Front Burner

Donald Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ says it has a plan for the future of Gaza. Critics say that strategy is full of holes, and that the true intention of the board extends far beyond the war ravaged territory. Today we look at how a U.S. 20-point plan for a post-war Gaza evolved into a body that some fear could undermine the United Nations and further erode international order.Jayme Poisson speaks with Hugh Lovatt, a Senior Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations based in London.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts 

It was an eventful World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this week, with striking speeches by both the U.S. President and Canadian Prime Minister. For his part Donald Trump talked for more than an hour on an array of topics, including his desire to acquire Greenland. His speech came a day after Mark Carney made international headlines announcing the end of the old world order as he sees it, and the need for a new path forward for “middle powers.”In today’s episode Jayme Poisson sits down with veteran journalist Paul Wells to break it down.Check out another episode of CBC's new podcast Two Blocks from the White House from our colleagues in the Washington bureau. It's American politics with Canadian context. This week, they're talking about Davos and Trump's Greenland threats. Listen to the episode here.

In a provocative speech to the World Economic Forum on Tuesday, Prime Minister Mark Carney made the case that the rules of international economics and politics are “in the midst of a rupture, not a transition”.Carney went on to say that middle powers like Canada need to work together to find their own coalitions to survive and stand up to countries using economic coercion – a clear reference to the Trump administration. This comes after Trump’s stunning threats earlier this week to slap tariffs on European countries like France, Britain, and Germany over their support of Greenland's sovereignty. It has pushed the relationship between the U.S. and Europe to the brink.Carney said he stands with our European allies in support of Greenland. But what kind of pushback can they mount? And what kind of domestic pressures are European leaders facing in their own backyard?Michaela Kuefner is the Chief Political Editor at DW News and joins us from Davos, Switzerland.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Prime Minister Mark Carney is at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this week, as the situation with Greenland continues to escalate. Carney’s Davos trip is coming on the heels of a visit to China and Qatar where the Prime Minister made deals with both countries. Last year, he called China the biggest threat to Canada’s security, but now he talks about a “new world order” and says “we take the world as it is, not as we wish it to be.”Aaron Wherry, senior political correspondent, joins us to talk about how Carney is navigating this new reality.

Anti-ICE protests continued throughout Minnesota over the weekend, as they have for nearly two weeks now. Since the shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis, ICE agents have been getting in confrontations with the people they are targeting, and the citizens attempting to observe and document ICE’s actions. The city and state are on a razor’s edge — trying to observe and protest while not giving U.S. President Donald Trump an opportunity to escalate. Trump has threatened to use the Insurrection Act to deploy military troops against protesters, with some 1,500 troops reportedly standing ready.Can he do that? And can anything be done to restrain the power of ICE officers deployed to Minneapolis and beyond?Today we hear from Aaron Reichlin-Melnick. He’s a Senior Fellow at the American Immigration Council and has been following all of this very closely.

A mass protest movement has gripped Iran and is shaking the foundations of that country’s ruling regime. Thousands of protesters have been detained and rights groups say more than 2,500 people are dead, including one Canadian citizen.With Iranian officials signalling plans for “quick” executions, U.S. President Donald Trump issued threats of his own, hinting at military intervention.Will the U.S. throw its military weight behind Iranian protests? Will Iran’s regime fall, or will it manage to weather the storm like it did in 2018 and 2022? Gregg Carlstrom, a Middle East correspondent for The Economist, answers those questions, and more.

Potential American military intervention in Iran amid ongoing protests and violence. The shooting death of a 37-year-old mother in Minneapolis at the hands of an ICE agent. A criminal investigation into the chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve.Astead Herndon is a podcast host and editorial coordinator with Vox. He breaks down another seismic week in American politics. Our colleagues in CBC's Washington bureau — Katie Simpson, Paul Hunter and Willy Lowry — have launched a brand new podcast, Two Blocks from the White House. It's American politics with Canadian context. Listen to this week's episode "Could America First mean Canada's next?" here.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Mark Carney arrives in Beijing today to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. It’s the first time in nearly a decade for a Canadian Prime Minister to do so, and the stakes are high.Carney has to balance his handling of two problematic superpowers during these talks.On the one hand, he wants to double non-U.S. exports abroad in the next decade and China is the second largest market in the world. On the other, a closer relationship with China could set Canada on a collision course with a U.S. administration set on curtailing and containing it. Additionally, Canada must also contend with the national security threat China poses – from intellectual property theft or meddling in Canada’s democratic processes.Vina Nadjibulla is back on the show to discuss all of this. She’s the Vice President of Research & Strategy for the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The seizure of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro by military force. Promises to "take back" the Panama Canal. Massive tariffs on Brazil. Threats to take action against cartels in Mexico.Donald Trump's foreign policy in Latin America in recent months has been chaotic, even contradictory at times. But it all seems to be part of what Trump has referred to as the "Donroe Doctrine": a reinvention of the Monroe Doctrine that saw America looking to exert hegemonic dominance across the entire western hemisphere.John Feeley worked as a diplomat for the American government for nearly 30 years, including serving as ambassador to Panama. He breaks down the current geopolitical situation and lays out the Trump administration's goals for the region — and beyond.

Right now, the future of Greenland hangs in the balance. And with it, an entire system of military and political alliances that has underpinned the global order since the end of the Second World War.So when U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says he’s going to meet with Danish leaders to talk about Greenland this week, that’s what diplomats, historians and politicians the world over say is at stake.This could have massive implications for Canada, both as a NATO member and target of Trump’s expansionist appetites.Casey Michel joins us. He’s a journalist and author of the upcoming book ‘United States of Oligarchy’. He recently wrote a piece for Foreign Policy titled “Annexing Greenland would be a Strategic Catastrophe.”

Whether you think it’s world-changing or over-hyped, it’s undeniable that artificial intelligence has transformed the tech industry.But as tech companies chase the dream of building a human-like intelligence and revolutionizing everything from doctor’s visits to movie-making, the industry continues to face big questions around things like the mental health of users, copyright infringement, reliability of large language models, and its financial future.Murad Hemmadi, a reporter with The Logic, is here to talk about how all of these questions could play out in the year ahead.

In 1999 Hugo Chavez was elected President of Venezuela, beginning a years-long ‘Bolivarian Revolution,’ following multiple coup attempts, and time in prison. Chavez would go on to govern the country as President until his death in 2013 — passing sweeping anti-poverty programs, nationalizing oil and industry, and opposing US hegemony in the region. Just before his death, Chavez hand selected Nicolas Maduro as the person to carry forward his political program and legacy. Maduro’s time in power was hamstrung between domestic mismanagement, US sanction regimes, and authoritarian crackdowns. But at the core of his time in power was the ‘Chavismo’ political ideology, created in the image of his predecessor. For a better sense of Venezuela’s modern political history, we have a look at its central characters: Simon Bolivar, Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro. Today, we’re joined by Alejandro Velasco, a professor of Latin American history at New York University, and author of ‘Barrio Rising: Urban Popular Politics and the Making of Modern Venezuela.’For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Today, Gerry Butts – former principal secretary to Justin Trudeau and current adviser to Prime Minister Carney – is on the show.Butts is also the vice chairman of the global political risk firm, the Eurasia group, which releases a “Top Risks” list every year. We’ll drill down on a few of them, including their number one risk, the “U.S. political revolution”. The report makes the case that, outside of the U.S. itself, America’s political upheaval has the greatest impact on Canada. We’ll also discuss the “Zombie USMCA” deal and the future of NATO.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

In the wake of the U.S. arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, there has been a flurry of concern about what that country’s oil could mean for the Canadian economy.Is American access to the world’s largest proven oil reserves a major threat to Canada? Have we lost leverage with the U.S. as we move forward in trade negotiations? Over the last few days, Trump has threatened Cuba, Greenland, Iran, Colombia and Mexico. What are Canada’s primary concerns as we navigate this new reality? From CBC’s Parliamentary bureau, senior reporter Evan Dyer is here. Evan has a lot of experience covering Canadian foreign policy, Latin America, and has reported extensively from the region.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

After months of rhetoric, military presence and strikes, U.S. forces have launched an attack on the Venezuelan capital Caracas. They seized the country's president, Nicolás Maduro, and flew him to New York to face narco-terrorism charges.U.S. officials say Maduro heads up a cartel responsible for flooding the United States with drugs, but critics — and Maduro himself — say the charges are just a pretext for regime change — and access to the country's vast oil reserves. U.S. President Donald Trump says the United States will "run" Venezuela for the immediate future, and that American oil companies will move in to take over the country's oil industry.Jon Lee Anderson is a staff writer with the New Yorker who has covered conflict in Latin America for decades. He explains the complicated power dynamics at play with Maduro out of the picture, and what we might see in the weeks ahead.

In the fourth and final episode of Understood: The Making of Musk, host Jacob Silverman launches into Musk’s ultimate quest, his desire to colonize Mars, and how he went from wanting to save earth to wanting to escape it. You’ll hear the origin story of SpaceX. And hear from an astrophysicist who says Musk’s plan is completely delusional. You can find Understood wherever you get your podcasts, and here: https://link.mgln.ai/FBxMoM4And be sure to follow the feed for even more stories that define our digital age.

What does Musk, father of 14, expect from his quote, “legion” of children? In episode 3 of Understood: The Making of Musk, host, Jacob Silverman unravels Musk’s quest for genetic optimization, including alleged embryo screening, and his pronatalist views. And we hear from his estranged daughter, Vivian.You can find Understood wherever you get your podcasts, and here: https://link.mgln.ai/FBxMoM3

Where did Elon Musk’s epic ambitions begin? In search of clues, the latest season of Understood: The Making of Musk returns to his sheltered youth in apartheid South Africa, a world engineered for white supremacy. In this second episode, host Jacob Silverman explores whether Musk’s authoritarian streak traces back to his Canadian grandfather. Before Joshua Haldeman brought his family to South Africa, he made waves as part of the radical 1930s Technocracy movement. And while the two men’s lives only overlapped for three years, we find echoes of Elon’s worldview in Haldeman’s pro-tech, anti-democratic ideology.You can find Understood wherever you get your podcasts, and here: https://link.mgln.ai/FBxMoM2

Today we’re joined by lawyer and author Bryan Stevenson for a conversation about the historical Mother Emanuel AME church, and what it means to tell the story of American history through a single institution. Then Canadian journalist Paul Wells stops by for a look at the rise of The New York Times, and the lessons for news media writ large. And finally, Bookends host Mattea Roach chats with Jayme about Ukraine, the power of the novel, and some very endangered snails.The books:Mother Emanuel by Kevin SackThe Times by Adam NagourneyEndling by Maria Reva

Some of our favourite guests of the year return to talk about books that helped meaningfully explain 2025. We talk about the evergreen appeal of Plato as well as Jewish identity with former Yale fascism scholar Jason Stanley. The déjà vu of trade wars and Canadian nationalism are tackled by journalist and author Stephen Maher. His pick is a book that details the last election of Sir John A. Macdonald and first election of Wilfrid Laurier.Then the career works of Herman Melville as a blueprint for modern America with historian Rick Perlstein.This is part one, in a series that will continue on tomorrow’s show! The books:The Republic Book 8 by Plato Being Jewish After Gaza: A Reckoning by Peter BeinartThe History of Canada Series: The Destiny of Canada by Christopher PenningtonThe Lightning-Rod Man by Herman Melville