CBC on Tuesday announced a new spring/summer lineup of original podcasts, including new investigations in its Uncover and Understood series as well as a light-hearted debate podcast hosted by musician Donovan Woods and Tom Power of CBC Radio’s Q.
Launching April 20, The Big Five (10 episodes) features Woods and Power sitting down with a celebrity guest to debate the “big” five of any given category, like ways to cook a potato, types of hats, guys named Paul, slang terms for “butt”, cartoon dogs, and so on. Guests this season include musician and writer Vivek Shraya, filmmaker Jordan Canning, singer-songwriter William Prince, singer-songwriter Lindsay Ell, and writer and broadcaster Elamin Abdelmahmoud. Trailer available here.
In a new season of Uncover, The Expert Witness (nine episodes, launching May 11) explores how AI is being used to identify murder suspects in cold cases. Key evidence is coming from a secretive, Canadian-developed AI tool called Cybercheck that allegedly uses open-source data to place suspects at crime scenes without the need for witnesses. With the mysterious tool being increasingly embraced by U.S. police services and placing people in prison cells, host Sam Mullins follows Ohio defence attorney Don Malarcik as he teams up with a network of concerned lawyers, investigators and journalists to unravel what’s really powering this so-called breakthrough in crime-solving. The podcast asks: what happens when AI enters the courtroom, who benefits from this technology, and who is accountable if AI gets it wrong?
Launching May 19, in a new season of Understood, Artificial Intimacy (four episodes) examines what happens when a human becomes intimately enmeshed with a chatbot. Host Victoria Hetherington (author of The Friend Machine) dives into the stories of those who have invited these digital avatars into their hearts, minds and even beds. Along the way, the podcast examines what we gain and what we stand to lose: our intimacy, our resilience, even our grasp on reality?
CBC’s first-person storytelling series Personally continues with Discount Dave (and The Fix) (five episodes, launching June 9). In a harrowing and funny mix of memoir and autofiction, host Rebecca Auerbach relates the story of her circa-2005 run-in with an aging rocker purporting to be Van Halen’s David Lee Roth. At the time, Becca is a young actor in Vancouver who loves and parties hard and is getting her first big break at a Shakespeare Festival. The encounter ultimately leads to her own reckoning. Discount Dave (and The Fix) is the “true-ish” story of a fake rockstar, a real trial and what it means to stop running, face yourself and fight to heal.
Launching August 10, in another new season of Uncover, The Mile Zero Murders (seven episodes) investigates a chilling pattern unfolding in Dawson Creek, B.C., a small town where a growing number of people have vanished or been killed under troubling circumstances. Picking up where The Fifth Estate’s initial investigation left off, The Mile Zero Murders host Timothy Sawa continues to dig into more than a dozen missing and murder cases, following leads from grieving families, guarded authorities and insiders who know more than they are willing to say. A deeply unsettling portrait of a community searching for answers emerges, raising questions about what is happening in Dawson Creek and why nobody is being held accountable.
CBC’s ongoing podcasts include Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, The Dose, Front Burner, Q with Tom Power and Sickboy.
CBC podcasts can be found on CBC Listen and everywhere podcasts are available. Select titles can also be streamed on YouTube.
Artwork courtesy of CBC
