As It Happens
CBC Podcasts & Radio On-Demand
Nightly news that’s not afraid of fun. Every weeknight hosts Nil Köksal and Chris Howden bring you the people at the centre of the day’s most hard-hitting, hilarious and heartbreaking stories: powerful leaders, proud eccentrics and ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. And plenty of puns too. Find out why As It Happens is one of Canada’s longest-running and most beloved shows.
Location:
Canada, ON
Networks:
CBC Podcasts & Radio On-Demand
Description:
Nightly news that’s not afraid of fun. Every weeknight hosts Nil Köksal and Chris Howden bring you the people at the centre of the day’s most hard-hitting, hilarious and heartbreaking stories: powerful leaders, proud eccentrics and ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. And plenty of puns too. Find out why As It Happens is one of Canada’s longest-running and most beloved shows.
Twitter:
@cbcasithappens
Language:
English
Contact:
CBC Audience Relations P.O. Box 500, Station A Toronto, ON Canada M5W 1E6 866-481-5718
Website:
http://www.cbc.ca/asithappens/
Email:
aih@cbc.ca
Episodes
A Meta fact checker on the job in Los Angeles
1/14/2025
Plus: On Prince Edward Island, a man nearly gets beaned by a meteorite…and ends up capturing a historic image with his home security system.
Also: After visiting the region, Canada's Minister for International Development Ahmed Hussen tells us he sees a window of opportunity for countries to support the rebuilding of a peaceful and prosperous Syria.
Duration:00:54:59
Bracing for more wind and fire in Los Angeles
1/13/2025
Plus: Russell Howells hits a “bleak” moment in his long fight to recover a fortune in Bitcoin from a dump in Wales.
Also: A team of Italian physicists think they've found the recipe for the perfect cacio e pepe pasta, featuring…cornstarch?
Duration:01:00:25
Premier Susan Holt on Trump, tariffs and 2025
1/10/2025
Plus: Zora Neale Hurston's last novel was almost destroyed in a fire. But the well-timed instincts of a friend helped save it for a new generation.
Also: We'll hear from the co-owner of a Los Angeles theatre – Public Displays of Altadena – destroyed in the Eaton fire about the livelihoods lost and the fine art of rebuilding.
Duration:01:02:18
Racing to save a home in the burning Pacific Palisades
1/9/2025
Plus: That’ll do, donkey. We bid farewell to the beast of burden who served as a model for Shrek’s two-dimensional donkey sidekick.
Also: After our story about a mysterious pile of bananas in England, listeners tipped us off to an equally unexplained phenomenon in Whitehorse.
Duration:00:57:31
Escaping the worst fire in modern L.A. history
1/8/2025
Plus: We reach a volunteer in Finland who’s getting out his shovel to build the snow drifts seals need to build their next generation.
Also: Survival of the fittest is a phrase we all learn in biology class. But new research suggests something else might also shape evolution in the animal kingdom: sheer luck.
Duration:00:57:10
Donald Trump ups the ante on “51st state” threats
1/7/2025
Plus: When we heard about a mystery plate of peeled bananas on a British street corner we couldn't resist the urge to call up some locals…
And our efforts bore fruit. Also: The head of Physicians for Human Rights Israel calls for the release of a Palestinian doctor detained by the IDF after a December raid on the Kamal Adwan hospital in North Gaza.
Duration:01:00:32
Immigration Minister Marc Miller on Trudeau’s departure
1/6/2025
Plus: After a fire destroys a new romance bookstore in the DC area, readers come together to show it some love -- and give the story a happy ending.
Also: We reach Kate McElwee of the Women’s Ordination Conference after Pope Francis appoints a nun to a historically important role. She says she still believes that the Catholic Church is capable of full inclusion.
Duration:01:00:12
Are cancer-warning labels on alcohol a good idea?
1/3/2025
An orca who famously carried around her dead calf for weeks in 2018 is now repeating that behaviour after the recent death of her newborn calf.
In September, Carol Off was back in our studio to speak with Nil about her latest book, “At a Loss for Words: Conversation in an Age of Rage.” In it, the former host of As It Happens looks at six words (freedom, democracy, truth, woke, choice and taxes) and how their meaning has been distorted and politicized. She offers insight on how to reclaim those words -- and what’s at risk, if we're unable to do so.
Duration:00:49:20
Hosting the Sugar Bowl, the day after a terrorist attack
1/2/2025
“Kinda feels like it was my house that burned down.” A former employee of Telegraph Cove, BC’s whale museum is heartbroken when it’s destroyed by fire.
We revisit Nil’s feature-length conversation with R. Renee Hess. The hockey fan and author spoke to players, hockey parents, NHL employees and journalists for a collection of essays published last year. It’s called, "Blackness Is a Gift I Can Give Her: On Race, Community, and Black Women in Hockey," and includes her own journey in a sport that, as she writes, doesn’t always love her back.
Duration:00:52:12
Special Episode: Unexpected stories
1/1/2025
We go back to the archives to dig up the stories and guests who took us by surprise.
Duration:01:16:44
An attack on New Orleans' Bourbon Street
1/1/2025
At least 10 people are dead after a pickup truck driver rammed the vehicle into a crown in New Orleans' French Quarter. The FBI are investigating the incident as a suspected terror attack. Resident Brian O'Brien tells us about waking up to the aftermath of the attack, outside his doorstep. City councilmember Lesli Harris answers our questions about safeguards — and raises some question of her own.
Duration:00:10:29
A Guantanamo Bay detainee is repatriated, 23 years later
12/31/2024
Plus: A housing advocate isn’t surprised a Montreal encampment has popped up again, just weeks after being dismantled by police.
And an encore presentation of our feature-length conversation with Kevin Kwan, who rose to fame with his novel, Crazy Rich Asians. The Singaporean-American author has made a career of satirizing the richest of the rich. His latest book, "Lies and Weddings" features exactly as much of both as you'd hope.
Duration:00:50:41
How Jimmy Carter’s work building homes began in a NY project
12/30/2024
Plus: A Toronto artist gives unwanted presents a second life at the Museum of Bad Gifts.
And an encore presentation of our feature-length conversation with author and educator Solomon Ratt, on how he carried his mother’s stories with him during his time at residential school -- and found healing, refuge and connection in the written word.
Duration:00:50:42
What NASA learned by getting closer to the sun than ever
12/27/2024
Plus: We reach the man who helped make the bald eagle…finally…the official bird of the United States.
And our holiday readings continue. In this episode we bring you Al Maitland’s reading of Zlateh the Goat by Isaac Bashevis Singer.
Duration:00:49:54
Setting things right
12/26/2024
We delve into the As It Happens archives to celebrate the guests who saw something broken — and decided to fix it.
Duration:01:17:39
The Shepherd
12/24/2024
A Christmas Eve tradition since 1979. As It Happens presents Frederick Forsyth's The Shepherd, read by our late host “Fireside” Al Maitland.
Duration:00:31:45
A BC city takes a new approach to attracting doctors
12/23/2024
Plus: New Zealanders know there’s only one way to make the biggest splash. We reach scientists who studied the manu…and its epic impact.
And we present Chris Howden’s reading of the Alistair MacLeod short story To Everything There Is a Season.
Duration:00:50:25
Liberal MP Wayne Long says it’s time for Trudeau to go
12/20/2024
Plus: We revisit Nil’s conversation with British broadcaster Mishal Husain, whose memoir brings her journalistic skills to bear on own family's story.
And as we build toward The Shepherd on December 24, tonight’s reading is another “Fireside” Al Maitland classic: The Gift of the Magi.
Duration:00:50:12
An activist in Avignon on the heroism of Gisèle Pelicot
12/19/2024
Plus: We reach a medic in Italy who helped rescue a caver trapped deep in the dreaded Bueno Fonteno Abyss.
Also: Our holiday readings continue. Tonight, former As It Happens host Barbara Budd reads from ‘Who Has Seen the Wind’.
Duration:01:07:58
A former US Ambassador to Canada weighs in
12/18/2024
Plus: The director of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation brings the holiday classic home…to Montreal.
Also: For 40 years, CBC producer Karen Levine told some of radio's most moving stories, and amplified women's voices on and off the air. Today, she's been appointed to the Order of Canada -- and says she's thrilled at the honour.
Duration:01:11:42