Speaking specifically about the 'Podcast Playlist' show - while I don't disagree that it can be an interesting nexus for new information, I don't think it needs to be on the air at all. If the objective is curation, that could easily and more effectively be done via an online feed where the shows are actually hyperlinked, tagged, & made accessible. I'm not a radio producer so, grain of salt. But from my armchair, seems to me that the CBC should aspire to something higher than 'content aggregation' or rebroadcasting material from other stations. I expect that sort of thing from a donation funded campus & community radio station where maybe someone isn't in the booth at 2am, but not from a national broadcaster that receives funding from Canadian taxpayers.
With Writers & Company, I was referring to the host stepping down. I don't know about you, but in my opinion, she kind of was the show in a sense. AFAIK there won't be any new episodes, and that's a loss.
More broadly, I like that Canada has a national broadcaster, I just think it could be better.