Front Burner

As the Iran war wraps up its fifth week, the increasing price on fuel and food is wreaking havoc on consumers and businesses around the world. Global markets are also incredibly volatile.

Right now, the economic fallout is more pronounced in the Gulf, Asia, and Europe, but analysts say the shockwaves could soon be felt in North America.

Liz Hoffman is the business and finance editor at Semafor, and the host of their podcast, Compound Interest.

She talks to host Jayme Poisson about how close we are to a full blown global economic disaster.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Since the beginning of the U.S.-Israeli war, Iran has been publishing AI propaganda videos online trolling the United States, and Donald Trump.

Conversely, the U.S. military, and Donald Trump specifically, have spent the better part of the last year publishing all kinds of war and military content and propaganda of their own.

Propaganda has always been part of war. But in 2026, something about it looks and feels different: it’s shorter, funnier, more synthetic, and tailored to the algorithm.

Nicholas Cull is an authority on propaganda and has written a number of books on the subject including ‘The Cold War and the United States Information Agency.’ He’s a professor at the University of Southern California.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Today we’re joined by Alex Panetta, journalist and former Front Burner guest host. You may remember him as a regular on this show when he was a CBC Washington correspondent.

Alex is now on sabbatical studying artificial intelligence and has been grappling with a lot of the big questions we have been thinking about too.

So today we’re going to talk about the ways he’s been using AI in his own life and interrogating how this technology can impact our ability to think critically. Will AI make us all dumber?

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Nearly a year after the federal NDP’s most devastating election result in history, the party declared Avi Lewis – who ran on a campaign of democratic socialism – its new leader.

It was a decisive win – Lewis won over half of the 70,930 eligible votes cast. The turnout was high – at about 70 percent of membership.

Avi Lewis talks to host Jayme Poisson about his vision for the federal NDP’s future, the challenges ahead for the party, and what pressures he plans to put on Prime Minister Carney’s Liberal government.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Experts, market watchers and the authorities in Iran have accused the U.S. President of engaging in market manipulation surrounding the Iran war by timing military announcements around market opens and closes.

On top of that, there have been questions of possible insider trading in connection to Trump’s moves. Last Monday, a spike of highly suspicious and extremely lucrative oil futures trades and prediction market bets took place minutes before Trump posted about the war winding down.

It follows a pattern seen before around tariff policy, and the attack on Venezuela. To parse the accusations of market manipulation and insider trading, we’re joined by Mike Bird, the Wall Street editor at The Economist and co-host of The Economist’s Money Talks podcast.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts