The Line Podcast

This week on On The Line , Jen Gerson sits down with Philip Ball, one of the world’s most respected science writers, for a wide-ranging conversation about the state of modern science and the art of explaining it. Ball reflects on his journey from laboratory scientist to science communicator, and what it means to challenge old assumptions about the world around us. This episode is brought to you by...

In this week's episode of The Line Podcast , recorded on Sept. 19, 2025, Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson open with Canadian federal politics. Mark Carney is clearly cleaning house. We talk about why Chrystia Freeland may actually be entering her best years as a political force, share a laugh about our backstory with Canada’s new ambassador to the UN, and ask whether Carney will use by-elections or the...

This week on On the Line , Matt is joined by two familiar voices. First up, P.J. Fournier from 338Canada.com and 338Canada.ca drops in with a quick update. He’s been tracking the polls as Parliament gets back to work, and his verdict is that not much has shifted since the election. Still, he lays out the opportunities and headaches facing Mark Carney and the Liberals, Pierre Poilievre and the Cons...

In this episode of The Line Podcast , recorded on Sept. 12th, 2025, Rob Breakenridge joins Matt from Calgary, filling in for Jen Gerson, who is on assignment out of town. The two men acknowledge — but deliberately steer away from — the emerging details of the rapidly unfolding Charlie Kirk assassination investigation. Instead, they focus on the bigger picture: the mood, the vibes, and why so many...

In this week’s episode of On The Line , Matt Gurney is joined by Stephanie Levitz from Ottawa. Steph is a senior reporter in the Globe and Mail 's Ottawa bureau. They break down the wave of Liberal announcements last week — and why the government will struggle mightily to turn promises into reality. This episode of On The Line is brought to you by Universities Canada. Canada has promised millions...

In this episode of The Line Podcast , recorded on Sept. 5, 2025, Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson talk about the sudden flurry of announcements from Prime Minister Mark Carney. Matt wonders if any of these promises will actually lead to results, while Jen says her 100-day countdown for Carney begins now. Matt also points out an amusing way the current PM reminds him of his predecessor. This episode of T...

In this week’s episode of On The Line , Jen Gerson is joined by former Alberta deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk for a wide-ranging conversation about Alberta politics, national unity, and his latest political campaign. Lukaszuk is now spearheading Forever Canadian — Keep Alberta in Canada , a petition designed to get ahead of Alberta separatists by putting the issue on the table before they can. He...

In this episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on August 29th, 2025, Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson talk about the sad end of summer — and shamelessly try to squeeze some clicks out of recent celebrity news. They start off with the return of politics. Carney is striking the right tone, with a new major projects office and a European trip under his belt, but whether the country actually gets its act tog...

This week on On The Line , Matt Gurney is joined by two guests for two very different conversations. First up is Christopher Nardi, a parliamentary reporter at the National Post’s Ottawa bureau, and an old friend of Matt’s. They talk about the end of the summer — yes, sadly it’s true — and what we’ve seen so far from the Carney government. Chris offers some hope that there might be more going on t...

In this episode of The Line Podcast , recorded on Aug. 22, 2025, Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson have lots to talk about. And carefully avoid confessing to any crimes. The show opens with breaking news: Canada is dropping many — though not all — of its retaliatory tariffs against the United States. Matt and Jen agree the economic impact is limited, but the political optics could be rough for a prime mi...

In this episode of On The Line , Jen Gerson speaks with Karin Valis, a Berlin-based machine learning engineer and writer behind Mercurial Minutes . Together, they explore the complex and sometimes unsettling ways artificial intelligence intersects with human cognition, creativity, and mental health. This episode of On the Line is brought to you by Airbnb. As we’ve discussed many times before, it’s...

This episode of The Line Podcast was recorded Friday, August 15th, with Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson — newly back from her vacation. We start off with a look at how the Toronto International Film Festival has managed to completely beclown itself in an utterly avoidable controversy over the airing of a film depicting one family's nightmarish experience during the October 7th attacks. TIFF eventually...

This episode of On The Line with host Matt Gurney has two conversations worth your time. First up, Matt speaks with Denys Prevost, a retired firefighter with nearly 40 years of service in Ontario and Nova Scotia. Denys walks us through what’s been happening in Nova Scotia’s forests, how and why these fires can spread so quickly, and — most importantly — what homeowners and property owners can actu...

With Jen Gerson off this week, Matt Gurney is joined by Line contributor, columnist, author, and McGill professor Andrew Potter for a wide-ranging conversation about the state of Canadian politics — and the unsettling sense that very few people seem to be taking things seriously. This episode of The Line Podcast is brought to you by Unsmoke Canada. Canada can be a global leader in reducing the har...

In this episode of On The Line, join Jen Gerson as she delves into a fascinating conversation with Professor Avi Loeb, a renowned astrophysicist at Harvard University. They talk about the mysteries of interstellar objects and the possibility of extraterrestrial intelligence, as another such object rapidly approaches our inner solar system. This episode of On The Line is brought to you by Airbnb. I...

A programming note before we begin: due to the long weekend, no dispatch post this Sunday. We’ll talk to you next week. Take care and have fun! In this episode of The Line Podcast , recorded on Aug. 1, 2025, your hosts talk about various conflicts. And celebrities ... and aliens. First , we kick things off with the latest on the trade war front. Friday was the deadline for a deal, and ... there is...

In this episode of On The Line , Matt Gurney speaks with two sharp political observers to take stock of where things stand across Canada — and how some leaders are adapting to the post-election landscape. This episode of On The Line is brought to you by Airbnb. If you’ve been following the pod the last few weeks, you’re familiar by now with the fact that all the Airbnbs that could be converted int...

In this episode of The Line Podcast , recorded on July 25, 2025, your hosts are back with three hot topics segments — and a healthy dose of concern. First up, Jen offers an extended monologue on why she’s increasingly worried Alberta is heading toward banana republic territory. There’s a lot of money flowing through the province right now, and much of it is funding fringe causes. One local reporte...

This week on On The Line , Jen Gerson is joined by Brandon Forsyth, longtime book buyer at Indigo, for a wide-ranging conversation about summer reads and the deeper currents shaping the book industry. This episode of On The Line is brought to you by Airbnb. It’s no secret that Canada is in a housing crisis. Some think that short-term rentals such as Airbnbs are the problem. But the closer you look...

In this episode of The Line Podcast , recorded July 18, 2025, your hosts tackle three big themes across Canada, the U.S., and the media world. First up, Matt and Jen talk sovereignty — and why every time Canada tries to build domestic industrial capacity (in defence, tech, food, etc.), it seems to end in scandal or failure. Or even just massively inflated costs and huge delays. We say we want dome...

In this episode of On The Line , two big conversations on two critical topics: housing and national security. This episode of On The Line is brought to you by Airbnb. Last week, we talked about how the number of Airbnbs that could be homes accounts for only 0.6 per cent of Canada's housing stock. Everyone knows that you can’t solve a crisis with less than one per cent of a solution. But did you kn...

In this episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on July 11, 2025, y our hosts are back together! Matt returns from Europe and Jen gets him caught up — not just on politics, but on pancakes. (Seriously, there are questions.) First up: a full debrief on this year’s Calgary Stampede. Matt wants to talk breakfast, but Jen wants to talk vibes — and this year, the CPC was a much quieter, more cautious pre...

In this episode of On The Line , Jen Gerson speaks with veteran journalist and author Paul Palango about the 2020 Nova Scotia massacre — the worst mass shooting in Canadian history. This episode of On The Line is brought to you by Airbnb. Everyone agrees that Canada needs to take real action to tackle the housing crisis, but only a few people argue that short-term rentals like Airbnb are part of t...

In this episode of The Line Podcast , recorded very early on June 19, your hosts are making the best of a classic summer situation: we're both gone. Jen is off-grid somewhere. Matt is unplugging on another continent. But we didn’t want to leave you hanging — so we figured we’d get ahead of it. How do we do that when we can’t talk about the news of the day? We don’t even try! This episode of The Li...

This episode of On The Line was recorded in advance, as Matt Gurney is away on summer vacation. But we didn’t want to leave you hanging — so we’ve got two long-form conversations this week that are well worth your time. This episode is also brought to you by the Métis Nation of Ontario. For generations, Métis communities in Ontario helped build Canada’s first great economy — the fur trade. They fa...