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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1,334 episodes
Updated Friday

Episodes1334

Newest first

Jul 29, 2021 · 18 min
Dispatch from Tokyo 2020: Simone Biles, extreme heat and Canada’s performance so far
American gymnast Simone Biles withdrew from both the team and individual all-around competitions, a few athletes have passed out from the Tokyo July heat and dozens of people connected to the Olympics have COVID-19, while case counts reach all-time highs in the surrounding neighbourhoods. On the other hand, Canada’s athletes have made this one of the best Summer Games for our country so far, with some amazing performances from swimmers Maggie Mac Neil, Penny Oleksiak and others. Globe columnist Cathal Kelly joins us from Tokyo to tell us the highs and lows from these Games. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Jul 28, 2021 · 21 min
MuchMusic’s revival, TikTok, and the power of nostalgia
Before there was Youtube and Vevo, there was MTV and MuchMusic. These TV music stations were the curators of cool. And when millennials were teenagers, they flocked to them to watch the hot new video or catch an interview with their favourite musicians. But now, Much (as the channel is now called) no longer airs music video content as artists drop their new singles directly onto their own social feeds and video platforms. So what’s an old mainstream media brand to do? Join TikTok, of course. And as cultural critic and writer Amil Niazi notes, MuchMusic is relaunching at exactly the right moment: There’s a wave of 90s and early aught nostalgia crashing down on us, at exactly the moment both millennials and Gen Z kids are longing for a simpler time. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Jul 27, 2021 · 19 min
Vaccine hoarding and Africa’s COVID-19 crisis
African nations have a problem. They can’t get enough COVID-19 vaccine doses. Vaccine hoarding by wealthy nations and an underserved COVAX program – the one designed to make sure the developing world wasn’t left behind in the pandemic – have resulted in a slow vaccination rate for most of the continent. These global factors have also led to a menacing opportunity for the Delta variant to spread amongst an unprotected population. The Globe and Mail’s Africa Bureau Chief, Geoffrey York, discusses how Canada has and hasn’t contributed to vaccination efforts abroad, what the international community could do to help speed up the vaccine efforts in Africa and why Canadians should care. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Jul 26, 2021 · 22 min
The case for vaccine passports
The summer is half over, vaccination rates are rising, but we aren’t out of the pandemic woods yet. And since we last explored vaccine passports, the question of whether businesses can legitimately ask for proof of vaccination to enter – whether it’s a restaurant or a sports arena – has only become more fraught. Restaurateur Jacob Wharton-Shukster tells us what happened when he announced that an indoor seat at his Toronto restaurant Le Phénix would require proof of vaccination. Then, privacy researcher Blake Murdoch of the Health Law Institute at the University of Alberta explains why he thinks provincial governments can and should implement vaccine passport systems that are fair and secure. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Jul 22, 2021 · 18 min
Your eyes are lying to you: What data tells us about Olympic swimming
To keep their edge after a fantastic showing at the 2016 Rio Olympics, Swimming Canada got serious about their data-mining mission. They tracked all kinds of metrics to really understand their swimmers’ performance. Data analysis can show you how to shave a fraction of a second off a race time and, in some cases, that can mean the difference between a gold and silver medal. Grant Robertson, a senior writer for The Globe and Mail, talks about what he learned about Swimming Canada’s data project, how it crafted training strategies for some of our medal hopefuls, like Penny Oleksiak, and why data proves you can’t always trust your eyes when it comes to judging the fastest person in the pool. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Jul 21, 2021 · 20 min
The push to diversify corporate Canada
After the killing of George Floyd and the subsequent swell of Black Lives Matter protests, companies rushed to declare their alliance to the cause of fighting anti-Black racism in the workplace. In Canada, corporate leader Wes Hall designed the BlackNorth Initiative, wherein CEOs pledged to not only promote diversity, but actually hire, retain and promote Black talent. Initially, 209 companies signed on. The Globe’s Report on Business section did a survey of the original signatories to see how much progress has been made in the first year of their commitment (which has a final target of 2025). Reporter Vanmala Subramaniam discusses the results of the survey and the challenges many companies are having in their efforts to diversify. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Jul 20, 2021 · 21 min
A new challenge in the COVID-19 pandemic: Nurses quitting
A growing number of nurses are leaving hospitals. The relentless workload, the crushing experience of watching so many people get very sick from the novel coronavirus and die, and the increasingly short-staffed nature of many intensive care units has created an untenable situation for many nurses across the country. And this is having an impact on hospitals, with some emergency rooms having to close. National health reporter Kelly Grant discusses how many nurses are leaving, how this is impacting the communities they serve and what governments are trying to do about it. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Jul 19, 2021 · 19 min
Who Canada left behind in Afghanistan
As the U.S. continues to pull its troops out of Afghanistan after nearly 20 years of fighting, the Taliban is taking back more and more territory. This has left Afghan nationals who worked for foreign governments feeling more and more unsafe and now they want to leave. A lot of countries have specific programs for current and former employees who want to relocate, but Canada hasn’t unveiled the details of a special program yet. Parliamentary reporter Janice Dickson has been speaking to drivers, senior officers and others who worked for the Canadian government in Kabul – sometimes for more than a decade – about the severity of their situations and what help they need. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Jul 15, 2021 · 19 min
Coming Soon: Going to the movies post-lockdown
Ontario movie theatres will reopen on July 16th. For some – like in the Greater Toronto Area – it’ll be for the first time in about nine months. And while many theatres across the country reopened earlier, Ontario represents a big chunk of the Canadian box office, which has been hurt badly not only by lockdowns and public health restrictions, but also the rise of streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+ offering movies and binge-worthy shows at home. Film editor Barry Hertz talks about what Ontario movie goers can expect when they return to theatres, why go back to the movies at all if you’ve gotten used to streaming on your couch, and what summer blockbusters he’ll be seeing on the silver screen. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Jul 14, 2021 · 18 min
The next generation of 9-1-1
Phone technology has evolved at an incredible pace, from the first cellphone in the 1980s, to the sophisticated computers we call smartphones in our pockets now. But some of the most important calls we make are to 9-1-1 in an emergency. And the system that 9-1-1 centres run hasn’t kept up. The Globe’s telecom reporter Alexandra Posadzki tells us that there’s a move to introduce “next-generation 9-1-1” Canada-wide through the hundreds of organizations that handle our calls for help. That would allow callers to send photos or text messages, and help authorities better pinpoint where calls on cellphones are coming from. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Jul 13, 2021 · 23 min
Haiti and the failed promise of foreign aid
Events in Haiti have been unfolding quickly following the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse in his Port-au-Prince home on July 7. In the past week there has been news of arrests of mercenaries, a siege in the country’s Taiwanese embassy and the alleged involvement of a doctor in the murder. But if you look back at Haiti’s history, a lot of the political turmoil is tied into all the money the Caribbean country gets from donor countries, like Canada and the U.S. Jake Johnston, a senior research associate at the Centre for Economic Policy Research in Washington, D.C., discusses how all the strings attached to aid to Haiti can render it more harmful than helpful and how the country’s politics are often more focused on external powers than the people of Haiti. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Jul 12, 2021 · 26 min
Exploring the connection between racism and schizophrenia
Can racism cause schizophrenia? It’s an area of mental health research that has been ongoing for decades and over time, researchers are increasingly finding that having a darker skin colour than your neighbours does seem to have an effect. But just how much and how that alters your brain chemistry is difficult to tease apart due to the complexities of schizophrenia as a disease. Erin Anderssen, who has been covering mental health for The Globe and Mail for years, discusses what she has found on this topic by looking at the research, examining the history of how Western culture has perceived psychosis and talking to doctors. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Jul 8, 2021 · 21 min
Lebanon’s ‘deliberate depression’
Lebanon’s financial crisis was only made worse last year when an explosion ripped through the port of its capital city, Beirut, killing more than 200 people. Now, people are left scrambling for basic medicine, gas and other necessities. The Globe’s senior international correspondent Mark MacKinnon is in Lebanon, and talks about what he has seen in Beirut’s largest hospital, how Lebanon has gotten to the brink of a “social explosion,” according to its prime minister, and why this threatens the very existence of the country. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Jul 7, 2021 · 20 min
The case against vaccine passports
Domestic vaccine passports offer one way of letting vaccinated people get back to normal life by giving them access to privileges non-vaccinated people wouldn’t have. But civil liberties advocates have been pushing back against the concept since the start of the pandemic, pointing to a number of equality and privacy concerns. Cara Zwibel is the director of the fundamental freedoms program at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, which has raised concerns about how vaccine passports might violate our constitutional rights. She’ll explain how, and why she believes that vaccine passports might do more harm than good as our vaccination rates rise and we ease public health restrictions across the country. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Jul 6, 2021 · 18 min
Hundreds dead, a town ablaze after record-setting heat wave in Western Canada
The village of Lytton, BC burned to the ground a day after hitting the hottest temperature ever recorded in Canada, forcing residents to evacuate in as little as a few minutes. Investigators now believe the fire was caused by human activity. On today’s show, Globe environment reporter Kathryn Blaze Baum joins Tamara to share a conversation she’s had with one Lytton resident about the human toll of the heat dome that enveloped Western Canada and is believed to have caused hundreds of heat-related deaths, as well as the science that explains this extreme weather. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Jul 5, 2021 · 17 min
Family wealth, bidding wars, interest rates: what’s driving Canada’s wild real estate market
Soaring house prices have made it harder to afford a house in Canada than it’s been in three decades, with experts blaming everything from low interest rates to blind bidding to intergenerational wealth transfers. So how do you cool the housing market? Rachelle Younglai covers real estate for The Globe and Mail, and she’ll explain how we got here, why the measures taken by governments so far haven’t helped, and what else could be done to get prices under control. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Jun 30, 2021 · 20 min
The uncomfortable conversations about #CancelCanadaDay
Calls to reconsider the fireworks and celebrations of Canada Day have intensified as we approach the national holiday, in light of the announcements from B.C. and Saskatchewan First Nations that they’d located hundreds of unmarked graves where residential schools once stood. Crystal Fraser is assistant professor of history at the University of Alberta, and is Gwichyà Gwich’in, originally from Inuvik and Dachan Choo Gę̀hnjik in the Northwest Territories. She’ll tell us how she sees Canada, as a historian and an Indigenous person, and how we can reflect on the history of Canada. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Jun 29, 2021 · 18 min
‘You get some freedom with a vaccine’: What new guidelines mean for your double-vaccinated summer
New guidelines for people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 were published by the Public Health Agency of Canada last week, which now applies to over a quarter of people in Canada. So we asked Globe and Mail health columnist André Picard back on the show to lead us through what those guidelines mean, why they’re different from the provincial guidelines, and how to navigate them as the country re-opens. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Jun 28, 2021 · 17 min
Why you still can’t buy a bike this summer
A lot of Canadians have pandemic-savings money to burn – and not many places to spend it. With travel, entertainment and even dining still severely limited, many have turned to recreational toys and home improvement projects, and then found out that in-demand items like bicycles and kayaks are sold out. Economics reporter Matt Lundy breaks down the demand side of the equation, talks about just-in-time production and explains all the different issues that are affecting the entire supply chain, from the cost of raw materials to the issue of getting items off ships. Plus, he offers his best guess at when bike stores will have enough stock again. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Jun 25, 2021 · 21 min
As China urges families to have more children, it’s cracking down on Uyghur births
China is encouraging people to have up to three children in a bid to reverse the effects of its one-child policy, which has left the country with an aging population in need of workers to support them and the economy. But as Globe Asia correspondent Nathan Vanderklippe reports following his recent trip to the region, some Muslim Uyghurs of the western Xinjiang province are subject to different family-planning rules, and there have been reports of forced sterilization among other human rights abuses. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.