The Decibel
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The Decibel
Context is everything. Join us Monday to Friday for a Canadian daily news podcast from The Globe and Mail. Explore a story shaping our world, in conversation with reporters, experts, and the people at the centre of the news.
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What it’s like for migrant workers on Canadian farms
Canada’s agriculture industry is big business, contributing $32-billion to Canada’s GDP in 2024 and employing an estimated 223,000 people. What garner...
The fight over the notwithstanding clause
A legal battle is underway over the notwithstanding clause, which allows governments to override “[certain] rights of Canadians” that are protected by...
Machines Like Us: Geoffrey Hinton on AI’s future
Geoffrey Hinton, “the godfather of AI”, pioneered much of the network research that would become the backbone of modern AI. But it’s in the last sever...
How a new pipeline could test Canadian unity
A new pipeline pitch is stirring up an old fight. On Oct. 1, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced the province would be drawing up a proposal for...
How seriously is corporate Canada taking DEI these days?
Five years ago, hundreds of Canadian companies publicly pledged to address anti-Black racism. They signed the BlackNorth Initiative, which has since b...
Key takeaways from Carney’s second meeting with Trump
Five months after his first appearance in the Oval Office, Prime Minister Mark Carney made his second trip down to Washington. And while he said littl...
How October 7 is still haunting the Jewish diaspora
On October 7, 2023, members of Hamas launched attacks in Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking roughly 250 people hostage. Israel responded by launc...
How Trump’s peace plan for Gaza could end the war
Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled a 20-point peace plan to end the war in Gaza. He did so alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Neta...
Why Alberta teachers are on the cusp of a historic strike
The education system has been fraught with controversy in Alberta. From the government’s recent attempt to ban certain books in school libraries, to t...
Boiling point: the uncertain future of lobster fishing
The great boom of the lobster industry is, in many ways, a story of success. For more than 30 years, Canada’s most valuable seafood export has generat...
What life is like for missing Ukrainian kids in Russian camps
Official estimates from Ukraine’s government say 19,000 Ukrainian children have been taken by Russian forces since the start of the conflict. And many...
Machines Like Us: AI upending higher education
Just two months after ChatGPT was launched in 2022, a survey found 90 per cent of college students were already using it. But students are no longer u...
Let's talk about autism
Last Monday, the Trump administration linked Tylenol to autism and warned against pregnant women taking it — Health Canada says there is no conclusive...
Who’s behind Canada’s nation-building projects?
Canada’s new Major Projects Office is part of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s ambition to fast-track Canada’s major infrastructure projects. And the pers...
High-stakes trade talks begin as Trump tariffs persist
After months of informal back-and-forth talks about Donald Trump’s tariffs, a new chapter in the U.S.-Canada trade war has begun. Last week, the U.S....
Tracing the virus: How measles made its way back to Canada
Measles is one of the most contagious respiratory viruses in the world. But for decades, it rarely infected Canadians. That’s not true any more. Since...
Charlie Kirk, free speech, and Canada’s new anti-hate law
A fierce debate about free speech has erupted in the U.S. in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s killing. Government officials have encouraged reporting agains...
Meet the people who save aggressively to retire early
Would you work two full-time jobs and live off of ramen noodles if it meant you could retire at 35? That’s the image many people have of people who fo...
The disappearance of Jack and Lilly Sullivan
On May 2, 2025, Lilly and Jack Sullivan were reported missing from the small community of Landsdowne, Nova Scotia. The disappearance of the siblings q...
Mark Carney’s plan for affordable housing
At the beginning of the week, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the launch of Build Canada Homes, an agency tasked with building affordable and sup...
Israel begins ground invasion of Gaza, UN inquiry finds genocide
After weeks of warnings, Israel has begun a full-scale ground invasion into Gaza City. Hundreds of thousands of people are living under bombardment in...
What you need to know about COVID-19 this fall
COVID-19 is currently surging again. And it’s not even respiratory illness season yet. While much of the public would like to leave the pandemic behin...
The challenges ahead for Carney as Parliament resumes
Between ramping up major infrastructure projects, trying to make a deal with the U.S., and working on strengthening ties with Europe, Prime Minister M...
KPop Demon Hunters, Korean culture and why kids love it so much
The movie of the summer wasn’t in theatres this year. It was on Netflix, it’s called KPop Demon Hunters and kids are obsessed with it. It has become t...
Leak reveals China is exporting internet censorship technology
China’s Great Firewall blocks social media platforms like Facebook and TikTok, along with certain political topics, streaming platforms, and even Goog...
Pipelines, ports and rail: What’s Carney building first?
For months, there has been speculation about what Prime Minister Mark Carney and the federal government might put forward as “nation-building projects...
The multimillion-dollar fight over a piece of Canadian history
As the Hudson’s Bay Company continues to sell off what it owns to pay back creditors, a historic document has come up for sale. The Bay’s charter is i...
Segregation of child inmates being challenged in landmark lawsuit
A landmark class action lawsuit is alleging that Manitoba has subjected thousands of incarcerated children to solitary confinement — the province deni...
Introducing the new host of The Decibel
The Decibel welcomes Sherrill Sutherland as the host for the coming year, with a special appearance from Menaka Raman-Wilms.
You can get in tou...
Should we worry about the gender gap at university?
When 1.5 million university students return to campus this month, men will be noticeably underrepresented in the student body. In 2025, the ratio is a...
Oct. 7 documentary draws TIFF controversy
The Toronto International Film Festival has kicked off, but not without controversy. This year, the premiere of the documentary, “The Road Between Us:...
The first wave of AI layoffs
Artificial intelligence in the workplace is here to stay. But what does that mean for the job market? While many Canadian companies are embracing the...
Is it legal to defend yourself if someone breaks into your home?
In August, a man allegedly broke into someone’s home in a small Ontario town. After an altercation, the intruder was hospitalized with life-threatenin...
To save this baby, doctors had to kill part of her brain
Maryam Fatima was born with a condition called hemimegalencephaly, a rare birth defect in which one side of the brain is abnormally large. She suffere...
The black market for getting hacked Meta accounts back
Having social media accounts hacked is stressful. Usually, companies have formal channels for users to regain access. But for Meta platforms like Face...
How kids are getting hooked on gambling through online games
Problem gambling is a real issue in Canada – where reporting shows young people having even higher rates than adults. The increasing monetization of g...
Canada’s fragmented medical records system
The way medical records are handled in Canada is a patchwork of disconnected systems – creating massive headaches for patients and doctors. Patients s...
Border security bill grants new powers to tighten immigration
Bill C-2, also known as the Strong Borders Act, is one of the first pieces of legislation by Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government. The 140-page bil...
Fossil feud: Paleontologists have a bone to pick with new find
In 2021, mine workers in Morocco made a huge discovery. They found a fossil that scientists believed to be a new species of mosasaur – a large swimmin...
Why tariffs haven’t hit consumer prices hard – yet
When the U.S. first imposed sweeping tariffs on Canada, setting off a trade war, businesses and consumers braced for high inflation. But nearly half a...