CANADALAND

One of the most powerful voices in Canadian media isn't Canadian. And she doesn’t work for a Canadian news outlet. Matina Stevis-Gridneff is the New York Times correspondent for Canada. 

Canadians have a weird relationship to the NYT. In one sense, it's the most powerful newspaper in Canada. It has more digital subscribers than any Canadian publication, although The Globe and Mail has more readers.

On the other hand, of ...

Canadaland fan-favourite guests share their predictions, while Jesse and Noor give their two cents. Topics include a Canadian bid to join the E.U., a social media ban in the southern hemisphere, and robot raccoons eating hot peppers.

Plus: Jesse makes an informed prediction about the future of Canadaland.

This episode uses generative AI for the following purposes: Enhance Speech by Adobe on a recording of Jen Gerson

H...

It's the holidays and we are re-running a classic episode of Off The Record this week.

Here at Canadaland it can often seem like just one shitty story after another. But it’s not just one more shitty story to round out the year. Nope. This is also a tale of hope, dreams, and IUDs. 

Every year Canadaland searches for and hires two fellows. Two new audio journalists who join us here and work with us for months to produce their...

We're bringing you something different: an episode of the brand-new CBC series The Devil You Know with Sarah Marshall.

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. 

In the all new 8-part series, The Devil You Know from CBC, host Sarah M...

Canadaland fan-favourite guests give the gift of Duly Noteds for Jesse and Noor to unwrap and judge mercilessly. Topics include secret Chinese police stations, the life and death of a right-wing party in B.C., and Danielle Smith’s French-language lessons.

Host: Jesse Brown

Credits: James Nicholson (Producer), Lucie Laumonier (Associate Producer and Fact Checking) tom sayers (Audio Editor), max collins (Director of Audio), Jes...

Noor Azrieh and Sam Konnert look back on the moments that defined Canadian politics this year. We revisit viral clips, media meltdowns, Question Period fever dreams, floor crossers, immigration fights, Alberta separatism, national projects (that may or may not exist yet), and the growing sense that everything is moving very fast… but also somehow not at all.

Plus: pop stars, masked singers, elbow-themed merch, biological clocks ...

Their stated goal is to manipulate your media and, by extension, you. We’re not flagging a secretive government agency here, not some media oligarch, no one in the usual line-up of Bondesque villains. 

In fact, many of us love what these master manipulators do. They are, drum roll please…

composers! Their work literally underscores much of the podcast world. Their power lies in their ability to bypass the intellect and go st...

The choice between the F-35 and Saab’s Gripen E is a litmus test for Canada’s commitment to decoupling from America. 

As Carney reinvests in the military, is the Canadian media properly equipped to cover it? 

Plus, an $18 million CRA chatbox that is usually wrong. 

Host: San Grewal

Credits: James Nicholson (Producer), Lucie Laumonier (Associate producer and Fact Checking) tom sayers (Audio Editor and Technica...

Floor crossers, falling polling numbers, and grumblings in the Conservative orbit. Pierre Poilievre sure looks shaky right now, but will it really make a difference in his upcoming leadership review? Rahim Mohamed of the National Post joins San Grewal to explain why Poilievre isn’t done just yet. 

Host: San Grewal

Credits: James Nicholson (Producer), Lucie Laumonier (Associate producer and Fact Checking) tom sayers (Audio Ed...

United States Attorney General Pam Bondi is flexing the US’s military seizure of a Venezuelan oil tanker as the Trump administration deploys warships — and even nuclear submarines — off Venezuela’s coast. The White House says it’s about drugs, but it also signals a broader shift laid out in the new US National Security Strategy. So far, the Canadian government has been pretty quiet about what our closest ally is doing in Venezuela,...

The mystery of who drugged the cast and crew of the blockbuster Titanic is Hollywood lore. In 1996 James Cameron shot part of Titanic in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, when someone dumped PCP into the clam chowder the team was sharing on the last night of shooting. Over 50 people ended up in hospital. 

There was a police investigation but the case was never solved. Over the decades theories as to who and why have sprouted. These r...

The politics of Canada’s proposed hate crime law, Bill C-9. 

In order to pass the Combatting Hate Act, the Liberals are teaming up with the Bloc Quebecois and removing the exemption for religious texts in existing hate speech laws. The Conservatives  aren’t happy about it. 

But do we need to update our hate crime laws in the first place? 

Host: Jesse Brown

Credits: James Nicholson (Producer), Lucie L...

In 2022, artist Hua Yong died while kayaking off the Sunshine Coast in BC. A former Chinese agent alleges it was a murder. 

Radio-Canada tells the story of how China continues to target dissidents living in Canada. 

Plus, India joins the battle for the Arctic and a new low for freelance writing rates. 

Host: Jesse Brown

Credits: James Nicholson (Producer), Lucie Laumonier (Associate producer and Fact Checking...

As Premier François Legault plunges in the polls, he’s panic-legislating: turbo-charging secularism laws, unveiling a “made-in-Quebec” constitution, and reigniting old identity battles that haven’t burned this hot in decades.

Then we head west, where B.C. Conservative leader John Rustad resigned after a spectacular caucus revolt. Sam asks him directly: why did his own MLAs want him gone, who he blames, and whether he regrets any...

 The CBC is broken: how should it be fixed? Defund the whole thing? Refund the whole thing? Double down on digital? Stop chasing digital relevance?

The list goes on and on. You've heard them all. But for a moment, forget about funding or even political bias. Just ask: why does the CBC exist? 

What is its underlying ideology? Not its political ideology, but its philosophy for why we need it. Does it have one? Does it need...

A story in The Local reveals how AI writing is infiltrating newsrooms, flooding inboxes, and snagging bylines in major outlets. 

Is the rise of the AI journalist inevitable or is it already here? 

Jay Caspian Kang of the New Yorker joins to consider if a chatbot could write his column.

This episode uses generative AI for the following purposes: Episode tile art 

Host: James Nicholson

Credits: Jules Bugiel ...

Every year for the past 11 or so years, Canadaland has run a crowdfunding campaign in the fall. We finished up this year’s campaign in late November, and so we wanted to hear from you, about what we should do with all of your hard earned money. After all, Jesse Brown has said that “We work for you.”

You filled up the lines for two hours and let Sam know all of your ideas. Here are the highlights.

Host: Sam Konnert

Credits: Tri...

It’s been one year since Trump started threatening Canada’s economy and our sovereignty. But with all this story’s twists and turns, have Canadians grown complacent about what’s at stake?

Producer James Nicholson steps into the host’s chair to make a bold case that Canada isn’t just in a tariff war. We’re in a cold war. And we need to start acting like it.

American writer and podcaster Jay Caspian Kang weighs in.

Host:...

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has been pressuring Prime Minister Mark Carney for months on a new pipeline to the BC coast, and after a new MOU, she’s closer than ever. Host Noor Azrieh unpacks this deal with The Hub’s Falice Chin.

Plus, a mini cabinet shuffle. And reporter Sam Konnert takes us behind the velvet rope of the Hill’s E-list “exclusive” event.

Host: Noor Azrieh

Credits: Aviva Lessard (Senior Producer), Sam Konnert...