Front Burner

It's estimated that as many as 10 per cent of adults in Canada use a GLP-1 type drug like Ozempic. The prescription medicine is used for type 2 diabetes management and increasingly prescribed off-label for weight loss. And this month, for the first time, the World Health Organization has conditionally recommended GLP-1 drugs for the long-term treatment of obesity.

But while these drugs have been called a game-changing tool to manage a complex and stigmatized health condition, there’s also a lot of questions about the potential negative impact.

With Ozempic’s patent set to expire soon in Canada, and more affordable generic options about to hit the market, a lot more people you know could end up on a weight-loss drug.

Today we bring you the rise and risks of GLP-1s with help from Dylan Scott. He is a Senior Correspondent at Vox who covers health.

Two of the biggest media companies in the world are going to war over Warner Bros. Discovery, a massive media conglomerate that owns a historic Hollywood studio, as well as the likes of HBO and CNN. 

This week, Paramount put in a hostile all-cash takeover bid for Warner Brothers worth more than $108 billion. This followed Netflix’s announcement a few days earlier that they had won a bid to buy the company’s film, studio and streaming divisions, which alarmed many people in the industry. The Paramount bid is led by big time MAGA donor Larry Ellison and is backed by U.S President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Trump has already signaled he will be involved in whatever deal comes through. 

Lucas Shaw, who writes the Screentime newsletter for Bloomberg, talks us through what this means for media concentration, influence over the news and the future of the entertainment industry. 

Through 2022 and 2023, two Vancouver activists made international headlines with DULF — the Drug User Liberation Front. In a bid to stop overdose deaths, founders Jeremy Kalicum and Eris Nyx sold clean, tested drugs — bought on the dark web — to their members as an alternative to the contaminated street supply.

But that international attention led to political blowback. DULF was raided by police, Kalicum and Nyx were arrested, and in November they were found guilty on drug trafficking charges. Now, they're arguing in a B.C. Supreme Court that, in shutting down DULF, the government violated drug users' Charter rights.

Michelle Gamage, health reporter with the Tyee, explains why DULF did what they did, and how their ongoing court case could set a legal precedent for harm reduction efforts nationwide.

Today, we bring you a wrap on U.S. politics. We begin with two scandals plaguing U.S. defense secretary Pete Hegseth, from allegations of war crimes to a scathing report accusing him of mishandling classified military intelligence.

And we cover the fallout from President Donald Trump’s tirade against Somali immigrants, including a surge of ICE raids in Minneapolis. Plus, the politics behind Trump’s win of the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize.

Our guest is Alex Shephard, senior editor of The New Republic.

In 2015, as governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney’s ‘Tragedy of the Horizons’ speech made waves in the global climate community. It was seen as a landmark call for the financial sector to recognize the costs of climate breakdown.

But fast forward 10 years and a fierce debate is swirling around whether Carney is living up to that warning. Since becoming Prime Minister, he’s scrapped the consumer carbon tax, froze EV mandates and paved the way for a potential new pipeline to the B.C. coast.

With a Trudeau-era environment minister resigning from Carney’s cabinet in protest, we’re asking the question: has Mark Carney betrayed the climate movement? Or is he playing a strategic long game that aims for an environmental win?

Two writers from Canada’s National Observer, Ottawa Bureau Chief John Woodside and Calgary-based lead columnist Max Fawcett, join the show to take up that debate.