As the host of CBC Radio One's flagship literary program Writers & Company, Eleanor Wachtel has become renowned for her intimate and illuminating conversations with writers and authors. In fact she is considered by many to be one of the finest interviewers in broadcasting.

Hosting Writers & Company is a role Eleanor has deftly fulfilled since the program was first created in 1990, and in the over two decades since it launched she has spoken to many of the iconic minds, artists, and authors of our time, skillfully probing them for the personal thoughts, questions, experiences and creative instincts which inform their work. 

Writers & Company is unique among CBC radio programs in that each episode devotes a full hour to a single interview, a pattern that started early on in its run. In an age addicted to memes, and sound bites, it's a refreshing format that allows space for frank and incredibly honest conversations that frequently delve quite deeply into her guests' life experiences, and unique outlooks on the world. 

And perhaps it is the incredible amount of research she is known to do in preparation for each conversation, but Eleanor seems particularly capable as an interviewer in creating an environment where her subjects feel understood and comfortable, so that even those who normally shy away from press or tend to be quite reticent in discussing their personal lives, often end up speaking candidly with her about many of the most intimate aspects of their lives and work. 

The end results are thought-provoking and in-depth interviews that shed new light and are remarkable in their candor; interviews which go beyond the specifics, and often become meditations into those large, persistent questions of human existence which great works of literature are so adept at posing.

The list of those Eleanor Wachtel has interviewed during her career as a broadcaster is truly remarkable. Her guests have included the likes of Alice Munro, Yoko Ono, George Saunders, Patti Smith, and Julian Barnes just to name a few. Eleanor Wachtel also hosts Wachtel on the Arts for CBC Ideas, and previously hosted The Arts Tonight from 1996 until 2007. 

I spoke to Eleanor Wachtel from the CIUT studios in Hart House at the University of Toronto. During the interview we discuss her early love of books growing up in Montreal, the very first literary interview she conducted (with an emerging Margaret Atwood) while she was a student at McGill, and what greater meaning she sees literature and the arts holding.

Listen to the interview below:

I, along with many other CBC radio listeners, have developed a tradition of sorts over the years. Each Sunday morning, as we linger over our coffees and start our days in that lazy manner so befitting of the end of the weekend, we turn on our radios and tune into the CBC to be accompanied by the rich baritone voice, thought-provoking interviews, and dry sense of humour brought by Michael Enright to The Sunday Edition.

The Sunday Edition has been in its current form since the year 2000, and seems perfectly suited to the Sunday morning air of idleness and contemplation. It airs each Sunday on CBC Radio One from 9am-12 and the three hours of the program are filled with engaging interviews on topics ranging from the arts to politics, Michael's opening essay, as well as long-form documentary pieces.

Michael Enright has undoubtedly had one of the most distinguished careers in Canadian broadcasting, but he actually started off in print. As a young newspaper reporter he wrote for both the Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail as well as a host of other publications. In fact, his first foray into radio didn't come until 1974 and didn't go exactly as planned. He came to the CBC to replace the beloved Peter Gzowski - who was moving to television - on the program This Country In The Morning. But after a year on the air, despite positive ratings, Enright was fired - supposedly for not being warm enough on the air. 

After the brief experiment in broadcasting, Enright headed back to the world of print, and held high level positions at both Quest and McLean's magazine. But in 1985, after a decade away, he returned to the CBC- first as the managing editor of radio news, and then in 1987 taking over as host of As It Happens, a role he would hold until 1997. 

Enright is also somewhat of an enigma. Although to CBC listeners he might be perceived as merely the learned bookish man who wears bow-ties, there are also aspects of his life that might come as a surprise to many Canadians. For example, he dropped out of high-school, has a penchant for motorcycles, and was strongly considering entering the priesthood as a young man.

In our conversation, we speak about his life growing up in Toronto, his beginnings as a newspaper reporter, as well as his thoughts on the state of journalism and public broadcasting in this country.

Listen to our interview with Michael Enright here.

It seems to be a normal pattern in the world of broadcasting that when a host takes on a new gig or show, the critics from very early on tend to deem them ill-suited for the position and almost uniformly find fault with their performance. "They're in over their heads!" they cry "They'll never possibly grow into the role."  This has been a pattern that has played itself out for even the most iconic broadcasters of our time, from Johnny Carson and Stephen Colbert to Peter Gzowski and Michael Enright.

But of all the CBC personalities that we've interviewed for this series, I don't think any were received with quite the level of raised eyebrows and doubts when they first came to the Mother Corp as George Stroumboulopoulos.

Indeed, back in 2005 when he arrived at the CBC with the launch of The Hour, the critics were seemingly everywhere - and none too thrilled. Their concerns ranged from doubting his abilities as a serious interviewer, to musings that this was a misguided attempt by CBC to attract a younger demographic at the cost of substance.

And to be sure, George didn't exactly have the background or style that one might expect for a host at a public broadcaster known for such figures as David Suzuki, and Linden MacIntyre. He loved heavy metal music, had a penchant for motorcycles, sported several piercings, and had just spent the past few years as a Much Music VJ - not a station necessarily known for its serious journalism.

In fact even George himself thought he was a questionable fit for the CBC, and after he somewhat hesitantly accepted their offer to host his own talk show, he fully suspected he might find himself off the air within a month or two, when they realized that they had made a terrible mistake!

But fast forward to 2013 and the beginning of George's 10th season on CBC and things certainly look differently. George has earned a loyal following of viewers across the country, and has proved himself as a thoughtful, sharp and insightful interviewer. And because of his diverse interests, he's incredibly well-rounded too, and can discuss intelligently topics ranging from music and film to politics and larger societal questions.

The program has won four Gemini awards for best talk series in Canada and the list of figures he's interviewed in the years since he first came to the CBC is truly remarkable. It includes the likes of Hillary Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Noam Chomsky, Patti Smith, Oprah, and virtually every renowned Canadian figure out there.

I spoke to George Stroumboulopoulos about his life growing up in a single parent household in the rough outskirts of Toronto, his unlikely path into broadcasting, and his thoughts on the importance of the CBC and the telling of Canadian stories.

Listen to ourinterview with Geroge here, and for more exclusive interviews with CBC personalities don't forget to subscribe to our podcast in iTunes!

One of the reasons I personally feel so passionately about the role the CBC and public broadcasting play in Canadian society, stems, I think, from the rather remarkable nature of our country.

It's an insight many of us grow up with, and can seem at times commonplace, but Canada is such a vast place - and not just geographically, but culturally as well. From St. John's, to Winnipeg, up to Iqaluit, we as citizens inhabit such an incredible diversity of regions, each with its own distinct culture, issues, and concerns, that there are relatively few things in our day-to-day lives to prompt us to consider issues from a Canadian perspective, instead of merely from our regional standpoints.

And seen in this light, it becomes clear that the CBC is one of the rare venues we have as a country where we can have national conversations between our disparate parts - where we can discuss matters confronting us as Canadians through a Canadian lens.

So a cultural institution as important as the CBC is more than simply another venue for news or entertainment - or at least it should be. Rather, it does something bigger, more profound. It creates a sense of community, it connects us to one another as citizens, examines issues of public interest.  Indeed, it's worth considering -  if it weren't for the CBC, and a handful of other national cultural institutions, what would Canada be in any sense richer than a name and a border? As Claire and Farley Mowat recently put it in a letter to The Globe and Mail  "The CBC is one of the few remaining public bastions of our independence as a nation and as a people."

But thankfully, we do have the CBC as a forum to bring us together as Canadians and consider matters from a national standpoint. And arguably, when it comes specifically to exploring the societal questions and politics of our time, no show comes closer to fulfilling this role than CBC Radio's The Current.

The Current is the most listened to CBC radio program by Canadians, and each weekday morning from 8:30 to 10 am, from coast-to-coast-to-coast, throughout the six time zones, The Current delves into the issues and debates of the day-  from pipelines and budgets, to world conflicts.

Since it was created in 2002, replacing, along with Sounds Like Canada, the three hour program This Morning, The Current has been hosted by veteran journalist Anna Maria Tremonti. Before coming to The Current, Anna Maria spent years as a national and foreign correspondent for the CBC, and reported from around the country and around the world.

It's one of the most important programs in the country, and in her over 10 years on the air as the host of The Current,  Anna Maria has interviewed many of the most prominent and influential voices of our time -  they include whistle-blowers, prime-ministers, artists, authors and activists - everyone from Kurt Vonnegut to Jean Chretain.

Recently I had the chance to wake up at the crack of dawn, and head down to CBC broadcast centre in Toronto myself to watch behind-the-scenes as an episode of The Current went to air. Afterwards, I sat down with Anna Maria Tremonti to ask her to  how she prepares for the show each day, her thoughts on the challenges facing journalism, and some of the memorable moments she's had in her over 10 years as host of perhaps the most influential current affairs program in Canada.

Listen to our conversation below, and many thanks to CBC's Nima Shams for recording the interview.

It goes without saying that few names are as synonomous with Canada as Peter Mansbridge. As the anchor of CBC’s flagship nightly news program The National, Mansbridge has been a fixture on screens across the country for now over 25 years, recounting the days events and telling the news of Canada and the world, through a distinctly Canadian lens.

So through elections, disasters, referendums, or world events, Peter Mansbridge has been there guiding us  through the stories of our time. 

Mansbridge started off his career as a broadcaster in a rather improbable way, with a level of happenstance that is almost hard to fathom today.  The story goes like this: as a young man, Mansbridge having hitchhiked and wandered across the country, was working at the Churchill Manitoba airport. While he making an announcement on the PA system, a CBC producer overheard him. Impressed with his rich baritone voice, the producer approached Mansbridge to see if he would be interested in helping out at the local CBC radio station. Before long, Mansbridge was hosting a newscast in Churchill, and few years later he was reporting nationally as a correspondent, and his career as one of Canada's best known television broadcasters was underway. 

Then, after reporting stints in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Ottawa, in 1988, Peter Mansbridge took over anchoring duties of The National from the retiring Knowlton Nash. It's a role he has held ever since. 

In this wide-ranging interview recorded at his office at the CBC, we discuss his wayward childhood in Ottawa, debate the virtues of expert panels, and learn of the one interview he'd still most like to do. 

To anyone who loves the CBC and Canadian arts generally Jian Ghomeshi is one name that likely needs no introduction.

As the host and co-creator of Q, the daily arts and culture program of CBC Radio, Jian has become not only a familiar voice to Canadians across the country, but indeed to radio listeners across North America.

Originally launched in 2006, in the afternoon slot, and now airing from 10 to 11:30am each weekday morning, Q has become a mainstay of the Canadian world of arts and culture covering everything from music and film, sports and politics, literature, to larger societal trends.

So although it has culture as its focus, the show is incredibly wide-ranging with what counts as culture, and the result is a program that is as eclectic as its host. A typical episode of Q will go from an in-depth conversation with a filmmaker or author, to having a debate on the changing role of social media, to analyzing media coverage of recent news.

Q initially it had its doubters – some critics thought the program was too long form in an era of shrinking attention spans,  or too focused on popular culture - but the show has proved enormously successful, both critically and in terms of audience share. In fact Q is the most popular show in terms of the number of listeners to ever inhabit its morning time slot on the CBC, including the iconic days when it was home to Peter Gzowksi’s Morningside.

The show's success and has won Q, and Jian Ghomeshi legions of devoted listeners south of the border as well where it has been picked up by roughly 160 stations including the iconic NPR member stations of WNYC in New York and WBEZ in Chicago. In a literal sense, one could say that  Jian Ghomeshi has become the voice of Canada to America.

I spoke to Jian Ghomeshi at Studio Q in Toronto. In our conversation we discuss the crucial role that the arts have played in his life, the growth of Q as a show, and why he feels so passionately about public broadcasting and the role of the CBC in this country. 

Listen to our interview below...

Linden MacIntyre has been a co-host of CBC television's seminal investigative documentary program The Fifth Estate since 1990 and is widely considered one of the best investigative journalists we have in this country. The acclaim is with good reason - MacIntyre has been instrumental to a number of landmark cases in Canada. To take just one example, it was largely as a result of his investigative work through The Fifth Estate, that interest was revived in the wrongful conviction case of Stephen Truscott. His reporting efforts have earned him nine Gemini awards, including three Gordon Sinclair Awards, the distinction given for the best overall broadcast journalist.

Linden MacIntyre started off his journalism career as a newspaper reporter, working in Halifax, Ottawa and Cape Breton, before joining the CBC in 1976. One of his first roles at the CBC was hosting a Halifax based current affairs program called The MacIntyre File during which he successfully initiated a precedent setting legal action which clarified the public's right to access court documents relating to search warrants.

Between 1981 and 1986, MacIntyre worked for CBC's ground-breaking national current affairs program, The Journal, and started covering stories abroad, acting as a foreign correspondent throughout the world, including reporting from the Middle East, Central America and the USSR. 

But perhaps most impressive about Linden is that his talents as a storyteller go beyond his excellent work as a journalist. MacIntyre has also turned his hand to exploring the human condition through fiction, and has authored three best-selling novels, including his 2009 novel The Bishop's Man for which he won the Giller Prize.  

In our conversation Linden touches on his formative years growing up in rural Cape Breton, his early days as a muckraking newspaper reporter, and his thoughts on the challenges facing journalism and the critical role that public service broadcasting plays in sustaining an open and democratic society. 

Hope you enjoy it, listen right below, and remember for all of our interviews, you can always subscribe to our podcast.

Born in Saint John, New Brunswick, Brent Bambury was still a teenager when he got his first job in broadcasting as a local sportscaster. And the work he’s pursued as a broadcaster with the CBC since then has truly ran the gamut.  

To give you a sense at just how wide-ranging his career has been, since starting at the CBC, Bambury spent a decade hosting the all night underground alternative music program Brave New Waves, co-hosted the CBC television magazine program Midday, spent three years at the helm of CBC Ottawa’s afternoon drive program All In A Day, co-hosted CBC TV's Test the Nation, and helped create and host several successful and groundbreaking radio shows - including the program he current hosts, Day 6.

Airing Saturday mornings at 10am on CBC Radio One, Day 6 – seems custom-made for someone with such a impressively varied career. It blends journalism, comedy, opinion, culture and current affairs together in one engaging and wide-ranging magazine program. Few hosts can interview everyone from politicians and filmmakers, to musicians and scientists and manage to be insightful and knowledgeable on such a range of topics, but that’s exactly the kind of eclectic and diverse mixture that Brent thrives in.

In his bio on CBC’s website, he writes,  “radio should be kinetic, full of life, fun, outrageous and thoughtful all at the same time" which to me sounds like a fairly good description for Brent himself! In this interview we discuss his early days as a young (and political) all night host of Brave New Waves, the eclectic nature of his career, and his love of the arts.

How would you describe it? His voice.... It's avuncular, gentle -  a sound that seems to exude that idle lingering quality of a Sunday morning, a tone that conveys implicitly  "we have all the time in the world, you and me". It's soothing, reflective. But however you describe it, I think it's safe to say that Stuart McLean has one of the most instantly recognizable voices of any Canadian across this country. And if Dave and Morley are two names with a special meaning for you, then chances are you’re already well acquainted with the folksy charms of Stuart McLean.

From Vancouver Island to St. John’s, Newfoundland, each week roughly a million Canadians tune into CBC Radio to hear Stuart McLean and his program The Vinyl Cafe for its unique blend of humorous short stories, thoughtful heartfelt reflections on Canadian towns and places, and showcasing of home-grown musical talent.

But without a doubt the heart of The Vinyl Cafe, and what has won Stuart McLean such a devoted following of readers and listeners - the factor that draws sold out crowds to auditoriums, and theatres in towns right across this country - are the stories that he writes and performs based around that timeless fictional family of four: Dave – the lovable error prone husband and father,  his mostly understanding wife Morley and their two children Sam and Stephanie. 

The stories centred on these four endearing characters and the extended universe in-which they inhabit are at once wistful and humorous. Although there are laughs, the stories are above all marked by a certain gentleness and humanity. The characters in his fictional universe might not always get things right, they may and certainly do at times exasperate each other, but at their core, they’re trying their best and that's what seems to count.

Maybe it has to do with that previous point, but there’s also something profoundly and distinctly Canadian about Stuart McLean and The Vinyl Cafe. And not just in the way his stories seem to exude a certain Canadian sensibility - a sensibility that celebrates community, kindness and collective spirit - but also in the way he takes the program on the road, weaving across the vast landscape of Canada to perform close to 100 shows a year -  and making a point to visit small, out-of-the-way communities and towns that most tours - especially ones of such impressive draw - would almost never bother stopping in.

Through his opening essays, Stuart often reflects on the unique factors and historical winds that shape a locale, and make it what it is. In fact while on tour he and the crew will often come to towns they're recording in a few days in advance in order to get a sense of what distinguishes, what marks, the people and landscape of the community.  So whether it’s speaking about the St. Lawrence River in Gananoque or the Laurentian Mountains in rural Quebec, Stuart McLean is able to capture the essence of a place, the tides that shaped it, and put it in the larger context of the Canadian story, in a way that few can.

The program first came on the air in 1994, but even before The Vinyl Cafe, Stuart McLean already had an impressive pedigree as a storyteller and broadcaster. He had been a frequent contributor to Morningside (you might remember the infamous case of the inspid cricket that left him and Peter Gzowski in fits of laughter) and he also worked for years as a documentary producer for the program Sunday Morning on CBC radio.

It’s now been 20 years that The Vinyl Cafe, has been on CBC radio, and each year it seems to only get bigger and more beloved, not bad for a show that's a celebration of things humble and small, or as they say at Dave's Record Store "We may not be big, but we're small."  In our conversation Stuart shares the stories of his childhood growing up in Montreal when he felt like an outsider, his struggles as a student, his roundabout beginnings with the CBC, as well reflects on the big feelings he has for this country, and what for him it means to be Canadian.

Listen to our interview with Stuart below & to hear more interviews with iconic CBC voices, subscribe to our podcast

Perhaps one of the most intriguing positions within the world of media is that of the foreign correspondent. There’s a certain romance to it – you travel around the world, report on stories and world events, and see things that few outsiders get to see.  But whatever thrill or excitement the job carries with it, at the end of the day, it’s not many of us who could actually handle leaving behind the comforts of home, and structure, for a chaotic life spent living out of a suitcase and reporting from environments that are often unpredictable and full of turmoil. 

But as a correspondent for CBC’s The National, that is exactly the kind of life that Adrienne Arsenault has taken on.  

Over the past decade, Adrienne’s reporting has taken her to dozens of countries around the world, and seen her cover some of the most seminal events of the new millennium, including reporting on the Arab Spring in Libya in the midst of the uprising, the aftermath of the Tsunami in Sri Lanka, and the disputed 2008 elections in Zimbabwe.

Her reporting has won four Gemini awards, and she was named the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association's journalist of the year in 2005. Now, in this interview, Adrienne speaks about the unique and somewhat strange lifestyle that comes with being a foreign correspondent, how she started off as a reporter at the CBC, and how seeing world events first hand has impacted her.