The Decibel
Episodes
Parties promise to limit immigration in Quebec election
29 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Quebec is the one province where immigration is a ballot-box issue in provincial elections. In 2018, it was one of the deciding factors that gave Fran...
A nuclear scientist on Russia’s threat of nuclear war
28 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Russia has one of the largest nuclear arsenals in the world, and Russian President Vladimir Putin and those in his inner circle have threatened to use...
An Iranian woman’s death in custody sparks global protests
27 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Protests are spreading across Iran – and the world – after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody. Mahsa was picked up by Iran’s...
How two Canadian women were switched at birth
26 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In September 1969, two baby girls were born in a tiny hospital in rural Newfoundland, a few hours apart. A simple accident led to both of their lives ...
Putin doubles down on the war in Ukraine
23 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Russian President Vladimir Putin called up 300,000 reservists in a partial mobilization for the war in Ukraine. That sparked protests in se...
The good and bad of slowing inflation
22 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Inflation is on the decline for the second straight month. New numbers from Statistics Canada show that inflation slowed to 7 per cent in August – d...
A senator sent inauthentic documents to stranded Afghans
21 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the final days of a chaotic government effort to rescue people from the Taliban last summer, Senator Marilou McPhedran and one of her staff members...
What happened to $10-a-day daycare in Ontario?
20 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In March, Ontario became the last jurisdiction in Canada to sign on to the national Early Learning and Child Care Agreement. The $30-billion commitmen...
Soaring energy bills in the UK as winter looms
19 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On Oct. 1, natural gas bills in the U.K. will go up by 80 per cent. Most households rely on natural gas for heat, and this means their energy bills wo...
New details emerge about the Saskatchewan stabbings
16 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Initially, residents of James Smith Cree Nation did not want to welcome the reporters into their community following the mass stabbing attack that lef...
Behind the scenes of the Ukrainian counteroffensive
15 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
After months of fighting the Russian invasion, Ukraine has gained significant ground in Kharkiv Oblast, a province in the northeast of the country. Uk...
Why storms are more destructive now
14 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
There seem to be a lot of serious storms these days, and those storms are causing more and more damage. The storm that hit southern Ontario in May cla...
Fighting inflation, one grocery bill at a time
13 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
While Canada’s overall inflation is ticking down, the cost of food continues to rise. Inflation for groceries rose in July to 9.9 per cent.Lisa Noon...
What Pierre Poilievre’s landslide victory means for Canada
12 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In case you missed it: listen to Menaka’s conversation with columnists Robyn Urback and John Ibbitson about the Conservative Party’s new leader, P...
The expansion of selling plasma in Canada
12 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Plasma is a critical part of some medicines but Canada currently only gets 15 per cent of its supply from Canadians. That means we’re dependent on t...
The Conservative leadership race is Poilievre’s to lose
10 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Conservative Party of Canada will announce a new leader on Saturday evening. This comes after more than half a year of campaigning. Scott Aitchiso...
Queen Elizabeth dies at 96
09 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Queen Elizabeth II died on Thursday at the age of 96. She was on the throne for 70 years, making her the longest-reigning British monarch in history. ...
Why sports betting ads are everywhere
08 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A federal law banning single-sports betting was reversed last year through Bill C-218, leading to a proliferation of sports betting companies operatin...
Grief and fear in Saskatchewan after mass stabbing
07 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Two days after a stabbing rampage in Saskatchewan, police are still looking for Myles Sanderson, who, along with his brother Damien, are suspected of ...
Study permit delays leave international students in limbo
06 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
As of Aug. 15, nearly 170,000 study permit applications were pending with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Although plans have been made ...
City Space: Supply alone won’t fix our housing crisis. Here are three other factors
02 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
If we want great cities, people from all walks of life need to be able to live in them. But even with experts predicting that rising interest rates wi...
A new measure of unhealthy drinking
01 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
If you have three or more alcoholic drinks in a week, you’re putting your health at risk. That’s according to a new report from the Canadian Centr...
A cry for kelp: How this seaweed can help fight climate change
31 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Kelp has traditionally been harvested for food, but we’re discovering other new ways we could be using kelp as well … like in packaging, to replac...
Do sugar taxes work?
30 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
As of Sept. 1, sugar sweetened beverages like pops, iced teas and energy drinks in Newfoundland and Labrador will be a bit more expensive. The provinc...
Investigating the explosion that rocked a small town
29 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
An explosion rocked downtown Wheatley, Ontario last year, injuring 20 people, destroying property and terrifying residents and shaking buildings kilom...
Stress Test: Returning to the office will cost you and not everyone's willing to pay
26 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Your boss wants you back in the office, but after two years of remote work, you’re not sure you want to go. Whether you measure the cost in time or ...
Filling Canada’s labour gaps with migrant workers
25 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In April, the federal government announced that it would expand Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program to allow employers to hire even more low-w...
Zellers is back – will it survive this time?
24 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When Hudson’s Bay Company announced last week that it’s bringing back the discount store Zellers, people flocked to social media to share their me...
Why Germany needs Canada’s help with its energy
23 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Germany’s energy crisis could worsen as temperatures dip and Russia threatens to cut off the pipeline delivering natural gas to the country. So Germ...
The problems with outsourcing healthcare
22 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Alika Lafontaine is the Canadian Medical Association’s new president, and an anesthesiologist. He takes on the job at a time when emergency room...
Stress Test: Tempted to buy a home with siblings or friends? Here’s what you need to know
19 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Most people buy homes with their partners or by themselves. But others are ditching the traditional paradigm. Today, we’re talking about unconventio...
How a warming climate is hurting our sleep
18 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A study from the University of Copenhagen looked at billions of records taken from sleep-tracking wristbands across 68 countries suggests that people ...
Taiwan’s bargaining (micro)chip
17 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Recent visits to Taiwan by U.S. House Rep. Nancy Pelosi and a delegation of five U.S. lawmakers earlier this week have set the stage for rising tensio...
Why we need parasites
16 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
You’re never far from a parasite, no matter where you are. They’re responsible for illnesses like malaria that cause death around much of the worl...
Why do CEOs get paid so much?
15 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The CEOs of the 100 largest Canadian companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange saw their compensation go up 23 per cent in 2021. Some chief execu...
City Space: From tipping to farming: How we should change the way we think about food
12 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today we're bringing you an episode of City Space, a Globe and Mail podcast about how to make our cities better, hosted by Adrian Lee.Cities are fille...
The $100,000 curry chicken
11 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
With so many ups and downs in headlines and our personal lives, what often brings us together is food. Food has a way of supporting, nurturing and hea...
Unearthing our love for the humble potato
10 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Potatoes! They’re affordable, accessible, ultra-versatile, and most importantly, delicious. But a case of potato warts found on two farms in Prince ...
How supply chains starve us, and how to fix it
09 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the past two years alone, the number of severely food insecure people doubled to 276 million, according to the UN, because of issues like inflation...
Octopus: friend or food?
08 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
As the global demand for octopus meat rises, a company in Spain is set to open the world’s first ever octopus farm. But scientists and philosophers ...
City Space: How online shopping is changing our city streets – and what comes next
05 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
With e-commerce largely replacing brick-and-mortar stores, how we shop is having real, physical effects on how our cities work. So in this episode, we...
You have Monkeypox questions. We have (some) answers.
04 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Monkeypox cases are climbing worldwide. In July, the World Health Organization declared the virus a “Public Health Emergency of International Concer...
Are we actually heading into a recession?
03 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
New GDP numbers in the U.S. have set off the latest set of worries about whether we’re heading for a recession, even if Canada’s numbers aren’t ...
Scammers are taking advantage of the overheated rental market
02 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This year alone, rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Canada went up almost 14 per cent on average – and many rental markets, like Calgary or Guelph,...
Stress Test: Retirement might look different for Gen Z and millennials. Here’s how to plan for it
29 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today we're bringing you an episode of Stress Test, a Globe and Mail podcast about personal finance, hosted by Rob Carrick and Roma Luciw.We’re tal...
Outrage over Hockey Canada’s fund to settle sexual assault claims
28 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Hockey Canada told federal hearings Wednesday that it has paid $8.9 million since 1989 to settle 21 cases of alleged sexual assault, with the bulk of ...
Why Canada is violating its own Russian sanctions
27 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Canada is getting heat for granting a Montreal company an exemption from Russian sanctions. The company fixes turbines used in the Nord Stream 1 pipel...
Why bonds might be more important than stocks
26 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The bond market moves three times as much money as the stock market. But it’s boring. The “sure thing” with a steady if modest return and low ri...
Should the Pope reverse a 500-year old Church law on his trip to Canada?
25 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It is largely anticipated that Pope Francis will deliver another apology to Indigenous people while in Canada this week. But are there actions he coul...
Stress Test: How TikTok changed the vibe of personal finance advice
22 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today we're bringing you an episode of Stress Test, a Globe and Mail podcast about personal finance, hosted by Rob Carrick and Roma Luciw.Gen Z and m...
The most important revelations from the January 6 hearings
21 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The January 6 Committee hearings have shared several surprising revelations and explosive testimony over the last few months. To make sense of it all,...
The court case challenging Canada’s public healthcare
20 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On Friday, B.C.’s Court of Appeal upheld a lower court’s decision that access to medical care should be based on need and not the ability to pay. ...
What we learned from the Nova Scotia shooter’s spouse
19 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
More than two years after Canada’s worst mass shooting, we’ve finally heard from someone who was there at the start. Lisa Banfield, the shooter’...
Sri Lanka's crisis and its relationship with China
18 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Sri Lanka is in crisis right now. After months of fuel, medicine and food shortages, protestors have taken to the streets – and the homes of the cou...
City Space: How can cities prepare for climate change?
15 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today we're bringing you an episode of City Space, a Globe and Mail podcast about how to make our cities better, hosted by Adrian Lee.Climate change i...
Decoding the Bank of Canada’s supersized interest rate hike
14 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Bank of Canada raised the benchmark interest rate by one percentage point on Wednesday. The surprise move is the biggest hike since 1998. The aggr...
Three solutions for airport chaos from a former airline exec
13 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Things are not going well at airports around the world and Canada has taken a particularly bad turn. On Monday, 70 per cent of flights from Canada’s...
The Rogers outage fallout
12 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On Friday, Rogers’ cellphone and Internet surfaced suddenly stopped working, leaving almost 12 million Canadians disconnected. And it wasn’t just ...
Coping with the coming COVID summer surge
11 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Two and a half years into the COVID-19 pandemic, we may be sick of talking about it – but COVID-19 is not through with us yet. Case counts are highe...
City Space: Hybrid work is here to stay. What will that mean for our downtown cores?
08 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today we're bringing you an episode of City Space, a Globe and Mail podcast about how to make our cities better, hosted by Adrian Lee.If you’re a wh...
What’s going on inside the Assembly of First Nations?
07 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On Tuesday, First Nations chiefs in the Assembly of First Nations voted against continuing the suspension of National Chief RoseAnne Archibald. Archib...
Trudeau, the RCMP and a question of interference
06 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Just 10 days after the 2020 Nova Scotia mass shooting where 22 people were killed, RCMP commissioner Brenda Lucki allegedly pressed senior officers to...
Tuberculosis in Canada? The story behind a recent outbreak
05 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It’s often thought of as a disease from a bygone era, but in some parts of Canada, tuberculosis is still very much with us. When the hamlet of Pangn...
Wild boars are in Canada and it’s no joke
04 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Adaptable, smart and invasive. No we’re not talking about humans. We’re talking about wild boars. With their populations growing and sightings –...
Graduating from pandemic high school
30 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Westview Centennial Secondary School in the northwest of Toronto is celebrating the graduating class of 2022. On Thursday, about 180 students are cros...
The fight to overturn abortion bans in the U.S.
29 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade on Friday, abortions were immediately outlawed in several states. But this week,...
Hockey Canada, allegations of sexual assault and a culture of secrecy
28 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A woman alleges she was sexually assaulted by eight Canadian Hockey League players in 2018. The public did not hear about this until 2022, after TSN b...
The cultural and economic force that is K-pop supergroup BTS
27 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The superstar K-pop group BTS announced recently that they are taking a temporary break as a group and pursuing individual projects. This moment was a...
Celebrating Pride in small-town Canada
24 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today, Pride celebrations in big cities include parades and parties which attract millions of participants around the world. But for many smaller citi...
Was the Emergencies Act the right tool to use against the truckers?
23 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Feb. 14, 2022, marked the first time the government has had to invoke the Emergencies Act. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did so in response to the con...
What to know about monkeypox’s spread
22 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Monkeypox, an endemic disease for a number of Central and West African countries, is having its largest outbreak outside of that region. According to ...
Why protecting the Amazon can be deadly
21 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira went missing in the Amazon on June 5. They are now confirmed dead and mu...
What the government can do to fix inflation
20 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For many months now, people have been calling on the federal government to do something about skyrocketing prices. Last week, Finance Minister Chrysti...
Rescuing the most vulnerable in Ukraine’s eastern region
17 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Mykola Kuleba is the former children’s ombudsman of Ukraine and he’s now the head of an organization called Save Ukraine. He’s been co-ordinatin...
Panic at the crypto
16 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Cryptocurrencies have taken another dive this week. And this crash follows seven months of declines, even for the big names in the game. Bitcoin, for ...
The front line defence against floods that no one’s fixing
15 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
They’re the front line in defending British Columbia from flooding – but no one can agree who’s responsible for them. Dikes, levees, whatever yo...
Where development clashes with conservation
14 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Ontario’s proposed Highway 413 would cut through the habitat of several species at risk in the province. Critics are concerned it would harm local w...
Divulging salaries can help shrink the pay gap
13 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When it comes to the issue of salary gaps, some experts say one solution is to make salaries more transparent. In 2021, the federal government introdu...
Swan Lake and the future of ballet
10 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Siphe November is one of the most talented ballet dancers of his generation. At just 23, he’s the National Ballet of Canada’s youngest principal d...
Why we can’t air condition our way out of extreme heat
09 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Last year, a heat dome in B.C. led to the deaths of 619 people. It’s the deadliest weather event in Canadian history. Temperatures rose to above 40 ...
How Boris Johnson survives scandal after scandal
08 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Boris Johnson has been called the Teflon prime minister, because no scandal seems to stick to him. He has a long history of being at the centre of sca...
Why the Nova Scotia shooter wasn't stopped by police sooner
07 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
As we learn more about Canada’s worst mass shooting, the families of the people killed are so frustrated with how the inquiry’s going that they’...
Inside Canada’s music industry with rapper Cadence Weapon
06 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
You may know Rollie Pemberton by his stage name, Cadence Weapon. He’s the Edmonton-born rapper, who won the Polaris Music Prize in 2021, is known fo...
‘Leaving the door open’ for rehabilitating mass murderers
03 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Canada abolished the death penalty in 1976. Now, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that it is unconstitutional for the state to jail someone for l...
Depp v. Heard and what it means for #MeToo
02 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On Wednesday, a jury sided with actor, Johnny Depp in his defamation case against his ex-wife, Amber Heard. The verdict follows a six week-long trial ...
Putting a federal disability benefit back on the table
01 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On May 26, Canada’s Minister of Employment, work force Development and Disability Inclusion, Carla Qualtrough said the Liberal government plans to r...
Why people are hitting unsubscribe on streaming platforms
31 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Netflix recently reported their first loss of subscribers in over a decade. In the first quarter of 2022, 200,000 accounts left the company. That was ...
Why birds sing
30 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today we decided to take a bit of a reprieve and head down to a park, very early in the morning, to hear the dawn chorus – the symphony of birdsong ...
How archaeologists look for unmarked graves in Indigenous communities
27 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It’s been one year since Tk’emlúps te Secwepemc First Nation announced they had found 215 unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residenti...
Why guns are so tied to American identity
26 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The United States is grappling with another mass shooting. At least 19 children and two adults were killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas,...
How learning platforms tracked kids during online school
25 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A new report from Human Rights Watch found that some online learning platforms are tracking children in ways they say actively or passively infringe o...
Connie Walker’s latest investigation: Her own family's history
24 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Journalist Connie Walker has been reporting on Indigenous stories for most of her career. From missing and murdered women to the Truth and Reconciliat...
Stress Test: Is the middle class dead for millennials and Gen Z?
23 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
As a bonus episode today, we're bringing you an episode of Stress Test, a podcast about personal finance from The Globe and Mail, hosted by Rob Carri...
Why is it so hard to unite the right in Alberta?
20 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says he will resign as leader of the United Conservative Party following the results of his leadership review. He receive...
A journalist’s death and rising tensions in the West Bank
19 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On May 11, a prominent Palestinian-American journalist was shot and killed in the West Bank while reporting for Al Jazeera. Her name was Shireen Abu A...
Why this year’s avian flu is much deadlier than usual
18 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
As this year’s deadly avian flu spreads from poultry to wild animals, there are reports of birds suffering from neurological symptoms, dropping dead...
The stock market is tumbling. A recession is probably next
17 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Global markets are not doing well. And people are losing a lot of money. Even big technology companies like Netflix are starting to suffer. Their stoc...
Why getting in to see a doctor is so hard in Canada
16 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Universal health care is a point of pride for many Canadians, but the system has had flaws for decades. One big issue is getting in to see a doctor. T...
The fight to end forced sterilization of Indigenous women
13 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Indigenous women are still being forcibly sterilized in Canada. That’s one thing that Sen. Yvonne Boyer wants Canadians to know. The senator, who is...
Resilience, inherited trauma and living with the Holocaust
12 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Even 75 years after the Holocaust, anti-Semitic crimes are still happening in Canada. And their presence highlights why education is still important, ...