Right now, the future of Greenland hangs in the balance. And with it, an entire system of military and political alliances that has underpinned the global order since the end of the Second World War. So when U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says he’s going to meet with Danish leaders to talk about Greenland this week, that’s what diplomats, historians and politicians the world over say is at stake. This could have massive implications for Canada, both as a NATO member and target of Trump’s ex...
Jan 12, 2026•29 min
Whether you think it’s world-changing or over-hyped, it’s undeniable that artificial intelligence has transformed the tech industry. But as tech companies chase the dream of building a human-like intelligence and revolutionizing everything from doctor’s visits to movie-making, the industry continues to face big questions around things like the mental health of users, copyright infringement, reliability of large language models, and its financial future. Murad Hemmadi, a reporter with The Logic, ...
Jan 09, 2026•27 min
In 1999 Hugo Chavez was elected President of Venezuela, beginning a years-long ‘Bolivarian Revolution,’ following multiple coup attempts, and time in prison. Chavez would go on to govern the country as President until his death in 2013 — passing sweeping anti-poverty programs, nationalizing oil and industry, and opposing US hegemony in the region. Just before his death, Chavez hand selected Nicolas Maduro as the person to carry forward his political program and legacy. Maduro’s time in power was...
Jan 08, 2026•33 min
Today, Gerry Butts – former principal secretary to Justin Trudeau and current adviser to Prime Minister Carney – is on the show. Butts is also the vice chairman of the global political risk firm, the Eurasia group, which releases a “Top Risks” list every year. We’ll drill down on a few of them, including their number one risk, the “U.S. political revolution”. The report makes the case that, outside of the U.S. itself, America’s political upheaval has the greatest impact on Canada. We’ll also dis...
Jan 07, 2026•28 min
In the wake of the U.S. arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, there has been a flurry of concern about what that country’s oil could mean for the Canadian economy. Is American access to the world’s largest proven oil reserves a major threat to Canada? Have we lost leverage with the U.S. as we move forward in trade negotiations? Over the last few days, Trump has threatened Cuba, Greenland, Iran, Colombia and Mexico. What are Canada’s primary concerns as we navigate this new reality? From...
Jan 06, 2026•33 min
After months of rhetoric, military presence and strikes, U.S. forces have launched an attack on the Venezuelan capital Caracas. They seized the country's president, Nicolás Maduro, and flew him to New York to face narco-terrorism charges. U.S. officials say Maduro heads up a cartel responsible for flooding the United States with drugs, but critics — and Maduro himself — say the charges are just a pretext for regime change — and access to the country's vast oil reserves. U.S. President Donald Tru...
Jan 05, 2026•33 min
In the fourth and final episode of Understood: The Making of Musk, host Jacob Silverman launches into Musk’s ultimate quest, his desire to colonize Mars, and how he went from wanting to save earth to wanting to escape it. You’ll hear the origin story of SpaceX. And hear from an astrophysicist who says Musk’s plan is completely delusional. You can find Understood wherever you get your podcasts, and here: https://link.mgln.ai/FBxMoM4 And be sure to follow the feed for even more stories that define...
Jan 02, 2026•45 min
What does Musk, father of 14, expect from his quote, “legion” of children? In episode 3 of Understood: The Making of Musk, host, Jacob Silverman unravels Musk’s quest for genetic optimization, including alleged embryo screening, and his pronatalist views. And we hear from his estranged daughter, Vivian. You can find Understood wherever you get your podcasts, and here: https://link.mgln.ai/FBxMoM3
Jan 01, 2026•50 min
Where did Elon Musk’s epic ambitions begin? In search of clues, the latest season of Understood: The Making of Musk returns to his sheltered youth in apartheid South Africa, a world engineered for white supremacy. In this second episode, host Jacob Silverman explores whether Musk’s authoritarian streak traces back to his Canadian grandfather. Before Joshua Haldeman brought his family to South Africa, he made waves as part of the radical 1930s Technocracy movement. And while the two men’s lives o...
Dec 31, 2025•49 min
Today we’re joined by lawyer and author Bryan Stevenson for a conversation about the historical Mother Emanuel AME church, and what it means to tell the story of American history through a single institution. Then Canadian journalist Paul Wells stops by for a look at the rise of The New York Times, and the lessons for news media writ large. And finally, Bookends host Mattea Roach chats with Jayme about Ukraine, the power of the novel, and some very endangered snails. The books: Mother Emanuel by...
Dec 30, 2025•38 min
Some of our favourite guests of the year return to talk about books that helped meaningfully explain 2025. We talk about the evergreen appeal of Plato as well as Jewish identity with former Yale fascism scholar Jason Stanley. The déjà vu of trade wars and Canadian nationalism are tackled by journalist and author Stephen Maher. His pick is a book that details the last election of Sir John A. Macdonald and first election of Wilfrid Laurier. Then the career works of Herman Melville as a blueprint f...
Dec 29, 2025•38 min
In the 1980s and 90s, Satan and his followers were accused of brainwashing children, sacrificing babies, and infiltrating North American society on a massive scale — yet these thousands of alleged Satanists were nowhere to be found. Even so, the narrative became embedded in our cultural memory, warping everything it touched — including the lives of innocent people… And it never quite died out. In the new 8-part series, The Devil You Know, Sarah Marshall (You’re Wrong About) explores the tangled ...
Dec 26, 2025•40 min
Forged is a six-part series from CBC in Canada and ABC Australia. Host Adrian Stimson, an artist from the Siksika Nation, travels from Thunder Bay to the Northern Territory of Australia, to reveal what's believed to be the largest art crime fraud in the world. In this first episode, rock star Kevin Hearn of the Barenaked Ladies is doing rock star things — like buying paintings. And what better painting for an iconic Canadian rocker to buy than one by Norval Morrisseau, one of the most iconic Ind...
Dec 25, 2025•27 min
Today we're bringing you a 2025 Front Burner wrap up, answering audience questions and bringing you behind the scenes of the making of some of our most popular episodes of 2025. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts
Dec 24, 2025•34 min
In 2025 news of the biggest, most sensational sports scandals was broken not by ESPN or Sports Illustrated, but by a podcaster named Pablo Torre on his show Pablo Torre Finds Out. It was Pablo who investigated Kawhi Leonard’s alleged multi-million dollar under the table no show deal. And it was Pablo who uncovered potential collusion involving NFL player salaries. Pablo Torre is with us today to talk about the year in sports scandal, the state of sports journalism, and gambling grip’s grip on th...
Dec 23, 2025•32 min
Corruption is a word that’s come up throughout this year in relation to U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term. There have been allegations of personal enrichment, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, through his family’s crypto and real estate ventures. There are also accusations of quid pro quo deals with foreign leaders and convicted criminals seeking pardons. Is this a bug in Trump’s administration, or a feature? To put it all into focus, Tommy Vietor is here. He’s been followi...
Dec 22, 2025•26 min
The Australian prime minister and police have said that the suspected gunmen in the Bondi Beach mass shooting at a Hanukkah event were motivated by Islamic State ideology. Australian counterterrorism officials allege the father and son received military training in southern Philippines. While it's been more than six years since the fall of the caliphate, experts like Lucas Webber say there’s been a troubling rise in Islamic State motivated activity and violence worldwide. Webber is a Senior Rese...
Dec 19, 2025•22 min
On the first day of his second term as U.S. president, Donald Trump signed an executive order effectively gutting USAID — the United States Agency for International Development. It's an arm of the government that, in 2024, was operating in more than 130 countries worldwide, providing food, medicine and other life-saving support. At the time, advocates said the cuts would result in preventable deaths from starvation, malnutrition, and easily treatable diseases. Now, nearly a year later, reporting...
Dec 18, 2025•21 min
It’s been almost a year since Alberta Premier Danielle Smith met with U.S. president-elect Donald Trump. He was on the brink of a trade war. Since then, a lot has happened, from a renewed push for a separatist referendum, to election recall campaigns, to a shift in the relationship between the province and Ottawa. We are joined by two CBC colleagues. Kathleen Petty is the host of the West of Centre podcast and Jason Markusoff is a writer and producer in Calgary. For transcripts of Front Burner, ...
Dec 17, 2025•30 min
Today, an in-depth look at puberty blockers and their use on minors with gender dysphoria. These drugs have come under an enormous amount of scrutiny in recent years, with some questioning their benefits, safety and long-term impact. After banning the use of puberty blockers for gender treatment of people under 18, a new clinical trial in the U.K. aims to get to the bottom of those concerns. Azeen Ghorayshi is a science and gender reporter for the New York Times. She’ll parse through what we kno...
Dec 16, 2025•28 min
First, the latest on the massacre at Bondi Beach in Australia. The mass shooting targeted the Jewish community on the first day of Hanukkah. We speak with Sean Tarek Goodwin, a reporter with ABC News, who was one of the first to arrive on the scene. Second, a surprise defection on Parliament Hill. Late last week, just hours after Parliament wrapped for the year, the Liberals welcomed another floor crosser into the party. With 171 seats, they are now just one MP away from holding a majority. Aaro...
Dec 15, 2025•39 min
‘Make America Great Again' has been Donald Trump’s brand for a decade, riding the movement’s anti-elitist wave into the presidency and remaking the Republican Party. But cracks are now showing in the coalition, raising questions about Trump’s commitment to MAGA goals. One of his staunchest allies has become his loudest critic: Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who recently announced she would resign her seat next year. CBC’s Washington correspondents — Katie Simpson, Paul Hunter and ...
Dec 13, 2025•23 min
Every U.S. president releases a national security strategy document about a year into their term, but few have made as big a splash as Donald Trump's, earlier this month. The document formally spells out much of what we've come to expect from Trump's approach to foreign policy in his second term: political relationships are transactional, and American interests take priority above all else. The document also takes particular aim at Europe, and pledges explicit support for right-wing movements ab...
Dec 12, 2025•26 min
It's estimated that as many as 10 per cent of adults in Canada use a GLP-1 type drug like Ozempic. The prescription medicine is used for type 2 diabetes management and increasingly prescribed off-label for weight loss. And this month, for the first time, the World Health Organization has conditionally recommended GLP-1 drugs for the long-term treatment of obesity. But while these drugs have been called a game-changing tool to manage a complex and stigmatized health condition, there’s also a lot ...
Dec 11, 2025•26 min
Two of the biggest media companies in the world are going to war over Warner Bros. Discovery, a massive media conglomerate that owns a historic Hollywood studio, as well as the likes of HBO and CNN . This week, Paramount put in a hostile all-cash takeover bid for Warner Brothers worth more than $108 billion. This followed Netflix’s announcement a few days earlier that they had won a bid to buy the company’s film, studio and streaming divisions, which alarmed many people in the industry. The Para...
Dec 10, 2025•23 min
Through 2022 and 2023, two Vancouver activists made international headlines with DULF — the Drug User Liberation Front. In a bid to stop overdose deaths, founders Jeremy Kalicum and Eris Nyx sold clean, tested drugs — bought on the dark web — to their members as an alternative to the contaminated street supply. But that international attention led to political blowback. DULF was raided by police, Kalicum and Nyx were arrested, and in November they were found guilty on drug trafficking charges. N...
Dec 09, 2025•28 min
Today, we bring you a wrap on U.S. politics. We begin with two scandals plaguing U.S. defense secretary Pete Hegseth, from allegations of war crimes to a scathing report accusing him of mishandling classified military intelligence. And we cover the fallout from President Donald Trump’s tirade against Somali immigrants, including a surge of ICE raids in Minneapolis. Plus, the politics behind Trump’s win of the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize. Our guest is Alex Shephard, senior editor of The New Republ...
Dec 08, 2025•28 min
In 2015, as governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney’s ‘Tragedy of the Horizons’ speech made waves in the global climate community. It was seen as a landmark call for the financial sector to recognize the costs of climate breakdown. But fast forward 10 years and a fierce debate is swirling around whether Carney is living up to that warning. Since becoming Prime Minister, he’s scrapped the consumer carbon tax, froze EV mandates and paved the way for a potential new pipeline to the B.C. coast....
Dec 05, 2025•31 min
The U.S. Supreme Court is soon expected to rule on the legality of President Donald Trump's sweeping worldwide tariffs. The court will rule on whether his use of a 1970s national security law violates the U.S. constitution, which clearly states that only Congress has the authority to implement taxes — of which tariffs are a type. But regardless of which way the court rules, Trump and his administration have made it clear that tariffs will continue to be a central pillar of both their economic an...
Dec 04, 2025•30 min
Last week, two National Guard soldiers were shot in Washington, D.C. after they were ambushed by a lone shooter near the airport. One was killed and the other remains in serious condition. The suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, was shot and is still in hospital facing murder charges. The picture emerging of Lakanwal is of an isolated, deeply troubled man struggling to support his wife and five kids. Lakanwal is a 29-year-old Afghan-national who had served as part of an elite CIA-trained and backed p...
Dec 03, 2025•23 min
