About CBC Podcasts
Critically acclaimed, highly addictive. CBC Podcasts is a diverse collection of internationally lauded, award-winning series. Our slate includes investigative juggernauts such as Someone Knows Something and Uncover, rich and moving stories about the human condition such as Welcome to Paradise and Alone: A Love Story, and the most listened-to Canadian news podcast, Front Burner. We are based in Toronto, but our staff and our stories come from across Canada and around the world.
Interested in working with us? We're always looking for a good story. Consider submitting a pitch. And subscribe to our biweekly newsletter, to keep up with the latest in the world of podcasting.
Meet the team!
Anna Ashitey, Digital Producer
Anna began her career with CBC as one of 2021's Joan Donaldson Scholars, interning with CBC Kids News, Metro Morning, and the Investigative Unit. Before joining the podcast team, Anna worked as a Social Media Producer for CBC's Being Black in Canada and as an Associate Producer for local Toronto radio programs. Lately, Anna has been working on amplifying the department's extensive archive catalogue.
Amanda Cox, Cross-Promotions Producer
Amanda first got her start in digital media with BBC America and has worked on large scale events with CBC including the Olympic Games. She now works across the entire CBC Podcasts portfolio with internal teams and external podcast partners to support strategic audience growth.
Arif Noorani, Director
Arif is the Director of CBC Podcasts, helping launch the studio in 2015. He leads content and strategy, and has developed more than 50 award-winning and internationally recognized series across the slate for our main umbrellas Uncover, Someone Knows Something, The Con, Personally and Split Screen.
Ashley Mak, Senior Producer
Ashley is a Senior Producer and showrunner at CBC Podcasts, having worked on acclaimed investigative, narrative series such as Evil By Design,White Hot Hate and Gay Girl Gone. Ashley began her journalism career in the UK, working in TV documentaries. In a change of pace and location, she then returned to her native Australia to work as a daily TV news and current affairs producer. Landing in Canada and at CBC presented her with the opportunity to produce agenda-setting audio journalism, and she's previously worked on programs like The Current, q and Front Burner. At CBC Podcasts, Ashley is keenly involved in Development, while continuing to produce and write original series.
Cesil Fernandes, Executive Producer
Cesil Fernandes is Executive Producer of Production and Sound Design for CBC Podcasts, managing titles such as Someone Knows Something, The Village and The Kill List. Before creating one of the studio's first original series, Back Story, Cesil traveled Canada and the world for CBC News, covering stories from the Papal Conclave to the Sochi Winter Olympics. He's covered elections in Canada and the U.S. and his reports from the remote island of Eleuthera shone a light on over-fishing in the Bahamas.
Chris Oke, Executive Producer
Chris is Executive Producer of Content at CBC Podcasts, having worked primarily on investigative and long-form series such as Someone Knows Something, Hunting Warhead and Brainwashed. Chris got his start at the Yukon News and went on to report from Argentina and Tanzania, freelancing for Agence France-Presse, The Economist and The Globe & Mail, among others. His poetry has also appeared in a variety of literary journals and anthologies.
Daemon Fairless, Senior Producer
Daemon is a Senior Producer, writer and host with CBC Podcasts. He specializes in long-form narrative including investigative true-crime and memoir. He hosted and produced the award-winning series Hunting Warhead and has produced series such as Welcome To Paradise and Boys Like Me. He has a graduate degree in psychology and neuroscience and has worked as a radio-journalist for close to 20 years. He's written, produced and hosted television. And as a print journalist he's reported from Canada, England, Spain, Australia and India. He's also the author of the non-fiction book, Mad Blood Stirring: the inner lives of violent men (Penguin Random House).
Émilie Quesnel, Digital Producer
Émilie is a digital/coordinating producer with CBC Podcasts, with a special focus on the true crime and investigative series. She helps bring a podcast's online existence to life, having coordinated the roll-out of series like Uncover, Hunting Warhead, White Hot Hate, Boys Like Me, The Kill List and more. She got her start at CBC in the radio department in 2017 via the Gzowski internship program after completing a joint BA in journalism and psychology.
Emily MacLean, Administrative Support
Emily is the admin support for Leslie Merklinger, Arif Noorani, and the CBC Podcasts team. She has been with the department since 2021. When not running the weekly team meetings, taking notes, creating presentation decks, and organizing multiple calendars, Emily can be found chilling with her cats.
Evan Aagaard, Video Producer
Evan is the video producer for the department and helps write, produce, shoot and edit visual content for CBC Podcasts' entire slate of shows. Evan develops the visual look and feel of each series through video trailers, host and character interviews, short documentaries, explainer videos and photography to help promote the show and keep the listening audience engaged. He's a one-man-band with a laptop and a backpack full of cameras.
Evan has also created audio documentary work for the The Doc Project series, provided footage for CBC News and The National and once met Viggo Mortensen in an elevator. In his spare time Evan enjoys kayak touring and astrophotography.
Evan Kelly, Sound Designer
Evan is a sound designer and mixer for CBC Podcasts. Since starting with the team in 2019, he's mixed a number of CBC's true crime podcast series and led the sound design for some of the top shows, such as Uncover, Someone Knows Something, and Evil By Design. Working collaboratively with team members, Evan brings the stories you hear to life and helps raise the volume (literally!) of important voices that need to be heard.
Falen Johnson, Host/Producer
Falen Johnson is Mohawk and Tuscarora from Six Nations Grand River Territory in Southern Ontario. Her writing has been featured in the Brick, The Canadian Theatre Review, and Granta Magazine. She has written for television productions such as, Urban Native Girl (APTN), Merchants of the Wild (APTN) and the 2020 Indspire Awards (CBC).
Falen has guest hosted Unreserved, Day 6, What on Earth, and Q all with CBC Radio 1. She is the co-host and co-creator of The Secret Life of Canada.
She was finalist for the Governor General's Award for English-language drama in 2021 and was shortlisted for the Toronto Book Awards in 2022 and she was named one to watch in 2020 by Maclean's Magazine.
Geoff Turner, Senior Producer
Geoff is a Senior Producer with CBC Podcasts and hosted the series Recall: How to Start a Revolution. He has been a producer at CBC since 2010. He created On Drugs, a New York Festival award-winning CBC Podcast. Geoff was a founding producer of CBC Radio's The 180, and senior producer of the program from 2015-2017. In a previous life, he was a special-effects technician, helping to make things blow up "real good" for feature films including X-Men 2, I, Robot and Fantastic Four. These days, he's all about Boston terriers and bicycles.
Graham MacDonald, Sound Designer
Graham has been with CBC Podcasts since 2018 creating audio in varying capacities — from producing series to scoring them with original music. These days he's mostly working as a sound designer, bringing series like On Drugs, The Secret Life of Canada, and Crime Story, to sonic life. Before the CBC, Graham studied Buddhism at the University of Toronto and spends most of his free time exploring small towns and backroads on his motorcycle.
Hadeel Abdel-Nabi, Producer
Hadeel is a Producer with CBC Podcasts with a focus on investigative storytelling. She has worked on The Next Call with David Ridgen and season 7 of Someone Knows Something. Before joining CBC, Hadeel was a freelance reporter and producer based in Calgary, Alta. where she attended Mount Royal University's journalism program.
Ilina Ghosh, Producer
Ilina Ghosh is a Producer with CBC Podcasts. She has been with the team since 2018 and specializes in writing and producing long-form investigative series. Her work includes Bloodlines, The Kill List, Evil By Design and multiple seasons of the acclaimed Uncover series. Before joining CBC Podcasts, she worked with CBC Radio, CBC News and the Globe and Mail.
Jason Paris, Manager, Audience & Production Support
Jason serves as a key coordinator and project manager on the CBC Podcasts team. He is the primary contact for all physical space and equipment requirements, while also supporting audience engagement, conference planning, and providing general administrative support to the coordinating producers. Prior to this role, Jason held a similar position with CBC's television production unit—now known as CBC Studios. He brings a wealth of experience from across the Canadian media landscape, with previous roles at Alliance Atlantis, I.A.T.S.E. 873, and the North American Broadcasters Association (a kind of North American Eurovision—just without the singing).
Jay Tharayil, Staffing, Administration and Development Advisor
Jay is in charge of staffing for CBC Podcasts and advises leadership on strategic decisions. He also manages many administrative operations for the team. Before joining CBC Podcasts, Jay worked with CBC Finance, and before that, he spent time with Rogers Sportsnet.
Julia Wittmann, Sound Designer
Julia is a Toronto-based sound designer and musician. She has a BA in Media Production and an MFA in Documentary Media, both from Toronto Metropolitan University. Before joining CBC Podcasts in 2021, she worked as an Associate Producer/Technician for CBC Radio, contributing to programs such as Ideas and The World This Hour. Julia's podcast work includes Bloodlines, The Kill List, and several series within the Understood umbrella. With a documentary filmmaking background, Julia gravitates toward social justice oriented documentaries and investigations. As a musician and composer, she loves bringing her musical sensibilities to podcast productions.
Julian Uzielli, Producer/Sound Designer
Julian is a producer and sound designer, and has mixed CBC series including Crime Story, Other People's Problems and Understood. Before joining the sound design team in 2024, he was a producer at Podcast Playlist (RIP) where he spent six years curating the best shows in the podcast industry and producing interviews with the people who make them. He got his start at CBC in 2015 at The Current where he covered major stories like the Fort McMurray wildfire and the 2016 U.S. election. Over the years he's also worked at other CBC shows including As It Happens, Tapestry and Day 6.
Kate Evans, Senior Producer
Kate Evans is an award winning and podcast obsessed senior producer. She manages titles such as Podcast Playlist, Split Screen: Kid Nation, The Secret Life of Canada, The CBC Podcast Showcase with Gavin Crawford and the upcoming season of Other People's Problems.
Her love of discovering new pods led her to host a podcast trending column for CBC Radio 1 and act as a judge for the National Media Awards Foundation in the podcast category (naturally). In addition to her work at the CBC she is an adjunct professor for the Humber College Radio and Media Production postgraduate program. More recently Kate taught podcasting to students from all over the world with the Humber Global Summer School program.
Kelsey Cueva, Associate Producer, Cross-Promotions
Kelsey got her start at CBC with CBC Radio's Network Talk Internship Program in 2019. (Fun fact: She was the first to ever intern for CBC Podcasts). She went on to become an Associate Producer for Podcast Playlist – highlighting the best in podcasting and interviewing the people who make them – until the end of the show's run in 2024.
She now works with the Cross-Promotions team, supporting strategic audience growth and finding new ways to bring podcast teams together to collaborate.
Leslie Merklinger, Executive Director
Leslie is the Executive Director of CBC Podcasts, which was launched in 2015.
Prior to moving to audio, Leslie was an award-winning television producer, director and Commissioning Editor.
Roshini Nair, Digital Producer
Roshini has been a digital producer with CBC Podcasts since 2022 working on shows like Kuper Island, The Secret Life of Canada, Run, Hide, Repeat and Front Burner. She started her career at CBC in 2016 as a News Scholar in the CBC Vancouver newsroom, going on to write for CBC News Vancouver's digital team for five years and producing on Party Lines, Unreserved and Unforked. Roshini first fell in love with audio through campus and community radio, in the newsroom at CJSR Edmonton and as co-host of Desi Dhamaka in CKUT Montreal. She is based in Vancouver.
Tanya Springer, Senior Manager
Tanya leads CBC Podcasts' digital and distribution strategy. Her favourite part of the job is helping editorial teams frame and shape their stories, so that they're best-positioned to reach and resonate with global listeners. Tanya started her journalism career broadcast news. She has produced documentaries from India, Slovakia and Rwanda, and founded CBC's nation-wide mentorship program for emerging documentary creators.
Veronica Simmonds, Senior Producer
Described by THIS Magazine as a "Sonic Sorceress", Veronica has helped bring to life some of our most groundbreaking series: Tai Asks Why, Alone: A Love Story, Sleepover and The Fridge Light. Veronica got her start making experimental radio documentaries that aired on CBC Ideas and The Doc Project as well as on ABC Soundproof and BBC Short Cuts — her audio artworks have featured internationally at the Hearsay International Audio Festival, Third Coast International Radio Festival, Hot Docs Festival, Bivouac Radiophonique, and Megapolis Audio Art Festival. Most recently she's been producing and editing series at Wondery and Novel, including the hit show The Girlfriends. There's nothing she loves more than working with production teams to turn their wild dreams and resonant tape into podcasts listeners connect with.