The 2020 Network

It’s only paranoia if the world really isn’t going to hell in a handbasket. On this episode of @ Risk, Jodi Butts is joined by Andrew Potter, associate professor at the Max Bell School of Public Policy and former journalist and editor in chief of the Ottawa Citizen, to discuss his new book, On Decline.

Canada’s 44th general election is underway. On September 20th, electors will return the members of Parliament who will decide who governs the country. When casting a ballot, however, voters typically think of political parties and their leaders. So, we ask: What are the policy priorities of Canada’s political parties? On this episode of Open to Debate, David Moscrop talks with candidates from thre...

It’s back to school time for children across Canada but don’t let all the social media posts of kids with smiles and backpacks fool you into thinking that the kids are alright. For our season opener of the @Risk podcast, host Jodi Butts speaks with Sara Austin, world class champion for children and the Founder and CEO of Children First Canada, about why Canada is year over year a worse place for k...

Let’s start with a little celebration: This is the 50th episode of Open to Debate! Thanks to each and every one of you for listening. We look forward to many episodes to come. For this milestone moment, we are excited to welcome a special guest to help us navigate the question: What is the state of Canada’s courts? Plus, as a bonus, we get into the topic of...thriller novels and the virtues of Ste...

Dan Gardner is the New York Times best-selling author of books about psychology and decision-making. On the final episode of Season 1 of @ Risk, host Jodi Butts speaks with Dan Gardner to discuss whether preparing for the full array of low-probability high-consequence events is as important as preparing for another pandemic?

The free market is notorious for its contradictions and inequities. Competition tends towards monopoly. Owners accrue capital at the top but extract it from labour at the bottom. Large enterprises enter, disrupt, and even decimate communities, often leaving workers holding the bag, worse off than they were before. It doesn’t have to be this way. There are alternative economic systems to capitalism...

On this episode of @Risk, journalist, fashion entrepreneur, Canada Walk of Fame and Order of Canada inductee, Jeanne Beker speaks with host, Jodi Butts, about the future of fashion, staying relevant and aging in style.

Despite a steady stream of news about the politics of the day, each of us might be forgiven for being unsure what a member of Parliament actually does. Even members themselves, from time to time, seem unsure. Are they lawmakers? Government foot soldiers? Opposition sentries? Committee investigators? Community service-persons? Issue advocates? An admixture of each? The fact is that the role of an M...

On this episode of @Risk, host Jodi Butts is joined by best-selling author and Amazon First Novel Award winner, Michelle Good, and Dr. Lisa Richardson, strategic health advisor on Indigenous health at the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine, to discuss the role of education, collaboration and story-telling in achieving truth and reconciliation.

In 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States recognized same-sex marriage in the country as a fundamental right protected by the Constitution. The ruling was the culmination of decades of legal battles and advocacy labour by the gay rights community and their allies. The story of same-sex marriage in the United States is long and complicated. But one author has distilled this history into an ac...

One year after the public release of reports of the Canadian Armed Forces detailing disturbing conditions in long-term care facilities in Ontario and Quebec battling COVID-19 outbreaks, Globe and Mail columnist and best-selling author, André Picard, and Shirlee Sharkey, the formidable CEO of SE Health join host, Jodi Butts, to discuss how to fix our failing elder care and social support systems on...

June is Pride Month. For decades, the 2SLGTBQ+ community and their allies have been advocating and organizing for rights recognition. This month is both a celebration of that community and a remembrance of the struggle for justice and equality. A struggle that is ongoing. Even as we celebrate Pride, the Canadian government is fighting to uphold a discriminatory policy that requires men who have re...

Whether it’s in the school cafeteria, the House of Commons or on social media, your reputation is out there. Jodi Butts is joined by The Right Honourable Brian Mulroney to gain his wise counsel on how to build a reputation that can withstand and outlast the fray.

There are plenty of criticisms of democracy in Canada. While the country ranks in the upper echelons of mainstream reviewers concerned with global comparisons, there are disconcerting cracks in the foundation of our self-government. Indeed, the foundation itself is fundamentally flawed. One could—and should—point out the country’s inequities and inequalities, embedded colonialism, vestigial electo...

On this episode of @Risk, host Jodi Butts is joined by the 33rd Premier of New Brunswick and now the CEO of the Canadian Centre for the Purpose of the Corporation, Brian Gallant, to discuss reputation as the mother of all risks (M.O.A.R.) in the corporate context. For a business, reputation is more than a comms issue, it’s existential, and Brian wants to see companies find their purpose in order t...

In March of last year, David Moscrop spoke with feminist theorist and friend Amanda Watson about managing life during the pandemic. The conversation included thoughts about compassion, care, inequity, resistance, and, of course, anxiety. Just over a year later, as the end of the pandemic begins, the two revisit that conversation. This time the focus is on processing...all of this, with special att...

On this episode of @ Risk, host Jodi Butts is joined by four-time Olympic Gold medalist, community leader and soon to be doctor, Hayley Wickenheiser. They discuss the importance of sport in our recovery, being a good team player and the impact of the pandemic on the Olympics. To read the full transcript of this episode visit: https://canada2020.ca/risk-pressing-forward-with-hayley-wickenheiser/

In Canada and around the world, anxious, weary populations are looking forward to returning to something that will approximate normal life. That return is predicated on, among other things, mass Covid-19 vaccination efforts that continue along slow and steady. As more of us get the jab, states, including Canada, are considering vaccine certification programs for domestic use, foreign travel, or bo...

Crossing borders are never without risk, almost always entailing a trade-off of one set of risks for another. On this episode of @ Risk, Jodi is joined by Tareq Hadhad, the Canadian entrepreneur behind Peace by Chocolate and former refugee who fled war-torn Syria with his family. Jodi is also joined by Marcello Di Cintio, an award-winning travel author who in his latest non-fiction book, Driven, b...

Listen to a conversation with Mark Carney on his new book VALUE(s): Building a Better World for All, a bold and urgent examination of the radical, foundational change required if we are to build an economy and society based not on market values, but on human values.

The rise of digital media and technology has transformed how we engage in democratic processes and public debate. In Canada and around the world, digital threats are contributing to polarizing societies and weakening institutions. That’s why Canada 2020 launched Democracy in the Digital Age, a new series challenging Canadians to rethink their approach to defending our democratic institutions. List...

In Canada, wireless and broadband prices are too damned high. Why? The recent news of a merger attempt by Rogers and Shaw gives us a hint—and a look into the world of telecom strategy and oligopoly. Indeed, observers would be forgiven for thinking the country is a handful of telecom companies in a trenchcoat, perhaps with an airline or two crammed in there. But there’s more to it than that—a bit m...

On this episode of @ Risk, Jodi is joined by Icelandic artist and activist, Andri Snaer Magnason, whose approach to climate change is like no other. Magnason is the author of On Time and Water, a calculated and enchanting invitation to see ourselves in the battle against climate change through mythology, his conversations with the Dalai Lama and our love of family. To read the full transcript of t...

Canada’s political left is facing a series of choices. What kind of movement should it pursue in the face of contemporary challenges at home and around the world? How can left-wing parties win at the local, provincial, and federal orders of government? Should communists, socialists, and social democrats work together -- and, if so, when and how? Also, to what extent does the leading social democra...

Rockets, rovers and reaching for the stars are undertakings rife with risk – but nothing worth doing is without it. On this special episode of @ Risk, Jodi Butts is joined by Col. Chris Hadfield and Dr. Farah Alibay to discuss how they engineered their successes in space, and other lessons relatable to our more earthy daily lives. To read the full transcript of this episode visit: https://canada20...