With the pandemic finally in the rearview mirror, a lot of people are eager to put it behind us — and move on. But our guest on today’s program says it’s important that we take a look at the mistakes that were made, and understand what went wrong. Joe Nocera is a veteran business journalist and a columnist at The Free Press. His latest book, co-authored with Vanity Fair’s Bethany McLean, is The Big Fail: What the Pandemic Revealed About Who America Protects and Who It Leaves Behind . You can fin...
Dec 13, 2023•35 min
On Thanksgiving weekend, an essay started circulating — and it was an essay that I felt like I’d been waiting a long time to read. The essay explores a troubling trend: a renewed skepticism of interracial relationships, and, indeed, of interracial families. Its author is a white man, married to a Black woman. And while progressives had applauded their wedding back in 2007, he writes that it now felt as if he no longer had the right to parent his own children. Paul Kix is an American journalist, ...
Dec 06, 2023•34 min
In times of crisis, artists often feel the need to take a stand, to engage in activism. But our guest on today’s program says we should recognize that art and politics have very different agendas. “These are different realms,” he writes, “and the values of one can be inhospitable — even deadly — to the values of the other.” George Packer is a staff writer at The Atlantic, and the author of ten books. His latest essay is “ Why Activism Leads To So Much Bad Writing .” You can find Tara Henley on T...
Nov 29, 2023•41 min
This week on Lean Out, we turn our attention to freedom of expression in the arts. Our guest on today’s program is an acclaimed and controversial choreographer who says the UK’s creative industries are in crisis — experiencing a culture of widespread fear and intimidation. And she’s launched a new organization to address this. Rosie Kay is the CEO and artistic director of the Kay2CO dance company, and a founder of Freedom in the Arts . You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on ...
Nov 22, 2023•32 min
This week in New York City, a longtime defender of free speech was honoured by her peers. My guest on today’s program accepted the Judy Blume Lifetime Achievement Award at the National Coalition Against Censorship benefit . She returns to the podcast to mark that occasion — and to talk through the big issues of our current moment, including rising antisemitism. Nadine Strossen is the former president of the American Civil Liberties Union, and a senior fellow with the Foundation for Individual Ri...
Nov 15, 2023•51 min
“ Be it resolved, liberalism gets the big questions right.” That was the motion posed at Friday’s Munk Debate in Toronto, to a group of public intellectuals from across the globe. The starting point for the debate was that liberalism is in crisis. That tensions have reached a boiling point. That its critics believe “liberalism has become an impediment to the goal of progress” — and that “humanity urgently needs a new animating ideology.” My guest on today’s program was at that debate, and he’s h...
Nov 08, 2023•17 min
For some time now, there have been calls for Canada to launch an independent public inquiry into its handling of the Covid pandemic — including from the British Medical Journal . But this past week, as reported by Blacklock’s Reporter , Liberal MPs rejected an inquiry, opting for a closed-door review by advisors to the Minister of Health. My guest on today’s program says that it is essential that Canadians examine the mistakes that were made during the pandemic, and learn from them. Joanna Baron...
Nov 01, 2023•40 min
There are still people who believe that cancel culture does not exist. But it’s about to get a whole lot harder to make that argument publicly. Our guest on today’s program has a new book out that provides irrefutable evidence that cancel culture is a serious phenomenon — that it is now a common tactic on the right and the left, that it is a threat to individuals and institutions, and that it is ultimately undermining trust. But, our guest today says, there is a solution. Greg Lukianoff is the p...
Oct 24, 2023•31 min
Crime in Canada is on the rise. According to recent Statistics Canada data , violent crime is at its most severe since 2007, and the murder rate is the highest it’s been since 1992. My guest on today’s program says our criminal justice system is not working - that it is expensive and ineffective and inhumane, and that the time has come to transform it. Benjamin Perrin is a professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia, and the former lead policy advisor on ...
Oct 18, 2023•40 min
Earlier this month, a prominent Canadian academic made headlines when he announced his departure from the University of London. “Progressive conformity and cancel culture are distorting the teaching and research mission of universities,” he wrote on Twitter. “Between the extremely controversial and the progressive-controlled monoculture of academia is a vast and growing zone of unspoken truth.” Eric Kaufmann is an author and a professor of politics at the University of Buckingham, where he is se...
Oct 11, 2023•40 min
Is cancel culture controlled by women? It’s a question that my guest on today’s program has been asking for some time. Her conclusion is that, yes, the phenomenon is driven by women — and only women can stop it. She’s founded a community that, online and in person, has begun actively pushing back. Meghan Daum is the author of six books, including The Problem With Everything: My Journey Through the New Culture Wars . She’s the host of The Unspeakable Podcast , and co-host of the podcast A Special...
Oct 04, 2023•32 min
In 2019, in the magazine Current Affairs, a former McKinsey consultant wrote , “There is no secret society shaping every major decision and determining the direction of human history. There is, however, McKinsey & Company.” My guest on the program today has spent years doing a deep-dive into the prestigious consulting company — and he’s here to talk about what he’s learned about its influence around the world, including here in Canada. Michael Forsythe is an investigative reporter for The Ne...
Sep 27, 2023•31 min
Schools across the country are back in session — and this fall, the spotlight is on trans issues in the classroom. Saskatchewan and New Brunswick have come out with new policies for parental consent on student pronoun changes, and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association has launched a lawsuit , saying this violates the Charter and human rights. Add to that, today, some parents will be marching in a cross-Canada protest against what they call gender ideology. Our guest on the podcast today has b...
Sep 20, 2023•31 min
Between the years of 2010 and 2020, a new way of thinking about identity travelled from elite universities, to Internet subcultures, to social media, and to mainstream media, finally landing at many of our most important social, cultural, and governmental institutions, transforming longstanding rules and norms. Our guest on the 100th episode of Lean Out is among the first to take a comprehensive look at the roots of this ascendent ideology and how it became so influential — and today we’ll hear ...
Sep 12, 2023•36 min
For the past few months on Lean Out, we’ve been doing a deep-dive into the crisis in Canadian media , speaking to critics of the status quo — and asking what’s gone wrong and where we go from here. Tara's guest on today’s program, the last episode in our summer media series, has a unique perspective on our media’s collapse. And he says government and Big Tech subsidies are compromising the vitality and validity of a free and independent press in Canada. Rudyard Griffiths is the executive directo...
Sep 06, 2023•30 min
In the wake of the murder of George Floyd, America’s streets filled with protesters — in some of the largest demonstrations in the country’s history. But three years later, very little concrete change has been achieved. Tara's guest on the podcast today asks: What happened? Why did this mass movement achieve so little? Freddie deBoer is an American journalist. His new book is How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement . You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tara...
Sep 05, 2023•54 min
One of the most important tasks for a seasoned journalist is to pass on what you know. Journalism is something that’s learned by doing, usually alongside someone who’s done it longer. Tara enjoyed this process while at CBC, and is pleased to now be at a point with Lean Out that she can expand the operation to include working with up-and-coming journalists. Late last year, she had the pleasure of appearing on fellow Substacker Aaron Pete ’s show, the Bigger Than Me podcast, and was impressed by h...
Aug 30, 2023•17 min
This week, the friends and family of a school principal in Toronto gathered to celebrate his life . Richard Bilkszto, sadly, took his life last month, at the age of 60, and much of the reporting on his death has focused on a DEI training and the lawsuit that he launched about it . A reminder to listeners that the claims you will hear have not been proven in court. Our guest today is a reporter whose story on Richard Bilkszto has gained international attention — and our conversation grapples with...
Aug 24, 2023•29 min
This summer at Lean Out, we’ve been doing a deep dive into the collapse of the Canadian media — and the role that new legislation, Bill C-18, has played in exacerbating the crisis. Tara's guest on the program today is someone who has thought a lot about the media and digital policy and public broadcasting, and she has a lot to say about where our media is at, and where we go from here. Sue Gardner is a digital policy analyst, and the former executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation. She’s a...
Aug 23, 2023•54 min
In the past few decades, something has gone wrong in American life, leaving its citizens subject to increasing levels of coercion. That’s the thesis of a new book, and its author, Tara's guest on the program today, argues that what’s gone wrong is a form of private tyranny, with corporations exercising more and more control over ordinary people’s lives — eroding our freedoms and generating uncertainty, stress, and economic precarity. Sohrab Ahmari is a founder and editor at Compact Magazine . Hi...
Aug 16, 2023•42 min
What does it mean to be a heretic? Why is dissent from the dominant orthodoxies of our age so important? It’s a topic Tara's guest today has thought a lot about, as a progressive who frequently questions the thinking on his side of the aisle. And he says that, in fact, we owe much of human progress to the heretics throughout history who have dared to dissent. Brendan O’Neill is the chief political writer for Spiked, and the host of The Brendan O’Neill Show . His new book is A Heretic’s Manifesto...
Aug 09, 2023•35 min
This week, in the wake of controversial new legislation, Bill C-18, Meta has announced that it will be ending news sharing on its platforms in Canada . So, for a special bonus episode of the podcast, we reached out to a Canadian academic who’s been following this story closely , to get his reaction to the development — and to hear his analysis on what it might mean for our news sector going forward . (This conversation is part of Lean Out’s summer media series. Please also check out our intervie...
Aug 04, 2023•28 min
“Once you question the food, you question everything.” That’s a quote from Rory Feek, a farmer and filmmaker in the growing homesteading movement, which is seeing numbers of Americans turn away from processed foods and rediscover how to grow what’s on their plates, sustaining their communities in the process. Feek made this comment at the inaugural Modern Homesteading Conference in Idaho — and my guest today was there to take it all in. Olivia Reingold is an American journalist, and a staff writ...
Aug 02, 2023•22 min
In 2019, a white woman in Austin, Texas signed up for a diversity training seminar, in the hopes of better understanding growing polarization in America. But that workshop, in her view, was itself divisive. She went on to publish an essay about it, ending with a call for others to reach out to her with their own experiences — and soon got a letter from a Black man across the country that resulted in a years-long conversation on race. Jennifer Richmond is a China scholar and international relatio...
Jul 26, 2023•40 min
Last week on Lean Out, we heard from Canadian journalist Jen Gerson . The response from listeners was overwhelming. You asked for more coverage of the collapse of our media, including, of course, controversial new legislation . Bill C-18 aims to save journalism in this country — but Tara's guest this week argues that it has instead “ accidentally pushed the news industry into the abyss .” Peter Menzies is a former newspaper executive and a former vice chair of the CRTC, the Canadian Radio-televi...
Jul 19, 2023•37 min
If you listen to this podcast, you know that the Canadian media is in serious trouble. But in recent weeks, that crisis has intensified, with wave after wave of bad news for the industry. Bell Canada laid off 1300 staff . And, when this was episode was recorded, merger talks between the two biggest newspaper publishers were ongoing — negotiations have since broken down . Add to that, in the wake of controversial new legislation, Bill C-18 , Google and Facebook announced they would remove links t...
Jul 12, 2023•1 hr 1 min
Earlier this spring, student protesters at the University of Cambridge successfully cancelled an event on campus, a screening of a documentary on fertility. Students accused the film of being misogynistic , despite the fact that, as student event organizer Charlie Bentley-Astor put it in The Critic magazine , this was a film “made primarily by women, with women, for women.” And, as you’ll hear on today’s episode, the film — which screened at the Chelsea Film Festival — features a remarkable degr...
Jul 05, 2023•36 min
This week Lean Out is back from our annual summer hiatus, and we are recharged and ready to get back to tackling the big issues of the day. One of the things that Tara did while she was away was attend Plebity’s inaugural virtual conference, Free Speech and the Left, a timely and important gathering that brought together many prominent writers and thinkers on the left . Tara was honoured to moderate a panel for that conference — which she enjoyed so much that we're bringing it to you today in po...
Jun 28, 2023•52 min
In recent years, we have seen the diversity, equity, and inclusion industry explode in popularity and prevalence. But Tara's guest today says that at its worst, DEI runs from useless to counterproductive. And he thinks companies would be better off giving the lavish DEI consulting fees directly to the poor. Conor Friedersdorf is a staff writer at The Atlantic , and the founding editor of The Best of Journalism , a Substack newsletter that highlights exceptional non-fiction writing. Last week, he...
Jun 07, 2023•27 min
“What do falling fertility in the United States, a plague of loneliness and lack of friendship, bitter conflicts over racial and gender identity, and a politics of culture wars and moral panics have to do with one another?” The answer to that question, according to a compelling new book , is too many bad, low-wage jobs. Michael Lind is a bestselling author, a columnist at Tablet Magazine , and a co-founder and fellow at the New America think tank. His latest book is Hell to Pay: How the Suppress...
May 31, 2023•52 min
