Jeopardy! champ Mattea Roach named new host of Canadaland’s ‘The Backbench’

Canadaland has unveiled its fall podcast slate, headlined by the introduction of Jeopardy! champion Mattea Roach as the incoming host of weekly political pod, The Backbench.

Roach, who claimed the title of most successful Canadian to ever appear on the quiz show earlier this year with a 23-game winning streak, “brings her unparalleled intelligence and rabid curiosity” to the host’s seat, starting Sept. 20.

In October, Karyn Pugliese, Executive Editor of Canada’s National Observer, will host Canadalandback, leading an all-Indigenous team of journalists in an exploration of three generations of resistance from Idle No More to Land Back and the Nova Scotia lobster wars.

The co-production with the National Observer is produced by Kim Wheeler, veteran audio journalist and co-host of the Auntie Up! podcast, with Pugliese – the former Executive Director of News at APTN – telling stories through documentary reports, interviews, and panel conversations.

Later this fall, Canadaland will also introduce limited series Ratf*cker: Confessions of a Dirty Tricks Operative, a promised tell-all featuring political fixer David Wallace “about his decades of misdeeds in the dirty-tricks business, running smear jobs against candidates, leaking incriminating material to reporters, making sure bigshots get caught with escorts, drugs, bribes, or all three. He has stories from his wild days in Moscow working for oligarchs, and about his recent adventures back home in Canada, on the payroll of Conservative strategists.”

The investigative miniseries sees Cherise Seucharan and Canadaland publisher Jesse Brown dive into the so-called “Klondike Papers” which tie Wallace to an ask from an Alberta cabinet minister to identify journalists’ sources, amid other revelations.

Returning podcasts include Wag the Doug on the reality of four more years with the Fords and what that means for Ontario, while CANADALAND adds essayist Robert Jago as a contributor. Short Cuts also returns in addition to a new season of Commons with host Arshy Mann and producers Jordan Cornish and Noor Azrieh looking at Canada’s problematic history with monopolies. Monthly podcast, Détours, Canadaland’s French-language podcast, is also back to debate the news from a Francophone point of view.

“These are the most interesting and relevant podcasts we’ve ever published,” wrote Brown, in a publisher’s note posted to the Canadaland website.

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