- Why none of your stuff lasts anymore
Friday, January 13th 2023
Maybe it's the top you bought on Instagram or the flashy new appliance with a touchscreen. Maybe it's an Apple product that you can't repair yourself or a replacement for a product you've been buying forever that simply ... doesn't last as long as it once did. You've probably experienced at least one of these and likely more.
You're not imagining things or just getting old and grumpy. There are a number of reasons—some purposeful, others a result of circumstances—that are lowering the lifespans of products that used to last years, even decades. So why is this happening and what can we do about it?
GUEST: Izzie Ramirez, deputy editor of Vox's Future Perfect
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- You can call it 'The Kraken', and everything else you need to know about the new Covid variant
Thursday, January 12th 2023
Stop us if you've heard this one before: It's more contagious, we're seeing it make up a higher percentage of cases, hospitalizations are beginning to climb, and we don't yet know if it's more severe or not. Playing the role of Omicron in this winter's version of a January spike is sub-variant XBB 1.5, otherwise known as The Kraken.
So should you be worried? Will vaccines still protect us? How will we know if it's time to be concerned? What should we be doing now to make sure we can have a safe winter? And should we just prepare for this to be our seasonal situation for the next few years, as the virus moves towards real endemicity?
GUEST: Dr. Raywat Deonandan, Global Health Epidemiologist, and Associate Professor with the Interdisciplinary School of Health Sciences at The University of Ottawa
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- Will the cops or the courts stop Doug Ford's Greenbelt plan?
Wednesday, January 11th 2023
Since Doug Ford reneged on his promise to protect the Greenbelt in November, resistance to his proposal has been fierce. In the past week that has culminated in a court challenge as well as a potential investigation by the Ontario Provincial Police. There are other investigations ongoing as well, and public protests at Queen's Park and elsewhere—but can any of it really stop development of the land for new homes?
What basis do the investigations and challenges have? What does the Ford government say to answer them? What comes next in Ontario's fiercest environmental battle in years?
GUEST: Emma McIntosh, Ontario reporter, The Narwhal
We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:
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- Fusion power won't solve the climate crisis. But we don't need it to.
Tuesday, January 10th 2023
In early December, scientists announced a major breakthrough on the way to a fusion-powered world of unlimited clean energy. It received reams of media coverage and lots of hope for a miracle future that would solve the climate crisis.
The problem is that it won't. It can't possibly scale up in time to solve our current problems, never mind the ones we'll develop while waiting for it. But for the people who pay attention to clean energy and the climate emergency, the coverage was frustrating. Why? Because we don't need a miracle cure, we just need to focus on the technology we can scale up, right now.
GUEST: David Roberts, editor, reporter and host at Volts
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- Who's to blame for Canada's holiday travel nightmares?
Monday, January 9th 2023
Canadians were stranded in Mexico. They were on VIA trains for 20 hours, stopped on the tracks. They were stuck in airports waiting for flights that never took off or luggage that never arrived. The 2022 holiday season exposed just how fragile this country's transportation network has become. So who's to blame? What are they going to do about it? And will this ever get better?
GUEST: Stephanie Taylor, Parliament Hill reporter, The Canadian Press
We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:
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