EP 187: Phoebe Maltz Bovy on Heteropessimism
Throughout the Canadian federal election, we’re taking weekly breaks to think and talk about other things. On today’s program, in light of ongoing debates in American pop culture, we’ll be discussing the phenomenon of heteropessimism with a Toronto culture critic who is quite literally writing the book on it. Phoebe Maltz Bovy is a Toronto-based journalist, author, and podcaster. She’s co-host of the Feminine Chaos podcast, opinion editor at The Canadian Jewish News, and a contributing c...
9 Apr 29min
EP 186: Election 2025 - Melanie Paradis on Women's Fertility
Women’s fertility is a third rail in Canadian politics. We all learned this again last week, when Pierre Poilievre made a comment about biological clocks that sparked outrage. If you followed the controversy in the mainstream media only, you might not know that a number of women were glad to see Poilievre raise the issue of fertility — including my guest on today’s show. Melanie Paradis the president of Texture Communications and a veteran Conservative campaigner. Her recent piece for The Lin...
7 Apr 25min
EP 185: Adam Gussow on Interracial Family Life in America's South
During the 2025 Canadian election season, we’ll be pausing from time to time to take a breather and to think about other issues — often interesting new books. My guest on today’s program is a blues musician, a scholar, and a heterodox thinker. He joins us for a conversation about his deeply personal new book on interracial family life in the south. Adam Gussow is a professional harmonica player and a professor of English at the University of Mississippi. His new book is My Family & I: A M...
2 Apr 47min
EP 184: Election 2025 - Brian Dijkema on the Collapse of Support for the NDP
One of the big stories in the Canadian federal election so far has been the collapse of support for the NDP. New polling from Ipsos shows support for the party continuing to decline. Our guest on today’s program is a former labour representative — and he has some thoughts on where the traditional party of working people has gone wrong. Brian Dijkema is the president of Cardus Canada, a public policy think tank, and senior editor of Comment Magazine. You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @Tar...
31 Mar 32min
EP 183: Election 2025 - Laurent Carbonneau on Canada's 'Corporate Welfare Bums'
As election season builds steam, here at Lean Out we are focused on the question of why daily life in Canada has become so expensive and so dysfunctional. My guest on today’s program has some insights to share. He recently wrote a well-researched book on the federal government’s corporate subsidies — which, he says, “exploded in magnitude” under Justin Trudeau. Laurent Carbonneau works in public policy in Ottawa, on innovation, science, and technology issues. He’s a former NDP staffer and the...
29 Mar 17min
EP 182: Ann Bauer on Booksellers' Moral Contract
With the Canadian federal election now underway, we’re going to have a lot of political content for you in coming weeks. But today, we wanted to change things up a bit and bring you a lighter story about books — and how hard it is these days to find bookstores that stock a range of different perspectives. Our guest on today’s program argues that booksellers are locked in a moral contract with their clientele, and it’s resulted in a narrowing of the titles on offer. Ann Bauer is an American es...
28 Mar 29min
EP 181: Election 2025 - Tom Korski
After much speculation, Prime Minister Mark Carney has called a snap spring election, and Canadians will be heading to the polls on April 28. To kick off Lean Out’s special election coverage, we bring you a conversation with a veteran Canadian journalist about the unusual moment the country is in — and why, in his view, the current disconnect between the federal government and voters is a once in a generation occurrence. Tom Korski is the managing editor of Blacklock’s Reporter, an Ottawa-bas...
26 Mar 23min
EP 180: Dave Snow on DEI in Federal Granting Agencies
In the wake of President Trump’s executive order on DEI, debates in America have renewed a conversation around DEI in this country. And while the baseline value of greater inclusion is one that many of us share, some DEI programs have proven controversial. Our guest on this bonus episode is the author of a recent report that dives into DEI practices in Canadian federal granting agencies — and asks if they impede political and ideological neutrality and research excellence. Dave Snow is ...
20 Mar 28min
