What Canadian podcasts do you recommend? My podcast app is currently downloading:
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CanadaLand - It’s mostly opinion, but the host does talk about the media landscape and what it takes for Canadian news outlets to survive. Hosts occasionally shoot their mouths off and then give mea culpas.
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The Big Story - An Ontario-centric daily news show by Rogers. The host knows his audience and does decent interviews. I appreciate their ongoing focus on cost of living issues.
I’ve tried:
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Front Burner - Another daily news show. The interviews feel scripted, but there’s occasionally good stuff.
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The Loonie Hour - I tried to listen to this for its right leaning perspective, but I gave up after one of the hosts said reliable sources told him Russia would never invade Ukraine.
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Backbench Podcast - as much as I like the new host, it doesn’t feel like it offers a lot of insight.
EDIT: fixed formatting.
I’ll add a couple of French ones if ever anyone’s interested.
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Parler mal: Two Acadian artists exploring the subject of linguistic insecurity through various interviews.
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Les Copains: Basically just four Acadian radio personalities shooting the shit.
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Les pires moments de l’histoire: Historical podcast which, as the title says, goes through the worst moments in history. Really entertaining while staying informative.
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The Law Bytes Podcast where Michael Geist and guests talk about tech policy and laws. He covers stuff like the online news act, privacy, how badly the CRTC and government handle themselves in tech policy :D
His blog is also worth the read if you are looking for a good breakdown of current bills that affect tech (and internet).
You can’t go wrong with Michael Geist.
I’ve really enjoyed The Nations of Canada by Greg Koabel. it’s a linear narrative history of Canada that runs from pre-contact indigenous oral tradition and archeology to (so far) the mid 19th- century.
I’ve found it really expanded my understanding of Canadian history and culture, doing a much better job than any of the canadian history classes I took in school!
How has no one mentioned The Bridge
This is Peter Mansbridge’s daily podcast looking at current events. It puts The National to shame.
Subscribed! Thanks.
Others have mentioned “Canadaland” and their various podcasts.
I like “Sandy and Nora Talk Politics”, “Open to Debate with David Moscrop”, and “The Secret Life of Canada” (now a CBC production, but that doesn’t seem to have changed the podcast).
“Hacked” is not specifically Canadian content but is made in Canada. Covers the wonderful world of who got hacked and how.
“Conspirituality” and “This Week In Virology” are what I would call “Canada adjacent” in that there are Canadian co-hosts and Canada gets some direct coverage in what are essentially international stories with an American focus. The former looks at the intersection of the wellness community and right wing ideologies. The latter, as you might guess, is about “viruses, the kind that make you sick” (their tagline) and frequently gets very technical, especially when they are reviewing a paper.
CBC pushes quite a lot of their radio and some TV programming out as podcasts. My favourites are “Quirks and Quarks” and “Ideas”.
Then there are some limited series: “Recall: How to Start a Revolution” about the FLQ crisis and “Kuper Island” about Residential Schools.
For a good time, you can’t go wrong with “Because News”, a comedy panel-quiz show on mostly Canadian news. Some guests (especially Eric Peterson, Jean Yoon, and Martha Chavez) occasionally depart into rants or personal stories that have a lot of serious meat.
The Strategists is pretty good, they are all experienced strategists in both provincial and federal politics and they have an interesting perspective.
If you want Canadian but about nerdy things instead of politics, LoadingReadyRun (Victoria BC) has a few, some actual-play tabletop stuff, some Magic the Gathering, some sketch and improv comedy (although they haven’t made a new one of those in a while, sadly), etc.
That sounds great!
The Numbers podcast and its French counterpart Les Chiffres are like FiveThirtyEight for Canada. Highly recommended.
The hosts are the two biggest election statisticians in Canada: Éric Grenier, who does polling analysis for the CBC, and Philippe Fournier, who runs 338Canada.
Haus of Decline explores a wide variety of different topics, from the struggles of being an anti-zionist Jew in Canada to how Steven Universe handles the subject of parental reconciliation.
I try lo like the Front Burner, but the host comes off as unserious and it really makes it hard to wade through. Casual rapport is fine, but it’s difficult to strike the right note. (by way of contrast, The Daily usually manages it quite well even when it’s not Michael Barbaro).
I’m glad it’s not just me.
Front Burner seems to skim the surface off a topic, with weak hosts and annoying music.
Front Burner definitely has ups and downs depending on the topic, host, and guest, but I struggle to find a way of getting the news closer to what I want. It’s about 20 minutes on one topic which gives me enough of an overview to figure out if I really need to care or engage further while still keeping up with contemporary events. There are lots of ways to get inundated with topics without enough context to know whether to care or worry, and there are lots of deep dives for things I know I care about, but Front Burner sits in a middle ground I haven’t found the right way to replace even if it hasn’t been as strong lately.
Rational Reminder is related to Canadian personal finance
The Agenda by Steve Paiken is a TVO News program available as an audio podcast, based on Ontario news
Ça s’explique is a French language, Radio-Canada podcast about the news
The Peak Daily
There’s another podcast from CanadaLand called Commons (https://www.canadaland.com/shows/commons/) that I enjoy a lot, they do mini series that dig a little deeper into topics that come up in current events.
I’ve been following a bit Arcade Quebec to improve my french, so I can’t give you a proper review since I understand half of what is said :P
Also I was listening to Horreur Podcast but the last episode is from March called “L’épisode final”, again, I understood very little so I don’t know exactly what happened.CBC Ideas is one of my favourite podcasts.
