Front Burner - podcast cover

Front Burner

CBC•www.cbc.ca
News

Front Burner is a daily news podcast that takes you deep into the stories shaping Canada and the world. Each morning, from Monday to Friday, host Jayme Poisson talks with the smartest people covering the biggest stories to help you understand what’s going on. We’re Canada’s number one news podcast and a trusted source of Canadian news. 


We cover Canadian news and Canadian politics, Pierre Poilievre, Mark Carney, the Donald Trump administration, the upcoming 2025 Canadian election, provincial politics from Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, and politicians Danielle Smith, David Eby and Doug Ford. We cover Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary as well as other municipalities across Canada. 


In this Canadian election year, Front Burner will be focusing more on Canadian politics. We will take a close look at Mark Carney’s first few weeks as Prime Minister-Designate, the Conservatives and Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre as well as other leaders like Jagmeet Singh from the NDP and Quebec’s Yves-François Blanchet from the Bloc Québécois during the 2025 Canadian federal election. The podcast goes beyond Ottawa and digs deeper into major election issues like U.S.-Canada relations, jobs, the economy, immigration, cost of living, housing and rental costs, taxes and tariffs, democracy and technology. 


The Front Burner daily podcast covers Canadian news from every province and territory: Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nunavut, Northwest Territories and Yukon. We cover news from major cities like Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton. 


When U.S. President Donald Trump declares he wants to make Canada the 51st state, and decides to implement tariffs, Front Burner has an analysis into what is happening. We cover Elon Musk’s DOGE. We cover the latest in technology from the rise of bitcoin and crypto, the future of TikTok, Meta, artificial intelligence, influencers, and more.


Look to our archives to see fact-checked stories about infrastructure, fascism, border security, immigration, Pierre Poilievre, Justin Trudeau, the Republican Party, American politics, Canadian politics, India, China, Trump’s tariffs, Mark Carney, Elon Musk, Toronto, technology, artificial intelligence, international students, healthcare, and inflation. We cover global news like the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, the ceasefire, the Ukraine-Russia war, and the U.S. economy and U.S. politics. 


Front Burner is a part of your morning news routine. Whether you’re in Toronto or Vancouver or Washington, this is the news that matters to Canadians. We take a look at the economy and break it down from the budget to interest rate hikes to inflation to recessions to jobs to the cost of living. We look at the policy around housing, Canadian housing supply, and what this means for first-time home buyers, renters, and those with a mortgage. We look at technology, from AI to the manosphere to social media like Meta, Twitter, Facebook, and more. We look at influential newsmakers like Elon Musk and influential technology industries like crypto and AI. 

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Episodes

Dr. Seuss, and how to deal with racism in children’s classics

Dr. Seuss Enterprises will no longer publish six of the beloved author’s books because of their racist content and imagery. Philip Nel and Michelle H. Martin, two experts on children’s lit, discuss Dr. Seuss’s legacy, and how to engage with problematic children’s classics.

Mar 04, 2021•23 min

Inside the bloody fight for Myanmar’s democracy

“Now we have no choice. We have to fight back.” Today we hear from a young pro-democracy activist in Myanmar who is risking her life on the streets of Yangon to fight back against the military coup.

Mar 03, 2021•21 min

'Tiger Squad' and Saudi Arabia's brutal campaign to crush dissent

According to a newly declassified U.S report, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince approved the operation that led to the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Today on Front Burner, how the Saudi regime’s campaign to crush dissent extends far beyond that murder.

Mar 02, 2021•21 min

Why the Golden Globes' shady reputation persists

On Sunday, Hollywood will celebrate the 78th annual Golden Globe Awards. The event is considered influential, even as it is dogged by persistent jokes that it's out of touch, and even corrupt. When this year's nominations were announced, many were puzzled that the fluffy Netflix series Emily in Paris received two nods, while the critically acclaimed I May Destroy You was shut out. This week, a sprawling Los Angeles Times investigation revealed that some 30 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press ...

Feb 26, 2021•22 min

Cindy Gladue and the painful cost of justice

The death of Cindy Gladue became a flashpoint for the anger surrounding missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada. Now, a manslaughter conviction for Bradley Barton closes the long legal saga — but as CBC reporter Jorge Barrera tells us, for Gladue's family, healing has just begun.

Feb 25, 2021•23 min

Church as a COVID-19 battleground

As three B.C. churches get ready to head to court to fight the province's COVID-19 rules, CBC Vancouver reporter Jason Proctor explains how the pandemic is testing the limits of religious freedom.

Feb 24, 2021•23 min

How Bellingcat cracks some of the world’s biggest stories

Eliot Higgins, founder of the investigative collective Bellingcat, tells us how the group used online information to break some of its biggest stories — from the poisoning of Alexei Navalny to the downing of Flight MH17 in Ukraine — and why he wants others to follow in Bellingcat's footsteps.

Feb 22, 2021•32 min

Should Canada boycott the 2022 Olympics in Beijing?

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics are just a year away, and pressure is building for Canada to take a stand by boycotting them in response to China’s imprisonment of the “Two Michaels” and the ongoing human rights abuses against the Uighur Muslim minority.

Feb 19, 2021•22 min

The joke that made it to the Supreme Court of Canada

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.

Feb 17, 2021•21 min

The growing threat of variants in Canada

An unprecedented outbreak in Newfoundland of the coronavirus variant originally found in the UK holds lessons for the rest of Canada. CBC St-John’s reporter Peter Cowan on what those lessons are.

Feb 16, 2021•21 min

What’s the point of impeachment?

Former president Donald Trump's second impeachment trial ended with another acquittal on Saturday. We ask CBC News senior correspondent Susan Ormiston why anger over the insurrection didn't lead to a conviction in the U.S. Senate and whether the impeachment process can produce accountability in the country.

Feb 15, 2021•25 min

Why one MP wants companies like Bell to pay public money back

Profitable companies have accessed the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy while increasing dividend payouts to shareholders. And now both the companies and the program are under fire. Today, CBC’s Jonathan Monpetit explains how CEWS works, and Liberal MP Nathan Erskine-Smith who wants to see some companies pay part of that money back.

Feb 12, 2021•26 min

With schools reopening, how do you keep kids safe?

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.

Feb 11, 2021•21 min

At one Amazon warehouse, a historic push to unionize

Jeff Bezos made Amazon into one of the world’s biggest retailers, but critics argue he did it at the expense of his workers. Now, one Alabama warehouse is voting on whether to unionize, a move that could spark major change, even here in Canada. Recode’s Jason Del Rey on how Amazon got here.

Feb 10, 2021•26 min

Trump’s impeachment: Will history repeat itself?

Donald Trump is facing an historic second Senate impeachment trial. Will the former U.S. president avoid conviction once again? Politico reporter Andrew Desiderio explains why all signs point to an acquittal.

Feb 09, 2021•22 min

‘Don’t say oil on stage’: A WE Charity investigation

Strong corporate ties. A lot of attention paid to make sure donors were happy. Those were just some of the concerns that former employees had about WE Charity, as told to the CBC’s The Fifth Estate. Today, more on that investigation.

Feb 08, 2021•28 min

Proud Boys and the thorny definition of terrorism

The Canadian government recently listed the Proud Boys and three other far-right organizations as terrorist entities. They also moved to list nine other militant Islamist groups. For some people, this is a huge win. But others worry it's a sign that the war on terror is continuing to expand, and they're concerned about who might get caught up in its dragnet. Today, Ben Makuch a national security reporter for Vice, and Michelle Shephard, author of Decade of Fear: Reporting from Terrorism's Grey Z...

Feb 05, 2021•27 min

A mutating virus and the need for global herd immunity

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 pot...

Feb 04, 2021•21 min

'Anti-Alberta' investigation mired in controversy

In the summer of 2019, newly elected Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said he was determined to blow the lid off of what he called a "shadowy," foreign-funded campaign to crush Alberta's oil and gas industry. He mentioned Russia, OPEC and the Rockefeller Foundation as possibly playing a role. And he announced an inquiry to get to the bottom of it. But three delays and $3.5 million later, evidence of a shady international campaign has yet to materialize. And the still-ongoing inquiry has been mired i...

Feb 03, 2021•22 min

Trickster cancelled after Michelle Latimer controversy

On Friday CBC announced it was ending Trickster, a well-received television show that aired both here and in the U.S. There will be no second season as previously planned. The cancellation follows scrutiny over showrunner Michelle Latimer and questions about her Indigenous identity. Today, Anishnawbe playwright and humorist Drew Hayden Taylor joins us to share his thoughts on the cancellation and what it means to be Indigenous.

Feb 02, 2021•18 min

Why has Canada's COVID-19 vaccine rate slipped globally?

As of Sunday, Canada had fallen to 27th in the world in vaccines administered, behind the U.S., the U.K. and smaller countries like Poland and Serbia, according to data aggregated by the University of Oxford. Canada was one of the first countries in the world to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines for use and have reserved record doses per person — but the country is facing significant shipment delays. There are also growing questions about whether the vaccine contracts signed by th...

Feb 01, 2021•23 min

Introducing: Evil by Design

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 denies it all, and claims his accusers are lying as part of a vast conspiracy. Nygard had built a sprawling international retail empire over the past 50 years — but now, his professional achievements are being overshadowed by a sinister personal life, earning him the moniker, ‘Canada’s Jeffrey Eps...

Jan 30, 2021•48 min

The GameStop stock saga, explained

Shares of the video game retailer GameStop soared by 1,000 per cent in less than two weeks, thanks in part to a popular subreddit called r/WallStreetBets. This, at the expense of several Wall Street investment funds that bet against GameStop and lost billions of dollars. Today on Front Burner, business reporter Pete Evans is here to explain the GameStop saga, and what it reveals about the stock market writ large.

Jan 29, 2021•28 min

The alleged Canadian drug lord who upended the meth trade

Following a massive international investigation led by Australia, an alleged meth kingpin was arrested by Dutch authorities at an Amsterdam airport. Chinese-Canadian Tse Chi Lop is accused of running a syndicate that commands the $70 billion-a-year Asia-Pacific drug trade. He's been compared to Pablo Escobar and called Asia's El Chapo. Today, we hear from Reuters chief correspondent in Southeast Asia, Tom Allard. He's been a leading reporter on the story and he's here to explain how Tse has alle...

Jan 28, 2021•18 min

Alexei Navalny, the 'anti-Putin'

Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Moscow, St. Petersburg and across Russia to demand the release of prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny this past weekend. Police used force to break up the protests and detained more than 2,500 people. Navalny is best known for his anti-corruption investigations and was recently the subject of an assassination attempt. After recovering from his poisoning in Germany, Navalny returned to Russia only to be arrested and imprisoned in Moscow. ...

Jan 26, 2021•21 min

‘The Storm’ never came, and QAnon believers are shook

QAnon believers are in turmoil. For years the baseless, wide-ranging conspiracy theory has gained steam, making serious inroads in Canada after exploding in the United States. QAnon believers think a blood-thirsty, child-trafficking cabal is running the world and that Donald Trump will bring justice through a day of reckoning known as “The Storm”. But now, following Joe Biden’s inauguration, many QAnon followers are devastated and disillusioned — while others are doubling-down. Today on Front Bu...

Jan 25, 2021•25 min