Police, campus unrest and the power of student protests

Recently we’ve seen a shift in the national conversation around how to deal with Canada’s ongoing opioid crisis. B.C. all but cancelled their decriminalization trial. And the federal government rejected Toronto’s request to decriminalize possession of drugs. Decriminalization is part of a harm reduction strategy which advocates argue is the best short-term solution to save lives.Alberta is also moving away from a harm reduction model and it’s all because of Marshall Smith. He’s the man that’s overhauling the province’s drug policy with a plan that’s facing a lot of criticism.The Globe’s Marcus Gee is a columnist focusing on cities and the opioid crisis, and he recently spent some time with Marshall Smith. He’s on the show to tell us how Smith became so influential, his plan to upend conventional wisdom on how to deal with the drug crisis and whether we might see it replicated elsewhere.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at [email protected]

The PWHL is wrapping up a successful inaugural season, with the three Canadian teams boasting big crowds for most games. The WNBA is adding a 14th team; this one’s in Toronto. And there’s a push from a group called Project 8 to launch a professional women’s soccer league in Canada by 2025.There’s an undeniable momentum in the realm of women’s professional sports in Canada right now. Rachel Brady, a sports reporter for The Globe, explains what’s happening this time around that has changed the game.Questions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at [email protected]

When nature calls, you have to answer, and quickly. The last thing you’d want is to walk several kilometers to find a public toilet.. And yet, public bathrooms aren’t easy to find in many cities across Canada. Overall, Canada has 18 public toilets per 100,000 people, which puts it in 15th place globally. And for those facing homelessness or a medical condition, public toilets are crucial for their ability to move freely through urban spaces.The Globe’s urban affairs reporter, Oliver Moore, explains why good public toilets are so hard to find, how the pandemic created a two-tier system of access, and what Canadian cities are doing to address the scarcity.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at [email protected]

On the first day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, troops occupied Chornobyl. Since the nuclear disaster in 1986, the 30-kilometer exclusion zone around the nuclear plant has been largely abandoned. But 38 years later, some Ukrainians still call the land home, including a handful of elderly residents and people who oversee the disused power plant.Janice Dickson, the Globe’s international affairs reporter, visited Chornobyl and the surrounding exclusion zone in April. She’s on the podcast to talk about what she saw there, and how Ukraine is dealing with the challenges of war, two years on.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at [email protected]

Gildan t-shirts are everywhere. The ubiquity of their products has turned Gildan into one of the biggest clothing manufacturers and wholesalers in the world, bringing in billions in revenue every year. But recently, Gildan has been in the news about a fight between its former CEO and the board. And this boardroom drama has refocused attention on how the Montreal-based company makes its clothes so cheaply.Robyn Doolittle, a reporter with The Globe’s Report on Business, looked into Gildan’s work conditions at their factories in Honduras and explored the tension behind wanting cheap clothes that are ethically made.Questions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at [email protected]

It has been eight years since the infamous Fort McMurray wildfire that levelled several neighbourhoods and businesses. As wildfires are once again on the rise in Western Canada, the sky was a familiar smoky orange last week in Fort McMurray as a fire crept closer to the city.The Globe’s Calgary reporter, Carrie Tait, tells us about the current fire, and explains how for many residents and officials, they’re feeling the lingering effects of what happened in 2016.Questions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at [email protected]

In the last few years, artificial intelligence has gone from a novelty to perhaps the most influential technology we’ve ever seen. The people building AI are convinced that it will eradicate disease, turbocharge productivity, and solve climate change. It feels like we’re on the cusp of a profound societal transformation. Fifteen years ago, there was a similar wave of optimism around social media: it was going to connect the world, catalyze social movements and spur innovation. It may have done some of these things. But it also made us lonelier, angrier, and occasionally detached from reality.Few people understand this trajectory better than Maria Ressa. Ressa is a Filipino journalist, and the CEO of a news organization called Rappler. Like many people, she was once a fervent believer in the power of social media. Then she saw how it could be abused. In 2016, she reported on how Rodrigo Duterte, then president of the Philippines, had weaponized Facebook in the election he’d just won. After publishing those stories, Ressa became a target herself, and her inbox was flooded with death threats. In 2021, she won the Nobel Peace Prize.As novel as AI is, it has undoubtedly been shaped by the technologies, the business models, and the CEOs that came before it. And Ressa thinks we’re about to repeat the mistakes we made with social media all over again.

The celebrated Canadian author Alice Munro died on May 13. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2013 as a “master of the contemporary short story,” and the Man Booker International Prize in 2009.On today’s show, members of The Globe newsroom share their reflections on Alice Munro’s life and work, and columnist Marsha Lederman joins to talk about Munro’s impact and legacy.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at [email protected]

As the U.S. election looms, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s team is getting ready for both possible outcomes: a Biden re-election and a second Trump term. They are assembling a team of officials to remind American politicians about the importance of free trade across our borders.Adrian Morrow is The Globe’s U.S. correspondent based in Washington, D.C., and he explains who is on this so-called Team Canada, and how their strategy works.Questions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at [email protected]

Hydrogen fuel is sometimes called the fuel of the future, and it’s being used in a number of ways around the world. The rail giant CPKC is trialling a new hydrogen train in Alberta, that it hopes can replace diesel-fuelled freight locomotives in delivering goods across the continent.The Globe’s Alberta and energy reporter, Kelly Cyderman, joins us to discuss hydrogen trains, how they work, and how this development might lead toward a greener Canada.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at [email protected]