Front Burner

CBC

Your essential daily news podcast. We take you deep into the stories shaping Canada and the world. Hosted by Jayme Poisson. Every morning, Monday to Friday.

Visit https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner for show descriptions, links, and transcripts.

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Our Editor's Take

Front Burner is the daily news podcast presented by CBC podcasts. It features the latest and most critical reports in Canada and the world. Jayme Poisson hosts alongside Michelle Shephard.

The Front Burner podcast explores the events that shape and impact the world in a bold manner. Each episode aims to explain what's important, from global security to the economy. Local Canadian politics is, of course, expected. Justin Trudeau approaches his first decade as Canada's prime minister. The podcast examines how his brand of liberal leadership has progressed over the years. The Alberta premier gets detailed alongside the ongoing housing crisis.

Content does not only surround political news. The deaths of Canadian billionaires Barry and Honey Sherman are still a mystery. The Front Burner podcast provides insight on this true crime story.

News stories from the US also receive coverage. Former President Donald Trump's formal notice of indictment receives attention. This gets told alongside the various allegations surrounding him. The podcast also discusses news personalities themselves. They discuss Fox News' Tucker Carlson. One episode focuses on how he used his platform to optimize outrages. As for his network, Fox News, they had issues to confront as an organization. Front Runner looks into the settlement they made on the voting case.

Other controversial news topics include the FTX downfall in "It Takes A Village." There's also a thorough analysis of the anti-trans laws introduced by Republicans. Sports topics feature hockey, Canada's national sport. Hosts debate if it is possible to have a safer NHL?

The Front Burner news coverage goes beyond North America. Listeners can expect news on foreign relations. Whether it involves conflict or international sporting achievements, this podcast covers it. New episodes drop nearly every day.

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Long-range missiles, nuclear fears in Ukraine

Long-range missiles, nuclear fears in Ukraine

Earlier this week, after months of debate and hesitation, the U.S. decided to allow Ukraine to use American made ATACMS missiles on targets inside Russia. Escalations followed, such as Russia signing a new doctrine that lowered the threshold for nuclear attacks.As the tensions ratchet up, there’s still the question of what will happen once Donald Trump takes office. To break down the gravity of this moment, we talk to David Sanger, longtime New York Times national security correspondent and the author of “New Cold Wars: China’s Rise, Russia’s Invasion and America’s Struggle to Save the West”.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Episodes

Long-range missiles, nuclear fears in Ukraine

Long-range missiles, nuclear fears in Ukraine

Earlier this week, after months of debate and hesitation, the U.S. decided to allow Ukraine to use American made ATACMS missiles on targets inside Russia. Escalations followed, such as Russia signing a new doctrine that lowered the threshold for nuclear attacks.As the tensions ratchet up, there’s still the question of what will happen once Donald Trump takes office. To break down the gravity of this moment, we talk to David Sanger, longtime New York Times national security correspondent and the author of “New Cold Wars: China’s Rise, Russia’s Invasion and America’s Struggle to Save the West”.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Work sucks. Where are the unions?

Work sucks. Where are the unions?

Nearly a million Canadian workers have taken job action in recent years, with Canada Post employees being the latest to do so. That included work stoppages at airlines, railways and Canadian ports.You might assume, from the many headlines about strikes, that union power is growing in Canada. But in fact, over the last forty years, the number of workers who are members of a union has decreased by nearly 10 percent.At the same time, jobs across many sectors have gotten worse, from stagnating wages to reduced benefits.Barry Eidlin is an associate professor of sociology at McGill University and the author of "Labour and the Class Idea in the United States and Canada".He'll weigh in on why work sucks, what unions can do about that, and what is and is not being done.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

UN Palestinian rapporteur Francesca Albanese

UN Palestinian rapporteur Francesca Albanese

Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, recently returned from a week-long trip to Canada. She was given standing ovations at sold-out speaking events, yet also faced backlash from groups who called for the Canadian government to condemn her, and advocated for the UN to remove her from her position.Today, a wide-ranging conversation with Francesca Albanese.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Trump’s day one: mass deportations?

Trump’s day one: mass deportations?

In the past week, U.S. president-elect Donald Trump has announced many members of his upcoming cabinet, giving a window into his second term’s priorities.There’s little known about the wider implications of these appointments, but one area that Trump has emphasized as a “day one” priority is immigration.This was Trump’s single biggest talking point throughout his presidential campaign, and heading into a second term, it’s a clear policy priority.Nicole Narea is a senior reporter covering politics and immigration at Vox. She’ll go through what the next four years of American immigration policy could look like.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Weekend Listen: How bad results can upend lives

Weekend Listen: How bad results can upend lives

They needed certainty. They got chaos. For over a decade, countless people from at least five different countries put their trust in a company offering prenatal paternity tests. It promised clients “99.9% accuracy” — but then routinely, for over a decade, identified the wrong biological fathers.In the brand new season of Uncover: Bad Results, investigative journalists Jorge Barrera and Rachel Houlihan track down the people whose lives were torn apart by these bad results, the shattered families and acrimonious court cases that followed, and the story behind the company that continues to stand by its testing and is still operating today.More episodes of Uncover are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/a9dREAtd

The Billion Dollar Influencer Economy

The Billion Dollar Influencer Economy

There are a reported 13 million full time influencers in the U.S. today. According to Goldman Sachs, the influencer economy is worth around $250-billion, a number expected to double by 2027. Despite its quick rise, the influencer economy remains a nascent industry that, in many ways, has no meaningful oversight or standard and practices. We're joined by Emily Hund, author of 'The Influencer Industry: the quest for authenticity on social media' to better understand one of our quickest growing cultural and economic sectors, and the need to professionalize the industry, before it's too late. In this episode, we refer to a previous installment of Front Burner, which you can find below:The Dark Side of Family Influencers Apple/SpotifyFor transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Canada’s secret list of alleged Nazi war criminals

Canada’s secret list of alleged Nazi war criminals

In the mid 1980s, the Canadian government tasked a commission to investigate whether a considerable number of alleged Nazi war criminals settled in Canada after the Second World War.The Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals was headed by retired Quebec judge Jules Deschênes. It looked into this issue, but for decades, many of the commission’s findings were not made public.That includes a list of 900 names of alleged Nazi war criminals who lived in Canada, and the files and documents about them.Last week, Ottawa rejected the freedom of information request to get it released. Officials at Library and Archives Canada said that after a comprehensive review, they decided to withhold the list because it could cause harm to Canadian interests, and international relations.David Pugliese is the Ottawa Citizen’s defence reporter. He helps us understand who might be on that list, how so many suspected Nazis entered Canada after WWII, and why the Canadian government has not released the names.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Hasan Piker on how Trump seized online culture

Hasan Piker on how Trump seized online culture

For decades, conservatives worried about losing the fight for cultural relevancy. During his campaign, Donald Trump aggressively courted Gen Z and young millennial men — appearing on podcasts, streams and alongside influencers, discussing everything from combat sports to cocaine use. A PR campaign which many have credited, in part, for his election victory. Hasan Piker is a rare political streamer on the American left; on election day, his coverage garnered 7.5 million views overall. He joins the show for a discussion about why many young men have drifted rightward, and he addresses what that appeal is fundamentally about.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Why can't Canada have fast trains?

Why can't Canada have fast trains?

In Canada, we've spent a lot of time and money studying the prospect of high-speed rail, as enjoyed by many other countries — transit infrastructure that has transformed countries like Japan and France. This week, the federal government is expected to announce plans for a high-speed rail line between Toronto and Quebec City, which could finally make that prospect a reality.But are Canadians — and their politicians — ready to spend the billions of dollars it would take? Does this particular line even make sense? And even if the answers are yes… is Canada even capable of building this kind of megaproject anymore?Reece Martin — a transit planner and creator of the YouTube channel RMTransit — explains the boon high-speed rail has been around the world, and the reasons why it continues to elude us here in Canada.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

How Murray Sinclair changed Canada

How Murray Sinclair changed Canada

Murray Sinclair — an Anishinaabe lawyer, judge, senator, and, most consequentially, the chair of the Truth and Reconciliation commission — died last week at the age of 73. Sinclair helped bring to light the stories of thousands of Indigenous residential school survivors, and provided Canada with a roadmap towards reconciliation.Today we have a documentary featuring the voices of three people who knew Murray Sinclair well, about the personal lessons he taught them and how he transformed the country.We’ll hear from journalist and filmmaker Tanya Talaga; Phil Fontaine, the former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations; and Kim Murray, the Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and Burial Sites associated with Indian Residential Schools.A national Indian Residential School Crisis Line is available to provide support for survivors and those affected. People can access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the 24-hour service at 1-866-925-4419.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

What could Trump’s win mean for Canada?

What could Trump’s win mean for Canada?

The election of a new U.S. president reverberates around the world, but none of America's partners are as intertwined economically, politically and culturally as Canada. With respect to trade, the future of NATO, immigration, and the culture wars, both Canada and the United States are inextricably linked. Today, CBC Washington correspondent Alex Panetta and CBC senior business reporter Peter Armstrong on the longstanding political relationship between Canada and the U.S., and what a second Trump presidency is likely to mean for the country's closest ally, Canada.

How the Democrats lost to Trump again

How the Democrats lost to Trump again

As the dust settles and Donald Trump celebrates a remarkable victory, we examine what went wrong for the Democrats this time around. How did they fail to speak to working class voters of all backgrounds? Should President Biden have left the race sooner? And where does the party go from here?After a long night of covering the election, Alex Shephard, senior editor at The New Republic, joins us for a post mortem.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

America embraces a second Trump presidency

America embraces a second Trump presidency

For months, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris rallied voters with a message: "We're not going back."But as the election was finally called in the early hours of Wednesday morning, it's now clear that America does in fact want to go back.Back to Donald Trump.Keith Boag, longtime CBC Washington correspondent, joins us to break down how this happened, and what a second Trump presidency could hold.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

A viewer's guide to U.S. election night

A viewer's guide to U.S. election night

It’s been an incredibly tight race between presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump ahead of today's U.S. election. The winner is expected to be decided by razor-thin margins in seven battleground states: Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona.From understanding the path to victory, to the value of the blue wall states, to the final stretch of the campaigns, CBC Washington correspondent Paul Hunter guides us through what to consider while watching the U.S election results come in.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

What’s up with these political polls?

What’s up with these political polls?

With the U.S. election just a day away and a Canadian one that could be called very soon, we’re all spending a lot of time talking about polls.But how exactly do they work and what happens when they get it wrong? Last week, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe won another majority government for the Saskatchewan Party despite some polls beforehand showing the NDP in the lead. And famously, the polls highly underestimated Donald Trump’s voter base in both 2016 and 2020.So to better understand the ins and outs of the polling business and the challenges of adapting it to changing habits and politics, we’re talking to David Coletto, founder and CEO of Abacus Data.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Front Burner Presents: The Flamethrowers Ep. 6

Front Burner Presents: The Flamethrowers Ep. 6

Donald Trump takes the style, tactics, and issues straight from the right-wing radio playbook. The only question now is: Where does it go from here?This is episode 6 — the final episode — of The Flamethrowers, the story of how radio energized and then radicalized a conservative base. Hosted by Justin Ling.Listen to the full series here.

An undecided Palestinian Democrat in Michigan

An undecided Palestinian Democrat in Michigan

In the Democratic presidential primaries in Michigan earlier this year, rather than voting for Joe Biden, more than 100,000 people marked “uncommitted” on their ballots. It was an anti-war protest, meant to send a message to Biden to make a permanent ceasefire happen in the war in Gaza — or risk losing those voters in November.That campaign spread nationally. And while Biden is no longer the Democratic candidate, the Uncommitted movement is still going — even though it has garnered significant controversy.Nowhere does this matter more than in Uncommitted’s home state of Michigan. Not just because it’s a key battleground where the election may be won on razor-thin margins, but also because Michigan’s significant Arab and Muslim communities are crucial voting blocs in the state. Our guest today, Rima Mohammad, is a Palestinian-American from Michigan, and a lifelong Democrat. She was also a delegate representing the Uncommitted movement at the Democratic National Convention. She tells us about the disillusionment many Arabs and Muslims are feeling with Kamala Harris and her campaign, and why she worries the Democrats may have reached a “point of no return” with many in her community.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Why did Elon Musk go all in on Trump?

Why did Elon Musk go all in on Trump?

As recently as 2022, billionaire Elon Musk was saying that Donald Trump should "hang up his hat & sail into the sunset." But in recent months, Musk has become one of the most influential supporters of Trump's campaign to regain the presidency, from appearances at rallies to millions of his own dollars in funding.What prompted his change of heart? And how much might it have to do with the relationship his companies like Tesla, SpaceX and StarLink have with the U.S. government — both in terms of contracts and investigations into regulatory breaches?Washington Post technology reporter Trisha Thadani explains why Musk is all in on Trump, and what he stands to gain from a second Trump presidency.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The state of the U.S. presidential race

The state of the U.S. presidential race

The 2024 U.S. presidential election is happening on Tuesday.With six days left, the New Republic's senior editor, Alex Shephard, is here to take the temperature of the race. What are presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris pitching in this last week of the campaign? Where are they focusing their efforts? What issues and revelations could make a difference in these final days of a race most pollsters say is too close to call?For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Canadian billionaire Frank Stronach faces slew of sex assault charges

Canadian billionaire Frank Stronach faces slew of sex assault charges

As CEO of Magna International, a global leader in auto parts manufacturing, Frank Stronach was a big deal in the business world. In the ‘80s alone, the company’s sales grew twelvefold, to over a billion dollars annually.Stronach would go on to be praised by prime ministers and presidents. He received the Order of Canada, and even started his own political party in Austria. You can find his name on many landmarks near Aurora, Ontario, where he used to preside over Magna.But in June of this year Stronach was arrested on five sex crime charges. Police laid more in the following months, and by October, Stronach's charge sheet had grown to 18 criminal counts. The alleged offences date from 1977 to this year, and involve 13 women. Stronach categorically denies all the allegations.Mark Kelley has been reporting on the Stronach case for the CBC’s Fifth Estate, and interviewed Stronach twice for the investigation. You can stream “Stronach: Power and Silence” now on YouTube.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts