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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Where The Parties Stand: Tr...

09.16.2021

We asked our listeners what their key issues were in this election, and this week we'll tackle the top five. Every day we'll go deep on the major party platforms with an expert immersed in that field. Today, truth and ...

The Big Story episodes:

09.16.2021 Where The Parties Stand: Truth and Reconciliation We asked our listeners what their key issues were in this election, and this week we'll tackle the top five. Every day we'll go deep on the major party platforms with an expert immersed in that field. Today, truth and ...
09.15.2021 Where The Parties Stand: Economic Recovery We asked our listeners what their key issues were in this election, and this week we'll tackle the top five. Every day we'll go deep on the major party platforms with an expert immersed in that field. Today, the economy. ...
09.14.2021 Where The Parties Stand: Health Care We asked our listeners what their key issues were in this election, and this week we'll tackle the top five. Every day we'll go deep on the major party platforms with an expert immersed in that field. Today, health care. ...
09.13.2021 Where The Parties Stand: The Housing Crisis We asked our listeners what their key issues were in this election, and this week we'll tackle the top five. Every day we'll go deep on the major party platforms with an expert immersed in that field. Today, the housing ...
09.10.2021 As the PPC rises in the polls, what are parties proposing to combat the rise of hate in Canada? Hate crimes have risen. Racialized Canadians have been attacked and killed. Angry protests follow the Prime Minister around the country and have come close to turning violent. Protesters scream at healthcare workers outside hospitals and, as if to quantify this ...
09.09.2021 Is Canada's international student system ethical? Or exploitative? What agents are selling around the world is the value of a Canadian education—and people are buying in droves, especially in places like Punjab, India. But they're not buying it for the value of the degree. Many international students have ...
09.08.2021 How does each party plan to address the crisis in elder care? It's no secret that our elders were the people hit hardest by COVID-19, but all the pandemic did was shine a deadly light on a system that has been broken for years. Canada's population is aging. Our long-term care facilities ...
09.07.2021 How your donated clothes end up burning in landfills a world away You thought you were helping someone when you put that bag of old clothes in a donation bin. But you probably didn't. A striking number of clothes donated in Canada and other wealthy countries end up clogging landfills in African ...
09.03.2021 Can we adapt our cities for our new climate reality? This week, Hurricane Ida rampaged through the gulf coast, leaving power grids and water lines strewn in its wake, and when it reached New York it caused massive flooding that has already resulted in at least two dozen deaths. Most ...
09.02.2021 What's at stake at the Fairy Creek blockades? For more than a year, protesters have been keeping industry away from old-growth forest on this site, and for months there have been RCMP on the scene attempting to remove them. But the story of Fairy Creek is about much ...
09.01.2021 Can Justin Trudeau channel his Dad Energy to a new government? Sunny Ways aren't going to work for Trudeau and the Liberals any longer. People are tired and angry and wondering why we're even having an election right now. Trudeau is being confronted at rallies and the Conservatives have pulled even ...
08.31.2021 Vaccine FAQ: Timelines for kids, do vaccine passports help and do you need a booster? It seemed in the spring that kids under 12 might have a chance at getting vaccinated before school started. But that didn't happen, and it turns out the timeline is still in flux. What changed? And is there any hope ...
08.30.2021 Can ketamine cure depression? Julian Uzielli has struggled with chronic depression for years. Like many people with mental health issues, his symptoms were exacerbated by the pandemic, and his condition eventually deteriorated to the point where he was forced to take a leave of ...
08.27.2021 What will it take for Erin O'Toole to be Canada's next Prime Minister? The first couple of weeks of the campaign have gone very well for the Conservative leader. He's closed a gap in the polls to a sliver, and introduced himself to Canadians who didn't really know him at all. But now ...
08.26.2021 How 'conscience rights' became a wedge issue, and what the CPC can do about it 'Conscience rights' are what allow health professionals to refuse to provide treatment that goes against their morals or religion. In the past this has mostly meant abortion. But recently it's been applied to medically assisted death as well. And with ...
08.25.2021 Does Jagmeet Singh deserve a second chance? After a poor showing in the 2019 election campaign—his first as NDP leader—there were questions about if Jagmeet Singh would keep his job long enough to get a second try. He has, and so far the results have been very ...
08.24.2021 How did legal pot become such a tough business? Three years ago, cannabis stocks were the hottest things on the market. Weed was about to become legal in Canada and it seemed everyone was going to get rich in the process. Today, millions of grams sit untouched, going stale ...
08.23.2021 Everything you need to know about Back to School and the Fourth Wave Across the country kids are preparing to return to classrooms, and covid cases are climbing in the community. How did we manage to find ourselves in the same position this September as we did last year? What have we learned ...
08.20.2021 Inside the huge casino bust that went bad You probably heard about it when it happened. It was called Project Endgame and it was a massive police bust on what they alleged was an illegal casino operating out of a 53-room mansion in Markham, Ontario. But even as ...
08.19.2021 What does Nova Scotia's shocking election mean for the rest of Canada? A Liberal government with a big lead in the polls decides to call a snap election in the hope of securing more time in power. Then the polls start to tighten. And eventually ... it doesn't work out the way ...
08.18.2021 How this election will, and won't, be different The promises and criticisms aren't going anywhere. Neither is the partisanship. But there's a whole lot of uncertainty about the first federal election of the pandemic era. What happens if Covid hits a campaign, or a community hosting a leader? ...
08.17.2021 How Canada and the Western world failed Afghanistan There are millions of Canadians for whom the rapid fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban has been a shock. The images coming from the country right now are disturbing and will likely only get worse. This war was the longest ...
08.16.2021 Why are we having an election right now? It's August. It's hot. People are on vacation. Parents are preparing for back-to-school. There's a fourth wave of COVID-19 rising. A lot of forests are on fire. And Canadians are going to the polls. Why? Is this a power grab ...
08.13.2021 Is the restaurant industry about to change dramatically? Food costs more. Employees aren't returning. Pandemic protocols are costly, but necessary. Indoor dining won't be full for some time yet. COVID-19 has altered the way restaurants survive and thrive — and it looks like there's no going back to ...
08.12.2021 Will you ever shake hands with strangers again? At the height of the pandemic last year, top public health officials were openly hoping that COVID-19 meant the end of the handshake. Even if the greeting doesn't effectively transmit the coronavirus, it's a very effective way to pass on ...
08.11.2021 How the IPCC report is about more than just climate change The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a UN-sponsored body that periodically releases a synthesis of current climate science, doesn't reveal anything we didn't already know or experience. The Earth is hotter than it's ever been. ...
08.10.2021 Are mandatory vaccine passports impeding our Charter rights? In recent weeks, as demands for a vaccine passport grow around the world, politicians are citing our rights to life, liberty and security as a reason to allow portions of our population to not be vaccinated. They say making vaccines ...
08.09.2021 Will new federal legislation finally end the gender pay gap? The Liberal government has released new pay equity legislation that goes into effect on August 31. The goal is to provide all employees in a few federally regulated sectors "equal pay for work of equal value" and thus finally end ...
08.06.2021 How far do you go to fight for Indigenous rights and climate action? On November 28, 2020, a 24-year-old was arrested for installing a shunt—a wire that mimics the electrical signal of a train and causes oncoming trains to derail—along the railway tracks near Bellingham, Washington. She is now facing 20 years in ...
08.05.2021 The Greatest Raptor of All Time After nine seasons as a Toronto Raptor, Kyle Lowry is leaving for a three-year, 90 million dollar contract with the Miami Heat. He led us to our first-ever championship and along the way become the heart and soul of an ...
08.04.2021 Dear Manager, I Quit (Because I'm Burned Out) A new study by RBC found the number of people who left their jobs in June tripled compared to the same month in 2020. RBC expects 125,000 people to retire in the second half of the year as baby boomers ...
08.03.2021 How to talk about the end of the world In recent weeks, there has been disastrous flooding in Europe, India, Arizona and in China. Summer temperatures have broken records from Canada to Pakistan. Toronto had the second worst air quality in the world because of wildfires in northern Ontario. ...
07.30.2021 Be curious, not judgemental: Ted Lasso and TV's pivot to kindness In the pandemic's darkest months, millions of us were looking for comfort and solace. And we found it in an unlikely comedy about an American football coach going to England to coach a soccer team. But Ted Lasso's success is ...
07.29.2021 As election looms, CSIS warns of foreign security threats When Canada's intelligence agency warns about threats from foreign powers in the expected fall election, it's easy to assume they're referring to the kind of online meddling the United States saw from Russia in 2016. But they're not. Or at ...
07.28.2021 Can Toronto police itself out of a homelessness crisis? Over the past few weeks, Toronto police have stormed into at least three park encampments where homeless people have been living. They've been met with protesters and journalists, and police have sometimes responded with violence. In the end, not many ...
07.27.2021 Nurses are quitting by the thousands. What happens if we can't recruit more? Since the early days of the pandemic, experts have been warning about the stress constant emergency work places on medical professionals. And after more than a year on the front lines of the pandemic, Canada has a nursing crisis. Why ...
07.26.2021 Will we still use masks when all the mandates expire? Masking has become second nature to most of us during the pandemic. But with the end cautiously in sight, how many of us will still cover up once we're no longer forced to? In eastern nations like Japan, masking in ...
07.23.2021 How the Blue Jays finally came home Their last game in Toronto was in September of 2019. Since then, the Blue Jays have been on one of sports' longest odysseys—playing home games as the road team, then in Buffalo, then Florida and back to Buffalo again, waiting ...
07.22.2021 Can the Conservative Party reinvent itself in time to avoid disaster? Recent polls from across the spectrum show the Conservative Party of Canada struggling to mount a meaningful challenge to the Liberals in the next election—which seems to be fast approaching. More concerning than the low polling numbers is another statistic: ...
07.21.2021 How ‘best before’ dates waste tons of Canadian food You've probably thrown something out when it was past the date on the package—even if it didn't really seem like it had gone bad. Better safe than sorry, or as the campaign used to tell us, "When in doubt, throw ...
07.20.2021 Coyotes have taken over Stanley Park. And it doesn’t stop there. The public is currently being told to venture into the crown jewel of Vancouver's park system "at their own risk" as dozens of people, including a two-year-old child, have been attacked by wild coyotes this year. And Stanley Park is ...
07.19.2021 Inside Canada’s broken military justice system Last week, retired general Jonathan Vance, former chief of the defence staff, was charged with obstruction of justice related to an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct. That sounds like a shocking piece of news, but really it was an ...
07.16.2021 Family doctors want to come off the bench for the “last mile” of vaccinations Most vaccines in Canada are administered by family doctors, so when Covid-19 vaccinations began to receive approval late in 2020, those physicians got ready to roll up their sleeves and dive in. But the call never came. While a few ...
07.15.2021 As Ontario tentatively reopens, Alberta is in full swing On Friday Canada's largest province enters stage three of reopening—by far the biggest move since early this year, before the third wave of Covid-19 hit. Other places around the world have had varying degrees of success as they've come out ...
07.14.2021 What happened to Nathaniel McLellan? And why were the police so focused on the 15-month old's parents in the wake of his death? Nathaniel died in 2015, after sustaining a severe brain injury. And in the weeks and months and years to come, the investigation ...
07.13.2021 Once we decide to rename something, what happens next? Right now, across Canada, there are questions around the names of places, institutions and even streets. The debate about whether or not we should rename something that honours problematic and sometimes racist historical figures is a question all sorts of ...
07.12.2021 Ticks are everywhere this summer. Here’s what you need to know. If you spent time outdoors this weekend, we hope you did a thorough tick check when you got back inside. The creatures have been on the rise in Canada for years, and this summer is no exception. The increase is ...
07.09.2021 Canadian veterans push for help for Afghan interpreters As the United States winds down its involvement in Afghanistan, things are becoming more and more dangerous for Afghan citizens who have aided soldiers over the past two decades. And nobody is in more danger than those who worked as ...
07.08.2021 Lytton, B.C. is Canada’s face-to-face encounter with the future of climate Two people are dead, a town is all but destroyed and more than a thousand people have essentially become climate refugees. And that is the toll of just one of the hundreds of forest fires raging in British Columbia at ...
07.07.2021 What’s the fight over returning to the office really about? The heated discussion over a full return to business as usual versus an embrace of remote, flexible work is often couched in language of productivity, creativity and efficiency. But as more and more corporations announce their post-pandemic plans, it's becoming ...

Older episodes

The Big Story

What's The Big Story about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

The Big Story episodes:

Where The Parties Stand: Truth and Reconciliation

Where The Parties Stand: Economic Recovery

Where The Parties Stand: Health Care

Where The Parties Stand: The Housing Crisis

As the PPC rises in the polls, what are parties proposing to combat the rise of hate in Canada?

Is Canada's international student system ethical? Or exploitative?

How does each party plan to address the crisis in elder care?

How your donated clothes end up burning in landfills a world away

Can we adapt our cities for our new climate reality?

What's at stake at the Fairy Creek blockades?

Can Justin Trudeau channel his Dad Energy to a new government?

Vaccine FAQ: Timelines for kids, do vaccine passports help and do you need a booster?

Can ketamine cure depression?

What will it take for Erin O'Toole to be Canada's next Prime Minister?

How 'conscience rights' became a wedge issue, and what the CPC can do about it

Does Jagmeet Singh deserve a second chance?

How did legal pot become such a tough business?

Everything you need to know about Back to School and the Fourth Wave

Inside the huge casino bust that went bad

What does Nova Scotia's shocking election mean for the rest of Canada?

How this election will, and won't, be different

How Canada and the Western world failed Afghanistan

Why are we having an election right now?

Is the restaurant industry about to change dramatically?

Will you ever shake hands with strangers again?

How the IPCC report is about more than just climate change

Are mandatory vaccine passports impeding our Charter rights?

Will new federal legislation finally end the gender pay gap?

How far do you go to fight for Indigenous rights and climate action?

The Greatest Raptor of All Time

Dear Manager, I Quit (Because I'm Burned Out)

How to talk about the end of the world

Be curious, not judgemental: Ted Lasso and TV's pivot to kindness

As election looms, CSIS warns of foreign security threats

Can Toronto police itself out of a homelessness crisis?

Nurses are quitting by the thousands. What happens if we can't recruit more?

Will we still use masks when all the mandates expire?

How the Blue Jays finally came home

Can the Conservative Party reinvent itself in time to avoid disaster?

How ‘best before’ dates waste tons of Canadian food

Coyotes have taken over Stanley Park. And it doesn’t stop there.

Inside Canada’s broken military justice system

Family doctors want to come off the bench for the “last mile” of vaccinations

As Ontario tentatively reopens, Alberta is in full swing

What happened to Nathaniel McLellan?

Once we decide to rename something, what happens next?

Ticks are everywhere this summer. Here’s what you need to know.

Canadian veterans push for help for Afghan interpreters

Lytton, B.C. is Canada’s face-to-face encounter with the future of climate

What’s the fight over returning to the office really about?

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