In recent years, we’ve read a lot of memoirs from women who feel stuck in specific ways: single, childless, consumed by work, and disillusioned with hook-up culture. Our guest on today’s program is the author of the first memoir we have read about breaking free from that pattern — and the story of how it happened is as moving as it is surprising. Beth Kaplan is a Canadian writer, and the author of Loose Woman: My Odyssey From Lost to Found . You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, a...
Jul 09, 2025•44 min
With the excesses of 2020 now being examined in mainstream outlets like The New York Times, we are witnessing a moment of introspection on the American left. To unpack this development, we're joined by a writer who has studied the history of the left. And in this week's conversation, we wrestle with our own complicated — and at times conflicted — relationships to these politics. Daniel Oppenheimer is an American writer and podcaster. He runs the Substack newsletter Eminent Americans and hosts a ...
Jul 02, 2025•52 min
It’s common knowledge these days that the left has lost the working class. But there is little curiosity about how, and why, and what that means for our politics. Our guest on this week's program has written a deeply researched book on the subject — and she has some ideas on where the left should go from here. Joan C. Williams is a Distinguished Professor of Law (Emerita) and Founding Director of the Equality Action Center at the University of California College of the Law in San Francisco. Her ...
Jun 25, 2025•43 min
Three and a half years ago, during the pandemic era, we launched Lean Out to explore some basic questions about illiberalism in our response to the crisis — and in our culture, our politics, and our newsrooms. Today, for our 200th episode of the show, we're thrilled to be joined by two academics who have written a deeply researched book that provides some answers. Stephen Macedo is the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Politics and the University Center for Human Values at Princeton Universit...
Jun 18, 2025•50 min
In polarized times, our tolerance for different perspectives decreases. Groupthink becomes common, and we can often find ourselves either censored, or self-censoring. Our guest on the program today has done a deep dive into this topic, and she has some thoughts on how we can begin to speak up — while still seeing our ideological opponents as human. Jenara Nerenberg is an American author, and the founder of The Neurodiversity Project and The Interracial Project. Her latest book is Trust Your Mind...
Jun 11, 2025•30 min
Tonight, in London, England, a group of writers and thinkers will gather to debate a key cultural question: “ Is woke dead ?” And tomorrow, the inaugural conference of a new centre for social science kicks off. Academics will gather to talk through the intellectual origins of this movement and its politics, psychology, and driving interests, to establish it as a field of study, and to delve into overlooked topics and perspectives. Our guest on the program is the man behind both of these events, ...
Jun 04, 2025•31 min
As Tara puts the finishing touches on her next book, on declining trust in the media, we wanted to bring you a few encore interviews that have helped shaped her thinking on the media — including today’s episode. Since the election win for Donald Trump, we are seeing a renewed sense of scorn for Republican voters in parts of the mainstream media. The Guardian’s Rebecca Solnit, for example, writes in her column that “our mistake was to think we lived in a better country than we do.” Our guest on t...
May 28, 2025•31 min
As Tara puts the finishing touches on her next book, on declining trust in the media, we wanted to bring you a few encore interviews that have helped shaped her thinking on the media — including today’s episode. The period often referred to as The Great Awokening is winding down now, and we’re starting to get a better understanding of what happened. My guest on today’s program argues that we have seen these kinds of social justice-styled movements before in American history — and that they are i...
May 21, 2025•52 min
In this turbulent era, for many of us there is a moment in every day when anxiety steals over us. We pause, and in that rare period of stillness, the fears surface — but sometimes, if we’re lucky, so too do the reflections and the insights. Our guest on today’s program has called this interlude “the catastrophe hour,” and she’s just published a book of essays that beautifully captures it. Meghan Daum is an American essayist and the host of the Unspeakable Podcast . Her latest book is The Catastr...
May 14, 2025•36 min
Now that the dust has settled on the Canadian federal election, we can pause for a moment and assess where we are at as a country. What lessons can we take from the election results? Our guest on today’s program has been polling Canadians for decades — and he says that we are now a divided nation. Darrell Bricker is the CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs . He’s also the author of six bestselling books, including, with John Ibbitson, The Big Shift : The Seismic Change in Canadian Politics, Business, and...
May 07, 2025•25 min
One of the most polarizing policies of the pandemic era was the extended school closures. Critics have now been validated, with The New York Times reportin g that “a growing body of research shows that pandemic school closures came at a steep cost to students” — while doing little to stop the spread of the virus. Our guest on the program today is a journalist who’s just published a deep dive investigation into the flawed decision-making behind these controversial closures. David Zweig is an Amer...
Apr 30, 2025•35 min
Last week, at the English-language election debate, the leaders’ press scrums were cancelled after tensions between media outlets erupted into shouting in the press room, and other confrontations . This incident is a distressing example of how polarized our press has become. But of course, we are not the first country to grapple with this dynamic. My guest on the program today lived through political polarization in Venezuela — and he has some important lessons to share. Victor Febres is an Atla...
Apr 26, 2025•31 min
As election day nears, Lean Out continues to highlight the issues that we feel have not received enough attention in this news cycle. My guest on the program today is a physician who serves on death review committee with Ontario’s Office of the Chief Coroner. In today’s emotional interview, we take a close look at medical assistance in dying, or MAiD — and her concerns about how it’s playing out in practice. Ramona Coelho is a family doctor, and a founding member of Physicians Together With Vuln...
Apr 23, 2025•36 min
We are in the final week of the Canadian federal election. And while Trump’s trade policy has received much coverage this election season, our housing crisis has been less of a priority for the legacy press. We at Lean Out happen to think this is the most important issue in the country — and so, on today’s program, our guest is here to answer every question you’ve ever had on the crisis, and how we got here. Mike Moffatt is a Canadian economist, the founding director of the Missing Middle Initia...
Apr 22, 2025•43 min
For some time now, writers and thinkers outside this country have been asking me: What happened to Canada? Our guest on the program today has asked this question himself, in a new book that takes a deep dive into our decline — and arrives just in time for the federal election. Tristin Hopper is a columnist and reporter for The National Post, based in Victoria, B.C. His new book is Don’t Be Canada: How One Country Did Everything Wrong All At Once . You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHen...
Apr 17, 2025•34 min
As we all navigate a period rife with political tensions on both sides of the Canada/U.S. border, we wanted to bring you an incredible story that celebrates the human spirit and affirms our common humanity. Our guest on the program today was an eight-month-old baby when her parents smuggled her out of communist Vietnam, crossing the South China Sea to begin a new life. Decades later, she reports for the Today show. Vicky Nguyen is an NBC News Daily anchor and Chief Consumer Investigative corresp...
Apr 16, 2025•40 min
Throughout the Canadian federal election, we’re taking weekly breaks to think and talk about other things. On today’s program, in light of ongoing debates in American pop culture, we’ll be discussing the phenomenon of heteropessimism with a Toronto culture critic who is quite literally writing the book on it. Phoebe Maltz Bovy is a Toronto-based journalist, author, and podcaster. She’s co-host of the Feminine Chaos podcast, opinion editor at The Canadian Jewish News, and a contributing columnist...
Apr 09, 2025•29 min
Women’s fertility is a third rail in Canadian politics. We all learned this again last week, when Pierre Poilievre made a comment about biological clocks that sparked outrage. If you followed the controversy in the mainstream media only, you might not know that a number of women were glad to see Poilievre raise the issue of fertility — including my guest on today’s show. Melanie Paradis the president of Texture Communications and a veteran Conservative campaigner. Her recent piece for The Line i...
Apr 07, 2025•25 min
During the 2025 Canadian election season, we’ll be pausing from time to time to take a breather and to think about other issues — often interesting new books. My guest on today’s program is a blues musician, a scholar, and a heterodox thinker. He joins us for a conversation about his deeply personal new book on interracial family life in the south. Adam Gussow is a professional harmonica player and a professor of English at the University of Mississippi. His new book is My Family & I: A Miss...
Apr 02, 2025•48 min
One of the big stories in the Canadian federal election so far has been the collapse of support for the NDP. New polling from Ipsos shows support for the party continuing to decline. Our guest on today’s program is a former labour representative — and he has some thoughts on where the traditional party of working people has gone wrong. Brian Dijkema is the president of Cardus Canada, a public policy think tank, and senior editor of Comment Magazine. You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRH...
Mar 31, 2025•32 min
As election season builds steam, here at Lean Out we are focused on the question of why daily life in Canada has become so expensive and so dysfunctional. My guest on today’s program has some insights to share. He recently wrote a well-researched book on the federal government’s corporate subsidies — which, he says, “exploded in magnitude” under Justin Trudeau. Laurent Carbonneau works in public policy in Ottawa, on innovation, science, and technology issues. He’s a former NDP staffer and the au...
Mar 29, 2025•18 min
With the Canadian federal election now underway, we’re going to have a lot of political content for you in coming weeks. But today, we wanted to change things up a bit and bring you a lighter story about books — and how hard it is these days to find bookstores that stock a range of different perspectives. Our guest on today’s program argues that booksellers are locked in a moral contract with their clientele, and it’s resulted in a narrowing of the titles on offer. Ann Bauer is an American essay...
Mar 28, 2025•29 min
After much speculation, Prime Minister Mark Carney has called a snap spring election, and Canadians will be heading to the polls on April 28. To kick off Lean Out’s special election coverage, we bring you a conversation with a veteran Canadian journalist about the unusual moment the country is in — and why, in his view, the current disconnect between the federal government and voters is a once in a generation occurrence. Tom Korski is the managing editor of Blacklock’s Reporter , an Ottawa-based...
Mar 26, 2025•23 min
In the wake of President Trump’s executive order on DEI , debates in America have renewed a conversation around DEI in this country. And while the baseline value of greater inclusion is one that many of us share, some DEI programs have proven controversial. Our guest on this bonus episode is the author of a recent report that dives into DEI practices in Canadian federal granting agencies — and asks if they impede political and ideological neutrality and research excellence. Dave Snow is an assoc...
Mar 20, 2025•28 min
With Mark Carney in his first week in office as Canada’s new Prime Minister, the Justin Trudeau era is quickly fading in the rearview mirror. But before we move on, it’s important to take stock of what went on in this country during Trudeau’s tenure. Our guest on today’s program says it is time for a national conversation about Trudeau’s legacy. And, in his words, “it’s not flattering.” Andrew Potter is a Canadian author, and an associate professor at the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGi...
Mar 19, 2025•25 min
Regular listeners of the show will recognize the name Aaron Pete . He’s a talented young broadcaster from B.C. who has guest hosted Lean Out from time to time . Last month Aaron invited Tara on his show, the Bigger Than Me podcast , to discuss some of the hot-button issues from the past few years, and how the Canadian media has handled them. Tara enjoyed their conversation so much that we are going to share it with you here today, in this special episode of the program, where we turn the tables ...
Mar 12, 2025•1 hr 3 min
On Monday night, American legislation to ban transgender athletes from women’s and girls’ sports in schools was blocked in the Senate . The topic was a sleeper issue in the American election — with polling showing public support for sports participation based on biological sex. Today on the program, in an episode recorded ahead of the Senate vote, we ask why some feminists have backed Trump, in conversation with a British author and columnist who argues that Trump has actually done much to advan...
Mar 05, 2025•39 min
One of the themes of the Lean Out podcast is the breakdown of trust between men and women. For a marker of this rupture, we need only look to declining marriage rates. Our guest on today’s program has penned a new book about the institution of marriage, making the case that we should reconsider its benefits — not just for individual health and happiness, but for overall societal good. Andrea Mrozek is a senior fellow at Cardus Family. With Peter Jon Mitchell, she’s written a new book titled I…Do...
Feb 26, 2025•34 min
This week, we're changing things up, here at Lean Out. We are pleased to be able to bring you an episode of Tara's new media criticism podcast with The Hub . Her co-hosts are Harrison Lowman, managing editor of The Hub, and Peter Menzies , a former newspaper executive. On this show, they discuss an interview with the new president of the CBC , the use of anonymous sources in Canadian media — and why some women may object to being referred to as “pregnant people.” Enjoy! You can find Tara Henley ...
Feb 19, 2025•40 min
Negotiations over border security and the Trump administration’s tariffs have once again highlighted the opioid crisis that’s taking so many lives on both sides of the border. Today on the program, we’re going to leave behind the political and instead focus on the personal. My guest is a beloved Canadian sportscaster who lost his son to an overdose — and who has managed to transform his family’s pain into hope. Scott Oake is an award-winning sportscaster for CBC Sports, Sportsnet, and Hockey Nig...
Feb 12, 2025•26 min
