Delving into the cultural zeitgeist and exploring different, perhaps unheard perspectives are central pillars of two new shows coming to CBC Radio One this month.

CBC broadcaster Piya Chattopadhyay is launching the weekly show Out in the Open on May 28, while The Candy Palmater Show — featuring the outspoken lawyer-turned-comic, actor and writer — will debut as a weekday program on May 30.

"It's real talk. It's about the nuance of life," Chattopadhyay, a familiar voice as occasional host of CBC's The Current, q and Metro Morning, said of her new show.

Set to air Saturdays at 3 p.m., Out in the Open will centre on one topic each week.

When I go for a beer with my buddies, we talk about things that are pretty complex — most of us do... I want to explore all those issues. - Piya Chattopadhyay

Chattopadhyay and her team will "peel back the layers of one big issue" — topics include legal marijuana, belonging and identity, or sharing secrets online — in order to explore diverse voices and points of view.

Each episode will be preceded by a podcast (the first premieres on May 18) tied to the theme of the broadcast version and inviting audience feedback.

"When I go for a beer with my buddies, we talk about things that are pretty complex — most of us do. We talk about things like 'Do you want to have a kid or do you not want to have a kid? What do you think about race: is Donald Trump really a racist or not?' Race, gender, all those identity things... I want to explore all those issues.

"We live in a media world where there's someone on the right, someone on the left and some voice in the middle," Chattopadhyay noted.

"I think life's a lot more nuanced than that and a lot more grey. I think, like most people, I'm really conflicted on the big questions."

'Outside the box'

With her two-hour weekday show (airing Mondays to Fridays at 1 p.m.), Candy Palmater said she's interested in being "a little looser and little more outside the box" in exploring a variety of perspectives on different topics and "the things that can help us understand one another a little better" — with everything presented through her distinctive lens.

I have no filter. I am unedited and on CBC that is not what people are used to hearing. - Candy Palmater

"I have no filter. I am unedited and on CBC that is not what people are used to hearing," she said.

An international speaker, the creator and star of TV's The Candy Show and a recurring actor on Trailer Park Boys, Palmater is a regular columnist with CBC Radio's The Next Chapter and has previously guest-hosted CBC Radio's q and DNTO.

The multi-hyphenate Mi'kmaw woman from Nova Scotia said her hosting inspirations range from Barbara Walters and Oprah Winfrey to Ryan Seacrest and Mick Jagger.

"The sad thing about being a seasoned host is that when you are really good at it, it looks super easy and people don't even acknowledge it's happening," she said of American Idol MC Seacrest.

But Jagger?

"The first time I saw the Rolling Stones play live, I was amazed that in a field of 850,000 people, every single one of us felt like Mick Jagger was connecting with us individually," Palmater recalled.

"As a host, that is what I want to do."