Lately

These days the culture we consume – movies, books, songs – is determined by platforms aggregating everyone else’s reviews and ratings. So, what does it mean when you say you like something in the age of quantification? And is there a way to beat the algorithm? Our guest, writer and critic Lauren Oyler , is the author of No Judgment , a recently published collection of essays. She’s a contributing...

The Paris Olympics are nearly upon us, and one thing is clearer than the Seine: For some countries, sports are the ultimate distraction. Dubious human rights records? Look at our athletes! It’s called sportswashing, an attempt by nations and companies to take the focus off their less-than-stellar practices. Our guest, Globe and Mail reporter Simon Houpt walks us through the long history of sportsw...

Shein and Temu have completely disrupted Amazon’s global domination plans by selling clothes and home goods for ultra-cheap prices, if not ultra-fast delivery – but at what cost? Our guest, journalist Louise Matsakis , has covered technology, the internet and China for The Atlantic, Wired, The Guardian and NBC News. She also writes a newsletter about e-commerce in China called You May Also Like ....

A bonus episode for Lately listeners, from the team at Stress Test!  Just mention the word “inheritance” and people get their backs up. It’s no surprise that people are reluctant to chat about free money. In this episode, host Rob Carrick chats with Julia Chung, a financial planner, about why you shouldn’t factor an inheritance into your financial plans. We’re also joined by an Edmonton woman whos...

Everyone loves an AI fail, like a few extra fingers on a generated image. But what happens when the flaws of this nascent technology are much more serious? For the LGBTQ+ community, the stakes are high: Machine-learning models and AI-based tech like facial recognition can promote outdated stereotypes and public discrimination.  Our guest, Dr. Sabine Weber , is a computer scientist and an organizer...

A bonus episode for Lately listeners, from the team at The Decibel!  Millennial women are feeling burnt out. The responsibilities and pressures of family, work and caregiving are piling up, amidst the lingering fallout of the pandemic and the economic crisis. But what makes this generation’s burnout unique? In conversation with host Menaka Raman-Wilms, The Globe and Mail’s demographics reporter, A...

Location-sharing apps are growing in popularity, not just among families and Gen Z friend groups but with investors, too. (The tracking app Life360 made its Nasdaq debut earlier this month.)  If we're already passively sharing this information with companies almost all the time, why not share it with our loved ones? Our guest, Dr Katina Michael , who was on the cutting edge of building location-ba...

It’s summer concert season, and you may be paying a fortune to see your favourite artists at home, travelling abroad for cheaper tickets, or forgoing the pricey concert experience altogether.  For most musicians, the financial picture is dire. Our guest, author and Polaris Award-winning artist and producer Cadence Weapon – the tech skeptic behind the new album Rollercoaster – breaks down the depre...

Was all this inflation really necessary? Our guest, economist Isabella Weber says no. In fact, she’s been saying no since the Omicron variant was a thing. In 2021, at age 33, Weber wrote an article for The Guardian that tied inflation to corporate greed – calling out “an explosion of profits” as a central force in driving up prices. She was vilified online, and the establishment turned her into “t...

Climate anxiety is keeping us all up at night, but you’d never know it from watching a Hollywood blockbuster. Our guest, Anna Jane Joyner, is the founder and CEO of Good Energy, a non-profit that advises filmmakers and showrunners on how to weave in climate narratives – without killing the vibe. She talks about growing up with a climate-denying dad, how rarely climate change shows up in entertainm...

Everyone knows someone who is on Adderall: ADHD diagnoses are at an all-time high and trending on TikTok. Our guest, Daniel Kolitz , author of The History of Adderall for Pioneer Works, tells us about the rise of the medication, how it’s changed the way we work, and his own experience on and off the drug. Also, Vass and Katrina self-diagnose via some questionable online quizzes. This is Lately. Ev...

Pop culture loves to fetishize the world of high finance, but are the perks and the profile really worth the pain? Our guest, Carrie Sun , author of the new memoir Private Equity , describes her disillusioning journey working at a billion-dollar Wall Street hedge fund. Also, Vass and Katrina talk about what happens when your job doesn’t love you back. This is Lately. Every week, we take a deep div...

This month, people across Canada are boycotting Loblaw and its affiliated stores, thanks to momentum from a popular sub-reddit . It’s a sweeping revolt but it isn’t just about sticker shock, bread fixing and Galen Weston’s folksy image. It’s about how your friendly neighbourhood grocer turned into Amazon, and why Canada is struggling to adapt to the new competitive era. Our guest is Denise Hearn ,...

Who profits from our online lives? How is all our clicking and scrolling giving tech companies such unprecedented power and wealth? This isn’t capitalism, argues Yanis Varoufakis : it’s technofeudalism.  Maverick economist Varoufakis argues that we’re all serfs now, paying rents to the big tech "cloudalists” (cloud + capitalists). He talks about why we don’t actually own the music and movies we bu...

It's playing out across screens everywhere: Employees log into Zoom only to find out they’re being let go, sometimes alongside hundreds of colleagues. And now they're pushing back by posting it all on TikTok.  Our guest is Amanda Hoover, a staff writer at Wired.com who recently wrote a story called The Stark Realities of Posting Your Layoff on TikTok. She unpacks the viral layoff ecosystem, how HR...

Dating apps got costly, creepy, and exhausting. Users are fleeing and the industry is anxious. But how did dating apps change us? And if you haven’t given up on connection, what comes next?  Our guest is Marina Adshade, an economist who looks at how the market affects our love lives. She’s the author of Dollars and Sex: How Economics Influences Sex and Love and teaches at the University of British...

Welcome to Lately. Every week, we take a deep dive into the big, defining trends in business and tech that are reshaping our every day.  In our very first episode, we tackle the fake review economy: how online reviews got corrupted and if we can ever trust them again. Our guest is Joseph Reagle, an associate professor at Northeastern University and the author of several books, including Reading th...

Introducing Lately, a new weekly podcast from The Globe and Mail that's about navigating the big, defining trends in business and tech. Listen every Friday starting on April 12.