Shows / The Big Story
The Big Story
An in-depth look at the issues, culture and personalities shaping Canada today.
Episodes
The Big StoryWhere are Canada’s vaccines? Part 1
Canada's efforts to secure vaccines started with a phone call between a trade commissioner in Boston and a senior member of Moderna. In the weeks and months…
The Big StoryWe’re (finally) starting to teach Black history in Canada
In the wake of George Floyd’s murder, Ryerson's school of journalism emailed students asking how to improve their program. Students responded by creating a…
The Big StoryMen have vanished on Vancouver Island. What happened to them?
Over the past several years, vulnerable men have been disappearing from communities around Vancouver Island. They walk away, and then they are never seen…
The Big StoryWhat does it mean when water is traded as a commodity?
It could be a sign of the oncoming resource apocalypse. It could be a useful tool to determine the market value of regional water reserves. It could just be an…
The Big StoryWith no Keystone XL pipeline, what’s Alberta’s Plan B?
One of Joe Biden’s first actions as President of the United States was to cancel the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. And one of Alberta Premier Jason…
The Big StoryA team of experts plan to battle science disinformation head on
The past 12 months have seen a flood of scientific misinformation on social media. Some of it is lies for profit. Some of it is myths and hoaxes for…
The Big StoryHomeless in the winter, in a pandemic. A deadly combination.
A man in Montreal was found dead in a portable toilet. The shelter he often used had been temporarily closed for overnights due to a Covid-19 outbreak. The…
The Big StoryInside the world of Instagram surgeons
He goes by Real Dr. 6ix. He has 140,000 followers on Instagram, where he posts before and after photos of his clients—and also graphic videos of surgeries he…
The Big StoryWhat the heck just happened on Wall Street?
The investors came from Reddit. They came in droves. They bought GameStop stock and sent it soaring. They cost massive hedge funds hundreds of millions of…
The Big StoryWhat Canadians do and don’t understand about Covid-19 vaccines
Sometime soon, if all goes well, we'll have four or even five approved vaccines for Covid-19. Do they work differently? Is there a "best" one, and will some…
The Big StoryInside the ‘Miami Group’: A policeman’s alleged Ponzi scheme
He was known to have a fascination with the markets, court documents reveal. So when a retired officer began inviting others to join an investment group, many…
The Big StoryWhat do employees need to work through a long, dark winter?
Good morning. It’s Monday. It’s January. It’s cold. It’s dark. There’s a pandemic. If you have been following public health guidelines in many parts of the…
The Big StoryWhat a President Biden means for Canadians
On his first day in office, President Joe Biden cancelled a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, keeping a campaign promise to Americans but bitterly…
The Big StoryQAnon after Trump: The ‘Storm’ that never came
There were no mass arrests, military tribunals or public executions. Donald Trump went to Florida and Joe Biden went to the White House and nothing 'Q' said…
The Big StoryIs Canada’s democracy safer than America’s?
Joe Biden will be sworn into office today, hopefully without incident. But in the United States, proponents of democracy are analyzing how close their own came…
The Big StoryOther provinces learned from the first wave. Ontario failed to protect long-term care residents.
Covid-19 devastated long-term care facilities across the country in the Spring of 2020. But over the summer months, many provinces found ways to reinforce the…
The Big StoryHow can Canada stop the growth of hate groups?
Yes, it's worse in America. But it's not great here, either. The past few years have seen an alarming rise in hate groups in Canada—and there's nothing on the…
The Big StoryWhy do more than half of Canadians not have paid sick days?
We're now 10 months into a global pandemic and solidly into its second wave. And across the country, many workers are still not staying home when they're…
The Big StoryCan we build 15-minute cities where we live?
Most of us have spent the past year closer to home than ever before. And for a lot of Canadians part of that process has involved realizing just what their…
The Big StoryIs free speech actually in danger online?
Our host would be fine with never seeing another Donald Trump tweet ever. But is that fair? Is it a slippery slope? Social media companies, and other service…
The Big StoryIs the internet breaking your parents’ brains?
Our parents warned us that the Internet could harm us—from stalkers to kidnappers, pedophiles, the dangers of too much screen time and countless other…
The Big StoryWill Canada’s transit systems change forever?
Ridership is down by more than half, while costs to keep vehicles clean and employees and passengers safe are higher than ever before. Covid-19 has put an…
The Big Story“It’s like walking in darkness”: One year since Flight 752
At the time it seemed like it might be the worst disaster of 2020. When Flight 752 was shot down in Iran, 176 passengers and crew, including 55 Canadians, were…
The Big StoryWhat now for America? And could it happen in Canada?
The world watched as an angry mob stormed the US Capitol Wednesday. It was a scene few imagined we'd ever see—but it was also, somehow, inevitable. In the…
The Big StoryTeachers are doing their best. But they’re at the breaking point.
The past year has been hard on all of us—but especially for those to whom we entrust our children. From a rush to online learning with schools closed, to a…
The Big StoryHow worried should you be about the new Covid-19 variant?
In some parts of Canada—especially Ontario—hospitals are close to the breaking point. At the same time, tests are finding a variant of Covid-19 that may spread…
The Big StoryCovid? Rising. Vaccines? Slow. Politicians? Travelling. Inside a bad month for Ontario
This past week, Ontario broke its seven-day average Covid-19 case record. Its hospitals are nearly full. Its vaccine rollout is slow. And the government lost…
The Big StoryYou’re going to pay more for food this year. A lot more.
Welcome to 2021! It's going to cost more to eat this year. The unprecedented events of 2020 combined with longer-term issues will lead to a massive spike in…
The Big StoryHow do we learn to be empathetic?
It's the ability to put ourselves in another's shoes and it's been needed more this year than ever. But what kinds of experiences teach us empathy? How do our…
The Big StoryWhat happens when we run out of space to bury our dead?
Blink and you could miss it—the Richview Memorial Cemetery sits nestled on a thin slice of land between two of North America’s busiest highways. The cemetery…
The Big Story“Christmas is a little different this year”: An interview with Santa
Over the past ten months we've been accustomed to seeing our daily routines change in ways large and small. Covid-19 has popularized phrases from "in these…
The Big StoryA pandemic makes local news more critical, but also more endangered
Ten months into this pandemic, after so many of us rediscovered how vital local news can be, there are even fewer local newsrooms in Canada than when it began…
The Big StoryIs Canada’s new climate plan finally getting serious?
It's as ambitious as any Canadian government has been so far—but is it enough? A new climate plan rolled out by Justin Trudeau last week takes aim at some real…
The Big Story‘Tis the season for mass evictions?
A moratorium on evictions in Ontario was once part of Premier Doug Ford's plan to "make sure you and your family can stay in your home during this difficult…
The Big StoryAs vaccination begins, how can we convince hesitant Canadians to take the shot?
There will always be a group of people who flatly refuse to get vaccinated, and public health messages probably won't convince them. But there are far, far…
The Big StoryHave you ever purchased a ‘Bland’?
Welcome to the newest era of consumer capitalism. It's dominated by 'Blands' — clean, sleek, online products that bill themselves as the handcrafted little guy…
The Big StoryWhat will the ‘Middle Class’ of the 2020s look like?
Middle Class is a term that comes from the 1950s, and while the economics surrounding it have changed fundamentally in 70 years, the goals and hopes and dreams…
The Big StoryWill BC’s government fix the racism in its health care system?
An investigation into an allegation of a racist game being played by hospital staff turned into a detailed report about system racism in British Columbia's…
The Big StoryCovid-19 has hit Canadian charities where it hurts
This is the time of year when Canadians traditionally up their giving. But a lot of that tends to happen in person. This year, Covid-19 has made that tough…
The Big StoryHow the PlayStation took over Sony, and games took over the world
You probably don't have a PlayStation 5. And even if you don't want one, there's likely someone in your life who is desperate to get their hands on it. Sony—a…
The Big StoryWhat we do and don’t know about Covid-19 vaccines for Canadians
We have more doses on order per capita than any other nation. But we also have no real domestic production capacity. If you ask the Liberals, we're among the…
The Big StoryA delicate balance between humans, bears and fish
It's a cycle that repeats itself in many ecosystems where humans live: Harmony, profit, imbalance and then a desperate need to fix things. When wild salmon…
The Big StoryVancouver wants to decriminalize all drugs. Will it happen? Will it help?
Last week Vancouver's City Council voted unanimously to ask the federal government for an exemption that would allow the city to decriminalize small amounts of…
The Big StoryWho is the woman who broke baseball’s glass ceiling?
One thing people around the game who know Kim Ng agree on is that she should have had a top job long ago. But considering baseball's legacy of promoting…
The Big StorySometimes you have to talk about Fight Club
It seemed like a prank posted to social media—but there are witnesses who confirmed that the advertised fight night between McGill University students actually…
The Big StorySmall businesses are desperate and angry, and close to ruin
The irresponsible and illegal opening of an Etobicoke, Ontario BBQ joint this week ended Thursday when the owner was finally arrested. But in the Toronto area…
The Big StoryHow Alberta’s Covid-19 control crashed and burned
For the first six months of the pandemic, Alberta was one of the best provinces in Canada at containing Covid-19. Then it all went wrong. This week alone, the…
The Big Story“Rural” Canada is not far from the city, and the internet still sucks
Halton Hills is just over an hour's drive from Toronto. Many of its residents have been working from home for months. Issues were first raised about its…
The Big StoryRoommates and the global pandemic
Families have spent the past eight months in closer quarters than ever before. But what about people who share a home and aren't related or dating one another?…
The Big StoryWhat will happen to Canadian seniors this winter?
We want elderly Canadians, who are heightened risk from Covid-19, to be safe. For much of the past eight months, that has meant hundreds of thousands of…
The Big StoryHow is QAnon coping with Trump’s loss?
As you might imagine, QAnon supporters believed that Donald Trump would handily win reelection. When he didn't, it blew a hole in the conspirac--hah, of course…
The Big StoryWhat happens when we’re tempted by herd immunity in a dark winter
The proposal is called the Great Barrington Declaration, and while it's couched in lots of scientific language, herd immunity is what it boils down to. It has…
The Big StoryHow will restaurants survive the winter?
At least in the spring, there was a summer to come and some sort of certainty — restaurants would stay closed until Covid-19 was under control. This Fall, in…
The Big StoryHow Nunavut’s bubble finally popped
The territory went more than seven months as the last Covid-19-free spot in North America, but the past weeks have seen one case turn into a couple of dozen…
The Big StoryHow conspiracy became our new religion
Almost two weeks after the American election, leading social media platforms are inundated with false claims about the results. Claims that are supported and…
The Big StoryCan carbon caches help us preserve a moderate climate?
This is the finale of our five-part series in partnership with The Narwhal. Scientists have found protecting nature can provide more than one-third of the…
The Big StoryIt starts with a trout, and ends up a growing disaster
This is part four of a five-part series in collaboration with The Narwhal. There are no viable solutions to stop the tide of selenium leaching into Canadian…
The Big StoryAs oil and gas declines, where do the workers go?
This is part three of a five-part series in collaboration with The Narwhal. Alberta’s oil and gas workers can be underrepresented — or even maligned — in…
The Big StoryB.C.’s looming extinction crisis
This is part two of a five-part series in collaboration with The Narwhal. Canada’s westernmost province markets itself as 'Super, Natural, B.C.,' but more than…
The Big Story“Them plants are killing us.”
This is part one of a five-part series in collaboration with The Narwhal. Two communities — one in Canada, one in the U.S. — share both a border along the St…