The Decibel

Context is everything. Join us Monday to Friday for a Canadian daily news podcast from The Globe and Mail. Explore a story shaping our world, in conversation with reporters, experts, and the people at the centre of the news.

Latest podcasts

  1. Conservatives are gaining in the polls — here’s why

    Thursday, September 9th 2021

    With less than two weeks to go, the federal election campaign is heating up with two official election debates back-to-back. While Jagmeet Singh’s NDP have gained ground, polling suggests the Conservatives’ popularity have tied them with Justin Trudeau’s Liberals.

    Writer-at-large and political columnist John Ibbitson has been on the campaign trail with Erin O’Toole, and tells us how the leader has exceeded expectations this campaign.

  2. How to make remote work fair for everyone

    Wednesday, September 8th 2021

    Women were hit harder than men by layoffs during the pandemic, and those who were caregivers or parents and kept working had to contend with COVID-19 outbreaks in long-term care and schools. Online learning, runny noses and COVID-19 scares all meant that kids stayed home more, often on short notice. This made remote work necessary for many parents and the burden fell disproportionately on women.

    As kids return to school, and the vaccine buys us some freedom to move around, employers are eyeing a return to the office. But child care remains precarious as COVID-19 scares – or even the kind of common childhood bugs that resemble the virus – threaten to keep kids home on short notice. That reality, along with the flexibility of remote work many employees have grown accustomed to, has given rise to the idea of a hybrid model, where employees can choose when to work at home, and when to come into the office.

    But as ROB senior business writer and columnist Rita Trichur points out, the hybrid model can only work fairly if those who need to work remotely are given the same opportunities to advance in their careers as the employees who put in more face time at the office. And that means deliberately shifting the culture of many workplaces.

  3. How going back to school could save kids’ mental health

    Tuesday, September 7th 2021

    Even before COVID-19, one in five kids in Canada met the diagnostic criteria for a mental disorder. Since school closures, lockdowns, job loss, and of course the illness and death caused by the pandemic, children’s mental health has gotten even worse.

    Dr. Tracy Vaillancourt is co-author of a report from the Royal Society of Canada that explains what we know about the effects of school closures on children during the pandemic. She is a professor and Canada Research Chair in Children’s Mental Health and Violence Prevention at the University of Ottawa.

    She’ll explain how the government could help children struggling with their mental health in the wake of the pandemic, and how parents can support their children’s mental health.

  4. Hong Kong democracy activists sentenced in a city ‘transformed’ by new law

    Friday, September 3rd 2021

    Seven Hong Kong democracy activists were sentenced to prison this week for their roles in the 2019 protests that saw hundreds of thousands of people protesting, and many violent clashes with the city’s police.

    That unrest continues to have a major impact on Hong Kong today, thanks to the national security law passed in its wake, which banned secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign powers. This broad law created a chilling effect on the city’s once-vibrant pro-democracy movement and other civil society.

    Hong Kong-based Asia correspondent James Griffiths speaks with us from the city to explore how it has changed since the national security law was passed.

  5. Making the most of going back to school

    Thursday, September 2nd 2021

    We’re heading into the third school year of the pandemic. For 18 months now, students and their parents have had to deal with unpredictable school disruptions and a lot of anxiety around contracting COVID-19. Most students were forced into remote learning for weeks at a time. Kids in Ontario spent more than half of the 2020-2021 academic year out of the classrooms. Most kids and parents managed the isolation, the screen time, the tech issues. But very few thrived.

    And now that the vaccination rollout has over 65 per cent Canadians fully inoculated, most Canadian students are returning to in-person learning. But there is still a tangled web of restrictions for parents to sort out and the looming threat of the Delta variant that could send kids home, again.

    The Globe and Mail’s education reporter, Caroline Alphonso, is on the show to help parents understand how schools are gearing up to keep kids stay and facilitate as normal of a return to school this fall as possible.

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