Front Burner

After Donald Trump was elected for a second time, historian Timothy Snyder wrote this in the New Yorker: “Trump has always been a presence, not an absence: the presence of fascism.” Today on Front Burner, Snyder makes that case again. His warning about fascism feels particularly relevant at this point in Trump’s presidency, as the U.S. sees an escalation in political violence, the deployment of federal law enforcement in major citi...

The U.S. government has shut down after Republicans and Democrats failed to pass a spending bill before the end of Tuesday. Government services will grind to a halt and hundreds of thousands of federal employees face unpaid leave. How long is it expected to last, and could it have been avoided? 

Plus, President Donald Trump and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth held a rare gathering of the country’s top military leaders, detai...

Last week, Canada officially recognized Palestinian statehood. 

In explaining this decision, Prime Minister Mark Carney released a statement which read, "Canada recognises the State of Palestine and offers our partnership in building the promise of a peaceful future for both the State of Palestine and the State of Israel."

Just over a week later, U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unvei...

While Donald Trump may have shocked many at the UN General Assembly when he called climate change “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world”, he may just have been the most extreme messenger of a global shift being seen elsewhere. 

David Wallace-Wells, author of “The Uninhabitable Earth” and friend of the show, recently wrote a feature for the New York Times detailing the ways much of the world has turned away fro...

It’s been about a month since the NDP leadership race began and two main contenders have emerged: longtime climate activist and former broadcaster Avi Lewis, and NDP MP for Edmonton-Strathcona, Heather McPherson, one of the most prominent New Democrat voices in Western Canada.

The NDP suffered a crushing defeat last election. The party went from 24 MPs to only seven, losing official party status. The next leader is faced wi...

Dan Wang is a tech analyst and a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover History Lab. He’s one of the leading China analysts in the world right now and his new book is called “Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future”.

Today on the show he explains his novel way of understanding the clash between China and the United States: China owns the future because it is an “engineering state” whereas the U.S. is a “lawyerly...

After a brief suspension for comments he made in the wake of the Charlie Kirk killing, Jimmy Kimmel has made his return to late night.

It was just the latest example in a string of cancellations, resignations, lawsuits, settlements and potential mergers that tell the story of a media industry buckling to Trump or consolidating under a wealthy and powerful few, many of whom are friendly with the Trump administration. 

Eoi...

Health professionals around the world are disputing  the Trump administration’s claims about autism and its potential causes. U.S. Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr., along with President Donald Trump himself, said this week that taking Tylenol while pregnant may cause autism in babies, and the U.S. FDA said it would reclassify the drug leucovorin — primarily used to mitigate chemotherapy side effects — to treat autism ...

Beloved children’s author Robert Munsch has chosen medically assisted death. Canada is one of the few places in the world where MAID is legal for patients like Munsch, who are not terminally ill. Today, a conversation with journalist Katie Engelhart, on the legacy of one of the great Canadian writers, how dementia has impacted his life and ability to come up with stories. Plus we take a broader look at how MAID works in Canada toda...

Today, a wide-ranging interview with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.

She talks to host Jayme Poisson about Alberta’s future in light of the Carney government’s push to fast track major projects, arguing that energy development is an issue of national unity for her constituents.

Smith also responds to the controversy around her potential use of the notwithstanding clause in protecting three laws that affect transgender youth. ...

Memes have been written on weapons, quoted in manifestos, and cited by young attackers as the inspiration for acts of mass violence. It's a phenomenon that springs from groups of disaffected people communicating on the web through a convoluted language of impenetrable memes and irony.

Utah Governor Spencer Cox has said about the 22-year-old man charged with the killing of Charlie Kirk: "There was a lot of gaming going on. Friend...

For the first time since June, MPs returned to the House of Commons to decide the path of Canada’s future. And just a few days into the fall session, it’s already looking like a busy season.

After more than a decade in politics, Chrystia Freeland announced she is calling it quits. Pierre Poilievre and Mark Carney faced off for the first time in question period, and we learned when we’ll see the Liberals’ long-delayed budget –– a...

The Liberal government has launched its $13-billion agency called “Build Canada Homes” which Prime Minister Mark Carney says will supercharge housing construction across the country.

Today, Housing Minister Gregor Robertson talks to host Jayme Poisson about Canada’s housing affordability crisis, how the Liberal government is meeting the challenges around it, and why he thinks he’s the right person for the job.

For transcripts...

Following the assassination of Charlie Kirk we're joined by Bruce Hoffman, a Senior Fellow for counter terrorism and homeland security at the Council for Foreign Relations.

He helps us understand the history of assassinations, the connections between violent rhetoric and incidents of material violence, and the online meme-world that communicates motives that are unintelligible to those outside that ecosystem.

For transcripts ...

Donald Trump has declared a war on drug cartels. He’s wielded the flow of narcotics, namely fentanyl, into the U.S. as one of the major reasons behind aspects of his global trade war. He’s added a number of cartels to the foreign terrorist organisations list. 

And last month, the Trump administration stepped things up by quietly signing a Pentagon directive to allow the use of military force against drug cartels. That led t...

American conservative media figure and activist Charlie Kirk was one of the most prominent young voices of the American right. The founder of Turning Point USA, a close ally of Donald Trump, and a figure who helped shape the culture and pipeline of the MAGA movement.

On Wednesday, he was shot at one of his trademark campus debate events at Utah Valley University.

Will Sommer, a senior reporter with The Bulwark, joins the show...

As President Donald Trump threatens to send federal forces into Chicago — a city he’s referred to as the ‘murder capital’ of the world — we have a look at Trump’s long standing focus on Chicago, and how the city became a favourite metaphor in conservative politics.

This month, Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to send federal forces into Chicago to confront what he calls 'the most dangerous city in the world.'

His f...

This coming Monday, MPs return to Ottawa for Parliament’s fall session, with the health of Canada’s economy front and centre.

Last Friday, Prime Minister Carney unveiled a new set of measures designed, he says, to make Canada’s economy more resilient in the face of persistent U.S. tariffs. We also now have a leaked list of the major infrastructure projects that are being considered for fast tracking.

CBC senior Parliamentary ...

Over the last few weeks, horrific crimes have dominated headlines across the country.

There was a father of four who was killed after at least three suspects broke into his home in Vaughan, Ontario. There was a mass stabbing attack on Hollow Water First Nation, just north of Winnipeg. The suspect had been out on bail. Last weekend in Edmonton, a woman was found shot to death in her car. The suspect in that case has a long histor...