The Big Story

Almost everything the President of the United States has been saying since election day is false. His family and supporters are following suit. How is the internet handling a flood of misleading claims and outright lies? What makes the post-election disinfo so hard to debunk? How did we end up so far down this rabbit hole and is it even possible to climb back out? GUEST: Jane Lytvynenko, Disinformation Reporter, BuzzFeed 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

As of Wednesday night, things looked relatively positive for Joe Biden's bid for the presidency. But Donald Trump's team is filing lawsuits, demanding recounts, or halted counts, and looks like it plans to scrap tooth and nail to win the election in the courts no matter the results on the ground. How successful that attempt will be depends on the judges themselves—but either way it puts the leaders of democracies around the world, including Canada, in a tough position until someone concedes. How would a protracted court battle for the American presidency impact Canada? What changes if Biden wins cleanly? What will Trump's mark on America's international reputation be if he is a one-term president? And what if he actually manages to find his way to a victory? GUEST: Balkan Devlen, senior fellow at McDonald Laurier Institute, Superforecaster for Good Judgment, Inc. 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

No, the US election is not what spawned this question. New research in a field called 'simulation theory' pegs the odds that we're just AI creations in somebody's supercomputer at about 50-50. Really? How can we possibly determine this? What does simulation theory propose? What evidence do we have? Will we ever really find out? And could humanity one day create a simulation of our own? GUEST: Anil Ananthaswamy, Scientific American, author of Through Two Doors At Once 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

Is Democracy on the ballot in the American election tonight? How real is the threat of violence at the polls? What happens if Donald Trump squeaks out a reelection victory? What happens if Joe Biden blows him out but Trump refuses to concede? What could the courts do with a close election? And what does America's election mean for democracies around the world, like Canada's, where millions will be watching and waiting to see what happens to their ally? GUEST: David Moscrop, political scientist, author of Too Dumb For Democracy 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

Why don't more Canadians know about the criminal masterminds behind some of Canada's most legendary capers? A new audiobook, True North Heists, tells the tales of some of the most outlandish capers ever committed on Canadian soil. Actor Colm Feore (Bon Cop Bad Cop, Trudeau) dramatically weaves together “in the moment” storytelling with interviews with those with deep knowledge of the heists themselves, including law enforcement officers, writers and the criminals themselves. You might know the stories of some legendary American thefts, but you might not know these ones. And yes, there's maple syrup involved. GUEST: Geoff Siskind, executive producer, True North Heists. 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 a normal year, the start of November would mark the beginning of the prestige movie push, with award hopefuls, franchise films and feel-good family flocks crowding theatres. This year though, there's almost nothing left on the calendar and the top-grossing box office list features rereleases of films from the 1990s. Hollywood has been hoarding its blockbusters in preparation for a vaccine and a return to normal life in 2021...but what if that doesn't happen quickly enough? How long can studios sit on their biggest films in hopes of a return? Why is the system built to rely so much on a handful of megamovies that need to earn billions in order to be worth making at all? And when will our host finally get to see Dune and Black Widow? GUEST: Norm Wilner, senior film writer at NOW Magazine, host of Someone Else's Movie 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 was perfect timing, really, for OnlyFans. The website was growing in popularity because it allowed people to charge followers for exclusive content, and it didn't forbid pornography. And then the pandemic hit, and basically every mainstream porn studios had to shut down, and the performers flocked to OnlyFans as a way to keep their income afloat without professional work. Once again, a digital tool not intended for pornography had become a purveyor of it. Once again, the porn industry has adapted more quickly than any other entertainment medium. But how much of this change is permanent? And how much can other entertainment industries learn from pornography's lead? GUEST: Lina Misitzis, producer of The Last Days of August and The Butterfly Effect 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

You might think that it's gang-related shootings in Toronto that drive gun-violence statistics in the province. You'd wind up surprised. A new study examined in detail firearms-related injuries and deaths in Ontario for 15 years, from 2002-2016. What the authors found was that while urban gun violence drives headlines, a larger part of the problem happens outside of the spotlight, outside of the cities, in quiet, lonely places... GUEST: Dr. Natasha Saunders, co-author of Firearm-related injuries and deaths in Ontario, Canada, 2002–2016: a population-based study 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

Our government has spent hundreds of billions of dollars supporting Canadians through this pandemic. They're deep in debt—but how worried should they be? Traditional economic policy would have the Liberals reign in spending and make some cuts as soon as they can to try to mitigate the damage. Otherwise we might find ourselves hit by massive inflation. A newer economic theory, however, would urge the government to spend as much as needed as long as Canadians are struggling and simply print money as necessary to pay for it. OK, that's a simplification of modern monetary theory, but it gets at the basic point. Maybe we don't need to worry about how much debt we rack up? GUEST: Max Fawcett, The Walrus 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

Annamie Paul made history earlier this month when she became the first Black woman to lead a Canadian party when she became the successor to Elizabeth May. Now that the party is hers though, where is she going to take it? How can she bring the Green Party's branding beyond "the environment"? How will her party hold the Liberals to account without forcing an election Canada doesn't need? And how does she hope to snap Canadian voters out of their Liberal-versus-Conservative approach? GUEST: Annamie Paul, leader of the Green Party of Canada 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