Podcast
The Big Story
Episodes — page 96
Have you ever purchased a ‘Bland’?Welcome to the newest era of consumer capitalism. It's dominated by 'Blands' — clean, sleek, online products that bill themselves as the handcrafted little guy here to disrupt the…
What will the ‘Middle Class’ of the 2020s look like?Middle Class is a term that comes from the 1950s, and while the economics surrounding it have changed fundamentally in 70 years, the goals and hopes and dreams of the people that b…
Will BC’s government fix the racism in its health care system?An investigation into an allegation of a racist game being played by hospital staff turned into a detailed report about system racism in British Columbia's health care system. The…
Covid-19 has hit Canadian charities where it hurtsThis is the time of year when Canadians traditionally up their giving. But a lot of that tends to happen in person. This year, Covid-19 has made that tough. And the big picture isn…
How the PlayStation took over Sony, and games took over the worldYou probably don't have a PlayStation 5. And even if you don't want one, there's likely someone in your life who is desperate to get their hands on it. Sony—a company that once sol…
What we do and don’t know about Covid-19 vaccines for CanadiansWe have more doses on order per capita than any other nation. But we also have no real domestic production capacity. If you ask the Liberals, we're among the world leaders in terms…
A delicate balance between humans, bears and fishIt's a cycle that repeats itself in many ecosystems where humans live: Harmony, profit, imbalance and then a desperate need to fix things. When wild salmon runs around Wuikinuxv, B…
Vancouver wants to decriminalize all drugs. Will it happen? Will it help?Last week Vancouver's City Council voted unanimously to ask the federal government for an exemption that would allow the city to decriminalize small amounts of all drugs. The move…
Who is the woman who broke baseball’s glass ceiling?One thing people around the game who know Kim Ng agree on is that she should have had a top job long ago. But considering baseball's legacy of promoting ex-players, many doubted th…
Sometimes you have to talk about Fight ClubIt seemed like a prank posted to social media—but there are witnesses who confirmed that the advertised fight night between McGill University students actually happened. Nobody was…
Small businesses are desperate and angry, and close to ruinThe irresponsible and illegal opening of an Etobicoke, Ontario BBQ joint this week ended Thursday when the owner was finally arrested. But in the Toronto area, it remains to be see…
How Alberta’s Covid-19 control crashed and burnedFor the first six months of the pandemic, Alberta was one of the best provinces in Canada at containing Covid-19. Then it all went wrong. This week alone, the province had a day in…
“Rural” Canada is not far from the city, and the internet still sucksHalton Hills is just over an hour's drive from Toronto. Many of its residents have been working from home for months. Issues were first raised about its internet connectivity 15 ye…
Roommates and the global pandemicFamilies have spent the past eight months in closer quarters than ever before. But what about people who share a home and aren't related or dating one another? How are roommates ne…
What will happen to Canadian seniors this winter?We want elderly Canadians, who are heightened risk from Covid-19, to be safe. For much of the past eight months, that has meant hundreds of thousands of grandparents haven't seen t…
How is QAnon coping with Trump’s loss?As you might imagine, QAnon supporters believed that Donald Trump would handily win reelection. When he didn't, it blew a hole in the conspirac--hah, of course it didn't. New theor…
What happens when we’re tempted by herd immunity in a dark winterThe proposal is called the Great Barrington Declaration, and while it's couched in lots of scientific language, herd immunity is what it boils down to. It has support from a group…
How will restaurants survive the winter?At least in the spring, there was a summer to come and some sort of certainty — restaurants would stay closed until Covid-19 was under control. This Fall, in most places in Canada,…
How Nunavut’s bubble finally poppedThe territory went more than seven months as the last Covid-19-free spot in North America, but the past weeks have seen one case turn into a couple of dozen. Why did the bubble wor…
How conspiracy became our new religionAlmost two weeks after the American election, leading social media platforms are inundated with false claims about the results. Claims that are supported and amplified by Donald Tr…
