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

Kyle Beach and the NHL's sex assault scandal

The fallout and the calls for accountability continue in the NHL's Chicago sexual assault scandal. Lawyer and abuse survivor Greg Gilhooly on how the league needs to change so its players are protected.

Nov 02, 2021•27 min

A medical mystery in New Brunswick

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.

Nov 01, 2021•24 min

Introducing: White Hot Hate

The new investigative series White Hot Hate follows the extraordinary case of young Canadian journalist Ryan Thorpe who infiltrated an international neo-Nazi extremist network. While host Michelle Shephard explores the rise of white supremacist accelerationism: the ultra-violent ideology that drives believers to create chaos, in order to seize ultimate control. More episodes are available at: hyperurl.co/whitehothate

Oct 30, 2021•37 min

Labour shortage or short-changed labour?

Canada’s worker shortage in industries like retail, food and tourism is more complex than it’s been chalked up to be. We hear from those fighting their way back from unemployment and from economist David Macdonald.

Oct 28, 2021•26 min

A Succession-style spectacle at Rogers

The family behind the telecom giant Rogers Communications is in a bizarre public spat over control of the company. Today, CBC business reporter Pete Evans explains the unusual infighting.

Oct 27, 2021•22 min

Behind the Amazon union drive

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.

Oct 26, 2021•28 min

The rhetoric and reality of the anti-Alberta energy report

An inquiry into alleged anti-Alberta energy campaigns wasn't able to determine if foreign funding had an impact on derailing energy projects in the province, and found no evidence of wrongdoing. Today, we look at how that final report differs from the province’s rhetoric — past and present.

Oct 25, 2021•22 min

Introducing: Carrie Low VS.

Carrie Low trusted police when she reported her horrific rape. But she says they failed to investigate properly, and only succeeded in traumatizing her further. Now she’s setting out on a mission to hold these institutions to account. This all-new investigation is hosted by award-winning investigative journalist Maggie Rahr. More episodes are available at: smarturl.it/carrielow

Oct 23, 2021•27 min

Kids at the centre of anti-vaxx movements

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.

Oct 22, 2021•25 min

A humanitarian catastrophe looms over Afghanistan

When the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan, much of the foreign aid to the country was suspended. Today, CBC’s Susan Ormiston tells us about what she heard on the ground about the looming humanitarian crisis.

Oct 21, 2021•23 min

How Iqaluit’s water crisis is connected to climate change

After traces of fuel were confirmed in Iqaluit’s drinking water last week, the city has been under a state of emergency. Journalists Pauline Pemik and Jackie McKay explain what it will take to get the city’s taps flowing safely — for good.

Oct 20, 2021•22 min

Tension and trauma for refugees in Greece

CBC’s Margaret Evans tells the stories of a coroner, a mufti and a fisherman all living through a border crisis in northern Greece — a country taking steps to keep refugees out.

Oct 19, 2021•25 min

The Mighty Ducks, Inspector Gadget and the search for crypto billions

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.

Oct 18, 2021•24 min

The KGB and Chrystia Freeland

Unearthed journals that were once the top-secret communications of the KGB — the Soviet Union’s secret police — shed new light on an early chapter of Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland’s life, and give us a window into the dying days of the USSR.

Oct 15, 2021•25 min

Encore: The reporter who brought down Jeffrey Epstein

Miami Herald reporter and author of Perversion of Justice Julie K. Brown on Ghislaine Maxwell’s upcoming trial — and her bombshell investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s 2008 plea deal that brought global attention to the case. This episode originally aired on July 20, 2021.

Oct 11, 2021•27 min

Facebook’s bad week

After a major outage and stinging whistleblower testimony, NPR tech reporter Bobby Allyn breaks down Facebook’s bad week.

Oct 08, 2021•22 min

Squid Game's not-so-subtle message about capitalism

The survival drama Squid Game has gotten international attention for its focus on economic inequality. But UCLA’s Suk-Young Kim explains that this globally relatable horror show is also uniquely Korean in its approach.

Oct 06, 2021•21 min

The wild saga of Ozy Media

New York Times journalist Ben Smith discusses his bombshell investigation into U.S. media organization Ozy Media and its defiant founder, Carlos Watson.

Oct 05, 2021•16 min

Introducing: Unlocking the Fountain

What if there were a pill that could add decades to your life? Would you take it? For thousands of years, people have searched for elixirs that could delay death and extend human life. Could new advances in medicine finally make this a reality? From madcap medicine to cutting-edge science, the quest to unlock the fountain of youth is teeming with dreamers, skeptics and charlatans alike. More episodes are available at: hyperurl.co/unlocking

Oct 02, 2021•32 min

Inside the push to decriminalize drugs in Canada

The views from two Canadian cities where the opioid crisis is driving a new movement for decriminalization, with the Ontario Harm Reduction Network’s Nick Boyce and Chief Const. Mike Serr of the police force in Abbotsford, B.C.

Oct 01, 2021•24 min

Stories from inside Canada’s hospital crisis

Even with 80 per cent of eligible Canadians fully vaccinated, hospitals in many parts of the country are facing an unprecedented crisis. Today, we speak to doctors and nurses about how the fourth wave is pushing Canadian health-care systems to their breaking point.

Sep 29, 2021•30 min

Auf Wiedersehen, Chancellor Merkel

Angela Merkel will step aside after 16 years as Germany’s chancellor, but Sunday’s election leaves questions over who will lead next. Today, how Merkel built her legacy of stability, and the forces that threaten to reverse it.

Sep 28, 2021•20 min

The day that set the Michaels free

After 1,020 days in Chinese jail cells, the two Michaels — Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor — came home. CBC’s Jason Proctor and the University of Ottawa’s Errol Mendes break it down.

Sep 27, 2021•21 min