Best Yousra Podcasts (2025)

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Sandy Hudson - Defunding the Police: Imagining Possible Futures of Safety & Justice 47:11

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7d ago47:11

47:11

For over a decade, Sandy Hudson has been challenging police power and trying to imagine ways to create safety and justice for more people. Sandy Hudson is a lawyer, writer, and activist and the founder of Black Lives Matter Canada. She also co-founded the Black Legal Action Centre. She is the co-host of the podcast Sandy & Nora Talk Politics. Her n…

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GUESTCAST: There Is a List - Episode 1: The List 36:04

21d ago36:04

36:04

Today we're doing something a little different. We’re really excited to share the first episode of another Ricochet Podcast called There is a List. If you like In Bed with the Elephant, where we get into the big conversations, the deep dives, the stories that make you think about power and who it serves, then I think you'll really connect with this…

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Yousra Elbagir - All Eyes on Sudan: A Foreign Correspondent Tells the Stories of A Country Living Through The Horror of War 53:00

1M ago53:00

53:00

Yousra Elbagir has not stopped telling the stories of Sudan and the Sudanese people. Over the last decade Elbagir has established herself as one of the most respected and celebrated foreign correspondents of her generation. The Sudanese- British Sky News Africa journalist has told riveting human centred stories across the African continent and arou…

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Andrew Johnston - Telling the Truth about Ronald Reagan 41:18

2M ago41:18

41:18

Ronald Reagan hasn’t been President of the United States since the late 1980s, years before the internet was a thing. But in recent weeks the Republican and Conservative icon has become a major talking point in North American politics…at the center of an increasingly bitter trade dispute between two formerly close allies, Canada and the United Stat…

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Ira Wells - On Book Banning: The New Censorship Consensus 34:02

2M ago34:02

34:02

Ira Wells, wants to live in a world without book bans. A world bathed in literature… with more conversation, more civic engagement, and less censorship. Ira Wells is a critic, essayist and professor of English literature at the University of Toronto. He is also the President of PEN Canada. His latest book is called On Book Banning: or How the New C…

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Luke Savage - Living in the Age of Fascism, AI & Genocide: (Re)Considering Ed Broadbent & Social Democracy (Live from Union 613) 54:41

3M ago54:41

54:41

What’s the responsibility of living in the Age of AI, Fascism and Genocide? That was the question on the table at our first live “In Bed with the Elephant event held at a beloved downtown Ottawa restaurant as part of the Press Forward Future of Independent Media Summit in early October 2025. The session, recorded in front of an engaged audience of …

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Dr. Yipeng Ge - A Physician Speaks about Genocide & Medical Violence in Gaza, & Building A New World for All 43:02

3M ago43:02

43:02

Since October 2023, the Southwestern Ontario-raised, Ottawa based primary care doctor and public health practitioner has been outspoken in his defense of the human rights of Palestinians and has condemned Israels’ actions. For this stance he himself has come attack by those who accuse of him of antisemitism. Dr. Ge has been undeterred. He has volun…

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Nisrin Elamin - Sudan's War Against its People: Prospects for Change in Dangerous Times 34:01

4M ago34:01

34:01

Nisrin Elamin is a professor in the department of Anthropology and the African Studies Program at the University of Toronto. Her work investigates the connections between land, race, belonging and empire-making in Sudan and the broader Sahel region and is currently working on a book project based on 15 months of ethnographic fieldwork in central Su…

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Andrew Coyne - The Crisis of Canadian Democracy 40:07

4M ago40:07

40:07

Andrew Coyne has been one of Canada’s most formidable and free-thinking political commentators since the early 1990s. He currently writes for the Globe and Mail and is a charter member of CBC’s At Issue Panel -Canada’s most watched weekly politics panel. He has just published a new book called The Crisis of Canadian Democracy.…

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Linda McQuaig - Mark Carney's first 100 Days: Profile Of A PM Who Ran As A Liberal But Is Governing Like A Conservative 34:35

5M ago34:35

34:35

Linda McQuaig is an award-winning journalist, novelist, best-selling author and contributing columnist to the Toronto Star. Her most recent book is called “The Sport & Prey of Capitalists: How the Rich are Stealing Canada’s Public Wealth. It’s been over 100 days since Mark Carney and his Liberal Party won what many pundits are calling the most cons…

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Rex Brynen - A Time of Turbulence, Tumult and Transformation in the Middle East 33:32

5M ago33:32

33:32

Rex Brynen - a renowned scholar over three decades and one of the most astute and informed observers of the Middle East. The Summer of 2025 will be remembered as a time of transformation in the Middle East. On June 13, 2025, Israel launched a surprise attack on military and nuclear facilities in Iran. Israel claimed the so-called pre-emptive strike…

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Fred Anderson - Author of Eyes Have Seen: From Mississippi to Montreal: A Memoir 56:04

5M ago56:04

56:04

Ricochet Media Summer Fundraising Campaign: https://ricochet.media/donate/ Fred Anderson was born in Mississippi in the late 1940s. He was among the youngest full-time SNCC workers in an organization defined by its youth. He was a courageous young rebel, a teenage wunderkind, who at 15 was working as an organizer alongside such civil rights luminar…

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Agnès Callamard - Amnesty International’s Secretary General discusses A World of Human Rights, Freedom & Justice for All 32:13

6M ago32:13

32:13

Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Agnès Callamard, has been a defender of human rights for most of her life. Her maternal grandfather fought for the French Resistance during the Second World War. Callamard was born in 1963 into a lower middle-class family in a small village in Southeastern France about 60 kilometres north of Avignon. She a…

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GUESTCAST: The Takeover - Smoke, Fire and the Climate Pushback 48:07

6M ago48:07

48:07

This week, we’re doing something a little different. We’ve teamed up with our friends over at Canada’s National Observer to share the first episode of their gripping new podcast, The Takeover. This series pulls back the curtain on a rising movement of politicians, think tanks and billionaires working to dismantle global climate commitments… All of …

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Niigaan Sinclair - Imagining Indigenous Futures and Healthier Relations with the Canadian State 44:46

6M ago44:46

44:46

Niigaan Sinclair is one of the most creative, provocative and dynamic thinkers of his generation. As a journalist, academic and son of the late lawyer, jurist, Senator and chair of the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Murray Sinclair, he has spent his life and career thinking about the relationship between Indigenous …

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Bob Plamondon - John Diefenbaker: The Political Outsider & Man of the People who became Prime Minister 42:27

7M ago42:27

42:27

Bob Plamondon is an acclaimed writer and Canadian historian who thinks for too long John Diefenbaker has been unfairly maligned by his critics and hasn’t been given his due. He’s the author of six books. including Blue Thunder: The Truth About Conservatives from Macdonald to Harper & The Shawinigan Fox: How Jean Chretien Defeated the Elites and Res…

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Evan Balgord - Executive Director of the Canadian Anti- Hate Network 37:19

7M ago37:19

37:19

The Far Right is having a moment. Some might even say it’s on the march. Seven EU member states including Croatia, the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands and Slovakia – now have far-right parties within government. The Far Right’s footprint seems to be spreading around the world. In the summer of 2024, the far right had strong…

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Sean Speer – The State of the Conservative Party and the Future of Conservatism in Canada 38:50

7M ago38:50

38:50

Sean Speer is an academic, policy analyst influencer, public commentator, and guide, described as one of the brightest intellectual lights in Canada’s Conservative firmament. During the government of Stephen Harper, he was a senior policy advisor in the Prime Minister’s Office responsible for the Finance and Treasury Board portfolio. He was Finance…

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Omar El Akkad - Speaking Truths about Gaza - Rebuking the West's Complicity & Double-talk 32:47

7M ago32:47

32:47

Omar El Akkad is a Canadian writer and journalist who has neither ducked nor run for cover. He hasn’t averted his eyes or closed his ears or his heart to the suffering unfolding on our tv screens, tablets and smartphones in real time. Omar El Akkad was born in Cairo, Egypt in 1982. He grew up in Qatar settled in Canada as a teenager and graduated f…

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Leilani Farha - Former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing 33:11

8M ago33:11

33:11

Leilani Farha spends much of her time thinking about ways to make housing more accessible and affordable for people everywhere. She’s a Canadian lawyer and human rights activist who for six years between 2014-2020, was the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing. In 2019 she was the subject of an award-winning documentary called Push…

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Paul O'Brien - Executive Director of Amnesty International USA discusses Human Rights in the United States 31:37

8M ago31:37

31:37

Someone who is well versed in the current state of human rights in the US is the Irish-born Harvard-trained lawyer, Paul O’Brien. He is the executive director of Amnesty International USA – one of the world’s leading human rights organizations. I recently sat down with Paul O’Brien when he visited Canada in early May 2025. We spoke at the headquart…

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Judy Rebick - The Future of the NDP after a Disastrous Election 23:50

8M ago23:50

23:50

Judy Rebick has lived her life at the intersection of community activism and political party organizing. ` Born on August 15th 1945 on the cusp of the Baby Boom, Judy Rebick has been at the forefront of Canada’s most significant social movements for the last 60 years , whether it has been as a student activist in the 1960s , an organizer and journa…

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Armine Yalnizyan - Canada's Economic Future, Recession and Evaluating Federal Party Platforms 32:27

8M ago32:27

32:27

Armine Yalnizyan has spent her career explaining budgets, markets and fiscal matters to generations of Canadians. She’s an economist and the Atkinson Fellow on the Future of Workers and a regular columnist to the Toronto Star. In 2023 she was awarded the Galbraith Prize in Economics. Named in honour of the esteemed Canadian economist John Kenneth G…

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John Vaillant - 21st Century Climate Reality and Fort McMurray's Community & Solidarity after the Cataclysmic Fire in 2016 28:11

8M ago28:11

28:11

John Vaillant's 2023 book Fire Weather: The Making of A Beast chronicles the gargantuan Fire that engulfed Fort McMurray, the fourth largest city in Alberta and centre of Canada’s oil industry nine years ago this May. He describes how residents, politicians, civic officials and firefighters dealt with a cataclysmic event that destroyed 2400 homes a…

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Maher Arar - The Syrian Revolution and Interrogation & Torture in Syrian Prison 45:40

8M ago45:40

45:40

In November 2024 the Syrian government of Bashar Al Assad was toppled in a revolution. The Assad family dynasty ruled over Syria with iron fists for over 50 years. Maher Arar knew the Assad regime all too well. In late September 2002 just a year after the Al-Qaeda led September 11th attacks on the United States and in the midst of the so called War…

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Francesca Albanese - UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories 30:46

9M ago30:46

30:46

In May 2022, the Italian lawyer and academic Francesca Albanese became the first woman to assume the role of UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories. At the time she couldn’t have predicted how events in the fall of 2023, about 18 months into her tenure, would transform the lives of millions of Palestinians and Israelis, and t…

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Andrew Johnston - Professor of US History at Carleton University 33:46

9M ago33:46

33:46

Our guest today is Andrew Johnston, a professor of late 19th and 20th Century US History at Carleton University in Ottawa. He’s a specialist in imperialism and foreign relations, liberalism and pluralism in American social thought, and the history of international thought. Donald Trump’s second presidency has already been a game changer. His brazen…

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Stephen Maher on the 2025 Federal Election in Canada 27:04

9M ago27:04

27:04

Stephen Maher is an award winning columnist and investigative reporter who has written for Postmedia News, iPolitics, and Maclean’s. His most recent book is called The Prince: The Turbulent Reign of Justin Trudeau tells the story of one of the more tumultuous prime ministerial tenures in Canadian history. In early January 2025, Canada’s federal Con…