The Decibel
Episodes
Hong Kong democracy activists sentenced in a city ‘transformed’ by new law
03 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Seven Hong Kong democracy activists were sentenced to prison this week for their roles in the 2019 protests that saw hundreds of thousands of people p...
Making the most of going back to school
02 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We’re heading into the third school year of the pandemic. For 18 months now, students and their parents have had to deal with unpredictable school d...
What the fraud trial of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes could reveal
01 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The fraud trial of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes has started in California. Holmes has been accused of defrauding investors and patients by lying ...
The final days of the Afghanistan evacuation
31 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On Monday it was announced that the last American troops had left Kabul’s airport, ending 20 years of Western military presence in Afghanistan. Cana...
The Winnipeg 'city kid' fighting climate change to help heal Indigenous communities
30 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In his new memoir, environmentalist Clayton Thomas-Müller recounts growing up surrounded by love and strength – but also family violence, relentles...
Stress Test: Salary negotiation 101 - How to ask for a raise
27 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As a bonus, we're bringing you an episode of Stress Test, a podcast about personal finance from The Globe and Mail, hosted by Rob Carrick and Roma Luc...
Afghanistan, COVID-19 and housing: the campaign trail so far
26 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Despite the pandemic, Canada’s federal election campaign has felt somewhat normal. There have been socially-distant campaign events and speeches ful...
How courts can account for racism in sentencing
25 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Should judges take race into account when deciding on punishments for crimes? The Nova Scotia Court of Appeal ruled last week that it should. Judges i...
How Shein’s low prices are setting fast fashion on fire
24 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Shein may be one of the most successful clothing brands that you’ve never heard of. The fast-fashion giant is where Gen Z shoppers go to find cheap,...
Why upgrading the electric grid matters to the climate
23 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Canada has an opportunity when it comes to electricity. We’re ahead of the game in some ways. A sizable part of the electrical grid is already decar...
Who are the Taliban now?
19 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The last time the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, they imposed an extremist interpretation of Shariah law on its people, harboured Osama bin Laden as he pl...
Why the fourth COVID-19 wave is different
18 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
After 17 months of lockdowns, masking, social distancing and vaccinations, it looked like we might finally be cresting the worst of the pandemic. But ...
The Canadian effort to relocate Afghans
17 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Taliban’s capture of Kabul has caught NATO governments flat-footed in their efforts to extricate their embassy staff and the Afghan nationals wh...
The 'hostage diplomacy' connecting Canada and China
16 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It’s been almost 1000 days since Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were detained by the Chinese government. The move was widely seen as re...
Stress Test: What’s a wedding worth?
13 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As a bonus, we're bringing you an episode of Stress Test, a podcast about personal finance from the Globe and Mail, hosted by Rob Carrick and Roma Luc...
Why Trudeau may want an election to start next week
12 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Canada’s last federal election was in the fall of 2019, and the Liberals won a minority government. Now, as some experts say the fourth wave of the ...
How will the world treat climate refugees?
11 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Monday’s IPCC report brought together the world’s latest science to tell us what we know about what causes climate change and what exactly it’s ...
‘Code red’: What the new IPCC report tells us about our climate future
10 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on the latest scientific knowledge about climate change has been released,...
Investigating the Catholic Church’s wealth
09 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Over the summer, more than 1,200 probable unmarked graves have been located on former residential school sites in Canada, which were mostly run by the...
Toronto Raptors say goodbye to Kyle Lowry
05 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Beloved Toronto Raptors point guard, Kyle Lowry, announced he’s leaving the team to play for the Miami Heat. Lowry was a big part of the Raptors’ ...
Why Canada is fighting to save an oil pipeline in Michigan
04 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Beneath the Straits of Mackinac, the connecting waterway between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, lies Enbridge Line 5: a pipeline built in 1953 bringing...
Would a four-day work week solve our work-life struggles?
03 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Working four days a week instead of five has often come up as a way people can reclaim some of their time from their employers. But who exactly would ...
Dispatch from Tokyo 2020: Simone Biles, extreme heat and Canada’s performance so far
29 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
American gymnast Simone Biles withdrew from both the team and individual all-around competitions, a few athletes have passed out from the Tokyo July h...
MuchMusic’s revival, TikTok, and the power of nostalgia
28 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Before there was Youtube and Vevo, there was MTV and MuchMusic. These TV music stations were the curators of cool. And when millennials were teenagers...
Vaccine hoarding and Africa’s COVID-19 crisis
27 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
African nations have a problem. They can’t get enough COVID-19 vaccine doses. Vaccine hoarding by wealthy nations and an underserved COVAX program –...
The case for vaccine passports
26 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The summer is half over, vaccination rates are rising, but we aren’t out of the pandemic woods yet. And since we last explored vaccine passports, th...
Your eyes are lying to you: What data tells us about Olympic swimming
22 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
To keep their edge after a fantastic showing at the 2016 Rio Olympics, Swimming Canada got serious about their data-mining mission. They tracked all k...
The push to diversify corporate Canada
21 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
After the killing of George Floyd and the subsequent swell of Black Lives Matter protests, companies rushed to declare their alliance to the cause of ...
A new challenge in the COVID-19 pandemic: Nurses quitting
20 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A growing number of nurses are leaving hospitals. The relentless workload, the crushing experience of watching so many people get very sick from the n...
Who Canada left behind in Afghanistan
19 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As the U.S. continues to pull its troops out of Afghanistan after nearly 20 years of fighting, the Taliban is taking back more and more territory. Thi...
Coming Soon: Going to the movies post-lockdown
15 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ontario movie theatres will reopen on July 16th. For some – like in the Greater Toronto Area – it’ll be for the first time in about nine months....
The next generation of 9-1-1
14 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Phone technology has evolved at an incredible pace, from the first cellphone in the 1980s, to the sophisticated computers we call smartphones in our p...
Haiti and the failed promise of foreign aid
13 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Events in Haiti have been unfolding quickly following the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse in his Port-au-Prince home on July 7. In t...
Exploring the connection between racism and schizophrenia
12 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Can racism cause schizophrenia? It’s an area of mental health research that has been ongoing for decades and over time, researchers are increasingly...
Lebanon’s ‘deliberate depression’
08 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Lebanon’s financial crisis was only made worse last year when an explosion ripped through the port of its capital city, Beirut, killing more than 20...
The case against vaccine passports
07 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Domestic vaccine passports offer one way of letting vaccinated people get back to normal life by giving them access to privileges non-vaccinated peopl...
Hundreds dead, a town ablaze after record-setting heat wave in Western Canada
06 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The village of Lytton, BC burned to the ground a day after hitting the hottest temperature ever recorded in Canada, forcing residents to evacuate in a...
Family wealth, bidding wars, interest rates: what’s driving Canada’s wild real estate market
05 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Soaring house prices have made it harder to afford a house in Canada than it’s been in three decades, with experts blaming everything from low inter...
The uncomfortable conversations about #CancelCanadaDay
30 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Calls to reconsider the fireworks and celebrations of Canada Day have intensified as we approach the national holiday, in light of the announcements f...
‘You get some freedom with a vaccine’: What new guidelines mean for your double-vaccinated summer
29 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
New guidelines for people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 were published by the Public Health Agency of Canada last week, which now applies ...
Why you still can’t buy a bike this summer
28 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A lot of Canadians have pandemic-savings money to burn – and not many places to spend it. With travel, entertainment and even dining still severely ...
As China urges families to have more children, it’s cracking down on Uyghur births
25 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
China is encouraging people to have up to three children in a bid to reverse the effects of its one-child policy, which has left the country with an a...
Ticks: the ‘bags of blood with feet’ that you should know about
24 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
For Dr. Vett Lloyd, there really is nothing good about a tick. That’s why she studies them. After getting bit herself and developing Lyme disease, D...
Why were two scientists fired from a Winnipeg virus lab?
23 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The head of the Public Health Agency of Canada defied an order of the House of Commons on Monday, refusing to provide unredacted documents about the d...
How long does COVID-19 immunity last?
22 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Nearly 20 per cent of people in Canada have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, making almost all of them immune to the virus. But how long will t...
Hotel Rwanda hero’s trial, and how we remember the genocide
21 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The genocide in Rwanda shocked the world in 1994, and since then the country has been praised for its recovery. But the trial of Paul Rusesabagina –...
A father’s advice to his children on the other side of the world
18 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When Ethan Lou unexpectedly found himself quarantining with his uncle in Beijing, he learned that his uncle was trying to bridge the distance between ...
The Green Party’s identity crisis
17 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A defection. Calls for a leader’s resignation. Internal fighting. The Green Party of Canada is in the news for all the wrong reasons lately.On Frida...
After the Julie Payette scandal, the search for a new Governor General
16 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Six months after former astronaut Julie Payette resigned from the role of Governor General of Canada, Trudeau has yet to find her permanent replacemen...
Could hydrogen revive Alberta’s energy sector?
15 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
With the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline and the increasing pressures of climate change, transitioning Alberta from an oil-based economy is f...
State surveillance, press freedom and covering China
14 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As a correspondent based in Beijing, Nathan VanderKlippe prepares to leave his post after eight years and return to Canada. He talks about the changes...
Tension in East Jerusalem as Israel awaits a new government
11 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Globe and Mail’s European Bureau Chief Eric Reguly is in East Jerusalem, covering a very tense moment in Israel’s history. While last month’...
‘Everybody needs to look in the mirror’: London, Ont.’s Islamophobia problem
10 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Police charged a man on Monday for hitting an entire family with his truck on Sunday night in London, Ontario, alleging that he did it intentionally b...
Will the Pope apologize for residential schools?
09 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On Sunday, Pope Francis prayed for Indigenous families, addressing the announcement that remains of children were found in unmarked gravesites at the ...
The politics of trees in Fairy Creek, B.C.
08 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Three First Nations have deferred the logging of old-growth forest in and around Fairy Creek, B.C. This follows months of blockading by environmental ...
Power Gap: How progress has stalled for female academics
07 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Women have been graduating from university at higher rates than men for decades but are still under-represented in the best-paid jobs, like university...
In Kamloops with Tanya Talaga
04 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Tanya Talaga is an Anishinaabe journalist, speaker and columnist for The Globe. After being invited by the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation, Ta...
A conversation with a doctor who helps people die
03 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Konia Trouton is a physician in Victoria, B.C., who provides medical assistance in dying, also known as MAID. She describes the process, discusses...
The last big battle over oil?
02 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How did a junior oil company from Calgary end up at the heart of a dispute over wildlife preservation in Namibia? Energy reporter Emma Graney talks ab...
Canada’s lost residential school children
01 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The remains of 215 children were found on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia. Residential school survivo...
Pregnant with COVID-19: Why moms-to-be are filling ICUs
31 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Two women got COVID-19 while in their third trimester of pregnancy and landed in the ICU, isolated from their newborn babies.They tell their stories, ...
Are the kids alright? The pandemic and learning loss
28 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Remote learning has allowed for education to continue in the COVID-19 pandemic, but at what cost? Some students are lost and disengaged, parents are e...
The quest for police reform
27 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
After the death of George Floyd, American politicians faced huge pressure to institute changes to reform standards of policing and hold officers to ac...
Why students can’t catch a break on summer jobs
26 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As warmer months and higher vaccination rates bring hope of a return to normal life for Canadians, the summer job market for young people is still dam...
Brampton: The making of a COVID-19 hotspot
25 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
For months now, Brampton resident Dr. Amanpreet Brar has been going on different Punjabi-language shows to talk about the COVID-19 pandemic and take a...
Understanding the U.S.’s influence over Israel
21 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Israel and Hamas have agreed to a mutual ceasefire, ending nearly two weeks of fighting. This came after escalating pressure from U.S. President Joe B...
A historic moment for Mars: China’s lander joins NASA’s Perseverance
20 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Mars is a busy place right now. There are two rovers and a helicopter on the surface, along with many orbiters circling around it. Science reporter Iv...
The Tokyo Olympics are happening despite Japan’s COVID-19 surge
19 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Despite the fourth wave of coronavirus now hitting Japan, the Olympic Games are scheduled to take place in Tokyo at the end of July. Columnist Cathal ...
Do we want to work from home forever?
18 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
If you were able to work from home for much of the pandemic, you might be looking forward to getting back to the office – or dreading the commute, t...
Who is responsible for the death of Betty Siwicki?
17 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ron Siwicki spent two years in prison for failing to look after his bedridden mother. Wency Leung discusses how his family’s tragic story reveals th...
A deadly week in Israel and the Palestinian Territories
14 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The worst fighting in years between Israel and Palestinians broke out this week following a police raid at the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. Senior int...
Alberta’s record-breaking third wave
13 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Alberta has the most active COVID-19 cases per capita, more than any other province in Canada – twice as many as Manitoba, which is in second place....
How the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy program helped big business
12 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How did big companies that had a great 2020 overall end up qualifying for millions of taxpayer dollars from the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy program?...
Making the most of your pandemic savings
11 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Fewer spontaneous coffees, commuting costs and vacations have left some with a tidy sum in their savings. Personal finance journalists and co-hosts of...
COVID-19 in Canada: Are we in the home stretch?
10 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Globe and Mail health columnist André Picard discusses how Canada has fared nearly 14 months into its COVID-19 pandemic, what to do if you have vacci...
Introducing The Decibel
24 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The new podcast from The Globe and Mail. Coming May 10, 2021. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our ...