The Current

Canada's Minister of AI and Digital Innovation, Evan Solomon, wants to see mass adoption of AI, and the government is bringing in a series of measures to make platforms safer. We speak to him about the government's revamped privacy legislation, its Safe Social Media Act, and its overarching AI strategy.

Scientists say El Niño, the Pacific weather pattern that pushes up global temperatures, is underway, and could be one of the most intense on record,  causing floods, droughts and wreaking havoc on farmers' crops. We speak with New York Times columnist and best-selling author of The Uninhabitable Earth,  David Wallace-Wells, about what we can learn from past El Niños and what this one might bring.

Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary wants passengers to stop drinking so much before flights. He says his airline is diverting at least one plane a day because of drunk and disorderly behaviour. But not everyone is ready to give up the tradition of a drink before take-off.

The new book “London Falling” tells the true story of Zac Brettler, a 19-year-old Londoner who falls to his death in the Thames after living a double life pretending to be the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch. We speak with bestselling author Patrick Radden Keefe about mystery, money and police inaction as he searched for answers about Zac’s death.

This is the last week politicians will spend in Ottawa before scattering for the summer, and there’s plenty on the government’s to-do list. Our National Affairs Panel — CBC's Rosemary Barton, The Globe and Mail's Stephanie Levitz and the Toronto Star's Ryan Tumilty — takes a close look at how political leaders should be spending their summer ahead of what could be a high-stakes fall.

On Sunday, President Donald Trump celebrated his eightieth birthday — and the 250th anniversary of the United States — by hosting the UFC Freedom 250 event on the South Lawn of the White House. We speak with MMA sports analyst and Kombat Morning podcast host, Luke Thomas, about how the UFC helped President Trump reach an audience of young men, and what this latest event says about the power and influence of the sport.

There are a lot of strange things transported by highway in Canada. Full houses on wheels, wind turbine blades, taller than a duplex — and coming soon,  along Newfoundland's Route 90: maybe the strangest load ever; decades-old fish sauce. The kind of sauce that’s used for dipping and marinating in Asian cuisines. It’s a condiment many people in Newfoundland and Labrador have never even tried. CBC’s  Mary-Catherine McIntosh looks into where those loads are headed, how the sauce came to be, and why the mayor of a tiny town called St. Mary’s will be standing by, watching the trucks back away from his community likely, he says, in tears in her documentary: Fish Sauce.

The U-S and Iran have reached an agreement to end nearly four months of fighting. Thousands of people have been killed and the global economy has been rocked by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The deal is set to be formally signed this Friday. We speak with Gregg Carlstrom, the Middle East correspondent for The Economist on what this deal reportedly includes, and what’s next for negotiations.

The Current celebrates Canadian soccer in all its diversity in a special show from CBC’s Toronto HQ. Matt Galloway welcomes: - Team Canada legends Diana Matheson and Craig Forrest to break down Canada’s chances - Toronto hip hop ambassador and FIFA fan fest coordinator Kardinal Offishall - Inspiring coaches who are turning the Greater Toronto Area into a soccer powerhouse and force for community connection - Fans from across the GTA who are turning the city into an international party - Plus music by two-time Polaris Prize winner Shad 

Federal Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture, Marc Miller on how Canada's government intends to make the internet safe, and if social media giants like Meta will listen. 

For decades after the Second World War, more than 300,000 unmarried women were sent away to live with relatives or in federal grant-funded maternity homes. There, they were coerced into giving up their babies. Some mothers have reconnected with their grown children, while many have not. Now, some say an apology from the government is long overdue. We speak with mothers Valerie Andrews and Christine Nayler, as well as Lynda Hall, a daughter forcibly given up.

Rioters egged on by far right figures torched vehicles and homes in the Northern Irish city. The chaos followed a stabbing where the accused is a Sudanese refugee. City councillor Séamas de Faoite decries the violence and urges outsiders to stop inflaming tensions.

Can't concentrate? What about thinking deeply? Attention spans are shrinking rapidly. Cal Newport, a professor of computer science at Georgetown University and the author of the bestselling book 'Deep Work' says we're facing a crisis — an attack on our ability to think. He's calling for what he calls a revolution in defence of thinking. He outlines the steps for reclaiming your attention.

A New Brunswick woman known as "Alice" wandered from her care home 12 times before dying cold and alone. The province's deputy senior advocate tells us what went wrong. Her B.C. counterpart says seniors there are also vulnerable with more than 7,000 waiting for a bed and no plan to fix the problem.

After more than 50 years of losing, the New York Knicks basketball team is back in the NBA finals against the San Antonio Spurs and their super star Victor Wembanyama. New York sports journalist Alex Day tells us about the electric vibe in his city, leading up to game 4.

Steven D'Souza, co-host of CBC’s The Fifth Estate, takes us inside the program's investigation into Cricket Canada — to explain why the sport in Canada is in turmoil. There are allegations of match fixing, and corruption, and recent incidents of violence that may be linked to organized crime.

You read the alerts about upcoming storms. You might pore over the radar maps to see if it'll be sunny for your school fun fair. These days, many of us are checking our weather apps multiple times a day. But how useful is the info we find there? And should we just go experience the weather instead of obsessing over it? We talk to Newfoundland meteorologist Eddie Sheerr about what happens when our phones make it even easier to indulge in our weather fixations.

It's the largest soccer tournament in World Cup history, with 104 matches in 16 host cities in three countries, creating unprecedented security and logistical challenges. We speak with reporters on the ground in three host cities, Mexico City, Miami and Dallas, about how locals are feeling, security issues, the cost and the expectations ahead of kickoff.

CBC's Health reporter Lauren Pelley brings you the story of groundbreaking research into CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy — and hope for the future, and saving lives.

Canadian musician and author Rollie Pemberton, aka Cadence Weapon, looks at how algorithms on platforms like Spotify and YouTube are changing the way we find and listen to music — and what that means for our taste and artists' creativity.

Father James Martin is known around the world for giving voice to Catholics who are often excluded from their church, including those in the LGBTQ community. In his new book “Work in Progress” he writes about how he found faith in the margins and why his most important life lessons came working as a busboy in a busy small town restaurant.

By one definition, Canada is now in a recession. But last week Canada also had a strong jobs report, and posted its first trade surplus in months. So what the heck is going on? We speak to three leading economic analysts — Charles St Arnaud from Servus Credit Union, Angelo Melino from the University of Toronto and the C.D. Howe Institute and Armine Yalnizyan, Atkinson Fellow on the Future of Workers. 

For 10 years now, B.C.’s drug crisis has been a public health emergency. And over that time, we’ve brought you many stories, but this is one you will not have heard before. It’s rooted in the understanding that the vast majority of the drug-related deaths aren’t occurring in Vancouver’s notorious Downtown Eastside, but rather among men, alone at home. In his documentary, Radio-Canada’s Francis Plourde brings us on an unusual tour, meeting drug users trying to stay safe by relying on a man they’ve come to know as their “doctor.”

Unicode is taking pitches for emojis. Graphic designer Jennifer Daniel helps decide which ones make it. She says a successful emoji should have multiple meanings. Sorry aerial tramway ;)

The federal government has greenlit a plan to move the belugas at the shuttered Niagara Falls theme park to aquariums in Spain and the United States. UBC marine mammal expert Andrew Trites explains what it will take to get the whales out of their pool, onto a plane and into new homes -- and why he thinks it's the best option.

We dig into what the federal government's plan is for Artificial Intelligence in Canada.

David Balzer of Winnipeg is spending his summer recording people's stories of gratitude. Since 2023, the associate professor of Communications and Media at Canadian Mennonite University has set up a mobile recording studio at community events and invites people to share a story of a kind neighbour. He records in hopes they will share it with the neighbour to generate appreciation and community connection.

David Sedaris talks about his latest essay collection The Land and Its People. He reveals the news he'd kept from his family, that he secretly married his long-time boyfriend Hugh in 2016, and he reflects on his Duolingo obsession, his visit with Pope Francis, the aging process, and more.

Meet people who blow out the candles on a different day than the one they were born on. Some hate the time of year their birthday falls. Others are celebrating a life change so big it feels like a rebirth. And for one woman, it's all about the vibes.

For the first time in 28 years Scotland is headed to the World Cup. Now a butcher in the small village of Dunning, Scotland is trying to convince the American government to lift a decades long ban on traditional haggis so fans can celebrate with the country's national dish.

We speak with New York Times reporter Declan Walsh who has just returned from a hospital in Congo where Ebola patients are treated with limited resources.  

SpaceX is going public with a sky high valuation of over $1 trillion. Max Chafkin, a reporter with Bloomberg, and the co-host of the podcast “Everybody’s Business” breaks down what this could mean for the larger economy and for investors.

Most young people have heard the warnings about cancer and sun damage. Many of them are soaking up the sun anyway. Montreal dermatologist Dr. Ivan Litvinov says Gen Z may feel invincible, but they're not. So doctors need to find creative ways to get their message to land.

A new group of conservative politicians and academics is pushing back against the separatist movement in Alberta. They call themselves Lead Not Leave and describe themselves as "frustrated federalists.” We’re joined by two of the group's founders, former Alberta finance minister Travis Toews and Jared Wesley of the University of Alberta to discuss the source of Alberta's grievances, and how they plan to counter the separatist movement.

Is your job all about meetings? And emails? And meetings that should have been an email? Some corporate workers say the pandemic pulled back the curtain on “bullshit jobs.” And now with a worsening economy and the threat of AI disruption, they’re left wondering what value and meaning there is beyond the paycheque.

At a moment when there's a growing backlash and resistance against the AI that's starting to permeate so many parts of our life — tech journalist Joanna Stern went all in. She decided to  see what would happen if she spent a year using AI in almost every part of her  life. She used it to communicate, to help her plan her dinners, to track all her conversations. And she even created an AI boyfriend named Evan. The results of the experiment are in her new book, I Am Not A Robot: My Year Using AI to do (Almost) Everything.

As the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel escalates, we hear from people in Lebanon about how the fighting is affecting their lives. From Israel, political analyst Dahlia Scheindlin describes the sense of insecurity among Israelis, especially along the border, pushing the government's actions.

In any given year, 1 in 5 Canadians suffer from a mental illness. Now there are growing calls to include counselling and psychotherapy in our publicly funded system. We speak with Jaden Dulle who struggled with depression and PTSD in his early twenties and went into debt paying for counselling, and two experts who weigh in on the current system, how it's addressing the mental health crisis, and whether publicly funded mental healthcare is the answer.

Montreal is the gourmet capital of Canada, and the cookbook author and former restaurant critic Lesley Chesterman is an evangelist for the food culture of her hometown. For decades, she has been writing about what makes Montreal food great, from the bagels and smoked meat to the restaurants, markets, patisseries and cheese shops. Now, she wants you to cook like a local. We talk to her about her new book, A Montreal Cookbook: Recipes and Reflections From My Kitchen.

Sealtest’s six per cent milk has hit the dairy aisles in Ontario grocery stores. With nearly twice the fat found in whole milk, it’s a staple in South Asian recipes. US President Donald Trump has promised to reintroduce whole milk in the United States’ school lunch programs, but Health Canada advises lower-fat options for ages above 2-years-old. We speak with Anika Dhalla, a South Asian registered dietician, about the dairy aisle’s new addition and the trend towards whole milk

E-bikes come with a lot of benefits. Zero emissions and a quick convenient way to get around town. But a growing number of critics say they pose serious danger to riders and the public. We talk to Vancouver lawyer Michael Parrish about the legal grey zone around e-bikes and to Dr. Louise McNaughton-Filion, who led a review of e-bike deaths for the Ontario Office of the Chief Coroner.

Canada, the U.S. and Mexico are due to review their three-way trade deal July 1 — but one month out, how are things looking for this country? Former acting U.S. Trade Representative in President Trump's first term, Stephen Vaughn, shares the American perspective; and Brian Clow, who handled Canada-U.S. relations as deputy chief of staff to former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Jacques Shore, partner at law firm Gowling WLG and expert on international trade, map out the potential path forward for Canada

Sharlene Rochard is an Epstein survivor and the only Canadian to come forward publicly with allegations against him. She says the abuse started when she was a teenage model and continued into her 20s. But it took her more than two decades to confront what happened. The Documentary: Butterfly is a look at how she found her voice and her push for accountability.

Russia is warning foreigners to leave Kyiv in order to avoid a coming assault. But Ukrainian MP Inna Sovsun and Russian dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza say Ukraine and its allies should not be intimidated.

The fight for an Uber union in Canada has been years in the making – this week drivers in Victoria, British Columbia ratified a deal, the first of its kind in Canada. A look at what they fought for and what this contract could mean for app-based workers across the country.

Grip strength might seem like a small thing, but researchers say it can reveal a lot about how we age. Health and fitness journalist Alyssa Ages explains why grip strength is linked to longevity, what it actually reflects about the body, and how to maintain strength in realistic, everyday ways.

Sidewalk Talk in Victoria is a community listening group that’s on a mission to help people in the city foster human connections and a sense of belonging. We chat with one of the group’s volunteers about why talking with strangers is so important and how being a good listener is a skill that needs to be practiced.

As B.C. Premier David Eby contends with a potential Alberta pipeline, he’s also facing questions about Indigenous land rights, and other policies he’s had to roll back. On top of this, the B.C. Conservatives are picking up steam as they get set to elect a new leader this weekend. Katie DeRosa, CBC’s provincial affairs reporter in B.C., and Rob Shaw, political correspondent for CHEK News in Victoria, take a close look at the complex political picture in the province.

Matt Galloway sits down with British Columbia Premier David Eby to discuss pipelines, property rights, and his province’s relationship with Ottawa and neighbouring Alberta.

Adélie penguins are the smallest and most widespread penguin species in the Antarctic, and one place you find them is Cape Royds. Conservation biologist Louise K. Blight is one of very few people who's spent time in the remote field camp in Cape Royds, living alongside those penguins, and doing field research. We’ll talk to the author of “Where the Earth Meets the Sky: A Story of Penguins, People, and Place in Antarctica," about the magic and mystery of Antarctica, the power of solitude, and what it’s like to be courted by an emperor penguin?