- The changing face of election interference
Sunday, April 20th 2025
Presenting Machines Like Us, a Globe and Mail podcast on technology and people.
We’re a few weeks into a federal election that is currently too close to call. And while most Canadians are wondering who our next Prime Minister will be, host Taylor Owen and his guests today are preoccupied with a different question: will this election be free and fair?
In her recent report on foreign interference, Justice Marie-Josée Hogue wrote that “information manipulation poses the single biggest risk to our democracy”. Meanwhile, senior Canadian intelligence officials are predicting that India, China, Pakistan and Russia will all attempt to influence the outcome of this election. To try and get a sense of what we’re up against, Owen wanted to get two different perspectives on this. Aengus Bridgman is the Director of the Media Ecosystem Observatory, a project that they run together at McGill University, and Nina Jankocwicz is the co-founder and CEO of the American Sunlight Project. Bridgman and Jankocwicz are two of the leading authorities on the problem of information manipulation.
This episode was originally published on April 8, 2025.
- The case for prioritizing rest in the age of burnout
Thursday, April 17th 2025
Canadians are not particularly good at resting. According to Statistics Canada data collected between July 2022 and July 2023, people over the age of 15 spent an average of 17 minutes a day resting, relaxing, or lying down, and an average of 18 minutes a day on relaxing pursuits known as “active leisure” (think: birdwatching, camping, or going to an art gallery). That’s translating into stress – more than a fifth of employed Canadians said their stress levels were high or very high. On top of all that, Expedia’s 2024 Vacation Deprivation Report found that 45 per cent of Canadians left vacation days on the table in 2023.
Zosia Bielski is the Globe and Mail’s time use reporter. Today, she’s on the show to challenge the idea that down time needs to be earned, and to talk about some of the different approaches people are taking to prioritize rest in their lives.
Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at [email protected]
- Campaign Call: Debate prep and an inside look at polling
Wednesday, April 16th 2025
With less than two weeks until the federal election, The Decibel is bringing you another edition of Campaign Call, The Globe’s weekly election panel.
This week, ahead of the French and English leaders’ debates, feature writer Shannon Proudfoot and chief political writer Campbell Clark will explain why debates still matter and what each leader needs to accomplish during them.
In the second half, we’re joined by Nik Nanos, the chief data scientist of Nanos Research, to get a behind-the-scenes look at the polls – in terms of how the data is gathered and how reliable polls are.
Questions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at [email protected]
- Canada’s fragmented medical records system
Tuesday, April 15th 2025
The way medical records are handled in Canada is a patchwork of disconnected systems – creating massive headaches for patients and doctors. Patients struggle to access their own data, and practitioners have to waste time compensating for inefficiencies. But, governments, companies and healthcare professionals are searching for ways to make all these systems talk to each other.
Chris Hannay is a staff reporter at the Globe who covers the business of healthcare. He’ll explain how Canada’s medical record system ended up like this and what Canada could gain from adopting an interconnected system.
Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at [email protected]
- An interview with Green Party co-leader Jonathan Pedneault
Monday, April 14th 2025
The federal election is in two weeks, on April 28 – so the Decibel has invited the leaders from Canada’s major parties onto the show to share their vision for the country.
And while environmental concerns haven’t been top-of-mind in this election … Green Party co-leader Jonathan Pedneault says he isn’t just concerned about climate change.
Pedneault – who previously served as the party’s deputy leader from 2022 to 2024 – is proposing bold policies on a range of issues Canadians are facing, from U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats to the high cost of living.
The former journalist and human rights investigator, who has spent the better part of the last decade and a half working and living abroad, believes more progressive ideas are needed in this election. But the Greens are lagging in the polls, and Pedneault is running in a Liberal stronghold … So how will they be effective if they don’t make it to the House of Commons?
Today, Green Party co-leader Jonathan Pedneault joins us from Montreal. Ahead of the leader debates this Thursday, we ask him about his party’s daring proposals, what the Greens are offering Canadians, and if he’s returning to Canadian politics for good.
Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at [email protected]
