
As It Happens
Nightly news that’s not afraid of fun. Every weeknight hosts Nil Köksal and Chris Howden bring you the people at the centre of the day’s most hard-hitting, hilarious and heartbreaking stories: powerful leaders, proud eccentrics and ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. And plenty of puns too. Find out why As It Happens is one of Canada’s longest-running and most beloved shows.
Latest episodes

Apr 25, 2025 • 46min
Éric Grenier on the polls and the home stretch
Plus: Judy Kurtz from The Hill prepares for a White House Correspondents Dinner unlike any other. Also: Nearly four years after the Lytton wildfire wiped out most of her village, Mayor Denise O'Connor gives a tour of her new home.

Apr 25, 2025 • 28min
Special Episode: Natalie Halla and Manizha Bakhtari
According to the Taliban, Manizha Bakhtari no longer represents Afghanistan abroad. But that hasn't stopped the country's one-time top diplomat in Austria from keeping the doors of its embassy in Vienna open and now her efforts are the subject of the new documentary, The Last Ambassador. Nil Köksal sits down with Bakhtari and director Natalie Halla on the eve of three Canadian screenings.

Apr 24, 2025 • 59min
Catherine McKenna on Carney, Trump and the “51st state”
Plus: After scientists created "olo" -- a colour they say no one else can see, artist Stuart Semple created "yolo". And he says it can be yours for a small price. Also: We remember tireless B.C. drug and addiction advocate Trey Helton.

Apr 23, 2025 • 60min
A trial gets underway, but could it really change hockey?
Plus: Nil reaches Nardwuar the Human Serviette, who’s snagged more interviews with Canadian political leaders during this campaign than anyone. Also: Up until 2015, academics at Oxford drank wine out of a chalice made from the human skull -- likely that of an enslaved woman. Archeologist Dan Hicks uncovered that history and says it's now his goal to make sure this woman is given back her dignity and humanity.

Apr 22, 2025 • 1h 2min
Intrigue builds ahead of a historic conclave
Plus: How getting stuck in quicksand led to a rom-com worthy love story for a Michigan couple. Also: Canadian author Robin Stevenson’s book Pride Puppy is at the centre of a Supreme Court decision on 2SLGTBQ+ books in schools. She says she was shocked to hear a Justice repeat the false claim that her alphabet book -- about a puppy at a Pride parade -- included a mention of bondage.

Apr 21, 2025 • 1h 4min
Phil Fontaine on the meaning of a Pope’s apology
Plus: Did the search for extraterrestrial life just take a huge leap? We reach Cambridge University’s Nikku Madhusudhan to explore the possibility. Also: As spring struggles to break through, we bring you the late, great Fireside Al Maitland’s reading of Oscar Wilde’s The Selfish Giant.

Apr 18, 2025 • 1h 16min
The challenge ahead for Pierre Poilievre
Plus: Game, Set and Match medieval style. We hear about Australian efforts to revive Real Tennis, a move to bring the sport back to it’s Henry VIII roots.Also: A special edition of As It Happened, diving into the archives for some “new discoveries”.

Apr 17, 2025 • 43min
Green Party co-Leader Elizabeth May makes her case
Plus: At the San Diego zoo, elephants go viral when video captures their touching and fascinating reaction to an earthquake. Also: Filmmaker Sepideh Farsi on the death of her new documentary’s subject: 25 year old Gazan photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, reported killed in an Israeli airstrike.

Apr 16, 2025 • 1h 11min
Scott Reid on Green Party’s exclusion from debates
Plus: A Michigan bookstore gets a lot of unexpected help moving its entire inventory. Also: Ahead of the inaugural game of the new Northern Super League, founder and soccer star Diana Matheson tells Nil it's been years in the making to get to the first professional women's soccer game ever played on Canadian soil. But now that we're here, she knows Canada is ready.

Apr 15, 2025 • 58min
The White House versus Harvard University
Plus: Boston Globe reporter Billy Baker investigates a shockingly violent woodpecker terrorizing Rockport, Mass.Also: It was no surprise that Paige Beuckers was picked first overall at last night's WNBA draft -- least of all to Gary Knox, a dad who just happened to be at the right place at the right time and predict her stardom way back in 2013, when she was in the sixth grade.
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