The Big Story

Depending on your mood, it sounds either terrifying, or like a sweet release from modernity. But solar storms hit the Earth all the time, and it's only a matter of time until a truly gigantic one fries us—it's happened before, and will again.

We're more reliant on electricity and connectivity than ever before, obviously, and we don't know how the grid will handle the power of such a storm—but we know it won't be good. The problem is, we can't test for it without, well, turning it all off and then back on again. Maybe we should do that?

GUEST: Christopher Mims, technology columnist, The Wall Street Journal

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This week, Ontario Housing Minister Paul Calandra (new to the job after his predecessor resigned amid scandal in September) announced another reversal of a key government policy. This time, it was massive changes to urban boundaries outside several Ontario cities—changes most of the cities themselves fought against.

Coming a week after the government introduced legislation to officially reverse its actions on Ontario's Greenbelt, and on the heels of reversals of everything from pandemic policy to license plates, is it a positive thing that this government can admit when it's wrong and change, or a worrisome sign that so many of its major initiatives need fixing?

Today, a trip inside Queen's Park, where nothing is ever certain ... or dull.

GUEST: Richard Southern, Queen's Park reporter, CityNews

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The promise of untold millions once puffed up the legal cannabis industry to unimaginable highs. Then blunt reality set in. Now, with dreams of fortunes going up in smoke, some producers are entering joint ventures into other industries, hoping to find ways to keep business rolling.

Meanwhile, the government's long-awaited review of the Cannabis Act is still pending, and everyone with money still invested in the industry is hoping the grass will be greener on the other side of that process. Is there still upside in the weed business? Or does the industry have too many chronic problems?

GUEST: Tara Deschamps, reporter, The Canadian Press

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Two weeks after a terror attack by Hamas, and two weeks into a devastating retaliatory bombing campaign by Israel, thousands of lives are gone, and the world wonders how and when the horror might stop. There are calls for a humanitarian pause. A ceasefire. Deescalation. It seems impossible in the moment, but then, it usually does.

So today, a brief history of ceasefires, peace deals, and other quests for a pause in a deadly conflict—and an explanation from a longtime observer of how they come together...or don't. How far away might a ceasefire be now? What needs to happen? Who brings what to the table? How can Israel possibly back down now?

GUEST: Dr. Randa Slim, Director of the Conflict Resolution and Track II Dialogues Program at the Middle East Institute

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Technically, it's called "extended producer responsibility"—and in practice it means governments handing over the task of recycling packaging to the companies that produce the waste. It happens in some capacity in most of Canada, and now Ontario is turning all of its recycling over to this model.

But can we really trust for-profit companies to take recycling seriously? Are we seeing the lower costs and packaging innovations that are supposed to be the upsides of using this strategy? When we say, "It's your mess, you clean it up!"—what happens if they don't?

GUEST: Calvin Lakhan, co-investigator of the “Waste Wiki” project at York University's Faculty of Environment and Urban Change, a research project devoted to advancing understanding of waste management research and policy in Canada.

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The team behind The Big Story, has a new podcast! Hosted by Jordan Heath-Rawlings, In This Economy?! debuts with weekly episodes on Nov. 2. You can follow the show on your preferred podcast app right here!

We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:

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We've all been told not to judge a book by its cover. So why do so many people—from readers, to retailers, to publishers and reviewers—judge them by one little name, next to a little generic quote, that appears on that cover?

If you've ever chosen your next read because the book came with a kind word from your favourite author, or if you've ever read some of those effusive blurbs, then read the book and wondered, "Did that person even read this thing?!" ... well, welcome to the publishing industry's weirdest little secret world.

It's "an amazing episode of The Big Story, one of the best for sure!" — Producer Joseph Fish

GUEST: Sophie Vershbow, writing in Esquire

(The team behind The Big Story, has a new podcast! Hosted by Jordan Heath-Rawlings, In This Economy?! debuts with weekly episodes on Nov. 2. You can listen to the trailer and follow the show on your preferred podcast app right here!)

We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:

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The Israel-Hamas war is near a tipping point. At some point Israel will have to decide to push forward with a massive and unprecedented ground offensive into Gaza in an attempt to eradicate Hamas, or find a way to back down from its stated goal of its response. A large-scale ground invasion, however, may well draw other entities into a widening conflict.

If Israel sends in ground troops, what happens next? How reliable is information coming out of Gaza right now? Will US President Joe Biden's presence in the region Wednesday accomplish anything? And is there any hope of a ceasefire?

GUEST: Gregg Carlstrom, Middle East correspondent for The Economist; Author, How Long Will Israel Survive? The Threat From Within.

(The team behind The Big Story, has a new podcast! Hosted by Jordan Heath-Rawlings, In This Economy?! debuts with weekly episodes on Nov. 2. You can listen to the trailer and follow the show on your preferred podcast app right here!)

We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:

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Earlier this year, the province decriminalized certain amounts of some hard drugs, in an attempt to curb the overdose crisis. Nine months later, the same government has introduced legislation to ban those same drugs from public use. On the surface it looks like two conflicting approaches to the same problem—but is that true?
 

What do we know about how decriminalization has gone so far? What will the new act mean for users in the province, and for non-users who share public space with them? How will the ban be enforced, and who will it impact? And most importantly, with the crisis closing in on a decade, and deaths still mounting ... will it help?
 

GUEST: Dr. Lindsay Richardson, associate professor, University of British Columbia; Canada Research Chair in Social Inclusion and Health Equity

We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:

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Now that we know how huge the gap on housing is—Canada needs 3.5 million more homes by 2030—you would think governments across the country would be doing everything they can to narrow it. But instead, it's widening. 

In fact, our rate of building new homes has slowed to less than what it was during 2020, when many construction sites were shuttered for weeks during the first wave of Covid. How did this happen? Why aren't companies building? And if they won't, why aren't governments? Why is the problem every party acknowledges is Canada's biggest challenge still getting worse?

GUEST: David Macdonald, Senior Economist, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (author of Canada is building fewer homes today than during pandemic economy shutdown)

We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:

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