Politics, patience and economies are in flux amid Donald Trump's fluctuating tariff threats. Chattopadhyay compares notes on how the uncertainty is affecting negotiations, strategies and public sentiment across North America with Toronto Star Ottawa bureau chief and senior reporter Tonda McCharles, Washington Post White House bureau chief Toluse "Tolu" Olorunnipa, and The Associated Press Mexico and Central America correspondent Megan Janetsky.

The United States spurning close allies and cozying up to its old Cold War enemy, Russia, is causing plenty of real-world confusion and anxiety. But in these confusing times, spare a thought for the writers of spy thrillers. Bestselling author Joseph Finder joins Chattopadhyay to talk about the history of spy thrillers, and the valuable social function he says they've played – by allowing audiences to process common anxieties from nuclear war to terrorism. But, he says, there can be no "page turners" without a common foe.

Five years since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, three prominent Canadians involved in the response at home and abroad come together to reflect on how that period reshaped public health around the world, for better and for worse. Infectious diseases specialist Dr. Zain Chagla, STAT senior writer Helen Branswell and former WHO special advisor Dr. Peter Singer join Chattopadhyay to talk viruses, vaccines and what the next pandemic could look like.

Acclaimed novelist Omar El Akkad grew up in Qatar, yearning for uncensored magazines and Hollywood movies, and believing in the Western project. But after moving to Canada as a teen, and a journalistic career covering the U.S. response to 9/11, El Akkad started seeing cracks in his conception of the West. Then, watching the response to the Israel-Hamas war changed everything for him. El Akkad speaks with Chattopadhyay about taking stock of those fissures with his new book, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This.