As It Happens

Plus: A Kansas man tells us why he created a page to share terrifying and potentially deadly stairwells, and what makes for a “good” death stair. 

Also: New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt on why the province is now launching a scientific inquiry into the mysterious brain disease plaguing dozens – and possibly many more – in her province. 

Plus: What’s behind the string of cheese heists bubbling up pretty much everywhere. 

Also: The Verge’s David Pierce on Bluesky’s big week.

Plus: LOL hell breaks loose. A new study suggests people who text using abbreviations are perceived as less sincere. 

Also:  Tom Forrestall’s paintings may have a realistic approach, but a friend and curator tells us the late Canadian artist wasn’t afraid of bending the rules -- including using canvases of all shapes and sizes.

Plus: A Scottish town learns a marble head being used as a doorstop in a shed, is actually a bust of their founder that's worth millions.

Also:  Ottawa says a decades-old report about Second World War criminals who came to Canada is still too hot to release, but the founder of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network says we all deserve to see the Nazi secrets of decades past

Plus: An enormous diamond necklace that may have played a role in the downfall of Marie Antoinette sells for a commensurately enormous price. 

Also: Médecins Sans Frontières says a recent attack against an ambulance and patients in Haiti raises serious questions about their ability to provide care in the country.

Plus: Scientists reappraise a 1986 NASA flyby of Uranus…and come up with new theories about possible life there. 

Also: A month after warning Israel to increase aid to Gaza or risk losing military support, US officials say they won’t limit arms transfers because progress is being made. But a former state department official calls that decision shameless.

Plus: Neuroscientist Michael Brecht’s fascinating findings about a Berlin Zoo elephant who loves to shower…and her roommate who has other ideas. 

Also: A high flying doctor from Yukon with a penchant for paragliding narrowly survives a storm in the Himalayas…and lives to tell us the tale. 

Plus: The sole-baring story of Anton Nootenboom, who walked – barefoot – from Los Angeles to New York.

Also: John Bolton -- former advisor to the current U-S President-elect -- tells us what a second Trump administration might mean for Ukraine, NATO, and Canada.

Plus: A researcher tries to crack the mysterious recipe of “baseball mud”. 

Also: Potential gubernatorial candidate Jon Bramnick sees an opening in Trump’s surprisingly close result in New Jersey.

Plus: A Welsh art gallery doubles down on nudes after getting a warning about “pornography” on display.

Also: Canada’s Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne; newly reelected Montana state legislator Zooey Zephyr and more

Plus: “One vote, one beer”. We reach a A New York bar that’s one of many businesses across the country with an election day reward for voters. 

Also: By means ferret or foul... A cloned black-footed ferret has given birth -- bringing back a bloodline that had gone extinct and sparking hope for the future of the critically endangered species.

Plus: A Wales man on why he chose to promote men’s health…not by growing a moustache…but by creating a giant “phallus” map using the Strava app. 

Also: On election night, Kamala Harris will watch the results roll in at her alma mater: Howard University. And the student newspaper's editor-in-chief tells us there's a palpable energy on campus today.

Plus: A retired Scottish police officer’s quest to find a home for his collection of thousands and thousands of bricks. 

Also: Why giant rats (wearing tiny backpacks) may be the next frontier in sniffing out smuggled goods.

Plus: The strange saga of Quasi, a giant hand-shaped sculpture that divided Wellington, New Zealand…and is now on its way out of town.   

Also: Beloved Montreal political cartoonist Terry Mosher pays tribute to John Little – the painter who immortalized Quebec winter streetscapes.

Plus: A Calgary man manages to up the ante on Halloween, challenging his own home’s structural integrity by giving away thousands of 2L pop bottles.  

And: New York officially legalizes jaywalking, a term Gersh Kuntzman of Streetsblog NYC says you shouldn’t even use.

Plus: It’s a nay from them. A new crop of British MPs challenge “bobbing” and other (frankly strange) parliamentary traditions. 

And: A petition filed to Ecuador's copyright office makes an unprecedented request to recognize one of the country's forests as the co-creator of a newly released song. Writer Robert Macfarlane tells us it's only natural.

Plus: A short piece of music written on a tiny card appears to be a lost work by Frédéric Chopin.

And: In Lebanon, displaced people find shelter and support in the country's historic old movie theatres; and with Georgians on the streets of Tblisi a politician who led a team of EU observers tells us about the “democratic backsliding” taking place.

Plus: A team of Belgian ultrarunners set a truly punishing record by running a 6.7 kilometre loop every hour ... until they just can't anymore. 

And: Samar Abu Elouf sits down with Nil in studio. The Palestinian photojournalist and New York Times contributor was honoured this week by Canadian Journalists for Free Expression. 

Plus: A Tory MP is fighting to have the classic Cockney dish “pie and mash” given protected status (but you can hold the eel). 

Also: A Canadian artist debuts his giant biodiversity jenga tower sculpture at the UN's COP16 climate conference.

Plus: A researcher was so frustrated by the lack of data on women that she scanned her own brain 75 times.

Also: Two years after a foiled attempt on Masih Alinejad’s life, US prosecutors charge a senior official in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard in the plot. The activist tells us threats to her life won’t stop her from speaking out.

Plus: A Harvard scientist describes “S2”, which has a pretty boring name for an event that once boiled oceans and levelled mountains on earth. 

Also: More than a hundred women soccer players sign an open letter, calling on FIFA to drop its sponsorship deal with a Saudi company. Canadian captain Jessie Fleming says FIFA is choosing money over women’s safety and the safety of the planet. 

Plus: We check in with food writer Jonathan Bender, as Kansas City gets set to open its Museum of BBQ.  

Also: The father of a murdered woman discovers his late daughter's name and image used to create an AI-powered chatbot; and after a major cyberattack Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle tells us it's all part of a chilling set of attacks on library systems around the world.

Plus: We reach US attorney Martin Estrada for more on the case of Ryan Wedding, the Olympic snowboarder authorities allege became a drug kingpin.

Also: Italy's new law criminalizing surrogacy abroad is sparking outrage among LGBTQ+ advocates; and we head to Kansas City for the 40th annual Lineman’s Rodeo.

Plus: A conversation with Liberal MP Sean Casey, whose call for Justin Trudeau to step aside may be gaining steam. 

Also: Finnish conductor and composer Leif Segerstam was as well known for his musical creativity as he was for yelling alongside his orchestra. His agent tells us he was a true artist.

Plus: As the very last Kmart gets set to close, a superfan – tattoo and all – makes her final pilgrimage. 

And: As time starts to run out for Robert Roberson, we reach The Innocence Project’s Vanessa Potkin for more on a case many say science, law and medicine got wrong; and we check in on early voting in Georgia.

Plus: Scandal rocks the World Conker Championship, with the newly crowned King Conker accused of using steel chestnuts.

Also: A New York Times report casts China’s panda breeding program in a light that’s anything but black and white; and what a K Pop scandal means for some of the world’s most popular music.

Plus: Ratatouille – the movie – inspires a Tik Tok creator to do the "stupidest thing" she’s ever done with her engineering degree.

Also: UNICEF’s James Elder on Israel’s latest strikes in Gaza and an imperilled polio vaccine campaign; and we reach a relief worker in North Carolina dealing with storm damage…and misinformation.

Plus: What the Hubble telescope is revealing about Jupiter’s “crimson vortex”, a gargantuan 100-year-old storm.

Also: Tampa Bay Times reporter Ian Hodgson on covering the hurricane that toppled a crane onto his newsroom; and UnESCO recognizes Halifax’s historic Africville neighbourhood. 

Nil Köksal sits down with the author to talk about her new book, “Blackness Is a Gift I Can Give Her: On Race, Community, and Black Women in Hockey".

Plus: On the eve of this year's Nobel Peace Prize, we speak to the brother of last year's winner, Narges Mohammadi, who remains behind bars in Iran. 

Also: Researchers put together a pretty spicy experiment using hot sauce to test how the human brain processes pleasure and pain.

Plus: Why “the idiot’s apostrophe” was long verboten in proper German, and now no longer is... 

 Also: Death row inmate Richard Glossip is taking his case to the Supreme Court, saying he deserves a new trial... something many Republicans -- including Oklahoma state representative Kevin McDugle -- agree with; and a Canadian takes home Wildlife Photographer of the Year for a pic that captures small creatures and hidden places that aren’t often celebrated.

Plus: Geoffrey Hinton – “The Godfather of AI” – on his Nobel win and the irony of being celebrated for a creation he warns could destroy the world.

Also: A lawyer representing First Nations tells us clean water should be considered a fundamental right in Canada, not a luxury; and two massive pumpkins, one giant mystery in West Kelowna, BC.

Plus: We speak with an Israeli and a Palestinian whose lives changed forever one year ago.

Plus: "The most famous bar you've never heard of" hosted gangsters in Goodfellas and Mae West on stage. We check in as it celebrates 195 years.

Also: The prospect of a generic version or the Gilead’s PrEP treatment raises hopes and causes controversy; and at the San Diego Zoo two male flamingos make ideal foster parents. 

Plus: Fat Bear Week in Alaska’s Katmai National Park & Preserve gets off to a grizzly – and grisly – start. 

Also: Why vulnerable children with complex needs in Ontario’s state care are living in hotels, airBnBs, offices, and trailers; and an exhibit in Vienna’s central library reveals the random stuff people have left in books over the decades. 

Plus: We meet an entomologist studying the tiny rove beetle who just – much to his own surprise – got an $800K MacArthur Fellowship.

Also: How people in Asheville, North Carolina are grappling with a new reality: their city is not as safe as they once believed.

Plus: A look at Iran’s strategy and what comes next in the region with Ali Vaez, Iran Project Director with the International Crisis Group. 

Also: A former friend of JD Vance tells us what to expect as he squares off with Tim Walz; and three Senators say they have a plan to put a dent in Canada’s doctor shortage. 

Plus: “A swagger nine miles wide.” Singer-songwriter Rodney Crowell on the influence and charisma of country music legend Kris Kristofferson.

Also: We hear from a resident of Yiftah, Israel near the border with Lebanon; and what a win for the far-right in Austria says about Europe’s shifting politics.

For the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation Nil Köksal speaks with the Cree writer about residential school and preserving his language.

Plus: We reach the person responsible for correcting an 85 year old typo on a memorial to Anne, Charlotte and Emily Brontë. 

And: Despite a federal indictment, New York mayor Eric Adams says he's staying on the job. We hear from a city councillor from his own party who says it's time for him to go.

Nil Köksal’s conversation with the BBC journalist about her book Broken Threads: My Family from Empire to Independence

Plus: “Big Sam.” The paleontologist who helped get an enormous, 600 pound dinosaur skull out of the ground in Alberta. 

Also: Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen on how to make the online world safer for kids; and a national park in Iceland suspends ice cave tours after a deadly accident, and the rise of “last chance” tourism.

Plus: “It’s gonna have to be a boot.” A local cobbler gets an unusual call from an English aristocrat…and finds himself making footwear for a camel.

Also: How fish and octopuses team up to catch dinner; a new study shows startling disparity in the costs charged for medical procedures on men and women; and botanists turn to extreme paramotorists to reach rare plants.

Plus: A single rat threatens the ecological balance of an entire Alaskan island. We meet the woman trying to track it down. 

Also: Looking into the present and future of Hezbollah; the artist behind a startling photograph of thousands of dead birds wins Bird Photographer of the Year; and Calgary brewers make beer from the aftermath of wildfires.

Plus: A new study aims to pick apart the role of nature vs. nurture when it comes to fussy eating. Also: Humanitarian groups are calling for action in response to allegations the United Arab Emirates isn't just helping with relief efforts in Sudan -- but also fueling the civil war, by supplying arms; and we speak to a diver working on the dangerous job of clearing hundreds of tires form the St. Lawrence river.

Plus: A NASA scientist was shrieking in her lab as years of hard work paid off and she was able to recreate the spider-like structures on Mars. Also: Two years after the country’s economy collapsed, and protestors invaded the presidential palace -- and its pool -- Sri Lankans are set to elect a leader this weekend; and we speak with the daughter-in-law of Montréal jazz legend Rufus Nathaniel Rockhead, owner of Rockhead's Paradise, the first Black-owned jazz club in Montréal.

Plus: “We’re kind of used to curveballs.“ A surgeon who normally works on horses does a first-of-its-kind operation on a baby rhino. 

Also: The Teamsters say they've decided not to endorse either Presidential Candidate in the US elections - after decades of supporting Democrats. The head of the union's Black caucus explains why his organization is backing Harris anyway; and an artist finds a modern muse in his paintings of junk food.

Plus: “It’s such a universal instrument.” Filmmaker Theo Schear and world-renowned harpist Mary Lattimore pull some strings to create a harp emoji. 

Also: A Sudanese-Canadian man says his sister died waiting for approval to come to Canada; TikToker Talia Cadet tells us what’s at stake for creators like her as a U.S. court considers the country’s proposed ban on the Chinese-owned platform; and a new type of parasitoid wasp burrows inside fruit fly abdomens to lay its eggs.

Plus: A small town in Finland does a 180 on technology in the classroom. We speak to the parent (a neuropsychologist) who helped make it happen. 

Also: Nunavut MP Lori Idlout speaks out after 6 Indigenous people die at the hands of police in an 11-day span.

Plus: We get a tour of the truly bizarre events at Europe’s “tram Olympics” courtesy of the event’s founder, Wieland Stumpf. 

Also: Michaela Mabinty DePrince overcame nearly unimaginable odds to blaze a trail in the world of dance. We remember her with Tamara Rojo, artistic director of the San Francisco Ballet; and Reno, Nevada is the site of a real life Succession drama for Rupert Murdoch and his heirs, we’ll set the scene with The New York Times’ Jim Rutenberg.

 Plus: “You’re perfect”. How an Irish self-described “blond ginger” went from marathons to mullet competition. 

Also: We reach the woman whose one-on-one encounter with the Premier of Nova Scotia helped the province declare domestic violence an “epidemic”; and an epic whale rescue off the coast of B.C. 

Plus: “It was like having the Mona Lisa in your living room.” Except it was a portrait of Winston Churchill. And it was stolen.

Also: Astronaut Dave Williams on the Polaris Dawn space walk and why he thinks people will be living full time on the moon within 50 years; a Newfoundland mayor tells us why he padlocked the doors to the local church; and we revisit the Ig Nobels…which celebrate "achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think."

Plus: An all-incarcerated jury is set to judge the entrants at Sing Sing Correctional Facility’s first film festival.  

Also: the story behind the Yousuf Karsh portrait of Winston Churchill, stolen from Ottawa and found in Italy; how an Alberta town got an oil sands company to pay for 15 new homes; and we revisit the muddiest day in Canadian football history.

Plus: “The pressure is very great this time“. Allan Lichtman’s model picks Presidential winners. He defends this year’s pick…and takes on his critics.

Also: Anthony Daniels - aka C-3P0 - remembers when he first met James Earl Jones; a Toronto man is proud that his father is part of the Venezuelan opposition challenging Nicolas Maduro. But with his dad holed up in an embassy under threat of arrest, he's also very worried for his safety; and scientists are working on bread baked from wheat modified to grow in extreme weather.

Plus: “If I was doing any better it’d be illegal.” A Hampton Beach Lobster Roll Eating competitor on the Heimlich manoeuvre that saved his life. 

Also: One of Peter Nygard’s accusers reacts to the sentence handed down to a man the judge described as a “sexual predator”; tension in the Italian town that banned cricket; and MORE listeners take Chris to task over the usefulness of a tiny vacuum cleaner.

In a feature interview, Nil Köksal speaks to Iranian filmmaker Leila Amini about her sister’s journey to become a singer — and the film it inspired. 

Living in Iran, and married to a less than supportive husband, Nasreen Amini’s dream isn’t just unlikely, it’s dangerous. With translation from ‘A Sisters’ Tale’ producer, Afsaneh Salari, Leila explains what compelled Nasreen to pursue her singing goals against all odds — and what it’s like to see the documentary they made together premier at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Plus: Paralympian Nicholas Bennett wins gold in the pool for the second time, and gives all of the credit to his sister – who is also his coach.

Also: Fellow Olympic marathoner remembers Rebecca Cheptegei, who she says showed no signs of abuse; U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Haiti; Thousands of Indigenous artifacts may be improperly stored across Ontario; and Chris defends the uselessness of tiny vacuums.

Plus: “The Michael Jordan of advertising”. We remember Jim Riswold, the man behind era-defining Nike ads from Bo Knows to It’s gotta be the shoes.

Also: Booze finally comes to corner stores in Ontario, we check in to see how business is flowing on day one; and why one French lawmaker is calling Emmanuel Macron's pick for Prime Minister is "one of the worst choices" he could have made.

Plus: “Violent, scary and out of a horror mystery.” A shark researcher investigates a grisly – and unusual – case.

Also: Grenfell Tower families get a final report into the deadly disaster; Paraguay finally gets a sex ed curriculum, but it’s not the one many were hoping for; and designers in Vancouver aren’t happy about a FIFA World Cup design contest.

Plus: Scientists make a surprisingly small discovery that may explain what puts the world’s strongest humans over the top.

Also: Cryptocurrency invades the U.S. election; back-to-school is on hold in fire-stricken Jasper, Alberta; advocates say it’s still too easy for abusers to access firearms; and we remember Phil Lewis, whose life in 1980s London during the AIDS crisis helped inspire the TV show It’s A Sin.   

In this extended version of their conversation, Nil Köksal welcomes the former As It Happenshost back to the studio to talk about her new book. Carol spent 16 years hosting the program.

In her new book – At A Loss for Words: Conversation in an Age of Rage – she goes deep into her life story and decades of experience as a journalist to examine six words whose meaning she says has been distorted over the years…and think about how to reclaim them. 

Plus: “That’s where the problem is for us”. A descendant of Gustave Eiffel has thoughts about a plan to keep the Olympic rings on the tower, forever.

Also: We remember legendary investigative journalist Stevie Cameron; and a local biker gang steps in after a thief makes off with $40 from a Virginia family’s lemonade stand.

Plus: “Just trying to get a head in this world”. Investigating a statue decapitation mystery in Manitoba. Also: Catastrophic flooding in Bangladesh; Ben Smith from Semafor and the Mixed Signals podcast breaks down a bonkers summer in Presidential politics and looks ahead to the fall.

Plus: Carbonara in a can. We ask Michelin-starred “Carbonara King” Alessandro Pipero about the latest offering from Heinz.

Also: A woman from Florida books a “live at sea” cruise and ends up stranded in Belfast for months; a decades-long effort finally clears the last dam from the Klamath River, letting local salmon swim freely; and a guilty verdict in murder of journalist Jeff German.

Plus: With notes of dried apricot, lychee and pineapple, Swiss researchers say they’ve developed a more sustainable chocolate…that’s tastier too.

Also: Australian auto writer Riz Akhtar makes the case for Chinese EVs; international students in Brampton demand more pathways to residency; and educators in Jasper, Alberta prepare to welcome students back to school after a summer of fire.

Plus: “It's been an absolutely mad day.” Oasis Podcast founder James Corcoran is still catching his breath

Also: 500 days of conflict in Sudan; Natalia Krapiva of Access Now brings us the latest on Telegram founder Pavel Durov and what his detention signals; and we’ll remember journalist Peter Dykstra, whose work helped drag climate science into mainstream media.

Plus: Journalist Mike Wilner explains how Danny Jansen just made baseball history in the strangest way at Fenway Park. 

Also: “It’s the not knowing.” Kyiv-based journalist Tim Mak says renewed strikes on the capital threaten to undo recent boosts to Ukrainian morale; and the documentary ‘Family Tree’ shows how Black landowners are managing forests for the next generation.  

Plus: “It has a 5,000 year old culture. It’s very scenic.” North Korea appears set to reopen to tourists and Rowan Beard has been one — many times. Also: An Anishinaabe doctor on why life expectancy for First Nations people in B.C. has plummeted; a crossword lover on crafting clues specifically for Black puzzlers like her; and a viral Tik Tok trend leads to a shortage of cucumbers in Iceland.