Podcast
The Big Story
Episodes — page 89
How Medicine Hat became Canada’s first certified ‘zero homeless’ cityAcross Canada, in every municipality, there are people experiencing homelessness. It happens everyday. But what really matters is what happens to those people after they become hom…
B.C. has a blueprint to save its oldest forests. Will it use it?The months-long blockade at Fairy Creek is something of a tipping point for the province's NDP government's attempt to balance its environmentalism and its logging interests. Befor…
How close is America to the end of democracy?That's not hyperbole. Many Americans (and Canadians, and citizens around the world) hoped that once Donald Trump was out of office, and Joe Biden became president, the country woul…
What does Bill 96 mean for Quebec? And for the rest of Canada?It's a gigantic update to Quebec's language laws, which have been part of the cultural fabric of the province for 50 years—and the proposal even goes so far as to update Canada's c…
When will the border reopen? What will it look like when it does?Last week the federal government announced a tentative plan to announce a less-tentative plan for a July border reopening in the coming weeks. What we do know: It'll be fully-vacci…
Has TV reached the end of the ‘binge watch’ era?When Disney+ launched its newest Marvel show, Loki, this week, it came with a marketing campaign: "Wednesdays (when new episodes of Loki will be released) are the new Fridays (when…
Islamophobia in Canada is getting worse. Will Canadians confront it?This week, Canada's reckoning with its racist history was interrupted by its racist present. A terrorist attack in London, ON killed four members of a Muslim family and left a nine…
Why hiring Canadians with disabilities is a competitive advantageLots of people, when applying for jobs, hope the people doing the hiring can see them as people, instead of as assets that can deliver value for the company. For job seekers with d…
If Canada’s residential schools reckoning is real this time, what happens next?There have been promises in the past. And committees, and commitments and commissions and no shortage of apologies. But in the wake of the 215 children found buried where a residen…
Trudeau’s Liberals promised to end the blood ban. Now they say it’s “complicated”.The promise was pretty clear: During his first successful campaign as Liberal leader, Justin Trudeau told LGBT voters that we would end Canada’s longstanding ban prohibiting men wh…
What happens when the media fights back in a battle with the RCMP?Every time there’s a protest, or dispute, or anything else newsworthy in rural Canada, the media shows up to cover it. And runs into the RCMP. Sometimes, nothing happens. But more…
Our pandemic’s ending here. And almost nowhere else.Less than one percent of the 1.8-billion Covid-19 vaccines used so far have gone to low-income countries. And in those countries new variants are emerging that could impact our vac…
Will the Olympics go ahead as planned? Should they?Less than two months from now, unless something changes, the postponed 2020 Olympics will begin in Tokyo, Japan. Unless the country’s government listens to both its populace and it…
What does Pride look like in small-town Canada?Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal … Canada truly has some of the world’s biggest and most beautiful Pride celebrations. But it also has some of the smallest. In places like Taber, Alber…
Why doesn’t Canadian health care include dental coverage?It’s always been this way but … why? When it comes to everything from routine cleaning appointments and checkups to more complicated procedures like abscesses and crowns, many Cana…
BONUS: What’s next? Results from our listener surveyWe asked a whole bunch of questions, and hundreds of The Big Story’s listeners responded. We’re here for a special episode to share some of the most interesting questions and feedb…
Why online conspiracies aren’t just a QAnon problemThis is the story of a Jeopardy! contestant who made a white supremacist gesture on the program. Only he didn’t. But that didn’t stop thousands of people, including several dozen f…
Is Greyhound’s exit a tragedy or an opportunity?After nearly a century of moving Canadians between rural towns and big cities, Greyhound Canada announced last week it would end all Canadian routes. This is a move that could be d…
A terrifying medical mystery in New BrunswickWhen people started presenting with symptoms, local doctors and scientists wondered if the mysterious neurological disorder might be Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease. But it wasn’t. It wa…
What happens when a sex assault is reported to a dating app?Hope and optimism are the reasons we sign up for dating apps — even if we know we'll end up in the muck when we get there. We expect some bad dates and ghosting and all the rest, b…
