The Decibel

The Globe and Mail

Context is everything. Join us Monday to Friday for a Canadian daily news podcast from The Globe and Mail. Explore a story shaping our world, in conversation with reporters, experts, and the people at the centre of the news.

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1,335 episodes
Updated Yesterday

Episodes1335

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Oct 13, 2022 · 18 min
Loblaw’s driverless trucks hit the road
There’s an experiment under way on the roadways around the Greater Toronto Area. Loblaw Companies Ltd. has partnered with autonomous vehicle company Gatik and is using five driverless delivery trucks to ship products around. And since August, they haven’t had a human ‘safety driver’ on board. The Globe and Mail’s retail reporter Susan Krashinsky Robertson discusses how the technology for these driverless trucks works, why Loblaw is investing in the technology and what this means for shoppers an
Oct 12, 2022 · 19 min
Mass resignation at Hockey Canada
On Tuesday, the CEO of Hockey Canada, Scott Smith, left the organization and the entire board of directors resigned. The organization has been embroiled in controversy for months over its handling of sexual assaults, specifically the fact that Hockey Canada used funds – paid in part by registration fees – to settle sexual assault claims. Globe and Mail columnist Gary Mason has been writing on this for months. He explains the culture problem he sees at Hockey Canada and in hockey more generally,
Oct 11, 2022 · 19 min
Facebook, Meta and the future of social media
The company that owns Facebook might be in trouble. Meta’s stock has plunged nearly 60 per cent this year, Facebook has been losing active users, existing users are consistently complaining about the company’s other social media platform Instagram, and fresh upstarts with their own apps are gobbling up the public’s attention. As Meta executives pour billions of dollars into the virtual reality world they call the Metaverse, The Globe’s technology reporter Temur Durrani explains the problems wit
Oct 10, 2022 · 20 min
Wild boars are in Canada and it’s no joke
Adaptable, smart and invasive. No we’re not talking about humans. We’re talking about wild boars. With their populations growing and sightings – even around big metropolitan areas – increasing, governments are rushing to find ways to contain them before they wreak ecological and agricultural damage. Jana G. Pruden, a feature writer for The Globe and Mail, discusses what kind of damage these creatures can do and why letting hunters lose on them is not the answer.
Oct 7, 2022 · 18 min
Gen Z’s housing struggles are worse than generations past
In the second quarter of 2022 housing affordability in Canada saw its “worst deterioration” in more than 40 years. At the same time, rents across the country are skyrocketing. For young adults between the ages of 25-29, that means living on your own is more out of reach than ever – even if you’ve graduated from university and have a full-time job. Personal finance reporter, Erica Alini crunched the numbers to get a snapshot of just how expensive it is for young adults trying to find a place to
Oct 6, 2022 · 14 min
Ukraine’s breakthrough on the battlefield
The Ukrainian military has made substantial advancements in two regions of the country in the past few days. Those gains come as Russian President Vladimir Putin formalizes his annexation of four regions of Ukraine, where young male residents live in fear that they might be conscripted into the Russian army. The Globe’s Janice Dickson is in Kyiv and has been travelling to different regions of the country for the past two weeks. She tells us how people in the annexed territories are feeling, and
Oct 5, 2022 · 14 min
How a tax cut for the wealthy almost tanked the UK economy
Liz Truss’s ‘mini budget’ didn’t get a mini reaction. The plan, which initially included a cut in personal income tax for the top earners, sent markets into a panic and sent the pound plummeting to near parity with the U.S. dollar — something that hasn’t happened since the mid-1980s. But why did the markets react that way to a budget? And what was Truss trying to do in the first place? Lucille Perreault is a researcher at the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University, and she specializes
Oct 4, 2022 · 19 min
The NFT market has crashed, but NFT thefts are rising
After a meteoric rise, the value of NFTs plummeted. But here’s the weird thing: that’s when people started stealing them. In the span of a year, one report pegs the total theft at US $100 million. The Globe’s Rita Trichur is on the show to tell us how people are being scammed out of the NFTs they paid so much for. And don’t worry, we’ll explain what an NFT is, too.
Oct 3, 2022 · 20 min
A doctor answers your current COVID questions
We wanted to find out from you, our listeners, what you’re thinking about COVID-19 – especially as restrictions are disappearing and new vaccines are available. Infectious disease specialist, Dr. Lisa Barrett is on the show to answer the COVID-19 questions you have right now, like: When you get sick, is there any way to tell if it’s COVID-19 or the flu or a cold? How long should you isolate if you have COVID-19? What’s the right time frame to get a bivalent vaccine – and what does bivalent mean?
Sep 30, 2022 · 20 min
Land back and the next stage of reconciliation
It’s become something of a rallying cry to move reconciliation forward, repeated from British Columbia to Ontario to New Brunswick. But what exactly does “land back” mean? Bruce McIvor has written extensively on the struggles people face when trying to make a legal case for the return of their traditional lands — not least because he’s represented some of them. He’s a partner at First Peoples Law, and the author of Standoff: Why Reconciliation Fails Indigenous People and How to Fix It. Ques
Sep 29, 2022 · 17 min
Parties promise to limit immigration in Quebec election
Quebec is the one province where immigration is a ballot-box issue in provincial elections. In 2018, it was one of the deciding factors that gave François Legault of the Coalition Avenir Québec his win. Now, the major parties are vowing to set different limits on how many permanent residents the province can let in without compromising its French identity. Meanwhile, its labour force is in decline and businesses are calling on provincial leaders to bring in more immigrants to help fill open job
Sep 28, 2022 · 19 min
A nuclear scientist on Russia’s threat of nuclear war
Russia has one of the largest nuclear arsenals in the world, and Russian President Vladimir Putin and those in his inner circle have threatened to use nuclear weapons if Russian territory is threatened. Similar comments have been made before, but many experts are looking at these threats differently in light of the so-called referendums taking place across four regions of Ukraine. Cheryl Rofer worked for more than 30 years as a nuclear scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Now, she write
Sep 27, 2022 · 17 min
An Iranian woman’s death in custody sparks global protests
Protests are spreading across Iran – and the world – after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody. Mahsa was picked up by Iran’s morality police on Sept. 13 for allegedly not wearing the proper hijab. Three days later, she was dead. People have taken to the streets demanding justice for Mahsa, and, more broadly, justice for women living under Iran’s strict hijab laws. Jasmin Ramsey is the deputy director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran. She tells us why this incident has
Sep 26, 2022 · 19 min
How two Canadian women were switched at birth
In September 1969, two baby girls were born in a tiny hospital in rural Newfoundland, a few hours apart. A simple accident led to both of their lives being changed forever. Over 50 years later, the truth serendipitously revealed itself and their lives changed again. Freelance journalist Lindsay Jones unravels the mystery of how these two women were switched at birth.
Sep 23, 2022 · 18 min
Putin doubles down on the war in Ukraine
This week, Russian President Vladimir Putin called up 300,000 reservists in a partial mobilization for the war in Ukraine. That sparked protests in several cities in Russia, and a flood of people trying to leave the country. This is happening just before referendums are set to take place in four regions of Ukraine currently occupied by Russia – and many suspect Putin will use the referendums to claim the regions as Russian territory and further escalate the war. The Globe’s senior foreign corre
Sep 22, 2022 · 15 min
The good and bad of slowing inflation
Inflation is on the decline for the second straight month. New numbers from Statistics Canada show that inflation slowed to 7 per cent in August – down from 7.6 per cent in July and 8.1 per cent in June. While these numbers point to an easing in prices for consumers, not everything is cheaper – yet. Economics columnist for The Globe’s Report on Business, David Parkinson tells us what items are getting less expensive, why groceries are still so high and whether what the Bank of Canada is doing t
Sep 21, 2022 · 19 min
A senator sent inauthentic documents to stranded Afghans
In the final days of a chaotic government effort to rescue people from the Taliban last summer, Senator Marilou McPhedran and one of her staff members sent travel documents to a family attempting to flee Afghanistan. The documents, called facilitation letters, were supposed to help the Afghans bypass checkpoints that had been set up around Kabul’s airport, so they could catch one of the last evacuation flights out of the country. A year later, the people who received those documents are still st
Sep 20, 2022 · 17 min
What happened to $10-a-day daycare in Ontario?
In March, Ontario became the last jurisdiction in Canada to sign on to the national Early Learning and Child Care Agreement. The $30-billion commitment by the federal government aims at bringing down the cost of daycare to an average of $10 per day by 2026. While all provinces and territories are working out the kinks of their rebate programs, Ontario’s rollout has been particularly plagued by delays and confusion. The Globe’s Dave McGinn has been following the child care agreement and its roll
Sep 19, 2022 · 17 min
Soaring energy bills in the UK as winter looms
On Oct. 1, natural gas bills in the U.K. will go up by 80 per cent. Most households rely on natural gas for heat, and this means their energy bills would increase from an average of £1,971 to £3,549 a year. For one third of people in the country, that would mean falling to below the poverty line. The new Prime Minister Liz Truss’s plan is to cap energy bills and pay the difference to energy companies, but estimates say the plan could cost more than £100-billion. Europe correspondent Paul Waldie
Sep 16, 2022 · 19 min
New details emerge about the Saskatchewan stabbings
Initially, residents of James Smith Cree Nation did not want to welcome the reporters into their community following the mass stabbing attack that left 10 people dead on September 4, 2022. But after suspect Myles Sanderson died in police custody, things changed. Globe reporter Nancy Macdonald was allowed into the community and she worked with colleague Jana G. Pruden to help construct a better understanding of what happened prior to the tragedy. Jana explains what they’ve discovered from their