Front Burner

Routine childhood vaccinations have been on the decline in recent years, with the anti-vax movement rising during the Covid-19 pandemic. But the conversation has shifted. What was once affiliated with left-leaning counterculture has now become increasingly right-wing, with male health influencers leading much of the conversation. How did the shift happen, and what implications could it have on public health? Timothy Caulfield is a professor at the University of Alberta, with the Faculty of Law and Public Health. He’ll go through how and why the anti-vax movement changed.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Christine Harron, a book-loving teenager from Hanover, Ontario, leaves for school in the spring of 1993 and is never seen again. A suspect emerges, confessing to her murder, but the case falls apart and Christine's family are left without answers.In Season 9 of the award winning podcast Someone Knows Something, David Ridgen, along with Christine's mother, reopen the investigation and come face to face with the man who said he killed Chrissy.Someone Knows Something is the investigative true crime series by award-winning documentarian David Ridgen. Each season tackles an unsolved case, uncovering details and bringing closure to families.More episodes of Someone Knows Something are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/3PSdjpxO

For the last year, Canada’s premier literary award The Giller Prize has been embroiled in a controversy that has split the Canadian literary community. Last years gala was interrupted by protestors who rushed the stage carrying placards emblazoned with ‘Scotiabank Funds Genocide.’ What they were referring to was the fact The Giller’s lead sponsor, Scotiabank, was a principal shareholder of one of Israel’s largest weapons manufacturers. They also objected to a pair of Giller sponsors invested in the Israeli military and settlements in the occupied West Bank. Since then, a number of former Giller winners, along with hundreds of bookworkers across the country have committed to a boycott.Winner of the 2005 Giller Prize David Bergen joins the show to discuss his decision not to attend this year’s Giller Prize – and a broader conversation about the duty of a writer, and whether it is possible for artists to reconcile their personal convictions with the interests of corporate sponsors. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

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 Defend the West”.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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 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

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

As we approach the deadline set by dissenting members of Liberal caucus for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to resign, we look back at the last time there was a mutiny against a once popular Liberal Prime Minister.It’s the year 2002 and after successfully winning three majority governments, Jean Chrétien has several members of his party come out and urge him to resign, throwing their support behind his recently fired finance minister, Paul Martin. In the backroom, pulling the strings for Martin were political strategists, David Herle and Scott Reid.Herle and Reid join us to talk about how they did it, what’s changed about party politics since then and why taking Trudeau down might be much more difficult. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Right-wing radio finds their greatest foe in Barack Obama: As they try to take him down at every turn, they find the perfect formula to manufacture outrage.This is episode 5 of The Flamethrowers, the story of how radio energized and then radicalized a conservative base. Hosted by Justin Ling. More episodes are available here.

Céline Dion is having a moment. It’s not her first. And millions of fans are hoping it won’t be her last. While Céline’s international stardom seems obvious now, it was all so unlikely. This is the first episode of the four-part series from Understood, the anthology podcast that takes you out of the daily news cycle and inside the events, people, and cultural moments you want to know more about. Hosted by Thomas Leblanc. Listen to episode 2 here.Follow Understood here.

Justin Trudeau is facing arguably his biggest political crisis. Some two dozen of his own MPs have signed a letter calling on him to step down as leader of the Liberal Party. After a three-hour caucus meeting in Ottawa on Wednesday, Trudeau said his party is "strong and united" — words echoed by other Liberals throughout the day.But are they? Political reporter and author Stephen Maher breaks down the growing tensions within the Liberal Party over Trudeau's leadership and just how numbered his days as party leader might be.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

As you’re probably well aware, traffic in cities across Canada is mind-numbingly bad. The geolocation firm TomTom recently ranked Toronto as having the worst traffic in North America with Vancouver, Winnipeg and Montreal also in the top ten. And as the debates about how to fix it rage on, it’s only seeming to get worse. That issue is being brought into sharp relief in Ontario right now, where a new bill would force municipalities across the province to get permission before installing any new bike lanes.So here’s a conversation with Jennifer Keesmaat. She’s the former chief planner of Toronto and one of Canada’s most renowned voices on urban issues.We’re going to talk about the solutions to traffic that don’t work and the ones that do.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

In the last few months, U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump has appeared on shows with huge audiences of young men. He’s been doing interviews with people like influencer Logan Paul, comedian Theo Von, video game streamer Adin Ross…all people outside the usual political media, and all with millions of followers.These appearances are just part of a deluge of efforts to court Gen Z men, in what some have called the bro or frat vote in the upcoming U.S election.Polls show that an enormous gulf has opened up between young men and women this election season - with young men way more likely to support Donald Trump.The Guardian U.S.’ senior features writer Sam Wolfson on why and how young men have shifted to Trump, and how this shift to the right is part of a global trend.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The allegations from the RCMP and the federal government last week are nothing short of explosive: That agents of the Indian government had been involved in “widespread violence” against Canadians on Canadian soil.But these kinds of allegations aren’t just coming out of Canada. High-level agents within the Indian government have allegedly been linked to assassination attempts, surveillance and harassment in the US, Pakistan, Germany, the UK and Australia. Many of the targets are Sikh activists in the Indian diaspora, who had sought exile abroad.We’re joined by Greg Miller an investigative foreign correspondent for the Washington Post, and Gerry Shih, the Washington Post’s India bureau chief, to talk about what their reporting into India’s campaign of “transnational repression” has revealed.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The terror attacks of September 11th have Americans turning the dial to talk radio, where a whole new generation of broadcasters are eager to capitalize on anxiety and fear.This is episode 4 of The Flamethrowers, the story of how radio energized and then radicalized a conservative base. Hosted by Justin Ling. More episodes are available here.

Tomorrow, British Columbians head to the polls in a provincial election that’s seen plenty of twists and turns.There was the collapse of the B.C. United party, formerly the B.C Liberal party, which really opened the door for the further rise of the B.C. Conservative Party, and its leader John Rustad.Rustad, who’s running to be premier of B.C., is in a tight race with sitting B.C. NDP premier David Eby. Controversial and conspiracy-laden comments by Rustad himself, and a number of his candidates have taken up a lot of oxygen.CBC’s B.C. provincial affairs reporter Katie Derosa joins host Jayme Poisson to sort through all the political drama.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Republicans have already filed over 100 lawsuits in US courts, in what critics say is an attempt to overturn the upcoming election. Ari Berman, national voting rights correspondent with Mother Jones, brings us the latest on how the 2020 Stop the Steal movement shaped the 2024 election.He also talks about the fifteen years he’s spent reporting on this topic.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The Thanksgiving long weekend ended with a bombshell from the RCMP and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: Accusations that agents from the Indian government are linked to, and helped orchestrate criminal acts in Canada. These allegations include acts like murder and extortion against members of the country’s Sikh community.It’s the latest development in an ongoing row between Canada and India that started last year. Now as diplomats are expelled from both countries, the fallout has just begun.Meanwhile, there is a growing movement within the federal Liberal caucus to oust Trudeau as leader, involving a secret document being passed around. Catherine Cullen, CBC senior parliamentary reporter and host of CBC Radio’s The House, joins us to talk about how everything is playing out on Parliament Hill and beyond. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Al Jazeera reporter Hani Mahmoud is currently based in Deir al Balah, in central Gaza. He’s spent the last year reporting on Israel’s war against Hamas in the territory.Hani has told the stories of families displaced by the war, struggling to access food and water, and grieving relatives who have been killed, while living those hardships himself.One year into Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, more than 42,000 people have been killed, according to local health authorities. It’s estimated that another 10,000 may be buried under the rubble.Today, father and reporter Hani Mahmoud shares his family’s story of surviving this past year.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

A TV crew offers 12 ordinary people the chance to take part in the adventure of a lifetime. But there’s a catch. The audience knows everything but the contestants are kept in the dark. As the cameras roll, no questions are allowed. Split Screen: Thrill Seekers is a new 6 part series that exposes how a TV show left contestants struggling to trust what’s actually real.Host Nick van der Kolk (Love + Radio) asks: does reality TV only succeed when it exploits those involved? He talks to the set designers, crew, and the contestants themselves to learn what it took to permanently distort their sense of reality.Welcome to Split Screen, an examination of the utterly captivating, sometimes unsettling world of entertainment and pop culture. From reality TV gone awry, to the cult of celebrity, each season of Split Screen takes listeners on an evocative journey inside the world of showbiz. Ex-contestants, producers, and cultural critics uncover complicated truths behind TV’s carefully curated facades, and question what our entertainment reveals about us. Split Screen: sometimes reality is twisted.More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/ztducTr-

Welcome to the world of conspiracy and paranoia. A horrifying act of domestic terrorism brings right wing radio some unwanted attention, which pushes one fan of the supernatural away from politics, while a pair of anti-government broadcasters dig their heels in.This is episode 3 of The Flamethrowers, the story of how radio energized and then radicalized a conservative base. This series was originally produced in 2021. Hosted by Justin Ling. More episodes are available here.

'The Apprentice' premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and received an eight minute ovation. The film follows a young, awkward, ambitious Donald Trump during his bid for respect among New York City's elite, and his formative relationship with notorious NYC lawyer and political fixer Roy Cohn.But in the time since its Cannes debut, team Trump has unleashed a pressure campaign to keep the film from the public.Dan Bekerman is a producer of 'The Apprentice', and joins us for a discussion about the film's complicated journey to theatres, and the challenges of making art about powerful people.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Canada’s fertility rate just hit a record low: 1.3 babies per woman, placing us among some of the lowest birth rates globally. While discourse around declining birth rates has been dominated by the likes of Elon Musk and Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance, it’s not just tech billionaires and social conservatives paying attention to this issue. Governments around the world have tried to enact policies to encourage their citizens to have more children, in most cases to no avail. So why is the world’s population shrinking and what can be done about it?Jennifer Sciubba, a political scientist and demographer from the Population Reference Bureau, joins us to talk about the myriad of factors behind the global trend and the dangers of politicizing the issue of reproduction. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Floridians are packing up and evacuating their homes as Hurricane Milton, one of the biggest hurricanes ever recorded, bears down on Tampa Bay. A major hurricane hasn't hit the region in more than 100 years, during which time the city has grown massively in population and built up significant residential developments along the waterfront — all as climate change has made hurricanes bigger, stronger and more frequent.Thomas Mantz, president and CEO of Feeding Tampa Bay, tells us what's happening on the ground in preparation for Wednesday night's anticipated landfall. Then, meteorologist and climate journalist Eric Holthaus explains why the Tampa area is uniquely vulnerable to a hurricane of this size, and the scale of what could happen in the days and weeks ahead.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

NOTE: In yesterday’s episode, we promised to bring you a conversation with a man who’s spent the last year in Gaza, both living through and reporting on Israel’s military campaign there. We were logistically unable to bring you that today, but we will do so as soon as we possibly can.For decades, the Darién Gap, a jungle crossing straddling the Colombia and Panama border, was considered impossible to cross.Today, it’s a path that many migrants take, risking their lives, to try and make it to the United States. Eight hundred thousand people are expected to use it this year, nearly 200,000 of them are children.This is all happening at a time when immigration is among the most pressing issues for voters in the upcoming U.S election, with presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.The Atlantic’s Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Caitlin Dickerson recently took three trips to the Darién Gap over the course of five months.She spoke to host Jayme Poisson about her report, Seventy miles in hell, which focuses the experiences of those caught in the middle of this ongoing immigration debate.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

‘Time stopped on October 7th.’Jonathan Dekel-Chen was a longtime resident of Nir Oz, an Israeli kibbutz near the Gaza border. Nearly a quarter of the residents there were either killed or taken hostage on October 7th, 2023, when members of Hamas and other armed groups killed around 1200 people, and took 251 Israelis and foreigners hostage.That set off Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza, which has now killed an estimated 41,500 people, according to Palestinian health authorities.Jonathan’s son Sagui was taken hostage on October 7th, and he’s believed to still be in Gaza today. He speaks to host Jayme Poisson about the attack on his kibbutz, the challenges he’s faced in trying to get his son home, and the escalating conflict in the Middle East.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

In the second episode of The Flamethrowers, host Justin Ling explores how President Ronald Reagan takes the shackles off right-wing radio and inaugurates a golden era of conservative politics. And Rush Limbaugh — almost by accident — becomes a kingmaker in the Republican party and changes radio forever.The Flamethrowers was originally produced in 2021. More episodes of The Flamethrowers are available here.

The war in Afghanistan is the longest in both Canadian and American history. The U.S.' withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, signaled not only the end of a 20-year war, but it also marked the re-introduction of a familiar era in the country's history: the return of the Taliban, and the widespread subjugation of women. Three years into Taliban rule, CBC News chief correspondent Adrienne Arsenault brings us inside a secret mission, led by a group of Canadian MPs, to rescue Afghanistan's last female politicians, and bring them to safety in Canada.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsTranscripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

China’s economy has changed drastically in the last four decades. When China started to open up to the world in the late ‘70s and ‘80s, it went from one of the world’s poorest countries, to one of the world’s fastest growing major economies.But now, that same economy is struggling. Home prices are in freefall, retail sales are slowing down, unemployment is up. Things have gotten so rough that last week the Chinese government announced a set of stimulus measures that are meant to give the economy a big boost.Jonathan Cheng is the Wall Street Journal’s China bureau chief. He walks us through what these economic challenges mean for China, its citizens, and the global economy.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsTranscripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

In most American elections, the vice presidential debates are almost an afterthought — but this has not been a typical election. Republican J.D. Vance and Democrat Tim Walz are relative newcomers on the national stage, both making headlines since their selection, and this will likely be the only time they face off in a one-on-one debate.CBC Washington correspondent Alex Panetta breaks down the debate's biggest moments, and what it can tell us about the parties' strategies for the final month of the campaign.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsTranscripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Last Friday, Lebanon-based militant group, Hezbollah, confirmed that their secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut. As a significant political and cultural leader in the region, the death of Nasrallah poses a number of questions. Where does this leave the “Axis of Resistance”, the Iran-led coalition of militias united against Israel, of which Hezbollah is a crucial part? Does this open the door for an Israeli ground invasion in Lebanon? And what does it all mean for the fate of the Palestinians as the war in Gaza rages on?Kareem Shaheen, the Middle East editor of New Lines Magazine, joins us to unpack the significance of Nasrallah’s death its potential ripple effects throughout the region. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsTranscripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

While the Liberals survived the first non-confidence vote tabled last week, the Conservatives are already trying again. The Bloc Quebecois have issued an ultimatum to the Liberals for their party’s support. The Prime Minister has accused Conservative MP Garnett Genuis of making a homophobic comment during question period. NDP leader Jagmeet Singh confronts Pierre Poilievre after repeated accusations of selling out. And Pierre Poilievre goes after Bell Canada and CTV News over the editing of a clip of him in a recent news item.CBC’s J.P. Tasker joins us from the Parliamentary bureau to go over a rollercoaster week in Canadian politics.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsTranscripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Award-winning reporter Justin Ling tracks the rise of right wing radio in the U.S. from fringe preachers and conspiracy peddlers of the 1930s to the political firestorm that rages today. Our story begins with Canadian priest Charles Coughlin — a populist crusader who winds up espousing conspiracy and hate. Right-wing radio flexes its muscle with a boycott of Polish Ham. And the Kennedy government almost wipes right-wing talk off the map. The Flamethrowers was originally produced in 2021. More episodes of The Flamethrowers are available here.

Over the next two years, baby boomers will pass a reported 1 trillion dollars down to their heirs, who, in most cases, are their millennial children. This intergenerational transfer of wealth is expected to be the largest in Canadian history. The nature of homeownership in Canada has changed many times over in the last half century, and these changes have contributed to widening gulfs in wealth and prosperity. Baby boomers came into their adult years through an economic golden age, in which many were able to invest in homeownership well before prices became prohibitive. And as many now enter older age, they are sitting on homes worth many times more than what they paid for them. Katrina Onstad is a freelance reporter and producer for the Globe and Mail’s tech business podcast, Lately. And she’s just written a cover story for Maclean’s about inheritance, and an incoming millennial windfall that she calls the ‘Jackpot generation.’