The Big Story

It's the ability to put ourselves in another's shoes and it's been needed more this year than ever. But what kinds of experiences teach us empathy? How do our childhoods shape the people we become? What can second-generation immigrants teach the rest of Canada about the skill? And how will Canada change when the unprecedented number of second-gen kids grow up and lead the country? GUEST: Sadiya Ansari, writer and 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

Blink and you could miss it—the Richview Memorial Cemetery sits nestled on a thin slice of land between two of North America’s busiest highways. The cemetery is guarded by one Randall Reid, but not all such places are so fortunate. Today we bring you an episode of a new Frequency podcast hosted by Big Story producer Stefanie Phillips. In this first episode of the series, Stefanie digs into the world of "cemetery hunters"— a unique special interest group that tracks down cemeteries that are forgotten and in imminent danger of being paved over to become parking lots. What does the future of our cemeteries look like—and who will save them when we’re gone? Listen to Paradigm on your favourite podcast player today. 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

Over the past ten months we've been accustomed to seeing our daily routines change in ways large and small. Covid-19 has popularized phrases from "in these unprecedented times" to X "will look a little different this year". And for many Canadian families there is no annual tradition as profound as the holidays. And for those families' children there's nothing quite like Santa Claus. So how is the Jolly Old Elf coping with Covid, keeping his workplace safe and making sure that even if Christmas is different, it's still special? Well, we asked him. (Yes, this episode is child-friendly! Happy holidays from the Big Story team.) GUEST: ... Santa! 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

Ten months into this pandemic, after so many of us rediscovered how vital local news can be, there are even fewer local newsrooms in Canada than when it began. How did we end up here? What are we losing when small-town papers die? How is it possible this virus has made local news both more necessary, and more impossible to sustain as a business, than ever before? GUEST: April Lindgren, principal investigator for the Local News Research Project 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 as ambitious as any Canadian government has been so far—but is it enough? A new climate plan rolled out by Justin Trudeau last week takes aim at some real metrics for change. So how would it directly impact your life, and your wallet? What else is the government doing to move us into the future? How much depends on cooperation from the provinces? And is this another target we make plans for but never hit, or is this a real, bold step towards climate action? GUEST: Catherine Abreu, Executive Director, Climate Action Network Canada 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 moratorium on evictions in Ontario was once part of Premier Doug Ford's plan to "make sure you and your family can stay in your home during this difficult time." But that moratorium didn't last forever and the past month has seen a torrent of virtual eviction hearings, with tenants often left frustrated, confused and in tears by the process. What happened to "no Covid-19 evictions" in Ontario? Why have so many been happening at once? What are the opposition at Queen's Park and activists on the ground doing to stop it? And what are the real problems with tenant rights in Canada's largest province? GUEST: NDP MPP Suze Morrison, Official Opposition Critic for Tenant Rights 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

There will always be a group of people who flatly refuse to get vaccinated, and public health messages probably won't convince them. But there are far, far more Canadians who might get vaccinated, but are nervous of what they see as a potential risk. In some online communities, misinformation about Covid-19 vaccines, as well as other common vaccinations, is rampant—and it has left a lot of people afraid. What are they worried about? How can governments and public health officials provide clear, concise information that allays their fears? How can you start a conversation with someone you know who might be hesitant to get vaccinated? And how much work do we have in front of us if we want enough Canadians to get their shots to put the pandemic behind us? GUEST: Sabina Vohra-Miller, clinical pharmacologist, co-founder of the Vohra Miller Foundation 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 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 giant corporations. They have origin stories. They care about values and design. And they're unique—except they're all exactly the same. From toothbrushes to mattresses, health insurance to hipster clothing and glasses to luggage, almost every product on Earth has a Bland claiming to do it better. How did we end up here and have we reached 'Peak Bland'? GUEST: Ben Schott, Bloomberg Opinion 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

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 belong to it have not. How long can that continue? What does a modern Middle Class look like? What should they aspire to? How should they be defined? How different will their lives, homes and finances be from past decades? And how should governments work to make sure they get a chance to thrive? GUEST: Max Fawcett, writer and reporter (Read Max's piece on the Middle Class 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

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 province has vowed to take action, but Indigenous people have heard those promises before. What will it take to really transform the system? How will the government even begin? And how long will it take in the middle of two separate health emergencies—both of which disproportionally impact Indigenous and racialized people? GUEST: Liza Yuzda, legislative reporter, News1130 and 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

This 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't much better: In a year of economic hardship, fewer Canadians have money to spare for charity, and more Canadians than usual need the help these organizations provide. How has the pandemic hit charities? What have they done to adjust to "these unprecedented times"? And how can Canadians who do have the means get their money where it needs to be for the holidays? GUEST: Bruce MacDonald, President and CEO of Imagine Canada 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 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 sold just about every kind of electronics imaginable—has become 'The PlayStation Company'. And this Christmas marks the first skirmish in the latest console war between it and Microsoft's X-Box. How did video games come to dominate the future of two of the world's biggest tech companies? How did they come to dominate so much of our entertainment landscape? What's on the horizon for these new consoles? (And also: If you can find them, which one should you buy?) GUEST: Seth Schiesel, contributor at the New York Times, contributing editor at Protocol.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

We 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 of when Canadians can expect to be vaccinated. If you ask the Conservatives, we're well behind our peer countries already. Who is telling the truth? What are the facts on the Covid-19 vaccines Canada has ordered? What needs to happen next? And when will needles start going into arms on Canadian soil? GUEST: Matt Gurney 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 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, BC, dwindled to almost nothing, the local grizzly bears grew hungry — and dangerous to humans. Now the salmon are returning, but the community must find a way to manage both the fish and bear populations, and keep the forest healthy. GUEST: Jimmy Thomson, Beside.media 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 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 comes amidst a surge in the overdose crisis that has killed more Vancouver citizens than Covid-19. The city is looking at anything it can do to save lives, and there are studies and examples around the globe that indicate decriminalization can help. Will the federal government grant the exemption? Will this move become a political football? What would a Canadian city that decriminalized drugs look like on the street? Where do the police stand? And how soon might it happen? Because the crisis has advocates close to the breaking point... GUEST: Travis Lupick, journalist and author of Fighting for Space: How a Group of Drug Users Transformed One City’s Struggle with Addiction 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

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 the day would ever come. In November, the Florida Marlins made Ng the first female general manager in the history of the game. The questions now are around what she'll do with the team, why it took so long, and who else will follow in her footsteps... GUEST: Christina Kahrl, Senior Editor, ESPN MLB 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 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 hurt, and it might have been a harmless enough story, but it illustrates the challenges first-year students are facing this year in dorms that they joke have become their prisons. GUEST: Selena Ross, digital reporter, CTV News Montreal 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

The 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 seen if he'll be the last person to defy the province's regulation. There's no excuse for breaking the law and endangering public health, but the Adamson BBQ saga is a symbol of just how angry and desperate small businesses in lockdown zones are as they face what they say are unfair restrictions that allow big-box stores to remain open while they are forced to close. Did the Ontario government screw this up? What needs to change? And how can these businesses survive in the meantime? GUEST: Ryan Mallough, director of provincial affairs for Ontario, Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses 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 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 which its case count was higher than Ontario's, despite having barely a third its population. How did it all fall apart out west, and who's to blame? And what needs to happen next to salvage a dangerous situation? GUEST: Courtney Theriault, CityNews Edmonton 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

Halton 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 years ago—and many households struggle to get reliable connections today. As the pandemic pushes everything online, regions in rural Canada struggle to keep up. And we all too often think of rural areas as sparsely populated lands far from big cities. But they aren't. They're often just down the road and they need help to get online. GUEST: Melanie Hennessy, Georgetown Independent Free 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

Families 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 negotiating the many precarious situations that have arisen from sharing a house amid a pandemic? With more younger adults living in roommate situations later into their lives and careers, it's a path that millions are going to be navigating this winter. GUEST: Kelli María Korducki 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 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 their grandkids, parents haven't seen their children, or their siblings — and for many of them, this has harmed them as much as a bout with the virus might. We all want our elderly loved ones to be around forever, but even forgetting about Covid-19, they won't be. And as they face another four to six months without much contact or support, many of them are wondering if they might not choose to take the risk with the time they have left. GUEST: Christina Frangou, science and health writer 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 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 theories popped up to take its place, new 'loaves' were baked. New enemies were found. What can we learn from how the world's most dangerous conspiracy adapts to overwhelming evidence to the contrary? And can we find ways to help believers see the evidence in front of them? GUEST: Justin Ling 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

The 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 of scientists and is scoffed at by many, many more. But during a time when Canada's various Covid-19 regulations, thresholds, protocols and half-lockdowns can seem incredibly confusing, the Barrington approach offers a simple answer. Especially as a dark winter looms and it feels easier to just give up. What do we know about herd immunity? Why is it so attractive? And if it's too dangerous to consider, what are our other options to get through the months ahead? GUEST: Andre Picard, health 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

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, neither of those things are true. Opening plans and case thresholds are constantly shifting, while cities and provinces have different opinions about what should be open and when. Beyond all that, of course, there are climbing covid case counts, which means that even open restaurants are far from guaranteed enough business to survive. So...will they? How many will make it? And what can we (and governments at all levels) do to help them get through? GUEST: John Sinopoli, restaurateur, co-founder of savehospitality.ca 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

The 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 work so well for so long? What are the unique dangers the virus poses to Northern communities? How will officials try to reign in spread now that the virus is here? And what can we learn from how long the bubble kept Nunavut safe? GUEST: Kent Driscoll, APTN National 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

Almost 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 Trump and key members of his administration. After talking tough regarding disinformation in the months leading up to the election, and even slapping warnings on the president's posts, have Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok lived up to their promises? And the big question: Will Twitter ever ban Donald Trump? Where would their business be without him? GUEST: Jesse Hirsh, researcher and futurist, metaviews.ca 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 finale of our five-part series in partnership with The Narwhal. Scientists have found protecting nature can provide more than one-third of the emissions reductions required to meet the world’s 2030 climate targets, thrusting Canada — home to 25 per cent of the planet’s wetlands and boreal forests — into the hot seat. There are more than enough challenges facing those fighting to save the climate, but there are some solutions right in front of us, too. GUEST: Emma Gilchrist, Editor-in-Chief of The Narwhal You can learn more at thenarwhal.ca. 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 part four of a five-part series in collaboration with The Narwhal. There are no viable solutions to stop the tide of selenium leaching into Canadian and U.S. water from a 100-kilometre stretch of coal mines near Elk Valley, B.C., which are owned and operated by mining giant Teck Resources. Deformed fish, a potential fish population collapse and contaminated drinking water signal more trouble to come... GUEST: Carol Linnitt, Managing Editor You can learn more at thenarwhal.ca. 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 part three of a five-part series in collaboration with The Narwhal. Alberta’s oil and gas workers can be underrepresented — or even maligned — in conversations about an energy transition in Canada. The Narwhal met with former oil and gas workers to learn more about their lives and personal reasons for transitioning to solar, and look at the process as a whole. GUEST: Sharon J. Riley, Alberta investigative journalist You can learn more at thenarwhal.ca. 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 part two of a five-part series in collaboration with The Narwhal. Canada’s westernmost province markets itself as 'Super, Natural, B.C.,' but more than 2,000 species of animals and plants are at risk of disappearing — and unlike six other provinces, British Columbia still has no endangered species law, despite the NDP's election promise to introduce one GUEST: Sarah Cox, environmental reporter You can learn more at thenarwhal.ca. 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 part one of a five-part series in collaboration with The Narwhal. Two communities — one in Canada, one in the U.S. — share both a border along the St. Marys River and a toxic legacy that has contributed to high rates of cancer. Now the towns are banding together to fight a ferrochrome plant planned to process chromite from Ontario’s Ring of Fire, in turn generating the so-called ‘Erin Brockovich contaminant’ hexavalent chromium. GUEST: Hilary Beaumont You can learn more at thenarwhal.ca. 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

Almost everything the President of the United States has been saying since election day is false. His family and supporters are following suit. How is the internet handling a flood of misleading claims and outright lies? What makes the post-election disinfo so hard to debunk? How did we end up so far down this rabbit hole and is it even possible to climb back out? GUEST: Jane Lytvynenko, Disinformation Reporter, BuzzFeed 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

As of Wednesday night, things looked relatively positive for Joe Biden's bid for the presidency. But Donald Trump's team is filing lawsuits, demanding recounts, or halted counts, and looks like it plans to scrap tooth and nail to win the election in the courts no matter the results on the ground. How successful that attempt will be depends on the judges themselves—but either way it puts the leaders of democracies around the world, including Canada, in a tough position until someone concedes. How would a protracted court battle for the American presidency impact Canada? What changes if Biden wins cleanly? What will Trump's mark on America's international reputation be if he is a one-term president? And what if he actually manages to find his way to a victory? GUEST: Balkan Devlen, senior fellow at McDonald Laurier Institute, Superforecaster for Good Judgment, Inc. 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

No, the US election is not what spawned this question. New research in a field called 'simulation theory' pegs the odds that we're just AI creations in somebody's supercomputer at about 50-50. Really? How can we possibly determine this? What does simulation theory propose? What evidence do we have? Will we ever really find out? And could humanity one day create a simulation of our own? GUEST: Anil Ananthaswamy, Scientific American, author of Through Two Doors At Once 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

Is Democracy on the ballot in the American election tonight? How real is the threat of violence at the polls? What happens if Donald Trump squeaks out a reelection victory? What happens if Joe Biden blows him out but Trump refuses to concede? What could the courts do with a close election? And what does America's election mean for democracies around the world, like Canada's, where millions will be watching and waiting to see what happens to their ally? GUEST: David Moscrop, political scientist, author of Too Dumb For Democracy 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

Why don't more Canadians know about the criminal masterminds behind some of Canada's most legendary capers? A new audiobook, True North Heists, tells the tales of some of the most outlandish capers ever committed on Canadian soil. Actor Colm Feore (Bon Cop Bad Cop, Trudeau) dramatically weaves together “in the moment” storytelling with interviews with those with deep knowledge of the heists themselves, including law enforcement officers, writers and the criminals themselves. You might know the stories of some legendary American thefts, but you might not know these ones. And yes, there's maple syrup involved. GUEST: Geoff Siskind, executive producer, True North Heists. 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 a normal year, the start of November would mark the beginning of the prestige movie push, with award hopefuls, franchise films and feel-good family flocks crowding theatres. This year though, there's almost nothing left on the calendar and the top-grossing box office list features rereleases of films from the 1990s. Hollywood has been hoarding its blockbusters in preparation for a vaccine and a return to normal life in 2021...but what if that doesn't happen quickly enough? How long can studios sit on their biggest films in hopes of a return? Why is the system built to rely so much on a handful of megamovies that need to earn billions in order to be worth making at all? And when will our host finally get to see Dune and Black Widow? GUEST: Norm Wilner, senior film writer at NOW Magazine, host of Someone Else's Movie 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 was perfect timing, really, for OnlyFans. The website was growing in popularity because it allowed people to charge followers for exclusive content, and it didn't forbid pornography. And then the pandemic hit, and basically every mainstream porn studios had to shut down, and the performers flocked to OnlyFans as a way to keep their income afloat without professional work. Once again, a digital tool not intended for pornography had become a purveyor of it. Once again, the porn industry has adapted more quickly than any other entertainment medium. But how much of this change is permanent? And how much can other entertainment industries learn from pornography's lead? GUEST: Lina Misitzis, producer of The Last Days of August and The Butterfly Effect 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 might think that it's gang-related shootings in Toronto that drive gun-violence statistics in the province. You'd wind up surprised. A new study examined in detail firearms-related injuries and deaths in Ontario for 15 years, from 2002-2016. What the authors found was that while urban gun violence drives headlines, a larger part of the problem happens outside of the spotlight, outside of the cities, in quiet, lonely places... GUEST: Dr. Natasha Saunders, co-author of Firearm-related injuries and deaths in Ontario, Canada, 2002–2016: a population-based study 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

Our government has spent hundreds of billions of dollars supporting Canadians through this pandemic. They're deep in debt—but how worried should they be? Traditional economic policy would have the Liberals reign in spending and make some cuts as soon as they can to try to mitigate the damage. Otherwise we might find ourselves hit by massive inflation. A newer economic theory, however, would urge the government to spend as much as needed as long as Canadians are struggling and simply print money as necessary to pay for it. OK, that's a simplification of modern monetary theory, but it gets at the basic point. Maybe we don't need to worry about how much debt we rack up? GUEST: Max Fawcett, 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

Annamie Paul made history earlier this month when she became the first Black woman to lead a Canadian party when she became the successor to Elizabeth May. Now that the party is hers though, where is she going to take it? How can she bring the Green Party's branding beyond "the environment"? How will her party hold the Liberals to account without forcing an election Canada doesn't need? And how does she hope to snap Canadian voters out of their Liberal-versus-Conservative approach? GUEST: Annamie Paul, leader of the Green Party of Canada 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 called Six Mile Beach, and it sits in a remote part of British Columbia. It’s not on any of the tourism brochures. You need to know how to find it to get there, but once you do, it’s stunningly beautiful. You can stand well out from shore and a sand bar makes it feel like you're walking on top of the water. It's a secret spot worth savouring. And every so often, someone dies. And no level of government wants to be responsible for those deaths. GUEST: Tyler Harper, Nelson 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

Not your pocket change, either. We're talking about thousands of dollars in a no-strings-attached payment. A project in British Columbia did just that, and then followed 50 homeless people (as well as a control group that received nothing at all) for a year to discover what came next. The results of the study are making headlines and forcing us to confront both our own biases and policy decisions that might be costing taxpayers money without solving any problems. GUEST: Dr. Jiaying Zhao Associate Professor, Psychology, UBC, research lead for the New Leaf Project Research lead NLP 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

Trick or Treating is cancelled in some Ontario hotspots, and it's easy to be upset on behalf of the kids and wonder why. After all, we've been told the safest things are done outside, wearing masks. This seems like something that kids—who are also in closed school rooms all week—should be allowed to do. And this is the problem of communication during this pandemic—when numbers in Ontario and elsewhere have been climbing for a month but death rates and hospitalizations haven't kept pace with the spike. The more we learn about COVID-19, the more our understanding of risk and recommended best practices evolve. But the more you change the messaging, the less people can follow it. So when we're in the middle of a spike and we're hearing we should all be extra cautious, holding off on Halloween may be more of a communications problem than a safety issue. GUEST: David Fisman, epidemiologist, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto 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 almost two years an investigative team has been digging into into claims of child sexual assault by priests who belong to a Canadian Catholic order known as the Basilian Fathers. The results of their work form Unrepentant, a film that includes firsthand accounts from victims of abuse, the near-murder of an accused pedophile, the mystery death of a priest after he is exposed, secret church files that show a pattern of shuffling around known abusers and a victim’s journey to Vatican City to confront church leaders…and more. The project's lead reporter joins us for a look at how it came together. GUEST: Adrian Ghobrial, 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

In the early days of the pandemic, it was fun to compare crude work-from-home setups. Eight months later, with no end in sight, the novelty is long gone. What's changed about the traditional career over the past year? How can workers do more than try to get through the day and move on with their careers? What does every manager need to be doing to support them? And how the hell are you supposed to network over Zoom? GUEST: Dr. Sonia Kang, Canada Research Chair in Identity, Diversity, and Inclusion at the University of Toronto; Host of For The Love of Work 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

Amir Omidvar left Iran during the revolutionary crisis in 1982. For twenty months after leaving his home, Amir did everything he could to cross the Atlantic ocean. While taking refuge in Spain, he made three failed attempts to enter the US; a fake passport in Heathrow, a Mexican jail, and a beating by customs officers in Milan — until a fourth and final attempt brought him to Canadian shores. Amir speaks to his daughter, Shayda, about why he decided to leave and how arriving in Canada has impacted his life and the life of his family. Listen and subscribe to The Hopeful wherever you get your podcasts. 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

Most Canadians didn't learn much about slavery in Canada in history class. Curriculums in this country have mostly focused on the Underground Railroad and largely glossed over the fact that slavery was legal here. That history explains much about the blatant racism that still exists in this country today, but it also explains far less obvious things about the everyday lives of many Black Canadians. We're starting to confront that history now, but we have a long way to go. GUEST: Charmaine A. Nelson is the Tier I Canada Research Chair in Transatlantic Black Diasporic Art and Community Engagement at NSCAD University. She will direct the first-ever institute for the study of Canadian Slavery. 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

Unless you’re lucky enough to live in some of the areas of Canada that are largely free of Covid-19, you’re likely staring down a long few months spent isolated from most of the community, and spent largely inside your house. The case numbers are rising. We’re told it’s not safe to socialize indoors and we’re just weeks away from the first deep freeze and snow storm. It can feel like a lot—if you let it. That’s not us pep-talking you. It’s science. There are people who live so far north that winter dominates their lives; who live with darkness during the day for weeks at a time. And if you survey those people about winter, well, you’d find they’re better at dealing with it than you are. So what's their secret? GUEST: David Robson, science journalist and author of The Intelligence Trap 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