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author talks about her new memoir, but first – >> there’s no desire. there’s never like gee whiz i should have a beer. >> data is showing popular weight loss drugs may have the potential to treat drug and alcohol addictions. jennifer yoon breaks down what the latest research re-vees and what scientists are concerned about. >> this is a can i’ve had for four years on the shelf and that wouldn’t have happened in the past. >> reporter: on average, mike used to drink between four to five drinks a night. sometimes up to 10. but all that changed when he started taking ozempic for weight loss. along with 110 pounds he lost his appetite for alcohol. >> there’s no desire. that’s just it. there’s no desire. there’s never like gee whiz, i should have a beer. no, it just doesn’t even enter my mind. >> reporter: he’s not alone. you may have heard this before. >> it’s crazy, i no longer get the desire to get a margarita. >> reporter: it appears the

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medications also help reduce cravings or alcohol, nicotine, even opioids. >> my husband didn’t want to drink anymore. >> reporter: researchers sifting through data found people taking drugs like ozempic glp 1s tend to end all vices. alcohol, cannabis, opioids, even caffeine consumption and compulsive shopping tends to decrease. but they’re not sure who exactly is happening and are working on solving the problem from here in canada. so is ozempic an anti-desire drug? what do we know and what don’t we know? one thing we know, these drugs have an impact on our brains. to get to the bottom of this we need to know how desire works in the brain and we need to talk about dopamine. it’s a neurotransmitter that gets released when you do something that feels good like eating a bite of this cake. that dopamine release is

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essentially telling me that’s great. do it again. and it’s giving me a surge of motivation to repeat the actions. that system, the rewards system is what researchers think is being affected by drugs like ozempic. this researcher just finished a phase ii clinical trial looking at how glp ones affect the reward system. >> lie down. rest your head. >> reporter: he’s having me do the same cognitive tests he gave to 72 study participants. some on a glp one, others on a placebo. he measures how much energy i use as i follow complicated directions. >> do you want to do something hard and or do you want to do something easy and earn less? >> reporter: the question how hard are you willing to work for a cash prize and does that change when you take glp ones? he studies those with depression suffering from low energy and motivation.

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>> what drives this in depression. >> reporter: he thinks his findings would be helpful to understand what glp 1s do to our brains more generally. that could also help treat addiction. >> how central is motivation in addiction? >> it’s critical. this is our laboratory. >> reporter: if they target motivation, desire and pleasure, that can make it a game changer says this addictions researcher. >> addiction is complicated. that’s why the existing medications we have are generally drugs specific. so opioid drugs for opioid use disorder. nicotine for tobacco use disorder. what’s exciting is that they seem to be helpful for a variety of substance use disorders. >> reporter: to know if glp 1s can help, we need good randomized trials. but there are very few testing that. >> the hype is outpacing the evidence. >> reporter: researchers at the university of southern california gave heavy drinkers a

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choice. take a drink at a fake bar that’s actually a research lab or get some cash. researchers also kept track of how much people were drinking at home, comparing a group of people on the glp 1 in ozempic to another on a placebo. >> they reported reductions in their weekly alcohol craving relative to the placebo and we found that the medication group reported reductions in quantity consumed per drinking day. >> reporter: while the emerging data is promising, researchers are hungry for long-term data to make sure these drugs are effective and won’t cause harm. >> there are receptors in the brain. >> reporter: this psychiatrist says there are several studies proposed at the centre for addiction and mental health looking at glp 1s for nicotine and alcohol use disorders. >> making sure that we have the solid evidence base to understand not just that they work but how they work and the potential side effect. >> reporter: side effect are

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known. nausea, diarrhea, stomach pain, vomiting. others are just starting to be understood. >> there’s some concern the drugs may reduce motivation for other things. physical activity, motivation for socializing. they may be sort of anti-pleasure or anti-desire drugs and that’s not necessarily a good thing in terms of promoting a healthy recovery. >> reporter: a key part of addiction recovery is a healthy lifestyle, according to experts. that depends on the pleasure people find in life like exercise, hobbies and the company of loved ones. >> erica: unexpected impact on the brain but jennifer, just one of several unexpected benefits linked to the drug that scene se studying. >> these drugs haven’t been approved for some conditions and scientists are learning about unexpected risks, too, like pancreatitis. researchers say there’s so much

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we don’t know about the drugs, even with popularity skyrocketing and generic versions look to hit the market starting next year. >> erica: thanks for this. jennifer yoon in toronto. now here’s a story we’re working on for next week. lyndsay duncombe digs into the proposed expansion of a northern bc mine and the reasons it wound up on the prime minister’s major projects list. >> one of the five major projects on the federal government’s list is the expansion of the red chris copper and gold mine in northwestern bc. highlighting this project sends a signal that the federal government wants to transform this part of northwestern bc. the economic opportunity is big, but there are risks. why do you not want to expand? >> copper is a very attractive mineral within our portfolio. >> reporter: why so attractive? copper conducts electricity.

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want solar panels? you need copper. want evs, copper, want to build transmission lines, ai data centres, battery storage? copper, copper, copper. >> erica: coming up, a celebrated canadian author pulls no punches in her new memoir. >> there are some people who remain unnamed in the book. >> they’re still alive. >> and there are some people who are still alive who are named. >> they don’t mind because i say nice things about them. >> erica: margaret atwood reveals the connections between real life and art next.

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[ ♪♪♪ ] >> erica: margaret atwood’s books helped shape modern literature and popular culture. >> my mother said you’re going to be a writer, you better learn

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to spell. >> erica: now the author is writing about herself atwood’s long-awaited memoir released in week. >> i think i was nervous about the ending. it’s not going to end happily ever after, matt. >> erica: mat galloway host of the cbc’s current sat down with margaret atwood who shared the stories and revealed why she was nervous to write the ending. >> reporter: do you like holding a grudge? >> i don’t have a choice. i’m a scorpio. we hold grudges. it’s not an attractive thing to say about yourself. i struggle against it. but not very hard. >> reporter: in the heart of toronto beneath the vaulted ceilings of the thomas fisher rare book library history rests quietly between the pages. it’s a place where stories

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endure and home to the largest collection of margaret atwood’s archives. taking up more than 100 meters of shelf space, inside hundreds of boxes you will find everything from the early stories she wrote as a child, handwritten drafts of her poetry, short stories and novels, manuscripts, research, letters, photographs, even margaret atwood’s artwork is here. few authors have shaped the landscape of modern literature and popular culture like margaret atwood. for more than six decades, she’s challenged the way we see the world through her examination of power, identity and the human spirit. her prescient warnings of dystopian futures in novels like “the handmaid’s tale.” now after writing more than 50 books, margaret atwood is finally sharing her story with book of lives, a memoir of sorts. this is my conversation with one of canada’s true national treasures.

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the last time you and i spoke you were on the stage and you were finishing this book and you were nervous about it. why would you be nervous about telling your own story? >> i think i was nervous about the ending. it’s not going to end happily ever after, matt. just letting you know. >> reporter: just in case people don’t know where everything goes. what did your parents think of you declaring that you wanted to be a writer? >> i think they were horrified. >> reporter: horrified. >> probably. what? i think they were she will get over it. and but being my parents, they didn’t say any of this. my mother said if you’re going to be a writer, you better learn to spell. [ laughter ] i was a bad speller. a lot of writers are because they spell by ear. so i said others will do that for me and they have. so then they invited a

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journalist to dinner and he said that if i were going to work for a newspaper, as a female person, i would end up writing the obituaries and the lady’s pages and that would be it. so then i thought well maybe i should go to university after all. [ laughter ] >> reporter: you say in the book at that time there wasn’t – you’re hinting at this. there wasn’t a literary scene in the country. >> well, there was, but it was just very underground and quite small. >> reporter: you said canadians didn’t respect writing, especially canadian writing. >> that was true. i was told by other people if you want to be a writer, you better go to england or you better go to new york or if you were french speaking you should go to paris. >> reporter: why didn’t you do that? why did you stay? >> i did go to the states but not as a writer. i went as a graduate student. why did i come back and stay?

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the canada council had gotten up and running and there were other people my age who also had stayed and some of them then started literary magazines, some of them started little publishing companies and i got associated with one of those. >> reporter: when i came into this space here, i looked over behind us and there’s an early, early draft of the handmade’s tale. >> yes. >> reporter: how do you understand why so many people say it’s more relevant now than even when it was published. >> it wasn’t very relevant when it was published. that’s just it. >> reporter: what have you learned about how – i mean i think people see what’s going on right now and they see people scooped off the streets and put on to planes and sent off to other countries and they’re wondering how they push back. they’re wondering how they fit?

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this. what have you learned about that? >> okay, you had a no kings event in the united states. that’s part of it. there’s a lot of pushback through the courts, but when i see you know these facilities being built and people being scooped with no warning, it’s the 30s and it’s also, you know, violently unconstitutional. and you are seeing a move away from the principles on which the united states was founded in the 18th century back towards absolutism. that’s one side of it. the other side is americans are ornery. they don’t like lining up and saluting. they don’t like other people telling them what to do or say or think or read and that is now coming out. i think they’re coming out of their shock and numbness and

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fear that they had right after the election and they’re putting on frog’s heads and... having big rallies. >> reporter: fighting back. >> well, i wouldn’t call it fighting yet. we’re not having physical violence and that’s smart of them. they know the other side is just looking for a chance to send in the storm troopers. so best not to be violent. >> reporter: one of the neat things about this book is that you realize that a lot of the characters that we know from your novels are drawn from actual real people and i mean you can offer plausible deniability when you’re doing interviews about the books, but it turns out maybe there were real people. can i ask you about that? some people remain unnamed in the book. >> they’re still alive. >> and there are some people who are still alive who are named. >> they don’t mind because i say nice things about them. >> some people you don’t say nice things – >> they deserve it.

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>> reporter: do you like holding a grudge? >> i don’t a choice, i’m a scorpio. we hold grudges. it’s not an attractive thing to say about yourself. i struggle against it. but not very hard. >> reporter: when we started talking, you said that one of the things that you were nervous about with this book was the end and writing about the end. >> the end. >> reporter: can i ask you a little bit about that? the way that you write at the end of this book about – >> we’re not going to talk about the end because that’s blowing the ending, matt. >> it’s not the end-end. [ laughter ] >> it’s not the end-end. >> reporter: it’s different than anything i’ve read by you, the way you write about graham and dementia and his decline. what was it like to write that? >> well, it was truthful. it was sad. it was... not fun at the time. and parts of the book were fun at the time. parts of it weren’t fun at the

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time. but were funny afterwards. and this is just an interlude in which things are sad. >> reporter: you read his palm as well? >> yes. >> what did graham make of you reading his palm? >> he came to me holding his hand. >> reporter: you say in the book that he would look at you and he would think canoe trips. >> well, that’s a joke. so, you know, in those days, people look at you and they think different things. but i think he thought canoe trip. because it’s not easy. it’s not easy always to find somebody who will go on canoe trips with you and be any good at it. >> reporter: there’s a line at the end of – near the end of the book. that says art is long, life is fleeting. the shadows lengthening. i’m living in the half life of a partial eclipse. >> you’re not very old yet. >> older than i’ve ever been. [ laughter ]

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>> it’s your birthday. happy birthday. >> reporter: thank you. >> yeah. well, this is just what happens when you get older. >> reporter: what do you want – i hope the time is long. what do you want to do with the time you have left? >> you put that so succinctly. i’m not sure. i wouldn’t tell you anyway. i certainly wouldn’t tell you what i’m working on, so don’t even ask. but, you know, i can still walk. this is good. >> erica: and you watch the extended version of the current interview with margaret atwood and even see her give matt his own personal palm reading on our website cbc.ca. up next, he’s 7’9“ and making college basketball history. >> all the other players were cheerful for him, excited. >> erica: the canadian teen who just set a big record next.

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>> cbc’s daily news podcast, front burner takes you deep inside the stories shaping canada and the world. new episodes come out every morning monday to friday. subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and on youtube. >> erica: this is olivier rioux, he’s 19 years old from terrebonne, québec. and 7’9“ which is why he just made history. he already holds a record for world’s tallest teenager and after making his ncaa debut, he can add tallest college basketball player. and to talk about that moment, we caught up with his dad. >> 7’9“ the new record for

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tallest college basketball player. >> very professional. olivier made history for being the tallest player on the field for college basketball game in the ncad 1. it was a big game. he was able to go on the floor and play just a bit. it was enough for the crowd to be wild. >> this is as loud as it’s been all night. >> lots of people sometimes don’t understand. being tall, 7’9“ is good but you have to be ready to be on the floor to be there. all the other players who are cheerful for him. excited. i wasn’t expecting all the media, but it’s okay, it’s a few times olivier is going viral. i’m very proud of him and what he’s able to achieve. >> erica: here’s another interesting fact about olivier.

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he wears a size 20 shoe which is actually not a record. his dad says while it’s a very cool achievement to be the tallest college basketball player, there’s a whole lot more to olivier and he’s excited to see where his career goes. he’s hoping olivier makes it to the nba. from all of us at “the national” thank you for watching. i’m erica johnson in vancouver. take care. [ ♪♪♪ ] [ ♪♪♪ ] [ ♪♪♪ ] [ ♪♪♪ ] [ ♪

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[♪♪♪] [♪♪♪] [♪♪♪] >> andrew: donald trump was most >> andrew: donald trump was most definitely not on the ballot, definitely not on the ballot, but he sort of, kind of, was. but he sort of, kind of, was. >> the trump factor. >> the trump factor. >> he is looming large over >> he is looming large over everything. everything. >> voters heading to the polls >> voters heading to the polls in what will amount to the first in what will amount to the first referendum on donald trump’s referendum on donald trump’s second term. second term. >> andrew: november 4th was >> andrew: november 4th was election night in america, not a election night in america, not a presidential election because we presidential election because we had one of those last year, but had one of those last year, but one of the first major elections one of the first major elections across the united states since across the united states since the election that put donald

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