The Big Story

By Frequency Podcast Network

What's The Big Story about?

Focusing a magnifying glass on the headlines everyone is talking about, with the help of journalists from the best outlets in Canada. Intelligence, wit, curiosity. 15 minutes a day, Monday to Friday. First thing in the morning.

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The story of the secret sal...

11.13.2019

If you think worries over the health of Canada's fish population are a recent thing...they're not. More than 100 years ago, officials in British Columbia were concerned enough about the state of the Sockeye Salmon that they compiled journals upon ...

The Big Story episodes:

11.13.2019 The story of the secret salmon journals If you think worries over the health of Canada's fish population are a recent thing...they're not. More than 100 years ago, officials in British Columbia were concerned enough about the state of the Sockeye Salmon that they compiled journals upon ...
11.12.2019 Disney+ arrives and the Streaming Wars really begin If anyone can knock Netflix down a peg or two, it's the House of Mouse. Today marks the launch of Disney's new streaming video service, Disney+, and it comes with (almost) all the star power you'd expect—from classic animations, to ...
11.11.2019 Can restorative justice help rape victims heal, and avoid a painful trial? Marlee Liss was raped, and she knew how awful it would be for her to relive it during a trial. She wanted a process that would do more than that—she wanted understanding, and closure and she didn't want her assailant ...
11.08.2019 How “OK Boomer” sums up a massive generational divide It began as a meme the kids use on an app you've probably never tried if you're over 25—yet somehow the phrase "OK Boomer" managed to dominate digital culture this week. How? Why? Oh and also: Ummm, what does it ...
11.07.2019 Who killed Barry and Honey Sherman? Inside The Billionaire Murders It's one of the most mysterious cases in Canadian history, and one of the most high-profile. A billionaire husband and wife found dead in what at first appeared to be a murder-suicide, but quickly becomes something else. For almost two ...
11.06.2019 Why there’s no such thing as sticking to sports You may have heard of Deadspin. In fact, you probably have. Well, now it's dead. The site's entire staff resigned last week after its management insisted they stick to sports, and avoid the politics and lifestyle writing that made the ...
11.05.2019 Why is the whole world protesting in the streets? The specific causes may not be the same, but a general sense of urgent unrest has propelled millions of people into the streets in countries around the world. From Hong Kong to Chile to Catalonia to Lebanon, it may seem ...
11.04.2019 When Doug Ford returns to the legislature… Ontario Premier Doug Ford adjourned the legislature in June, and then was gone for about five months—the longest break for a legislature in a quarter-century. Then, one week after the federal election, Ford and his Conservative government returned to Queen's ...
11.02.2019 BONUS: A conversation about history with Dan Carlin Dan Carlin is the host of Hardcore History, one of the biggest podcasts in the world. He's also an author, and his new book tells the tale of all the times the world almost ended...but didn't. He sat down with ...
11.01.2019 Are international students being taken for their money? An investigation into the system that brings international students to Canada to study found exponential growth over a short time, as well as some disturbing results. Are the students who often spend everything their family has to come to Canada ...
10.31.2019 Wexit might be funny but the anger behind it isn’t “Wexit” is somewhat of a laughable term, but the separation movement is gaining a lot of traction in Western Canada… especially in Alberta. It’s not a new idea for Albertans, so where did this resurgence come from? What would it ...
10.30.2019 The problem with Canada’s temporary migrant labour program The stories are horrible, and there are a lot of them. Mistreatment at best, assault and abuse at worst. They sound like the stories you hear from the United States, about the exploitation of undocumented immigrants who cross the border ...
10.29.2019 Women in Canadian Politics: The Best of Times, The Worst of Times Last week, more women than ever before were elected across the country. It's a new record for a number that hasn't always inched upwards in every election, and that's worth celebrating. But among the victories, most of the winners were ...
10.28.2019 One man’s fight to get clean offers a view inside the opioid crisis Rabbit is a user. But he doesn't want to be. He wants to get clean, and he tries. Hard. But it's not easy. Rabbit's story, told in a new documentary, displays the contradictory approaches available in the crisis from helping ...
10.25.2019 How Meghan Markle is challenging Royal tradition You probably saw the clip. Most of the world did. The Duchess of Sussex, in a scene from a documentary that aired this week, sincerely thanks the interviewer for asking her if she's OK. "Not many people have asked me ...
10.24.2019 How to lose millions of dollars selling pot This is not as impossible as it seems! All you need is a high price point, a total lack of marketing, almost no locations, and enough red tape to prevent fixing any of those problems. Congratulations Ontario! After one year ...
10.23.2019 When the NBA champions go back to work The banner is up. The rings have been given out. The Toronto Raptors are back to business. But after losing their best player in free agency, nobody's giving them much of a chance of repeating their title. That's fine by ...
10.22.2019 Canada’s election ends and … now what? It's over. Justin Trudeau remains Prime Minister of Canada. The Conservative party is still the opposition. That much is certain. Everything else, though? It's much more complicated. How will Trudeau govern as a minority? Who will he work with? What ...
10.21.2019 Election Day: You have more choices than you think Vote strategically. Vote your heart. Vote your wallet. Vote your values. Lord knows every major party has made its final plea to you—and after a long, ugly campaign you may be desperate for anything but what you've heard the past ...
10.18.2019 Which party’s climate plan will actually work in the real world? Every major party has a real plan that aims to counter climate change. But not all plans are created equal. Nor are all of them even realistic. Polls show that Canadians of all political stripes care about this issue—but neither ...
10.17.2019 Health Care is a major election issue. But what’s on the table? When you ask a Canadian what they like or don't like about their health care, they are full of opinions. And obviously, there are few areas of policy that impact our lives more. But what role does health care policy ...
10.16.2019 Our new podcast: The Gravy Train The Gravy Train is a special, eight-part narrative podcast from The Big Story and Frequency Podcast Team that explores the tragic life and enduring legacy of Toronto's notorious mayor Rob Ford. Hosted by Jordan Heath-Rawlings, and featuring dozens of interviews ...
10.16.2019 Life’s expensive. But can a government really fix that? Affordability is the buzzword in this election campaign. You can see it everywhere from lists of voter concerns to policy papers to slogans like the Conservative party's "It's time for you to get ahead." So naturally, every party is vying ...
10.15.2019 Trudeau made promises to Canada’s Indigenous peoples. Did he keep them? There was a lot of optimism about Justin Trudeau in 2015, and not least among Canada's Indigenous communities. Trudeau's Liberals had made a lot of ambitious and overdue promises. Four years later? Well, the optimism has vanished—but what have the ...
10.11.2019 Why Ottawa’s beautiful new train doesn’t work Our nation's capital has a spiffy new transit line. It cost a couple of billion dollars and arrived a year behind schedule. When it works, it's fantastic. Only it...hasn't been working. The commutes of those in Ottawa became hell this ...
10.10.2019 The roots of why Saskatchewan hates Trudeau In Saskatchewan, voters rank climate change as one of their top election concerns. They also hate Justin Trudeau's plan to fight it. With a passion. Westerners hating a Trudeau is nothing new of course, but it does give us a ...
10.09.2019 Let’s talk about why we don’t talk about policy Did you hear that Justin Trudeau travels in two planes? Or maybe you heard Andrew Scheer is a dual citizen? You sure did. Perhaps you also heard the one about the differing plans for funding a national pharmacare program that ...
10.08.2019 Will Quebec change its mind? And change the election? Right now, polls indicate the Liberals hold a solid lead in Quebec. But if there's one place where voters can decide to ditch a party quickly, it's La Belle Province. They've done it many times before. And Quebec matters so ...
10.07.2019 Lessons from BC’s minority government Two weeks out from Canada's federal election, we're firmly in minority government territory—which means it's time to visit British Columbia, home of the most functional minority government in recent memory. It's been nearly two and a half years since BC's ...
10.04.2019 The Célinaissance: How Celine Dion became cool Céline Dion has been many things throughout her career, but "cool" has rarely been one of them. As one of the bestselling artists to call this country home, and an unabashedly proud Canadian and Quebecer, Céline should have won us ...
10.03.2019 Do Canadians have a Right To Be Forgotten online? It's 2019. By now plenty of Canadians have humiliating results in Google searches for their name. But do we need a process for making those listings disappear? The European Union has one—it's called the Right To Be Forgotten. And there's ...
10.02.2019 In the Northwest Territories, voters will get creative to be heard The federal government is perhaps the least impactful government to the daily life of the people living there. Except for one thing: Whomever sits in Ottawa controls how much, or how little decision-making power will be granted to the provincial, ...
10.01.2019 Will Newfoundland turn on Trudeau this time? When election results start coming in on October 21, it will be Newfoundland and Labrador that tells us first if the winds of change are blowing. In 2015, the Liberals swept Atlantic Canada, taking every seat, including all seven in ...
09.30.2019 It’s not just the climate heating up in the Yukon If you guessed this is where you'd find Canada's lowest unemployment numbers, and growing concerns that a lack of workers would hold back a booming economy, come collect your prize. Unfortunately, with all that growth comes some of the problems ...
09.27.2019 As Canada strikes for climate, this tool helps us understand climate policy Every major Canadian party acknowledges that climate change is real, and caused by humans, and needs policy to address it. But that's about where the similarities stop. And since the actual policy positions themselves can be both too dense to ...
09.26.2019 Here’s how money sneaks into Canadian elections… Ontario Proud wasn’t the first group to do it. The right-wing, self-proclaimed “grassroots organization” was actually a response to similar groups on the left. But the extent to which the organization was able to attract high-dollar donors and build an ...
09.25.2019 Will a health-care crisis decide these critical seats in October? The video went viral, because how could it not? In it, a mother is torn between tears and rage, describing the two years she went with her cancer undiagnosed, because she simply didn’t have access to a family doctor. Her ...
09.24.2019 What if AI is better than the polls in this election? Her name is Polly, and she got Brexit right. The polls missed it. She's called a few other races that consensus polling was wrong about, too. So who is she? She's an algorithm created by a small, Ottawa-based Artificial Intelligence ...
09.23.2019 Maybe “Not In My Back Yard”. But some people don’t have that choice. Garbage dumps. Industrial plants. Factories that use toxic chemicals. Nobody wants them in their neighbourhood. But they have to go somewhere. And historically, there's been a very clear pattern to where they end up. And when a professor at Dalhousie ...
09.20.2019 It’s not just a brownface photo. The whole election is about race. The Prime Minister has apologized for his past racism. His main opponent has called him unfit to lead, but has refused to turf his own candidates over their past racism. The leader of the party in third place is the ...
09.19.2019 If Ontario decides the election, what decides Ontario? At a glance, Ontario might seem like a Conservative stronghold. It's barely been a year since voters booted the provincial Liberals out of office in a wave. But a lot can change in a year. Today, our Lay of the ...
09.18.2019 Why pedestrians keep dying on Toronto’s streets The goal five years ago was zero. As of today, the number is six—as in six pedestrians, every day, injured or killed by a car. And the city is on pace to surpass last year's total of 41 deaths. Toronto's ...
09.17.2019 The issues you don’t hear about when politicians go North Canada's federal leaders love to visit places like Nunavut. It's a good photo op. It's a chance to talk about Reconciliation and make promises to Inuit communities. You can easily make your climate point—either about the severity of the crisis ...
09.16.2019 How film describes our world, even when it’s bad The Toronto International Film Festival wrapped this past weekend and it had a lot to show us. This year, it seemed like the films were all saying the same thing about our world: We're sick. We're tired. We're oppressed. But ...
09.13.2019 A potentially fatal lung illness is paralyzing the vaping world Nobody can figure out what's causing it, but hundreds of people are sick and six are dead. Most of them were young and healthy. The only thing they had in common was...vaping. That doesn't mean everyone who vapes is at ...
09.12.2019 Canadian airline passengers will soon have rights. But will they be enforced? Flying is one of the most stressful things humans subject themselves to. And flying with a screaming kid next to you is one of the worst things that can happen on a plane. There might be only one thing worse: ...
09.11.2019 The election is on. A debate looms. Where’s the PM? Today, Canada's 43rd general election officially begins! And tomorrow, you get to hear from the people who want to be your Prime Minister. Well, not all of them, actually. When the first leaders debate of the campaign begins tomorrow night, ...
09.10.2019 Halifax after Dorian: Did the city dodge a bullet? The last time a Category Two storm blew through Nova Scotia, eight people died. In the wake of Hurricane Dorian this weekend, east coasters were counting their blessings and cleaning up the mess. But none of that was guaranteed on ...
09.09.2019 Is Canada headed for a recession? The word has a clinical definition, but inspires an emotional reaction. And here's the thing: Reacting can make it worse. So you need to stay calm. There are troubling signs in the global economy, and Canadians are carrying a ton ...
09.06.2019 Is the NDP collapsing just as election season begins? Philippe J. Fournier sees a lot of polls. Actually, he sees all of the polls. And there aren't many good ones for Jagmeet Singh and the New Democrats these days. Is the NDP's fall severe enough to pose a threat ...

Older episodes

The Big Story

What's The Big Story about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

The Big Story episodes:

The story of the secret salmon journals

Disney+ arrives and the Streaming Wars really begin

Can restorative justice help rape victims heal, and avoid a painful trial?

How “OK Boomer” sums up a massive generational divide

Who killed Barry and Honey Sherman? Inside The Billionaire Murders

Why there’s no such thing as sticking to sports

Why is the whole world protesting in the streets?

When Doug Ford returns to the legislature…

BONUS: A conversation about history with Dan Carlin

Are international students being taken for their money?

Wexit might be funny but the anger behind it isn’t

The problem with Canada’s temporary migrant labour program

Women in Canadian Politics: The Best of Times, The Worst of Times

One man’s fight to get clean offers a view inside the opioid crisis

How Meghan Markle is challenging Royal tradition

How to lose millions of dollars selling pot

When the NBA champions go back to work

Canada’s election ends and … now what?

Election Day: You have more choices than you think

Which party’s climate plan will actually work in the real world?

Health Care is a major election issue. But what’s on the table?

Our new podcast: The Gravy Train

Life’s expensive. But can a government really fix that?

Trudeau made promises to Canada’s Indigenous peoples. Did he keep them?

Why Ottawa’s beautiful new train doesn’t work

The roots of why Saskatchewan hates Trudeau

Let’s talk about why we don’t talk about policy

Will Quebec change its mind? And change the election?

Lessons from BC’s minority government

The Célinaissance: How Celine Dion became cool

Do Canadians have a Right To Be Forgotten online?

In the Northwest Territories, voters will get creative to be heard

Will Newfoundland turn on Trudeau this time?

It’s not just the climate heating up in the Yukon

As Canada strikes for climate, this tool helps us understand climate policy

Here’s how money sneaks into Canadian elections…

Will a health-care crisis decide these critical seats in October?

What if AI is better than the polls in this election?

Maybe “Not In My Back Yard”. But some people don’t have that choice.

It’s not just a brownface photo. The whole election is about race.

If Ontario decides the election, what decides Ontario?

Why pedestrians keep dying on Toronto’s streets

The issues you don’t hear about when politicians go North

How film describes our world, even when it’s bad

A potentially fatal lung illness is paralyzing the vaping world

Canadian airline passengers will soon have rights. But will they be enforced?

The election is on. A debate looms. Where’s the PM?

Halifax after Dorian: Did the city dodge a bullet?

Is Canada headed for a recession?

Is the NDP collapsing just as election season begins?

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