Front Burner

After Donald Trump was elected for a second time, historian Timothy Snyder wrote this in the New Yorker: “Trump has always been a presence, not an absence: the presence of fascism.” Today on Front Burner, Snyder makes that case again. His warning about fascism feels particularly relevant at this point in Trump’s presidency, as the U.S. sees an escalation in political violence, the deployment of federal law enforcement in major cities, and the proliferation of masked ICE agents on what critics call ‘roving patrols’ across the country.

Timothy Snyder teaches at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs. He is the author of books like “On Tyranny” and “On Freedom”.

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For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The U.S. government has shut down after Republicans and Democrats failed to pass a spending bill before the end of Tuesday. Government services will grind to a halt and hundreds of thousands of federal employees face unpaid leave. How long is it expected to last, and could it have been avoided? 

Plus, President Donald Trump and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth held a rare gathering of the country’s top military leaders, detailing their new vision for the US military. 

We break it all down with Alex Shephard, senior editor at The New Republic. 

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For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Last week, Canada officially recognized Palestinian statehood. 

In explaining this decision, Prime Minister Mark Carney released a statement which read, "Canada recognises the State of Palestine and offers our partnership in building the promise of a peaceful future for both the State of Palestine and the State of Israel."

Just over a week later, U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled an alternative way forward: a 20-point plan they say would end the war in Gaza, but falls well short of creating a pathway for the creation of a Palestinian state. 

Today, we're talking about the creation of a Palestinian state, as well as the promise, failure, and uncertain future of the two-state solution. 

Our guest is Noura Erakat, an academic, human rights lawyer, author, and Palestinian-American activist.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

While Donald Trump may have shocked many at the UN General Assembly when he called climate change “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world”, he may just have been the most extreme messenger of a global shift being seen elsewhere. 

David Wallace-Wells, author of “The Uninhabitable Earth” and friend of the show, recently wrote a feature for the New York Times detailing the ways much of the world has turned away from climate politics and how the era of the Paris Agreement, which was signed 10 years ago, may be coming to an end. He talks to us about why we are seeing this shift and whether the green energy transition, led by China, is enough to make up for it. 

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

It’s been about a month since the NDP leadership race began and two main contenders have emerged: longtime climate activist and former broadcaster Avi Lewis, and NDP MP for Edmonton-Strathcona, Heather McPherson, one of the most prominent New Democrat voices in Western Canada.

The NDP suffered a crushing defeat last election. The party went from 24 MPs to only seven, losing official party status. The next leader is faced with a monumental challenge to rebuild.

Today, we’ve got two people with different visions of what that looks like.

Martin Lukacs is the managing editor of the independent progressive media outlet The Breach. He’s also the author of ‘The Poilievre Project’.

Cheryl Oates is a political consultant, who worked for former Alberta NDP premier Rachel Notley. She’s also worked on NDP campaigns across Western Canada, and teaches at McGill’s Max Bell School of Public Policy.

They join host Jayme Poisson for a spirited debate about the future of the NDP.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Dan Wang is a tech analyst and a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover History Lab. He’s one of the leading China analysts in the world right now and his new book is called “Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future”.

Today on the show he explains his novel way of understanding the clash between China and the United States: China owns the future because it is an “engineering state” whereas the U.S. is a “lawyerly society” that often gets in its own way.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

After a brief suspension for comments he made in the wake of the Charlie Kirk killing, Jimmy Kimmel has made his return to late night.

It was just the latest example in a string of cancellations, resignations, lawsuits, settlements and potential mergers that tell the story of a media industry buckling to Trump or consolidating under a wealthy and powerful few, many of whom are friendly with the Trump administration. 

Eoin Higgins, independent reporter and author of “Owned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left” joins us to talk about the bigger story of what’s happening with American media and the changes still to come.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Health professionals around the world are disputing  the Trump administration’s claims about autism and its potential causes. U.S. Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr., along with President Donald Trump himself, said this week that taking Tylenol while pregnant may cause autism in babies, and the U.S. FDA said it would reclassify the drug leucovorin — primarily used to mitigate chemotherapy side effects — to treat autism symptoms in children.

But the established, peer-reviewed research on autism and its causes does not support either of these claims — or a number of other statements made in that announcement. Health experts have called the claims premature, misleading, and even dangerous.

Deepa Singal, the scientific director of the Autism Alliance of Canada, explains what the science actually says about autism, why health professionals aren't changing their recommendations, and why autism is so hard to get definitive answers about in the first place.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Beloved children’s author Robert Munsch has chosen medically assisted death. Canada is one of the few places in the world where MAID is legal for patients like Munsch, who are not terminally ill. Today, a conversation with journalist Katie Engelhart, on the legacy of one of the great Canadian writers, how dementia has impacted his life and ability to come up with stories. Plus we take a broader look at how MAID works in Canada today, who can access it, and the persistent moral and ethical questions it raises.  

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Today, a wide-ranging interview with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.

She talks to host Jayme Poisson about Alberta’s future in light of the Carney government’s push to fast track major projects, arguing that energy development is an issue of national unity for her constituents.

Smith also responds to the controversy around her potential use of the notwithstanding clause in protecting three laws that affect transgender youth. She also offers her thoughts on Charlie Kirk’s assasination and its aftermath, something that has clearly resonated with Albertans who took part in large vigils in Calgary and Edmonton.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts