On Monday morning, a 25-year-old man opened fire in Montreal, leading to a shootout that left three people dead. A few hours later, police found a manifesto written by the shooter. It contained a laundry list of grievances but, more than anything, it bore the telltale signs of someone who had spent a lot of time immersed in the world of incels. The incel, or involuntary celibate, movement was born online but has occasionally inspired real world violence. Elle Reeve is a correspondent for CNN and...
Jun 25, 2026•30 min
Margaret Evans is CBC’s Senior International Correspondent. She just returned from a week-long reporting trip in Tehran, speaking to Iranians on the ground about the impact of the war and the preliminary peace agreement. In a Canadian exclusive, CBC News reported from Iran with permission of the country’s government, who put restrictions on journalists but have no say over what we decide to publish or broadcast. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/...
Jun 24, 2026•26 min
After a weekend of speculation, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer appeared on the steps of 10 Downing Street on Monday and announced that he would be stepping down. He’s now the sixth British Prime Minister to resign in the last 10 years, continuing a pattern many thought would end after he won a majority government with the Labour Party in a landslide just two years ago. Zoë Grünewald is a freelance journalist based in London, England. She’s also a regular panelist on the politics podcast ‘Oh Go...
Jun 23, 2026•26 min
It was a busy end to the season in the House of Commons. CBC Chief Political Correspondent Rosemary Barton is here to talk about what happened, what it tells us about Carney’s majority government, and what we can expect in the months to come. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts
Jun 22, 2026•23 min
Toronto police announced this week that nearly 30 recent shootings across the Greater Toronto Area are linked by a multi-layered gun-for-hire network. They say teens have been recruited through encrypted messaging apps to carry out attacks, from targets linked to local tow truck and waste management disputes, to synagogues, Jewish schools and even the US consulate. In almost all the cases, they filmed the acts for proof of payment. Now police say they want to know who’s hiring them and how far t...
Jun 19, 2026•25 min
Andrew Tate – the controversial British-American influencer, and self-described misogynist – has millions of followers around the world. He often tells young men that they’re victims of a feminized society and that they need to reclaim their “natural masculine imperative for power”. Tate became even more famous after he and his brother were subject to a police raid on their Romanian property in 2022, due to suspected human trafficking. In the years after, they’ve also been investigated for rape ...
Jun 18, 2026•31 min
Reporter Francis Farrell of the Kyiv Independent recently took a harrowing journey alongside a group of Ukrainian soldiers into what they describe as the kill zone. They travelled by foot down a long road swarmed by drones, littered with shell casings and bombed out vehicles. He captured the trip in a documentary that paints a stark and dystopian picture of a war that is at once both futuristic and primitive. He joins us to talk about that trip, and about the broader conflict as Ukraine’s Presid...
Jun 17, 2026•33 min
This week, after more than a hundred days of fighting, the United States and Iran have reached a preliminary agreement to end the war, set to be signed in Geneva this Friday. This deal is meant to end the fighting, open the Strait of Hormuz and as U.S. President Donald Trump put it, “let the oil flow”. Iran’s top military command has framed the deal as a defeat for the US and Israel. To talk about the peace deal and how Iran will emerge from this war, we’re joined again by Vali Nasr, Professor o...
Jun 16, 2026•30 min
A common refrain among those who support Albertan separatism is that they would like a deal similar to what Quebec earned through its decades-long fight for greater autonomy. So as Alberta heads towards its own referendum on a separation, we wanted to try and answer the question: What did Quebec actually get? Chantal Hébert is a longtime political reporter, commentator and panellist on CBC’s At Issue. She also wrote the book, “The Morning After: The 1995 Quebec Referendum and the Day that Almost...
Jun 15, 2026•35 min
For decades Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates built a public persona as an unrelenting, tech visionary – and later as a global health and climate philanthropist. But that reputation has started to fracture, largely because of one man: Jeffrey Epstein. The partial release of the Epstein files revealed extensive communication between Epstein and Gates, his foundation, and people who worked for him. On Wednesday, Gates testified before congress in a closed door hearing. In his opening statement, he s...
Jun 12, 2026•28 min
Canada has introduced new legislation that puts big tech social platforms on notice: change your platforms to make them safer for kids, or children under the age of 16 will be banned from using them. Taylor Owen is back on the show to walk us through the proposed Safe Social Media Act and how it’d be enforced. He’s the Beaverbrook Chair in Media, Ethics and Communications at McGill University. He was also part of an expert panel advising the government on online harms, and a member of the AI Str...
Jun 11, 2026•30 min
Even before a game has been played, this year’s World Cup has been the source of controversy. Officials and staff from countries like Iraq, Iran and Somalia have been refused entry or face lengthy interrogation by immigration officials at American airports. FIFA President Gianni Infantino has been widely criticized for his proximity to U.S. President Donald Trump after presenting Trump with a ‘FIFA Peace Prize’ award and sitting in the front row at Trump’s inauguration. For nearly 100 years, lea...
Jun 10, 2026•39 min
As Alberta hurtles towards a referendum on whether or not to hold a separation referendum, we wanted to take a look at how the campaigns on both sides are shaping up. Who are the players? Are they cohesive? Organized? Charismatic? Jason Markusoff, who covers Alberta politics for CBC, is here to walk us through it. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts...
Jun 09, 2026•32 min
For decades, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, better known as AIPAC, has been one of the most powerful lobbying organizations in Washington. It has helped shape U.S. policy toward Israel, cultivated relationships with lawmakers from both parties, and more recently spent millions of dollars helping elect candidates it supports and defeat those it doesn't. But after the war in Gaza, Israel's conflicts with Iran and Lebanon, and a dramatic shift in public opinion among many Democrats, ...
Jun 08, 2026•35 min
Following the critically acclaimed series Hunting Warhead, Season 2: Hunting the Suicide Salesman follows host Daemon Fairless as he takes us inside another dark corner of the internet: the online world helping people take their own lives. When people around the world started killing themselves with an obscure substance a few years ago, police were unaware that something – someone – was tying many of these deaths together. It took grieving families and investigative journalists to piece together...
Jun 06, 2026•49 min
Canada has released its long-awaited national artificial intelligence strategy. It comes as a significant portion of the country feels uneasy about what impact the technology will have. Evan Solomon, Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, speaks with Jayme Poisson about AI safety and the potential for job losses.
Jun 05, 2026•31 min
Canada has entered a “technical recession,” leading to fingerpointing in the House of Commons and Donald Trump renewing his calls to make Canada the 51st state. Many economists are disputing that this is a recession at all. But whatever you call it, the economy is weak right now. It was weak before the trade war and it’s been made weaker by the tariffs, the threats and the uncertainty. So how deep is this ditch that we are in, and how can we get out? Frances Donald, Senior Vice President & C...
Jun 04, 2026•30 min
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew is planting his federalist flag, wading into the Alberta separatism debate and making the case for a major new nation building project in his province. Today we speak to the former journalist, and first ever First Nations provincial Premier about keeping the country together, the need for stronger tech regulations and Indigenous consultation. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts...
Jun 03, 2026•33 min
At Donald Trump’s election victory event in 2024, he was flanked on stage by a collection of family, senior staff, and Ultimate Fighting Championship president and CEO, Dana White. The UFC has, in many ways, functioned as the sporting arm of the MAGA movement. Fighters and the organization itself have pledged incredible support to Trump, and the President has become a ringside fixture at fights. This union is set to culminate later this month with a cage fight scheduled to be held on the White H...
Jun 02, 2026•35 min
Negotiations for an end to the war in Iran took a baffling turn last Monday when U.S. President Donlad Trump declared via social media that he would be willing to end the war in exchange for a number of countries in the Middle East and South Asia joining the Abraham Accords. The Accords are a series of diplomatic agreements that normalized relations between Israel and some Arab states. They were originally touted as a Trump foreign policy victory, and a step towards a more peaceful Middle East. ...
Jun 01, 2026•32 min
What happens when a human becomes intimately enmeshed with a chatbot? From people who’ve married their bots or who grieve their loved ones with the help of AI, host Victoria Hetherington (author of The Friend Machine) dives into the stories of the people who have invited these digital avatars into their hearts, minds, and even beds. And asks what do we gain and what do we stand to lose? Our intimacy, our resilience, even our grasp on reality? This latest season of Understood looks at who made th...
May 30, 2026•37 min
CBC parliamentary reporters Aaron Wherry and Catharine Tunney are back to talk about the big political stories of the week including: Prime Minister Mark Carney losing high-profile MP Steven Guilbeault over climate policies, digital surveillance blowback from Bill C-22, and how Carney will handle Alberta separatism. Correction (June 1, 2026): A previous version of this episode said part of Bill C-22 would give authorities warrantless access to basic subscriber information. In fact, the threshold...
May 29, 2026•32 min
There’s an old adage from the days of the Watergate scandal: “follow the money.” And in Donald Trump’s second term as President of the United States, these words remain incredibly relevant. From foreign investments, to real estate, cryptocurrency, personal stock trades, taxpayer settlement funds, personal gifts, and presidential pardons the news environment has been flooded with reports about the ways in which critics say Donald Trump is using the Presidency to profit personally. Zack Beauchamp ...
May 28, 2026•38 min
Western Premiers gathered in Kananskis, Alberta this week to discuss shared issues like trade, defense and energy projects. But another topic overshadowed the meetings: Alberta separatism. Late last week, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced the province will hold a referendum on the prospect of independence in the fall. But rather than a straight question about leaving Canada, the referendum will ask Albertans whether they support another referendum on seceding. The question has both separa...
May 27, 2026•33 min
As we inch closer to the July 1st CUSMA review deadline, there still aren’t any formal trade talks between Canada and the U.S. planned. The government says there are informal talks happening at different levels. Other recent developments aren’t great. U.S. officials have blasted a substantial hike in what big streamers have to pay into Canadian content, and they’ve suspended a joint defense board that’s been around for 80 years. This week as talks between the U.S. and Mexico begin, Canada is exc...
May 26, 2026•30 min
In a major escalation of its months long “maximum pressure” campaign, the United States announced it has indicted Raúl Castro, former president of Cuba, over the downing of two planes flown by a group of Cuban exiles targeting the regime in 1996. It was a move officials within the Trump administration had been signalling would happen after the director of the CIA met with Cuban officials in Havana. We speak to Peter Kornbluh, an author and senior analyst at the National Security Archive speciali...
May 25, 2026•33 min
Prime Minister Mark Carney has condemned what he described as the “abominable treatment” of flotilla activists detained by Israeli authorities. His statement came after the release of a video showing activists from around the world blindfolded, restrained, and forced face-down on the ground as Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir toured the detention site. Up to a dozen Canadians were among those detained, according to the group who organized the flotilla. All have since been depor...
May 22, 2026•35 min
Earlier this month, 30 Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to the Trump administration with a remarkable request: to publicly acknowledge that Israel has nuclear weapons. Israel is widely believed to be the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East. But unlike other nuclear powers, Israel has never officially acknowledged its arsenal. That nuclear policy is known, in Hebrew, as “amimut” or opacity. And for decades the United States has largely gone along with it. Today, historian Avner Cohen, a...
May 21, 2026•29 min
Late last week, Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced a new energy agreement that paves the way for a new pipeline to the West Coast. It includes an industrial carbon pricing deal, and is contingent on the approval of the Pathways project— a proposed carbon capture, utilization and storage facility. The agreement was panned by environmentalists who said, among other things, that the Liberals are sacrificing the climate goals they spent the better part of a decad...
May 20, 2026•28 min
Alberta premier Danielle Smith is calling a court ruling “antidemocratic” after judge struck down the petition which hoped to trigger a separatist referendum this fall. The ruling came in part because it found that the province failed to consult with First Nations whose treaty rights would be affected by a vote to separate. Still, separatist groups and the province are appealing the decision and looking to forge ahead. But how does Alberta’s separatist movement stack up against other secessionis...
May 19, 2026•28 min
