The Big Story

Try to walk just a few blocks in the downtown core without passing a cannabis retailer. Good luck! You'll probably pass at least two. Since the lottery process ended and applications for retailers were opened up, hundreds of stores have flocked to...basically the same neighbourhoods. Obviously it's not optimal business strategy to open a store next to two or more other stores selling exactly the same thing, so what's going on here? Is this a bubble ready to burst? Is there an endgame for the companies and entrepreneurs still opening stores right now? What happens next?GUEST: Jennifer Pagliaro, 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

We've known for some time that we're due for a massive earthquake—but it could happen tomorrow or 20 years from now. In geological terms that's roughly the same. But it's not for us—if the Big One happened tomorrow, Canada's west coast would be devastated. We know what we need to do to prepare for it. We even have the blueprints for how to reinforce our structures. We could prepare properly anytime ... so why don't we? And what happens if we're not ready when the day arrives?GUEST: Gregor Craigie, author of On Borrowed Time: North America's Next Big Quake 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

Almost one million American children under 12 have been vaccinated against Covid-19 since the FDA approved the shot more than a week ago. The Canadian total is still zero, and parents are getting angry. When can we expect approval? How will the shots get into those little arms? What concerns do hesitant parents have and how can public health ease their minds?And finally, for adults who are still contracting the disease every day, what are the new oral Covid-19 treatments? And why do medical professionals call them the game-changer that could be our ticket out of the pandemic?GUEST: Sabina Vohra-Miller 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

More than a decade ago, a Canadian researcher tracked local media coverage given to cases of missing Indigenous and missing white women. You can probably guess what that revealed. Since then, however, Canada and other countries have spent time discussing racial bias, and attempting to correct it. Canada even had an entire national inquiry dedicated to the travesty of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.Yet in late summer, when a pretty young white woman named Gabby Petito disappeared, none of that mattered. The media was flooded with a continent-wide search for Petito while Indigenous and Black women who had vanished just as recently were barely mentioned. Why is this phenomenon so pervasive and how has seemingly nothing aside from words changed in a decade?GUEST: Kristen Gilchrist-Salles, researcher 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 been more than a year and a half since Canadians could freely drive across the border to the United States — to visit friends and family, to see a game or do some shopping. But maybe "freely" isn't the most accurate way to put it, since the crossing process will be more regulated and restricted than pre-pandemic times.So what do you need to cross? What arrangements do you have to make? How much might it cost? What about kids? And what else do you need to know before finally heading south again?GUEST: Cormac Mac Sweeney, Parliament Hill reporter 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

The minister who managed to secure tens of millions of Covid-19 vaccines gets the toughest job in government as a thank you. or much of the past year, barely a month has gone by without a new sexual harassment or assault scandal in the Canadian Armed Forces — and all too often those scandals have involved some of the military’s top ranked officials.Previous attempts at reform have failed, efforts to shift the culture have barely budged it and meanwhile, recruitment has fallen dramatically. So something needed to change. Why not the minister? What challenges will Anand face and where should she start if this is to be the reform that actually works?GUEST: Julie Lalonde, advocate and educator, author of Resilience is Futile: The Life and Death of Julie S. Lalonde 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

The Eternals hits theatres today, and will no doubt earn Marvel Studios and Disney hundreds of millions of dollars. But is it really fair to call these things "movies" anymore? They are projects that require viewers to come equipped with vast background knowledge and exist to set up the next film, and the film after that. Today we examine what has become of the modern "Super Hero Movie" through the lends of the seven (soon to be eight) big-budget Spider-Man films. How did we get from a Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man, to whatever this has become?GUEST: Jeremy Gordon 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

Amid a worsening climate crisis and reports detailing the need for urgency, world leaders took to the stage at COP26 this week to ... promise to do more. There were impressive promises, to be sure, including several from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. But at least from the leaders there were precious few details about exactly how these ambitious targets would be achieved. We know the goals we need to hit to keep our planet livable—the question is if we're prepared to do more than agree we should hit them.GUEST: Fatima Syed, The Narwhal and The Backbench 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 a problem that predates the pandemic—but eighteen months of a public health crisis has only made it worse. Every day nurses and emergency room staff in Canada face threats and assault from the public they care for. For decades they have suffered mostly in silence. But as Covid-19 has made their jobs even less safe, some of them are finally speaking out.These are critical workers, who are already dealing with exhaustion and burnout. What's being done to protect them? Why is this happening now? And what becomes of the health care system if even more of them give up and walk away?GUEST: Flannery Dean, writing in The Globe and Mail 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

John Tory has a longstanding relationship with Rogers Communications Inc., as a previous executive and as a friend of the late founder, Ted Rogers. Toronto voters knew he would maintain some ties with the company when he ran for office—but the depth and power of those ties went largely unreported—until an internal fight for company control made it obvious that Tory would be a key mediator and decision-maker in the ultimate outcome.What did the public know of this relationship—and what has it only learned now? Where has Tory recused himself and where could conflicts remain? And will the fact that the city's mayor was making six figures from one of Toronto's biggest companies, and the public didn't know, be a re-election issue?GUEST: Jennifer Pagliaro, City Hall reporter, 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