The Decibel

With kids heading back to classrooms and daycares after the holiday break, there’s plenty of anxiety in the air. Omicron has proven to be highly transmissible and that means these communal settings are at high risk for spread of the virus.We hear from parents and teachers about how they’re feeling. Plus Dr. Janine McCready, an infectious diseases physician at Michael Garron hospital in Toronto tells us what we know about Omicron and kids so far, and the tools that are needed to keep transmission down in both schools and in the wider community. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

There are only nine students but the kids of Taigh Sgoile na Drochaide – or the Bridge Schoolhouse in English – represent the future of Gaelic fluency in Canada. This is the first Gaelic-immersion school in the country and the people who founded it hope one day it’ll be the first of many.Greg Mercer, who reports on Atlantic Canada for The Globe and Mail, shares the story of how this school sprouted up from a small community that is passionate about regaining its Gaelic roots. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic is known for being among the best male tennis players in the world. Off the court, he’s known for his anti-vaccine sentiments. The Australian Open granted him a medical exemption that would allow him to compete, but when he attempted to enter the country on Thursday, January 6, he was detained at the border. He was released on January 10, but his future at the Open remains uncertain.Caitlin Thompson, co-founder of Racquet and publisher of Racquet Magazine, a print quarterly on the culture of tennis, explains why Djokovic was detained, and what makes him such a polarizing figure in the tennis world, and why this may not be the end of the story. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Between infection, isolation and layoffs because of restrictions, staff shortages are hitting workers and business hard right now thanks to this Omicron wave of the pandemic.Independent business reporter Chris Hannay explores which industries are feeling hardest hit, how the government’s guidelines and support for workers and workplaces has changed, and why for some, the timing of these new lockdowns really couldn’t have been worse. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The world of Harry Potter – which now extends from books to movies, theme parks, spin-offs, merchandise, and a vast amount of fan-generated content called “fanfic”– has been beloved since the first book was published more than 20 years ago.But in recent years, this world’s creator, author J.K. Rowling, has been making statements against trans activists, and sometimes raising the possibility of violence from someone who identifies as trans.Culture critic and founder of Friday Things Stacy Lee Kong explains how “Potterheads” have reacted to Rowling’s controversial comments, how the books’ legacy endures, and how HBO Max dealt with it in their special, Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It’s easy to not be mindful about drinking alcohol. A glass of wine with dinner or a beer after work can quickly become a habit with little thought. And since the pandemic struck, for some people, alcohol is playing an even bigger role.Enter: Dry January, a month-long ‘challenge’ to avoid or cut back on alcohol consumption. André Picard, Globe and Mail columnist, talks about its virtues, the rise in sober-curious culture and why we may consume more alcohol than we think. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Omicron is a variant of the novel coronavirus that was discovered back in 2019. The data we’ve collected suggests it’s less virulent, but more contagious, thanks to many mutations.To track these mutations and try to understand what might be coming next in this pandemic, scientists use genomic sequencing. Globe science reporter Ivan Semeniuk is back to talk about how scientists map variants’ genomes. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Elite athletes’ every move are subjected to scrutiny, rewound and played in slow-motion. And while we often discuss the physical stress this kind of exertion places on them, we’re less used to talking about the psychological strain this focus on bodies creates.Eating disorders are surprisingly commonplace amongst Olympic athletes, made worse by toxic training environments and suspect science, according to a recent Globe and Mail investigation. Grant Robertson and Rachel Brady discuss their findings, and a former Olympian shares her personal experience. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

For the end of 2021, we're bringing you an episode of Stress Test, a podcast about personal finance from The Globe and Mail, hosted by Rob Carrick and Roma Luciw.2021 was a year of surprises in personal finance. Who would have thought inflation would take off, housing could get even hotter and that job-hopping would be commonplace amid a global pandemic? So, what’s next? In this episode, Rob and Roma ask four personal finance experts - Robb Engen, Preet Banerjee, Erica Alini and Barry Choi - what they'll be watching in 2022. Plus, Rob and Roma share their own thoughts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today we're bringing you an episode of City Space, a Globe and Mail podcast about how to make our cities better, hosted by Adrian Lee.Public spaces are often the best parts of a city. But during the pandemic, many of us started to realize how our public spaces, like parks, weren’t quite working for us. In this episode, we hear from three experts: Adri Stark, project manager at Park People and one of the authors of the 2021 Canadian City Parks Report; Leslie Kern, the author of Feminist City: Claiming Space in a Man-Made World and Anna Zivarts, the director of the Disability Mobility Initiative Program in Washington. In conversation with Adrian, they share how public spaces are failing people in ways we might not often consider, and how we can really make them work for all of us. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.