The Sunday Magazine for May 14, 2023
This week on The Sunday Magazine with guest host Robyn Bresnahan:
Rising tensions between Canada and China
Tensions between China and Canada are escalating again after the Trudeau government expelled a Chinese diplomat over alleged intimidation of a Conservative MP and his family in Hong Kong. The move comes after months of reports about China's interference in Canadian elections. China responded in kind, expelling a Canadian envoy from Shanghai. Globe and Mail international correspondent Nathan VanderKlippe, who spent years covering China, and CBC parliamentary senior reporter Janyce McGregor join guest host Bresnahan to unpack the latest diplomatic spat and what it means for the Liberal government.
NPR's Mary Louise Kelly on balancing motherhood and work
So many mothers have received 'that call' at work. It's the middle of a meeting or a shift and the school is on the line, telling you your kid is sick. When NPR journalist Mary Louise Kelly got one of those calls she was about to board a Black Hawk helicopter in Baghdad, and her sick child was at home in the U.S. Mary Louise joins guest host Bresnahan to discuss her new memoir, It. Goes So Fast.: The Year of No Do-Overs, about the trade-offs she's faced as a working mother and how she hit pause on her journalism career to cherish the last year her family lived under one roof.
Alberta's state of emergency, one week in
More than 400 wildfires have scorched hundreds of thousands of hectares of land. Thousands of people have been forced from their homes and properties – sometimes with only a few hours notice. Last Saturday, the province declared a state of emergency. The CBC's Erin Collins has been on ground all week, and tells us how those impacted by the fires are faring, and what may lie ahead as they -- and the province -- work toward recovery.
Does the 'Godfather of AI' think he's created a monster? 'A little bit. Yes'
Geoffrey Hinton, the British-Canadian computer scientist who left his post at Google this month to sound the alarm about AI's threat to humanity, says he knows he's scaring people with his predictions. In a wide-ranging interview with guest host Bresnahan, Hinton says he hopes he's scaring politicians into doing something. For the rest of us, he offers some hope: Humanity has survived some big threats before, like nuclear weapons, but only by taking them seriously and working on solutions.
Why we need to talk about class in Canada
Deborah Dundas grew up poor. She didn't always have a refrigerator at home, her own bed, or enough change for the laundromat. Her story isn't unique, so Dundas wonders why it is still taboo to talk about class in this country. The Toronto Star editor and author joined Piya Chattopadhyay to talk about her new book, On Class, which she hopes will open up conversations about inequity in our society.
