Lean Out with Tara Henley

As we all navigate a period rife with political tensions on both sides of the Canada/U.S. border, we wanted to bring you an incredible story that celebrates the human spirit and affirms our common humanity. Our guest on the program today was an eight-month-old baby when her parents smuggled her out of communist Vietnam, crossing the South China Sea to begin a new life. Decades later, she reports for the Today show.

Vicky Nguyen is an NBC News Daily anchor and Chief Consumer Investigative correspondent. She reports for the Today show, Nightly News, and NBC News Now. Her New York Times-bestselling debut is Boat Baby.

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

Throughout the Canadian federal election, we’re taking weekly breaks to think and talk about other things. On today’s program, in light of ongoing debates in American pop culture, we’ll be discussing the phenomenon of heteropessimism with a Toronto culture critic who is quite literally writing the book on it.

Phoebe Maltz Bovy is a Toronto-based journalist, author, and podcaster. She’s co-host of the Feminine Chaos podcast, opinion editor at The Canadian Jewish News, and a contributing columnist for The Globe and Mail. Her forthcoming podcast is The Jewish Angle.

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

Women’s fertility is a third rail in Canadian politics. We all learned this again last week, when Pierre Poilievre made a comment about biological clocks that sparked outrage. If you followed the controversy in the mainstream media only, you might not know that a number of women were glad to see Poilievre raise the issue of fertility — including my guest on today’s show.

Melanie Paradis the president of Texture Communications and a veteran Conservative campaigner. Her recent piece for The Line is titled “Poilievre was right to bring up my biological clock.”

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

During the 2025 Canadian election season, we’ll be pausing from time to time to take a breather and to think about other issues — often interesting new books. My guest on today’s program is a blues musician, a scholar, and a heterodox thinker. He joins us for a conversation about his deeply personal new book on interracial family life in the south.

Adam Gussow is a professional harmonica player and a professor of English at the University of Mississippi. His new book is My Family & I: A Mississippi Memoir.

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

One of the big stories in the Canadian federal election so far has been the collapse of support for the NDP. New polling from Ipsos shows support for the party continuing to decline. Our guest on today’s program is a former labour representative — and he has some thoughts on where the traditional party of working people has gone wrong.

Brian Dijkema is the president of Cardus Canada, a public policy think tank, and senior editor of Comment Magazine.

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

As election season builds steam, here at Lean Out we are focused on the question of why daily life in Canada has become so expensive and so dysfunctional. My guest on today’s program has some insights to share. He recently wrote a well-researched book on the federal government’s corporate subsidies — which, he says, “exploded in magnitude” under Justin Trudeau.

Laurent Carbonneau works in public policy in Ottawa, on innovation, science, and technology issues. He’s a former NDP staffer and the author of the recent book, At the Trough: The Rise and Rise of Canada’s Corporate Welfare Bums.

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

With the Canadian federal election now underway, we’re going to have a lot of political content for you in coming weeks. But today, we wanted to change things up a bit and bring you a lighter story about books — and how hard it is these days to find bookstores that stock a range of different perspectives. Our guest on today’s program argues that booksellers are locked in a moral contract with their clientele, and it’s resulted in a narrowing of the titles on offer.

Ann Bauer is an American essayist and novelist. Her recent piece for Persuasion is “What Independent Bookshops Really Sell.”

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

After much speculation, Prime Minister Mark Carney has called a snap spring election, and Canadians will be heading to the polls on April 28. To kick off Lean Out’s special election coverage, we bring you a conversation with a veteran Canadian journalist about the unusual moment the country is in — and why, in his view, the current disconnect between the federal government and voters is a once in a generation occurrence.

Tom Korski is the managing editor of Blacklock’s Reporter, an Ottawa-based outlet.

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

In the wake of President Trump’s executive order on DEI, debates in America have renewed a conversation around DEI in this country. And while the baseline value of greater inclusion is one that many of us share, some DEI programs have proven controversial. Our guest on this bonus episode is the author of a recent report that dives into DEI practices in Canadian federal granting agencies — and asks if they impede political and ideological neutrality and research excellence. 

Dave Snow is an associate professor of political science at the University of Guelph. He’s also a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, and the author of a new MLI report, “Promoting excellence … or activism? Equity, diversity, and inclusion at Canada’s federal granting agencies.” 

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

With Mark Carney in his first week in office as Canada’s new Prime Minister, the Justin Trudeau era is quickly fading in the rearview mirror. But before we move on, it’s important to take stock of what went on in this country during Trudeau’s tenure. Our guest on today’s program says it is time for a national conversation about Trudeau’s legacy. And, in his words, “it’s not flattering.”

Andrew Potter is a Canadian author, and an associate professor at the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University. His latest column for The Line is titled “Justin Trudeau never cared about Canada.” Andrew Potter returns to the program.

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com