By one definition, Canada is now in a recession. But last week Canada also had a strong jobs report, and posted its first trade surplus in months. So what the heck is going on? We speak to three leading economic analysts — Charles St Arnaud from Servus Credit Union, Angelo Melino from the University of Toronto and the C.D. Howe Institute and Armine Yalnizyan, Atkinson Fellow on the Future of Workers. 

Father James Martin is known around the world for giving voice to Catholics who are often excluded from their church, including those in the LGBTQ community. In his new book “Work in Progress” he writes about how he found faith in the margins and why his most important life lessons came working as a busboy in a busy small town restaurant.

For 10 years now, B.C.’s drug crisis has been a public health emergency. And over that time, we’ve brought you many stories, but this is one you will not have heard before. It’s rooted in the understanding that the vast majority of the drug-related deaths aren’t occurring in Vancouver’s notorious Downtown Eastside, but rather among men, alone at home. In his documentary, Radio-Canada’s Francis Plourde brings us on an unusual tour, meeting drug users trying to stay safe by relying on a man they’ve come to know as their “doctor.”

The federal government has greenlit a plan to move the belugas at the shuttered Niagara Falls theme park to aquariums in Spain and the United States. UBC marine mammal expert Andrew Trites explains what it will take to get the whales out of their pool, onto a plane and into new homes -- and why he thinks it's the best option.

We dig into what the federal government's plan is for Artificial Intelligence in Canada.

David Balzer of Winnipeg is spending his summer recording people's stories of gratitude. Since 2023, the associate professor of Communications and Media at Canadian Mennonite University has set up a mobile recording studio at community events and invites people to share a story of a kind neighbour. He records in hopes they will share it with the neighbour to generate appreciation and community connection.

Unicode is taking pitches for emojis. Graphic designer Jennifer Daniel helps decide which ones make it. She says a successful emoji should have multiple meanings. Sorry aerial tramway ;)

David Sedaris talks about his latest essay collection The Land and Its People. He reveals the news he'd kept from his family, that he secretly married his long-time boyfriend Hugh in 2016, and he reflects on his Duolingo obsession, his visit with Pope Francis, the aging process, and more.

We speak with New York Times reporter Declan Walsh who has just returned from a hospital in Congo where Ebola patients are treated with limited resources.  

Meet people who blow out the candles on a different day than the one they were born on. Some hate the time of year their birthday falls. Others are celebrating a life change so big it feels like a rebirth. And for one woman, it's all about the vibes.