The Decibel

The Diary of Anne Frank is one of the most widely read first-person accounts of the Holocaust. The question of how Anne and her family were discovered has haunted readers for decades. In a new book, The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation , author Rosemary Sullivan details what an investigative team found when they set out to answer: who tipped off the authorities to Anne’s hiding sp...

The pandemic promised a gold mine for companies like Zoom, Shopify, and Peloton. And at first, these companies did see a boost in their stock value . But the ground started to shift at the end of 2021 and now these stocks, which are often darlings of retail investors, are seeing substantial drops . Report on Business reporter and columnist Tim Kiladze explains what has led to this investor whiplas...

When Gerald Cotten died suddenly in 2018, he was only 30 years old, but fabulously wealthy thanks to founding Quadriga, one of the first cryptocurrency exchanges. Or at least, that’s how it seemed. His death coincided with growing concerns about the legitimacy of Quadriga. After investigating, the Ontario Securities Commission said Quadriga was run like a Ponzi scheme . More than Quadriga clients...

Quebec is the first jurisdiction in Canada to propose a ‘health contribution’ tax for people who choose not to get vaccinated against COVID-19. This has sparked a debate about whether some government pandemic measures are going too far into the realm of being punitive . Dr. Devon Greyson , an assistant professor at the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia, h...

With kids heading back to classrooms and daycares after the holiday break, there’s plenty of anxiety in the air. Omicron has proven to be highly transmissible and that means these communal settings are at high risk for spread of the virus. We hear from parents and teachers about how they’re feeling. Plus Dr. Janine McCready , an infectious diseases physician at Michael Garron hospital in Toronto t...

There are only nine students but the kids of Taigh Sgoile na Drochaide – or the Bridge Schoolhouse in English – represent the future of Gaelic fluency in Canada. This is the first Gaelic-immersion school in the country and the people who founded it hope one day it’ll be the first of many. Greg Mercer , who reports on Atlantic Canada for The Globe and Mail, shares the story of how this school sprou...

Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic is known for being among the best male tennis players in the world. Off the court, he’s known for his anti-vaccine sentiments. The Australian Open granted him a medical exemption that would allow him to compete, but when he attempted to enter the country on Thursday, January 6, he was detained at the border. He was released on January 10, but his future at the Op...

Between infection, isolation and layoffs because of restrictions, staff shortages are hitting workers and business hard right now thanks to this Omicron wave of the pandemic. Independent business reporter Chris Hannay explores which industries are feeling hardest hit, how the government’s guidelines and support for workers and workplaces has changed, and why for some, the timing of these new lockd...

The world of Harry Potter – which now extends from books to movies, theme parks, spin-offs, merchandise, and a vast amount of fan-generated content called “fanfic”– has been beloved since the first book was published more than 20 years ago. But in recent years, this world’s creator, author J.K. Rowling, has been making statements against trans activists , and sometimes raising the possibility of v...

It’s easy to not be mindful about drinking alcohol. A glass of wine with dinner or a beer after work can quickly become a habit with little thought. And since the pandemic struck, for some people, alcohol is playing an even bigger role . Enter: Dry January , a month-long ‘challenge’ to avoid or cut back on alcohol consumption. André Picard , Globe and Mail columnist, talks about its virtues, the r...

Omicron is a variant of the novel coronavirus that was discovered back in 2019. The data we’ve collected suggests it’s less virulent, but more contagious , thanks to many mutations. To track these mutations and try to understand what might be coming next in this pandemic, scientists use genomic sequencing. Globe science reporter Ivan Semeniuk is back to talk about how scientists map variants’ geno...

Elite athletes’ every move are subjected to scrutiny, rewound and played in slow-motion. And while we often discuss the physical stress this kind of exertion places on them, we’re less used to talking about the psychological strain this focus on bodies creates. Eating disorders are surprisingly commonplace amongst Olympic athletes, made worse by toxic training environments and suspect science , ac...

For the end of 2021, we're bringing you an episode of Stress Test , a podcast about personal finance from The Globe and Mail, hosted by Rob Carrick and Roma Luciw. 2021 was a year of surprises in personal finance. Who would have thought inflation would take off, housing could get even hotter and that job-hopping would be commonplace amid a global pandemic? So, what’s next? In this episode, Rob and...

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. Public spaces are often the best parts of a city. But during the pandemic, many of us started to realize how our public spaces, like parks, weren’t quite working for us. In this episode, we hear from three experts: Adri Stark, project manager at Park People and one...

A stranger helps a woman keep her new Christmas tradition alive. People come together to make sure their community fridges are full. A group of neighbours celebrate 500 nights of thanking frontline workers. During the pandemic doldrum, it’s been easy for many of us to feel isolated and down. But the stories on today’s episode of The Decibel capture heartfelt moments, little acts of kindness and re...

Al Etmanski has spent his life working to help improve life for Canadians with disabilities. Now, the federal government is considering establishing a fund to help top-up disability benefits that are offered by the provinces and territories. If established, around one million people could be lifted out of poverty. Globe and Mail feature writer Ian Brown speaks with Al about the proposed fund, why...

Esi Edugyan is known for her books of fiction. She’s a two-time winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize for her novels Half-Blood Blues and Washington Black . In her most recent book, she’s turned to the world of non-fiction. Out of the Sun: On Race and Storytelling is a collection of essays drawn from her 2021 CBC Massey Lectures, devoted to bringing a richer context to black histories and other st...

The holidays are here and so is the Omicron variant of COVID-19. Science reporter Ivan Semeniuk on what the latest science says about how Omicron is different from other variants like Delta, in three important ways: its transmissibility, how well it can escape the vaccines we have now, and how sick it can make us. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about...

It’s the perfect time to escape into a book. Arts editor Judith Pereira and Western Arts Correspondent Marsha Lederman on the book trends this year, the silver lining of the pandemic’s effect on independent booksellers, and what you should cozy up and read. All the books mentioned in this episode (in order): Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doer Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann Fight Night by Miriam...

This weekend, Hong Kongers head to the polls to elect their government . Well, to elect 20 of the 90 seats in their Legislative Council – and from a roster of candidates carefully vetted by the Communist Party of China in Beijing. The Globe’s Asia correspondent James Griffiths tells us how Hong Kong’s normally boisterous election has been quieted by the new national security law , and why it’s sti...

Case counts are rising in many parts of the country as Omicron becomes the dominant variant of COVID-19. As some regions reintroduce public health restrictions, there’s a growing call to make rapid tests (also called rapid antigen tests) more widely available. The availability and cost of these tests varies across the country – anyone can buy them online, but at a fairly steep price compared to th...

Two years ago, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. But for over a year now, a civil war has raged in Ethiopia between the federal government and the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front. Throughout the conflict, reports emerged of violence against civilians being committed by all sides, including horrific sexual assault. Lucy Kassa is an Ethiopian freelance journalist i...

What is the price of a wetland? A forest? A river? How can you even go about assessing the value of natural habitats? How do you factor in the watershed’s ability to mitigate flooding? What’s the price of all that carbon a forest sucks up? Governments in Canada are starting to grapple with these questions, especially in face of climate change and increasing extreme weather events. Environment repo...

In 1957, a lone Mountie in northern B.C. heard rumours about sexual abuse of boys who attended the Lower Post residential school. The Mountie and a group of Kaska Dena children brought the sexual predator to trial, but intimidation of witnesses derailed the case. Fast forward decades later , to mark Canada’s first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, the Lower Post Nation burned the former r...

Ukraine and U.S. intelligence officials, as well as online sleuthers , have noticed a buildup of Russian troops along most of the border separating the former Soviet country from Russia. It has sparked worries that an invasion may be imminent and we could see a repeat of 2014, when Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula. Senior International Correspondent Mark MacKinnon recently travelled to Kyiv to...