Podcast appearances and mentions of tara henley

In the maelstrom that is modern life, we've lost any sense of seasonality. These days, the summer is as non-stop as any other time of the year and the long, sun-drenched days can come and go without any real rest or relaxation. But we remember a time in the not-too-distant past when July and August offered a welcome lull — a time to retreat, to recharge, to reinvent. To dream, even. The summer felt expansive, wondrous. We're convinced that this annual reprieve was essential for maintaining sanity.So this year, we've decided to bring back the slow summer. It's been a busy 2026 so far at Lean Out, during our fifth year in operation. The newsletter has surpassed eight million views and has been on the Substack bestseller list. The podcast, meanwhile, has just published its 256th episode. Not bad for a niche Canadian outlet dedicated to heterodox non-fiction current affairs books (and sometimes articles). That's all down to you, Lean Out's wonderful subscribers, and we can't thank you enough for your support. Tara's latest book, based on the work that we've been doing here — and on the 2024 Massey Essay — will be released in North America at the end of this month. (Pre-orders are helpful, should you be so inclined.) The Trust Spiral: Why the Media Needs Objectivity is already getting a great response and it has been especially gratifying to field interview requests from across the political spectrum. Lean Out normally goes dark for three weeks in the summer, but this year we are taking an extended break as Tara promotes her new book and then takes a few weeks of much-needed time offline — hopefully in the wilds of British Columbia. All monthly payments have been paused as of today, and yearly subscriptions will be extended when we resume production in the fall. As we slow down and reflect on the year so far — and mull over where Lean Out might go next — we'd love to hear from you on what is working and not working about this newsletter and podcast. Your feedback is most welcome. In the meantime, our hope for all of you is that you are also able to unplug at least a bit this summer, rediscovering all of the things that make life most worth living, from nature and travel to food and family and friendship and community. And of course, good books! We'll be doing our best to recapture that same spirit of adventure and discovery, and will share it with you all when we return in the fall.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

Should journalism inform the public or influence it? Independent journalist and podcast host Tara Henley discusses her new book The Trust Spiral: Why the Media Needs Objectivity, examining how journalists abandoned objectivity for activism. Henley traces the emergence of journalistic objectivity in the 19th century to more recently, when younger, progressive journalists rejected it for “identitarian moralism”. She argues it is this shift that's behind falling trust in media, critiquing major Canadian media failures—from pandemic coverage to residential school graves reporting—while defending objectivity as an aspirational standard and part of journalism's public service.The Hub is Canada's fastest growing independent digital news outlet. Subscribe to The Hub's podcast feed to get all our best content:https://tinyurl.com/3a7zpd7e (Apple)https://tinyurl.com/y8akmfn7 (Spotify)Watch a video version on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheHubCanadaFollow The Hub on X: https://x.com/thehubcanada?lang=en CREDITS:Amal Attar-Guzman - Producer and Video EditorHarrison Lowman - Host Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of the themes of the Lean Out podcast is a crisis in confidence in the mainstream media. In a few weeks, Tara's new book on this topic will be released in the United States and Canada. The Trust Spiral: Why the Media Needs Objectivity unpacks where the press has gone wrong — and what it needs to do to regain the public's trust. Cardus in Ottawa hosted Tara for an event on June 9, where she was joined on-stage by a fellow Canadian journalist. We are happy to share a portion of that discussion this week.Stuart Thomson is a Canadian journalist and the Parliamentary bureau chief for The National Post. You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

It has now five years since the Kamloops band made an announcement of the discovery of the "remains of 215 children” at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, kicking off an intense period of national grief and anger. A month ago, The Globe and Mail editorial board made news around the world, declaring the national press's lack of scrutiny of the claim a “failure of journalism.” Our guest on the program this week is an award-winning journalist who was early on this story — and he's here to unpack its aftermath.Terry Glavin is a Canadian journalist, an author, and a columnist for The National Post.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

Getting it wrong in the media today has consequences - but are today's journalists held to the standard of truth and subject to the same scrutiny? Tara Henley shares her insight.

It's Canada Day and many of us are reflecting on our nation and where we are at. We know that we are more divided than ever, but how did we get here? Our guest on the program this week has just written a book on political polarization in the country. He says the roots of our divisions run deep — and the consequences are dire.Eric Merkley is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Toronto, and director of the Policy, Elections, and Representation Lab. His new book is Polarization, Eh? The Causes and Consequences of Affective Polarization in Canada.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

On June 10, the Canadian broadcaster David Cayley passed away, surrounded by loved ones, playing bluegrass music. He died in the Toronto home that he had shared with his wife for the past 42 years. It was a home that I had just begun visiting him at in recent months, drinking coffee and talking about books and ideas. David was a brilliant mind, a generous person, a fearless soul. As his friend and former executive producer Bernie Lucht told me this week, “David simply did not accept standing narratives.” I had great admiration and respect for him. I am happy to replay our recent interview, in tribute to David and all that he was. You can hear his smile in voice.David Cayley was a Canadian broadcaster. He was a husband and a father and a grandfather, and a friend to many. For thirty years, he made documentaries for the CBC Radio program Ideas. He was also the author of eight books. His last was The CBC: How Canada's Public Broadcaster Lost Its Voice (And How to Get It Back).You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

On October 19, citizens in the province of Alberta will vote on whether they want to proceed with a referendum on separating from the rest of Canada. Our guest on the program this week has written a new book about the history of these tensions — and why they have now come to a head.Tyler Dawson is an opinion editor at The Globe and Mail. His new book is The Republic of Alberta: An Idea That Won't Go Away.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

The big news in Canada this week has been The Globe and Mail editorial board's admission that the industry and the paper bungled the unmarked graves story from 2021 — that this in fact constituted a journalistic failure.In light of this, we are bringing you an episode of Tara's media criticism podcast with The Hub, Full Press, from last week, which took stock of how we in the Canadian media got this story so wrong. This is an especially important conversation, now that the Senate human rights committee has voted to criminalize residential school denialism, with a penalty of up to two years in prison.  (UPDATE: The Canadian Senate as a whole has now voted to reject the criminalization of residential school denialism, voting 41 to 32 against it.)Thanks for listening, and thank you to The Hub for giving us permission to re-air this episode.  You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

You wouldn't think that a woman declaring that she is into men would a subversive act — but at some point during recent years, this became the case in certain circles. Particularly online feminist circles. Our guest on the program this week has written a new book on female heterosexuality and she says it's time we acknowledge that the vast majority of women are, in fact, straight.Phoebe Maltz Bovy is a Toronto cultural critic. She is the opinion editor for The Canadian Jewish News and co-host of the Feminine Chaos podcast. Her new book is The Last Straight Woman — On Desiring Men.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

Most of us are aware that the digital age we are living through is a time of incredible transformation. But we may not have contemplated what we'd like to see preserved — things like free speech. Some years ago, our guest on this week's program began investigating political censorship. What he found was bigger, more all-encompassing, and in fact more interesting. In his new book, he argues that we have entered an entirely new political epoch, that of the information state.Jacob Siegel is an American journalist. He is the special features editor for Tablet Magazine and co-host of the Manifesto! podcast. His new book is The Information State: Politics in the Age of Total Control.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

Canada's immigration system was once the envy of the world. And for decades, the country enjoyed a bipartisan pro-immigration consensus. But during the Trudeau years, that consensus fell apart. Our guest on the program this week delivered the 2025 McGill Max Bell Lectures on this topic. His new book explores where we went wrong.Tony Keller is a columnist at The Globe and Mail. His book is Borderline Chaos: How Canada Got Immigration Right, and Then Wrong. It has been shortlisted for the Donner Prize, which will be awarded tomorrow night in Toronto.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

We know that young women are increasingly unhappy — with high rates of depression and anxiety — and our guest on the program this week says there's good reason for that. In her new book, she argues that girlhood has dramatically changed in the Internet era and that young women have been transformed from people into products.Freya India is a British writer and commentator, and a staff writer at Jonathan Haidt's newsletter After Babel. Her new book is GIRLS: Generation Z and the Commodification of Everything. You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

What does it mean to be a man? Our guest on the program this week has published a book that examines that very question. It is part memoir, part meditation on masculinity, and part detective story — as he unearths the secret life of his charismatic alpha male father and forges a new version of manhood, putting himself and his family back together on the page.Tom Junod is an award-winning American journalist and a senior writer for ESPN. The film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is based on an article that he wrote for Esquire. Tom's new memoir is In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

In recent years, viewpoint diversity has become a loaded term. But our guest on the program this week says it is vital that we renew our commitment to dialogue, especially across lines of difference. He has edited a new book that brings together prominent professors and journalists to make the case for free speech, intellectual humility, and societal pluralism — in higher education, politics, and the literary world.John Tomasi is an American political philosopher and the president of Heterodox Academy. He is the editor, with Bernard Schweizer, of the new book Viewpoint Diversity: What It Is, Why We Need It, and How to Get It.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

There can be no doubt that we are living through politically charged times — and this is especially true at North American universities. My guest on the program this week has spent the past decade making a documentary about unrest on campus. She says many faculty and students are now afraid to debate the big issues of our time, and she worries that we are losing the ability to speak across differences.Ric Esther Bienstock is an Emmy Award-winning Canadian filmmaker. Her new two-part documentary, Speechless, is available for streaming now on CBC Gem.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

We are at a pivotal moment in Canada, as we reflect on our past and try to forge a more unified future in the face of tensions with the United States. Our guest on the program says now is a good time to reexamine our key institutions. This week, he has published an entertaining new book about the office of Governor General, just as speculation abounds that we may be about to get a new one.John Fraser is a veteran Canadian journalist, an author, and an academic. He is a former Master of Massey College, and the current executive chair of the National NewsMedia Council of Canada. His latest book is The Governors General: An Intimate History of Canada's Highest Office.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

In the United States right now, a group of feminists is taking stock of the movement — where it is at and where it's gone wrong. Our guest on the program this week is one of those feminists. Her new book argues that our problem is we've bought into an idea of radical autonomy, which is not possible for human beings. It is, in fact, disconnected from physical reality.Leah Libresco Sargeant is an American writer. She runs the Substack newsletter Other Feminisms and her latest book is The Dignity of Dependence: A Feminist Manifesto.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

This week on the Lean Out podcast we are shifting our focus from the political to the personal. Our guest on the program has written a remarkable memoir about her time in the food world, her story of addiction and recovery — and what she learned from her years collaborating with the late Anthony Bourdain.Laurie Woolever is an American writer and editor. Her latest book, a New York Times bestseller, is Care and Feeding: A Memoir.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

As tensions mount within the United States — and between the United States and Canada — it has never been more important to understand each other. Our guest on the program this week is the head of a depolarization non-profit and his latest research paints a nuanced and complex portrait of Trump voters and the cultural attitudes and policy positions that energize them.Jason Mangone is the executive director of More in Common U.S. Its latest report is Beyond MAGA: A Profile of the Trump Coalition.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

Many of us grew up reading classics from the great Judy Blume, from Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret to Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. Blume, now in her eighties, is famous for writing about childhood and adolescence with humour and heart. This week, our guest on the program has published a remarkable book documenting her life story.Mark Oppenheimer is an American journalist and author. He's the editor of the online religion and politics magazine ARC. His latest book is Judy Blume: A Life.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

In recent years, the world has become an increasingly unstable place. Our guest on the program this week says that Canadians have adopted a “precarity mindset.” And now, roughly nine out of ten Canadians believe this uncertainty is here to stay — that it is, in fact, the new normal.Eddie Sheppard is executive vice president at Abacus Data. His analysis for Abacus is From Crisis to Condition: The Psychology of Canadian Uncertainty.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

One of the problems with increased polarization is that everything gets politicized, including simple acts of charity. Our guest on the program this week is an American journalist who's been tracking this trend in liberal and leftist circles and he's published an essay making the argument that helping your neighbour is an affirmation of our shared humanity — not a “radical act of resistance.”Ryan Zickgraf is an American journalist and a columnist at UnHerd. His Substack newsletter is The Third Rail.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

If you follow the news in this country, you know that Canada is currently grappling with a number of crises, from housing to mental health. And yet much of our attention is focused on the United States and on Donald Trump. Our guest on the podcast this week has just published an essay about this. She argues that, much like in a dysfunctional family, the media's fixation on Trump is a distraction from looking at deeper issues.Amanda Ripley is an American journalist and a New York Times bestselling author. Her latest book is High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out. She is the co-founder of Good Conflict, a media and training company that helps people reimagine conflict. (You can watch their latest story here).You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

On Artful Living today, we chat with Assistant Principal of St. John Regional School in Concord, Tara Henley and her 6th Grade son, Thomas Henley. Join us - it's always nice to have you with us!

Canadians who write books, or cover books, or read books will know that something is wrong with our literary industry. But a new book documents just how far off the rails publishing has gone. Our guest on the program this week is the author of that book, and he says our fundamental problem is an erosion of national identity.Richard Stursberg is a Canadian author and media executive, and the former head of English services for the CBC. His new book is Lament for a Literature: The Collapse of Canadian Book Publishing.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

This week on the Lean Out podcast we are taking a look at the chaotic summer of 2020, and the impact of that unrest on mainstream journalism. Our guest on the program this week has a new interview with the former opinion editor at The New York Times, James Bennet, who was famously ousted by a staff revolt. My guest says that now is a good time to think through how that historical moment — and its activists — has shaped our journalism.Harrison Lowman is a Canadian journalist. He's the managing editor of The Hub and a former producer of this podcast.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

We live in an age of economic precarity and journalists are not exempt from this. Our guest on the program this week has written a powerful Substack essay about his path from foreign correspondent to Uber driver, and how his troubles have helped him to forge a sense of solidarity with the people he drives to work.Steven Scherer is an American journalist and a former Canadian bureau chief for Reuters.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

Men and women don't seem very happy these days. They are dissatisfied with dating, polarized politically, trash talking each other online, and both marriage and fertility are on the decline. What is responsible for this rift between men and women? Our guest on the program this week has been mulling this question over, and she says we might want to reconsider some of the assumptions of feminism — starting with the idea that marriage and family are “a trap.”Larissa Phillips is an American essayist and the founder of the Volunteer Literacy Project. With her husband, she runs the Honey Hollow Farm in upstate New York.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

The popularity of identity politics, and the subsequent fallout from this ideology, is something that we've tried to unpack and understand on the Lean Out podcast. Our guest on the program this week has published a viral essay on the impacts of this moment on Millennial white men. He argues that an entire generation was shut out of certain professions and found themselves in a society that was “deliberately rooting against” them.Jacob Savage is an American writer. His latest essay, for Compact Magazine, is The Lost Generation.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

With the new year now upon us, we are going to continue our conversation about the state of feminism, and how we might begin to think and talk about women's lives in ways that are more productive. Our guest on the program this week is a frequent commentator on modern feminism, and she says the central archetypes of our current moment — the girl boss on the left and the trad wife on the right — are both reductive and untenable in today's world.Elizabeth Grace Matthew is an American writer, and the author of the Substack newsletter Restoring American Adulthood. You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

It's New Year's Day and many of us will be at home, contemplating the year ahead. For New Year's every year, Lean Out brings you an episode that is lighter and more hopeful. This year, we set our sights on food and its ability to bring us together. Our guest on the program today has published a wonderful book about famous writers and their recipes, exploring the restorative power of home cooking.Valerie Stivers is an American writer and a senior editor at UnHerd. Her new book is The Writer's Table: Famous Authors and Their Favourite Recipes, inspired by her long-running column at The Paris Review.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

It's Christmas Day and we at Lean Out wanted to bring you a special bonus episode — to celebrate the occasion and to meditate on the meaning of the holiday. Our guest on the program today is the founder of one of the largest gang intervention, rehabilitation, and re-entry programs in the world, and he's here to share its driving ethos of cherished belonging, and how that might serve as a model for the wider world.Father Gregory Boyle is an American Jesuit priest and the founder of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles. Last year, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. His latest book is Cherished Belonging: The Healing Power of Love in Divided Times. This interview was taped December 18. You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

Is the media actually providing Canadians with facts and context? Our panel with Tara Henley, Brian Lilley, and Peter Menzies  looks at the aversion to “controversial” content.

On the Lean Out podcast, one of the topics that we often return to is the media, and the insanity of the media. For the last show of 2025, our guest is a veteran journalist and a savvy media critic, and he has some thoughts on where we are, how we got here — and where we should go from here.Mike Pesca is an award-winning American journalist. He is the creator and host of the long-running daily news podcast, The Gist. He's also the author of Upon Further Review: The Greatest What-Ifs in Sports History.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

With 2025 winding down, we at Lean Out wanted to take a look back at one of the most controversial stories of the year — and to see if we could have a calm, reasonable conversation about a divisive issue. We're talking about the feminization theory, or the idea that the shifting sex ratios in influential institutions comes with both positive and negative consequences. Our guest on the program today is a scholar who is studying that phenomenon. Her recent paper, for the Journal of Controversial Ideas, is “From Worriers to Warriors: The Cultural Rise of Women.” Cory Clark is an American behavioural scientist. She's an associate professor of psychology at New College of Florida and director of the Adversarial Collaboration Project.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 Sexual Revolution — and weighing its benefits and drawbacks, both for women and for men. Today on the show, we are going back to the period that led into that historical moment, to a bohemian movement of art and travel and sexual experimentation, but also of destruction and dysfunction and family tragedies. We're talking about the Beat Generation. Our guest on today's program has written the introduction to a reissue of an astonishingly good book that explores all of this, written by Jack Kerouac's daughter Jan. Amanda Fortini is an American magazine writer and Substacker. She's a columnist at County Highway and a frequent contributor to T: The New York Times Style Magazine. She's joins me to talk about the 1981 novel Baby Driver by Jan Kerouac.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

In Toronto, where I live, you cannot walk a block without seeing a young man in distress — sleeping on the street, or slumped over from drug use, or shouting and screaming. It feels like something has gone very wrong for men in this country and that nobody is talking about it. Our guest on the program today has dedicated his career to men's health, and he has some important insights to share, both from his professional life and from his personal life.Zac Seidler is the Global Director of Men's Health Research at Movember. He's also an associate professor at Orygen centre for youth mental health at the University of Melbourne, and a member of the advisory council for the American Institute for Boys and Men. He recently joined Prince Harry for a Movember event in New York City.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

In the wake of the #MeToo firing of the University of British Columbia creative writing professor Steven Galloway — which is once again in the news this week — our guest on the program today sat down to write a book of advice for young feminists. But her good friend Margaret Atwood convinced her that nobody likes unsolicited advice, and that she should instead frame her memoir around her unusual height and how it shaped her life. The result is a riveting narrative that also offers up plenty of lessons to the next generation of women.Susan Swan is a Canadian novelist, non-fiction writer, professor emerita at York University, and a recipient of the Order of Canada. Her latest book is Big Girls Don't Cry: A Memoir About Taking Up Space.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

Many women in Generation X are now finding themselves overwhelmed. The world is increasingly stressful. But our private lives are not much calmer, as we care for children and aging parents and spouses, stare down middle age, and mull over the legacy of previous generations of women. Our guest on the program today knows something about this — she grappled with all of these things, all at once, during one truly terrible year.Molly Jong-Fast is an American writer and political commentator. She's a special correspondent for Vanity Fair, a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, and the host of the podcast Fast Politics. Her latest book is How to Lose Your Mother: A Daughter's Memoir.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

It's budget day here in Canada. As Prime Minister Mark Carney's government tables its first federal budget, we will get reaction and hear a lot of different visions for the country. On today's episode we wanted to bring you one. Our guest on the program says that Canada is in crisis — and that it is now time for "bold adventurism."Daniel Debow is a Canadian executive, investor, and educator. He is the chair of the board for Build Canada.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 many crises that Canada is facing —and where we go from here. Our guest on the program today warns that we are at a breaking point, and in desperate need of a national reckoning. As we face threats from without, he says, we are divided from within, along the lines of gender, class, region, and, crucially, generation.Darrell Bricker is the CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs and a previous director of public opinion research in the Prime Minister's Office. His latest book, out this week — written with veteran journalist John Ibbitson — is Breaking Point: The New Big Shifts Putting Canada at Risk.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

Before the Internet, before the literary world was overrun by online politics, before everything you read — and wrote — had to advance an agenda, there was the solitary person, in a room, losing themselves in the words on the page. There was the fan. Our guest on the program today has written a book of essays on fandom and his own obsessions. In the process, he confronts the big cultural forces of our age.Jason Guriel is a Toronto writer. His latest book is Fan Mail: A Guide to What We Love, Loathe, and Mourn.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

Many of us that are big readers have been scratching our heads for years, trying to figure out why so many books are now so tedious and moralistic. What's happened to North American literary culture — and why hasn't it bounced back? Our guest on the program today has some answers. He's written a book about the decline of literary freedom in publishing, and a dynamic that he describes as “a circular firing squad.”Adam Szetela is an American author. His new outing is That Book is Dangerous! How Moral Panic, Social Media, and the Culture Wars Are Remaking Publishing.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

If you live in North America, chances are good that you spend a lot of time wondering why things feel so dysfunctional. Why can't we make any progress on the big issues of our age, like housing? Our guest on the program today has some answers — and he has written a fascinating new book about why nothing works.Marc J. Dunkelman is an American author and former political staffer. He's a fellow at Brown University's Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs. His latest book is Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress — and How to Bring It Back.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

In recent years, we have seen heated debate in this country around the CBC and its future. With the question of defunding no longer looming, it is a good time to pause, to look back at where our national public broadcaster has been, and to talk through where it might go from here. Our guest on today's program is veteran CBC producer who has written an insightful and well-researched new book about the institution — and where he thinks it went wrong.David Cayley is a Canadian author and broadcaster. For thirty years, he made documentaries for the CBC Radio show Ideas. His latest book is The CBC: How Canada's Public Broadcaster Lost Its Voice (And How to Get It Back).You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

Today, as we go to air, our guest on the program takes the stage at Toronto Metropolitan University to address the next generation. He is a legendary Canadian journalist and he'll be reflecting on the highs and lows that he's experienced in his ringside seat to history, and how to navigate what he calls “the spinning vortex of ever-more complex news” — all of which he covers in his riveting new memoir.Brian Stewart is a former foreign correspondent for the CBC. His new book is On the Ground: My Life as a Foreign Correspondent.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

Earlier this year at Lean Out, we covered Canada's federal election. It was a contest not just between candidates and parties but between dominant narratives about the challenges facing this country. Was our biggest problem the decline in material conditions, or was it Donald Trump? Our guest on today's podcast was there, on the campaign trail. He's just written a book about why this election was one of the most consequential in recent memory.Justin Ling is a Canadian journalist and author. His Substack newsletter is Bug-eyed and Shameless, and his new book is The 51st State Votes: Canada Versus Donald Trump.This episode was taped earlier this month.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

In 2021, Canada was rocked by a discovery at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops: what appeared to be the remains of more than 200 Indigenous children. The story went viral globally and was reported by The New York Times and others as a mass grave. But to date, no remains have been exhumed. Our guest on the program today is a First Nation chief and a podcaster who has made a new, hour-long video breaking down the controversy. He says it's time for the media to grapple with its reporting errors — and the fallout for the country.Aaron Pete is Chief of the Chawathil First Nation, and host of the Nuanced podcast, formerly called Bigger Than Me. He's also a guest host of this show.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

September is here and Lean Out is back with a new season of conversations with writers and thinkers from around the world. We could not think of a more important topic to kick off our fall season than the state of Canadian democracy. Our guest on the program today has written a new book that serves as a wake-up call — he says that while we observe the rituals of the democratic process, we have lost its spirit and its substance. Andrew Coyne is a columnist for The Globe and Mail and a weekly panelist on CBC's The National. His debut book is The Crisis of Canadian Democracy.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com