- How did a Canadian snowboarder end up allegedly running an international drug ring?
Thursday, October 31st 2024
In 2002, Ryan James Wedding was a member of Team Canada at the Salt Lake City Olympics. Today, if you know where he is, the police will pay you $50,000. In the 22 years in between, he's alleged to have been a part of everything from trafficking and distribution thousands of kilos of cocaine to a series of contract killings in Ontario. How did an Olympic athlete come to this? It's a story police and reporters and still trying to untangle...
GUEST: Calvi Leon, reporter, The Toronto Star
We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:
Through email at [email protected]
- Inside BC's incredibly close election
Wednesday, October 30th 2024
If anyone ever tries to tell you that your vote doesn't matter, you can tell them about this election. The final results of BC's vote took a week to calculate—and even then two ridings need judicial recounts. It was as close as an election can possibly be, and that means that the government it produces will be ... precarious, to say the least.
So why was it so close? Where was the election ultimately decided? Will David Eby's NDP actually be able to form a government? If they do ... how long can it possibly last, and what could it actually get done?
GUEST: Jen St. Denis, reporter, The Tyee
We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:
Through email at [email protected]
- Mice, neuroscience and the debate around "curing" autism
Tuesday, October 29th 2024
One of the tools scientists have used in autism research has been lab mice, genetically engineered to display similar behavioural characteristics as some humans with autism. But the value of those experiments, has become the subject of fierce debate amongst neuroscientists.
It's also that debate that gets at the heart of what we do and don't understand about autism: Should we be trying to "cure" it by identifying its genetic causes? How? What exactly would that look like in practice? Where should we be focusing our research efforts, and why? As you might imagine, none of those answers are easy, or without contention...
GUEST: Celia Ford, PhD, neuroscience; Future Perfect fellow at Vox
We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:
Through email at [email protected]
- How consumer rage defines Canadian politics
Monday, October 28th 2024
For our guest, it was a sandwich. For you it might be a box of cereal or a favourite candy bar. It doesn't matter what it is. What matters is that it makes you mad. There are plenty of signs that things are looking up in terms of affordability: Inflation is down and interest rates are declining fast—but somehow none of that is impacting how the economy makes Canadians feel.
How has consumer rage becoming the defining issue of today's political landscape? If it brings down one federal government, what happens to the next one if things don't magically get cheaper? Why do we feel the price of a candy bar more than all the numbers that tell us things are getting better? And how are smart politicians channeling that rage?
GUEST: Ira Wells, Toronto-based journalist writing in The Walrus
We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:
Through email at [email protected]
- Canada and the world get serious about UFOs
Sunday, October 27th 2024
This week, in honour of Halloween, we're revisiting an episode from 2023 about a quintessentially spooky topic: UFOs. Enjoy!
--------------------------------------------------------
Right now, Canada is working on a process to improve our tracking and reporting of sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects. In late May, NASA and the US Department of Defence help a joint public meeting, where it was revealed that the Five Eyes—an alliance of intelligence agencies including the US and Canada—held a private forum about the sightings, which have included, specifically, metallic orbs seen all over the world.
All of this could sounds like the opening of a blockbuster, or just a conspiracy theory. But it's neither. It's a serious attempt by some of the world's biggest military and intelligence agencies to figure out exactly what's going on in our skies, be it natural phenomena, secretive new aerospace technology or, yes, something out of this world...
GUEST: Daniel Otis, freelance journalist reporting on UFOs
We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:
Through email at [email protected]
