- Drone spying casts shadows over Canada’s Olympic Games
Wednesday, July 31st 2024
One of the biggest stories of the Paris Olympics has centred on the Canadian women’s soccer team, as the reigning gold medal winners have been embroiled in an international spying scandal. Last week, French police arrested a Canada Soccer staffer for flying a drone above opponents’ training sessions before the games began. FIFA have docked the team six points, while head coach Bev Priestman and two assistants have been suspended for a year.
The Globe’s Robyn Doolittle joins The Decibel from Paris to talk about the fallout of the scandal, how it affects government funding for Canada Soccer and the pall its cast over the Canadian Olympic story.
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- What Jasper can teach us about managing wildfires
Tuesday, July 30th 2024
Last week, wildfires tore through the town of Jasper, Alta., and the surrounding national park. Around 30 per cent of the town was destroyed, but some are saying that it could have been much worse.
Today, we’re speaking with Globe reporters Carrie Tait and Nancy Macdonald about what’s left of Jasper, how residents are doing, and how the fire became so destructive. Then we’ll speak with Jen Beverly, a wildfire researcher at the University of Alberta, about Jasper’s fire prevention efforts in the years leading up to this, and how communities can help protect themselves from wildfire.
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- The think tank writing the ‘blueprint’ for Trump’s second term
Monday, July 29th 2024
Opponents of Donald Trump have been sounding alarms about Project 2025, a policy plan for a conservative presidency put forward by an influential think tank called the Heritage Foundation. But what exactly is the Heritage Foundation and how much power do they really have?
Donald Abelson is a political scientist at McMaster University who has written extensively about think tanks. He joins us to discuss their history and evolving role in American politics.
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- Has the promise of plant-based meats gone bust?
Friday, July 26th 2024
Plant-based meat has been touted as a way of having our steak and eating it too. The industry had grand plans to remake the way we eat, cut down greenhouse gas emissions in meat and dairy production and address animal welfare concerns. Companies like Beyond Meat and Impossible had a meteoric rise in the late 2010s, with influencers, celebrities and investors backing the companies.
But now, it appears the hype over plant-based meat is over. Sales have dropped off and stock prices are worth less than a tenth of its peak.
Vox staff writer and journalist Kenny Torrella tells us why the noise around plant-based meat’s potential – and its flop – doesn’t tell the whole story.
This episode originally aired on January 4, 2024.
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- A murder conviction and the search for missing Indigenous women
Thursday, July 25th 2024
A serial killer in Winnipeg has been convicted in the murders of four Indigenous women – Morgan Harris, Rebecca Contois, Marcedes Myran and an unidentified woman Indigenous elders have named Buffalo Woman. The case and decision garnered significant national attention, due to the graphic nature of the crimes and the families of the women fighting to have a search conducted for the missing remains of the women in city landfills.
The Globe and Mail’s national reporter in Manitoba, Temur Durrani, joins the podcast to talk about the trial, the women at the centre of the case and the continued push for answers and justice for the victims.
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