The Big Story

The polls are not looking good for Justin Trudeau and company. The Liberals' recent cabinet shuffle failed to halt their downward slide. And even their territorial advantage in Ontario seems to be waning. But there's still likely another year-plus to go before the next election, so plenty of time...right? Well, maybe.Canadian history tells us that governments winning a fourth straight election is rare, and that voters definitely tire of prime ministers after multiple campaigns—so what might the Liberals do to change the narrative? And will it matter if Canadians are just angry? At Trudeau, inflation, the climate and whatever else happens to be blamed on the government.GUEST: David Moscrop, writer, author, podcaster, and political commentator, find him at: davidmoscrop.substack.com We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

A new report looks at the circumstances that led to the convoy's arrival in Ottawa (and other places across Canada) in early 2022, and finds that it stems from a series of events that began in 2015. It took years before efforts at forming a convoy and rolling to Ottawa actually came together—and there were several failed tries along the way.So what changed during the pandemic? How were far right Canadians able to band together long enough to organize the event, and why were so many more relatively moderate citizens drawn to their cause? Was this an example of lightning in a bottle, or the new face of extremism in Canada?GUEST: Stephanie Carvin, national security expert, author of Polarization and Ideologically Motivated Violent Extremism in Canada since 2015 We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

It's almost time for what will likely become your annual covid shot—assuming you're one of the people who will actually get it. Canada's vaccine advisory committee updated its guidelines to urge everyone in the authorized age groups (which are still to be determined) to get the new booster when it arrives this fall.What is the booster and who needs it? What will the fall bring in terms of covid and other respiratory viruses? Why are so many people still refusing to get an annual shot, when so many more get the flu shot every year, and how should public health be tackling that problem?GUEST: Sabina Vohra-Miller, masters in clinical pharmacology We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

We realized recently that we've done an awful lot of climate coverage this summer, and that it's been overwhelmingly depressing. So, as we take a brief hiatus for this long weekend Monday, we thought we'd dig this old episode out of the vault, where climate scientist, Katharine Hayhoe, outlines a better way to do climate discourse. We hope you enjoy! --------------------ORIGINAL SHOW NOTES:Reports on the impact of a rapidly warming globe make some people depressed. They make some people angry. And they make others deny scientific research altogether. They don't make anybody hopeful...but maybe they should?Today's discussion with climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe—guest editor of this month's issue of Chatelaine—is an answer to the despair you might feel when reading the latest news stories. It's also a lesson in how to talk to your friends and family who either don't believe in climate change or aren't willing to take any action because "it's too small to make a difference." You don't have to go vegan, sell your car, or move to the forest to make a difference—even though it might feel you do. There's a better way.GUEST: Katharine Hayhoe, climate scientist, guest editor of Chatelaine We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

It turns out Taylor Swift is coming to Canada after all! And if you're hoping to see her, you already know you'll be forking over hundreds of dollars. But in the past few years, even mid-tier concerts have crossed well into three-digit territory, and if smaller acts can afford to tour at all, they're taking a huge financial gamble to head out on the road.What's driven these prices through the roof? How has the streaming era impacted the life of a non-superstar musician? Will live music eventually end up with Taylor, Beyonce and Drake raking in billions, and everyone else fighting for the scraps? And if it does, what happens to the industry as a whole?GUEST: Soraya Roberts, culture reporter We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

On Tuesday Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, made good on a threat to block all news from Canadians on its platforms. Google is promising to do much the same thing, and has already tested its capacity to do so. Whatever side of the political debate over Bill C-18 you might be on, it's time to look at what the tech companies' retaliations to the bill will do in practice.How do Canadians find specific news without Google, Facebook and Instagram? If they're not encountering reliable news sources on those platforms, what will they find in their place? What does this do to smaller, independent publishers who rely on discoverability to grow their audience and what are some of them trying to do to get around the blocks?GUEST: Sarah Krichel, social media manager, The Tyee (read Sarah's analysis of the Meta/Google blocks here) We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

First it was fires. Then floods. Now the province, already devastated by two extreme events, will wait to see what kind of impact unusually warm ocean temperatures will have on this year's hurricane season. As the Earth heats up, the impact of the climate crisis is speeding up. Nowhere is safe, but places like Nova Scotia and Atlantic Canada, surrounded by so much ocean, might bear a heavier load. What can this summer of extremes teach us about the future of Eastern Canada? What comes next, and how should we prepare for it?GUEST: Dr. Kent Moore, professor of atmospheric physics at the University of Toronto, joins us from Nova Scotia We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Recently a feature story in Maclean's magazine described parents who were "losing their kids to Fortnite." While some gamers may hear that and see the kind of rhetoric that has followed video games around since their inception, others heard recognition and acknowledgement.Many behaviours, including video games, can be addicting, usually to a very small subset of people. But what makes video games different is that they are constantly evolving, and rapidly—usually with the goal of increasing the time spent playing them. As technology has improved, so has game design, and games with an online element have a social aspect that can also offer Fear Of Missing Out. So are modern games more addicting than ever? And if they are, how do we recognize and deal with that?GUEST: Luc Rinaldi, writing in Maclean's We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

This is the story of a scam that lasted for decades, and cost its victims over $200 million. It was run by a Canadian man who now sits in an American prison. It sold the services of a psychic, but that wasn't the problem with it—the issue was that the scammer used a particular psychic's likeness without permission.How did the scheme work, and who fell for it? Can you really scam people who are already voluntarily paying for a service that promises to tell you the future or make you rich? What can the saga of Patrice Runner teach us about the nature of deceit?GUEST: Rachel Browne, an investigative journalist and documentary producer, wrote about Patrice Runner for The Walrus We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Since the last covid lockdowns ended in 2021, barely a month has passed without major job actions—union drives at huge companies, or massive strikes in the public or private sectors—making headlines. If you look at the numbers, we're seeing the kind of labour push we haven't seen in decades. From Hollywood's writers and actors, Canada's federal government workers, Ontario's education support staff and BC's port workers, employees from all over are fighting for what they see as long overdue gains.Why is now the time, and will this moment last? Is this the return of a militant workforce ready to withhold their labour? A true generational shift? Or a brief moment that will be met with ferocity from employers trying to regain the upper hand?GUEST: Dr. Stephanie Ross, associate professor in the School of Labour Studies at McMaster University We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Cabinet shuffles ahead of a fall session of parliament aren't unusual, but Wednesday's changes which saw most of Justin Trudeau's ministers switch roles or exit cabinet altogether definitely are. All told 30 of 38 positions were shifted in sweeping changes that clearly show the government is ... what?Are they terrified by their recent drop in the polls? Chasing fresh voices and new perspectives? "Listening to Canadians," as Trudeau put it in his announcement Wednesday? Or even preparing for an election? We'll look at who's in, who's out and what it all means both for the upcoming session and for the next election, whenever that is...GUEST: Cormac Mac Sweeney, Parliament Hill reporter, CityNews (You can find a full list of the new ministers and their portfolios right here) We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Last year, a man was arrested and charged with the murder of four Indigenous women in the Winnipeg area. When the charges were laid police said they believed the remains of two of the women would be found at the Prairie Green landfill, but that they wouldn't be searching for them.This sparked outrage from the victims families and the Indigenous community, and a push for a search began. Experts weighed in, the federal government was petitioned, costs and concerns were cited and last week Manitoba's provincial government decided not to allow a search, and the protests began. Why would the government prevent a search? What impact could this have on the case, and on families and community? And with protests not stopping anytime soon, what happens next?GUEST: Brittany Hobson, reporter, The Canadian Press We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Every so often, federal and provincial governments reexamine plans they have made in the event of a nuclear accident or missile exchange, which have existed in one form or another since the beginning of the cold war. Last week, we learned those plans had been updated very recently, at least in part due to Russian control of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.These plans cover everything from trying to protect Canadians overseas who may be impacted by an accident, to more classified documents working out emergency preparations in the event of nuclear missiles being fired. How likely is either the former or latter? What do these plans entail? What would happen should Russia sabotage the plant? And should we really worry about an actual nuclear exchange?GUEST: Ed Waller, Professor in the Faculty of Energy Systems and Nuclear Science at OntarioTechU, NSERC Senior Industrial Research Chair in Health Physics and Environmental Safety We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Reaching net-zero emissions by 2035 will require major overhauls to Canada's national power grid. One of the major challenges to doing so is the patchwork of power-generation methods across different provinces, making it impossible to implement a one-size-fits-all approach to decarbonization. And political differences between provincial leaders and the federal government will only complicate things further. So what will it take to develop a clean national grid in Canada? What are the feds doing to bring resistant provinces on-side?GUEST: Adam Radwanski, climate change columnist and feature writer for The Globe and Mail We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Last week, after negotiations with studios and streaming giants failed to yield an agreement, the 160000 performers represented by the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) decided to go on strike. They're joined on the picket lines by Writers Guild of America members — the first time both unions have been on strike simultaneously since the 1960's. Their demands differ, but both group's grievances boil down to two things: revenue decreases in the age of streaming, and concern about AI-induced job losses. And with their collective actions bringing many major productions to a screeching halt, and leaving thousands of people out of work, the pressure is on both sides to come up with a reasonable compromise. So what's really at stake here? And who might blink first? GUEST: Barry Hertz, Deputy Arts Editor and Film Editor for The Globe and Mail We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Drug busts have long been a go-to tactic for law enforcement in the so-called 'war on drugs', but with the ubiquity of powerful narcotics like fentanyl, it's doubtful that they do much to actually stem the flow of substances to the street. And a new study out of the United States demonstrating a link between drug seizures and overdose deaths, suggests the approach may actually be making things worse. So what does this new research show, exactly? And if these old tactics don't seem to be working, then why are governments and law enforcement agencies so hesitant to try something new?GUEST HOST: Manisha Krishnan, Senior Reporter at Vice NewsGUEST: Grant Victor, Assistant Professor at Rutgers University, co-author of the study on overdose deaths We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Asylum seekers come to Canada for safety and a better life, but instead a group of them ended up sleeping on the streets of the country’s biggest city.The Peter Street shelter intake office was thrust into the national spotlight after the city–dealing with an overwhelmed shelter system–started to refer asylum seekers to federally run programs. But when people in need showed up to Peter Street site they were met with long waits, forcing them to stay on the street out front for weeks with no other place to go.Community leaders have taken matters into their own hands, helping move the unhoused people to GTA churches. Hours after they stepped up, the federal government announced more than $200 million nationally to fund interim housing for asylum seekers, with about half going to Toronto.But will this last-minute funding make a difference? And what will it take to create sustainable housing for asylum seekers in Toronto – and beyond?GUEST HOST: Melissa Duggan, reporter for CityNewsGUEST: Sharry Aiken, Associate Professor specializing in immigration and refugee law at Queen’s University We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

This episode is guest-hosted by Erica Lenti, deputy features editor at Chatelaine.27-year old Breeanna Bascombe was trying to rock her infant daughter to sleep when police descended on her parents' Brampton, Ontario home to arrest her, and charge her as an accessory after the fact to first-degree murder. The charge was related to a crime allegedly committed by Breanna's ex-boyfriend that she had absolutely nothing to do with. Breeanna thinks her very public arrest was an attempt to coax him out of hiding. Eventually, her charges were stayed, but Breeanna was left with what's called a 'non-conviction', which can remain on your record in perpetuity and negatively impact your ability to work, travel or even adopt a pet. And her story is far from unique; in Ontario, around half the people charged with crimes end up with non-conviction records.So why are so many innocent people being caught up in the Canadian criminal justice system? How do we prevent it? And is there any way for them to get their lives back? GUEST: Eternity Martis, award winning journalist and author, writing about Breeanna Bascombe in Chatelaine We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

This week we have guest hosts filling in for Jordan Health-Rawlings. Today, we have Justin Ling interviewing Erin O’Toole.Like many places around the world, politics has become more polarized. It seems that long gone are the days of trying to pander to the majority of voters, and now some parties have gone to their most extreme constituents for support.Probably the best example of this was the election of Pierre Poilievre as the new Conservative Party leader. No matter how you feel about Poilievre, there’s little doubt that he’s a sign of a new type of political polarization happening inside Canada.Last month, former Conservative Parter leader Erin O’Toole resigned his seat in the House of Commons and delivered an emotional goodbye to his colleagues. He made an appeal to everybody in politics to make Ottawa less combative, less toxic, and less polarized.So what exactly is wrong with Ottawa these days? What’s going on behind the scenes? And can we fix it?GUEST HOST: Justin Ling, freelance investigative journalistGUEST: Erin O’Toole, former leader of the Conservative Party We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

This is the final episode of Small Town Week, a five-part series in which we examine big problems facing small communities.So far this week, we’ve covered problems facing small communities—from housing to the economy to health care. Although these issues are felt across pretty much every community, big or small in Canada, there’s one existential threat we must face globally: the climate crisis.We are hurtling rapidly towards a point of no return, and that’s pushing us towards alternative ways to create energy. In some communities, this is viewed as a threat perhaps as dire as the climate crisis itself. In other places, like a First Nation in southern Ontario, it’s a solution to the needs of a province. It’s a chance to turn the tide of our increasing demand for power, and move away from reliance on fossil fuels.Here’s how one energy project near Six Nations of the Grand River could revolutionize the national grid.GUEST: Fatima Syed, Ontario reporter, The Narwhal We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

This is the fourth episode of Small Town Week, a five-part series in which we examine big problems facing small communities.The smaller your community is, the more likely it is to rely on a handful of employers to keep its economy stable. So when employers are looking for a place to set up shop—especially if that shop might be a little noisy or disruptive or require some tax breaks—they know that promising a certain number of well-paying jobs is a pretty good way to get the community on board.That’s how it’s worked forever. But sometimes, as is the case in one town in New Brunswick, it stinks. Literally. A shell-drying company moved into Richibucto, N.B., promising jobs and prosperity, and the process produced a stench so bad it makes people gag.So what happens when the jobs are fewer than hoped for? When the byproduct of the plant actively drives people away? What are the consequences, if any? And is there any way to stop the stink?GUEST: Lindsay Jones, reporter, The Globe and Mail We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

This is the third episode of Small Town Week, a five-part series in which we examine big problems facing small communities.With Canada having its worst wildfire season on record, people across the country are waking up to the reality of what it’s like to live with these natural disasters. But for many communities, the dangers of wildfire season have long been felt and understood.Perhaps few communities understand this reality better than Lytton, B.C., which was burned to the ground in 2021 after a wildfire. The town and the province pledged at the time that they would rebuild, but two years later, the work has barely begun.Does that represent a failure, or simple reality? Should the town, which holds the record for being the hottest place in Canada, be rebuilt on the same spot? Is it smart to build in an area vulnerable to these types of fires? And what happened to Lytton, BC, and its people, when the media moved on to other fires, and new climate disasters?GUEST: Tyler Olsen, editor and reporter, Fraser Valley Current We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

This is the second episode of Small Town Week, a five-part series in which we examine big problems facing small communities.Canada’s health care system has been stressed for many years, but the pandemic pushed the threadbare system past its breaking point.And nowhere else has our capacity for care—in everything from family doctors to walk-in clinics to hospitals—been tested more than rural areas, and small towns. Emergency rooms in smaller areas have cut back hours, or closed temporarily, often due to a lack of either doctors or nurses. But now Minden, Ontario’s emergency room is closed for good.Is Minden’s ER the first of more to come? What happens to a town when its primary centre of medicine evaporates? What other options are there for care, in both Minden and other communities like it?GUEST: Emily Stonehouse, Editor of The Minden Times We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Welcome to Small Town Week, a five-part series in which we examine big problems facing small communities.Access to affordable housing is not just an issue in large cities across Canada anymore—small communities are also struggling to provide affordable places for the people who need them. And perhaps nowhere is that crunch felt harder than Canada’s north. Everything costs significantly more there, from groceries to basic supplies to houses.To address the high cost of living, Nunavut relies heavily on an already overwhelmed public housing framework. But it wasn’t always that way. For many years, people in the area that would eventually become Nunavut were regularly building their own homes to live in.So why did that stop? And would bringing it back offer a glimpse of a way out of the crisis we’re facing?GUEST: David Venn, journalist formerly based in Iqaluit, wrote this series for Nunatsiaq News We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

We've known for decades the world is warming, so it shouldn't come as a shock when some records get broken along the way. But what has set off alarm bells among the scientists who study our changing climate recently is just how fast it's happening, in ways that don't match up with any previous models. From ocean temperature to sea ice, forest fires to heat domes and the world's daily average temperature record being broken at least twice just this week, warning lights are flashing.Is this truly the tipping point for our climate crisis? What does that even mean in this context? And as the bad news rolls in, is there another tipping point coming—a moment in which we collectively realize we can't survive without massive change?GUEST: Catherine Abreu, Executive Director of Destination Zero We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

This isn't about streaming services, like Spotify or Netflix, that rent you endless content for a monthly fee. It's about digital copies of art that you've purchased via a link or button that indicates a paid transaction. In many cases, the companies that sold them to you ... haven't, really.Earlier this year, this became abundantly clear when e-books by authors like Roald Dahl or Agatha Christie were changed to make certain phrases less offensive. Whether you agree with those changes or not, they were applied to all e-books that updated automatically. And if you read the fine print, the control publishers have over your purchases doesn't stop there...GUEST: Reggie Ugwu, pop culture reporter, The New York Times We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Last week three people were stabbed inside a classroom at the University of Waterloo. The class dealt with philosophy of gender issues, and the attacker reportedly asked about the subject before drawing a knife.For quite some time now anti-feminist and anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric has been growing harsher and more violent. Was it only a matter of time until something like this happened in Canada? How does a simple word like 'gender' become a red flag to disturbed individuals? What's stochastic terrorism and what can we do to stop it?GUEST: Dr. Shana MacDonald, Associate Professor of Communication Arts at the University of Waterloo; author of this analysis in The Conversation We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

As awful as Canada's legacy of residential schools is, there are some in this country who don't want to believe it. In recent months, there's been a rise in attempts to use linguistic missteps on the part of journalists or Indigenous leaders to "expose" what minimizers claim is a lack of proof that thousands of children died at these schools.The case hinges on the difference between terms like "anomalies", "unmarked graves" and "remains" used when sites are explored with ground-penetrating radar. So how do the searches at the school sites work? What, precisely, has been found there? And if we know there are remains in the ground, why haven't more of them been exhumed? GUEST: Niigaan Sinclair, professor of Indigenous studies at the University of Manitoba We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

It's here. It's become a part of summer in most areas of Canada. It's bad for you. What exactly makes wildfire smoke harmful to breathe? And what about the mental health impact of hazy skies and a darkened future?If we're going to live with this we need less speculation, and more science and solutions. Here they are.GUEST: Dr. Courtney Howard, emergency physician; Vice-Chair of the Global Climate and Health Alliance We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Let's say you've been victimized by romance fraud. You are humiliated and embarrassed beyond belief, but you have evidence to prove the fraudster is guilty. So, you turn that information over to the police and hope there will be charges, maybe even a conviction.The truth is, in Canada, these cases are difficult to pursue, often leaving perpetrators free to go with a slap on the wrist and victims shocked and traumatized. But romance fraud is on the rise with more and more losses being reported each year. So, what can the authorities do about it? How do we change our system to stop fraudsters? And how can we rewrite the narrative to better support victims? We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

If you're held "on remand" it means you haven't been convicted of a crime yet, but also that you can't secure bail or a judge's release. Practically, it means you go to jail, and stay there while your case crawls through the courts.In some provinces there are thousands more people on remand in jail than there are convicted criminals serving jail time. It leads to crowding, illness and sometimes death. Should a person who hasn't been convicted ever die in jail? How is this system supposed to work, and what's led to its current state?GUEST: Geena Mortfield, court and crime reporter for the Brandon Sun; writing in The Walus We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Nine days ago, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, was killed in a targeted daylight shooting in a crowded area outside of a Sikh temple in Surrey, BC. Nijjar was a well-known community leader and pro-Khalistan activist who the Indian government has previously accused of terror offences— allegations he vehemently denied.His activism and controversial past have spawned many theories about who may have done this and why, but more than a week after his death, the public has seen little evidence to substantiate those rumours. Meanwhile, a community is in mourning, and they took to the streets on Sunday to demand answers.So what, if anything, can we say for certain at this point? And could this horrific crime spark further violence?GUEST: Sonia Aslam, reporter, CityNews Vancouver We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

In the age of the internet, it's understandable to wonder what function, if any, our libraries still serve. But the shifting needs of the communities they cater to, and widening holes in the social safety net, have actually made these institutions more essential than ever.As homelessness and mental health crises have spiked, libraries and the people who work inside them have become de facto social workers, sometimes tasked with everything from finding shelter beds to administering naloxone.While the work they do is inspiring, is this really a viable way to approach the problems in towns and cities across the country? And are librarians equipped to deal with what has become an entirely different job?GUEST: Nicholas Hune-Brown, writing in The Walrus We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

It's hard to believe but The Big Story launched on this date, five years ago, June 25, 2018. Since then we've recorded more than 1,250 episodes and listeners have spent millions of hours listening to this podcast. As a token of our appreciation, we made a special bonus episode, digging into the archives for some of our oldest, biggest, strangest and best-remembered clips. If you've listened to this show, even just once, thank you. We wouldn't be here without you.As always, you can find us on Twitter @TheBigStoryFPN, via email: [email protected] or with a voicemail at 416-935-5935. We love hearing from listeners, so don't be a stranger! We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

If you're a newer listener to The Big Story, you may not know aboutThe Gravy Train, a podcast we released in 2019 chronicling the meteoric rise, and tragic downfall of Toronto's most notorious mayor, Rob Ford. With Toronto in the midst of its first wide-open mayoral race since 2010, we thought now would be an opportune time to revisit this narrative, which captures a moment in politics with some striking similarities to what we're seeing in the city today. We'll be dropping an episode in this feed every Saturday for the next two months leading up to election day, but they're all available in The Gravy Train feed if you prefer to binge them. Enjoy! -------------------------------------ORIGINAL SHOW NOTESToronto never got the chance to reelect Mayor Rob Ford. Nor did it get the chance to kick him out of office. It wasn’t the ending anyone wanted, it’s just what happened. And over the next few years, it would become clear just how profoundly Rob had changed politics, at home and around the world. We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

For a long time now, Toronto has been run by conservative mayors. But all the polls indicate that will change on Monday, with former NDP MP and longtime progressive Olivia Chow holding a commanding lead. Chow ran for mayor before, in 2014, and lost badly. What's different this time, about both the city and her?Whomever wins the job will have to work with Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who said this week that Chow would be an "unmitigated disaster" as mayor. So first, will she pull it off? And second, what happens if she does, and has to try to fix a crumbling city while needing the help of her political opposite to get things done with the province?GUEST: Ben Spurr, City Hall bureau, Toronto Star We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

It's one thing when companies that exist entirely online—like Facebook and Instagram—use chatbots and emails instead of a real person as a customer service solution. That's annoying, but understandable. It's another when business like appliance vendors, airlines and shipping companies have no way to connect a customer with a problem to an actual human who can help them.But this trend has been gathering steam for years now, and the problems it creates are worth examining. What happens when business-customer exchanges are entirely impersonal? What's the cost-benefit decision the company is making here? How does an actual human voice change tense interactions? And what happens when more and more companies turn this stuff over to artificial intelligence?GUEST: Emily Stewart, business and economics reporter at Vox We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

A submersible intended to take five people to visit the wreck of the Titanic was missing as of Wednesday night. If the people inside are still alive, they are rapidly running out of air. A massive search is underway, but the ocean is huge, and the vehicle could be anywhere.The expedition is a commercial endeavour run by a company called OceanGate, that runs out of St. John's. Would-be explorers pay $250,000 to risk death in exchange for a glimpse of the fabled wreck more than three kilometres below the surface. Why would someone pay so much to risk their life this way? What do we know about the craft that carries the crew, and the company that built it? And why does the Titanic still hold such a grip on our psyches after all this time?GUEST: Leyland Cecco, Canadian reporter with The Guardian We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

It wasn't that long ago that airlines were slashing prices and offering huge seat sales to lure timid customers back onto planes during the pandemic. Safe to say, those days are over. For at least a year now, prices have been climbing and the summer travel season marks a new peak. A peak that likely won't last past next summer.How are seat prices set, anyway? How much of this is based on an airline's increased costs, and how much is a profit grab? What can you do to try to find cheaper fares? Do price-busting apps actually work? And why do you and your friend see different prices for the same seat on the same plane?GUEST: John Gradek, Faculty Lecturer in Supply Chain, Logistics, Operations and Aviation Management at McGill University We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

After a fire forced their high school to close, the Toronto District School Board decided to relocate the roughly 900 students and teachers from York Memorial Collegiate Institute to the nearby George Harvey Collegiate Institute. But George Harvey wasn't equipped to absorb all those new kids, and students showed up in September to find a school that was over-crowded, under-staffed and unsafe for them and their teachers. The York Memorial fiasco isn't just a one-off, either. The school's struggles highlight systemic challenges across Canada's largest school board, namely staffing shortages, crumbling facilities and the lack of funding to properly address those issues. And the situation may only get worse as thousands of children lag behind socially and academically after the pandemic kept them home for nearly two years. At York Memorial, it took an outcry from students, teachers and staff to spark meaningful change. What will take to get those in power to give schools the money and resources they desperately need? GUEST: Danielle Groen, Toronto-based writer and editor, wrote about York Memorial for Toronto Life We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

If you're a newer listener to The Big Story, you may not know aboutThe Gravy Train, a podcast we released in 2019 chronicling the meteoric rise, and tragic downfall of Toronto's most notorious mayor, Rob Ford. With Toronto in the midst of its first wide-open mayoral race since 2010, we thought now would be an opportune time to revisit this narrative, which captures a moment in politics with some striking similarities to what we're seeing in the city today. We'll be dropping an episode in this feed every Saturday for the next two months leading up to election day, but they're all available in The Gravy Train feed if you prefer to binge them. Enjoy! -------------------------------------ORIGINAL SHOW NOTESMore than a year after the first stories about a ‘crack video’ broke, and months after the mayor admitted he’d tried the drug ‘during one of (his) drunken stupors’, Rob Ford admitted to the public that he had a substance abuse problem, and that he needed help. And he went to rehab. For a few weeks. Then he returned to the race for reelection. A race he very much expected to win. So Toronto had a choice. Four more years of this…or something else. We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

You know how sometimes you notice that it's eerily quiet? That's because we're so accustomed to the background noise of life in a city of any size, that sudden silence catches our attention. From cars and trucks to neighbours and kids, modern appliances to incessant TV, music or videos, we rarely have a silent waking moment.New research is beginning to discover exactly what that's doing to us, and the results are fascinating. It's not just us, either. When the world's water traffic mostly stopped during the first month of Covid lockdowns, the absence of the usual noise actually changed the way some sea creatures communicate... so what does a noisy world do to us all?GUEST: Bojan Furst, writing in The Walrus We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Right now, Canada is working on a process to improve our tracking and reporting of sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects. In late May, NASA and the US Department of Defence help a joint public meeting, where it was revealed that the Five Eyes—an alliance of intelligence agencies including the US and Canada—held a private forum about the sightings, which have included, specifically, metallic orbs seen all over the world.All of this could sounds like the opening of a blockbuster, or just a conspiracy theory. But it's neither. It's a serious attempt by some of the world's biggest military and intelligence agencies to figure out exactly what's going on in our skies, be it natural phenomena, secretive new aerospace technology or, yes, something out of this world...GUEST: Daniel Otis, freelance journalist reporting on UFOs We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

This is an immigrant's story. A Canadian story. A mystery. Six months ago, Eduardo Malpica went missing after a night at a bar in Trois-Rivières, Quebec. Last week, his body was pulled from the St. Lawrence RIver. Was he hurt by men he argued with outside the bar? Did he wander off, embarrassed and drunk, and kill himself? Was his drink spiked? Nobody's sure.But Malpica came from nothing, built a life here and was beloved by so many, especially new Canadians that he often took under his wing. He was a professor with a family and a lovely home. What happened to him, and why?GUEST: Christopher Curtis, journalist and co-founder of The Rover We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Two weeks ago, special rapporteur David Johnston said nothing would stop him from completing his work investigating foreign interference in Canadian politics. Friday, he stopped. A surprise resignation meant a weekend of confusion in Canadian politics, followed by a chaotic Monday when the house resumed.Why did Johnston quit? Will Canada now finally get the public inquiry many have lobbied for? Will Johnston's resignation satisfy opposing critics? Will anything? And ... are we gonna end up having an election over this? GUEST: Cormac Mac Sweeney, parliament hill reporter, CityNews We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Sam Altman, the CEO of Open AI, the company behind ChatGPT, has co-founded a cryptocurrency project called Worldcoin, which is currently scanning people's eyeballs using an orb and digitizing their irises for use as identification.Currently more than 1.8 million people have had their irises scanned in exchange for the promise of some Worldcoin later (it doesn't exist yet), local currency, or small gifts. This is taking place mostly in poorer countries, but not in the US or Canada, where regulations discourage things like collecting people's irises for some vaguely-defined future use.If this all sounds incredibly strange to you, you're not alone. So what the heck is going on here? GUEST: Jacob Silverman, co-author of Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud, host of The Naked Emperor. We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

If you're a newer listener to The Big Story, you may not know aboutThe Gravy Train, a podcast we released in 2019 chronicling the meteoric rise, and tragic downfall of Toronto's most notorious mayor, Rob Ford. With Toronto in the midst of its first wide-open mayoral race since 2010, we thought now would be an opportune time to revisit this narrative, which captures a moment in politics with some striking similarities to what we're seeing in the city today. We'll be dropping an episode in this feed every Saturday for the next two months leading up to election day, but they're all available in The Gravy Train feed if you prefer to binge them. Enjoy! -------------------------------------ORIGINAL SHOW NOTESMayor Rob Ford publicly admitted to smoking crack “in one of my drunken stupors” on Nov. 5, 2013. And then all hell broke loose. We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Right now, the federal government is reviewing the laws that made recreational pot legal in Canada. Everything is theoretically on the table, even if the basics of the act are unlikely to change much. But there are things we could fix that would make the system work better—and more fairly—for everyone.From the pardon process to the makeup of the industry and who gets licenses and sits on boards, legal Cannabis has resembled the days of prohibition in one way—a lack of racial justice, and an inability to truly grant amnesty to everyone who should have it. This is our chance to fix that. Will we take it?GUEST: Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, associate professor of criminal justice, University of Toronto; co-author of Waiting to Inhale: Cannabis Legalization and the Fight for Racial Justice. We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

For the past few years, orcas off the coast of Portugal and Spain have been attacking, and sinking, small boats. At least three boats have been completely sunk, and many more have needed urgent rescue. This behaviour doesn't occur in other orcas, and nobody can figure out exactly what's changed.There are some theories regarding trauma, or differences in their habitat. There are very real things called "orca fads"—like that time they wore dead salmon on their heads. And there is, always, humanity's endless desire to use our own narratives to explain animal motives—which is why you see people asking if the orcas are fighting back. But what's really at the heart of this behaviour? And what happens if it spreads?GUEST: Stephanie Pappas, science journalist, writing in Scientific American We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

For the past few weeks, military analysts have been expecting a Ukrainian offensive in the conflict with Russia, one that might the tables on the Russians, break past the front lines and bring the war home to the aggressors. That offensive might still happen, but a more immediate problem emerged Tuesday—a collapsed dam releasing a torrent of water, endangering civilians, military, home and infrastructure, and perhaps even threatening a nuclear plant.As Russia's invasion of Ukraine has faltered, it's become clear just how far Putin's regime will go to continue it. As Ukraine prepares to take the fight to them, the war might just be coming to a turning point. But right now, chaos reigns, so what just happened and what comes next?GUEST: Balkan Devlen, Superforecaster at Good Judgement Inc. senior fellow and director of the transatlantic program and the McDonald Laurier Institute. We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky