This week, Jonathan speaks with Jesse Brown, founder of Canadaland, about a political realignment neither of them expected. Once on opposite sides of Canada’s media wars, the two now find themselves confronting the same problem: the surge in antisemitism, hate speech, and political denial that followed the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023.
Jesse describes how a segment of Canadaland’s progressive audience – and even staff – turned on him when he spoke out about rising hate targeting Canadian Jews. What followed was a shock to him: accusations, cancellations, and an internal revolt from listeners who believed antisemitism was a distraction from “the real struggle.”
In this conversation, Jesse and Jonathan explore:
• the fracturing of progressive media
• how audience capture warps newsroom behaviour
• why antisemitism has become a political blind spot
• the growing normalization of hate speech and street violence
• Jesse’s new podcast project, “What Is Happening Here,” documenting attacks on Canadian Jews
• their own strange history as former rivals
It’s a candid, sometimes uncomfortable, and very timely discussion about the moral, cultural, and political forces reshaping Canada.
00:00 — Introducing Jesse Brown
00:14 — Canadaland’s origins and political identity
00:29 — Jesse’s media criticism and past clashes with Jonathan
00:57 — How their public feud shaped early Canadian media debates
01:09 — Jesse on money, independence, and building Canadaland
08:15 — Audience capture and how it distorts journalism
08:43 — The left–right shift inside modern media
09:53 — What Canadaland’s audience actually believes
15:28 — The Canadian trucker convoy and political realignment
19:58 — Understanding the new forms of antisemitism
20:26 — Personal accounts of harassment and rising hate
23:14 — Historical patterns of antisemitism revisited
23:55 — Comparing Nazi-era myths to modern narratives
24:49 — How language around “hate” has changed
28:48 — Inside Jewish community life in Canada
32:21 — Zionism, identity, and political pressure
36:05 — A controversial public statement about Israel
37:16 — Social-justice activism and the Israel narrative
38:24 — The Toronto event that revealed deeper problems
44:59 — Old myths returning in modern progressive circles
47:18 — Jonathan on media burnout and existential dread
48:27 — Encounters with progressive activists
49:06 — When social-justice dogma becomes newsroom policy
57:11 — How political enforcement works inside media organisations
57:26 — Internal conflicts within Canadaland
59:05 — The value of dissent and open disagreement
1:03:18 — Worries about Canada’s political direction
1:04:28 — Shifts in media loyalties and ideological tribes
1:04:41 — Closing thoughts and context of the recording
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