In Bed with the Elephant

Brett Popplewell travelled to Greenland in February to see how locals were responding to the US President’s threats to annex their country. He wrote a cover story about his experience for the June 2026 edition of the Walrus magazine.  It’s called “I Went to Greenland and Saw a Warning for Canada: How the resource rich Arctic territory braced for invasion.” Popplewell is a multiple National Magazin...

After winning a decisive victory in the federal NDP leadership race in March 2026, Avi Lewis is now the head of a party that’s been experiencing hard times. The NDP hit rock bottom in the last federal election and were reduced to just 7 seats in the House of Commons, losing official party status – the worst result in its history. As the new leader, Avi Lewis’ challenge is to reorient and revive th...

JDM Stewart is an acclaimed educator and historian. His first book is called Being Prime Minister. His most recent effort is a sweeping account of Canada’s 24 prime ministers, from John A. Macdonald, a Scottish born immigrant, to Mark Carney, a native of Fort Smith, Northwest Territories.  The book is entitled The Prime Ministers: Canada’s Leaders and the Nation they Shaped. 

Nader Hashemi is Director of the Al-Waleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, and an Associate Professor of Middle East and Islamic Politics at Georgetown University in Washing ton DC. Born in Hamilton, Ontario he is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario, Carleton University and the University of Toronto . His books include,  The Syrian Dilemma, and Islam Secularism and Liberal D...

2026 marks a milestone for David Suzuki. In March the renowned Canadian geneticist, academic, author and environmentalist turned 90 years old.  An iconic broadcaster, and uncompromising advocate for the sustainable future of the planet, he’s been Canada’s most charismatic and influential public intellectual on television and radio for the better part of 6 decades.   He and his family were forced t...

Andrew Cohen is a journalist, author, and historian. He was a  professor of journalism at  Carleton University's School of Journalism  and  Norman Paterson School of International Affairs . Cohen has writ His books include A Deal Undone: The Making and Breaking of the Meech Lake Accord and Trudeau's Shadow: The Life and Legacy of  Pierre Elliott Trudeau . He also wrote a biography of Lester B. Pea...

Dimitri Lascaris is a lawyer, activist, independent journalist and host of the YouTube Channel “Reason to Resist” He’s the only Canadian-based journalist who has been actively reporting from Iran since war began in February.  Lascaris spent 11 days in Iran between March 20- March 31st travelling to 7 cities across a country the size of Western Europe.  We spoke to him just after he'd left Iran, fr...

Adrian is joined by:  Nora Loreto is a writer, organizer, podcaster and journalist. She is the author of a number of books including “Take Back the Fight: Organizing Feminism in the Digital Age (Fernwood 2020)” and “From Demonized to Organized: Building the New Union Movement” (CCPA 2013). She’s the host of Sandy And Nora Talk politics with Sandy Hudson. Judy Rebick is a writer, academic,  comment...

Ground-breaking Journalist Justin Brake sits down with Adrian to discuss the Amber Bracken case against the RCMP, and the fight for real press freedom in Canada.

Jeet Heer is a national affairs correspondent for the US – based  The Nation Magazine and host of the weekly  NATION podcast,  The Time of Monsters . Heer has written for numerous publications, including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, The American Prospect, The Guardian, The New Republic, and The Boston Globe. He also pens the monthly column “ Morbid Symptoms .” We sp...

Globe and Mail columnist Marsha Lederman joins Adrian to discuss navigating her love for Israel, her disdain for its leader, and her horror at Israel’s destruction of Gaza.  Marsha Lederman ’s first book “Kiss the Red Stairs: The Holocaust, Once Removed” was a national bestseller. “October 7th: Searching for the Humanitarian Middle” is her latest release. This episode is brought to you by our foun...

Iranian journalist Amir Ahmadi Arian sits down with Adrian to discuss the escalating horrors in Iran.   While living in Iran in the 2000s, Amir Ahmadi Arian was a regular contributor to reformist newspapers. Arian’s essays have appeared in the New York Times, The Nation, The Paris Review and the New York Review of Books. He is currently an assistant professor of creative writing at Binghamton Univ...

Canada’s Green Party Leader Elizabeth May joins Adrian to discuss her long history as politician and environmental activist and her views on Canada’s current climate leadership.    2026 marks 20 years since Elizabeth May became leader of Canada’s Green Party. She is the longest serving female leader of a federal party in Canada’s history. In 2011, May became the first Green Party member to be elec...

Here are some excerpts from some of our interviews from Season 1 of In Bed with the Elephant with Adrian Harewood! Thank you for your continued support. 

Black Lives Matter Canada founder Sandy Hudson sits down with Adrian to break down the ties between police and safety and discuss police abolition.    Sandy Hudson is a lawyer, writer, and activist. She founded Black Lives Matter Canada and co-founded the Black Legal Action Centre. She is the co-host of the podcast Sandy & Nora Talk Politics. “Defund: Black Lives, Policing, and Safety for All”...

Today we're doing something a little different. We’re really excited to share the first episode of another Ricochet Podcast called There is a List . If you like In Bed with the Elephant, where we get into the big conversations, the deep dives, the stories that make you think about power and who it serves, then I think you'll really connect with this one too.  There is a List is a five-part investi...

Yousra Elbagir has not stopped telling the stories of Sudan and the Sudanese people. Over the last decade Elbagir has established herself as one of the most respected and celebrated foreign correspondents of her generation. The Sudanese- British Sky News Africa journalist has told riveting human centred stories across the African continent and around world, often from the frontlines of the major c...

Ronald Reagan hasn’t been President of the United States since the late 1980s, years before the internet was a thing. But in recent weeks the Republican and Conservative icon has become a major talking point in North American politics…at the center of an increasingly bitter trade dispute between two formerly close allies, Canada and the United States. It’s become the ultimate narrative cage fight...

Ira Wells, wants to live in a world without book bans. A world bathed in literature… with more conversation, more civic engagement, and less censorship. Ira Wells is a critic, essayist and professor of English literature at the University of Toronto. He is also the President of PEN Canada. His latest book is called On Book Banning: or How the New Censorship Consensus Trivializes Art and Undermines...

What’s the responsibility of living in the Age of AI, Fascism and Genocide?   That was the question on the table at our first live “In Bed with the Elephant event held at a beloved downtown Ottawa restaurant as part of the Press Forward Future of Independent Media Summit in early October 2025.     The session, recorded in front of an engaged audience of loyal listeners, featured a conversation wit...

Since October 2023, the Southwestern Ontario-raised, Ottawa based primary care doctor and public health practitioner has been outspoken in his defense of the human rights of Palestinians and has condemned Israels’ actions. For this stance he himself has come attack by those who accuse of him of antisemitism. Dr. Ge has been undeterred. He has volunteered as a physician in Gaza and even joined a sm...

Nisrin Elamin is a professor in the department of Anthropology and the African Studies Program at the University of Toronto. Her work investigates the connections between land, race, belonging and empire-making in Sudan and the broader Sahel region and is currently working on a book project based on 15 months of ethnographic fieldwork in central Sudan. Sudan is the site of one of the world’s great...

Andrew Coyne has been one of Canada’s most formidable and free-thinking political commentators since the early 1990s. He currently writes for the Globe and Mail and is a charter member of CBC’s At Issue Panel -Canada’s most watched weekly politics panel. He has just published a new book called The Crisis of Canadian Democracy. 

Linda McQuaig is an award-winning journalist, novelist, best-selling author and contributing columnist to the Toronto Star. Her most recent book is called “The Sport & Prey of Capitalists: How the Rich are Stealing Canada’s Public Wealth. It’s been over 100 days since Mark Carney and his Liberal Party won what many pundits  are calling the most consequential federal election in Canada in decad...

Rex Brynen - a renowned scholar over three decades and one of the most astute and informed  observers of the Middle East. The Summer of 2025 will be remembered as a time of transformation in the Middle East.  On June 13, 2025, Israel launched a surprise attack on military and nuclear facilities in Iran. Israel claimed the so-called pre-emptive strikes were meant to prevent Iran from building a nuc...