It's been five years since B.C. declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency, but a report from the First Nations Health Authority shows a 119 per cent increase in toxic drug deaths among First Nations people in 2020. The organization's acting chief medical officer Dr. Shannon McDonald joins us to discuss the role that trauma and racism play in this emergency, and how to tackle it.

With graduations cancelled or scaled back for another year, we talk to Leonard Menon, who is graduating with a bachelor of music from the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, about his hopes and dreams for the future. Tune in Thursday for a full special program dedicated to the class of 2021.

Global health experts are calling for a dramatic change in how we manufacture vaccines, to increase supply and help the world tackle this pandemic — but also plan for the next one. We hear about proposals to ramp up production, and how Canada could be part of the solution, with Dr. Prabhat Jha, an epidemiologist at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, and Unity Health Toronto; and Andrew Casey, CEO of the industry association BIOTECanada.

Four members of a Muslim family were killed in London, Ont., in what's being investigated as an intentional and targeted attack. Aarij Anwer, imam at London Muslim Mosque, tells us how his community is coping, and we discuss Islamophobia in Canada with Mustafa Farooq, CEO of the National Council of Canadian Muslims; and Irfan Chaudhry, director of the Office of Human Rights at MacEwan University in Edmonton.

Vancouver's Archbishop J. Michael Miller offered an apology after preliminary findings from a radar survey of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in B.C. indicated that as many as 215 children could be buried on the site. He tells us why he felt it was important to apologize, and what must happen next.

It's been called baseball's dirty little secret. Stephanie Apstein, a senior writer with Sports Illustrated, explains how "sticky stuff" and the practice of doctoring the ball is causing batting averages to plummet and strikeouts to rise.

The U.S. government says it's taking ransomware attacks as seriously as terrorism after meat plants and a major U.S. pipeline network were temporarily shuttered by hackers. But will that make it any easier to catch the perpetrators? Joe Uchill, a senior reporter with online cybersecurity publication SC Media, brings us the view from Washington. We also speak with Kurtis Minder, founder and CEO of GroupSense, which helps organizations defend against cyber threats; and David Shipley, co-founder and CEO of Fredericton-based cybersecurity startup Beauceron Security.

After 12 years in power, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on the verge of being ousted by a new coalition. But whether a new government could change the tone of politics for both Israelis and Palestinians remains to be seen. Tel Aviv-based journalist Haggai Matar weighs in.

You may remember hearing stories about goats overtaking human spaces last year, as the pandemic forced people to remain indoors. Amanda Bates, an associate professor of ocean sciences at Memorial University of Newfoundland, led an international study into how COVID-19 lockdowns have affected the natural world. She joins us to talk about the findings.

Globe and Mail health columnist André Picard explains the race between the new Delta COVID-19 variant and the second dose of vaccines.