Quebec's premier resigned abruptly today; we'll find out what that means for the upcoming provincial election -- and the prospect of yet another Parti Quebecois-initiated referendum on independence. Several top prosecutors resign over the US Justice Department's refusal to investigate the ICE agent who killed Renee Good. We'll hear from a veteran of the department who quit last year to apply pressure from the outside. Months before Rosa Parks, and at just 15 years old, the late Claudette Colvin ...
Jan 15, 2026•1 hr 2 min
Prime Minister Mark Carney is off to Beijing -- and a former Canadian ambassador to China tells us he'll need to balance security and human rights concerns on one side, and the need for new trade commitments on the other. Dozens of high-level economic officials in the U.S. come to the defence of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell -- who says criminal allegations are just part of Donald Trump's attempt to politicize the central bank. The executive director of Kashechewan First Nation is racing t...
Jan 14, 2026•56 min
Iran continues its crackdown on protesters, Donald Trump continues to muse about American military intervention -- and our guest is increasingly fearful about her country's future. After more than two years of war, students in Gaza have gone back to school -- in many cases, in UNICEF tents because there's no safe school building to go back to. Venezuela's interim government promises to release political prisoners arrested under the Maduro regime -- but one prisoner's son says that promise is hol...
Jan 13, 2026•1 hr 4 min
An Iranian-Canadian tells us she's ready to accept all the risks associated with a U-S military intervention, if it means ousting the regime threatening her loved ones' lives. We reach a Minneapolis council member -- who tells us why she's urging her constituents to keep the pressure on the federal government as ICE agents remain in the city. Yesterday on this show, the chief of Pimicikamak Cree Nation had some tough questions for Manitoba Hydro about the outage that has displaced his community....
Jan 10, 2026•59 min
A Minnesotan tells us she has no choice but to keep monitoring ICE operations in Minneapolis, particularly after an agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good yesterday. But she says she won't be using her car to block them. A Canadian senator says it’s time for the Government of Canada to get off Elon Musk’s social media platform – amid new allegations that its AI chatbot is creating images of child pornography. The Chief of the Pimicikamak Cree Nation says he's finally been able to show Manitoba ...
Jan 09, 2026•52 min
An activist in Minneapolis tells us about plans to honour the 37-year-old woman shot dead by an ICE agent this morning. It's a shooting government officials insist was done in self-defence. The city's mayor says video proves that assertion is quote -- garbage. A former member of Venezuela's opposition says he's losing patience with Donald Trump -- who he says is not moving fast enough to push for true change in his country. With the passing of the infamous double agent Aldrich Ames, a journalist...
Jan 08, 2026•1 hr 2 min
An Indigenous Greenlander and former MP says he welcomes more support from Canada as the U.S. President repeats and ramps up his annexation threats. As Donald Trump vows to "take back" Venezuelan oil, an expert in Alberta weighs in on the impact that may have on the Canadian oil industry. A Democratic Congressman marks the anniversary of the January 6th attack on the Capitol by digging up a memorial plaque that's supposed to be displayed prominently -- but he’s up against Republicans who have it...
Jan 07, 2026•1 hr
A political analyst in Caracas tells us there's an eerie quiet and a feeling of disbelief -- as it sinks in that Nicolas Maduro is no longer in charge. The ousted Venezuelan president was brought to a Manhattan courthouse today in shackles – as questions swirl about the legalities of his capture. Ontario premier Doug Ford’s return-to-office-mandate takes full effect this week – despite backlash from public sector workers. After the second major water main break in as many years, Calgary Mayor Je...
Jan 06, 2026•1 hr 1 min
On a special "Hometowns Revisited" edition, we'll take a look back at some of our favourite small town stories of the year that just ended. We'll hear from a man who spent months crossing Canada from town to town, relying on the kindness of strangers -- and listening to their stories. St. Thomas, Ontario vows to effectively end homelessness within its borders; a woman who spent years on the streets reflects on whether that's a promise kept. A decade after its release, a haunting song about the t...
Jan 02, 2026•1 hr 16 min
We'll look back at the heroic figures we spoke with over the past year -- and, regrettably, the dastardly villains, who were actually sometimes the same people. A Sydney snake removal expert arrives at a job to discover a truly mind-boggling number of snakes -- but he rises to the occasion while they're writhing to the occasion. Despite the pain, Lizanne Wilmot put the pedals to the medal, and blazed a new trail on the old-timey bicycle known as the "penny farthing". There's definitely a hero in...
Jan 01, 2026•1 hr 16 min
Hollywood actors and writers are anxious about AI filmmaking, but one Bollywood director tells us that, as far as many Indian creators are concerned, it's democratizing the process. Many Calgarians are once again under a boil-water advisory after the second major water main break in as many years -- and this one left our guest stranded on the roof of her truck. Our guest fills us in on his annual headline-of-the-year bracket -- where the entrants range from the sublime to the ridiculous, except ...
Jan 01, 2026•50 min
First, airstrikes on alleged drug boats from Venezuela. Then the seizure of Venezuelan oil tankers. Now, after an attack on Venezuelan soil, we reach Democrat Adam Smith. Israel is suspending dozens of aid groups for failing to comply with new registration rules -- rules the Norwegian Refugee Council says would jeopardize the safety of their Palestinian staff. When a LinkedIn user saw her engagement tanking, she started using more masculine language. She says the results tell a worrying story ab...
Dec 31, 2025•51 min
Donald Trump says a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia is closer than ever -- but a Ukrainian MP tells us he's not sure where the US president is getting his information. They're about to resume the underwater search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 -- and an independent investigator says it has the best chance yet of solving the enduring mystery of the plane's disappearance. A British researcher who's spent 15 years cataloguing the distinct scents of cities and towns around the world share...
Dec 30, 2025•48 min
"Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration." Well, tonight's show contains a lot of genius -- but we've cleaned up all the sweat and just left you with the inspiration. If you're looking for fashion inspiration, why not look to the trend-setting chimpanzees -- who are accessorizing with blades of grass placed delicately in their ears, and, even more delicately, in their butts. Anna Brynald of Denmark won the whole shebang this year at the world's most important seagull-impers...
Dec 26, 2025•1 hr 15 min
Buckle your seatbelt and prepare for take-off. Here is "Fireside" Al Maitland's classic reading of "The Shepherd", by the late Frederick Forsyth. Mr. Forsyth lived many lives before becoming a best-selling author, including the life of a RAF pilot. He told us what it's like to be thousands of metres in the sky when fog sets in, and how that experience inspired his haunting Christmas story. When Tony Kent was growing up reading gripping thrillers, including "The Day of the Jackal," he never imagi...
Dec 24, 2025•53 min
As Brown University tries to reassure its community about safety on campus...we reach a student who’s been here before. While Australia has vowed to crack down on hate speech, a politician there says antisemitism has become 'part of life' in his country. The World Health Organization's chief scientist tells us why the W-H-O is taking a closer look at traditional remedies...and says it's time to marry many of those with modern medicine. As It Happens holiday readings are kicking into high gear. T...
Dec 24, 2025•51 min
Russian investigators suggest Ukraine could be behind a car bomb that killed a top military official in Moscow. Our guest tells us whoever's behind it, the message is clear. Cyclone reconstruction is just the latest shock to Sri Lanka's bottom line. And an economist in Colombo says the way forward is mixed at best. We reach a National Cancer Institute scientist in Maryland who's raising eyebrows with his latest research: A vaccine he's making in his kitchen, and drinking in beer form. As Hanukka...
Dec 23, 2025•52 min
A fellow scientist remembers his friend Nuno Loureiro -- the beloved MIT professor authorities believe was killed this week by the same man suspected of killing two students at Brown University. Air Canada reaches a settlement with passengers after a crash-landing in a Halifax snowstorm more than 10 years ago -- an event that left our guest with an understandably visceral fear of flying. As part of a ceasefire deal with Israel, the Lebanese army must disarm the militant group Hezbollah by the en...
Dec 20, 2025•59 min
Months ago, the Democratic Party commissioned a report on what went wrong in the 2024 presidential election. Now, party leaders are saying they're actually not going to release the details. Our guest says that just makes him more anxious to see it. After 23 years in an Ontario prison a new legal victory means Tim Rees can finally consider his name cleared. He'll tell us how that feels. A young Indigenous resident of Northern Ontario tells us the Premier's announcement about "shovels in the groun...
Dec 19, 2025•1 hr 1 min
The surviving accused gunman in the Bondi Beach attack is charged -- and an Australian investigative reporter reveals disturbing allegations about the father-and-son suspects. We'll talk to an artist who is painstakingly recreating one of the Bamiyan Buddha statues that was destroyed by the Taliban over two decades ago. After corruption allegations are levelled against the Quebec Liberal Party, their new leader Pablo Rodriguez says he's resigning. Our guest tells us the next leader needs to righ...
Dec 18, 2025•1 hr 5 min
NDP MP Jenny Kwan was supposed to be visiting both Israelis and Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank. But we'll reach her in Jordan -- after she and the rest of a Canadian delegation were blocked by Israel for what it describes as “security reasons”. Media mogul Jimmy Lai's daughter says she made the difficult decision to leave Hong Kong to advocate for her father's release -- and now that he's facing life in prison, she says that is more important than ever. Rob Reiner was a superstar directo...
Dec 17, 2025•1 hr 7 min
A cousin of a rabbi killed in the Bondi beach attack says Eli Schlanger devoted himself to bringing joy and love to others -- and his family plans to continue that tradition. A Syrian father of two who risked his life to disarm one of the alleged shooters is being hailed as a hero; our guest sat with his family as they waited for news. Hong Kong pro-democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai faces a possible life sentence for sedition and foreign collusion; a fellow activist is crushed -- but not surprised....
Dec 16, 2025•1 hr 1 min
Another Conservative crosses the floor to join the government -- and now the Liberals are one vote shy of a majority. A Conservative strategist discusses the winter of his party's discontent. It's been nine months since he was deported to a prison in El Salvador. Now, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is out of detention. But his lawyer says that, under the Trump administration, his client is not going to relax. Iranian security forces violently arrest Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi after releasin...
Dec 13, 2025•57 min
People in British Columbia's Fraser Valley could only watch as torrential rain triggered widespread flooding…again. A campground owner tells us parts of her property were swept away without warning. The United States jacks up tensions with Venezuela by seizing an oil tanker — a tactic our guest says is meant to catalyze regime change, an outcome he endorses. UNESCO formally recognizes the Haitian music and dance genre konpa, to the delight of Sony Laventure who teaches the art form. Paleontologi...
Dec 12, 2025•1 hr 3 min
A Royal Canadian Navy sailor is rescued after going missing -- in the Pacific Ocean; we'll talk to a commander on a ship that got the mayday call. The Alberta government has used the notwithstanding clause yet again, this time to push through laws that will affect young transgender people. A trans advocate tells us it's too much -- and they've gone too far. A Liberal MP says he has concerns about an Alberta-built pipeline -- but Conservative attempts to get MPs like him to break from the federal...
Dec 11, 2025•55 min
A Virginia farmer tells us what he thinks of Washington's 12 billion dollar aid package -- and whether it can actually help save farms collapsing under the weight of the U.S. President's tariffs. Maryland's top public defender tells us the heating at a youth jail in Baltimore has been broken for weeks in winter temperatures -- says the state should not be freezing those young people out. Dozens of students have been rescued after last month's mass kidnapping in Nigeria, but many are still being ...
Dec 10, 2025•51 min
Last week, it seemed Netflix had made a deal to take over Warner Bros. -- but now, Paramount Skydance has swooped in with a surprise hostile takeover bid. New numbers show that already high rates of over-crowding in Ontario jails are getting worse. And our guest warns that promised bail and sentencing reforms will just exacerbate the problem. His app lets anonymous users report sightings of U.S. ICE agents; now, he's suing Trump officials, alleging the administration pressured Apple to bury it. ...
Dec 09, 2025•1 hr 5 min
As It Happens host Nil Köksal speaks with Yoruba Richen about her new documentary about the life of Joan Little, an unlikely civil rights figure who became the first woman in U.S. history to be acquitted of murder on the basis that she was defending herself from sexual assault.
Dec 07, 2025•24 min
The Netflix-Warner Brothers merger is a multi-billion dollar blockbuster -- a business journalist tells us what the deal might mean for where -- and what kind of blockbusters -- you'll be watching from here on out. The chair of the expert panel advising the government on reaching net-zero goals says he had no choice but to resign -- because he doesn't feel like anyone in power was listening. A student editor was floored by the University of Alabama's decision to pulled the plug on publications f...
Dec 06, 2025•47 min
Donald Trump says he could let the Canada-US-Mexico trade deal expire -- but our guest, the president of the Business Council of Canada, argues the agreement is crucial to American and Canadian prosperity. A new trove of thousands of photos shows the horrors of detention under the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. British Columbia makes a move to seize three properties from the group it says is using them for crime -- that group being the Hell's Angels. Even if you don't know his name, ...
Dec 05, 2025•1 hr 2 min
