This isn't just a big city issue. Even in smaller municipalities, the average cost of rent has skyrocketed. More and more Canadians, priced out of the housing market, are looking to rent. And, at least right now, there simply aren't enough rental properties to go around. Hence ... boom! But this is more than a recent explosion. It's part of a decades-long trend that views renting as transitional and home ownership as the ultimate goal. Does it have to be this way? Should it? What would it take t...
Apr 17, 2023•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast You can't do it one at a time, or even ten at a time. When an independent Alberta chocolatier found herself with an unexpected surplus of 133,000 Rum ad Butter bars facing an expiration date in June, she turned to Facebook. The result is a sweetly puzzling predicament. She doesn't want to profit off these bars, she just wants people to enjoy them before they expire. But in order to do that, she has to find takers. Takers who are willing to pick them up, not by tens or even hundreds—in pallets of...
Apr 14, 2023•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast If you've watched TV or attended a sporting event recently, chances are you've seen an ad for Ozempic. Originally created to treat Type-2 Diabetes, the drug is now most commonly used for weight loss, and it's become so popular that some places in Canada have had to ban Americans from crossing the border to get it. And that isn't the only controversy associated with the medication, which has intensified an age old debate about obesity, how it's defined, and how doctors should treat it. Should ins...
Apr 13, 2023•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast It's the official residence of the leader of the entire country. And it's a mess. Last week's report about dead rodents and their droppings in the walls was gross, but it's far from the first tale of how awful things are at 24 Sussex. The residence has been in a state of disrepair, to put it mildly, for a decade or more, and almost nothing has been done to fix it. The obvious question is: Why not? And the answer to that question will only provoke a much bigger one: What does it say about our pol...
Apr 12, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ever since author Joseph Boyden was called out for his claims of being an Indigenous author, every few weeks seems to bring a new story of a prominent researcher, writer or academic who has exaggerated or falsified their Indigeneity in order to secure grants or posts. But it's not just them, the numbers of people claiming Indigenous heritage in general has skyrocketed. What changed? Why are these claims only being parsed now? What do people who make these claims stand to gain, and how does it ha...
Apr 11, 2023•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast It's only half a joke. A recent report found that by 2030 demand for water will outstrip the world's supply by 40 percent. In the United States, the Colorado River and other major sources of water are drying up. The number of droughts worldwide is skyrocketing. Water is clearly no longer plentiful forever, even in wealthy nations. And Canada has a lot of water that other nations will someday soon not just want but badly need. Does this mean that wars over water are inevitable? No. But increasing...
Apr 10, 2023•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast It was protected just about a month ago, and it's located about 100 kilometres off the coast of Vancouver Island. And as for what's in there ... well, almost everything. That's what happens when you take 133,000 square kilometres of some of the most diverse oceanic ecosystems in the world and stop it from being exploited. Far too often we report on parts of Canada's natural beauty that are vanishing. Today, we'll do the opposite. GUEST: Jimmy Thomson, writing in The Narwhal We love feedback at T...
Apr 07, 2023•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Just days after Canada's official unofficial border crossing at Roxham Road was shut down, eight bodies were recovered from the waters of the St. Lawrence River near the Canada-US border. The bodies belong to migrants believed to be travelling from Canada to the United States, but without the Roxham crossing, advocates say we should expect to see more dangerous attempts to cross the border that could end in tragedy. What changed to close Roxham Road, and was it the right call? What comes next fo...
Apr 06, 2023•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast At the end of January, British Columbia began a pilot program that decriminalized small amounts of drugs, including heroin, cocaine and opioids. It's the first province-wide program of its kind in Canada and it comes amidst a spiralling overdose crisis. Already, opinions on the program are polarizing and some municipalities in BC are trying to find ways around it. But will the program work? It's been tried elsewhere in the world and results have been positive, but there's simply not enough data ...
Apr 05, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Tight elections don't seem to be Alberta's thing. After decades of Conservative blowouts, the NDP's unlikely 2015 win was ... also a blowout, and then the United Conservative Party returned the favour during the next contest. But now, with two months to go before Albertans vote on a new premier, polls indicate that the UCP and the NDP are basically tied. This might actually be a close race. So how did we get here? Have Rachel Notley and the NDP been able to capitalize on Danielle Smith's many ga...
Apr 04, 2023•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast When a leader sticks around a long time, it's natural that his popularity declines. That's how politics goes. But as Justin Trudeau heads towards a decade in power, there's a big chunk of Canadians who do more than just disapprove of him. They loathe the man. Meanwhile, Trudeau's top challenger, Pierre Poilievre, hasn't led the Conservative party very long, but he's still managed to rack up impressive unfavourability numbers in a short amount of time. What's fascinating is what the data reveals ...
Apr 03, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast The five-day work week has been the standard for decades. But not forever. Once upon a time, it was a six-day week. So why can't it go from five to four? This isn't an idle question. Pilot projects and studies in countries around the world, including some in Canada, have proven that a four-day week can make employees more productive, as well as cause them to miss less time leaving work for appointments. Companies that have experimented with a four-day work have mostly decided to keep it. If at o...
Mar 31, 2023•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast With $432 billion in spending, it's safe to say not everything included in Tuesday's federal budget got its share of headlines. And for top-line items, that makes sense. Health care and the cost of living are things that impact every Canadian. But it can sometimes take a day or two to sort out all the rest—smaller line items that might matter a lot to some people, or long-awaited promises that have finally made it into the document. Or, on the flip side, to get through the entire document and re...
Mar 30, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast It's a sport well over a century old. It has historically resisted change. It has also, however, been losing relevance by the year, as it gets slower and slower and the action becomes rarer and rarer. Baseball has been withering on the vine. Until (allegedly) this year! For the first time in decades, Major League Baseball has made substantial and fundamental changes to its rules, including a previously unthinkable addition — a clock for the timeless game. So why now? What will these changes do t...
Mar 29, 2023•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast Almost five years ago, one of the very first episodes of this podcast was about how baseball was a sport in decline. Games were too long, and too boring. The fan base was getting older and older, and younger generations didn't care. The game was less diverse and had less action, and attendance and ratings were declining. In the years to follow, this problem grew worse and worse—until finally even the traditionalists at the heart of the sport realized the game they loved, and profited from, was b...
Mar 28, 2023•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast First it was a campaign promise. Then a key plank of the Liberal-NDP supply and confidence agreement. Then it morphed into drug pricing reforms, which were delayed, and changed and delayed and ... well, we're still waiting. Meanwhile, the organization that helped devise the plan has seen resignations, amid accusations that the federal Liberal government has caved to huge pharmaceutical companies. The promise of pharmacare goes back decades in Canadian politics. For a while it seemed like it migh...
Mar 28, 2023•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast It's the most ambitious offshore mining project in Canadian history, and the fight for approvals has been long and arduous. That's because of both its scope, its dangers and the potential windfall to a province that badly needs it. So what is Bay du Nord? What does it promise and what, exactly, are the risks? And how do you balance the need to phase out fossil fuels with the future of an entire province's economy? GUEST: Lyndsie Bourgon, writing in Maclean's magazine We love feedback at The Big ...
Mar 27, 2023•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast Your friends and family live in your phone. Sure, you see them from time to time, but usually for scheduled events, planned well in advance, with an agenda and a timeframe. How often do you just find a friend ... and chill? A new book illustrates the kinds of casual hangouts that are dying out, at the same time as loneliness rates are rising around the world. There's a particular kind of energy we get from just killing time, or wandering, and we're losing it. What's that doing to us? GUEST: Shei...
Mar 24, 2023•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast Around the world, transgender people are under attack. Often legislatively, other times physically. And many of us would like to think of Canada as an oasis amidst this rise in prejudice. But we're not. Today, a look at a clinic that provides gender-affirming care virtually to trans and non-binary people across the entire province of Ontario. Except right now it doesn't, because new legislation makes it impossible, and the provincial government has so far refused to provide an exemption. What's ...
Mar 23, 2023•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast It was thought that the former president might be arrested on Tuesday, and charged in relation to alleged hush-money payments to an adult film star. That hasn't happened, but many who have been watching the case still expect charges to come. When they do, what will happen next? But this isn't the only investigation into Trump's potential crimes. There are more, and they involve more sinister allegations. So who exactly is investigating Donald Trump, and for what? Where do those investigations st...
Mar 22, 2023•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today it's Nordstrom, fleeing Canada after failing to turn a profit in almost a decade of trying. Before them, it was Target, thought to be a sure thing in this country. So far, Walmart is the exception that proves the rule: If you're an American retailer with your eyes on the Canadian market, you better do your research and have a plan. The loss of Nordstrom is sad for those who love its designer names, sure, but the stores themselves are a bigger loss as anchor tenants for premium locations in...
Mar 21, 2023•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Even three years after it emerged, there's still no consensus on the origin of the virus that shut down the world. Last week, the US Department of Energy said that its conclusion (albeit with "low confidence") was that the virus escaped from a lab. Three days later new genetic research pointed to the presence of the virus in racoon dogs found in Wuhan at the time the virus began to spread. So chalk up another data point for each side, and still we're searching for answers. What does the new evid...
Mar 20, 2023•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast It's called chlorpyrifos, and it's actually still being used in Canada right now. Despite years of reports on the danger it might pose, it was only last year that the government banned it, and it's using a gradual phase out that won't end until the end of this year. So what is chlorpyrifos and what's the risk? What kind of foods is it used on? What can exposure do to us? And why was Canada behind both Europe and the United States in getting rid of it? GUEST: Marc Fawcett-Atkinson, reporter and w...
Mar 18, 2023•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast We're already in another space race. The question this time is who gets the prize at the end of it. Both China and NASA have committed to plans to put bases on the moon in the next decade or so, and one of the main attractions is its resources. There are lots of valuable commodities on the moon, and it also makes a great jumping point for further space travel in the future. So the competition to extract the moon's minerals first, in harsh, remote conditions, with the use of space robotics, will ...
Mar 17, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Everyone who lived through 2008 as an adult flinched when Silicon Valley Bank failed last week. But was the bank's crash a unique situation, or something that should make us question our own financial institutions? What makes Canadian banks different from banks like SVB? What can we learn about the future of the economy from this failure? Why is the US government helping already-rich tech investors? And what do we need to watch for in the coming weeks and months? GUEST: William O’Connell, PhD ca...
Mar 16, 2023•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast Over the past couple of decades, five workers have died on the job at Fiera Foods, sparking protests, investigations and allegations of a dangerous workplace. But where did those workers come from? Fiera says they are employed through temp agencies, and they have filed for the tax breaks to prove it. But the CRA says those agencies aren't real, and Fiera workers tell stories of showing up at the factory and being put right out onto the floor. This legal fight sheds light on just how companies ca...
Mar 15, 2023•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast For the past month, headlines have been dominated by leaked CSIS documents, intelligence sources, fears of foreign interference in Canadian elections and the political fallout of all that. But most Canadians don't know much about how our intelligence community operates. Which agencies do what? Who do they report to? Who can access their information? Why would they release it to the press? Because this is already shaping up to be the political story of the year in Canada, we wanted to lay out the...
Mar 14, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Twice in the last month, Canadians were shown just how open our Northern border can be. First, the Prime Minister ordered a UFO shot down. Then, we learned that Canadian Forces had found Chinese monitoring buoys in our arctic waters. As geopolitical tensions rise, the arctic is perhaps where Canada is most vulnerable. So how do we monitor it? What do we need to do to protect ourselves? How is a changing climate making it more vulnerable? And what keeps the security experts up at night? GUEST: Dr...
Mar 13, 2023•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast There are indeed medical reasons that require your driver's licence to be suspended. But there are a host of other issues, everything from depression to cold sores, that have been cited as medical reasons in licence suspensions in Ontario. What's happening here. At the core of the issue are MCRs—medical condition reports that can often trigger an automatic suspension, even for a condition that doesn't impact driving, or a condition the driver may not even have. Why is Ontario handing out hundred...
Mar 11, 2023•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast It's Canada's most famous ongoing whodunnit. More than five years after the murders of the billionaire couple, the case is still open, the police are still chasing leads, and reporters are still getting new tips. But that hasn't resulted in a concrete suspect ... yet. Why not? What makes this case so hard to crack? And so compelling to the public? What could have been done earlier to make a difference in the information available? What are we still learning now? What might we learn in the months...
Mar 10, 2023•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
