CBC on Thursday announced its spring and summer slate of original podcasts, featuring the new anthology series Split Screen as well as in-depth examinations of a curling scandal, the rise of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the Bre-X goldmine fraud.
In its first season, Split Screen traces the true story behind Kid Nation, one of reality TV’s most controversial experiments, which was cancelled shortly after its 2007 debut. Borrowing its premise from William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies, the show’s producers took 40 kids into a makeshift desert town to fend for themselves and create their own society.
“With access to former Kid Nation contestants, their families, and the show’s creators, culture journalist Josh Gwynn uncovers how this cult TV show became a lightning rod for an ongoing debate about the ethics of reality TV,” reads a CBC press release.
Produced for CBC by Vespucci, the first three episodes of Split Screen: Kid Nation are currently available on CBC Listen and wherever podcasts are available.
Launching May 6, Broomgate: A Curling Scandal explores “the unbelievable, never-before-told story behind the scandal that rocked the sport of curling,” CBC’s release says. In 2015, the curling community was almost destroyed by a broom that was just too powerful, and for years players have been afraid to talk about it, according to the release.
Over six episodes, semi-professional curler and fully professional comedian John Cullen (Blocked Party) exposes the story behind “Broomgate”. The podcast is produced by Kelly&Kelly with Ed Helms and Mike Falbo’s Pacific Electric for CBC and USG Audio, a division of Universal Studio Group. A trailer of Broomgate: A Curling Scandal is available here.
In a new season of CBC Podcasts’ Understood anthology series, the four-episode Modi’s India: Understood examines Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s unprecedented rise as India holds the biggest election in human history. Modi’s approval ratings are in the high seventies and he is widely expected to win his third term. With accusations of complicity in religious violence dogging Modi and his government being tied to alleged assassination plots in Canada and the U.S., Modi’s India: Understood asks the question: what’s at stake if he wins again? Launching May 13, the podcast is hosted by Mumbai-based journalist Salimah Shivji. A trailer is available here.
Launching May 19, the nine-episode The $6 Billion Gold Scam investigates the Bre-X scandal and the man behind the biggest goldmine fraud of all time. In 1995, Canadian mining company Bre-X claimed to have made the biggest gold discovery in history in Indonesia. The story of the billion-dollar find began to unravel after Bre-X’s chief geologist mysteriously fell from a helicopter over the jungle. With no one ever being held accountable nearly three decades later, host Suzanne Wilton takes listeners from the jungles of Indonesia to small town Alberta to investigate what really happened. The $6 Billion Gold Scam is produced for CBC and the BBC World Service by BBC Scotland Productions.
Debuting June 4, Come By Chance looks at the story of two men, born in the same rural Newfoundland hospital on the same day, who discover an unbelievable 52-year-old secret. “But this isn’t the end of the story. It turns out these men are not alone. A series of close calls and near misses have begun to emerge, and not only at Come by Chance hospital,” CBC’s release says.
Produced for CBC by Novel and hosted by reporter Luke Quinton, the seven-episode Come By Chance “is a story about what it means to belong in a family — and how a small twist of fate can upend the life you thought you knew.”
Launching July 15, Tested traces the surprising, 100-year history of sex testing in elite sports over six episodes. Last year, track and field authorities announced new regulations that mean some athletes can’t compete in the female category unless they lower their body’s naturally occurring testosterone levels. Tested follows the unfolding story of two athletes: Christine Mboma, an Olympic silver medallist from Namibia, and Maximila Imali, who holds two Kenyan national records. Not trans athletes, these women were assigned female at birth, raised as girls, and have never questioned their gender identity. “But they have bodies that some argue give them an ‘unfair advantage.’ The new rules offer them three choices: give up their Olympic dreams, try to challenge the rules, or alter their bodies.”
Produced by CBC and NPR’s Embedded, with Bucket of Eels, Tested is told through the eyes of Mboma and Imali, alongside historians, scientists, doctors and other athletes, as host Rose Eveleth “explores a question that goes far beyond sports: What is fair and who decides?”
CBC Podcasts can be found on CBC Listen and everywhere podcasts are available. Select titles can also be streamed on CBC Podcasts’ YouTube channel.
Podcast artwork courtesy of CBC.
