Twitter/X’s Grok is undressing people, including minors, but xAI doesn’t seem to care. 

Now that Twitter is worse than ever, will that be enough to stop Canadian public figures from using the platform? 

Jen Gerson of The Line joins to consider the future options for an online public square.   

Host: Jesse Brown

Credits: James Nicholson (Producer), Katie Laur (Associate Producer and Fact Checking) Caleb Thompson (Mixing and Mastering), max collins (Director of Audio), Jesse Brown (Editor)

Guest: Jen Gerson

Further reading: 

• Elon Musk's Grok AI says images of 'minors in minimal clothing' caused by safeguard lapses | CBC News
• France to investigate deepfakes of women stripped naked by Grok – POLITICO 
• Elon Musk company bot apologizes for sharing sexualized images of children - Los Angeles Times
• Canadian government officials, what are you still doing on X in 2026? | Canada's National Observer  
• In the age of AI, it's easy to make deepfake porn. But victims find it hard to undo the damage | CBC News 
• City of Calgary ignored two decades of warning signs about water system, report finds - The Globe and Mail
•  Thunder Bay, Ont., once again reports the highest homicide rate in Canada | CBC News 

Sponsors: 

Fizz: Visit fizz.ca and activate a first plan using the referral code CAN25 to get 25$ off and 10GB of free data.

Douglas:  Douglas is giving our listeners a FREE Sleep Bundle with each mattress purchase. Get the sheets, pillows, mattress and pillow protectors FREE with your Douglas purchase today.  Visit douglas.ca/canadaland to claim this offer.

Squarespace: Check out Squarespace.com/canadaland for a free trial, and when you’re ready to launch use code canadaland to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

If you value this podcast, Support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch at our store, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody. 

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In 2025, it seemed like there was always something to be worried or afraid about. Every day brought about change and uncertainty. So we wanted to know, what pre-occupied your mind in 2025, and what are you hopeful for in 2026?

Listeners and Canadaland staff all contributed their voices to this documentary. 

Host: Sam Konnert

Credits: Tristan Capacchione (Producer), Tony Wang (Executive Producer), max collins (Director of Audio), Jesse Brown (Publisher)

Photo: Tony Wang

Additional music by Audio Network

Join us for next month’s call-in show! 

Canadaland's news focus is largely national and provincial. Occasionally we'll talk about something happening in a specific city or town, but local news just isn't our wheelhouse.

But there are tons of interesting stories happening in small towns across this country. What's the gossip on your community's Facebook Group? What's the heated discussion on your local subreddit. Or heaven forbid, what’s being talked about on Next Door…

Call in and let us know January 29, 4:30-6:30 PM ET. When the time comes, click here or head over to www.callinstudio.com/show/canadaland. You can also dial in at 1-888-401-7056.

This show is available exclusively to Canadaland supporters. To become one, go to https://canadaland.com/join/. You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch at our store, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What Maduro’s capture means for Canada. 

Trump’s military coup in Venezuela is a mask-off moment of American imperialism, but will it compel Canada to take meaningful action? 

Plus, sorting through Canada’s political and media responses to Venezuela. 

Host: Jesse Brown

Credits: James Nicholson (Producer), Katie Laur (Associate Producer and Fact Checking) Caleb Thompson (Mixing and Mastering), max collins (Director of Audio), Jesse Brown (Editor)

Guest: Jen Gerson

Further reading: 

• In a national emergency, Canada does not have a moment to lose - The Globe and Mail
• The arrest of Mark Carney will bring peace, prosperity, and freedom to North America - Halifax Examiner 
• Eric Ham: Canada beware, Trump’s Venezuela invasion is a clear warning shot 
• Venezuela - The Lesson for Canada - Charlie Angus [Substack] 
• The Conservative and Liberal responses to Venezuela reflect vastly different foreign-policy outlooks - The Globe and Mail
• Jen Gerson: Nothing's going to happen, and it's far too late to do anything about it anyway - The Line
• Freeland to step down in 'coming weeks' after accepting role advising Ukraine's Zelenskyy | CBC News  
• Ontario court rules Doug Ford must turn over personal phone records | Globalnews.ca 

Sponsors: 

MUBI: To stream great cinema at home, you can try MUBI free for 30 days at mubi.com/canadaland.

Article: Article is offering our listeners $50 off your first purchase of $100 or more. To claim, visit article.com/canadaland and the discount will be automatically applied at checkout.

BetterHelp: Visit BetterHelp.com/canadaland today to get 10% off your first month.

If you value this podcast, Support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch at our store, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nicholas Maduro says he’s “not guilty” in his first court appearance in New York after being captured in a US military operation. But, Canadian politicians and Venezuelan-Canadian Alexis Espejo suggest otherwise. Sam talks with Alexis about how it felt to watch the news unfold.

Plus, what do The Notebook, a haunted lumber baron’s wife, a swimming pool scandal, and a knife-wielding intruder all have in common? 24 Sussex Drive.

Host: Sam Konnert

Credits: Aviva Lessard (Senior Producer), Sam Konnert (Host/Producer), Noor Azrieh (Host/Producer), Caleb Thompson (Audio Editor and Technical Producer), Max Collins (Director of Audio) Jesse Brown (Editor), Tony Wang (Artwork)

Guest: Alexis Espejo, Noor Azrieh

Background reading:

• Canada stands by Venezuelan people's right to decide their future, says PM Carney – CBC News
• Protesters in Canada hold different opinions of Nicolás Maduro – CTV News
• 24 Sussex renovation: Carney says no plans to address – CTV News 
• Adam: A new home for the prime minister is closer than ever — or so the NCC says – Ottawa Citizen
• 24 Sussex is now asbestos and rodent-free — and nobody knows what to do with it – CBC News
• 24 Sussex Drive – National Capital Commission

Sponsors: 

To stream great cinema at home, you can try MUBI free for 30 days at mubi.com/canadaland. 

Douglas is giving our listeners a FREE Sleep Bundle with each mattress purchase. Get the sheets, pillows, mattress and pillow protectors FREE with your Douglas purchase today at douglas.ca/canadaland

If you value this podcast, Support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody. 

Can't get enough Canadaland? Follow @Canadaland_Podcasts on Instagram for clips, announcements, explainers and more.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of the most powerful voices in Canadian media isn't Canadian. And she doesn’t work for a Canadian news outlet. Matina Stevis-Gridneff is the New York Times correspondent for Canada. 

Canadians have a weird relationship to the NYT. In one sense, it's the most powerful newspaper in Canada. It has more digital subscribers than any Canadian publication, although The Globe and Mail has more readers.

On the other hand, of course, it's American, and we are living in the biggest transformation in our relationship to America since Confederation. Canadians have changed their travel habits, changed their consumption habits. They want fewer American things, less America in their lives. 

But that hasn't applied to the Times. Its reach is still expanding, even as the Times has grown more conservative, and even though their op-ed writers have kicked around the idea of annexing Canada. 

Matina Stevis-Gridneff joins us today to talk about what Canada means to the NYT and what the NYT means to Canada.

Host: Stephen Marche

Credits: Caleb Thompson (Audio Editor), Bruce Thorson (Senior Producer), max collins (Director of Audio), Jesse Brown (Editor and Publisher)

Featured Guest: Matina Stevis-Gridneff

Fact checking by Julian Abraham

Sponsors: 

fizz.ca Visit fizz.ca to learn more about Fizz mobile and its long list of added-value features. 

That's fizz dot ca and activate a first plan using the referral code CAN25 to get 25$ off and 10GB of free data.

BetterHelp: Visit https://BetterHelp.com/canadaland today to get 10% off your first month.

Douglas: Douglas is giving our listeners a FREE Sleep Bundle with each mattress purchase. Get the sheets, pillows, mattress and pillow protectors FREE with your Douglas purchase today. Visit douglas.ca/canadaland to claim this offer

Can’t get enough Canadaland? Follow @Canadaland_Podcasts on Instagram for clips, announcements, explainers and more.

If you value this podcast, support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch at our store, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Canadaland fan-favourite guests share their predictions, while Jesse and Noor give their two cents. Topics include a Canadian bid to join the E.U., a social media ban in the southern hemisphere, and robot raccoons eating hot peppers.

Plus: Jesse makes an informed prediction about the future of Canadaland.

This episode uses generative AI for the following purposes: Enhance Speech by Adobe on a recording of Jen Gerson

Host: Jesse Brown

Credits: James Nicholson (Producer), Lucie Laumonier (Associate Producer and Fact Checking) tom sayers (Audio Editor), max collins (Director of Audio), Jesse Brown (Editor)

Guest: Noor Azrieh

Additional music by Audio Network

Sponsors: 

Douglas is giving our listeners a FREE Sleep Bundle with each mattress purchase. Get the sheets, pillows, mattress and pillow protectors FREE with your Douglas purchase today at douglas.ca/canadaland

To stream great cinema at home, you can try MUBI free for 30 days at mubi.com/canadaland. 

If you value this podcast, support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch at our store, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody.  

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's the holidays and we are re-running a classic episode of Off The Record this week.

Here at Canadaland it can often seem like just one shitty story after another. But it’s not just one more shitty story to round out the year. Nope. This is also a tale of hope, dreams, and IUDs. 

Every year Canadaland searches for and hires two fellows. Two new audio journalists who join us here and work with us for months to produce their first long form professional audio documentaries. 

This past year Mia Johnson and Leora Scherzer joined us. They created two wonderful stories on the subjects of human composting and IUDs. Leora and Mia are now living their journalistic dreams as both were hired by media outlets once they finished up at Canadaland.

Today we brought Mia and Leora back into our studio to talk about what they learnt while they were here, what was good about the experience, what could be better. And with an eye to the future we also want to let you all know we’ll soon be searching for our new recruits for 2026!

Host: Sam Konnert

Credits: Tristan Capacchione (Producer), Tony Wang (Executive Producer), max collins (Director of Audio), Jesse Brown (Editor and Publisher)

Guests: Jesse Brown, Noor Azrieh, Mia Johnson, Leora Schertzer

Photo: Tony Wang

Additional music by Audio Network

Further Listening:

• #1084 Waste Management: Sh*t’s Complicated — CANADALAND
• #1022 The Painful Truth About IUDs — CANADALAND

Plus, check out our Mia and Leora’s work since leaving Canadaland!

Leora:

• Hypnosis over anesthesia? Why patients in Quebec are choosing alternative pain management — Montreal Gazette
• Pizza revolution: The rise of Montreal’s new slice scene — Montreal Gazette
• West Island mayors say ‘far-right’ extremist influenced Montreal to stop fluoridating water — Montreal Gazette

Mia:

• Ontario law could spell doom for turtles in Toronto’s wetlands — Frequency News
• TDSB cancels Grade 9 enrolment for special needs school — Frequency News
• Nature’s calling but the city of Toronto isn’t picking up the phone — Frequency News

Sponsors: 

oxio: Head over to https://canadaland.oxio.ca and use code CANADALAND for your first month free! 

CAMH: CAMH is building better mental health care for everyone to ensure no one is left behind. Visit camh.ca/canadaland to make a donation.

Squarespace: Check out Squarespace.com/canadaland for a free trial, and when you’re ready to launch use code canadaland to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

Can’t get enough Canadaland? Follow @Canadaland_Podcasts on Instagram for clips, announcements, explainers and more.

If you value this podcast, support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch at our store, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're bringing you something different: an episode of the brand-new CBC series The Devil You Know with Sarah Marshall.

In the 1980s and 90s, Satan and his followers were accused of brainwashing children, sacrificing babies, and infiltrating North American society on a massive scale — yet these thousands of alleged Satanists were nowhere to be found. 

In the all new 8-part series, The Devil You Know from CBC, host Sarah Marshall (You’re Wrong About) explores the tangled web of the Satanic Panic, in a journey that will take you everywhere from Victoria, B.C. to rural Kentucky to San Antonio, Texas. This is a show about the people who experienced the Satanic Panic in real-time — the believers, the skeptics, the bystanders, and the wrongfully-convicted. All episodes of The Devil You Know are available now.

Episode 2: Marylyn Remembers

Michelle Remembers is the 1980 “biographical” book that brought the idea of Satanic cults into the mainstream. In it, Michelle Smith documents years of alleged Satanic ritual abuse and the man who helped her remember it, psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder. We talk to those who thought they knew Michelle and Larry best: their families. They tell us what it was like to witness the birth of the Satanic Panic from the most intimate vantage point — and how it shattered their lives.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Canadaland fan-favourite guests give the gift of Duly Noteds for Jesse and Noor to unwrap and judge mercilessly. Topics include secret Chinese police stations, the life and death of a right-wing party in B.C., and Danielle Smith’s French-language lessons.

Host: Jesse Brown

Credits: James Nicholson (Producer), Lucie Laumonier (Associate Producer and Fact Checking) tom sayers (Audio Editor), max collins (Director of Audio), Jesse Brown (Editor)

Guest: Noor Azrieh

Additional music by Audio Network

Sponsors:

oxio: Head over to canadaland.oxio.ca and use code CANADALAND for your first month free! 

CAMH: With your generous year-end gift, we can make better mental health care for everyone a reality. To donate, visit camh.ca/canadaland.

BetterHelp:  Visit BetterHelp.com/canadaland today to get 10% off your first month.

Douglas: Douglas is offering our listeners a FREE Sleep Bundle with each mattress purchase. Get the sheets, pillows, mattress and pillow protectors FREE with your Douglas purchase today at douglas.ca/canadaland

If you value this podcast, support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch at our store, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Noor Azrieh and Sam Konnert look back on the moments that defined Canadian politics this year. We revisit viral clips, media meltdowns, Question Period fever dreams, floor crossers, immigration fights, Alberta separatism, national projects (that may or may not exist yet), and the growing sense that everything is moving very fast… but also somehow not at all.

Plus: pop stars, masked singers, elbow-themed merch, biological clocks (obviously).

Host(s): Noor Azrieh & Sam Konnert

Credits: Aviva Lessard (Senior Producer), Sam Konnert (Host/Producer), Noor Azrieh (Host/Producer), Caleb Thompson (Audio Editor and Technical Producer), max collins (Director of Audio), Jesse Brown (Editor), Tony Wang (Artwork)

Sponsors: 

Douglas is giving our listeners a FREE Sleep Bundle with each mattress purchase. Get the sheets, pillows, mattress and pillow protectors FREE with your Douglas purchase today at douglas.ca/canadaland

To stream great cinema at home, you can try MUBI free for 30 days at mubi.com/canadaland. 

If you value this podcast, Support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody. 

Can't get enough Canadaland? Follow @Canadaland_Podcasts on Instagram for clips, announcements, explainers and more.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.