We are in the midst of a rupture.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech at Davos was a wake up call to the rest of the world. It represented an opportunity to move away from the hegemons and create a third pole of power through middle power alliances. But it also raised questions about the exact nature and role of middle powers in a shift away from our decades-long dependency on the United States.
These questions are the focus of Gloves Off Season 2, a podcast about the threat to Canada’s sovereignty and how the country can thrive in a new world disorder.
Last season on Gloves Off, we wanted to survive as a nation. The question was: Are we going to make it? This season, we’re answering the question:
How do we win?
Latest Episode
EP. 208 August 19, 2026
What Are We Fighting For?
Season 2 wraps with a look at what the future could hold for a middle power alliance and what Canada’s role might be in it.
The people applauding Carney’s Davos speech were the same people who built and ran the system that led to Brexit, Trump, and more. How can middle powers win without returning to globalization and the same old system? How can they not just gain power but exert that power, and to what ends? These questions and more are considered by guests Alastair Campbell, a longtime British politico who served in the Tony Blair administration and now co-hosts The Rest Is Politics podcast; historian Rutger Bregman, author of Utopia For Realists and head of The School for Moral Ambition; and Julianne Smith, former United States Permanent Representative to NATO.
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The Gloves Off aftershow that dives deeper into the issues of each episode. Only on YouTube.