University of Toronto epidemiologist and founding-director of the Centre for Global Health Research at St. Michael's Hospital Dr. Prabhat Jha breaks down how the pandemic wave triggered by Omicron differs from earlier ones and how other potential variants might be stopped. Could the fast and vast Omicron spread mean the beginning of the end of the COVID-19 pandemic?

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Many men over the age of 50 experience homelessness, often falling onto hard times after a life of employment and stability in their personal relationships. We'll explore why this might happen, and what their lives look like with guest Lauro Monteiro, executive director of Haven Toronto, a drop-in centre for older unhoused males.

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Journalist and author Ethan Lou spent some time mining cryptocurrency and meanwhile learning about the darker, shadier elements of the new way to make (or hoard) a new kind of money. In "Once a Bitcoin Miner: Scandal and Turmoil in the Cryptocurrency Wild West," he lends his journalist eye to his personal experiences in what has been called "millennial gold." He talks to Steve Paikin about how it all seems so much like the frontier experience in a new world.

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Is Omicron how the pandemic ends? Is it the beginning of the endemic period of the virus, as some people think? If it is, are restrictions still necessary? While some countries and jurisdictions are still limiting freedom of movement, others are seemingly letting the virus run rampant. We discuss whether that's ill-advised or actually insightful thinking and how Canada will ever achieve the elusive "community immunity."

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"The United States is coming to an end," says Stephen Marche. In his new book, "The Next Civil War," the Canadian author insists rising inequality, racial conflict, environmental destruction, and a lack of unified national purpose, means another American civil war is now inevitable; it's just a matter of how. A year following the storming of the U.S. Capitol, The Agenda asks whether these fears are overblown, questions how divided America is and whether its undergone healing, or if its angry factions are headed towards serious violent conflict.

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Canadian public health officials are increasingly agreeing with the idea that COVID-19 is a disease that can spread through the air, not just via large droplets. The Agenda asks what an increase in aerosol transmission through lingering airborne particles means for keeping Ontarians safe from the Omicron variant.

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Living in a pandemic can make hope for a better tomorrow difficult. To help us understand why optimism has recently taken a hit, we invite Alan Newhouse, editor of The Tablet Magazine, and author of a popular essay titled, "Everything is Broken;" and Andrew Potter, a political scientist at McGill University and author of a new book, "On Decline: Stagnation, Nostalgia, and Why Every Year is the Worst One Ever."

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Our review of the week begins with a check-in on how Ontario is coping with the new, very contagious variant. Then, how disappointing is the return to online learning for students, parents, and teachers. And, American academic Mia Bloom discusses the book she co-authored on the rise of QAnon.

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Last February, Laurentian University entered creditor protection with an aim to restructure the university. That resulted in more than 100 faculty and staff layoffs and 69 programs cut. The auditor general's office has been attempting to learn more about how the publicly funded institution got into this mess. But so far, the university has been thwarting the audit proceedings. Northeastern Ontario Hub journalist Nick Dunne tells us why and what possibly comes next for the beleaguered institution.

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The chief medical officers of Sudbury (Penny Sutcliffe), Niagara (Mustafa Hirji), and Peel (Lawrence Loh) join Nam Kiwanuka to look at how their respective public health units are responding to the Omicron wave, vaccine rollout, return to stage-two restrictions, and other COVID-related issues.

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