{"podcast":{"title":"The Hatchet","slug":"the-hatchet-7116624","podcast_index_feed_id":7116624,"rss_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/3224756.rss","website_url":"https://hatchetmedia.ca/podcast","image_url":"https://substackcdn.com/feed/podcast/3224756/dc7e30f5d0184496af4b9aa1730f6967.jpg","author":"Hatchet Media","episode_count":56,"summary":"The Hatchet is a publication focused on exposing power and money in Canada. Created by Arshy Mann and Jordan Cornish.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-23T22:17:25.238466+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-hatchet-7116624"},"episode":{"title":"Separation Anxiety (w/ Paul Wells)","slug":"separation-anxiety-w-paul-wells","published_at":"2026-02-06T08:52:13+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-hatchet-7116624/separation-anxiety-w-paul-wells","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-hatchet-7116624","url":"https://hatchetmedia.ca/p/separation-anxiety-w-paul-wells","audio_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/187059311/422dbf48dec8099ded82f7f30f488c8e.mp3","summary":"This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit hatchetmedia.ca Just over a year ago, when we were launching The Hatchet , there was one thing in particular that worried me — I’ve never felt fluent in federal politics. I think I knew as much as your average journalist — I followed the news, I had my opinions and I had a general sense of the history. But outside of the occasional story, it just wasn’t a beat that I had a lot of experience covering. Once Trudeau resigned in January 2025, it became clear that Parliament Hill was going to dominate the news cycle. And so over that winter break, I set myself a mission. I was going to learn as much as I could about federal politics. I went back and read through (or at least familiarized myself with) as many of the classic books of Canadian political journalism and history as I could. Most were written by authors that we don’t talk about much anymore, despite the fact that they were giants of their respective eras. Christina McCall-Newman , Jeffrey Simpson , Peter C. Newman , Donald Creighton , John Duffy . And then there were excellent books by more contemporary writers about the Ottawa of the past and present from journalists like Susan Delacourt and John Ibbitson . But none of these writers, great though they may be, made me feel like I was getting a nitty-gritty understanding of federal politics more than Paul Wells. Now of course, like almost every journalist in the country with even a passing interesting in federal politics, I’ve been reading Wells for years. But during that winter, I really immersed myself in his work, his books , past features, his current reporting , the whole shebang. And I have to say, I often found myself disagreeing with him. But I emerged with a new appreciation for what he does. We…","meta_description":"This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit hatchetmedia.ca Just over a year ago, when we were launching The Hatchet , there was one thi…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":365,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-hatchet-7116624/episodes/separation-anxiety-w-paul-wells/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-hatchet-7116624/separation-anxiety-w-paul-wells.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}