Despite months of mass protests, Israel’s far-right government pushed through a law weakening the country’s Supreme Court on Monday.

Under it, the Court is no longer able to strike down some government decisions. Fears over the effect this and other planned changes could have on Israel’s democracy have driven hundreds of thousands of demonstrators to the streets, and a growing number of military reservists are refusing to report for active duty.

Allison Kaplan Sommer is a journalist at Haaretz and host of Haaretz Weekly podcast. Today, she discusses where Israel goes from here, whether the country has fundamentally changed, and what this all means for Palestinians.

For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet is almost entirely different than it was just two days ago.

In Wednesday’s shuffle, all but eight of Trudeau’s 38 ministers stepped into new files. Some ministers were forced out after controversial missteps. Other star MPs got bigger economic assignments. And a number of new faces were sworn in from important election regions.

Today, Catherine Cullen – the host of CBC’s political podcast The House – returns to explain why Trudeau has transformed his cabinet, and what it says about his strategy to stay in power.

For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Australia is leading the way on normalizing the use of some psychedelics. The country’s medical regulator has approved M-D-M-A for use for people suffering from PTSD. Regulators in the US – just last month – published guidance into the use of psychedelics for possible use treating some medical conditions.

How does a drug, known for its use on the dance floor, make its way to the medicine cabinet? To find out more about all this we have Rachel Nuwer on the pod today. She’s a freelance journalist and the author of “I Feel Love: MDMA and the quest for connection in a fractured world."

For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

This summer a humanitarian crisis played out on the streets of downtown Toronto. With city and federal shelters at capacity, dozens of asylum seekers resorted to camping on the sidewalk, in the busy entertainment district, sleeping outside in the blistering heat and through thunderstorms, for weeks.

Last week, the federal government announced a one-time $212 million dollar injection into an existing program that helps provide temporary housing to refugee claimants. And most of that funding goes to Toronto. But the city’s mayor and the Ontario premier want more funding and resources from Ottawa.

While the funding is being negotiated, about 200 asylum seekers are now staying at two churches in North York, thanks to mostly Black-led community organizations and faith groups. Today on Front Burner, producer Shannon Higgins visits one of those churches to hear from the refugee claimants themselves.

For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Floods, fires, storms and droughts are all upending lives around the globe. And at the centre of it all is a warming planet. Heat – is the driving force.

We are living through the Earth’s hottest month on record. Extreme heat has led to flash floods and property destruction in northern Italy and the Balkans, and fueled wildfires in Croatia and Greece.

Nova Scotia’s dealing with historic flooding, much of B-C is engulfed in wildfires and parts of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Yukon and the Northwest territories are under heat warnings.

Our guest today warns: heat and the chaos it can unleash is serious and often deadly.

Jeff Goodell is a climate reporter and contributing editor of Rolling Stone magazine. He’s also the author of the book The Heat will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet.

For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Jason Aldean is one of contemporary country radio’s most played voices, and he’s no stranger to controversy.

He’s been accused of misogynist comments, worn blackface at Halloween, taken an anti-mask stance during the pandemic and, last year, his wife’s transphobic comments got him dropped by his long-time PR firm.

Now, his latest single, “Try That in a Small Town” is facing backlash. Depending on who you ask, it’s either an ode to old-fashioned community values, or a racist dog-whistle.

Today, Elamin Abdelmahmoud, the host of CBC’s Commotion, is here to talk about the song, where the controversy is coming from, and how it all connects to a deeper divide that’s hounding country music.

For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., John F. Kennedy’s nephew, is running for U.S. president. Like his forefathers, he’s vying to lead the Democrats – but his political focus is noticeably different.

For decades, RFK Jr. has been spreading false information about vaccines, and has more recently been peddling conspiracy theories about COVID-19 and 5G.

Vera Bergengruen, a senior correspondent at TIME, recently interviewed RFK Jr. Today, she explains why RFK is campaigning on conspiracy theories and how he reflects a conspiratorial shift in U.S. society.

For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Forever Chemicals, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), have been around since the 1940s and are used in everything from non-stick pans to take-out containers to cosmetics and fire retardant.

But flash-forward to today and the long-lasting, man-made substances have been found inside Canadian blood samples – brought in through the air and dust we breathe, and even in our drinking water. And now the federal government is proposing to list them as toxic.

Today on Front Burner, we’re asking why forever chemicals are seemingly everywhere, what can be done about them, and why it’s taken so long for the government to act.

Joining us is Miriam Diamond, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Department of Earth Sciences and School of the Environment.

For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The union representing almost 160,000 actors, SAG-AFTRA, is striking after negotiations fell through with the group representing most major Hollywood studios. The news comes about two months after 11,000 members of the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) announced their strike.

Studios say the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of streaming services like Netflix, Crave and Disney+ has caused financial strain. Meanwhile, actors say the shift to streaming has led to decreasing residuals, meaning they aren’t being paid for repeats of films and television shows. They're also concerned about proposals from studios to use their images and likeness in combination with artificial intelligence to create new content without their involvement.

Maureen Ryan, a Vanity Fair contributing editor and author of “Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood,” explains why Hollywood actors are striking and what it could mean for the future of television, film and the labour movement as a whole.

For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

It's a well-established scientific fact that humans have had a massive impact on the planet. But has it been big enough to warrant the definition of a new geological epoch? It's an idea that's been hotly debated in the scientific community for years — and now, a group of researchers are arguing that a small lake in rural Ontario provides the best evidence for defining that new epoch.

Crawford Lake, about 60 km southwest of Toronto, captures the history of the world in its sediment deposits, calcified like tree rings. Scientists say those layers show dramatic changes starting in the 1950s and that they mark a new geological epoch called the Anthropocene.

Canadian Geographic contributing editor Alanna Mitchell explains the latest research, what makes Crawford Lake so special, and why defining the Anthropocene has been causing scientific controversy for more than two decades.

For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts