The Current

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jill Lepore talks about her latest book “The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State,” how technology like AI is having a knock on effect on our democracy and why it's not too late to stop us slipping into an “artificial state.”

In just over a month, voters in America will head to the polls in the U.S. midterms. The elections will decide if US President Donald Trump will remain free to pursue his agenda, or whether he’ll face checks from a new Congress as the Democrats try to flip both the House and the Senate. Josh Wingrove, Senior White House reporter with Bloomberg News and Barbara Sprunt, Congressional Correspondent with NPR, talk through which races to watch and what’s at stake.

Ontario increased the speed limit on several highways to 110 kilometers per hour. The province says the new speed limit will help people get to their destinations faster and that the changes are safe. Stephanie Cowle, Parachute Canada’s Director, Knowledge Translation tells us about the dangers and risks. And Laura Cavanagh, Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences at Seneca Polytechnic explains what pushes people to speed.

Turns out a lot of New Yorkers will. A bakery opened in NYC stocking one product — a $60 loaf of rye bread, served by the slice or by the loaf. As influencers flock to try the now infamous loaf, we look at whether the price tag fits the product, and what bread says about our relationship with wealth in the midst of a cost of living crisis.

Willie Blackwater is just 13 when he holds a knife to his rapist's throat, demanding an end to his recurring abuse. It’s the first time Willie stands up to his residential school supervisor, but it’s far from the last. Years later, after a fateful encounter with a cop, Willie decides to break his silence — joining a group of survivors that help convict Arthur Henry Plint of 18 counts of sexual assault. But for Willie and his friends, it’s not enough. And a risky idea starts to form. Can they take on the architects of the residential school system? Host of See You in Court , Falen Johnson and journalist Jackie McKay meet the man behind Blackwater vs. Plint, one of the first court cases where residential school survivors took their abuser to court, eventually paving a legal path for thousands of other Indigenous children forced to attend these schools. This episode is part one, episode two can be found here: https://link.mgln.ai/SYICS2xTCxEP2 The stories behind the legal battles that changed Canada — and the unlikely people who made it happen. Some were sh*t disturbers, some were convicts, and some were just regular folks dragged into a fight. Each week, See You in Court digs into a case that challenged the status quo, and asks: what kind of person takes on the law? What are the costs? And what would our lives look like if these cases never happened? Because let's be real, just because a case is closed doesn't mean the story’s over. More episodes of See You in Court are available here: https://link.mgln.ai/SYICS2xTC

After months of talk, a new proposed oil pipeline to the west coast has a name, a route and backing from the federal government. Pacific Link has been designated a “Project of National Interest” and would carry as much as a million barrels of oil a day from Alberta to the B.C. coast, largely following the existing Trans Mountain corridor. CBC business reporter Kyle Bakx has the latest.

It’s been over 20 years since the last Concorde flight, and now engineers are working to bring back passenger supersonic flights. Bob van der Linden is the Curator of Air Transportation and Special Purpose Aircraft at the National Air and Space Museum and tells us what it was like on board the last Air France Concorde flight in 2003. Peter Coen, Integration Manager for NASA’s Quesst mission, talks about the agency’s work to quieten the sonic boom that planes make and what he thinks the future of supersonic flight will look like.

For decades, Newfoundlanders left the wharves and sought work elsewhere. Now with cod quotas up and a booming crab fishery, a new generation of fishermen is being drawn to the ocean. Lillian Saul and David Maher say they can't imagine doing any other job. But Fish, Food and Allied Workers Union President Dwan Street says the industry's future will depend on getting rid of barriers to entry and keeping the fishery sustainable.

There have been alarm bells ringing for some time about dropping math scores in this country. In her documentary, “Are your kids learning math the right way?” CBC's Julia Pagel visits a school in Gimli, Manitoba, where new teaching strategies yield impressive test results — while sparking a deeper debate over the best way to teach math.

Self-Help is a multi-billion dollar industry — an entire ecosystem of books, podcasts, social media. Over ten-thousand self-help books are published in the US each year and they account for 17% of non-fiction book sales in Canada. What makes a good self help book? Does self help work? And how do you differentiate guru from grifter? Our panel of self help experts have answers.

An alleged gang rape case at Cornell University is drawing international attention after a woman known as Jane Doe filed a civil lawsuit earlier this month against seven men accused of sexually assaulting her at a fraternity party in 2024. She is also suing Cornell, claiming the university failed to protect her. The case is bringing a spotlight to how pervasive rape culture is on university campuses. We hear from Farrah Khan, an award-winning gender justice advocate who works on sexual assault prevention in Canadian schools, about how something like this could have happened — and how we can change our education system to better protect students from sexual violence.

Russia launched a heavy attack against Ukrainian energy infrastructure this week. The UN says more than two hundred civilians have been killed in the last month. CBC's Foreign Correspondent, Briar Stewart takes us through what life is in Kyiv now with attacks intensifying, and what other parts of Ukraine are experiencing as winter is approaching.

The only land crossing to Campobello Island, New Brunswick is through Maine. On Tuesday a truck full of supplies for the community was stopped at the US border after a US import ban on some Canadian goods came into effect. Campobello Island Mayor Harvey Matthews on what it will take to give his community the supplies they need.

Statistics Canada numbers show the economy stalled in July. The trade war is hitting some harder than others, like the Stelco workers in Hamilton, Ontario who got news that part of their steel plant is closing indefinitely. We hear from Ron Wells, one of their union leaders, plus Deloitte Canada's Dawn Desjardins tells us why she sees the country's growth continuing to slow down.

Margaret Atwood is donating 1 million dollars to Western University. The money will establish a new chair in avian biology and honour her late partner and fellow novelist Graeme Gibson who loved birds. We speak with Chris Guglielmo Professor of Biology and Director at the Centre for Animals on the Move at Western University about what this donation could mean for the research of birds and why humans are still so fascinated by them.

Mosquitos, cockroaches, venomous snakes, and adults who steal candy from children, just some of the winning scientific discoveries at this year's Ig Nobel Prize. The award highlights research so bizarre and improbable you can't help but laugh at it. We speak with winner Chonghong Cao, a Canada Research Chair and Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at McGill University about how his team worked with dead mosquitos and 3D printers to win the technology prize.

On this Day of Truth and Reconciliation, we speak with award-winning CBC reporter Jackie McKay who travelled to the village of Kispiox, BC, to learn about the man at the centre of a historic battle to hold the government and the church accountable for sexual abuse at the Alberni Indian Residential School. Willie Blackwater's class action lawsuit was one of the first in Canada, setting the stage for many others who came forward and the TRC. McKay's reporting and the rest of Willie’s story is featured in Season 2 of the CBC news podcast, See You In Court .

Almost 30 years after the death of Princess Diana, her brother Charles Spencer has written a new memoir about her life, her struggles, and the royal institutions that played a role in both. He sits down with Matt Galloway to discuss the book Swan Song: Diana, my sister, and her legacy.

Netflix's new reality show based on the infamous Stanford prison experiment is being met with controversy. The original psychological experiment had to be abandoned prematurely because of the harm it was causing participants. So why is Netflix releasing a reality series based on a troubling psychological experiment? And what could it tell us about what makes people abuse authority? We speak with Jay Van Bavel, Professor of Psychology at New York University and the author of The Power of Us, plus Andy Dehnart, a TV critic, and founder of Reality Blurred.

Diesel gas prices have spiked, hitting truckers and farmers especially hard. That means prices for things we buy are going up too. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called on the federal government to take action. But energy expert Richard Masson is skeptical about the Conservative proposals. He says prices won't come down until the wars in Iran and Ukraine end, but Ottawa could still offer some relief.