It’s budget day here in Canada. As Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government tables its first federal budget, we will get reaction and hear a lot of different visions for the country. On today’s episode we wanted to bring you one. Our guest on the program says that Canada is in crisis — and that it is now time for "bold adventurism."

Daniel Debow is a Canadian executive, investor, and educator. He is the chair of the board for Build Canada.

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

One of the themes of the Lean Out podcast is the many crises that Canada is facing —and where we go from here. Our guest on the program today warns that we are at a breaking point, and in desperate need of a national reckoning. As we face threats from without, he says, we are divided from within, along the lines of gender, class, region, and, crucially, generation.

Darrell Bricker is the CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs and a previous director of public opinion research in the Prime Minister’s Office. His latest book, out this week — written with veteran journalist John Ibbitson — is Breaking Point: The New Big Shifts Putting Canada at Risk.

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

Before the Internet, before the literary world was overrun by online politics, before everything you read — and wrote — had to advance an agenda, there was the solitary person, in a room, losing themselves in the words on the page. There was the fan. Our guest on the program today has written a book of essays on fandom and his own obsessions. In the process, he confronts the big cultural forces of our age.

Jason Guriel is a Toronto writer. His latest book is Fan Mail: A Guide to What We Love, Loathe, and Mourn.

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com