Front Burner

Many economists say the bond market is the most important financial market in the world. It sets the baseline for almost everything Canadians borrow: mortgages, car loans, lines of credit. And right now, it’s looking pretty weird. 30-year U.S. Treasury yields are the highest they’ve been since 2007, in the runup to the great financial crisis. The U.S. now spends more on interest payments than they do on defence.Canadian bond yields are rising too. But, on the whole, the market here seems more stable than it is in the U.S. At a press conference last month, Prime Minister Mark Carney assured reporters that “we have our house in order.” John Authers is a senior markets editor at Bloomberg, and he’s on the show to explain why the bond market matters, and whether a shaky U.S. treasury market could be a boon for Canada.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts 

The U.S. announced a new string of bans and tariffs against Canadian products, set to go into effect later this month. This came after Canada imposed counter-tariffs against billions of dollars of American imports. As the trade war ramps up, we look to both sides of the border to see where it's all heading and what it would take to get back to the negotiating table. Politico's Ottawa Bureau Chief Nick Taylor-Vaisey joins us from Ottawa, alongside Politico's Washington-based international trade reporter Daniel Desrochers.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts 

This week will mark 25 years since the September 11th terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. Those attacks, by al-Qaeda, killed nearly 3000 people.What followed that tragedy was the 'War on Terror', characterized by a series of foreign wars and domestic security measures. The invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq led to hundreds of thousands of deaths, detention and torture at Guantanamo Bay and countless other prisons, and a mass surveillance system designed to go after any perceived threat on American soil.Spencer Ackerman is a national security reporter who has spent pretty much his entire career covering the aftermath of 9/11 and five years ago he released his book, 'Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 era Destabilized America and Produced Trump'. He joins us to talk about how this continues to shape U.S. politics today. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The Mile Zero Murders investigates the baffling wave of disappearances and murders in the small town of Dawson Creek, B.C., a community struggling with a deadly local drug trade. Host Timothy Sawa explores missing person cases like that of Cole Hosack and Renee Didier, pursuing leads from grieving families, reluctant authorities and the drug dealers themselves. The question that drives this series is the same one that haunts this community: where is the justice?About UNCOVER: Crime. Investigation. Revelation. Uncover brings you explosive, high-caliber true crime year-round. From CIA mind control to serial abuse, mysterious disappearances to wrongful imprisonment. Each season features a new host who is deeply connected to the story, committed to tracking down the truth. With over 30 seasons to choose from, Uncover represents the best in true crime.More episodes of The Mile Zero Murders are available wherever you get your podcasts, and here: https://link.mgln.ai/MZMxFB

In her piece for the Atlantic, “The end of reading is here”, Rose Horowitch makes the case that across the board in the U.S. – people are reading less. According to the National Endowment for the Arts, fewer than half of all American adults reported having read a book of any kind in 2022. Horowitch speaks with host Jayme Poisson about how this decline in reading has a dramatic effect on not only our leisure time and the education system, but also the way that we think and structure our society.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

In just over a month, Quebecers will head to the ballot box. And, until recently, this election seemed like a foregone conclusion: the Parti Quebecois, running on a promise to hold another independence referendum, had been ahead in the polls for the better part of three years.Then, the Canada-U.S. trade talks collapsed, and Quebec’s political future suddenly looks uncertain. The governing Coalition Avenir Quebec has surged from a distant fourth place, the PQ has shelved its referendum until after Donald Trump leaves office, and the U.S. commerce secretary has accused Mark Carney of “manufacturing” a fight over the French language to stop the sovereigntists from winning.Paul Journet is a political columnist for La Presse, and he unpacks what this election means for the province – and for the rest of the country.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

After a vote this weekend, the far right could take power in a part of Germany for the first time since WWII. Alternative for Germany, or AfD, is far ahead in the polls in a state election in Saxony-Anhalt. They're promising massive changes to immigration, education, and what they call "patriotic cultural policy." Their rise is testing the country's firewall strategy, which was designed to stop parties seen as extremist from gaining power. CBC's Jessica Singer speaks with guest host Jason Markusoff about her reporting from the region in the run-up to the election.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts 

Protein was once mostly associated with body builders and elite athletes, but today it's advertised everywhere from cereal boxes to fast food restaurants.It's just one facet of a broader phenomenon: many are referring to apps and gadgets to count their steps, count calories, and check if they actually had a good night’s sleep. But are our attempts to enact self-care actually making us self-obsessed?Writer and cultural critic John Semley joins guest host Matthew Amha to talk about the emerging culture of wellness, technology and self-improvement.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

This weekend, U.S. President Donald Trump posted an AI-generated video of an army of geese with orange hair, holding machine guns, defending what he's now calling "Lake America." It's just the latest provocation in this new phase of the trade war we've entered. Today, Parliamentary bureau senior writer Aaron Wherry joins guest host Jason Markusoff to discuss the Carney government's plan to weather the storm and how their decision to walk away from the deal with the U.S. is reverberating politically within Canada, from the ranks of the opposition to the Alberta sovereignty debate. Plus, the significance of Monday's three federal byelections. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit:  https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts 

For most of its history, the WNBA existed on the margins of American professional sports. Its players were outspoken on race, gender and LGBTQ rights, while the league struggled for the money and attention enjoyed by men’s sports. But today, the league has never been more popular.Women’s basketball has entered a new era of mainstream attention, driven in part by stars like Caitlin Clark. But that attention has brought something else with it: the American culture war.Recently, a WNBA player has become a conservative media celebrity for her views on transgender athletes, former NBA players are trolling the league over the same issue, and even the Trump administration has taken an interest.Guest host Matthew Amha speaks to Seerat Sohi of the Ringer about how the WNBA got entangled in culture war issues and what happens when a league with a distinctive cultural identity suddenly finds itself with a much bigger, and more politically diverse, audience?For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit:  https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts 

When trade talks between Canada and the U.S. broke down last week, one of the issues that reportedly came up was Canadian streaming rules that require platforms like Netflix to make Canadian and French-language content easier to find in Canada. Prime Minister Mark Carney said that Canada would not compromise on protecting French culture. But U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said language was never the issue – rather "past discriminatory laws that target U.S. streaming companies." Vass Bednar is the managing director of the Canadian Shield Institute, and she’s spent years studying how American tech companies shape Canadian policy. She unpacks what Big Tech wants out of these trade talks – and what this latest rupture means for Canada’s digital sovereignty.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit:  https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts 

On Tuesday, in the ongoing trade war with our southern neighbour, Canada released details on counter-tariffs that will be imposed on a wide range of American products, matching the $28-billion worth of Canadians goods that have been tariffed since the weekend. It comes after days of heated rhetoric between US President Donald Trump, his officials and Canadian leaders, namely Ontario premier Doug Ford. But how is all of this registering for Americans? Especially with both parties in campaign mode ahead of the midterm elections?White House reporter for Bloomberg and Canadian living in Washington, Josh Wingrove, joins host Jayme Poisson to parse through the American reaction to the breakdown of trade talks, the ongoing escalations between Canada and the US, and the politics behind the Trump administration’s maneuvers. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

U.S. President Donald Trump is threatening yet more tariffs, saying he’ll increase levies on cars, trucks and steel to 50% on January 1. This latest announcement comes as new tariffs came into place on Saturday on a number of Canadian goods worth $28 billion after trade negotiations fell apart.Peter Armstrong, CBC’s Senior Business Reporter, is back on the show to talk about what moving forward without a deal on these new tariffs means for the Canadian economy and what Prime Minister Mark Carney’s promised “dollar-for-dollar” retaliatory tariffs could look like.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit:  https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

On Friday, Canada's trade talks with the U.S. fell apart less than an hour before the deadline for new tariffs hit. While there had been positive signs earlier in the week, Prime Minister Mark Carney says the U.S. proposed new terms in recent days that were "uneconomic, unfair" and "called into question the reliability of any deal." Former Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole is a member of the Prime Minister's Advisory Committee on Canada–U.S. Economic Relations. He joins host Jayme Poisson to shed more light on what went wrong, and what could be coming next.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts 

On Thursday, Canadian trade representatives were in Washington for more talks amid a tentative trade deal with the U.S. Coming out of the meeting, Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said that they were "very close" to reaching an agreement.Today, CBC senior parliamentary writer Aaron Wherry and Abacus Data CEO David Coletto are here to parse through what we know so far about the impending trade deal and talk about the political test Prime Minister Mark Carney will face in defending it. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

In 2020, the politics of racial justice appeared to be everywhere: the killing of George Floyd sparked one of the largest protest movements in American history, and progressive ideas about policing, prisons, racism and inequality moved into the political mainstream.But many of the central demands of the millions who took to the streets were ultimately not met.Six years later, some of the politicians and activists who came of age during that period now appear to be distancing themselves from it. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently described the politics of that era as “Woke 1,” saying: “Woke 1 was crazy.”So, what happened?Scholar, professor and author Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor joins Front Burner to talk about the legacy of that protest movement, and what happened to the wave of progressive ideas that followed it.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Late Tuesday night, U.S. President Donald Trump announced he would pause the implementation of the 50 per cent tariffs on a range of Canadian goods for three days, saying the two countries had reached a tentative agreement. Shortly after, Prime Minister Mark Carney put out a statement that read, in part: "Substantial progress has been made, although there is important work still to be done."Host Jayme Poisson spoke to senior business correspondent Peter Armstrong earlier in the night, before the announcement, about the complexity of the negotiations, the challenges in getting a deal, and the uncertainty inherent to any deal with this U.S. administration.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts 

This past weekend, Israeli strikes killed at least 11 people in southern Lebanon, according to the country’s health ministry. It was the deadliest attack since a fragile ceasefire was reached in June, meant to halt fighting between Israel and Hezbollah – though attacks continued. On top of airstrikes and drone attacks, residents and emergency workers in the region are accusing Israeli forces of intentionally starting wildfires which have been ripping through homes, forests and olive groves throughout the embattled area. All of it has people there worried about whether they’ll be able to stay and whether the hundreds of thousands displaced by the war will ever be able to return. Will Christou works for The Guardian based in Beirut. He’s been reporting on the fires, and the broader Israeli campaign in southern Lebanon. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

During Pete Hoekstra's tenure as U.S. ambassador to Canada, he has called Canada’s federal election campaign “un-American”, amplified one of Donald Trump’s “51st state” posts, and reportedly unleashed an expletive-laden tirade on an Ontario trade official. Now, a petition calling on him to be expelled from the country has gathered nearly 200,000 signatures.Today, Matina Stevis-Gridneff, the Canada bureau chief for the New York Times, tells us who Pete Hoekstra is, why some Canadians are so upset with them, and what the push to kick him out says about the Canada-U.S. relationship. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts 

Prime Minister Mark Carney's message on immigration is all about control. He has repeatedly talked about how new arrivals are down. And deportations are up, too.Today, part two of our documentary on how Canada's political class changed course on immigration, how it happened so quickly, and what it means for the country now as our population shrinks for the first time in Canada's history.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts 

It wasn't too long ago that much of Canada's political class was united in their embrace of immigration to help grow the population and with it, the economy. Now, many of those same politicians are singing a different tune as it's regularly stated as fact that Canada's immigration consensus is broken. Today, part one of a two-part documentary on the political 180 on immigration, how it happened so quickly, and what it means for Canada as the country shrinks its population for the first time in history.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts 

For more than a decade, Nigel Farage has been one of the most influential people in British politics. His anti-Europe crusade was key to securing Brexit. And up until recently, it seemed quite possible that his right-wing populist party, Reform UK, could win the next general election. Then, Andy Burnham took over as the new Labour prime minister. And a string of financial scandals appeared to put the normally unflappable Farage on his heels. In July, Farage quit his seat in parliament, saying he wanted voters to judge him in a "people versus the establishment" by-election. The other main political parties called it a stunt, and refused to put forward any candidates. On Thursday, Farage will face off against his main opponent: a joke candidate who goes by Count Binface. Farage is expected to win, but will still face an investigation and possible suspension when he returns to parliament. Sam Blewett is Politico’s UK Political Correspondent, and he joins guest host Jason Markusoff to discuss, with his approval rating at an all time low, whether Nigel Farage missed his moment. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

When Bashar al-Assad fled Syria in December 2024, it brought a sudden end to a family dynasty that had ruled the country for more than fifty years. The collapse of his government also prompted a new wave of reporting into the lives of the Assads — and particularly Bashar’s wife, Asma al-Assad.Before she became Syria’s first lady, Asma was Emma Akhras, a British-born investment banker from West London. Once profiled by Vogue as a modernizing force and “a rose in the desert,” she became one of the most controversial figures of Assad's brutal dictatorship.Chloe Hadjimatheou is The Observer's narrative editor and host of the podcast 'We Call Her Emma.' She joins guest host Jason Markusoff to discuss the transformation of Syria's former first lady and her complicity in her husband's regime. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

There's been talk of high-speed rain for generations in Canada and while there's been a lot of studies and political promises, there's not a lot to show for it. Finally, plans are taking shape for the Alto high-speed rail project, which could get you from Toronto to Montreal in just 3 hours. Except well before construction begins, it's facing push back.Farmers in Ontario and Quebec are worried about how the proposed route will affect their land. A growing chorus of politicians from the opposition Parti Quebecois to the federal Conservatives are pushing back on its massive price tag. And now, Doug Ford's Progressive Conservatives in Ontario are also questioning the project. The Toronto Star’s Queen’s Park Bureau Chief Rob Benzie joins guest host Jason Markusoff to tackle the question: could political disagreement derail this long-awaited train project?For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes throughout B.C. due to wildfires over the past week. The province warns that the fires could get worse in the coming days.The list of communities devastated by wildfires, and the intensity of the fires themselves, keeps growing. What was once a rare event has become disturbingly common. So why haven't we figured out a better way to fight wildfires? And what could we be doing differently?Mike Flannigan joins us to answer those questions. He's a professor of wildland fires at Thompson Rivers University and runs the Canada fire weather outlook. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Last Thursday, spurred by a flurry of online rumours, 72,000 migrants arrived from neighbouring Morocco to the shores of Ceuta, a tiny Spanish enclave in North Africa. According to Spanish media, around 142 of them died at the border, mostly from drowning or trampling. Within two days, most of the migrants left, largely on their own accord.But what’s lingered is a political crisis for the pro-immigration Spanish government in an increasingly anti-immigration European Union focused on border security. And questions surrounding how exactly this came to be and who’s to blame.We’re joined by Aitor Hernandez-Morales is based in Brussels, Belgium and who’s been covering the political fallout over the last week for Politico. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Earlier this summer, the federal government announced that it would build up to ten new nuclear reactors in the next fifteen years to help achieve Canada’s energy goals.Canada isn’t alone in making this kind of big investment in nuclear power. Plans are underway to build more reactors in the U.S., China, India, and across Europe. Still, there are concerns about costs, safety and the long term management of radioactive waste.Jacopo Buongiorno teaches nuclear science and engineering at MIT. He’s also the director of the school’s Center for Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems.He’s here to talk about what’s driving Canada’s – and the world’s - nuclear power boom, and what risks could come with it.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

On October 19th, Albertans will head to the polls to vote on whether or not there should be a referendum on staying a part of Canada or separating. So, how is the campaign to keep Canada united faring? What about the campaign for Alberta to leave? Today on Front Burner, guest host Jason Markusoff in Calgary speaks with Toronto Star opinion writer Richard Warnica about his reporting on both campaigns, the enthusiasm gap, and what it might mean for the future of the country. 

IDEAS, hosted by Nahlah Ayed is a daily podcast that explores how ideas over place and time shape our world.There are 19 centibillionaires and a growing list of 3,000 billionaires worldwide. So it might not surprise you that the richest one per cent possesses nearly half of the world’s wealth. History has never seen such an extreme concentration of wealth. Some economists argue the battle of the 21st century is between oligarchy and democracy. How did we get here? IDEAS begins a four-part documentary series The Billionaire Age.Listen to more episodes in this series:Listen to Part Two: Disney heiress on the dangers of extreme wealthListen to Part Three: How oligarchs are taking over the worldMore episodes of IDEAS are available here: https://link.mgln.ai/IDEASxFB

As the face of America's COVID-19 response, Anthony Fauci was a nearly constant presence in American life throughout the pandemic. To some, he was revered, reaching a sort of celebrity status. But to a movement on the American right, he eventually became a villain, accused not simply of mishandling the pandemic, but of misleading the public about its origins, and even bearing some responsibility for COVID-19 itself.This week, Fauci testified before the U.S. Senate's Homeland Security Committee, to answer for his response to the pandemic. But the proceedings took a strange turn, as he refused to answer questions, repeatedly invoking the Fifth Amendment. Daniel Engber is a senior editor at The Atlantic who co-wrote the piece, "What Anthony Fauci Didn't Say." He joins us to talk about why some Americans were so eager to put Anthony Fauci on trial.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts 

A key part of Carney's deal to get a new pipeline built in Alberta involved the creation of the Pathways Project, which he touted as "the world's largest carbon capture and utilization and storage project." Canadian political leaders, both Liberal and Conservative, have been pinning high hopes on carbon capture technology for two decades, as a way to keep oil flowing while limiting emissions. But so far, it hasn't been adopted at a mass scale.Investigative reporter Carl Meyer wrote a piece for The Narwhal about how politicians and oil companies have promoted carbon capture over the years. He joins us to talk about what we know about this technology, why we haven't seen it materialize at a large scale, and what it tells us about the politics around the climate.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

This week, Sam Altman, CEO and founder of OpenAI, got much of the tech world talking after declaring that we are living in the singularity: a theoretical point when machines, with artificial intelligence, surpass human ability and are able to grow and improve beyond our control. This comes less than a week after OpenAI admitted that two of its models went rogue and hacked another start-up. It has some American lawmakers proposing legislation that would ensure companies and the government have a “kill switch” for AI models that escape human containment. So are we at a technological point of no return? Or is it just hype? Will Douglas Heaven, Senior AI editor at the MIT Technology Review, joins us.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The Trump administration is increasingly conflating communism and the political left, casting them as threats to American national security.The rhetoric is beginning to take institutional form. The administration has directed federal agencies to investigate networks it says facilitate political violence, convened an international summit on so-called “far-left” terrorism, and published a report placing prominent American activists, politicians and organizations within a broader narrative of foreign communist influence.For some, the parallels to an earlier period of American history - the Red Scare - are difficult to ignore.Today historian Ellen Schrecker, author of Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America, joins us to examine the history of the Red Scare and whether it’s repeating itself.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Today, the Gordie Howe Bridge is set to officially open to the public, connecting Windsor, Ontario to Detroit, Michigan. Its ceremonial opening on Friday was a one-sided affair. It was originally supposed to be a joint ceremony with U.S. officials, but that was cancelled after President Donald Trump announced his plans to hit Canada with a new whack of tariffs. That’s just one of the many bumps in the road to getting this bridge open.CBC Windsor reporter Emma Loop has been reporting on the Gordie Howe Bridge for years. She talks about the long journey to the opening, and how it represents the Canada-U.S. relationship writ large.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

As part of the federal government’s AI strategy, hyperscale data centres are being built across the country with many more projects being proposed. But, communities are pushing back, and it’s capturing the attention of local governments.Projects in Ontario, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan have been the subject of protests and petitions for moratoriums. A recent Angus Reid poll reported that 68 per cent of Canadians object to a data centre being built near them.As Prime Minister Mark Carney pushes an agenda of digital sovereignty and AI expansion, we look at how Canadians are responding to the rapid construction of data centres, and the risks AI poses to the environment and local communities.Paris Marx joins us. He is a tech journalist and the host of the podcast, Tech Won’t Save Us. He’s got a book coming out this October called 'Hyperscale: The Ambition and Excess of Big Tech's Data Empires.'For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts 

On Wednesday morning, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to bomb one Iranian bridge or powerplant every time a ship passing through the Strait of Hormuz gets shot at. It’s yet more evidence that the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran is over, after twelve days of renewed military escalation.As the conflict wades into this next phase, we look at how things fell apart, the damage taken on both sides, and whether we're headed into endless war. Trita Parsi joins us. He is the executive vice president of the Quincy Institute and the author of several books about the U.S and Iran, including Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the United States.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts 

On Monday night, US President Donald Trump signed orders to impose a 50 per cent tariff on a wide swath of Canadian goods ranging from hockey sticks to envelopes to Christmas decorations. The tariffs are scheduled to take effect on August 19th. Prime Minister Mark Carney says he spoke with Trump on Tuesday morning and that they have agreed to intensify negotiations in the coming weeks. Jayme Poisson speaks to trade expert Eric Miller about the significance of these tariffs and why they’re happening now. Miller is the president of Rideau Potomac Strategy Group where his clients include critical mineral and potash companies. He’s also a fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

It’s no secret that there are factions in the Conservative movement in Canada and that not everyone gets along. But over the last couple of weeks Conservative infighting has spilled out into the public with barbs in speeches, podcasts, and social media. Nick Taylor-Vaisey is the Ottawa bureau chief with Politico Canada. He breaks down the sniping and what it says about the state of the Conservative party.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

In a nationally televised address last week, U.S. President Donald Trump repeated claims about fraud and foreign interference in the 2020 election and announced the release of declassified documents he says reveal a government cover-up.But with the midterms approaching, there remains much concern that Trump's speech, and his years-long conspiracies, aren't really about the election he lost but the midterm elections still to come.David A. Graham is a staff writer at The Atlantic who has reported extensively on the threats facing American elections. He joins us to examine Trump's latest claims, the evidence behind them and whether the U.S. president is laying the groundwork for America's next election crisis.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

As the planet heats up, wildfire seasons are getting worse. Wildfires have caused mass destruction to homes and community infrastructure in Collins First Nation. Thousands of people have been evacuated from their communities across Northern Ontario. Fires continue to rage across the country.Even those of us living in cities, safe from the flames, are feeling the effects. Toronto briefly had the worst air quality in the entire world this week, which led to government warnings to limit time outside, cancelled World Cup screenings and shutdowns of public pools. And it’s more than a nuisance. The Canadian Climate Institute estimates that wildfire smoke is associated with about 2,500 premature deaths per year across the country.David Wallace-Wells is a climate journalist and author of The Uninhabitable Earth. He joins us to talk about what it means that wildfire smoke is becoming a more regular part of our lives, and its place in the larger battle for clean air around the world. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Recently, in the U.S., there’s been a wave of self described democratic socialists running for and winning elected office.There is the improbable case of Zohran Mamdani who won his New York mayoral campaign. But there are other high profile races where establishment incumbents are being unseated by much younger insurgents. From Denver to New York, Washington D.C. to Seattle.Even here in Canada, NDP leader Avi Lewis is a long-time self-described democratic socialist. According to new Gallup polling, “socialism” is officially viewed more favourably among democratic voters than “capitalism.” It’s a big shift from where we were not too long ago. So what exactly is democratic socialism? How does it differ from socialism, communism, or social democracy? Why has it returned now? And what does its resurgence reveal about this hour of history?Bhaskar Sunkara is the president of The Nation magazine, founder and editorial director of Jacobin, the former Vice-Chair of the Democratic Socialists of America and the author of books including ‘The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in an Era of Extreme Inequality.’For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The Gaza peace plan and ceasefire, announced last October, is in limbo.Israeli forces have continued their strikes and expanded control of the strip beyond the lines originally agreed upon in the plan. Humanitarian aid is trickling in but there are still concerns about how it’s being distributed. The U.S.-led Board of Peace, created to handle the resolution of violence and reconstruction in Gaza, has made little progress.But last week, Hamas announced that they are ready to hand over the authority of governing Gaza to a group of US-backed Palestinian technocrats. Is this the breakthrough needed to get things back on track?Hugh Lovatt is a Senior Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. He’s here to talk about where things stand in Gaza and what this latest announcement from Hamas means for the Palestinian people.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts 

Lindsey Graham, the U.S. Republican Senator from South Carolina, died on Sunday at 71. Before Donald Trump won the Republican nomination in 2016, Graham was a high-profile critic of the future president, calling him “hateful,” a “kook,” and a “race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot.” But over time, Graham became a key ally, championing Trump through his many controversies. Will Saletan of the Bulwark sees Graham’s trajectory as emblematic of the Republican party’s transformation under Trump. He joins Jayme Poisson to discuss the conspiracy theories swirling around Graham’s death and his political legacy.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts 

It’s no secret that Prime Minister Mark Carney thinks Canada should reduce its dependence on the U.S. It’s a message he delivered on the world stage in Davos. But new reporting from the Wall Street Journal illustrates how Carney has been making this pitch to European leaders behind the scenes, and how he’s become a central figure in the attempts to reimagine the West’s alliances. Today on Front Burner, journalists Joe Parkinson and Drew Hinshaw on their reporting, gleaned from conversations with heads of government, ministers, top aides, as well as detailed notes of private meetings and classified intelligence assessments. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Mark Carney met with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman in Saudi Arabia this week, aiming to strengthen ties and build up our economic relationship in areas like AI and critical minerals.It’s been 26 years since a Canadian Prime Minister visited the country, despite the fact that they’re a major trading partner. The relationship had come with friction over things like Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, human rights abuses, and political repression. Canadian-Saudi relations hit an all-time low during Justin Trudeau's tenure, and Dennis Horak was expelled from his post as Canada’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia in 2018. Now, almost eight years later, he’s applauding this move by the current government to renew the relationship. Horak joins us to talk about how relations soured, and why he thinks we’re headed back in the right direction.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The U.S. midterms are coming up this fall. They could flip control of the House and possibly the Senate. But both parties are dealing with difficult messes. Progressive Democratic candidate Graham Platner’s Senate campaign in Maine imploded after allegations of sexual assault, which has laid bare a war in his party. Republican infighting ground Congress to a halt. And Senator Mitch McConnell has not been seen or heard by the public for weeks, following a hospitalization. Alex Shephard, senior editor of the New Republic, joins us to break down the state of each party heading into these consequential elections. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

This week, Prime Minister Carney is in Turkey to attend the NATO summit. Ahead of leaving for Ankara, he announced the procurement of 12 submarines from the German company TKMS, in what’s expected to be the largest military procurement deal in Canada’s history.Carney says that these submarines, along with a slew of other military investments, will allow Canada to assert our full sovereignty in the Arctic.Today, we are focusing on the Arctic. Earlier this year – the Liberal government announced a plan to modernize and expand the military’s footprint in the North. This is all in a bid to assert sovereignty in a region where Russia and China’s influence is growing.Anne Shibata Casselman is a science journalist based in B.C. She makes the argument that the path to asserting that sovereignty must put the people who live on the land and have claim to it at the centre. She just wrote a deeply reported piece in Maclean’s about this, called “The Arctic Needs Defending. Canada Isn’t Ready.”For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

In the aftermath of an act of public violence, attention often turns to a document. Sometimes it’s a letter, a blog post, or a video, that gets referred to as a manifesto.Very quickly the public coalesces around these documents. Journalists struggle to consider what to print, authorities debate whether they should be released, and researchers scour them for clues.Following the recent incel attack in Montreal, we engage in these questions, and more. What ingredients make up a manifesto? What are they designed to accomplish? And what responsibility do the rest of us have when confronted with one?Today, we’re joined by J.M. Berger, author of several books including “Extremism.’ He’s also a senior research fellow for the Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Aaron Wherry, senior writer at CBC's parliamentary bureau and good friend of the show, is here to parse through last week’s big pipeline announcement with Alberta and the deal that Prime Minister Carney made with B.C. to get it all done.Plus: The 24 Sussex national home reno nightmare turned crowdfunding campaign.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The Canadian defence industry can’t grow the way Prime Minister Mark Carney is proposing by just selling domestically. That’s why another aim of the Defence Industrial Strategy is to grow Canadian defence exports by 50%. So what could happen when the world comes knocking on our defence industry’s door?This is part two of a two part documentary. Part one aired on July 2nd. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts