The Current

Jamaica is preparing for Hurricane Melissa. The category 5 hurricane is the strongest storm on the planet this year —  and it could become the strongest storm ever to hit Jamaica. The country has issued mandatory evacuation orders for people living in coastal areas, but there are concerns that not enough people have left their homes. We speak with two people who are getting ready for when the storm hits —  and working on relief efforts for their communities, as officials are warning the storm will bring “catastrophic” damages to communities and infrastructure.

Tim Cook was the chief historian and researcher at the Canadian War Museum, known for his passion for Canadian military history. He was recognized with many awards, including the Governor General's History Award and the Order of Canada. He died on Sunday at the age of 54. We hear Matt Galloway’s conversation with Tim Cook from 2022 about his book "Life Savers and Body Snatchers: Medical Care and The Struggle for Survival in the Great War," where he he explored how Canadian doctors took part in a British program that harvested organs from dead First World War soldiers without consent.  

In a Canadian first, Toronto doctors have carried out a groundbreaking transplant with a heart that previously stopped beating. We talk to Dr. Ali Rabi, a member of the transplant team at Toronto's University Health Network about what was involved — and what this breakthrough means for the people on heart transplant wait lists.

The Alberta government passed a new law forcing striking teachers back to work.It’s been three weeks since the strike began and more than 750-thousand students have been out of class. Danielle Smith has now invoked the notwithstanding clause and teachers are expected back in the classroom this week. We speak with a teacher and a parent about what’s at stake for teachers and students across the province.

Our national affairs panel weighs in on the biggest political stories of the day. We’re about a week away from getting Prime Minister Mark Carney’s hotly anticipated first federal budget that the Prime Minister says will be all about taking “big bold risks,” while warning that there will be sacrifices ahead for Canadians. Over the weekend, we’ve seen the fallout from the U.S. President Donald Trump calling off trade negotiations over an anti-tariff advert put out by the Ontario government. All this comes as the P.M. is on his first diplomatic trip to Asia, looking to shore up new trade alliances. We break it all down with CBC's Chief Political Correspondent Rosemary Barton, Stephanie Levitz of the Globe and Mail, and Ryan Tumilty of the Toronto Star.

Gen Z workers are rethinking what success looks like, and they’re doing it through career minimalism. Instead of engaging in the traditional corporate hustle culture or climbing the corporate ladder, many are seeking work boundaries and self fulfillment. Gen Z worker Jane Tsang shares how lazy girl jobs and multiple income streams fit into this approach. And, Glassdoor’s chief economist Daniel Zhao explains what it could mean for the future of work.

We've all heard the saying, diamonds are forever. That’s meant for the natural stone, but turns out lab-grown diamonds are also forever — and that is pushing the industry into a crisis, causing significant price drops in natural diamonds. So, what’s the future of the diamond industry in Canada and beyond — and what this shift to lab-grown diamonds mean for countries like Botswana where the health of the economy is tied to the health of the industry: We talk to Casey Hetman, a geologist, and a corporate consultant at SRK, an international mining consultancy firm, and Timothy Puko, Commodities Director at the Eurasia Group, covering metals and mining for the firm's Energy, Climate & Resources team.

People who read the fiction of Miriam Toews might think they know a fair bit about her life story. She's written about sister relationships, suicide, and her conservative Mennonite upbringing. Now her highly anticipated new memoir does away with the mirror of fiction — shining a light on why she writes, and the power of family.

Long-time CBC Radio host Michael Finnerty shares how training as an apprentice cheesemonger in London's Borough Market nourished his soul, gave him a sense of purpose and helped him rediscover the power of community. He talks about his new book "The Cheese Cure"  while taking Matt Galloway on a tasting journey through the sampling of four Canadian cheeses.

There are growing concerns from economists, tech industry insiders and investors that artificial intelligence might be a bubble about to burst. Data centres are a rapidly growing part of the U.S. so big that some observers like MIT fellow Paul Kedrosky believe it's warping the North American economy. Murad Hemmadi, a reporter with the Logic, argues that we only know about bubbles in hindsight, and until it bursts, we're going to be waiting to find out.