The Current

Can't concentrate? What about thinking deeply? Attention spans are shrinking rapidly. Cal Newport, a professor of computer science at Georgetown University and the author of the bestselling book ' Deep Work ' says we're facing a crisis — an attack on our ability to think. He's calling for what he calls a revolution in defence of thinking. He outlines the steps for reclaiming your attention.

After more than 50 years of losing, the New York Knicks basketball team is back in the NBA finals against the San Antonio Spurs and their super star Victor Wembanyama. New York sports journalist Alex Day tells us about the electric vibe in his city, leading up to game 4.

A New Brunswick woman known as "Alice" wandered from her care home 12 times before dying cold and alone. The province's deputy senior advocate tells us what went wrong. Her B.C. counterpart says seniors there are also vulnerable with more than 7,000 waiting for a bed and no plan to fix the problem.

It's the largest soccer tournament in World Cup history, with 104 matches in 16 host cities in three countries, creating unprecedented security and logistical challenges. We speak with reporters on the ground in three host cities, Mexico City, Miami and Dallas, about how locals are feeling, security issues, the cost and the expectations ahead of kickoff.

You read the alerts about upcoming storms. You might pore over the radar maps to see if it'll be sunny for your school fun fair. These days, many of us are checking our weather apps multiple times a day. But how useful is the info we find there? And should we just go experience the weather instead of obsessing over it? We talk to Newfoundland meteorologist Eddie Sheerr about what happens when our...

CBC's Health reporter Lauren Pelley brings you the story of groundbreaking research into CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy — and hope for the future, and saving lives.

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 Plo...

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 Worke...

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 communit...

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.

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 ;)

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

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.  

For the first time in 28 years Scotland is headed to the World Cup. Now a butcher in the small village of Dunning, Scotland is trying to convince the American government to lift a decades long ban on traditional haggis so fans can celebrate with the country's national dish.

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.

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.

SpaceX is going public with a sky high valuation of over $1 trillion. Max Chafkin, a reporter with Bloomberg, and the co-host of the podcast “Everybody’s Business” breaks down what this could mean for the larger economy and for investors.

Is your job all about meetings? And emails? And meetings that should have been an email? Some corporate workers say the pandemic pulled back the curtain on “bullshit jobs.” And now with a worsening economy and the threat of AI disruption, they’re left wondering what value and meaning there is beyond the paycheque.

A new group of conservative politicians and academics is pushing back against the separatist movement in Alberta. They call themselves Lead Not Leave and describe themselves as "frustrated federalists.” We’re joined by two of the group's founders, former Alberta finance minister Travis Toews and Jared Wesley of the University of Alberta to discuss the source of Alberta's grievances, and how they p...

Most young people have heard the warnings about cancer and sun damage. Many of them are soaking up the sun anyway. Montreal dermatologist Dr. Ivan Litvinov says Gen Z may feel invincible, but they're not. So doctors need to find creative ways to get their message to land.

As the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel escalates, we hear from people in Lebanon about how the fighting is affecting their lives. From Israel, political analyst Dahlia Scheindlin describes the sense of insecurity among Israelis, especially along the border, pushing the government's actions.

In any given year, 1 in 5 Canadians suffer from a mental illness. Now there are growing calls to include counselling and psychotherapy in our publicly funded system. We speak with Jaden Dulle who struggled with depression and PTSD in his early twenties and went into debt paying for counselling, and two experts who weigh in on the current system, how it's addressing the mental health crisis, and wh...

At a moment when there's a growing backlash and resistance against the AI that's starting to permeate so many parts of our life — tech journalist Joanna Stern went all in. She decided to  see what would happen if she spent a year using AI in almost every part of her  life. She used it to communicate, to help her plan her dinners, to track all her conversations. And she even created an AI...

E-bikes come with a lot of benefits. Zero emissions and a quick convenient way to get around town. But a growing number of critics say they pose serious danger to riders and the public. We talk to Vancouver lawyer Michael Parrish about the legal grey zone around e-bikes and to Dr. Louise McNaughton-Filion, who led a review of e-bike deaths for the Ontario Office of the Chief Coroner.