The Big Story

As the United States winds down its involvement in Afghanistan, things are becoming more and more dangerous for Afghan citizens who have aided soldiers over the past two decades. And nobody is in more danger than those who worked as interpreters for Canadian and allied forces. Years ago, Canada had a program to fast-track visas for Afghan interpreters, but it’s long gone. Now, veterans who served with the interpreters are sounding the alarm for the government to help hundreds of them and their families, who risked so much to help Canadians on the ground. Will the feds listen? GUEST: Lt.-Col. Mark Popov 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

Two people are dead, a town is all but destroyed and more than a thousand people have essentially become climate refugees. And that is the toll of just one of the hundreds of forest fires raging in British Columbia at the moment. But it's in the future of Lytton that we can get a glimpse of what Canada must grapple with. Do you rebuild a town in the hottest place in Canada, at a time when fire season is getting longer and more intense every year? Or do you simply expect people, many of whom belong to the Lytton First Nation, to pick up the pieces and head elsewhere—until "elsewhere" is threatened, too? GUEST: Monika Gul, News 1130, CityNews, Vancouver 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 heated discussion over a full return to business as usual versus an embrace of remote, flexible work is often couched in language of productivity, creativity and efficiency. But as more and more corporations announce their post-pandemic plans, it's becoming clear that there's a bigger, deeper issue at stake: Control. What makes companies feel like in-person office work is essential? Why are workers so reluctant to give up their new flexibility, even when working from home can be fraught with problems? Are we entering a new era that could end the monoculture of the office... or just one more push from labour to be beaten back by The Man? GUEST: Charlie Warzel, journalist, Galaxy Brain 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

Now that vaccines are widely available to almost any Canadian who wants one, the focus turns to convincing people who haven't had one yet to get their needle. It's easier said than done, for more reasons than just hesitancy. And if our inbox is any indication, after months of mixed messaging, Canadians have a lot of questions. What does the science say about mixing mRNA vaccines? When will we have data and shots for kids under 12? How do various brands of vaccines cope with the Delta variant? And why does the threshold for herd immunity keep changing? GUEST: Sabina Vohra-Miller, clinical pharmacologist 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

Traditionally, Ontario (and parts of Quebec) would see outbreaks of the creature known as the Gypsy Moth every decade or more. But the past two years have seen back to back outbreaks, each of them much larger than what we'd seen in the past. And we're currently not sure if this is an anomaly, or the new normal. What are these creatures and how did they get here? What do they do to the trees they attack? Do we have a plan to stop their explosive spread? And what can you do if you spot them on trees in your backyard or at your favourite park? GUEST: David Dutkiewicz, entomology technician, Invasive Species Centre 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

A lot of us are lucky enough that we've never thought of Canada Day as anything but a day off to enjoy all the country has to offer, and to celebrate the story we tell ourselves about this land. It's a good story, honestly. But as so many of us have learned over the past year—it's not true. So today we'll hear some perspectives on Canada Day from people whose stories don't often get heard on July 1, and maybe that can help us see what is both great and terrible about this country. GUESTS: Eva Jewell, Donnovan Bennett, Fatima Syed You can donate to the Indian Residential School Survivors Society by visiting their website. 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

First of all, what is a heat dome? How rare is it? How deadly? Are the all-time high temperatures the Pacific Northwest experienced this week an anomaly, or a terrifying glimpse of the new normal? Can we pin this all on a warming climate? Or is some of it an unlucky combination of weather systems? And if this is a sign of things to come, what do Canadians, and governments across the country, need to do to prepare for summers to come? GUEST: Katharine Hayhoe, climate scientist 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

Right now, the Bank of Canada is working on a "digital loonie" that will replace cash at some point in the future. Governments around the world are either following suit or way ahead of us. While banks have been giving their customers access to digital wallets for years, cryptocurrencies are attempting to corner the market on the next generation of money. The only thing that's clear to everyone is that actual cold, hard cash is not long for this world—with all the benefits and inequalities that will include. So in the race to become the next go-to source of currency ... who's winning? GUEST: Michael Doyle, freelance journalist and 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

Last week, Core Development Group announced its intention to spend a billion dollars buying family homes in hot markets across Canada and converting them to rental units. On the surface, this would seem to bring badly needed family rentals into markets that are in desperate need of them—but there's a lot more going on here than just that. What does a billion dollars in corporate money do to an already overheated housing market? Will these rental units be affordable for families that have been priced out of home ownership? How does a condo developer plan to become a landlord at a cross-Canada scale? And why do so many housing advocates warn this will set a dangerous precedent? GUEST: Rachelle Younglai, Real Estate Reporter, 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

Her real name is Romana Didulo, and over the past few months her following has grown to tens of thousands. And she's putting them to use in real life—handing out cease and desist "orders" to authorities and businesses across the country. The penalty she promises for not complying and removing all Covid-19 restrictions is death. Obviously, Didulo's claims are ridiculous, and completely false. There's zero truth to anything associated with her. But when organizations that work to combat extremism see a new figure rise to prominence and begin to immediately take their goals off the internet and into the streets ... they get very worried. GUEST: Peter Smith, journalist, Canadian Anti-Hate Network 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