Front Burner

Forged is a six-part series from CBC in Canada and ABC Australia. Host Adrian Stimson, an artist from the Siksika Nation, travels from Thunder Bay to the Northern Territory of Australia, to reveal what's believed to be the largest art crime fraud in the world.In this first episode, rock star Kevin Hearn of the Barenaked Ladies is doing rock star things — like buying paintings. And what better painting for an iconic Canadian rocker to buy than one by Norval Morrisseau, one of the most iconic Indigenous artists in Canada? But when Kevin’s Morrisseau painting is featured in an exhibit, it gets taken down because the head curator says it’s “questionable.” Kevin tries to get some answers but every answer leads to more questions. Host Adrian Stimson traces Kevin’s dogged quest to find out the truth about his painting — and learns how this one painting is the key to cracking a whole underworld open. More episodes of Forged are available here: https://link.mgln.ai/ForgedxFB

Today we're bringing you a 2025 Front Burner wrap up, answering audience questions and bringing you behind the scenes of the making of some of our most popular episodes of 2025.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

In 2025 news of the biggest, most sensational sports scandals was broken not by ESPN or Sports Illustrated, but by a podcaster named Pablo Torre on his show Pablo Torre Finds Out.It was Pablo who investigated Kawhi Leonard’s alleged multi-million dollar under the table no show deal. And it was Pablo who uncovered potential collusion involving NFL player salaries.Pablo Torre is with us today to talk about the year in sports scandal, the state of sports journalism, and gambling grip’s grip on the whole industry.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Corruption is a word that’s come up throughout this year in relation to U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term. There have been allegations of personal enrichment, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, through his family’s crypto and real estate ventures. There are also accusations of quid pro quo deals with foreign leaders and convicted criminals seeking pardons.Is this a bug in Trump’s administration, or a feature?To put it all into focus, Tommy Vietor is here. He’s been following this issue of corruption on his very popular podcast, Pod Save America. He also co-hosts Pod Save the World.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The Australian prime minister and police have said that the suspected gunmen in the Bondi Beach mass shooting at a Hanukkah event were motivated by Islamic State ideology. Australian counterterrorism officials allege the father and son received military training in southern Philippines. While it's been more than six years since the fall of the caliphate, experts like Lucas Webber say there’s been a troubling rise in Islamic State motivated activity and violence worldwide. Webber is a Senior Research Fellow at The Soufan Center and a Senior Threat Intelligence Analyst at Tech Against Terrorism. He joins us to talk about what’s known about the Bondi Beach attack, and what the evolving presence of ISIS as a decentralized terrorist network looks like.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts