- Introducing: Machines Like Us
Tuesday, May 21st 2024
In the last few years, artificial intelligence has gone from a novelty to perhaps the most influential technology we’ve ever seen. The people building AI are convinced that it will eradicate disease, turbocharge productivity, and solve climate change. It feels like we’re on the cusp of a profound societal transformation. Fifteen years ago, there was a similar wave of optimism around social media: it was going to connect the world, catalyze social movements and spur innovation. It may have done some of these things. But it also made us lonelier, angrier, and occasionally detached from reality.
Few people understand this trajectory better than Maria Ressa. Ressa is a Filipino journalist, and the CEO of a news organization called Rappler. Like many people, she was once a fervent believer in the power of social media. Then she saw how it could be abused. In 2016, she reported on how Rodrigo Duterte, then president of the Philippines, had weaponized Facebook in the election he’d just won. After publishing those stories, Ressa became a target herself, and her inbox was flooded with death threats. In 2021, she won the Nobel Peace Prize.
As novel as AI is, it has undoubtedly been shaped by the technologies, the business models, and the CEOs that came before it. And Ressa thinks we’re about to repeat the mistakes we made with social media all over again.
- Alice Munro, remembered
Saturday, May 18th 2024
The celebrated Canadian author Alice Munro died on May 13. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2013 as a “master of the contemporary short story,” and the Man Booker International Prize in 2009.
On today’s show, members of The Globe newsroom share their reflections on Alice Munro’s life and work, and columnist Marsha Lederman joins to talk about Munro’s impact and legacy.
Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at [email protected]
- How Ottawa is preparing for a possible second Trump term
Friday, May 17th 2024
As the U.S. election looms, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s team is getting ready for both possible outcomes: a Biden re-election and a second Trump term. They are assembling a team of officials to remind American politicians about the importance of free trade across our borders.
Adrian Morrow is The Globe’s U.S. correspondent based in Washington, D.C., and he explains who is on this so-called Team Canada, and how their strategy works.
Questions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at [email protected]
- Hydrogen trains might be the future of Canadian rail
Thursday, May 16th 2024
Hydrogen fuel is sometimes called the fuel of the future, and it’s being used in a number of ways around the world. The rail giant CPKC is trialling a new hydrogen train in Alberta, that it hopes can replace diesel-fuelled freight locomotives in delivering goods across the continent.
The Globe’s Alberta and energy reporter, Kelly Cyderman, joins us to discuss hydrogen trains, how they work, and how this development might lead toward a greener Canada.
Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at [email protected]
- How nurse practitioners could help Canada’s primary care crisis
Wednesday, May 15th 2024
Canada is in the midst of a primary-care crisis. 6.5 million Canadians don’t have reliable access to a family doctor, and some jurisdictions are turning to nurse practitioners to fill the gap. Alberta recently announced a program that would make it possible for nurse practitioners to receive public funding to establish a practice, although it comes with its conditions and concerns from other organizations.
The Globe’s national health reporter, Kelly Grant, walks us through the role nurse practitioners have in providing primary care, how they’re funded, and Alberta’s new plan to address the shortage of primary-care providers.
Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at [email protected]
