EP 225: Amanda Fortini on Jan Kerouac and the legacy of the Beat Generation

As regular readers of Tara's Substack will know, this spring she has been writing the Massey Essay on the state of the media — a partnership between Massey College at the University of Toronto and the Literary Review of Canada, where it’s published. The annual essay honours the legacy of the long-time CBC producer Vincent Massey Tovell. This year’s essay explores the collapse of public trust in the media. Leading up to its publication next week, we will be re-running podcast interviews with ...

11 Apr 202431min

As regular readers of Tara's Substack will know, this spring she has been writing the Massey Essay on the state of the media — a partnership between Massey College at the University of Toronto and the Literary Review of Canada, where it’s published. The annual essay honours the legacy of the long-time CBC producer Vincent Massey Tovell. This year’s essay explores the collapse of public trust in the media. Leading up to its publication next week, we will be re-running podcast interviews with ...

10 Apr 202434min

As regular readers of Tara's Substack will know, this spring Tara has been writing the Massey Essay on the state of the media — a partnership between Massey College at the University of Toronto and the Literary Review of Canada, where it’s published. The annual essay honours the legacy of the long-time CBC producer Vincent Massey Tovell. This year’s essay explores the collapse of public trust in the media. Leading up to its publication next week, we will be re-running podcast interviews ...

10 Apr 20241h

Canada recently reached a grim milestone — the lowest fertility rate in recorded history. We are now well below population replacement, at 1.33 births per woman. Our guest on the show today has studied this crisis in family formation in the West. And he says we need to take a look at our culture. Tim Carney is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and a columnist for The Washington Examiner. His new book is Family Unfriendly: How Our Culture Made Raising Kids Much Harder Than...

3 Apr 202435min

On the Lean Out podcast, we’ve spent much of the past year investigating the collapse of the news media and the decline in public trust. Tara's guest this week argues that the industry is at a crossroads, but media bosses are unwilling to meet the moment, and seem determined to continue on the same trajectory — even if it means the death of their institutions. Ryan Zickgraf is an American journalist and a columnist at Compact Magazine. His new essay is “Journalism’s Slow Death Threatens Democ...

27 Mars 202425min

In March of 2020, much of the world was in lockdown. The unprecedented pandemic response closed schools, shuttered businesses, and paused public events. My guest on today’s program says it is time to evaluate the measures that were taken and consider whether the harms outweighed the benefits. The UK charity that he leads research for has now launched working groups to examine Covid policies in a number of different countries. Including his own, Canada. Kevin Bardosh is director and head of re...

20 Mars 202429min

When it comes to race relations, many of us were raised with the ethos expressed in the famed Martin Luther King Jr. quote calling on society to judge people by the content of their character instead of the colour of their skin. Western society has moved away from that ideal — and my guest on today’s program says it’s time we get back to it. Coleman Hughes is an American writer, commentator, and podcaster, and an analyst for CNN. His new book is The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Color...

13 Mars 202436min

Canada is embroiled in a number of high-profile political scandals, and it’s a dispiriting moment for the country. This week, we’re taking a break from the news cycle, and instead contemplating the contributions of a famed Canadian — the late philosopher Marshall McLuhan — who, my guest on today’s program says, understood our time better than many currently living through it. Benjamin Carlson is an American writer, and media strategist, and the author of the Substack newsletter, Carlson ...

6 Mars 202418min