The Decibel

American gymnast Simone Biles withdrew from both the team and individual all-around competitions, a few athletes have passed out from the Tokyo July heat and dozens of people connected to the Olympics have COVID-19, while case counts reach all-time highs in the surrounding neighbourhoods.On the other hand, Canada’s athletes have made this one of the best Summer Games for our country so far, with some amazing performances from swimmers Maggie Mac Neil, Penny Oleksiak and others. Globe columnist Cathal Kelly joins us from Tokyo to tell us the highs and lows from these Games. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Before there was Youtube and Vevo, there was MTV and MuchMusic. These TV music stations were the curators of cool. And when millennials were teenagers, they flocked to them to watch the hot new video or catch an interview with their favourite musicians. But now, Much (as the channel is now called) no longer airs music video content as artists drop their new singles directly onto their own social feeds and video platforms.So what’s an old mainstream media brand to do? Join TikTok, of course. And as cultural critic and writer Amil Niazi notes, MuchMusic is relaunching at exactly the right moment: There’s a wave of 90s and early aught nostalgia crashing down on us, at exactly the moment both millennials and Gen Z kids are longing for a simpler time. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

African nations have a problem. They can’t get enough COVID-19 vaccine doses. Vaccine hoarding by wealthy nations and an underserved COVAX program – the one designed to make sure the developing world wasn’t left behind in the pandemic – have resulted in a slow vaccination rate for most of the continent. These global factors have also led to a menacing opportunity for the Delta variant to spread amongst an unprotected population.The Globe and Mail’s Africa Bureau Chief, Geoffrey York, discusses how Canada has and hasn’t contributed to vaccination efforts abroad, what the international community could do to help speed up the vaccine efforts in Africa and why Canadians should care. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The summer is half over, vaccination rates are rising, but we aren’t out of the pandemic woods yet. And since we last explored vaccine passports, the question of whether businesses can legitimately ask for proof of vaccination to enter – whether it’s a restaurant or a sports arena – has only become more fraught.Restaurateur Jacob Wharton-Shukster tells us what happened when he announced that an indoor seat at his Toronto restaurant Le Phénix would require proof of vaccination. Then, privacy researcher Blake Murdoch of the Health Law Institute at the University of Alberta explains why he thinks provincial governments can and should implement vaccine passport systems that are fair and secure. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

To keep their edge after a fantastic showing at the 2016 Rio Olympics, Swimming Canada got serious about their data-mining mission. They tracked all kinds of metrics to really understand their swimmers’ performance. Data analysis can show you how to shave a fraction of a second off a race time and, in some cases, that can mean the difference between a gold and silver medal.Grant Robertson, a senior writer for The Globe and Mail, talks about what he learned about Swimming Canada’s data project, how it crafted training strategies for some of our medal hopefuls, like Penny Oleksiak, and why data proves you can’t always trust your eyes when it comes to judging the fastest person in the pool. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

After the killing of George Floyd and the subsequent swell of Black Lives Matter protests, companies rushed to declare their alliance to the cause of fighting anti-Black racism in the workplace. In Canada, corporate leader Wes Hall designed the BlackNorth Initiative, wherein CEOs pledged to not only promote diversity, but actually hire, retain and promote Black talent. Initially, 209 companies signed on.The Globe’s Report on Business section did a survey of the original signatories to see how much progress has been made in the first year of their commitment (which has a final target of 2025). Reporter Vanmala Subramaniam discusses the results of the survey and the challenges many companies are having in their efforts to diversify. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A growing number of nurses are leaving hospitals. The relentless workload, the crushing experience of watching so many people get very sick from the novel coronavirus and die, and the increasingly short-staffed nature of many intensive care units has created an untenable situation for many nurses across the country. And this is having an impact on hospitals, with some emergency rooms having to close.National health reporter Kelly Grant discusses how many nurses are leaving, how this is impacting the communities they serve and what governments are trying to do about it. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

As the U.S. continues to pull its troops out of Afghanistan after nearly 20 years of fighting, the Taliban is taking back more and more territory. This has left Afghan nationals who worked for foreign governments feeling more and more unsafe and now they want to leave. A lot of countries have specific programs for current and former employees who want to relocate, but Canada hasn’t unveiled the details of a special program yet.Parliamentary reporter Janice Dickson has been speaking to drivers, senior officers and others who worked for the Canadian government in Kabul – sometimes for more than a decade – about the severity of their situations and what help they need. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Ontario movie theatres will reopen on July 16th. For some – like in the Greater Toronto Area – it’ll be for the first time in about nine months. And while many theatres across the country reopened earlier, Ontario represents a big chunk of the Canadian box office, which has been hurt badly not only by lockdowns and public health restrictions, but also the rise of streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+ offering movies and binge-worthy shows at home.Film editor Barry Hertz talks about what Ontario movie goers can expect when they return to theatres, why go back to the movies at all if you’ve gotten used to streaming on your couch, and what summer blockbusters he’ll be seeing on the silver screen. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Phone technology has evolved at an incredible pace, from the first cellphone in the 1980s, to the sophisticated computers we call smartphones in our pockets now. But some of the most important calls we make are to 9-1-1 in an emergency. And the system that 9-1-1 centres run hasn’t kept up.The Globe’s telecom reporter Alexandra Posadzki tells us that there’s a move to introduce “next-generation 9-1-1” Canada-wide through the hundreds of organizations that handle our calls for help. That would allow callers to send photos or text messages, and help authorities better pinpoint where calls on cellphones are coming from. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.