations that erupted in the wake of the explosion that rocked central Beirut last week. But even with the government stepping down, the protests have persisted. Today, reporter Rebecca Collard, who’s been reporting from Beirut for years, joins us to explain how the protests started long before the explosion, and why they’re raging on.

"This really is the beginning of a cultural shift," says Solomon Israel, cannabis reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. Nearly two months into cannabis legalization he breaks down the complaints - from low quality to short supplies - and the positives - including the benefits that legal weed provides for medical research.

Decades ago Phil Fontaine helped open Canada's eyes to the horrors of the residential school system. And he's since spent years pushing for an apology from the top of the Catholic Church. Today he reflects on hearing Pope Francis say "sorry" for the second time. "My big issue right now is, what to do about this issue of moving beyond the apology," said Fontaine, who is a residential school survivor and served three terms as national chief of the Assembly of First Nations. Access to church records, how to handle unmarked graves and the return of Indigenous land are key issues for Fontaine. Also in this episode, Mabel Brown, a survivor who traveled from Inuvik, N.W.T., to see the Pope speak, shares what the apology means to her.

Rents in Canada are skyrocketing, and tenants are struggling to keep up. One in three Canadian households rent, and yet much of the public conversation around Canada’s housing crisis focuses on homebuyers. Today on Front Burner, Shaina Luck brings us her investigation for the Fifth Estate into Canada’s rental crisis: what’s driving prices up, the role of institutional landlords, and the absence of government action.

Another controversy for the Memorial to the Victims of Communism in Ottawa as some donations were made to it in honour of fascists and Nazi collaborators.

James Cameron has directed Titanic, Terminator, and Aliens. But he says the project that kept him from giving up on filmmaking entirely was Avatar. But for all of the film’s initial success Avatar’s lack of cultural impact has become a running joke over the years – there’s even a Buzzfeed quiz called: “Do You Remember Anything At All About Avatar?” Now today, 13 years later, its sequel, The Way of Water, arrives in theatres. CBC Entertainment reporter Jackson Weaver takes us through the first film’s fall from grace, what the sequel’s all about, and whether James Cameron has another big commercial hit on his hands.

She's the teenager who skipped school — and sparked a global protest. Today, Greta Thunberg is instantly recognizable by her stern demeanour and singular message: When it comes to climate change, listen to the scientists. But it was only last year that she was an unknown 15-year-old, protesting outside Swedish parliament. In the time since, she's dressed down heads of state at the UN, inspired millions of people to march in the global Climate Strike, and been named Time magazine's Person of the Year. But in 2019, it wasn't just Greta and the youth movement she inspires — there were other large-scale protests, led by groups like Extinction Rebellion. Today on Front Burner, Jayme Poisson talks to the Washington Post science and environment reporter Sarah Kaplan about whether these movements can produce real change in the year to come.

Since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran’s morality police on September 16th, protests have erupted throughout Iran and in some 160 cities around the globe — with some of the biggest protests happening here in Canada. Despite violent crackdowns on the demonstrations in Iran, protesters are still coming out to the streets. And women have remained at the forefront, at times burning their headscarves, or chopping off their hair. But this is far from the first time that women have led protest movements in the country. So today we’re taking a look at how the Mahsa Amini demonstrations fit into a long history of women’s activism in Iran — and whether or not this time feels different. Our guest is Mona Tajali, an associate professor of International Relations, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Agnes Scott College. She’s also the author of the recent book Women’s Political Representation in Iran and Turkey: Demanding a Seat at the Table.

As the global economy slows down, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is pushing employees to speed up. The Facebook and Instagram parent company set a record in February, losing the most stock value in a single day in U.S. history. But Zuckerberg has continued sinking billions of dollars into his vision of a “metaverse,” pressed for faster updates to compete with TikTok, and is upping the pressure on employees. According to reports of an internal Q&A in June, Zuckerberg told employees: “Realistically, there are probably a bunch of people at the company who shouldn’t be here.” Today, The Verge deputy editor Alex Heath explains the many threats to Meta that make this “the most pressure” it's ever faced, and how struggles across the tech sector are causing an unprecedented shift in its lavish culture.

Military-style field hospitals in the middle of Toronto. A children’s ICU filling up with dying adults. Medical advisers at the end of their rope. Today, host Jayme Poisson looks at the choices Premier Doug Ford made in recent months and how they led Ontario down the path to what many doctors are calling a catastrophe.

After nearly three decades of trying, Canada qualified for the 1986 World Cup in Mexico and proceeded to not score a goal. But Canada could write a new chapter in its soccer history, starting Sunday, when the Qatar World Cup kicks off. We've covered the controversy surrounding soccer's biggest tournament — from human rights abuses to allegations of bribery, and corruption at FIFA. Today, we're focusing on the tournament itself. Roger Bennett is back to give us a primer on the favourites, the underdogs and some of the big storylines expected to unfold on the pitch in Qatar. He's the founder of the Men in Blazers Media network, co-host of the Men in Blazers podcast and co-author of the newly published book Gods of Soccer.

For a year, a 49-year-old woman in B.C. posed as a nurse at a Vancouver hospital, even assisting in gynecological surgeries, despite not actually being a nurse. Brigitte Cleroux has since been criminally charged, but it turns out she has a long history of impersonations dating back decades and spanning multiple provinces. Now, former patients are left with serious questions about the care they received, and how she was able to even get the job in the first place. Today, CBC Vancouver’s Bethany Lindsay tells us more about those patients, and CBC Ottawa’s Shaamani Yogaretnam explains Cleroux’s decades of impersonations.

Ejaz Choudry. D’Andre Campbell. Rodney Levi. In the last few weeks, several Canadians struggling with their mental health have been shot and killed by police after authorities were called. Today on Front Burner, Jennifer Lavoie, a criminology professor who helps train police on how to handle mental health calls, talks to Josh Bloch about why this issue persists, and how it can be stopped.

After Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai posted a sexual assault allegation against a former top Communist Party official on social media, the post — and Peng — disappeared. In the weeks that followed, the Women's Tennis Association and the sport's top athletes joined the hashtag #WhereIsPengShuai, including Naomi Osaka, Roger Federer and Serena Williams. Even the UN called for proof of her safety. Now, Chinese state-run broadcasters have tweeted a supposed email along with photos and videos as evidence of her safety. The International Olympic committee says it had an interview with Peng where she reassured them of her wellbeing. Today on Front Burner, Racquet publisher and co-founder Caitlin Thompson explains why China's moves have done little to calm fears for Peng's autonomy, and why this is a crucial moment for sports to re-examine their relationship with China.

From the aggressive tactics of police at demonstrations in the United States, to the increasing demand to recognize systemic racism against Black communities and deal with police violence, to the ongoing threat of COVID-19 — it has been a chaotic and politically charged week. Today on Front Burner, we take a step back to listen to individuals who are deeply affected by the week’s events. Five Black Canadians share their reflections on worldwide protests following the death of George Floyd, who was killed by police, and the current attention towards issues of racial injustice and police brutality at home and abroad.

On Saturday, a white gunman drove to the only supermarket in a predominantly Black area on the east side of Buffalo, N.Y. He shot 13 people — 11 Black, two white. Ten people died. Law enforcement officials have labelled the massacre a racially motivated hate crime. Many of those killed were pillars of a tight-knit community shaped by decades of segregation. Today on Front Burner, we talk to former Erie County legislator and former Buffalo city councillor, Betty Jean Grant, about how community members are trying to support one another through their grief and horror.

Tennis star Naomi Osaka announced last week that she wouldn’t go to postmatch news conferences over mental health concerns and this week she dropped out of the tournament altogether. Caitlin Thompson of Racquet Magazine walks us through how this led to controversy in the tennis world and highlights broader problems surrounding the media culture in the sport.

With an election this week, two Newfoundlanders, CBC reporter David Cochrane and radio host Tom Power dig into the many issues facing the province, and how voter apathy has spread during the campaign.

For weeks, tens of thousands of Russian troops have been within striking distance of Ukraine’s border. And then on Thursday came a sudden announcement of a partial de-escalation. Today on Front Burner, Moscow correspondent Chris Brown on the politics behind these moves.

For many people, Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s showdown with CUPE education workers has become about much more than one fight with one union. Experts say that what the Ontario government chooses to do here — and how the public responds — could have ripple effects for labour disputes, and the right to strike, across the country. That’s because the Ford government introduced legislation this week that would prevent these workers from striking before they even start, and do it using the highly controversial notwithstanding clause, which allows provinces to temporarily override some parts of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Today, we’ll first speak to Bea Bruske, president of the Canadian Labour Congress, about what’s been happening on the ground in Ontario. Then we’ll speak to Charles Smith, an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Saskatchewan’s St. Thomas More College, about whether this could set a precedent for labour fights across the country.

Pride Nights began in the NHL about ten years ago. They're meant to send a clear message to LGBTQ+ fans to feel welcome spending money and time watching hockey. But since January, a growing number of teams and players are refusing to wear the rainbow-themed jerseys teams use for warm up skates and then auction off to charity. Some players say wearing the jersey is against their faith. Some teams have said they're concerned Russia would see participation as a violation of Putin's anti-gay laws and that would put their Russian players at risk. Now, league commissioner Gary Bettman says the league will need to decide whether Pride Nights should continue. Mark Lazerus writes about hockey for The Athletic. He says the NHL is failing to show leadership in this latest crisis of culture. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

A Netflix miniseries has rekindled interest in the case of the Central Park Five who became poster children for bias in the justice system and served decades for a crime they did not commit. Filmmaker Sarah Burns on why the case is critically important today.

That photo you posted to Instagram? It might be a part of Clearview AI’s massive database of some 3 billion images, all scraped from the internet. The facial recognition app has experts worried about privacy overreach. Canadian police forces first said they’re not using Clearview — until it turned out they are. Toronto Star reporters Wendy Gillis and Kate Allen have followed this story closely, and they’re here to talk implications.

News of the mysterious deaths of billionaire Canadian pharma giant Barry Sherman and his philanthropist wife Honey in December 2017 reverberated around the world. Five years later, with no arrests and little news from the police, their deaths remain shrouded in mystery and conspiracy theories, with too many lingering questions. Not just who killed them, but what kind of life do you have to live that when you’re found dead, there are multiple theories, including some involving your own family? That’s the question journalist Kathleen Goldhar set out to discover, in The No Good, Terribly Kind, Wonderful Lives and Tragic Deaths of Barry and Honey Sherman, as she explores who the Shermans really were and why too much money might have been what killed them in the end. More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/DTlP12wc

After 18 months of consultation, Google sister company Sidewalk Labs has released its master draft proposal to develop a portion of Toronto’s waterfront. The proposal includes everything from an affordable housing plan, to sensored pneumatic garbage shoots, to a data privacy framework in the form of an independent urban data trust. Today on Front Burner, we talk to The Logic’s editor-in-chief David Skok about what’s in the report, and what questions we need to ask ourselves when we consider building smart cities.

An unprecedented summit on the sexual abuse of minors in the Catholic Church is taking place at the Vatican. For many victims, it's a chance to seek justice. That includes Evelyn Korkmaz, a residential school survivor calling on the Pope to apologize for the Church's involvement in residential schools. She tells host Jayme Poisson why and CBC reporter Jorge Barrera helps us understand the historical relationship between the Catholic Church and Canada's residential schools.

Canada's national police force is once again at the centre of disturbing allegations. Multiple women have come forward accusing a former RCMP doctor of sexually assaulting and harassing them decades ago when they were new recruits. CBC investigative reporter Dave Seglins explains what happened and why the RCMP is being accused of covering up sexual assaults from the '80s and '90s.

This week, a Google search result listing Omar Khadr as a Canadian soldier gained a lot of traction online, inciting anger from many people, including Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer. CBC technology reporter Matt Braga tracks how the former Guantanamo Bay detainee showed up in the search in the first place and how easily misinformation can become politicized.

"Post-truth is pre-fascism." So wrote historian Timothy Snyder in his 2017 book, On Tyranny. He penned it in the lead-up to Donald Trump's inauguration, and he's been warning ever since: The United States is not exceptional, a coup could be attempted there, too. Now, Trump's presidency is in its dying days. He has been impeached by the House again, this time for "incitement of insurrection." But the big lie, as Snyder calls it, that Trump seeded — that the 2020 election was stolen from him — what becomes of that lie now? Today on Front Burner, Snyder explores that question.

As early as Friday the U.S. Senate is expected to vote on whether or not witness testimony will be allowed at Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. It could be a real game changer, especially in light of former national security adviser John Bolton’s new bombshell accusations against the president. Today on Front Burner, longtime CBC Washington correspondent Keith Boag explains the likelihood of testimony being heard and how it could possibly affect the outcome of the trial.

A young man in London, Ont., was recently put on life-support with a respiratory illness that's been linked to vaping. He was the first with that diagnosis in Canada, after more than 450 Americans fell ill, and eight died, also from vaping-linked respiratory illnesses. How much do we actually know about the health impacts of vaping nicotine or marijuana? Andre Picard is the health reporter for the Globe and Mail. He says the jury is still out. "Smoking is like jumping off the hundredth floor of a building," says Picard. "Vaping is like jumping out, we just don't know which floor yet."

Could the "wealth-conjuring machine" that is Canadian real estate grind to a halt after the COVID-19 crisis exposed its worst weaknesses? That's the concern many who watch a sector that makes up a bigger part of the Canadian economy than oil and gas. Today on Front Burner, Bloomberg News' Vancouver bureau chief Natalie Obiko Pearson returns to explain how real estate became such a significant part of the Canadian economy, how Canadians went deeply into debt, and why now, the housing market in Canada could be "too big to fail."

At least 36 people have died as massive fires rip through the Western United States, engulfing towns and blowing noxious smoke north to Vancouver and other parts of Canada. Today on Front Burner, we talk about what’s to blame for this historic devastation and what we have to do to adapt to life with wildfires. Mike Flannigan is a professor with the Department of Renewable Resources at the University of Alberta and the co-host of the CBC Edmonton podcast “World on Fire”.

With eight confirmed cases, Vancouver is facing Canada's worst measles outbreak in years. Dr. Natasha Crowcroft on why the infectious disease is having a worldwide comeback.

The World Economic Forum, and its annual summit for the rich and powerful in Davos, Switzerland, have long been targeted by criticism from the left. But since the start of the pandemic, the forum has become a huge concern for many people on the right, including those who view the WEF as shadowy puppet masters at the centre of a complex web of conspiracy theories. Today, journalist Justin Ling — host of the CBC podcasts The Flame Throwers and The Village — joins us to unpack many of those conspiracy theories, and examine the potential consequences of mainstream Canadian politicians amplifying suspicions about the organization.

You’ve probably noticed that prices of practically everything — food, gas, haircuts, housing — have been going up lately. Canada’s inflation rate is now the highest it’s been in 18 years. In Parliament, the Conservative party has been pointing fingers at Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government, and calling on them to quit racking up deficits. They’ve even come up with a nickname for the problem: #Justinflation. But economists say this isn’t a normal inflation problem and warn normal solutions may not work.

Concerns about deadly outbreaks at long-term care homes continue to be top of mind for many Canadians during this second wave of COVID-19. Today, an encore of a conversation we had with a man who went to incredible and potentially life-threatening lengths to visit his mother at her nursing home in Toronto. Back in April, with the facility on lockdown and a resident with COVID-19, there was only one way Brian Corcoran could visit and check-up on his mom, Margaret — get a part-time job on staff.

On Wednesday night, B.C. NDP leadership candidate Anjali Appadurai was disqualified from the race, clearing the path for the coronation of her competitor, David Eby, who will become the province’s premier. After an investigation, Appadurai was disqualified for allegedly having "engaged in serious improper conduct'' by working with third parties for membership drives on her behalf and for allegedly soliciting ”fraudulent memberships.” Appadurai says her removal was a political hit job and that the NDP was threatened by her team's ability to out-organize her opponent. Today on Front Burner, Appadurai joins us.

TikTok is facing tough questions from many western democracies about the personal data it gathers and who has access to it. The app’s parent company is based in China and now US politicians want to make sure the country’s government can’t get access to Americans’ personal information. They aren’t liking the answers they’re getting. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The broad and ambiguous offences under China's new national security law have Hong Kongers censoring themselves, fearing a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Pro-democracy protesters are holding up blank sheets. Cafes are stripping their messages of support. One of Hong Kong's most prominent and outspoken activists, too, has left the territory altogether. Today on Front Burner, pro-democracy activist Nathan Law joins us from an undisclosed location. He'll take us through the years of unrest leading up to China's crackdown, and how these measures threaten the unique freedoms that came with living in Hong Kong.

COP26, the UN’s annual climate summit in Glasgow, was touted by many as the “last best chance” for the world to come together and make a plan to stave off the worst of climate change. Today, Time magazine senior correspondent Justin Worland delves into what the summit did and didn’t achieve.

This week the leaders of the self-described "Freedom Convoy" protest in Ottawa were brought in front of the inquiry into the use of the Emergencies Act. And for some of them, those facing charges, it won't be the last time they'll be held to account. We learned a lot. About the chaos, the infighting and the money. Plus, even more about what the police did, and didn't do to tackle the protest. Host of CBC's Power & Politics, and our good friend, Vassy Kapelos joins us from Ottawa to get us up to speed. We will also spend a bit of time talking about the mini-budget Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland released yesterday.

With election day less than two weeks away, presidential candidates Donald Trump and Joe Biden debated for the second and final time on Thursday. CBC Washington correspondent Susan Ormiston discusses what happened and what it could mean for election day.

Canada’s Finance Minister, Bill Morneau, has just released a dramatic projection of the country’s deficit this year: $343 billion, largely due to pandemic-related support programs. The unprecedented amount of spending is a signal to many climate advocates that there is now an opportunity to fundamentally reshape the economy through something called a green recovery. Today, climate reporter Geoff Dembicki on what that might look like in Canada, and the challenges it may face.

The anti-vaccine movement has long revolved around children. As the pediatric COVID-19 vaccine rollout approaches, what can we learn from this phenomenon to improve uptake in kids? Sociologist Jennifer Reich shares her insights.

A global race for a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine is underway. More than 160 of them are in different stages of testing around the world. Canada is in this race too. A group of scientists at the University of Saskatchewan's VIDO-InterVac - the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization in Saskatoon - are trying to get through a decade’s worth of testing and approvals as early as next year. Today on Front Burner, CBC Saskatoon reporter Alicia Bridges takes us inside a lab working on a Canadian COVID vaccine, and inside the lives of the scientists trying to find it.

In the weeks following the 2020 killings of 22 people in Portapique, Nova Scotia — the deadliest shooting rampage in Canadian history — the federal government began introducing steps to limit the types of guns people can own and use. There were orders in council, which began with a list of more than 1,500 firearms, before more were added, and later a piece of proposed gun control legislation, Bill C-21. That bill had two readings in the House of Commons, before a major 478-page amendment was added. The changes have drawn more criticism to what was already a contentious bill, as some question whether it’s too broad and will affect too many types of guns. On today’s episode, we’re joined by Kieran Oudshoorn, a producer with CBC’s audio documentary unit, to walk through Liberal government’s plans for gun control.

On Monday, Facebook employees wrote an open letter to the company’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, protesting the decision to let politicians run false claims on the platform. Reporter Adi Robertson on where the company goes from here.

As pressure mounts to address global warming, some financial institutions are grappling with whether or not to divest from the Canadian oilsands. CBC’s Kyle Bakx explains.

Long before federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault was leading the file in Canada's fight against the climate crisis, he was an activist — some might even say a radical one, most famous for scaling the CN tower in 2001 to bring attention to climate change. Now, he's the architect of the Liberals' latest plan to dramatically curb greenhouse gas emissions. It's Guilbeault's first big move in his new role, and it's getting a lot of attention — by those who think it goes too far, and those who think it doesn't go far enough. Today on Front Burner, we're talking to environmental writer Arno Kopecky about Guilbeault, the move from activist to politician and how his new climate plan measures up to expectations.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine last Thursday, Western powers have remained steadfast on one point: They will not engage Russia in a hot war to defend Ukraine. Instead, they are piling on an increasingly punishing slate of economic penalties. Today, we’re going to break down some of the key sanctions, and look at their current and potential impacts. First, Giles Gibson, a correspondent for Feature Story News, will give us a view from Moscow, where people are already starting to feel the effects of the penalties. Then, we’ll speak to Ian Talley from the Wall Street Journal about what exactly these sanctions are — and whether they’ll work to limit Russian President Vladimir Putin’s actions.

The most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is scathing: it lays out the stark divide between rich and poor nations’ ability to withstand global warming’s worst effects. This, just months after COP26 in Glasgow, where many delegates and activists were asking rich nations most responsible for greenhouse gas emissions to pay for the losses and damages that many developing nations are already experiencing from climate change. Demands for a specific compensation fund were not met. Today, Canadian human rights lawyer Payam Akhavan is here to explain how some small island nations are looking at how they can use international law to make rich countries pay up. He’s a senior fellow at Massey College at the University of Toronto, and a former UN war crimes prosecutor who has served on tribunals investigating genocide in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Now, he’s helped establish the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law, and is serving as the group’s legal counsel.