Listening to As It Happens is like taking a trip around the world five nights a week. For more than 35 years, using the simplest of tools - the telephone - this current affairs program has explored the heart of a story, whether it's happening in the streets of Belgrade, the dockyards of Vancouver, the boardrooms of Bay Street, or the kitchens of Paris.

As It Happens gets its stories from "the horse's mouth" - securing interviews with world leaders, rabble-rousers, bingo callers and deposed dictators. The show has a soft-spot for "characters" and never turns its nose up at something wild, weird or wacky. And, on the complex and troubling stories of the day, As It Happens searches for greater understanding in the story behind the story.