The Current from CBC Radio (Highlights)

From finding solutions to the youth suicide crisis in Saskatchewan, to a growing number of Canadian veterans treating PTSD with medical marijuana, to police surveillance of journalists in Quebec... This is The Current.

Rob Martin is a retired Canadian soldier who's using pot to treat his PTSD. He's one of a growing number of former soldiers turning to medical marijuana, but some researchers say there's not enough evidence that it's an effective treatment for PTSD.

The tragedy of losing too many young lives in many First Nations communities is a crisis that needs a solution. The Current asks what separates Indigenous communities that have high suicide rates from those that do not, and what can be done to fix this.

From an Ottawa doctor allegedly using his own sperm during fertility treatments, to author Robert Harris on the peculiar politics of picking a pope, to critics blaming Philippines' President Duterte for the recent surge in violence... This is The Current.

The president of the Philippines makes no apologies for his war on drugs. But critics say he's enabled vigilante and extra-judicial killings that now number into the thousands. The Current hears the critics' concerns and the government's justifications.

If you think the U.S. presidential election has been a nail biter, wait till you hear about what happens behind the scenes in Rome when electing a new pope. Writer Robert Harris explains the peculiar politics of picking a pope in his novel, Conclave.

Somewhere in the back of his mind Dan Dixon always thought his daughter didn't look much like him. Now the Dixon family has filed a lawsuit alleging the doctor who treated them during fertility treatments.used the wrong sperm — his own.

From a months-long pipeline protest in North Dakota coming to a head, to parenting advice from microbiologist B. Brett Finlay who says let kids eat dirt, to questioning the origin story of the AIDS epidemic ... This is The Current.

For decades Gaétan Dugas was known as "patient zero" — the man who brought HIV/AIDS to the U.S. Now new research shows the French-Canadian was never a breakthrough link to spreading the disease. The Current questions the need for an origin story at all.

If the idea of the germs on objects that get ingested into your child's gullet makes you queasy then you need to hear B. Brett Finlay extol the power of microbes. The microbiologist says kids could use more dirt in their lives and even in their mouths.

Indigenous activists in Canada and the U.S. are urging the Lakota Sioux to stand their ground in the Dakota Access pipeline dispute that they say has implications for Native lands. The company behind the pipeline says it's safe but the standoff continues.

From a proposed ban on using a mobile device while crossing the street, to Jennifer Welsh on the historical forces behind our tumultuous present, to how microplastic fibres in our oceans are affecting creatures of the deeps... This is The Current.

Our oceans are choking from plastic water bottles washing up on the beach to tiny microplastic fibres beneath the sea. It's not clear what the long-term effects will be. The Current explores the efforts to haul tons of plastic off Vancouver's west coast

After the fall of the Soviet Union and the Berlin Wall, it seemed to some thinkers we'd arrived at the "end of history." But it sure doesn't seem that way today. This year's Massey lecturer Jennifer Welsh shares her thoughts on The Return of History.

There are moments when content on a smartphone can make you oblivious to your surrounding and at imminent risk. It's called "distracted walking" and the push to criminalize it, or at least outlaw it, has begun in Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto. Heads up!