The Big Story

It begins a couple of decades ago, with a Saskatchewan farmer spotting some black shapes sniffing around his crops. Today these wild pigs number in the tens of thousands and may even have spread as far as Ontario. And wherever they go, they leave a trail of destruction and decimated ecosystems. What is Canada doing to stop the spread of these creatures?GUEST: Omar Mosleh, Edmonton-based journalist, the Toronto Star We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at hello@thebigstorypodcast.ca Or @thebigstoryfpn on Twitter

Last year's attack on the Capitol building by supporters of former president, Donald Trump, was a shocking scene. But it was merely a visual representation of the problems that have long been simmering below the surface. The nation is divided and political violence grows more popular in opinion polls. Right-wing militias are ready to fight, and Republican lawmakers seem either afraid of them or complicit. The end of American democracy used to be unthinkable. Now there are several ways it could happen, far sooner than we think. GUEST: Stephen Marche, author of The Next Civil War: Dispatches from the American Future We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at hello@thebigstorypodcast.ca Or @thebigstoryfpn on Twitter

At least one group of hospitals has called a "Code Orange" this week as health care workers battle a tsunami of Covid-19 admissions. That's a protocol usually reserved for mass casualty incidents, when there are too many victims to care for. It's a sign of just how brutal the January Omicron wave may be.Schools are closed and restrictions are back in place to help stem the tide—but did it have to be this way? Could we have increased hospital capacity, kept health care workers healthy and safe and kept schools open? What would it have taken and why didn't it happen?GUEST: Dr. Katharine Smart, President, Canadian Medical Association We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at hello@thebigstorypodcast.ca Or @thebigstoryfpn on Twitter

It's called solar geoengineering, and it's an idea being researched right now. If we can't blunt the impact of global warming with the measures available to us, eventually time will run short and humanity will need to take drastic action. By preventing some of the sun's heat from reaching the earth, we could attempt to cool the planet down. Would it work? Possibly! Could it backfire enormously, leading to massive crop die-off? Also possibly! GUEST:  Climate reporter Bob Berwyn, for Inside Climate News We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at hello@thebigstorypodcast.ca Or @thebigstoryfpn on Twitter

In June of 1990, 22-year-old University of Toronto student Elizabeth Bain disappeared. Her body has never been found, but police say it was a homicide. Elizabeth’s boyfriend Robert Baltovich was convicted of her murder. He spent eight years in prison before being deemed not guilty by the courts in 2008. Elizabeth Bain's killer remains at large.Check out Tracking a Killer here! We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at hello@thebigstorypodcast.ca Or @thebigstoryfpn on Twitter

Whether a publicity stunt or revenge porn, the celebrity sex tape has long been a salacious and voyeuristic fascination for the media and its subjects' fans. But when it comes to male stars, their tapes have seemed to serve as fuel for their fire, while for female stars, the only rhetoric has been slut-shaming. Hosts, Sarah and Sadaf dive into the story behind the tapes of everyone from Rob Lowe to Pam Anderson and Tommy Lee to Paris Hilton to understand why, and what sort of ripple effect celebrity sex tapes have left in the years since.Check out The Reheat here! We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at hello@thebigstorypodcast.ca Or @thebigstoryfpn on Twitter

If you're a Christmas movie person, then you already know Hallmark is a behemoth. But you might not know just how it became so dominant. It's a long story, born from a collision of religion and capitalism. But now, with critics crying for diversity, and traditionalists desperate for them to focus on family, Hallmark is at a crossroads. Will they make good on their progressive promises and risk alienating the core audience that has made them so much money? And can they afford to budge when Netflix and other streaming services are trying to carve into their market share?GUEST: Sadaf Ahsan, co-host of The Reheat (Listen to The Reheat's deep dive into Hallmark movies right here.) We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at hello@thebigstorypodcast.ca Or @thebigstoryfpn on Twitter

As The Big Story takes its annual (and long overdue in 2021) holiday break, the team answers some questions from Jordan and shares their memories of a very strange and very tough year to be trapped in a news cycle. This is a glimpse behind the mics and mixers. If you've stuck with us all year, thank you for listening.GUESTS: The Big Story producers Stefanie Phillips, Joseph Fish and Braden Alexander We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at hello@thebigstorypodcast.ca Or @thebigstoryfpn on Twitter

If you've heard any of our bite-sized interviews with small business owners, then you know they've faced closure so many times during this pandemic it's become part of their lives. But if we look at the big picture, what kind of help has actually made an impact? Which programs really worked? And what do the businesses that are still thriving during the pandemic have in common?This is a bonus episode of The Big Story, sponsored by Mazda's Local Legends initiative. (However, Mazda did not have any role or input in producing the editorial content of this episode.)GUEST: John Rocco, Scotiabank We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at hello@thebigstorypodcast.ca Or @thebigstoryfpn on Twitter

From the great resignation to rising wages and the comeback of unionization, this was a year in which workers realized they don't have to take inhumane conditions and poverty-level income anymore. And all signs point to this viewpoint spreading. For the first time in decades, the labour market appears to be shifting in favour of the people who actually do the hard work that keeps society running. Can workers in North America continue to leverage that in 2022? Are we witnessing a tipping point here, or will capitalism fight back?GUEST: Juliana Kaplan, Business Insider We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at hello@thebigstorypodcast.ca Or @thebigstoryfpn on Twitter