Unpacking the News

'Le plancher des vaches' is an election podcast that aims to explore the dead angles of traditional media coverage of electoral campaigns with vivid analysis from journalist Martin Forgues, political analyst Ludvic Moquin-Beaudry and politics scholar Maïka Sondarjee. New episodes are recorded every Sunday at Ricochet's offices at la Halte 24-7 in Montreal's Plateau neighbourhood. Production by And...

Feel the excitement of a 2019 Federal Election well-underway as journalist Martin Forgues, political analyst Ludvic Moquin-Beaudry and politics scholar Maika Sondarjee (co-hosts of Ricochet’s new election podcast ‘Le Plancher des Vaches’) join Andre Goulet to consider the week in review. Hear the panel lament ill-fated tarmac omens, analyze the kind of shout-y Maclean’s debate and agonize over And...

On episode 100 of Unpacking the News, National Observer investigative reporter Emma McIntosh joins host Andre Goulet to discuss the connections between The Post Millenial, "free speech" website Free Bird Media the rise of far-right Canadian political and social punditry. Check back here next Wednesday for weekly episodes featuring interviews and round-table conversations exploring the 2019 electio...

Brian Pallister's Progressive Conservative government has rammed through a barrage of major right-wing changes in Manitoba over the last three years including service closures, funding cuts, privatizations and union-busting. On this week's episode journalist James Wilt joins host Andre Goulet to explore the casual cruelty of a series of major PC policies initiatives that have fallen under the rada...

Where and when is Airbnb activity happening in Canada? Who is making money on Airbnb and how? And are short-term rentals threatening long-term housing in Canada? You'll find the answers to all this and more on the new bi-monthly show-within-a-show 'Housing Party' from Unpacking the News-! Join housing and human rights doctoral student David DesBaillets (Université du Québec à Montréal, Project Mon...

On episode 97 of Unpacking the News, hosts Andre Goulet and Savanna Craig are joined by local pundit and Executive Director of the Native Women's Shelter of Montreal Nakuset to discuss the absence of hope in Attawapiskat, the recent conflict incited by racist city government in Oka and why the Globe & Mail's editorial board is 100% wrong about the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls re...

On a hazy mid-summer episode of Unpacking the News things turn humid as host Andre Goulet, educator/musician Adam Hickey and Time Out Montreal editor JP Karwacki discuss Andrew Scheer's politicization of national food nutrition policy, Justin Trudeau's (accidental?) condescension towards Indigenous communities at a recent fundraiser and the sublimely theoretical Green Party support for a non-exist...

On a super spooky summer vacation episode of 'Unpacking the News', prepare to gasp in terror as host Andre Goulet and Joel Laforest of 'The Alberta Advantage' podcast commune with the ghost of the late, legendary Peter Lougheed (PC Premier, 1971-1985)! How did the pair gain access to the late ex-Premier's haunted house of horror in Edmonton's tony Glenora neighbourhood? What are the '6 Principles'...

Predatory professors, contemptible colleagues and taking heat from far-right trolls: on episode 94 hosts Savanna Craig and Andre Goulet welcome The Link's former Coordinating Editor Savanna Stewart and Creative Director Aysha White for a conversation exploring sexism in Canadian journalism. Then, Emily Leedham (Rank & File: Prairie Edition) joins the show to discuss strategies for fighting back ag...

It's an extra-length, epic anniversary episode as educator and musician Adam Hickey (Used Cassettes, New Blue Death) and journalist J.P. Karwacki (Time Out Montreal, CULT Montreal) join host Andre Goulet to celebrate the 3rd birthday of the podcast. Hear them discuss the parties and leaders over drinks and cupcakes in Parc Lafontaine in an immersive conversation regarding a flailing Canadian polit...

On episode 92 of Unpacking the News, host Andre Goulet visits the NDP's Green New Deal campaign launch at the Monument-National in downtown Montreal to find out more about the party's ambitious Climate Justice federal fall election strategy, including a one-on-one conversation with party leader Jagmeet Singh. For more on the NDP's Green New Deal go to https://www.ndp.ca/power-to-change Music on th...

White power chatrooms, fascist memes and Jordan Pederson lectures as extremist recruitment tools: journalists Shannon Carranco and Jon Milton join host Andre Goulet and associate producer Savanna Craig to explore their recent Globe and Mail piece investigating Canada’s extremely online white power movement. Plus: the psychology of the Mount Everest high achiever, the Canadian garbage right-of-retu...

An insurgent, largely social media-driven campaign is bringing a radically anti-imperialist and anti-war message to the 2020 American election discourse. But how did a trio of teenagers convince an 89 year-old former Alaska Senator to make a presidential run? On this episode, senior campaign staff Jonathan Suhr and Alex Chang join host Andre Goulet on an ambitious dual-cast of Korean history and c...

Thirty-five thousand Quebec students went on strike earlier this spring with a singular and simple demand: interns must be paid for their labor. On this week’s episode of Unpacking the News, academic and activist Eleni Schirmer (Jacobin, Labor Notes, The Progressive) joins associate producer Savanna Craig and host Andre Goulet to explain what’s behind the growing movement against unpaid internship...

Geoff Sharpe (co-founder of thecable.com and host of the 'Cable Street' podcast) phones-in from his home in Budapest to celebrate (Liz) May Day in a conversation with host Andre Goulet connecting the perplexing political success of Doug Ford with the illiberal democracy of Viktor Orban's Hungary. Plus: Prince Edward Island elects Canada's first Green opposition and a rousing round of the popular t...

General Motors is abandoning Oshawa, the mid-sized Ontario city of 160,000 that’s been building cars and trucks for the automotive giant for 100 years. Does a federal and provincial government failure to intervene in the crisis, a crisis affecting the lives of as many as 60,000 Canadian citizens, mean that it’s time to nationalize GM? Unifor Local 222 Political Action Committee chairman Tony Leah...

In a grim morning-after conversation, 'Alberta Advantage' contributor and 'Sports Are Gay' co-host Elaine Pauls joins host Andre Goulet from Calgary to explore the aftermath of the 2019 provincial election. Plus: the new binary politics, anthropomorphic cats, self-care in a UCP hellworld and ‘At Home With Premier Kenney’, a spooky election night Choose Your Own Adventure mystery. And: are you read...

In the lead up to Alberta's April 16th election, Stephen Magusiak of 'The Alberta Advantage' podcast joins host Andre Goulet to explore (likely future Premier) Jason Kenney’s twisted past as a far-right campus activist in the United States. Plus: cataloguing the extremist political views of many of Kenney's United Conservative Party candidates and assessing the successes and failures of the last 4...

No interview on this emergency special episode, just former Attorney General and Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould gently roasting former Clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick and the entire PMO apparatus for 17 tense, terrific minutes. It’s a great way to start your weekend.

When gaffe-prone Harper-era cabinet minister Maxime Bernier lost the May 2017 Conservative leadership vote by just 700 votes, something snapped. Now the former Montreal lawyer and charter member of a Quebec's urban elite has become the standard bearer for a re-imagined kind of reactionary politics in Canada. Today the People's Party of Canada is polling around 2% across the country, but what effec...

Is the ongoing SNC-Lavalin scandal normalizing corporate interference in our democratic institutions? Or is it bringing out a sense of institutional creativity in Canadian politics? On episode 83 of Unpacking the News, SFU political science professor Dr. Stewart Prest joins host Andre Goulet to explore a list of institutional problems and potential reforms that have been put forward in the wake of...

A treacherous atmosphere surrounds the Prime Minister’s Office over these waning weeks of winter as Justin Trudeau's role in the SNC-Lavelin Affair continues to confuse and beffudle the Canadian public, a public who have to be asking themselves- what’s become of Canada’s first woke Prime Minster? On episode 82 of Unpacking the News, host Andre Goulet and a panel of non-partisans explore the unique...

Early this year saw the release of a landmark study from the American Psychological Association (the first ever guidelines to help psychologists work with men and boys) suggesting that aspects of "traditional masculinity" can be psychologically harmful. In this conversation, Toronto-based independent journalist Anna Bianca Roach joins host Andre Goulet to explore why it's import to encourage pro-s...

In the aftermath of Jagmeet Singh’s convincing victory in the Burnaby South by-election, Ricochet co-founder and editor Derrick O'Keefe joins host Andre Goulet from Vancouver to discuss the federal NDP leader's historic win. Plus: what's behind the surprising level of support for the xenophobic People's Party of Canada in one of the country's most diverse ridings? Does the fall of a so-called NDP...

On episode 79 of 'Unpacking the News' we explore the Big Questions: Did the Prime Minster or the PMO pressure Jody Wilson-Raybould to interfere with the fraud case against SNC-Lavalin? How deep is the rot of corporate cronyism in Canadian politics? And is there any truth to rumors that Justin Trudeau and Gerald Butts played in a Spin Doctors cover band while attending McGill in the early 1990s? Pl...