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Your essential daily news podcast. We take you deep into the stories shaping Canada and the world. Hosted by Jayme Poisson. Every morning, Monday to Friday.

Visit https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner for show descriptions, links, and transcripts.

Subscribe to Sounds Good: CBC's Podcast newsletter for the finest podcast recommendations and behind-the-scenes exclusives.

Front Burner

UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot dead in New York City last week. In some communities online, like reddit and tik tok, Thompson’s killing has been met with encouragement and his killer has been lauded as a vigilante, a kind of folk hero. 

Part of the reason for that, is the deep dissatisfaction and anger with the state of healthcare in America. The murder has exposed a raw nerve and put renewed focus on troubling practices within the trillion dollar health insurance industry.

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

‘Deny’ ‘Delay’ and a health CEO’s murder

On Sunday, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia, where he’s been granted political asylum. This comes after rebels seized Damascus, Syria’s capital city, on that same day.

Assad’s fall from power marks the end of 50 years of brutal rule by his family. His father, Hafez al-Assad, a longtime military officer, was known for his iron fist.

Joshua Landis is the head of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, and a leading expert on Syria.

He explains the significance of Bashar al-Assad’s fall, and looks back on the Assad family’s half a century in power.

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

The end of the Assad regime in Syria

Since the U.S. election last month, Bluesky – which describes itself as ‘social media as it should be’ – has gained a lot of traction. They now have more than 24 million users, and traffic on the site is up 500% in the United States in the last month.

Many users have fled there from X (formerly Twitter) which has seen a sharp decline since Elon Musk bought the platform in 2022. The frequency of bots, partisan advertisements and harassment are often cited as reasons for leaving the social media platform.

Ed Zitron is a tech journalist who hosts the podcast Better Offline, and writes the newsletter Where's Your Ed At.

He talks to host Jayme Poisson about the rise of Bluesky, what differentiates it from X, and what this all means for the future of social media.

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

Can Bluesky take out X, aka Twitter?

Once crypto-skeptic, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, has had a change of heart over the past year. Especially, after millions of dollars from the cryptocurrency industry poured into his campaign. Now, as he embraces the online currency, even appointing a crypto czar, the price of Bitcoin and other popular tokens reach new heights. Even memecoins are seeing a boost.

But what happens if the volatile crypto market sees another crash like it did in 2022? Jacob Silverman, tech journalist and host of CBC’s The Naked Emperor, joins us to talk about why there’s so much crypto hype right now and what’s at stake if the boom goes bust.

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

How Trump is fueling a crypto boom

The Bank of Canada cut interest rates again this week. Economists say wages are up, inflation is on target and the stock market is in the green.

But most everyday Canadians are living a very different story. One of insanely high grocery prices, impossible housing costs and a suffocating economic squeeze.

Recently, Canadian finance minister Chrystia Freeland announced a temporary GST holiday on a bunch of stuff to give relief to people feeling the pinch.

But she went on to muse that the economic pain people were feeling might be the result of a "vibecession". Think recession – but you know – only in your head.

Today, so are we in a 'vibecession'? 

Economist Armine Yalnizyan is our guest.

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

Are we in an economic 'vibe-cession'?

Late last week, federal labour minister Steven MacKinnon recommended that Canada Post workers, who have been on strike for more than four weeks, be ordered back to work until May 22, 2025. In the meantime, an inquiry would look into the roadblocks preventing the two parties from getting to an agreement.

This labour dispute has led to a lot of debate and discussion about the future of Canada Post.

Ian Lee is an associate professor at the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University and has studied Canada Post for many years. 

He walks us through the crown corporation’s grim financial situation, how its business could adapt, and its uncertain future.

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

Is Canada Post doomed?

Chrystia Freeland's bombshell resignation as finance minister has thrown Justin Trudeau's fragile government into chaos. The decisions that led to this are raising questions about the Prime Minister's judgment, loyalties, leadership and ability to stay in power.

Paul Wells and Stephen Maher are our guests. 

Paul has a substack under his own name and has written about Canadian politics for decades. 

Stephen is a longtime federal politics reporter and author of The Prince: The Turbulent Reign of Justin Trudeau.

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

Can Trudeau survive Freeland’s resignation?

The charge of ethnic cleansing is not, on its own, considered a crime under international law. Experts consider it to be part of the overall charge of genocide. 

In this episode we take listeners to northern Gaza and examine the words and actions of politicians, academics and settlements organizations in order to better understand whether Israel is perpetrating a campaign of ethnic cleansing in Gaza. 

Our guest is Meron Rapoport, a 30-year veteran of the Israeli news industry who formerly worked as the head of news at Israel's Ha’aretz newspaper. Today he’s an editor at the Israeli publication Local Call. He joins the show to discuss whether Israel is guilty of committing a program of ethnic cleansing, and the prospect of a ‘Second Nakba’ in Gaza. 

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

Is Israel committing ethnic cleansing in Gaza?

The fallout from Chrystia Freeland’s resignation is far from over. As more people demand Justin Trudeau’s resignation he appears to be in no hurry to heed the calls.

Meanwhile, U.S. president-elect Donald Trump pokes fun at Canada’s ongoing chaos, reprising his jokes about the country becoming the 51st state. What does the drama in Ottawa mean for Canada’s position as it prepares for a potential trade war with Washington?

We're joined by J.P. Tasker from CBC's parliamentary bureau and Alex Panetta, a Washington-based CBC News correspondent. 

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

Trudeau troubles: embattled at home, mocked abroad

After Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, historian and professor Timothy Snyder wrote a long post on Facebook. Here's how it started: 

"Americans are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience."

Snyder went on to share twenty lessons about authoritarianism from the 20th century. They would lay the groundwork for his 2017 book On Tyranny. Fast forward to 2024, and Snyder's warnings about authoritarianism are being amplified once again. 

He joins the show to look ahead to the next four years of the Trump presidency, through the lens of his latest books: the just-released On Freedom and On Tyranny.

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

Trump, fascism and a warning from the past

Right-wing radio finds their greatest foe in Barack Obama: As they try to take him down at every turn, they find the perfect formula to manufacture outrage.

This is episode 5 of The Flamethrowers, the story of how radio energized and then radicalized a conservative base. Hosted by Justin Ling. 

More episodes are available here.

Front Burner Presents: The Flamethrowers Ep. 5

Front Burner Presents: The Flamethrowers Ep. 5

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