Storylines

Stephanie Azzarello was dying. To survive, doctors told her she needed to find someone willing to donate part of their liver. Her story went out on social media and late one night, it reached the phone of a nurse and mother in Portland Oregon. There was something about Stephanie’s story that made Trisha Beard want to help. Liz Hoath brings us this story about two women whose lives became intertwined because of an act of generosity. Storylines is part of the CBC Audio Doc Unit (This show first aired in Sept. 2025)

In July 2024, seven fishermen from around New-Wes-Valley, Newfoundland set out on their fishing boat in search of turbot.  While at sea that day a fire broke out near the engine room, before long the bunkroom was full of smoke. The seven sailors had no choice but to abandon ship and before long they were sitting in a small life-raft. What followed was a 52-hour ordeal that tested not just their will to survive, but the bonds between them. The situation could not have been more dire, two of the men couldn’t swim, supplies were dwindling and a thick fog hampered rescue efforts.  In this documentary, 52 Hours Lost at Sea, find out what it was like to spend more than two days adrift in the North Atlantic. Produced by Mary-Catherine McIntosh and the Audio documentary unit / the doc originally aired on The Current. Storylines is part of the CBC Audio Doc Unit (This show first aired on Feb. 2025)

One Yukon community is fighting back against wildfires with an unlikely weapon —trees. The plan seems counterintuitive, using trees to stop a fire, but Aspens are fire-resistant unlike the flammable trees like spruces and pines found around the city.  But growing the almost two million trees to make the firebreak isn’t easy.  It’s going to take a lot of hard work and a lot of little seeds. But if it works, it could be a game changer. Storylines is part of the CBC Audio Doc Unit

Complaints are common. Cormorants kill trees. They eat too many fish. Their colonies stink. Warren Hoselton has had enough. After three years of watching his beloved trees around his Ontario home be decimated by cormorant poop, he wants action. The birds have to go. But not everyone has a hate-on for cormorants. Avian ecologists say it's not fair to fault birds for doing what nature designed them to do. The ones living in a park on the edges of Canada’s largest city, reached 20,000 this year, angering locals worried about their impact. In Toronto, they’re trying to relocate them. Elsewhere, hunters shoot them.  All across North America cormorants make enemies because of the mess  they leave behind. Storylines is part of the CBC Audio Doc Unit

It was supposed to keep Canada together but a massive 1995 rally nearly did the opposite. In 1995, Canada was on the verge of breaking up. The province of Quebec was about to vote on whether to become a sovereign nation. Just days before a referendum on that very question, tens of thousands of Canadians from across the country poured into Montreal. Travelling by planes and trains - they gathered for what would become known as the Unity Rally. Carrying flags, singing the national anthem and declaring their love for Quebec – they pleaded for Quebecers to say “no” they would not leave.Despite this demonstration – many in the Province viewed the gesture as too little too late. 30 years later Francis Plourde looks at the legacy of the love-in, and the historic vote and what it says about Canada today.Storylines is part of the CBC Audio Doc Unit

Russian trucks drive across Canada’s arctic. Foreign ships appear along our northern shores. For decades, it’s fallen on Tuktoyaktuk to be Canada’s watchful eyes in the Arctic.But the recent surge of attention about arctic sovereignty and security from politicians in the south raises a host of concerns for residents. Will promised military funding and federal focus on security solve the local problems of high unemployment and rapidly deteriorating infrastructure? CBC documentary producer Julia Pagel traveled to Tuktoyaktuk to see what this conversation about arctic security looks like on the ground.Storylines is part of the CBC Audio Doc Unit

Stephanie Azzarello was dying. To survive, doctors told her she needed to find someone willing to donate part of their liver. Her story went out on social media and late one night, it reached the phone of a nurse and mother in Portland Oregon. There was something about Stephanie’s story that made Trisha Beard want to help. Liz Hoath brings us this story about two women whose lives became intertwined because of an act of generosity. Storylines is part of the CBC Audio Doc Unit

As wind energy continues to grow in Canada, so does the body count for migratory bats.Biologist Cori Lausen has spent years advocating to help prevent bats from being killed by wind turbines. She even helped inform the rules around wind energy development and bats in Alberta. But she worries it may have been too little too late to prevent some species from going extinct. Molly Segal travels from Alberta wind farms to BC’s forests to discover if there’s a way to save bats without disrupting getting renewable energy from turbines. Storylines is part of the CBC Audio Doc Unit 

Indigenous communities in South America say mining threatens their water supply. But the world needs lithium for EVs to fight climate change.In the Salinas Grandes salt flats, which hold significant lithium deposits, some residents are saying no to mining. But towns are divided. Some want the jobs that come with mining while others fear what this lithium extraction will do to the water table.Storylines is part of the CBC Audio Doc Unit

In Finland, bomb shelters double as playgrounds. 900,000 reservists on standby. In Sweden, millions received war prep pamphlets. Defense spending doubled in four years.These Nordic nations aren’t taking any chances with Russia’s war in Ukraine raging. They remember what happened in 1939 when the Soviet Union invaded Finland. Both countries also joined NATO, so Canada is bound to defend them too. Emma Godmere travels to the Arctic Circle to discover what it means to live next to Russia, and what Canada can learn from its Nordic allies. Storylines is part of the CBC Audio Doc Unit