Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast The Paul Wells Show

Toronto-born James Appathurai is one of the top civilians in the administration of NATO, the Western military alliance. As Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Innovation, Hybrid, and Cyber, he helps the alliance respond to a terrifying range of emerging threats, from new weapons to attacks that can hardly even be detected. In a rare interview from NATO headquarters in Brussels, Appathurai tells Paul Wells about all these threats, and about Canada's fast-changing role in NATO.

For more from Paul Wells, read paulwells.substack.com

Author and Globe and Mail writer John Ibbitson joins Paul to discuss his book, The Duel: Diefenbaker, Pearson and the Making of Modern Canada. Ibbitson talks about how the decade-long showdown between these two Prime Ministers set the stage for the world we live in today, and why he believes Diefenbaker has been unfairly maligned in the historical record.

This interview was recorded live at the National Arts Centre. It first aired October 18th, 2023

Pulitzer-winning historian Anne Applebaum is releasing a paperback edition of her book Autocracy Inc., on the autocrats who are eroding democratic freedoms around the world. Her timing is impeccable: she says Donald Trump is moving the United States closer to autocracy. In this week's episode she discusses all the ways Trump is undermining democratic norms, and explains why his attempts to stop the Ukraine war are coming up short.

The year since Wayne Eyre retired as Chief of Defence Staff has seen unprecedented change in Canada's national-security environment. Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced plans to boost Canada's defence-related spending from less than 2% of GDP to 5%. The United States has become an unsteady ally. What do those big changes mean for the future of Canada's military? An in-depth conversation.

Veteran foreign correspondent Scott Anderson, who's written for the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair and Esquire, has a new book, King of Kings, about the fall of the Shah of Iran and the rise of the ayatollahs in 1979. He opens with a big claim: that the Iranian revolution changed the world as much as the revolutions in France, the United States or Russia. He tells Paul about the failure of two leaders — the Shah and President Jimmy Carter — to understand what was happening in Iran. 

When John Tory resigned as mayor of Toronto, Olivia Chow decided to take another shot at the job. Despite much of the establishment lining up against her, she won. She talks to Paul about that campaign, and about trying to implement her vision for the city on a shorter-than-usual term, while dealing with a $1.5 billion deficit from COVID.

This episode was recorded live at the University of Toronto’s Munk School. It episode originally aired on November 22nd, 2023, a few months after Chow's election.

Was the commission into foreign election interference asking the wrong question about China? That’s what journalist Jonathan Manthorpe thinks. He argues the real issue is that for decades Canada has failed to confront China’s efforts to control Canadians of Chinese heritage and influence Canadian institutions. 

He wrote a book about it, Claws of the Panda: Beijing’s Campaign of Influence and Intimidation in Canada. It was originally published in 2019, but it’s now been updated to take into account everything that’s happened since, right up to the Foreign Interference Commission 

This episode originally aired May 1st, 2025

The book Rogers v Rogers takes us into the messy succession drama inside one of Canada’s biggest companies, Rogers Communications. It features family members fighting in public, two competing boards, and even actor Brian Cox from HBO's Succession.

The book’s author, Alexandra Posadzki, takes us behind the scenes of a company trying to find its footing after the death of their founder, all while navigating a high-stakes business deal.

This episode originally aired on March 20th, 2024

This week Paul Wells and three friends share their summer reading. Globe and Mail reporter Shannon Proudfoot, veteran Liberal strategist Scott Reid, and Juno-winning singer-songwriter Donovan Woods each discuss a book they're reading this summer — and a book they'd recommend from all their earlier summers of reading. It's a feast for bookworms.

New York Times writer Max Fisher talks about his book, The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds And Our World. Relying on international reporting, leaked corporate documents and social science, he lays out the case that the problem with social media is not just about amplifying the wrong messages; it’s that social networks are designed to bring out the worst in everyone. 

This episode originally aired on November 2nd, 2022.

Singer-songwriter Sarah Slean talks about Joni Mitchell’s enduring influence on music and women in the arts, as she prepares to perform orchestral versions of Mitchell’s songs with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

Audio sources: Glenn Gould, Joni Mitchell, Sarah Slean

This episode originally aired on October 5th, 2022

Timothy Garton Ash has chronicled some of the biggest moments in European history for over 40 years. In his new book, Homelands: A Personal History of Europe, he offers a history of postwar Europe, told through personal memoir. He talks to Paul about the future of Europe, the war in Ukraine, advising George W. Bush on how to think about the European Union, having Victor Orbán as a student, and why these days, his main concern is about the United States.

This episode was recorded at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. It originally aired on October 11th, 2023

Friday Night Lights author Buzz Bissinger joins Paul to talk about his storied career and his new book, The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II. He also discusses ghostwriting Caitlyn Jenner’s memoir, why he left Twitter, his time at Vanity Fair, and why he’s considering leaving the US.

Thank you to Perfect Books in Ottawa for hosting this conversation. This episode was originally published February 8th, 2023.

How do people like Stephen Sondheim, Sofia Coppola or David Simon create something from nothing? And what are the threads that tie their work together with making a cookbook or a cartoon?

Former New York Magazine and New York Times Magazine editor Adam Moss talked to dozens of creative people to find out how they do it. In his new book, The Work of Art, artists from a wide range of mediums break down the process behind a single piece, sharing sketches, outlines and rejected attempts they worked through along the way. 

This episode was originally published May 15, 2024

As Canada’s Ambassador to the UN, Bob Rae is not afraid to speak his mind, even when it’s not clear whether the government stands behind him. In this episode, he talks about the role of the UN in an age of mounting skepticism towards global institutions, his reputation for being outspoken, and dealing with the "cascade of crises" taking place around the world. He also challenges Paul on a column he wrote in 2020, questioning Rae’s appointment to his current job.

This episode originally aired on October 26, 2022.

Ben Woodfinden was Pierre Poilievre's communications director from 2022 until the end of April. He's no longer working for the Conservative party, but he defends the election campaign. He has a lot of thoughts about what just happened to Canadian conservatism, and what needs to happen next. 

How should people outside government be involved in shaping government policy? Who has the government's ear, and how do they decide which voices to listen to? Those are the questions Paul puts to this week's guests, Taylor Owen from McGill’s Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy, and Rachel Samson from the Institute for Research on Public Policy. 

This panel was organized by the Max Bell Foundation and the episode was recorded live at McGill University. 

k.d. lang reflects on her four decade-long musical career, which may have reached its end. “All music tends towards silence and I have to honour the silence,” she tells Paul in an open and wide-ranging conversation in Calgary.

We originally released this episode in March, 2023.

Today, we're sharing an episode from our friends at the podcast WONK, which Paul appeared on this week.

Paul talks to host Amanda Lang about some surprising shifts in the wake of the federal election, including an easing of the 'ever-deepening animosity' that’s become a trademark of politics, evidence of a common understanding of what's good for Canada and why we should be grateful Trump isn’t better at his job. 

Two top Liberal advisors and one Conservative MP look back at the election. 

Andrew Bevan was the national campaign director for the Liberal Party. Gerald Butts was a senior advisor to the Carney campaign and formally acted as Justin Trudeau's principal secretary. 

Scott Aitchison is the MP for Parry Sound-Muskoka.

Someday we should probably sit down and have a talk about election platforms. Count this week’s instalment of The Panel as a down payment on that conversation.

Platforms are weird: if you release yours on Easter Saturday, after the television debates are already over, and a month after the election campaign started, your body language doesn’t say “Key piece of voter information.” But nobody dares not release one.

Anyway, we’ve got Allison Gifford, Marci Surkes and Jason Lietaer to discuss the platforms, the debates, and the home stretch of this fascinating campaign.

This week is mostly about Quebec. Sorry, people who get bugged by that. The Conservative and Liberal leaders were on Tout le monde en parle, the only talk show in either official language that’s a must-attend for the Carneys and Poilievres of this world. On Wednesday they’ll be at the French-language leaders’ debate, followed by the Thursday English-language debate, both in Montreal. (The leaders of the emergency back-up parties will join them.) Mark Carney, at least, decided to stay in the Montreal area between TLMEP and Wednesday. Poilievre had Montreal events on Monday too. Our Panel also discusses Carney’s habit of putting his campaign up on blocks so he can return to Ottawa and be prime ministerial every time Donald Trump does the sort of thing Donald Trump would do; and the tendency of both major-party leaders to go on quirky offbeat lifestyle podcasts where nobody ever asks a backup question or points out a contradiction. Mostly I’m the one who wanted to talk about that last part. Our Panel, once again, is Conservative Jason Lietaer, New Democrat Allison Gifford, and Liberal Marci Surkes. And they’re the best. Enjoy.

We are living in "the age of coercion," says Michael Wernick. The former Clerk of the Privy Council talks about what the civil service (and the government) will be up against after the election.

Geoff Meggs, former Chief of Staff to B.C. Premier John Horgan , weighs in on drug policy on the campaign trail and the unique politics of British Columbia. You can hear more of Geoff Meggs on the Hotel Pacifico podcast. 

And Shannon Proudfoot, feature writer in the Globe and Mail's Ottawa bureau, trades notes with Paul on the first few weeks of the election. Is Poilievre failing to respond to the moment? And how much can Carney separate himself from Trudeau's legacy?

Surely by now you've learned to mistrust an empty schedule. Time for my weekly campaign meeting with The Panel — Marci Surkes, Allison Gifford, Jason Lietaer — to discuss the strangest federal election in many years. On paper, it’s a quiet week. Donald Trump’s Liberation Day tariff announcement was last week, the leaders’ debates are more than a week in the future. But while we’re still lousy at predicting surprises, I think we’re better than we used to be at realizing surprises are bound to happen. This week’s instalment ends with bonus minority-government speculation. Who’s got friends? Who can keep them? Will the NDP even control the balance of power?

The election campaign heads into its second week, and everything feels brand new. The Liberal campaign plane finally has the Liberal logo on it. Mark Carney has a candidate he should probably drop. Pierre Poilievre is having a very hard time moving the debate from the issue he can’t win on to an issue he might win on. And Jagmeet Singh would just like to be noticed.

We’ve got Allison Gifford, Marci Surkes and Jason Lietaer to break it down for you.

This is an elections podcast now. Each week throughout the election, we'll bring you a variety of smart commentators to keep you upto speed.

This week, former Progressive Conservative MPP Lisa MacLeod talks about her old riding of Nepean, where Mark Carney is running, with Pierre Poilievre running just next door. MacLeod has also worked with Poilievre, and weighs in on his leadership.

And Hélène Buzzetti, political columnist for les Coops de l’information, talks about the political landscape in Quebec. Can Carney overcome his weak French and lack of familiarity with Quebecers? And can the Conservatives gain ground in the province?

Season 3 of the Paul Wells Show is supported by McGill University's Max Bell School of Public Policy

This week, we’re replaying one of our favourite interviews.

• Graham Carr, President and Vice-Chancellor of Concordia University

• Maud Cohen, President of Polytechnique Montréal

• Christopher Manfredi, Provost and Executive Vice-President (Academic) at McGill University

Writer, professor and cousin-of-Paul Ira Wells was concerned about the rise of censorship coming from both sides of the political spectrum. So he wrote a book about it, diving into the history of people trying to control what you read.

That book is called On Book Banning: Or, How the New Censorship Consensus Trivializes Art and Undermines Democracy. He talks to Paul about the personal incident that sent him down this path, how the censors justify their actions, new threats to books in the digital age, and much more. 

Season 3 of The Paul Wells Show is sponsored by McGill University’s Max Bell School of Public Policy.

The Conservative leader is planning a big rally in Ottawa this weekend. It follows a sustained slide in the polls. Can he change his message for a world of Donald Trump and Mark Carney? Does he even want to? Our Panel — Garry Keller, Allison Gifford, Marci Surkes — discusses all of this and more.

Jonathan Wilkinson has a lot going on. As the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, he holds a critical position in trade disputes with the U.S. He talks to Paul about dealing with the Trump administration, adapting Canada's energy strategy to a new reality, and the difficult decision not to run for Liberal leadership. 

Season 3 of The Paul Wells Show is sponsored by McGill University’s Max Bell School of Public Policy.

Donald Trump’s return to power could have serious consequences for Canada. First, there’s the threat of tariffs. Then there’s that other thing about making us the 51st state. This week, we get two takes on the situation.

First on the show, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith talks about why she opposes the threats to cut off energy exports to the U.S. in retaliation for tariffs. It's a position that has caused some politicians to say she’s working against Team Canada. 

Then, Penn State historian Amy Greenberg talks about Manifest Destiny, the idea that Americans had a divine duty to expand their territory. Her books include A Wicked War and Manifest Destiny and American Territorial Expansion.

Season 3 of The Paul Wells Show is sponsored by McGill University’s Max Bell School of Public Policy.

U.S. Ambassador to Canada David L. Cohen gives a long and wide-ranging interview as his time in the role comes to an end. As Biden’s man in Ottawa, he was an important figure in trying to usher in a new era of Canada-U.S. cooperation. As he gets ready to head home to Philadelphia, Paul asks him about Biden’s mental acuity, Trump’s comeback, a potential trade war, Canada’s military spending, and more. 

Season 3 of The Paul Wells Show is sponsored by McGill University’s Max Bell School of Public Policy.

Happy holidays. We're on a break, but we thought you might enjoy this episode from our friends at CANADALAND. It's a conversation about Substack's role in the future of journalism, featuring Paul Wells, The Line's Jen Gerson and Substack founder Chris Best.

If you like this episode, you can subscribe to CANADALAND for more like it.

Join us for an hour of live music, politics, and self-reflection. Former Premiers Kathleen Wynne and Jason Kenney trade jabs onstage and look back on the year that was. Catharine Vandelinde, executive director of Options Housing, talks about her work getting people off the street and into homes. Jazz guitarist Jocelyn Gould performs "It Had To Be You," "Softly As In a Morning Sunrise," "I Haven’t Managed to Forget You" and our theme music. Singer-songwriter Scott Merritt performs his songs "Moving Day" and "Willing Night." And Paul finds the spirit of Christmas... eventually.

Thank you to the National Arts Centre for hosting this event. Thanks to Meta and WestJet for their support.

Season 3 of The Paul Wells Show is sponsored by McGill University’s Max Bell School of Public Policy.

In a conversation that took place less than three hours after Chrystia Freeland resigned from the federal cabinet, Paul Wells is joined by Justin Ling and Jen Gerson to discuss what this astonishing news means for the Liberal Party and the Trudeau government.

Season 3 of The Paul Wells Show is sponsored by McGill University’s Max Bell School of Public Policy.

Paul answers questions from readers (and producer Kevin Sexton) about the state of Canadian politics, Trump, journalism, and more!

Season 3 of The Paul Wells Show is sponsored by McGill University’s Max Bell School of Public Policy.

In his book We Have Never Been Woke, Musa al-Gharbi argues that a new class of liberal elites uses the language of “wokeness” without actually helping the marginalized and disadvantaged. 

He joins Paul to talk about a decades-long trend of the Democrats reorienting themselves towards a constituency of wealthy white people. It’s a message he was sharing well before Kamala Harris lost the election. 

He also talks about how moving from a red state to New York City broke a lot of illusions he had about Democrats. He talks about wealthy Democrats who talk of lifting up marginalized people, while living a lifestyle that's dependent on exploiting their labour. And he talks about periods of “Great Awokening” over the last century, which have had mixed results in terms of creating real gains for marginalized groups. 

Musa al-Gharbi is an assistant professor in the School of Communication and Journalism at Stony Brook University. You can read his Substack, Symbolic Capital(ism) here: https://musaalgharbi.substack.com/

Season 3 of The Paul Wells Show is sponsored by McGill University’s Max Bell School of Public Policy.

What does a Trump presidency mean for trade? Paul is joined by a panel of analysts from the U.S., Canada and Mexico, to talk about what might be in store for North America during the next Trump administration. 

The panellists are Vassy Kapelos, chief political correspondent for CTV news, Doug Palmer,  senior trade reporter at Politico, and Enrique de la Madrid, author, newspaper columnist, and former member of the Mexican Chamber of Deputies. 

This panel was recorded at The North American Manufacturing Conference.

Season 3 of The Paul Wells Show is sponsored by McGill University’s Max Bell School of Public Policy.

Ontario’s government recently announced that Jane Philpott will lead a team with the goal of connecting every person in the province to primary health care within the next five years. With around 2.5 million people currently without a family doctor in Ontario, the task is enormous. 

So how did a former Liberal health minister get hired on by a conservative government for such an important job? And how exactly does she plan on doing it? Jane Philpott joins Paul to talk about how the job came about, and her vision for getting it done, which involves rethinking the way we deliver primary care.

Season 3 of The Paul Wells Show is sponsored by McGill University’s Max Bell School of Public Policy.