Front Burner

Throughout its reign, the British Empire stole a lot of stuff. Today the Empire's loot sits in museums, galleries, private collections and burial sites with polite plaques. But its history is often messier than the plaques suggest. In each episode of this global smash hit podcast, Walkley award-winning journalist, author and genetic potluck, Marc Fennell, takes you on the wild, evocative, sometime...

It has been five years since Japanese phenomenon Shohei Ohtani left Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball to fulfil his dream of playing for Major League Baseball in the U.S. The 29-year-old has been compared to the great Babe Ruth for his ability to bat and pitch with equal prowess. In fact, some say he’s the greatest baseball player of all time. Fans are flocking to his games to catch a glimpse o...

Crashed crafts, non-human biologics, and the Pentagon in possession of UFOs. Last week, former military and intelligence figures appeared as whistleblowers at a U.S. congressional hearing, testifying about the government’s apparent secrecy around UAPs: unidentified anomalous phenomena. But one former air force intelligence official, David Grusch, claimed the Pentagon collected non-human organic ma...

Were the ‘Freedom Convoy’ protests in Ottawa a “peaceful protest against a tyrannical ruler,” or a bunch of people driven by “lies and misinformation, disturbing the peace of everyone, and being bigoted”? These two conflicting perspectives help illustrate Canadian polarization in a new report from the Public Policy Forum, authored by journalist Justin Ling, titled ‘Far and Wider: The Rise of Polar...

In January, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis seemed like a real contender to win the GOP presidential nomination over former U.S. president Donald Trump. His team pitched his Florida track record, electability and “war on woke” ideals as a Trump-like candidate without the baggage. But now, just two months into his White House bid, DeSantis’s campaign is in trouble. A New York Times/Siena College poll...

TikTok is one of the biggest, most influential social media networks in the world — and its parent company ByteDance is making moves to capitalize on its enormous cultural influence. The company has announced plans to launch a music streaming service, a book publishing division and an e-commerce platform, all of which would allow people to connect directly to the music, books and products they see...

Despite months of mass protests, Israel’s far-right government pushed through a law weakening the country’s Supreme Court on Monday. Under it, the Court is no longer able to strike down some government decisions. Fears over the effect this and other planned changes could have on Israel’s democracy have driven hundreds of thousands of demonstrators to the streets, and a growing number of military r...

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet is almost entirely different than it was just two days ago. In Wednesday’s shuffle, all but eight of Trudeau’s 38 ministers stepped into new files. Some ministers were forced out after controversial missteps. Other star MPs got bigger economic assignments. And a number of new faces were sworn in from important election regions. Today, Catherine Cullen – the...

Australia is leading the way on normalizing the use of some psychedelics. The country’s medical regulator has approved M-D-M-A for use for people suffering from PTSD. Regulators in the US – just last month – published guidance into the use of psychedelics for possible use treating some medical conditions. How does a drug, known for its use on the dance floor, make its way to the medicine cabinet?...

This summer a humanitarian crisis played out on the streets of downtown Toronto. With city and federal shelters at capacity, dozens of asylum seekers resorted to camping on the sidewalk, in the busy entertainment district, sleeping outside in the blistering heat and through thunderstorms, for weeks. Last week, the federal government announced a one-time $212 million dollar injection into an existi...

Floods, fires, storms and droughts are all upending lives around the globe. And at the centre of it all is a warming planet. Heat – is the driving force. We are living through the Earth’s hottest month on record. Extreme heat has led to flash floods and property destruction in northern Italy and the Balkans, and fueled wildfires in Croatia and Greece. Nova Scotia’s dealing with historic flooding,...

Jason Aldean is one of contemporary country radio’s most played voices, and he’s no stranger to controversy. He’s been accused of misogynist comments, worn blackface at Halloween, taken an anti-mask stance during the pandemic and, last year, his wife’s transphobic comments got him dropped by his long-time PR firm. Now, his latest single, “Try That in a Small Town” is facing backlash. Depending on...

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., John F. Kennedy’s nephew, is running for U.S. president. Like his forefathers, he’s vying to lead the Democrats – but his political focus is noticeably different. For decades, RFK Jr. has been spreading false information about vaccines, and has more recently been peddling conspiracy theories about COVID-19 and 5G. Vera Bergengruen, a senior correspondent at TIME, recently in...

Forever Chemicals, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), have been around since the 1940s and are used in everything from non-stick pans to take-out containers to cosmetics and fire retardant. But flash-forward to today and the long-lasting, man-made substances have been found inside Canadian blood samples – brought in through the air and dust we breathe, and even in our drinking water. A...

The union representing almost 160,000 actors, SAG-AFTRA, is striking after negotiations fell through with the group representing most major Hollywood studios. The news comes about two months after 11,000 members of the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) announced their strike. Studios say the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of streaming services like Netflix, Crave and Disney+ has cause...

It's a well-established scientific fact that humans have had a massive impact on the planet. But has it been big enough to warrant the definition of a new geological epoch? It's an idea that's been hotly debated in the scientific community for years — and now, a group of researchers are arguing that a small lake in rural Ontario provides the best evidence for defining that new epoch. Crawford Lake...

Our brains aren’t wired to save the world. But if you’re ready to make changes that actually stick, 10 Minutes to Save the Planet will show you the way. Co-hosts meteorologist and climate reporter Johanna Wagstaffe and broadcaster Rohit Joseph work through the UN’s 10 actions for a healthy planet, but in a way that won’t shame, overwhelm or bore you. Think of each episode as a bite-size guide to f...

It's been a week since protesters began a blockade of the Brady Road landfill in Winnipeg. They're calling on the government to search the Prairie Green landfill — a privately owned dump outside the city — for the remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran, two murdered Indigenous women. But the government says that, despite police believing the two women's remains are there, the site won't be se...

There’s a growing chorus of critics of the central bank’s decision to increase interest rates, as things like food and housing are keeping inflation up, and seem largely unaffected by higher rates. This comes as the Bank of Canada increased its key interest rate on Wednesday. It’s the 10th time the central bank has hiked the rate since March, 2022 — bringing it to five per cent. The move is all pa...

“Boundaries,” “trauma,” “holding space,” “gaslighting” — These are all examples of what’s known as “therapy speak”: Phrases and buzzwords that have made their way out of the therapist’s office, onto social media and into our everyday lives. But what happens when those same words are misunderstood or used in manipulative and harmful ways? That’s what many are asking after Jonah Hill’s ex-girlfriend...

After Twitter caused chaos by limiting how many Tweets users can see, the company behind Instagram and Facebook made a play for its audience last week. On Wednesday, Meta released Threads, an app also centered around short text posts. With its built in connection to Instagram accounts, CEO Mark Zuckerberg says Threads already has 100 million users. But Threads is already experiencing the same priv...

In two parts of the world, the future of nuclear power plants and their remains are causing alarm for very different reasons. In Ukraine, Europe’s largest nuclear plant has become a battleground in the war. Further east, Japan is one step closer to releasing 1.32 million tonnes of radioactive wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear meltdown into the Pacific Ocean. Meanwhile, for many, nuclear power...

Canadian nurse and sex educator Sue Johanson, who died last week at 93, was best known for her unapologetic and taboo-breaking advice on radio and TV shows like ‘Sunday Night Sex Show’ and ‘Talk Sex with Sue’ From opening a birth control clinic in a Toronto high school in the ‘70s and traveling school to school teaching sex ed seminars, to becoming a media sensation, Sue made it her mission to des...

Two months ago, Jerry Martin opened up a shop in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside selling a clean supply of drugs like cocaine and heroin. His store was shut down by B.C. police less than 24 hours later. Last Friday, Martin himself died from a suspected fentanyl overdose. For the last several months, safe supply has been the subject of fiery debate in the House of Commons. Conservatives like Pierre P...

After Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Wagner Group’s rebellious march towards Moscow was cut short over a week ago, questions have been swirling about how it could happen and what it reveals about Russia’s stability right now. The Kremlin and Vladimir Putin have been working in overdrive to project an image of calm and control. But behind the scenes, a top general is missing and the military is facing U...