Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud

We’re used to hearing about things like the auto industry and liquor being sticking points in the Canada-US trade war, but one of the reasons the recent trade talks collapsed was about something less tangible. U.S. negotiators demanded that Canada drop the requirements for streaming companies like Netflix to promote Canadian content. Tech and public policy expert Vass Bednar chats with guest host Amil Niazi about why CanCon ended up being one of Canada’s dealbreakers.

Plus, there has been so much anticipation about Coyote vs. Acme, and a lot of that has to do with the fact that it nearly didn’t make it to theatres. Despite being shelved by Warner Bros. Discovery for a tax break a few years ago, the critically acclaimed movie is finally out this week. Today, film critic Adam Nayman and journalist Paul Thompson gives us the lowdown on the film, its characters – Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner, and the lore behind it.

Dolly Parton was one of those artists who transcended generations. She gave us hits like Jolene, I Will Always Love You, and Coat of Many Colors. We’ve gathered musician Allison Russell and country-music aficionados Marissa R. Moss and Sarah Boesveld for a group chat with guest host Amil Niazi about the life and legacy of the country-music icon, who died yesterday at the age of 80.

Everywhere you look, news stories and studies suggest people aren’t reading like they used to. At the same time, graphic novels have surged in popularity since the pandemic. Authors Jael Richardson and Arizona O’Neill join guest host Amil Niazi to discuss why people gravitate to graphic novels over text-only books.

Plus, there’s a new play out of Stratford from Canadian playwright Jovanni Sy, and it’s called The Tao of the World. It’s a riff on both the Restoration comedies of the 1700s and modern-day Asian rom-coms. Theatre critic Joshua Chong talks about how this new play updates a centuries-old genre with contemporary guile.

There has never been a post-political life like Justin Trudeau’s. He was Canada’s first real influencer prime minister – a politician whose political fortunes were tied to his celebrity and his pop-cultural currency. And while most former political leaders write a memoir or join a think tank – Justin Trudeau is leaning in hard to fun – travelling the world with his girlfriend Katy Perry, hyping his son’s music career, and doing it all very publicly online, for all of us to see.

Plus, Rachel Cusk, called the “queen of autofiction” by The New Yorker, has a new novel out called ‘Life of M.’ The novel has two main characters, a writer who resembles Cusk and an actor whose resume appears identical to Natalie Portman’s. Montreal writer Heather O’Neill dives into the publishing intrigue around ‘Life of M,’ and how it interrogates fame and anonymity in the lives of two artists.

Commotion guest host Amil Niazi is joined by culture critics Pablo The Don, Reanna Cruz and Jay Smooth to discuss Prince Harry & Meghan Markle's return to the U.K., what the new blockbuster ‘End Of Oak Street’ brings to the dinosaur movie sub-genre, the new album from producer Benny Blanco and the controversy surrounding it - plus the Neutrogena consumer backlash in the wake of the death of actor Hayden Panettiere.