Toxic political polarization is on the rise around the world – and it’s making a mess of things. Ordinary people who might otherwise disagree, even strongly, and yet get on with one another, are at each other’s throats over just about everything. Too many political and economic elites reap short-term benefits from this divide, but the long term consequences for democracy – and society – are devastating. So, where does toxic political polarization come from and what can we do about it? On this ep...
Dec 10, 2024•41 min•Season 2Ep. 110
Everybody loves a pentalogy. In March of 2020, host David Moscrop and guest Amanda Watson discussed how we were managing early pandemic life. In the months and years that followed, the two rejoined to talk about anxiety and late-pandemic life. Twice. In early 2024, they covered what the new year might have in store for us. Now, for a record-shattering fifth time on the pod, Watson is back to talk culture wars, elections, affordability, academia, censorship, and to ask: Is anything getting better...
Nov 12, 2024•53 min•Season 2Ep. 109
Women’s hockey has surged in popularity in recent years. That growth has been a long time coming. The history of the women’s game stretches back more than one hundred years, and includes the rise and fall of teams, leagues, and legends. With the arrival of the Professional Women’s Hockey League, however, the game has entered a new era, and is set to be bigger than ever before. So, how did women’s hockey become so popular? On this episode of Open to Debate, David Moscrop talks once more again wit...
Oct 28, 2024•53 min•Season 2Ep. 110
Democratic life is increasingly marked by toxic polarisation and partisan hostility. Public institutions are overrun by the few, leaving the many on the sidelines. Many of us are left to assume there’s only one way to self-govern, to let others do it; or else we are so turned off by what we see that we want nothing to do with politics. But what if things didn’t have to be this way? What if there were some hope that we could do better? What if there were a better way to do democracy? Well, is the...
Oct 01, 2024•39 min•Season 2Ep. 108
The non-profit sector is massive. According to Statistics Canada, in 2022 the non-profit sector accounted for over 8 percent of GDP – contributing more than $216 billion to the economy. Non-profits operate in many spaces, but are essential parts of the healthcare, housing, and education systems. Non-profits exist to serve communities and fill essential functions not covered, or only partially covered, by the state or private market; they’re also sometimes in competition with other sectors, or at...
Sep 17, 2024•44 min•Season 2Ep. 107
Is Canada ready to get serious about tackling monopolies and oligopolies? You’ve heard it before, the old joke that Canada is three telecom companies in a trench coat. Or airlines. Or grocery stores. You’ve probably heard it here before. That’s because Canada has a monopoly and oligopoly problem – and it has for a long time. The United States has long faced its own challenges with market concentration — and for or once, Canada might not be too far behind. To understand the state and future of co...
Jul 23, 2024•44 min•Season 2Ep. 106
Canada has passed a law preventing federally-regulated businesses from using scab workers. Bill C-58 passed in June and marked a significant milestone in the progress of worker’s rights. That it passed is notable; that it passed unanimously in an era of increasingly toxic polarization is quite remarkable, and speaks to the moment that labour is having in this country. To understand the government’s thinking on the law and the broader context in which it passed, we talk to the man in charge of th...
Jul 09, 2024•48 min•Season 2Ep. 105
Universities are medieval, risk averse institutions. Some like to think of them as bastions of radicalism, but they’re actually quite conservative by nature – and in desperate need of modernization, a process of technological development that would serve students, faculty, and administrators alike. If there was ever any doubt about the need for post secondary institutions to up their tech game, the pandemic swept it away. So, are universities ready to modernize? On this episode of Open to Debate...
May 28, 2024•43 min•Season 2Ep. 104
This week, we have good news and bad news. The bad news, you know already. Climate change is catching up to us. We’re feeling its effects and they stand to get worse. We’re not doing enough, and what we are doing, we’re not doing as quickly as we ought to. Moreover, the hidden costs of climate change are also adding up. The good news? We are making progress in the fight against climate change and we still have time to address the worst of what’s coming – to mitigate, adapt, and secure a better f...
May 14, 2024•46 min•Season 2Ep. 103
Artificial intelligence means different things to different people. As an amorphous set of technologies deployed in countless applications, AI is tricky to understand, regulate, and integrate into our social and economic lives. This is especially true when conversations about it, even among experts, may be premised on misunderstandings – or multiple understandings – of the thing itself. And yet, AI, broadly understood, is already shaping how we do business, how and whether we employ people, how ...
May 07, 2024•43 min•Season 2Ep. 102
A few weeks back, we spoke with Tiffany Balducci about the Alberta NDP leadership race. This week, we’re keeping on theme, but instead of looking ahead, we’re looking back. You may have forgotten Jason Kenney. After his dismal leadership review, the Harper-era Cabinet minister resigned as premier of Alberta and left politics. But Kenney’s legacy continues to shape the country. A new book assesses his career, its effects, and the state of the right in Canada. So, what is Kenneyism and why should ...
Apr 23, 2024•52 min•Season 2Ep. 101
There’s no sharper way to assess the state of life in the early 21st century than through a lens of “enshitification,” a term this week's guest coined. It’s described as the slow and steady worsening of each and every bit of our daily existence, and as Cory Doctorow has argued, particularly as it pertains to the work of technology companies that have captured our attention, our dollars, or both. But some people have it worse than others. For instance, the incarcerated, on whom – as this week’s g...
Apr 15, 2024•49 min•Season 2Ep. 100
The Alberta New Democratic Party leadership race is underway. In June, the party membership will select a new leader to replace Rachel Notley and square off against United Conservative Party premier Danielle Smith. Let’s meet the candidates and get a sense of what they’re about as we ask: Who wants to lead the Alberta NDP? On this episode of Open to Debate, David Moscrop talks with Tiffany Balducci, a union organizer, negotiator, and job evaluation specialist with the Canadian Union of Public Em...
Mar 19, 2024•40 min•Season 2Ep. 99
Trans rights are under attack throughout Canada. Policy changes in New Brunswick, Saskatchewan, and Alberta have already constrained rights and other provinces, most notably Ontario, may be set to follow. At the same time, the Conservative Party is set to go all-in on the culture war ahead of the next federal election, and to throw trans people under the bus in the process. The struggle for trans rights intersects with similar movements to establish, expand, or preserve social, cultural, economi...
Mar 05, 2024•41 min•Season 2Ep. 98
In January, former New Democratic Party leader Ed Broadbent died at the age of 87. Outpourings of grief, respect, and gratitude followed throughout the country, culminating in a state funeral in Ottawa. Broadbent’s legacy is the product of decades of tireless work as an elected representative and as an ambassador for the left at home and abroad. His commitment to justice and equality is paralleled by few in Canada, and this episode is dedicated to understanding and celebrating his service to thi...
Feb 13, 2024•43 min•Season 2Ep. 97
Everybody loves a quadrilogy. In March of 2020, host David Moscrop and guest Amanda Watson discussed how we were managing our lives during the early days of the pandemic. Twice more the two discussed the pandemic, anxiety, and managing life during what felt like the end times. Now, Watson is back for a fourth time, at the dawn of 2024, to ask “What does 2024 have in store for us?” [this was originally “What fresh hell is this?” in the spirit of humour, but I presume you prefer to not have that a...
Jan 30, 2024•50 min•Season 2Ep. 96
Canada’s housing crisis continues with no end in sight. Shelter – a fundamental human need – is unaffordable for millions, and the surge in property value has created two classes, homeowners and non-homeowners. These two classes are often at odds, with competing interests. Those who wish to enter the market often prefer lower housing prices, while those who own stand to benefit from higher prices. Governments at every level have been slow to respond to the crisis and their actions have been insu...
Dec 05, 2023•42 min•Season 2Ep. 95
Artificial intelligence is already shaping the way we work, consume, and communicate with one another. It’s also shaping the way we govern ourselves – or, perhaps more accurately, the way we are governed. While we might imagine ways AI could shape better democratic processes, right now experts are worried about how such technologies can be used to manipulate, divide, suppress, and disinform people. With these concerns in mind, we ask: Is AI a threat to democracy? On this episode of Open to Debat...
Nov 21, 2023•45 min•Season 2Ep. 94
Around the world, democracies are on the back foot. For years, experts, commentators, politicians, and other practitioners and observers have discussed a global democratic recession. Several countries are of interest as case studies in decline, but the United States stands out. As an established democracy and global hegemon, the retreat of American democracy – always flawed, but increasingly so of late – threatens the world, and particularly its continental neighbours, including Canada. While Ca...
Oct 24, 2023•52 min•Season 2Ep. 93
Foreign policy might not win elections, but it shapes domestic politics – and the world. Recent months have seen external affairs intersect with internal affairs, hitting the headlines and shaping the country’s agenda. Foreign electoral interference has been top of mind for quite some time. India’s alleged assassination of a Canadian on Canadian soil grabbed even more attention. Then, during an address from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the House of Commons welcomed and celebrated a S...
Oct 10, 2023•47 min•Season 2Ep. 92
In June, Olivia Chow was elected mayor of Toronto. She faces an all-too-often complacent city with a hefty budget shortfall and a series of longstanding policy challenges, and failures. Affordable housing, transit, public safety, taxes, and parks spring to mind, but there’s plenty more. Chow’s performance may be evaluated on its own merits or demerits and against her predecessor’s; but her time as mayor will also stand as a test of left-wing governance. Fairly or unfairly, her mayoralty is a par...
Sep 26, 2023•40 min•Season 2Ep. 91
Canada’s housing crisis is persistent and brutal. In August, the average rent was nearly $2,100 a month – and much higher in cities including Vancouver and Toronto. The average cost to buy a home was about $670,000 – and, again, much higher in Vancouver, at $1.2 million, and Toronto at $1.1 million. The Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation says the country must build 5.8 million units by 2030 to hit affordable rates; we are on track for about half of that. Tackling this problem is going to take a...
Sep 12, 2023•42 min•Season 2Ep. 90
In June, this year became the worst wildfire season in Canadian history. Fires burned throughout the country. And there’s almost surely more to come. So far, over 10 million hectares have burned, sending toxic smoke from province to province and into the United States, where tens of millions of people were put under air quality advisories. The smoke caused some of the worst – on some days the worst – air quality in the world in major North American cities including New York and Toronto. The 2023...
Aug 08, 2023•44 min•Season 2Ep. 89
The United States of America is a polarized country marked by toxic partisan politics. The state of American politics comes from somewhere. And it might have been otherwise. It has been shaped by powerful interests, technologies, and contingent forces. One of those – one of the most important – is cable television. A new book traces the history of cable television and the changing political and cultural landscape in the United States. In the background of the book looms an absolute bruiser of a ...
Jul 25, 2023•41 min•Season 2Ep. 88
There are all kinds of euphemisms for fat bodies. They capture and obscure a persistent social discomfort and prejudice that appears across fields and settings, from pop culture, to airlines, to medicine and beyond. Weight is also a marker for constant abuse, online and offline. When it comes to weight, we have normalized prejudice, moral panic, and shaming, even as we have made such treatment socially unacceptable in relation to other markers. Where does the pathologizing of fat bodies come fro...
Jul 04, 2023•38 min•Season 2Ep. 87
For years, private interests have encroached upon public spaces. As time goes on, there are fewer and fewer places that belong to each of us regardless of our socioeconomic status–places where we can congregate or simply exist without needing to bend to the will of the market or worry about being surveilled. But what if our cities themselves were to fall to privatization? Imagine a city run, for instance, by a big tech company. Proprietary roads and sewers and sidewalks; data collection and surv...
Jun 20, 2023•41 min•Season 2Ep. 86
Last week in Alberta, Premier Danielle Smith and the United Conservative Party held on to government in a race that was much closer than the 49-38 seat count suggests. Indeed, a small shift in votes in a handful of ridings in Calgary would have tipped the contest in favour of the New Democratic Party. But that didn’t happen. NDP leader Rachel Notley says she will stay on as leader after losing to Smith, whose ministry and campaign were marked by gaffes, scandals, and utter absurdity. If you’re w...
Jun 06, 2023•50 min•Season 2Ep. 85
This is the first episode in our three-piece series on the past, present, and future of public spaces in Canada. In these episodes we’ll cover nature, cities, and big national undertakings – things we do, have done, or might do together in spaces meant for all of us. We’ll also discuss threats to public spaces, of which there are many, and what is being done to address them. Now, nature is the ultimate public space. There is something fundamental about it. Something essential. Nature pre-existed...
May 02, 2023•39 min•Season 2Ep. 84
We spend an awful lot of time talking about housing and development—and we should. But often lost in the conversation is how we manage rural land and housing. The vast majority of Canada is urbanized, but in case you were thinking what happens “out there” has nothing to do with you, think again. Rural areas are home to plenty of houses and residential developments of their own, but they are also the site of the country’s farmland. In the face of geopolitical shifts, climate change, and the ever ...
Apr 18, 2023•41 min•Season 2Ep. 83
At Carleton University, a union local is fighting for a fair deal for its workers–and getting ready for a strike. Across Ontario and Canada, unionized workplaces are fighting similar battles, even while the balance of power continues to favour employers by default. Democratized workplaces produce better results for employees, and everyone down the line, too. Recent gains in Canada and the United States might point to a new dawn for unions as people struggle with the cost of living crisis and unf...
Mar 21, 2023•43 min•Season 2Ep. 82
