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. My guest on the podcast today 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 Good Conflict’s latest story here).

Amanda Ripley returns to the program, today on Lean Out. Transcript to come for paid subscribers.

Lean Out with Tara Henley is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

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. My guest on the program today 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.

Richard Stursberg is my guest, today on Lean Out. Transcript to come for paid subscribers.

Lean Out with Tara Henley is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

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. My guest on the program today 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.

Harrison Lowman returns to the program, today on Lean Out. Transcript to come for paid subscribers.

Lean Out with Tara Henley is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

We live in an age of economic precarity and journalists are not exempt from this. My guest on the program today 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.

Steven Scherer is my guest, today on Lean Out. Transcript to come for paid subscribers.

Lean Out with Tara Henley is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

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? My guest on the program today 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.

Larissa Phillips returns to the program, today on Lean Out. Transcript to come for paid subscribers.

Lean Out with Tara Henley is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

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. My guest on the program today 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.

Jacob Savage is my guest, today on Lean Out. Transcript to come for paid subscribers.

Lean Out with Tara Henley is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

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. My guest on the program today 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.

Elizabeth Grace Matthew is my guest, today on Lean Out. Transcript to come for paid subscribers.

Lean Out with Tara Henley is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

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. My 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.

Valerie Stivers is my guest, today on Lean Out. Transcript to come for paid subscribers.

Lean Out with Tara Henley is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

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. My 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.

Father Gregory Boyle is my guest, today on Lean Out. This interview was taped December 18; transcript to come for paid subscribers.

Lean Out with Tara Henley is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

On the Lean Out podcast, one of the topics that we often return to is the media, and the insanity of the media. For our last show of 2025, my 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.

Mike Pesca is my guest, today on Lean Out. Transcript to come for paid subscribers.

Lean Out with Tara Henley is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.