The Big Story

It started with a suspected Chinese spy balloon, shot down by the American military off the coast of South Carolina after being tracked floating over the continent for at least 4 days. Since then, three more as-yet-unidentified objects have been blown out of the sky, one near the coast of Alaska, one in the northern Yukon Territory, and one over Lake Huron. At this point we can say with some certainty that the origin of these objects is terrestrial, and that’s essentially it.It may take some time before the public gets definitive answers about what, exactly, is going on here, but the events have sparked renewed debate about NORAD, and Canada’s ability to protect its airspace.So what types of risk could these aerial incursions pose to people on either side of the 49th parallel? Are these floating objects something new, or are we just noticing them more often now that we’re on higher alert? GUEST: Stephanie Carvin, Associate Professor at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University and a former national security analyst with the government of Canada. Read her Newsweek article about the floating objects 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 @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

John Tory for a long time seemed like your archetypal career politician; adept at avoiding scandal, and keeping his private life out of the public eye. And so the recent revelation that the thrice-elected mayor engaged in a romantic affair with a former employee — his subordinate at the time — was shocking to say the least.On top of tarnishing his public image, the scandal has thrown the Toronto political sphere into a state of disarray. Tory, with his newly acquired ‘Strong Mayor Powers’, had an ambitious agenda for his third term, including the passage of a contentious budget that’s due to be debated in council this week.Will Tory's opponents capitalize on the scandal to impose their own will onto the future of the city? And who might end up in the mayor’s seat, after what promises to be the most compelling Toronto municipal election in nearly a decade?GUEST: Ben Spurr, reporter with The Star’s City Hall Bureau 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 @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Every day brings new headlines of entrance exams Chat GPT has passed, or university essays the AI tech has scored solid grades on. And the technology will only get better from here. One of the first places that will have to reckon will the AI revolution are colleges and universities, where essays and exams are traditional forms of evaluation.So what are they doing? Are they attempting to seek out AI essays, as they do for plagiarism? To ban the programs entirely? And are those options just futile hopes? And if they can't beat 'em, will they join 'em, and incorporate AI technology into assignments and evaluations?GUEST: Jeff Schatten, associate professor of business administration at Washington and Lee University 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 @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

In October of 1988,  23 year old  Tatiana “Tania” Anikejew was found in her Toronto apartment by a friend and her parents days after she had been stabbed to death.  Her killer has never been found.  Tania's parents died before any arrest was ever made in this case,  but three of her friends have never given up on finding out the truth behind her violent death.  They share her story in this episode.Listen to more episodes of Tracking a Killer.  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 @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Traditionally, we think of a tip as an acknowledgement of a job well done, usually by someone who performs a service for us. It's become impolite not to tip, of course, but until recently the standards were still mostly understood. Then society began to go cashless...Over the past few years, tipping has crept into far more transactions than it had previously. Now businesses don't need to rely on tradition, they can simply add a tip prompt to their transaction machines, and presto! Tip creep. This creates confusion, and often resentment, when being asked to tip for handing over some goods across a counter, or ringing up groceries. And it's not the workers' fault—but they're caught in the middle.So where did tip creep come from? How much and when should you tip now, and what are the forces at work behind this dynamic?GUEST: Corey Mintz, food reporter, author of The Next Supper 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 @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Keira Kagan should be an anonymous little girl—going to school, playing in the park, growing up. Instead, after three years of her mother fighting for answers and change and demanding better, she's a tragic example. Keira and her father—who should never have been able to pick her up for the weekend—went over a cliff together, three years ago. Every year, 30 children in Canada are killed by a parent. Many of those deaths are preventable, if the system works, and those charged with that do their jobs. In Keira's case, neither of those things happened. This is how the unthinkable happens, way too often.GUEST: Cynthia Mulligan, reporter, CityNews 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 @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

In April of 2021, the federal government announced their intention to give all Canadians access to $10-a-day childcare, amounting to roughly $30-billion of federal funds over three years. It's a huge deal, as any parent who has ever paid for daycare can tell you.For the program to actually work though, daycares need to be barrier-free and high quality. Here’s the catch: there’s a staffing shortage, workers are underpaid, and working in poor conditions. How can governments make childcare accessible to parents in need? How will the childcare system ensure that needs of early childhood educators are met? And what comes next?GUEST: Emma Arkell, freelance reporter, writing in Chatelaine 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 @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

A Canadian tank arrived in Poland on Monday, and will head off to bolster Ukrainian efforts agains a Russian invasion. The single tank, obviously, isn't critical on its own, but what it represents definitely is: It's a German tank, which Canada could not have offered without German agreement, which shouldn't be taken for granted.Nearly a year after the war started, holding NATO's supportive alliance together is paramount, and these tanks are a symbol that it remains. They are also critical because as the territory warms up, Russia is likely planning new incursions—and the tanks will allow Ukrainian forces to bring the fight to them. After nearly a year of death and resistance, and a cold, slow winter, what happens when the thaw arrives?GUEST: Matt Gurney, reporter and columnist, writing in The Line 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 @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

What counts as "work" and what doesn't? If you're sitting there, doing nothing, thinking of how to accomplish your goals ... are you working? Well, if you're using a company laptop, the software watching your every move might not agree. And now there's a chance the courts will agree with them.Welcome to the still-very-new era of "time theft", where employee tracking can result in a case being made against workers who were using their work time for something else, at least in the eyes of their employers. What kind of rules exist around employee monitoring in Canada? How far can this go? And who among us has never "stolen" some time? Like, really?GUEST: Valerio De Stefano, Canada Research Chair in Innovation, Law and Society at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto and co-author of the 2022 book “Your boss is an Algorithm” 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 @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Much of humanity's search for extraterrestrial life has focused on, well, our kind of life—the conditions that make possible the biology we see on Earth. But what if the conditions that make life possible are far from what we imagine? What if we don't actually know what "life" is, even? Woah, dude...Seriously, though, in recent years scientists have been working to reframe our parameters in hopes that we'll find unlikely life, in unlikely places. What might that look like? The possibilities are infinite.GUEST: Sarah Scoles, science writer, reporting in Scientific American 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 @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky