The Decibel

Over the last few years, a movement has grown where followers are spending thousands of dollars on rigorous and sometimes extreme health practices with the goal of extending their lives. The leaders of the “longevity” movement reach their mostly male audience largely through YouTube and podcasts. Longevity has become a major wellness industry, with big money involved. But critics say the science b...

From Stress Test , The Globe’s personal finance podcast for Gen Z and millennials: We’re taking a peek into the TFSAs of regular Canadians to give you ideas of how to better use yours. In this episode, Rob chats with Aravind Sithamparapillai of Ironwood Wealth Management to break down TFSAs, FHSAs and RRSPs. Aravind is not an accredited planner. We’re also joined by two guests with very different...

For nearly four years, researchers have been using data collected from wastewater samples to determine when and where COVID infections were rising in the province. Now, Ontario is shutting down its COVID wastewater testing program . The province says they don’t need to continue testing because the federal government does the same thing . But critics disagree and say we could be losing vital inform...

One of the biggest stories of the Paris Olympics has centred on the Canadian women’s soccer team, as the reigning gold medal winners have been embroiled in an international spying scandal . Last week, French police arrested a Canada Soccer staffer for flying a drone above opponents’ training sessions before the games began. FIFA have docked the team six points , while head coach Bev Priestman and...

Last week, wildfires tore through the town of Jasper, Alta., and the surrounding national park . Around 30 per cent of the town was destroyed , but some are saying that it could have been much worse. Today, we’re speaking with Globe reporters Carrie Tait and Nancy Macdonald about what’s left of Jasper, how residents are doing , and how the fire became so destructive. Then we’ll speak with Jen Beve...

Opponents of Donald Trump have been sounding alarms about Project 2025 , a policy plan for a conservative presidency put forward by an influential think tank called the Heritage Foundation. But what exactly is the Heritage Foundation and how much power do they really have? Donald Abelson is a political scientist at McMaster University who has written extensively about think tanks. He joins us to d...

Plant-based meat has been touted as a way of having our steak and eating it too. The industry had grand plans to remake the way we eat, cut down greenhouse gas emissions in meat and dairy production and address animal welfare concerns. Companies like Beyond Meat and Impossible had a meteoric rise in the late 2010s, with influencers, celebrities and investors backing the companies. But now, it appe...

A serial killer in Winnipeg has been convicted in the murders of four Indigenous women – Morgan Harris, Rebecca Contois, Marcedes Myran and an unidentified woman Indigenous elders have named Buffalo Woman. The case and decision garnered significant national attention , due to the graphic nature of the crimes and the families of the women fighting to have a search conducted for the missing remains...

In under two days, the narrative around Kamala Harris has completely shifted. It went from questioning her ability to replace Joe Biden , to a nearly complete coalescing around her presidential candidacy after Biden bowed out. Globe columnist Doug Saunders believes that she is the right presidential candidate for the Democrats as they mount their third campaign against Donald Trump. He explains wh...

The Globe and Mail’s Cathal Kelly has high hopes for the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris . He thinks that 2012 was the last great Olympics and right now, with so much conflict and division, the world really needs a global event to rally around . He explains what the Olympics offer beyond the highest competition for amateur athletes, as well as, what Canada has to do to have a successful Games and...

After weeks of pressure , speculation and open questions from political leaders about his age and health, U.S. President Joe Biden has dropped his re-election campaign ahead of the 2024 election. Biden’s decision now clears the way for a younger candidate to pursue the Democratic Party’s nomination, to run against Donald Trump. Globe contributor and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer David Shribman joi...

In late Februrary, Calgary-based discount airline Lynx Air, which launched a mere two years prior, ceased operations . For customers, that meant they’re likely weren't getting refunds and would have to find alternate and possibly more expensive tickets to their destinations. This is a familiar story in Canada. Discount airlines have come and gone with only a few years of operation under their belt...

When a large drinking water pipe burst in Calgary last month, city residents were subject to water usage restrictions that lasted for weeks . Living in big cities, people tend to take it for granted that they can turn on a tap and clean, drinkable water will come out. But losing that ability calls into question how reliable our drinking water infrastructure really is. Globe reporters Tu Thanh Ha a...

Paul Krusky is an unassuming tech nerd whose company, EncroChat , was once just one of the world’s many encrypted phone services. Now, he is in a French prison as police accuse him of building a digital den for Europe’s drug dealers. Globe reporters Joe Castaldo and Alexandra Posadzki explain how EncroChat wound up at the centre of thousands of criminal arrests in Europe and what we know about Pau...

The attempted assassination of Donald Trump in Pennsylvania on Saturday has thrown an already tense election campaign into further chaos. Despite being injured in the shooting, Trump vowed to maintain his schedule at this week’s Republican National Convention , where the former president has named his running mate . The Globe’s U.S. correspondent Adrian Morrow joins the podcast from the convention...

The problems with Canada’s housing market have spread beyond major cities like Toronto and Vancouver to smaller communities across the country. Vacancy is low, houses are prohibitively expensive for many Canadians, and even rental prices have spiked an average of nearly 9% over the past year. How did it get this bad, and why is it so hard to fix? We zoom in on five examples that demonstrate how an...

Where does your seafood come from? And who, along the supply chain, handled it? An investigation from the non-profit investigative journalism organization, Outlaw Ocean Project, reveals a network of North Korean labourers at Chinese seafood plants – a violation of United Nations sanctions – supplying certain Canadian seafood companies. The workers detail a pattern of hyper-surveillance, poor pay a...

This year’s NATO summit comes at a critical moment. Pledges of support for Ukraine drum up questions about why Canada and other NATO members are lagging in their commitment to meet the 2 per cent defence spending threshold . Both Trudeau and Biden are looking to show strength after a rocky start to the summer. Adrian Morrow is the Globe and Mail’s U.S. correspondent. He’s on the show to talk about...

The Myanmar civil war has been raging on for over three years now. Over 50,000 people have been killed, including 8,000 civilians, as the military junta that took over fights a multitude of militias. Recently, an important area along the Thai-Myanmar border changed hands . The Globe’s Asia Correspondent, James Griffiths , traveled there and explains how resistance forces have gained so much ground...

Dating apps have gained popularity over the past decade as singles strive to meet new people in a digital age. But frustration is setting in for many who feel that the apps are becoming less of a way to connect and more of a game that ends in heartbreak. Not only that, but the apps can get pricey. Now, people are searching for more meaningful – and in-person – connections. That online dating fatig...

On June 7, the 91-year-old Canadian business magnate Frank Stronach was arrested and charged with sexual assault . On June 26, more charges were brought against him . He’s facing 13 criminal charges from 10 complainants. News of the charges stirred memories for Vancouver – and New York-based writer Jane Boon. In 1986, when she was a 19-year-old student that had a scholarship from Magna, she had an...

There’s a conversation happening amongst parents that is drumming up a lot of controversy. It’s around the idea of gentle parenting , which is a catch-all term that generally refers to parents who try to stay calm, place a lot of importance on their child’s emotions and show a lot of physical affection. Dr. Alice Davidson is a professor of developmental psychology at Rollins College, and is one of...

Last week, the federal government ended a 32-year ban on commercial cod fishing off the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador. It reverses a policy decision that devastated the province and led to one of the biggest mass layoffs in Canadian history. While the reversal may seem like a reason to celebrate, some people in the industry are criticizing the news. Dr. George Rose, a fisheries scientist at...

Since October 7th, antisemitic incidents in Canada have been on the rise. Toronto Police Deputy Chief Robert Johnson said that nearly half of all hate crimes so far in 2024 have been antisemitic. In a single week in May, a girls’ school in Toronto was shot at , bullets were found outside a Montreal Jewish school inside a synagogue, and a Vancouver synagogue was set on fire . While no one was hurt,...

A year after the death of prominent Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar , questions remain about who he really was . His murder sparked international tension between the Canadian and Indian governments and this past spring the RCMP charged four Indian nationals with his murder. To those who knew him, Nijjar was a community leader and family man but the Indian government has called him a murderous ter...