Lean Out with Tara Henley

In this turbulent era, for many of us there is a moment in every day when anxiety steals over us. We pause, and in that rare period of stillness, the fears surface — but sometimes, if we're lucky, so too do the reflections and the insights. Our guest on today's program has called this interlude “the catastrophe hour,” and she's just published a book of essays that beautifully captures it.Meghan Daum is an American essayist and the host of the Unspeakable Podcast. Her latest book is The Catastrophe Hour.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

Now that the dust has settled on the Canadian federal election, we can pause for a moment and assess where we are at as a country. What lessons can we take from the election results? Our guest on today's program has been polling Canadians for decades — and he says that we are now a divided nation.Darrell Bricker is the CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs. He's also the author of six bestselling books, including, with John Ibbitson, The Big Shift: The Seismic Change in Canadian Politics, Business, and Culture and What It Means for Our Future. His recent essay for The Hub is titled “Victory Without Unity.”You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

One of the most polarizing policies of the pandemic era was the extended school closures. Critics have now been validated, with The New York Times reporting that “a growing body of research shows that pandemic school closures came at a steep cost to students” — while doing little to stop the spread of the virus. Our guest on the program today is a journalist who's just published a deep dive investigation into the flawed decision-making behind these controversial closures.David Zweig is an American journalist and author. His latest book is An Abundance of Caution: American Schools, the Virus, and a Story of Bad Decisions.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

Last week, at the English-language election debate, the leaders' press scrums were cancelled after tensions between media outlets erupted into shouting in the press room, and other confrontations. This incident is a distressing example of how polarized our press has become. But of course, we are not the first country to grapple with this dynamic. My guest on the program today lived through political polarization in Venezuela — and he has some important lessons to share.Victor Febres is an Atlanta-based journalist and videographer. He's also a former activist for peaceful conflict resolution.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

As election day nears, Lean Out continues to highlight the issues that we feel have not received enough attention in this news cycle. My guest on the program today is a physician who serves on death review committee with Ontario's Office of the Chief Coroner. In today's emotional interview, we take a close look at medical assistance in dying, or MAiD — and her concerns about how it's playing out in practice.Ramona Coelho is a family doctor, and a founding member of Physicians Together With Vulnerable Canadians. She's a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, and has just co-edited a new book, titled Unravelling MAiD in Canada: Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide as Medical Care.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

We are in the final week of the Canadian federal election. And while Trump's trade policy has received much coverage this election season, our housing crisis has been less of a priority for the legacy press. We at Lean Out happen to think this is the most important issue in the country — and so, on today's program, our guest is here to answer every question you've ever had on the crisis, and how we got here.Mike Moffatt is a Canadian economist, the founding director of the Missing Middle Initiative, and co-host of the Missing Middle podcast. Mike Moffatt returns to the program, today on Lean Out.This episode was taped last week, before the release of the Liberal platform and the Conservative announcement of its housing plan.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

For some time now, writers and thinkers outside this country have been asking me: What happened to Canada? Our guest on the program today has asked this question himself, in a new book that takes a deep dive into our decline — and arrives just in time for the federal election.Tristin Hopper is a columnist and reporter for The National Post, based in Victoria, B.C. His new book is Don't Be Canada: How One Country Did Everything Wrong All At Once.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

As we all navigate a period rife with political tensions on both sides of the Canada/U.S. border, we wanted to bring you an incredible story that celebrates the human spirit and affirms our common humanity. Our guest on the program today was an eight-month-old baby when her parents smuggled her out of communist Vietnam, crossing the South China Sea to begin a new life. Decades later, she reports for the Today show.Vicky Nguyen is an NBC News Daily anchor and Chief Consumer Investigative correspondent. She reports for the Today show, Nightly News, and NBC News Now. Her New York Times-bestselling debut is Boat Baby.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

Throughout the Canadian federal election, we're taking weekly breaks to think and talk about other things. On today's program, in light of ongoing debates in American pop culture, we'll be discussing the phenomenon of heteropessimism with a Toronto culture critic who is quite literally writing the book on it.Phoebe Maltz Bovy is a Toronto-based journalist, author, and podcaster. She's co-host of the Feminine Chaos podcast, opinion editor at The Canadian Jewish News, and a contributing columnist for The Globe and Mail. Her forthcoming podcast is The Jewish Angle.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

Women's fertility is a third rail in Canadian politics. We all learned this again last week, when Pierre Poilievre made a comment about biological clocks that sparked outrage. If you followed the controversy in the mainstream media only, you might not know that a number of women were glad to see Poilievre raise the issue of fertility — including my guest on today's show.Melanie Paradis the president of Texture Communications and a veteran Conservative campaigner. Her recent piece for The Line is titled “Poilievre was right to bring up my biological clock.”You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

During the 2025 Canadian election season, we'll be pausing from time to time to take a breather and to think about other issues — often interesting new books. My guest on today's program is a blues musician, a scholar, and a heterodox thinker. He joins us for a conversation about his deeply personal new book on interracial family life in the south.Adam Gussow is a professional harmonica player and a professor of English at the University of Mississippi. His new book is My Family & I: A Mississippi Memoir.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

One of the big stories in the Canadian federal election so far has been the collapse of support for the NDP. New polling from Ipsos shows support for the party continuing to decline. Our guest on today's program is a former labour representative — and he has some thoughts on where the traditional party of working people has gone wrong.Brian Dijkema is the president of Cardus Canada, a public policy think tank, and senior editor of Comment Magazine.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

As election season builds steam, here at Lean Out we are focused on the question of why daily life in Canada has become so expensive and so dysfunctional. My guest on today's program has some insights to share. He recently wrote a well-researched book on the federal government's corporate subsidies — which, he says, “exploded in magnitude” under Justin Trudeau.Laurent Carbonneau works in public policy in Ottawa, on innovation, science, and technology issues. He's a former NDP staffer and the author of the recent book, At the Trough: The Rise and Rise of Canada's Corporate Welfare Bums.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

With the Canadian federal election now underway, we're going to have a lot of political content for you in coming weeks. But today, we wanted to change things up a bit and bring you a lighter story about books — and how hard it is these days to find bookstores that stock a range of different perspectives. Our guest on today's program argues that booksellers are locked in a moral contract with their clientele, and it's resulted in a narrowing of the titles on offer.Ann Bauer is an American essayist and novelist. Her recent piece for Persuasion is “What Independent Bookshops Really Sell.”You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

After much speculation, Prime Minister Mark Carney has called a snap spring election, and Canadians will be heading to the polls on April 28. To kick off Lean Out's special election coverage, we bring you a conversation with a veteran Canadian journalist about the unusual moment the country is in — and why, in his view, the current disconnect between the federal government and voters is a once in a generation occurrence.Tom Korski is the managing editor of Blacklock's Reporter, an Ottawa-based outlet.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

In the wake of President Trump's executive order on DEI, debates in America have renewed a conversation around DEI in this country. And while the baseline value of greater inclusion is one that many of us share, some DEI programs have proven controversial. Our guest on this bonus episode is the author of a recent report that dives into DEI practices in Canadian federal granting agencies — and asks if they impede political and ideological neutrality and research excellence. Dave Snow is an associate professor of political science at the University of Guelph. He's also a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, and the author of a new MLI report, “Promoting excellence … or activism? Equity, diversity, and inclusion at Canada's federal granting agencies.” You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

With Mark Carney in his first week in office as Canada's new Prime Minister, the Justin Trudeau era is quickly fading in the rearview mirror. But before we move on, it's important to take stock of what went on in this country during Trudeau's tenure. Our guest on today's program says it is time for a national conversation about Trudeau's legacy. And, in his words, “it's not flattering.”Andrew Potter is a Canadian author, and an associate professor at the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University. His latest column for The Line is titled “Justin Trudeau never cared about Canada.” Andrew Potter returns to the program.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

Regular listeners of the show will recognize the name Aaron Pete. He's a talented young broadcaster from B.C. who has guest hosted Lean Out from time to time. Last month Aaron invited Tara on his show, the Bigger Than Me podcast, to discuss some of the hot-button issues from the past few years, and how the Canadian media has handled them. Tara enjoyed their conversation so much that we are going to share it with you here today, in this special episode of the program, where we turn the tables — and Tara is the one answering the questions.  Aaron Pete is host of the Bigger Than Me podcast. Tara is in the interview chair with Aaron Pete.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

On Monday night, American legislation to ban transgender athletes from women's and girls' sports in schools was blocked in the Senate. The topic was a sleeper issue in the American election — with polling showing public support for sports participation based on biological sex. Today on the program, in an episode recorded ahead of the Senate vote, we ask why some feminists have backed Trump, in conversation with a British author and columnist who argues that Trump has actually done much to advance women's rights. Joanna Williams is a columnist for Spiked magazine, and the author of How Woke Won. Joanna Williams returns to the podcast. You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

One of the themes of the Lean Out podcast is the breakdown of trust between men and women. For a marker of this rupture, we need only look to declining marriage rates. Our guest on today's program has penned a new book about the institution of marriage, making the case that we should reconsider its benefits — not just for individual health and happiness, but for overall societal good.Andrea Mrozek is a senior fellow at Cardus Family. With Peter Jon Mitchell, she's written a new book titled I…Do? Why Marriage Still Matters. Andrea Mrozek returns to the podcast.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

This week, we're changing things up, here at Lean Out. We are pleased to be able to bring you an episode of Tara's new media criticism podcast with The Hub. Her co-hosts are Harrison Lowman, managing editor of The Hub, and Peter Menzies, a former newspaper executive. On this show, they discuss an interview with the new president of the CBC, the use of anonymous sources in Canadian media — and why some women may object to being referred to as “pregnant people.” Enjoy!You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

Negotiations over border security and the Trump administration's tariffs have once again highlighted the opioid crisis that's taking so many lives on both sides of the border. Today on the program, we're going to leave behind the political and instead focus on the personal. My guest is a beloved Canadian sportscaster who lost his son to an overdose — and who has managed to transform his family's pain into hope.Scott Oake is an award-winning sportscaster for CBC Sports, Sportsnet, and Hockey Night in Canada. He's the author of For the Love of a Son: A Memoir of Addiction, Loss, and Hope, and a founder of the Bruce Oake Recovery Centre.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

It's been a whirlwind news cycle here in Canada, in the wake of President Donald Trump imposing 25 percent tariffs on Canadian goods. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has now announced that these tariffs are on hold for 30 days, as Canada implements its 1.3-billion-dollar border strategy, aimed at stopping the flow of fentanyl. The American tariffs have come as a surprise for many in this country. But our guest on today's program says they have, in fact, been in the making for some time.Jeff Rubin is a Canadian economist, bestselling author, and a former chief economist and chief strategist for CIBC World Markets. His most recent book is A Map of the New Normal: How Inflation, War, and Sanctions Will Change Your World Forever. Jeff Rubin returns to the program.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

The Liberal leadership race is heating up, and former deputy prime minister and finance minister Chrystia Freeland has now thrown her hat in the ring. Freeland is a powerful figure in Canadian politics, a former journalist who went on to become one of the Prime Minister's most loyal cabinet members — until her surprise resignation in December. Today on the program, as Freeland campaigns to win the Liberal leadership, and thus the top job in the country, we take a closer look at her life and its controversies with the author of a recent biography.Catherine Tsalikis is a Toronto journalist who covers foreign policy, politics, and gender. She's the author of Chrystia: From Peace River to Parliament Hill.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

This week on the Lean Out podcast, we continue our coverage of a chaotic time in Canadian politics. As many of you know, in the wake of Justin Trudeau's resignation, the Prime Minister asked our Governor General to prorogue Parliament until March 24, as the Liberal Party conducts its leadership race. This move has sparked a legal challenge, and over the weekend a judge agreed to expediate the court's hearing. Our guest on the program today is a Canadian lawyer and bestselling author who has insights to share on this issue.Christine Van Geyn is litigation director of the Canadian Constitution Foundation, and the host of the TV show, Canadian Justice.This episode mentions the WE Charity scandal. You can read background on that herYou can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

If you follow Canadian politics — and even if you don't — you probably know that we are in a historic moment in this country. Just over a week ago, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that he would be resigning as leader of the Liberal Party and intended to step down as prime minister as soon as a new leader was in place. Parliament is now prorogued until March 24, at a time of heightened tensions with the United States. Our guest on the podcast today is a veteran Canadian journalist. She returns to the show to unpack all of the mind-boggling developments.Jen Gerson is co-founder and co-editor of The Line, a popular Canadian commentary platform.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

Lean Out is back from our holiday break, and we are resuming our interview series on the challenges facing modern men. Our guest on the program this week is someone we've been wanting to speak to for some time. He's a former martial arts fighter who has spoken to tens of thousands of men — and he has some insights to share on how to forge healthier ideals for masculinity.Richie Hardcore is a retired Muay Thai champion in New Zealand. He's a coach, and an educator and public speaker on masculinity, sexuality, and violence prevention.This podcast series is dedicated to Marc Antoine Jubinville. May he rest in peace.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

New Year's Day is often a day of quiet contemplation. A day to take stock of our lives, to review the past year and to look toward the one to come. As we settle in with our coffees, we wanted to bring you an encore presentation of one most powerful interviews of the year — with a war reporter who spent his adult life on the frontlines, until one day the frontlines came for him. Today on the program: A near-death experience and what it reveals about the sacredness of life.Sebastian Junger is an American journalist, the bestselling author of Tribe, Freedom, and The Perfect Storm, and an Oscar-nominated filmmaker. His latest book is In My Time of Dying: How I Came Face o Face With the Idea of An Afterlife.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

No podcast series on the challenges facing modern men is complete without hearing from my guest on today's program. He's a policy scholar who has been ringing the alarm on the social, economic, and health crises facing men for years now — so much so that he recently founded a national research organization dedicated to tackling these issues. Today on Lean Out, we're pleased to bring you an encore presentation of our 2022 conversation about his ground-breaking book.Richard V. Reeves is the founding president of the American Institute for Boys and Men. His latest book is Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What To Do About It.This podcast series is dedicated to Marc Antione Jubinville. May he rest in peace.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

This week at Lean Out, we continue our podcast series on the challenges facing modern men, from declining educational achievement to rising suicides and overdoses. We're happy to bring you an encore presentation of an interview from 2022, with a political economist who says prime, working age men in America are facing Great Depression-era levels of joblessness. The collapse of work — today on Lean Out.Nicholas Eberstadt holds the Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute. He's also the author of Men Without Work.This podcast series is dedicated to Marc Antione Jubinville. May he rest in peace.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

Today at Lean Out, we continue our series on the challenges facing modern men. My guest on the program has done pioneering work on the increasing gender gap in American society and politics. He's thought a lot about the dangers of men and women growing apart — and about how we might come together.Daniel Cox is director of the Survey Center on American Life. He is also a senior fellow in polling and public opinion at the American Enterprise Institute. His forthcoming book is titled Uncoupled, and he writes the Substack newsletter American Storylines.This podcast series is dedicated to Marc Antione Jubinville. May he rest in peace.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

The American election highlighted ongoing tensions between men and women — but election commentary often failed to acknowledge the crises that modern men are facing, from declining educational achievement and employment to increased suicides, overdoses, and loneliness. Today at Lean Out, we kick off a series exploring these issues, with a guest who's recently published a powerful essay highlighting why we need to reconsider how we think and talk about men.Zaid Jilani is the freelance American journalist behind the Substack newsletter The American Saga. His recent essay is titled “Democrats Need to Realize It's Not Always Easy To Be a Man.”This series is dedicated to Marc Antoine Jubinville. May he rest in peace.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

With Donald Trump winning the presidency, the popular vote, the Senate, and the House, in what The New York Times has described as a “crushing electoral rebuke” of the Democrats, there is a lot of soul-searching going on in the party. Our guest on the program today tried to warn the Democrats in his previous book. He says the progressive moment in American politics is now over — and the Democrats are going to have to face that fact if they want to win again.Ruy Teixeira is a cofounder and politics editor of The Liberal Patriot newsletter on Substack and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. His latest book, with John B. Judis, is Where Have All the Democrats Gone? The Soul of the Party in the Age of Extremes. Ruy Teixeira is our guest today, in this special bonus episode.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

In 2016, the election of Donald Trump took the mainstream media by surprise, with many in the press struggling to understand his rise to power and the factors driving it. Now, in the wake of Donald Trump's decisive win, here we are again. My guest on today's program suspected we might be missing the story, and just days before the election, published a brilliant podcast episode unpacking the comeback of Donald Trump.Andy Mills is an award-winning American reporter and podcast producer, and co-creator of The Daily at The New York Times and The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling at The Free Press. He's now the host of the Reflector podcast.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

Since last week's election win for Donald Trump, we are seeing a renewed sense of scorn for Republican voters in parts of the mainstream media. The Guardian's Rebecca Solnit, for example, writes in her column that “our mistake was to think we lived in a better country than we do.” My guest on today's program doesn't see it that way. She's a lefty Democrat who moved from Park Slope, Brooklyn, to Trump country — and she writes that the gift of living in a rural county is that “I keep finding reasons to see my political adversaries as human.”Larissa Phillips runs the Honey Hollow farm in upstate New York. She's the founder of the Volunteer Literacy Project, and her essay for The Free Press is, “Whatever Happens, Love Thy Neighbor.”You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

If you're living in Canada and you have a cell phone plan, or a bank account, or have taken a flight recently, or struggle to afford groceries, you already know how expensive and dysfunctional the country has gotten for consumers. Our guests on the podcast today have written a book about the rise of corporate monopolies (and duopolies and oligopolies) — and, as they write, this market concentration “goes well beyond the usual suspects.”Vass Bednar is the executive director of McMaster University's Master of Public Policy in Digital Society program, a contributing columnist to The Globe and Mail, and the host of its podcast Lately. Denise Hearn is a resident senior fellow at the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment at Columbia University. Their new book, for the McGill Max Bell Lectures, is The Big Fix: How Companies Capture Markets and Harm Canadians.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

What makes us fat? It's a contentious debate in the world of health science. Is obesity caused by energy imbalance — consuming too many calories — as has long been conventional thought? Or is obesity caused by the effects of carbohydrates on insulin? My guest on today's program attended an invite-only global gathering of obesity experts. The resulting paper in Nature Metabolism, co-authored with fifteen other researchers and published this fall, compares the two competing hypotheses side-by-side, as equals. Which, my guest writes, “has never before happened in the century-plus history of meaningful research on the cause of obesity.”Gary Taubes is an award-winning investigative science and health journalist. His latest book is Rethinking Diabetes: What Science Reveals About Diet, Insulin, and Successful Treatments. With the journalist Nina Teicholz, he writes the Substack newsletter Unsettled Science.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

This past summer was the summer of the divorce memoir. Books glamorizing marital breakdown were everywhere, depicting the act of walking away from a marriage as radical self-empowerment. But I could not find a single memoir about the opposite perspective: staying and working things out and rediscovering love. My guest on today's program has written the book I've been wanting to read, and he's here to tell us how a dead marriage can live again. Harrison Scott Key is an American writer. His latest book is How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

There has been a story on the progressive left for some time now that individual actions are largely futile. That for society to change, we must instead focus on systems. Our guest on the program today belongs to a generation that was raised on this message. But now she's written a powerful piece about the costs that come with such a worldview — and how volunteering in her community helped her to rethink it.Rachel Cohen is a reporter for vox.com, covering American social policy. Her essay is “Why I Changed My Mind About Volunteering.”You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

The period often referred to as The Great Awokening is winding down now, and we're starting to get a better understanding of what happened. Our guest on today's program argues that we have seen these kinds of social justice-styled movements before in American history — and that they are in fact driven by, as he puts it, “frustrated erstwhile elites condemning the social order that failed them and jockeying to secure the position they feel they deserve.”   Musa al-Gharbi is an American sociologist and an assistant professor in the School of Communication and Journalism at Stony Brook University. His new book — out this week — is We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite. You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

Statistics Canada released new data last week, showing that in 2023, the fertility rate in Canada reached a record low — just 1.26 births per woman — making us one of the “lowest low” fertility countries in the world. It's true that material conditions, like the housing crisis, have play a role. But there is something else going on, all across the West. Our guest on today's program has published a fascinating book about that something else: a profound ambivalence towards childbearing.Anastasia Berg is an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of California, Irvine, and an editor of The Point magazine. With Rachel Wiseman, she is also the author of What Are Children For? On Ambivalence and Choice.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

The activist left in America has been very visible in recent years, often dominating the public conversation online and in prominent institutions. But our guest on today's program says that the modern left is curious in that it is “largely leaderless” — that no one in particular is “speaking directly for it, or to it” — making this “a singular moment” in the country's history.Ross Barkan is an American journalist, novelist, and Substacker, and a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine. His recent piece for that magazine is, “The Activist Left Doesn't Want a Hero. But Does it Need One?”  You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

This week saw the arrest of an armed man in Florida, in the wake of an apparent assassination attempt against former president Donald Trump — the second in roughly two months. Our guest on the program today is a reporter who's been covering the rise of political extremism in America for The Washington Post. In this episode, which was taped in late August, she shares the insights she gained reporting on a man who went to prison for uttering threats against Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.    Ruby Cramer is a national political enterprise reporter at The Washington Post.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

The social and economic crises that we are experiencing in Canada are frequent topics of conversation in this country, with many Canadians expressing the belief that we have seen a decline in quality of life. Our guest on the program this week is a former foreign policy advisor to Justin Trudeau's government — but today he's on the show to talk domestic policy, and what he sees as “a betrayal of the Canadian dream.”Omer Aziz is a former Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University and a contributing writer to The Boston Globe. He's also the author of Brown Boy: A Memoir. His recent essay for The Globe and Mail is titled, “The Canadian dream is on life support.”You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

One of the big stories of this summer was immigration. Canada has had a decades-long, bipartisan, pro-immigration consensus — but in recent months, that has collapsed. And one of the most contentious parts of our system is now the Temporary Foreign Worker program, which was deregulated during 2022 in the midst of pandemic labour shortages. Our guest on the program today was just in Halifax at the Prime Minister's cabinet retreat, making the case that the low-wage, non-agriculture stream of this program should be “entirely abolished.”Mike Moffatt is a Canadian economist. He's Senior Director of the Smart Prosperity Institute, and the co-host of The Missing Middle podcast.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

The news cycle is currently dominated by the American presidential election — but there's also a lot going on here in Canada. Our guest on the program today is a veteran journalist and the publisher of a reporter-owned and operated outlet in Ottawa. As you'll hear, there's been no shortage of consequential stories this summer. Tara is away this week, but she asked podcaster Aaron Pete to bring you this interview with Holly Doan, the publisher of Blacklock's Reporter.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

One of the bright spots in the Canadian media landscape is the emergence of a new generation of digital creators, who are filling the gaps in coverage in innovative ways. My guest on the program today is at the forefront of this movement, helming a thoughtful, nuanced current affairs podcast out of British Columbia. He will be guest hosting this podcast next week, and I'm thrilled to get to introduce him to you today.Aaron Pete is a Councillor for the Chawathil First Nation, and the host of the Bigger Than Me podcast.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

With J.D. Vance as Trump's running mate, the economic populism that's ascendent in the Republican Party is in the spotlight. To understand this set of policy concerns, there is no better person to speak to than my guest on today's program, who has been influential in driving this agenda — and in challenging the economic orthodoxy on the right.Oren Cass is the founder and chief economist of American Compass, and the author of The Once and Future Worker: A Vision for the Renewal of Work in America.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

J.D. Vance was once a liberal media darling. But in recent weeks, since Donald Trump selected him as his running mate, the Ohio senator has been the subject of almost wall-to-wall negative coverage — in both the liberal press, and on left-leaning social media. But our guest on today's program says that Vance is a complex figure, and one we should take a closer look at.Zaid Jilani is the freelance American journalist behind the Substack newsletter The American Saga. His recent essay for Compact Magazine is “Why the Left Gets J.D. Vance Wrong.”You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

Given the state of our politics right now, it is easy to feel hopeless. But our guest on this week's program says things are not as bleak as they seem, that people want to heal our deep societal divisions, and that the answer to bridging these divides lies in rebuilding civic life — one conversation at a time.John Wood, Jr. is a former nominee for congress, a columnist for USA Today, and a national ambassador for Braver Angels. Its new campaign is called American Hope.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

America is in the grips of polarization, and the recent assassination attempt on Donald Trump has underlined the potential for an escalation in political violence. It has never been more important for the media to complicate dominant narratives and resist oversimplification. Today, a journalist I admire returns to the program to model what that looks like in practice, bringing us a nuanced story about tensions within the conservative movement over school vouchers.Alec MacGillis is an award-winning American journalist, and a reporter for ProPublica. He's also the author of Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com