Front Burner

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