Lately, the video games industry is in turmoil. The rise and fall of Blizzard, the trailblazing and toxic studio behind World of Warcraft, shows us why. 

Our guest, Jason Schreier, is an investigative reporter who covers the video game industry for Bloomberg News. His most recent book is the best-selling Play Nice: The Rise, Fall and Future of Blizzard Entertainment. Jason shares his years-long reporting on the frat-like culture at Blizzard, the scandal-plagued games developer that Microsoft bought for $75.4 billion (U.S.).

He talks about how commercial success can lead to creative decline, why Candy Crush is evil, and the future of gaming. 

Also, Vass and Katrina go on an epic quest.

Subscribe to the Lately newsletter, where the Globe’s online culture reporter Samantha Edwards unpacks more of the latest in business and technology.

Find the transcript of today’s episode here.

We’d love to hear from you. Send your comments, questions or ideas to [email protected].

Lately, millions of Canadians are unpartnered. Business and tech companies are rushing to meet the needs of the new me-market. For Valentine’s Day, we’re asking: “Is this actually a great time to be single?” 

Our guest, Yuthika Girme, is the director of SECURE, the Singlehood Experiences and Complexities Underlying Relationships Lab, at Simon Fraser University. She joins Lately to unpack anti-single prejudice, the four archetypes of singletons, and explains how this growing demographic is shaping a new ‘solo economy.’

Also, Vass and Katrina refuse to share their cake.

Subscribe to the Lately newsletter, where the Globe’s online culture reporter Samantha Edwards unpacks more of the latest in business and technology.

Find the transcript of today’s episode here.

We’d love to hear from you. Send your comments, questions or ideas to [email protected].

Lately, our bosses are going further than reading our emails. New technologies that can track our motions and our moods are ushering in a new age of workplace surveillance. Is this productivity hacking, or counterproductive micromanagement?

Our guest, David Murakami Wood, is the Canada Research Chair in Critical Surveillance and Security Studies and a professor at the University of Ottawa. He joins the show to walk us through recent mind-blowing advances in employee tracking technology and whether all this surveillance actually makes workplaces more efficient. He also explains why he didn’t get a cell phone until two years ago.

Also, Vass and Katrina undergo theoretical brain surgery.

Subscribe to the Lately newsletter, where the Globe’s online culture reporter Samantha Edwards unpacks more of the latest in business and technology.

Find the transcript of today’s episode here.

We’d love to hear from you. Send your comments, questions or ideas to [email protected].

Lately, the internet has broken the White House. Influencers and tech CEOs now have unprecedented access to the Trump administration. How will the “broligarchy” change our world? 

Our guest, Taylor Lorenz, covers the influence of influencers on User Mag, her tech and online culture Substack. The former Washington Post reporter literally wrote the book on how the internet took over politics: Extremely Online, The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet. 

Lorenz weighs in on the big tech transformation of the U.S. government, why banning TikTok is a bad idea, and what it’s like to party with the content creators who shaped the U.S. election. 

Also, Vass and Katrina discuss hostile haberdashery.

Subscribe to the Lately newsletter, where the Globe’s online culture reporter Samantha Edwards unpacks more of the latest in business and technology.

Find the transcript of today’s episode here.

We’d love to hear from you. Send your comments, questions or ideas to [email protected].

Lately, we’re sharing our darkest secrets with robots. The market for AI mental health aides is booming but how does it actually feel to bond with a therapy bot? 

Our guest, Graham Isador, just started his job as The Globe’s new Healthy Living reporter. Traditional therapy can be expensive and scarce, so Graham turned to AI and found a therapist who’s cheap, always available and not at all human. To his surprise, he kind of liked it. 

Graham describes his strange experience turning over his mental health to a chatbot. His article on the topic appears this week in The Globe.

Also, Vass and Katrina discuss what voice they would choose for their own AI therapists. 

You can also hear about the mother who says an AI chatbot led to her son’s death over on The Globe and Mail podcast Machines Like Us.

Subscribe to the Lately newsletter, where the Globe’s online culture reporter Samantha Edwards unpacks more of the latest in business and technology.

Find the transcript of today’s episode here.

We’d love to hear from you. Send your comments, questions or ideas to [email protected].

Lately, lingerie behemoth Victoria’s Secret is trying to claw its way back to relevance after a spectacular crash. How did a brand that once defined the culture fail to keep up?

Our guests, Lauren Sherman and Chantal Fernandez, tell the story of a retail giant’s rise and fall in their new book Selling Sexy: Victoria’s Secret and the Unraveling of an American Icon. 

They chart the company’s evolution from a fledgling sex toy business to a global fast-fashion pioneer. But when social media transformed the meaning of sexy, and the CEO’s association with Jeffrey Epstein made headlines, the fashion shows got canceled and the shares crashed. We’re asking where that leaves Victoria’s Secret today... and who is Victoria anyway?

Plus, Vass reveals her new advertising partnership with an underwear brand from her youth.

Subscribe to the Lately newsletter, where the Globe’s online culture reporter Samantha Edwards unpacks more of the latest in business and technology.

Find the transcript of today’s episode here.

We’d love to hear from you. Send your comments, questions or ideas to [email protected].

Lately, we aren’t all getting the same price for the same product. Is the rise of data-driven “personalized pricing” corporate innovation or just next-gen gouging? 

Our guest, Lindsay Owens, is an economic sociologist and former policy advisor to U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren. She’s the co-author of “The Age of Recoupment” in The American Prospect’s issue on How Pricing Really Works, and the executive director of Groundwork Collaborative.

Owens discusses how major retailers are using digital surveillance to set individual prices for individual customers. She talks about the evolution of pricing, from the bazaar to the department store to the Taco Bell app, and why AI software may be enabling price-fixing schemes in real estate that are driving up rents across North America.

Also Vass and Katrina compete for hotel deals.

Subscribe to the Lately newsletter, where the Globe’s online culture reporter Samantha Edwards unpacks more of the latest in business and technology.

Find the transcript of today’s episode here.

We’d love to hear from you. Send your comments, questions or ideas to [email protected].

Lately, we’ve been getting the news from The Decibel, the Globe and Mail’s daily news podcast. 

In this bonus episode, Lately’s sister pod reveals what it took for Rogers to outmaneuver the competition and buy up some of the biggest sports teams in Canada. 

A colossal business deal recently took place when a set of rivals came to an unexpected agreement. Rogers Communications Inc. bought BCE Inc.’s 37.5-per-cent stake in Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment for $4.7-billion. The transaction makes Rogers the majority owner of all of Toronto’s major professional sports teams.

Andrew Willis, a columnist and reporter for The Globe and Mail’s Report on Business, explains to Decibel host Menaka Ramn-Wilms how Rogers has the money to do this, why Bell agreed to sell to a major competitor and how investors may be able to buy their own stake in their favourite sports team one day.

Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email [email protected]

Professor Timothy Caulfield researches health misinformation, especially when it intersects with celebrity culture. In the new CBC documentary Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger, Caulfield takes a trip to the “manosphere” and meets the men who buy and sell the promise of masculinity in this growing segment of the $5-trillion wellness market. Caulfield talks to Lately about debunking the pseudoscience of drinking urine, how traditional masculine values can actually harm men’s health, and how the manosphere might have propelled Donald Trump to victory. 

Plus, Vass finds out what lightly grilled bull testicle tastes like.

Subscribe to the Lately newsletter, where the Globe’s online culture reporter Samantha Edwards unpacks more of the latest in business and technology.

Find the transcript of today’s episode here.

We’d love to hear from you. Send your comments, questions or ideas to [email protected].

Lately, LinkedIn has become  cringe... or cool, or more important than ever, depending on who you ask. So, is LinkedIn working well for us, or has it devolved into yet another shouty social media site?

Tim Kiladze is a Globe and Mail business reporter, Bay Street veteran and LinkedIn connoisseur. He wrote a compelling report on the evolution of LinkedIn: The tone has shifted to more performative “thought leadership,” the line between personal and professional has blurred – and now Bay Street executives are peacocking their post stats over lunch. But if you stay away from LinkedIn, are you sabotaging your career? 

Vass Bednar would like to connect. Accept/Reject?

Subscribe to the Lately newsletter, where the Globe’s online culture reporter Samantha Edwards unpacks more of the latest in business and technology.

Find the transcript of today’s episode here.

We’d love to hear from you. Send your comments, questions or ideas to [email protected].