Podcast For Inquiry – Centre for Inquiry Canada

A podcast for scientific, skeptical, secular, rational and humanistic inquiry.

You’ve got answers? We’ve got questions.

A podcast for scientific, skeptical, secular, rational and humanistic inquiry.

You’ve got answers? We’ve got questions.

Can We Have a Conversation? Exploring Polarization to Find Common Ground, with Jasmin Faulk

Leslie’s conversation with Jasmin Faulk begins with what Saudi Arabia was like when she was growing up, and what has and hasn’t changed since then. Jasmin talks about the fire of youth, the wisdom that comes from age, and how society needs both activists and advocates to move forward. She also shares her desire to have genuine and difficult conversations with people with very different worldviews in an attempt to find, or create common ground.

Podcast for Inquiry is hosted by Leslie Rosenblood and brought to you by the Centre for Inquiry Canada. Join today! Produced by Zack Dumont, Martin Zielinski, and Leslie Rosenblood. Support Podcast for Inquiry on Patreon: https://patreon.com/PodcastforInquiry. Send your thoughts and feedback to podcast@centreforinquiry.ca.

December 3, 2025

The building blocks of corporate scandals: Guido Palazzo reveals the Dark Pattern

Corporate scandals are depressingly common, and it’s all too easy to chalk them up to individual bad apples. Unfortunately, this simple explanation is not accurate. Guido’s research led him to write The Dark Pattern: The hidden dynamics of corporate scandals, which details the nine building blocks that lead otherwise good people to do bad things. He explains the importance of context, why psychopaths are wildly overrepresented in corporate boardrooms, and the societal structures that too often lead to egregious behaviour from companies across the globe.

November 19, 2025

Andrew Coyne on the Crisis of Canadian Democracy

Andrew Coyne (@acoyne) is a columnist for The Globe and Mail and author of The Crisis of Canadian Democracy. In today’s episode, Andrew makes the case that Canadian democracy is headed for a crisis. He talks about the problems of Canada’s first past the post or “winner takes all” election system. The conversation includes an analysis of a wide range of issues: the diminishing contributions that MPs are allowed to make; how candidates, cabinet members, and even party leaders are selected; and the ever increasing concentration of power within the Prime Minister’s Office. Andrew outlines steps that can be taken to increase democratic representation in Canada that may avert a potential looming crisis of legitimacy.

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Society of Freethinkers is hosting Humanism in Action II on Sunday, November 22 2025 in Kitchener Ontario. More details and registration information are available at: https://sofree.ca/2025-humanist-conference/

November 5, 2025

Once Upon a Prime with Sarah Hart

Leslie’s conversation with Sarah starts with the connections between mathematics and literature, including references to Shakespeare, Herman Melville, George Eliot, Lewis Carroll, Douglas Adams, and more. Good writing has structure, and structure can be understood in mathematical terms, and Sarah explains how mathematics can greatly enrich one’s enjoyment of literature. Sarah also describes how mathematics can be used to obfuscate rather than clarify, and how being a female mathematician today is different – and similar! – as in the 19th century.

October 22, 2025

Modern Stoicism for modern life, with modern Stoic Donald Robertson

Donald Robertson (Substack) is a writer, cognitive-behavioural psychotherapist, and trainer. He is one of the founding members of the Modern Stoicism nonprofit, and the founder and president of the Plato’s Academy Centre nonprofit in Athens, Greece.

Leslie’s conversation with Donald traces the path from ancient Stoicism to the modern day. The word stoicism had come to mean something very different over time, but that has started to change as Stoicism the philosophy has been more popular in recent years. Stoic principles lie at the heart of cognitive behavioural therapy, and we talk about how incorporating Stoic principles into one’s own life can lead to more emotional resilience, a greater sense of satisfaction, and more meaningful relationships with others.

October 8, 2025

Justin Ling on the right wing media ecosystem

Justin Ling (@justinling.ca) is an investigative journalist who writes the Bug-eyed and Shameless newsletter and recently published the book The 51st State Votes.

The conversation begins with the right wing media ecosystem, and its effect particularly on US politics. Justin explains why there isn’t really a counterpart on the left, and what makes Canada different from the United States in this regard. Leslie and Justin move on to democracy and authoritarianism on the international stage, and how to develop healthy media consumption habits in today’s world.

September 24, 2025