The Decibel

In the past two years alone, the number of severely food insecure people doubled to 276 million , according to the UN, because of issues like inflation and supply chain problems related to the invasion of Ukraine. Evan Fraser, professor of geography and director of the Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph , continues to stay optimistic despite a global food system long plagued with we...

As the global demand for octopus meat rises, a company in Spain is set to open the world’s first ever octopus farm. But scientists and philosophers warn that it would be a mistake to farm these clever cephalopods. By opening the farm, they say, we’d be opening the door to consequences we may not yet even conceive of. Erin Anderssen , a feature writer for the Globe, joins us to talk about what make...

With e-commerce largely replacing brick-and-mortar stores, how we shop is having real, physical effects on how our cities work. So in this episode, we’re looking at all things retail: As consumers, have we become addicted to convenience? How are businesses able to offer us even quicker delivery times than ever before, sometimes within even 15 minutes – and what is that doing to our main streets? W...

Monkeypox cases are climbing worldwide. In July, the World Health Organization declared the virus a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern.” And in Canada, as of Aug. 3, there are almost 900 cases, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada . With this worrying news, many people have questions. The Decibel put a callout on social media to find out what our listeners wanted to know...

New GDP numbers in the U.S. have set off the latest set of worries about whether we’re heading for a recession, even if Canada’s numbers aren’t that bad. Globe and Mail journalist David Parkinson has been covering business and financial markets for more than three decades. He explains how recessions are defined, which economic indicators we should be watching and just how worried people should be....

This year alone, rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Canada went up almost 14 per cent on average – and many rental markets, like Calgary or Guelph, Ont. are even hotter. Experts point to those priced out of buying a home thanks to inflation, and university students finally able to resume class on campus during the pandemic. All of this creates the perfect environment for scammers to swoop in . Gl...

Today we're bringing you an episode of Stress Test, a Globe and Mail podcast about personal finance, hosted by Rob Carrick and Roma Luciw. We’re talking retirement – why it’s changing, and how to plan for it. We hear from Vicky (25), Irina (34) and Brent (36), who each have different visions of retirement and what they’re doing – or not doing – to plan for it right now. Plus, Rob speaks with Shann...

Hockey Canada told federal hearings Wednesday that it has paid $8.9 million since 1989 to settle 21 cases of alleged sexual assault, with the bulk of that money, $7.6 million, coming from a special fund built through registration fees that wasn’t disclosed to parents and players. Grant Robertson ’s investigation into the National Equity Fund exposed it publicly, and thanks to two days of parliamen...

Canada is getting heat for granting a Montreal company an exemption from Russian sanctions. The company fixes turbines used in the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which supplies natural gas from Russia to Germany. Ukraine is not happy with Canada, saying that granting this exemption sets a “dangerous precedent” that will only “strengthen Moscow’s sense of impunity”. But Germany pushed hard for this decisi...

The bond market moves three times as much money as the stock market. But it’s boring. The “sure thing” with a steady if modest return and low risk. So we hardly ever hear about it. But in this unprecedented economic era, where supply chain woes meet inflation and the threat of recession during a global pandemic, even the bond market has suffered. To demystify the world of bonds , The Globe’s featu...

It is largely anticipated that Pope Francis will deliver another apology to Indigenous people while in Canada this week. But are there actions he could take while here to further reconciliation? Many Indigenous people would like the Pope to publicly renounce the Doctrine of Discovery . Bruce McIvor is one of them. He is a lawyer, a historian and the author of Standoff: Why Reconciliation Fails Ind...

Today we're bringing you an episode of Stress Test, a Globe and Mail podcast about personal finance, hosted by Rob Carrick and Roma Luciw. Gen Z and millennials are getting a lot of their money advice from TikTok, where personal finance videos have more than 5.8 billion views. In this episode, we look at why the social media platform is resonating, how to use it effectively and what advice you sho...

The January 6 Committee hearings have shared several surprising revelations and explosive testimony over the last few months. To make sense of it all, we recap some stand out moments so far in the committee’s efforts to figure out exactly what happened when supporters of then-president Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol. Adrian Morrow is The Globe and Mail’s US correspondent. He’s on the show to...

On Friday, B.C.’s Court of Appeal upheld a lower court’s decision that access to medical care should be based on need and not the ability to pay. The court sided with the B.C. government’s argument that allowing private care would endanger the public system. For 13 years, orthopedic surgeon and president of Cambie Surgery, Brian Day has argued that patients should have the right to pay out-of-pock...

More than two years after Canada’s worst mass shooting, we’ve finally heard from someone who was there at the start. Lisa Banfield, the shooter’s common-law spouse, spoke last Friday at the inquiry into how the RCMP handled the incident. She provided insight into what happened in April, 2020, and described a chilling portrait of intimate partner violence. The Globe’s Greg Mercer tells us about wha...

Sri Lanka is in crisis right now . After months of fuel, medicine and food shortages, protestors have taken to the streets – and the homes of the country’s leaders. The now-former Prime Minister’s house was set ablaze . President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled to Singapore, then resigned. Normally a good friend and funder of projects under his government, China’s government has gone silent as the former...

Today we're bringing you an episode of City Space, a Globe and Mail podcast about how to make our cities better, hosted by Adrian Lee. Climate change isn’t just coming, it’s here. And cities are uniquely susceptible to its effects because of their population density and infrastructure. So how can they better prepare for the increasingly devastating impacts of the climate crisis? In this episode, w...

The Bank of Canada raised the benchmark interest rate by one percentage point on Wednesday. The surprise move is the biggest hike since 1998. The aggressive increase is larger than economists were expecting. The goal is to cool inflation, which hit 7.7 per cent in May – the highest it’s been in almost four decades . The Globe’s Mark Rendell covers the Bank of Canada. He’s on the show to explain wh...

Things are not going well at airports around the world and Canada has taken a particularly bad turn. On Monday, 70 per cent of flights from Canada’s largest carrier Air Canada were delayed – the highest percentage in the world. Duncan Dee is a former Chief Operating Officer for Air Canada. He also worked on a panel that reviewed the Air Transportation Act in 2016, looking closely at what could be...

On Friday, Rogers’ cellphone and Internet surfaced suddenly stopped working, leaving almost 12 million Canadians disconnected . And it wasn’t just Rogers’ direct customers who were affected — Interac’s debit system for e-transfers and retail payments were out of commission for most of the day, and some emergency services lost their connection too. The Globe’s telecom reporter, Alexandra Posadzki ,...

Two and a half years into the COVID-19 pandemic, we may be sick of talking about it – but COVID-19 is not through with us yet. Case counts are higher than the first two pandemic summers, and as staffing shortages become more and more common in hospitals, emergency departments are becoming overwhelmed. And yet; with mask mandates gone almost everywhere, few public health restrictions remain. Wency...

Today we're bringing you an episode of City Space, a Globe and Mail podcast about how to make our cities better, hosted by Adrian Lee. If you’re a white-collar worker, chances are your office setup looks different than it did before the pandemic. After our two-year-long global experiment with remote work, many employees say there’s lots to like about it, with a number of companies now offering hyb...

On Tuesday, First Nations chiefs in the Assembly of First Nations voted against continuing the suspension of National Chief RoseAnne Archibald . Archibald was suspended on June 17, after being accused of bullying and harassment by staff, who she then accused of corruption. Niigaan Sinclair , professor and acting head of Indigenous studies at the University of Manitoba, explains the work of the AFN...

Just 10 days after the 2020 Nova Scotia mass shooting where 22 people were killed, RCMP commissioner Brenda Lucki allegedly pressed senior officers to publicly release information about the kinds of firearms that were used in the shooting. The reason? To help bolster Liberal gun legislation. The commissioner, the former public safety minister, and the Prime Minister all deny there was political in...

It’s often thought of as a disease from a bygone era, but in some parts of Canada, tuberculosis is still very much with us. When the hamlet of Pangnirtung experienced an outbreak last year, local health officials were left begging for help to bring in resources to the remote community. Kelly Grant , the Globe’s health reporter, is on the show to talk about the explosion of tuberculosis cases in Nu...