The Sunday Magazine for January 11, 2026
This week on The Sunday Magazine with Piya Chattopadhyay:
Will Trump's designs on Greenland spell the death of NATO?
After the U.S. military's intervention in Venezuela, President Donald Trump reignited his rhetoric around acquiring Greenland this past week. That's led several world leaders to declare that the territory must be protected collectively through NATO, and action to the contrary could lead to the group's collapse. Chattopadhyay speaks with Canada's former NATO ambassador Kerry Buck and Mark Webber, an international politics professor who specializes in NATO at England's University of Birmingham, about what this moment means for the future of the military alliance.
What last year's L.A. fires reveal about the politics of disaster
A year ago this week, Jacob Soboroff was on the streets of Los Angeles, reporting live on the most devastating wildfires in the area's history. But it wasn't just another assignment for the MS NOW senior political and national reporter. The fires tore through the community he grew up in, razing his childhood home. Soboroff joins Chattopadhyay to discuss the tragedy, how political factors influenced the response and recovery, and what that portends for future disasters, as explored in his book Firestorm.
The economy's turbulent. 'Creative destruction' may help us weather it
The economy has been on our minds a lot lately. But it's been on Peter Howitt's for decades. And the Canadian economist has just been awarded a Nobel Prize for his work illuminating the theory of "creative destruction." Chattopadhyay speaks with Howitt about how the theory can help our country contend with this moment, why the history of human innovation makes him hopeful about the artificial intelligence era, and why he thinks we're still heading in the right direction, despite the myriad concerns we face.
That's Puzzling! for January 2026
In our monthly challenge That's Puzzling!, Chattopadhyay competes against one familiar voice and one clever listener in a battle of brain games devised by puzzle master Peter Brown. Playing this week are Andi Petrillo, host of CBC's daytime coverage of the Milan-Cortina Olympics, and Annapolis Royal, N.S. listener Jennifer Goddard.