Podcasts about front burner

This week OpenAI's head of U.S. and Canada policy and partnerships Chan Park was hauled in front of a meeting with Canada's AI minister Evan Solomon after it was revealed that Jesse Van Rootselaar's ChatGPT account was suspended back in June for describing scenarios involving gun violence, and that a group of people at the company debated telling the RCMP, but didn't.Van Rootselaar went on to kill eight people in Tumbler Ridge, BC. The meeting has provided us with no new information. No answers about what Van Rootselaar said or wrote to ChatGPT, or what it said back. There are no substantial answers about why OpenAI didn't alert the police.Solomon and the federal government are saying they expect changes from the company. They are framing regulation as an option, but not an inevitable one.Today Maggie Harrison Dupré speaks with guest host Jason Markusoff. She is a senior staff writer at Futurism where she reports on the rise of AI. They discuss how chatbots can validate, rather than discourage users' dark or violent ideas and about why regulation isn't a louder drumbeat.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Over the last week or so the debate over Canada's immigration policy has come to the forefront.In Alberta, Premier Danielle Smith has promised to put a series of restrictive new immigration policies to a provincial referendum.In Ottawa, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has brought forward a motion that would compel the federal government to review and restrict the services available to asylum seekers.Critics have said both moves scapegoat immigrants.This is all happening at a time when polling shows that popular support for immigration is on the decline.Today's guest is someone who is uniquely positioned to talk about the proposed changes in immigration policy.Jason Kenney is the former United Conservative Party Premier of Alberta.Prior to that, Kenney spent nearly two decades in federal politics, and was a cabinet minister in Stephen Harper's Conservative party.He spent years working on the immigration and multiculturalism file and was widely credited for shifting the support of new Canadians from the Liberals to the Conservatives.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Mass violence broke out on Sunday in Mexico after a military raid killed the most wanted, and feared, cartel boss in the country — a man known as El Mencho.We take a closer look at the aftermath of the operation and ask some questions: who was this kingpin, what is the powerful criminal organization he presided over, and what could happen in his absence?With us today is David Mora in Guadalajara. He's the senior Mexico analyst at International Crisis Group.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Prime Minister Mark Carney and the Liberals welcomed a third Conservative floor crosser on Wednesday – Edmonton MP Matt Jeneroux. And with three by-elections coming up, two from Liberal strongholds, a Liberal majority is looking like a possibility. So a pretty seismic day on Parliament Hill. CBC's senior writer Aaron Wherry is here to talk through how this could all play out for the Liberals and for Pierre Poilievre's Conservative Party. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Looksmaxxers are a community of young men dedicated to the pursuit of maximizing their physical appearance, often at great personal cost. Many are spending thousands of dollars on cosmetic procedures, or even taking blunt objects to their faces, in the hopes of masculinizing their features to become more handsome. Or, as they refer to it: “ascending.” In a world where so many young people — particularly young men — feel as though it's impossible to get ahead, we've got a conversation about this viral community augmenting their bodies in the hopes of doing exactly that. Aidan Walker is a writer and content creator whose work explores all kinds of online subcultures. He joins the show to talk about looksmaxxing, its central characters, connections to the far right, and what the movement reveals about young men right now.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Last week, a 5000 word post on X with the headline “Something big is happening” went viral. It was written by Matt Shumer, the CEO of HyperWrite, an AI writing tool and in it he says he's recently watched AI go from a helpful tool to something that “does my job better than I do”. And he's not the only one. The CEO of Anthropic, one of the biggest AI companies today, wrote an essay saying it could replace half of all entry-level white collar jobs in the next one to five years. What's behind the sudden vibe shift? A good part of it has to do with the abilities of AI agents, which are basically AI models you give a task to perform for you, with the promise of little supervision.Are we on the precipice of something big? Or is it another way to build hype amid fears of a bubble? Will Douglas Heaven, senior AI editor for the MIT Technology Review, joins us to separate reality from hype. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

A horrific mass shooting took place in the small community of Tumbler Ridge, B.C. on Tuesday – one of the deadliest in Canadian history.Nine people are dead, including the suspect, and 27 more were injured. Many of the victims were as young as 12 or 13 years old.CBC senior reporter Caroline Barghout is in Tumbler Ridge covering the ongoing investigation. She joins host Jayme Poisson with the latest on the tragedy, and how a community – and country – is in mourning.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Jonathan Haidt, best-selling author of “The Anxious Generation”, is our guest today. He's been on a global mission to educate parents, the media, and government officials about the harms that social media companies inflict on children.He believes that the world ran a huge uncontrolled experiment on kids in the 2010s by giving them smartphones and social media accounts. And now, there is clear evidence – often through court case disclosure – that the experiment has harmed children, and that it's time to call it off.Haidt has been calling on governments to ban social media for those under 16. And they're listening. Canada is reportedly considering one for kids under 14 right now.Today, we're going to get into some of Jonathan Haidt's research, what he thinks a ban can achieve, and more broadly about his core goal: reclaiming childhood.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The final remaining agreement constraining U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons expired last week.The New START treaty was established by President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev in 2010. And since then the treaty has governed much of the global landscape concerning nuclear weapons and non-proliferation. Reporting suggests both sides remain in talks.Yet as the U.S. threatens annexation, attacks nations abroad, and threatens to re-emerge as a colonial power in the Western Hemisphere, some are asking whether nuclear weapons have become a necessity for countries hoping to guarantee their sovereignty. Canada's former defence chief Wayne Eyre has said we should “keep our options open” on acquiring nuclear weapons.For more on the future of this landmark treaty, and the possibility of a nuclear arms race, we're joined by George Perkovich. He is the author of a number of books on nuclear weapons and non-proliferation and Senior Fellow with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Last week, Donald Trump's border Czar Tom Homan announced a drawdown of ICE personnel in Minnesota, following weeks of chaos and two deadly incidents in the state. Homan insisted that ICE was not surrendering, and this departure was instead evidence of ICE's success in Minnesota. Beginning in December 2025, ICE announced ‘Operation Metro Surge' — an aggressive immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota described as “the largest immigration enforcement operation ever carried out.” The operation incited weeks of protest, direct action and civil disobedience across the Twin Cities.Today, we take a step back to assess how this operation unfolded, why Minneapolis became the stage for it, and what the unified response across so much of Minnesota says about the state of immigration enforcement in the U.S. today. We're joined by Robert Worth, a contributing writer with The Atlantic who spent time in Minneapolis last month to report on the protests.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Today on the show we are going to discuss the complete gutting of the Washington Post, an American institution. The paper that broke Watergate. The paper that just nine years ago told the world “Democracy Dies in Darkness”.And we're going to place this latest news in the context of a much broader political assault on journalism, and the further consolidation of information in the hands of the billionaire class of Trump allies.Our guest today is Max Tani. He is the media editor and co-host of the Mixed Signals podcast at Semafor.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Last week the U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent issued a very public warning to Prime Minister Mark Carney. At the centre of that warning is the USMCA trade deal, which kept Trump's tariffs from unleashing even deeper damage to the Canadian economy. A mandatory review of the US-Mexico-Canada pact is kicking-off now. It has turned into a high stakes negotiation, with the U.S. poised to squeeze Canada and Mexico and to use the negotiation itself as leverage to advance the administration's interests. Today, trade expert Eric Miller is back to talk about where the trade talks are headed, what the Americans are hoping for, and what would happen if the deal got ripped up altogether. Miller is the president of Rideau Potomac Strategy Group and a fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Jeffrey Epstein's vast connections with the rich and powerful, the world over, are on full display in the over 3 million files and documents released by the U.S. Justice department late last week.There's mounting evidence of Epstein's relationships with people like President Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and tech titan Peter Thiel, as well as behind the scenes dealmaking with global power brokers.Today, we go over the biggest revelations with Politico senior legal affairs reporter Kyle Cheney. We also discuss why so few have been held accountable.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Around 73 thousand people have been detained in ICE facilities across the United States over the past year. That's a 75 per cent increase from right before Donald Trump took office. At least 38 people have died in ICE custody since then. It's all part of the Trump administration's rapidly expanding immigration crackdown, which has included the addition of over one hundred new facilities. One of those facilities, in south Florida, has been dubbed Alligator Alcatraz. In December Amnesty International USA detailed conditions there, finding they amounted to quote “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment”.Amy Fischer, Director for Refugee and Migrant Rights at Amnesty International USA joins us to talk about what happens when people are detained by ICE and what, if anything, courts and lawmakers can do to stop it.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Pierre Poilievre easily won his leadership review in Calgary on the weekend with 87.4% of the vote. Today, senior Parliamentary bureau writer Aaron Wherry talks about the convention, whether it guarantees Poilievre's future and what challenges still lie ahead for the Conservative leader. Plus, why a press conference at a grocery store prompted election speculation.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

In just over a decade, the Conservative Party of Canada has lost four elections, picked three new leaders, and turned on two of them when they failed to become Prime Minister. As the party votes on Pierre Poilievre's future as leader of the Conservative Party, Front Burner speaks to Conservative insiders, Abacus Data CEO David Coletto and senior parliamentary writer Aaron Wherry to consider the path the Conservatives took to this point and whether Poilievre can keep the party united behind him.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has weighed in on the separatism movement in Alberta. Bessent has said that the province is a “natural partner” to the U.S., and that it has “great resources”.While Bessent is certainly the most high profile U.S. official to muse about Alberta separatism, he hasn't been the only MAGA supporter to chime in. Donald Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon and Republican congressman Andy Ogles have also waded into the debate.Today we're asking why MAGA is eyeing Alberta separatism and whether it's a threat to Canada's national security.Joining us: Jason Markusoff, writer and producer for CBC Calgary, and Patrick Lennox, a national security expert who ran for the Liberals in the last federal election in Edmonton. We'll also hear from Jeffrey Rath, legal counsel and spokesperson for the Alberta Prosperity Project. That's the main advocacy group pushing for Alberta independence.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump set off a firestorm with comments dismissing the military contributions of fellow NATO members during the war in Afghanistan. This follows the president's aggressive bid for Greenland, a self-governing territory of NATO-ally Denmark, which brought into question whether NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, could survive without America, its strongest and richest member. And while some kind of agreement on Greenland now seems to be on the table, and Trump appears to be backing down, today we're asking what damage has already been done to NATO. How does this latest challenge to its existence compare to conflicts the military alliance has faced before? Aaron Ettinger, a professor of political science at Carleton University, joins us for a conversation about how NATO's past and present could inform its future.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Massive anti-ICE protests in Minneapolis intensified over the weekend, in the wake of the second fatal shooting of an American citizen involving federal law enforcement agents in the city this month. On Saturday, border patrol agents shot and killed Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse.Today, we'll be talking about Stephen Miller, Donald Trump's deputy chief of staff for policy, and how the deadly ICE surge in Minnesota is only the latest example of domestic policy that he has championed. In Trump's second administration, Miller is emerging as the main architect and enforcer of Trump's signature policies: from hardline immigration policies and mass deportations, to retaliation against the administration's perceived enemies, to increasingly aggressive foreign policy.To talk about all that we're joined by Michael Scherer. He is a staff writer at The Atlantic, where he covers American politics, and in particular the people behind it. He's the co-writer of a recent profile called "The Wrath of Stephen Miller."And please note, we spoke to Michael before this latest shooting and its aftermath in Minneapolis.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Few organizations have had a larger impact on the honesty, transparency and overall health of North Carolina's government over the few decades than the state chapter of the national nonprofit advocacy organization Common Cause. Recently, the group's longtime executive director Bob Phillips moved on to retirement, turning over the reins to the longtime organizational deputy director Sailor Jones. NC Newsline recently sat down with Jones to discuss why he’s already redoubling the group's efforts to resist assaults on fair elections. And Jones weighs in on recent actions by the NC State Board of Elections to reject campus voting sites and curb Sunday voting in several counties. Click here to listen to the full interview with the new executive director of Common Cause North Carolina, Sailor Jones.

Few organizations have had a larger impact on the honesty, transparency and overall health of North Carolina's government over the few decades than the state chapter of the national nonprofit advocacy organization Common Cause. Recently, the group's longtime executive director Bob Phillips moved on to retirement, turning over the reins to the longtime organizational deputy director Sailor Jones. NC Newsline recently sat down with Jones to discuss why he’s already redoubling the group's efforts to resist assaults on fair elections. And Jones weighs in on recent actions by the NC State Board of Elections to reject campus voting sites and curb Sunday voting in several counties. Click here to listen to the full interview with the new executive director of Common Cause North Carolina, Sailor Jones.

Donald Trump's ‘Board of Peace' says it has a plan for the future of Gaza. Critics say that strategy is full of holes, and that the true intention of the board extends far beyond the war ravaged territory. Today we look at how a U.S. 20-point plan for a post-war Gaza evolved into a body that some fear could undermine the United Nations and further erode international order.Jayme Poisson speaks with Hugh Lovatt, a Senior Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations based in London.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

In a provocative speech to the World Economic Forum on Tuesday, Prime Minister Mark Carney made the case that the rules of international economics and politics are “in the midst of a rupture, not a transition”.Carney went on to say that middle powers like Canada need to work together to find their own coalitions to survive and stand up to countries using economic coercion – a clear reference to the Trump administration. This comes after Trump's stunning threats earlier this week to slap tariffs on European countries like France, Britain, and Germany over their support of Greenland's sovereignty. It has pushed the relationship between the U.S. and Europe to the brink.Carney said he stands with our European allies in support of Greenland. But what kind of pushback can they mount? And what kind of domestic pressures are European leaders facing in their own backyard?Michaela Kuefner is the Chief Political Editor at DW News and joins us from Davos, Switzerland.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Potential American military intervention in Iran amid ongoing protests and violence. The shooting death of a 37-year-old mother in Minneapolis at the hands of an ICE agent. A criminal investigation into the chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve.Astead Herndon is a podcast host and editorial coordinator with Vox. He breaks down another seismic week in American politics. Our colleagues in CBC's Washington bureau — Katie Simpson, Paul Hunter and Willy Lowry — have launched a brand new podcast, Two Blocks from the White House. It's American politics with Canadian context. Listen to this week's episode "Could America First mean Canada's next?" here.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Mark Carney arrives in Beijing today to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. It's the first time in nearly a decade for a Canadian Prime Minister to do so, and the stakes are high.Carney has to balance his handling of two problematic superpowers during these talks.On the one hand, he wants to double non-U.S. exports abroad in the next decade and China is the second largest market in the world. On the other, a closer relationship with China could set Canada on a collision course with a U.S. administration set on curtailing and containing it. Additionally, Canada must also contend with the national security threat China poses – from intellectual property theft or meddling in Canada's democratic processes.Vina Nadjibulla is back on the show to discuss all of this. She's the Vice President of Research & Strategy for the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

In 1999 Hugo Chavez was elected President of Venezuela, beginning a years-long ‘Bolivarian Revolution,' following multiple coup attempts, and time in prison. Chavez would go on to govern the country as President until his death in 2013 — passing sweeping anti-poverty programs, nationalizing oil and industry, and opposing US hegemony in the region. Just before his death, Chavez hand selected Nicolas Maduro as the person to carry forward his political program and legacy. Maduro's time in power was hamstrung between domestic mismanagement, US sanction regimes, and authoritarian crackdowns. But at the core of his time in power was the ‘Chavismo' political ideology, created in the image of his predecessor. For a better sense of Venezuela's modern political history, we have a look at its central characters: Simon Bolivar, Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro. Today, we're joined by Alejandro Velasco, a professor of Latin American history at New York University, and author of ‘Barrio Rising: Urban Popular Politics and the Making of Modern Venezuela.'For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Today, Gerry Butts – former principal secretary to Justin Trudeau and current adviser to Prime Minister Carney – is on the show.Butts is also the vice chairman of the global political risk firm, the Eurasia group, which releases a “Top Risks” list every year. We'll drill down on a few of them, including their number one risk, the “U.S. political revolution”. The report makes the case that, outside of the U.S. itself, America's political upheaval has the greatest impact on Canada. We'll also discuss the “Zombie USMCA” deal and the future of NATO.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

In the wake of the U.S. arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, there has been a flurry of concern about what that country's oil could mean for the Canadian economy.Is American access to the world's largest proven oil reserves a major threat to Canada? Have we lost leverage with the U.S. as we move forward in trade negotiations? Over the last few days, Trump has threatened Cuba, Greenland, Iran, Colombia and Mexico. What are Canada's primary concerns as we navigate this new reality? From CBC's Parliamentary bureau, senior reporter Evan Dyer is here. Evan has a lot of experience covering Canadian foreign policy, Latin America, and has reported extensively from the region.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

In the fourth and final episode of Understood: The Making of Musk, host Jacob Silverman launches into Musk's ultimate quest, his desire to colonize Mars, and how he went from wanting to save earth to wanting to escape it. You'll hear the origin story of SpaceX. And hear from an astrophysicist who says Musk's plan is completely delusional. You can find Understood wherever you get your podcasts, and here: https://link.mgln.ai/FBxMoM4And be sure to follow the feed for even more stories that define our digital age.

What does Musk, father of 14, expect from his quote, “legion” of children? In episode 3 of Understood: The Making of Musk, host, Jacob Silverman unravels Musk's quest for genetic optimization, including alleged embryo screening, and his pronatalist views. And we hear from his estranged daughter, Vivian.You can find Understood wherever you get your podcasts, and here: https://link.mgln.ai/FBxMoM3

Where did Elon Musk's epic ambitions begin? In search of clues, the latest season of Understood: The Making of Musk returns to his sheltered youth in apartheid South Africa, a world engineered for white supremacy. In this second episode, host Jacob Silverman explores whether Musk's authoritarian streak traces back to his Canadian grandfather. Before Joshua Haldeman brought his family to South Africa, he made waves as part of the radical 1930s Technocracy movement. And while the two men's lives only overlapped for three years, we find echoes of Elon's worldview in Haldeman's pro-tech, anti-democratic ideology.You can find Understood wherever you get your podcasts, and here: https://link.mgln.ai/FBxMoM2

Today we're bringing you a 2025 Front Burner wrap up, answering audience questions and bringing you behind the scenes of the making of some of our most popular episodes of 2025.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

In 2025 news of the biggest, most sensational sports scandals was broken not by ESPN or Sports Illustrated, but by a podcaster named Pablo Torre on his show Pablo Torre Finds Out.It was Pablo who investigated Kawhi Leonard's alleged multi-million dollar under the table no show deal. And it was Pablo who uncovered potential collusion involving NFL player salaries.Pablo Torre is with us today to talk about the year in sports scandal, the state of sports journalism, and gambling grip's grip on the whole industry.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Corruption is a word that's come up throughout this year in relation to U.S. President Donald Trump's second term. There have been allegations of personal enrichment, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, through his family's crypto and real estate ventures. There are also accusations of quid pro quo deals with foreign leaders and convicted criminals seeking pardons.Is this a bug in Trump's administration, or a feature?To put it all into focus, Tommy Vietor is here. He's been following this issue of corruption on his very popular podcast, Pod Save America. He also co-hosts Pod Save the World.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The Australian prime minister and police have said that the suspected gunmen in the Bondi Beach mass shooting at a Hanukkah event were motivated by Islamic State ideology. Australian counterterrorism officials allege the father and son received military training in southern Philippines. While it's been more than six years since the fall of the caliphate, experts like Lucas Webber say there's been a troubling rise in Islamic State motivated activity and violence worldwide. Webber is a Senior Research Fellow at The Soufan Center and a Senior Threat Intelligence Analyst at Tech Against Terrorism. He joins us to talk about what's known about the Bondi Beach attack, and what the evolving presence of ISIS as a decentralized terrorist network looks like.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

It's been almost a year since Alberta Premier Danielle Smith met with U.S. president-elect Donald Trump. He was on the brink of a trade war. Since then, a lot has happened, from a renewed push for a separatist referendum, to election recall campaigns, to a shift in the relationship between the province and Ottawa.We are joined by two CBC colleagues. Kathleen Petty is the host of the West of Centre podcast and Jason Markusoff is a writer and producer in Calgary.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Today, an in-depth look at puberty blockers and their use on minors with gender dysphoria. These drugs have come under an enormous amount of scrutiny in recent years, with some questioning their benefits, safety and long-term impact.After banning the use of puberty blockers for gender treatment of people under 18, a new clinical trial in the U.K. aims to get to the bottom of those concerns.Azeen Ghorayshi is a science and gender reporter for the New York Times.She'll parse through what we know and don't know about the effects of blockers in minors, how this became a hugely divisive and politicized debate around the world, and whether this new trial could change our understanding.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

First, the latest on the massacre at Bondi Beach in Australia. The mass shooting targeted the Jewish community on the first day of Hanukkah.We speak with Sean Tarek Goodwin, a reporter with ABC News, who was one of the first to arrive on the scene.Second, a surprise defection on Parliament Hill.Late last week, just hours after Parliament wrapped for the year, the Liberals welcomed another floor crosser into the party. With 171 seats, they are now just one MP away from holding a majority.Aaron Wherry is a senior writer with CBC's Parliamentary bureau.He's here to talk about all that, and look back at Prime Minister Carney's first sitting.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

It's estimated that as many as 10 per cent of adults in Canada use a GLP-1 type drug like Ozempic. The prescription medicine is used for type 2 diabetes management and increasingly prescribed off-label for weight loss. And this month, for the first time, the World Health Organization has conditionally recommended GLP-1 drugs for the long-term treatment of obesity.But while these drugs have been called a game-changing tool to manage a complex and stigmatized health condition, there's also a lot of questions about the potential negative impact.With Ozempic's patent set to expire soon in Canada, and more affordable generic options about to hit the market, a lot more people you know could end up on a weight-loss drug.Today we bring you the rise and risks of GLP-1s with help from Dylan Scott. He is a Senior Correspondent at Vox who covers health.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Two of the biggest media companies in the world are going to war over Warner Bros. Discovery, a massive media conglomerate that owns a historic Hollywood studio, as well as the likes of HBO and CNN. This week, Paramount put in a hostile all-cash takeover bid for Warner Brothers worth more than $108 billion. This followed Netflix's announcement a few days earlier that they had won a bid to buy the company's film, studio and streaming divisions, which alarmed many people in the industry. The Paramount bid is led by big time MAGA donor Larry Ellison and is backed by U.S President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Trump has already signaled he will be involved in whatever deal comes through. Lucas Shaw, who writes the Screentime newsletter for Bloomberg, talks us through what this means for media concentration, influence over the news and the future of the entertainment industry. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Through 2022 and 2023, two Vancouver activists made international headlines with DULF — the Drug User Liberation Front. In a bid to stop overdose deaths, founders Jeremy Kalicum and Eris Nyx sold clean, tested drugs — bought on the dark web — to their members as an alternative to the contaminated street supply.But that international attention led to political blowback. DULF was raided by police, Kalicum and Nyx were arrested, and in November they were found guilty on drug trafficking charges. Now, they're arguing in a B.C. Supreme Court that, in shutting down DULF, the government violated drug users' Charter rights.Michelle Gamage, health reporter with the Tyee, explains why DULF did what they did, and how their ongoing court case could set a legal precedent for harm reduction efforts nationwide.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Today, we bring you a wrap on U.S. politics. We begin with two scandals plaguing U.S. defense secretary Pete Hegseth, from allegations of war crimes to a scathing report accusing him of mishandling classified military intelligence.And we cover the fallout from President Donald Trump's tirade against Somali immigrants, including a surge of ICE raids in Minneapolis. Plus, the politics behind Trump's win of the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize.Our guest is Alex Shephard, senior editor of The New Republic.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

In 2015, as governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney's ‘Tragedy of the Horizons' speech made waves in the global climate community. It was seen as a landmark call for the financial sector to recognize the costs of climate breakdown.But fast forward 10 years and a fierce debate is swirling around whether Carney is living up to that warning. Since becoming Prime Minister, he's scrapped the consumer carbon tax, froze EV mandates and paved the way for a potential new pipeline to the B.C. coast.With a Trudeau-era environment minister resigning from Carney's cabinet in protest, we're asking the question: has Mark Carney betrayed the climate movement? Or is he playing a strategic long game that aims for an environmental win?Two writers from Canada's National Observer, Ottawa Bureau Chief John Woodside and Calgary-based lead columnist Max Fawcett, join the show to take up that debate.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The U.S. Supreme Court is soon expected to rule on the legality of President Donald Trump's sweeping worldwide tariffs. The court will rule on whether his use of a 1970s national security law violates the U.S. constitution, which clearly states that only Congress has the authority to implement taxes — of which tariffs are a type.But regardless of which way the court rules, Trump and his administration have made it clear that tariffs will continue to be a central pillar of both their economic and foreign policy. And, just over a year after they were first announced, those tariffs have had perhaps no bigger impact than here in Canada. They've reshaped not just our economic relationship with our closest trading partner, but they've fractured the political relationship too.Eric Miller, president of Rideau Potomac Strategy Group, explains what's at stake in the Supreme Court's ruling, and breaks down the impact of a year of Trump tariffs.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Last week, two National Guard soldiers were shot in Washington, D.C. after they were ambushed by a lone shooter near the airport. One was killed and the other remains in serious condition. The suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, was shot and is still in hospital facing murder charges. The picture emerging of Lakanwal is of an isolated, deeply troubled man struggling to support his wife and five kids. Lakanwal is a 29-year-old Afghan-national who had served as part of an elite CIA-trained and backed paramilitary group known as the Zero Units. Tasked with carrying out some of the most dangerous missions in the war on terror, the Zero Units have also been accused by rights groups of war crimes in their notorious night raids.Kevin Maurer is a best-selling author and longtime reporter who spent many years covering the war in Afghanistan. He talks about how this shooting fits into the broader legacy of the war on terrorism and the ripple effects it's had abroad and closer to home. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Our guest today has taken a long look at an out-of-fashion principle in higher learning – institutional neutrality. Basically it's the importance of letting students and faculty say what they want, and not have the administration put its thumb on the scale. In that he sees a whole world of problems facing post-secondary education today, from public and political support to an ongoing court case.Simon Lewsen is a magazine journalist who teaches part-time at the University of Toronto. His new story in Maclean's is called “The Battle for the Soul of the University”. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Over the weekend, Donald Trump declared on Truth Social that the airspace around Venezuela should be considered closed. Venezuela's foreign ministry responded by calling the comments "another extravagant, illegal and unjustified aggression against the Venezuelan people".Late last week, Trump also said that land action against alleged drug trafficking networks in the country could start very soon.All of this is happening amidst a serious military buildup in the Caribbean and escalating threats to remove Venezuela's president Nicolas Maduro from power.Is this the buildup to an invasion? And is it really about drugs? Or do Venezuela's massive oil reserves have something to do with it?Jon Lee Anderson is our guest. He's a staff writer with The New Yorker, and has written extensively about U.S.-Venezuela relations and U.S. interference in Latin America.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

In a somber speech last week Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned his people that their country was on the brink of a critical choice: either lose their dignity or risk alienating a key partner, America. His speech came after Donald Trump set a deadline demanding the war-torn country accept a unilateral American peace proposal.That proposal has been internationally panned and called a Russian “wish-list”.The dire situation Zelenskyy warned of however, did not come to pass, at least not yet.Zelenskyy says he is now ready to move forward with an American led peace process, but as Trump's key negotiator plans to head to Moscow the question remains, are the Russians?To help us understand whether this is the beginning of the end of this war, or just another false start we're speaking with reporter from The Kyiv Independent Francis Farrell.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Sudan's civil war is now the worst displacement crisis in the world, with more than 12 million people currently displaced from their homes. Earlier this year, the outgoing Biden administration designated the war a genocide. This war includes countless proxies fighting over billions of dollars in natural resources, access to key shipping routes along the Red Sea, and control of one of the oldest countries in the world. Longtime journalist Michelle Shephard has just arrived from a 10 day reporting trip to the Sudan-Chad border, for The Walrus magazine. There she met families fleeing massacres, and women who crossed the desert on foot to escape sexual violence. She returns with a rare look inside a crisis the world has turned away from.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

On Thursday Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith are set to announce the outlines of a plan that could set Alberta and B.C. on a collision course.It's a potential energy deal that would give Alberta special exemptions from federal environmental laws and offer political support for a new oil pipeline to the B.C. coast, among other things.That is, if Alberta can get through the significant hurdles of opposition from First Nations and B.C. where Premier David Eby was completely cut out of the talks.Today we discuss the politics of all this with the CBC's chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton and Jason Markusoff from our Calgary bureau.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsCorrection: An earlier version of this episode misidentified B.C. Liberal MP Will Greaves. He represents the constituency of Victoria.