- Your new favourite influencer? She’s AI-generated
Friday, July 11th 2025
Influencer profiles often have recognizable hallmarks: their feeds are highly stylized, filled with aspirational content and product placement. One of the reasons that brands work with influencers is because they can speak to their audience from a place of authenticity. So how does that change when the influencer is not a real person?
Samantha Edwards is the Globe’s online culture reporter. She’s on the show to talk about the rise of virtual influencers created using artificial intelligence, and how that could change the way we interact with other users – real and AI-generated – online.
This episode originally aired February 6, 2025.
Questions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at [email protected]
- Why the Calgary Stampede is this summer’s biggest political event
Thursday, July 10th 2025
The 113th Calgary Stampede is in full swing. But the 10-day festival wouldn’t be complete without the biggest names in Canadian politics and business walking the grounds in cowboy cosplay.
Politicians are flipping pancakes, corporate parties are packed, and with Prime Minister Mark Carney pledging to make Canada an energy superpower, oil patch optimism is on full display. But tensions between Alberta’ and Ottawa persist, despite Carney announcing this week that a new Canadian oil pipeline proposal is highly likely.
Emma Graney is the Globe’s energy reporter based in Calgary. She’ll tell us about all the politicking on the grounds, the energy deals getting made, and how separatist sentiment is playing out at this year’s Stampede.
Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at [email protected]
- How to talk to kids about climate change
Wednesday, July 9th 2025
The threat and realities of climate change are real and visceral – punishing heat waves, families displaced, towns destroyed by wildfires, dangerous smoke hanging over communities and flash floods that can be deadly and unpredictable. But how do you talk to kids to prepare them for the reality, without overwhelming or scaring them?
Amberly McAteer is a contributing columnist for The Globe, who often writes about parenting. She joins the show to talk about the challenging conversations we’re having with children and how climate change anxiety is influencing the way parents approach these talks.
Questions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at [email protected]
- The B.C. billionaire fighting to take over Hudson’s Bay stores
Tuesday, July 8th 2025
On June 1, Hudson’s Bay – the iconic department store brand whose operation predates the founding of Canada – sold its last striped blanket. Struggling under $1.1 billion in debt, the company was granted court protection from its creditors in the spring. Since then, it’s cleared the shelves in liquidation sales, sold its brand identity and laid off more than 8300 people.
Now, the courts are selling off what’s left, including the leases to nearly 100 massive store locations left sitting empty. B.C. billionaire Ruby Liu is set on buying 28 of those leases – but nearly every landlord involved is trying to stop her.
The Globe’s retailing reporter, Susan Krashinsky Robertson has been reporting on the collapse of Canada’s oldest retailer. She’ll tell us all about who Ruby Liu is, what she plans to do with all of these stores and why she’s facing such dramatic opposition.
Questions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at [email protected]
- Canada’s emergency room crisis is worse than we thought
Monday, July 7th 2025
Ever since the pandemic, emergency room closures have become more common in Canada, especially in rural communities. This can leave people in dangerous situations that can require them to drive an hour or more to access emergency medical care. When time is of the essence, emergency room closures can be deadly.
Because there’s no centralized data on how common emergency room closures are across Canada, it’s challenging to parse out how bad that problem is. As part of the Globe’s Secret Canada series, health reporter Kelly Grant, investigative reporter Tu Thanh Ha, and data editor Yang Sun analyzed data on emergency room closures across Canada. Kelly and Ha are on the show to talk about how widespread these closures really are, what it means for people living in those communities, and what kinds of solutions are possible.
Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at [email protected]
