The Decibel
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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.
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The reasons Canadians aren’t taking their paid vacation
A lot of Canadians struggle to take their allotted, paid vacation days, according to new research, meaning those days go unused. It’s not just interna...
Pitch and Power: Italian agony, psychology of the penalty kick
In the heat of USA ’94, Roberto Baggio carried the nation of Italy on his shoulders— and then saw it all slip away from twelve yards. This episode exp...
To ban or not to ban: Canadian teens weigh in on social media
Decisions in two landmark trials in the U.S. found social media companies responsible for harms to youth on their platforms, earlier this year. They f...
Why Canada’s banks are doing so much better than the economy
Canada’s Big Six banks are doing very well financially – their stocks are up an average of 62 per cent over the past year. In previous years, five or...
The new pipeline push in Canada
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has been front and centre of two pipeline proposal announcements in the past week. First, she and Prime Minister Mark C...
Why copper theft is on the rise and costing millions
The value of copper has sky-rocketed in the last number of years. The pink orange metal has been in high demand for data centres, telecommunications s...
The Canadian spy agency you may not have heard of
A recent report from the Communications Security Establishment, Canada’s electronic eavesdropping agency, revealed it conducted cyberattacks to disrup...
How alcohol sales explain Canada’s internal trade problem
Interprovincial trade within Canada is complicated. Existing barriers mean that many goods, like alcohol, often can’t be sold across provincial and te...
After 250 years of living next to the U.S., what’s next?
Canada and the U.S. share more than July birthdays. Between them is the world’s longest international land border, more than $3 billion in trade daily...
A new era of trade uncertainty for Canada, the U.S., and Mexico
With July 1 approaching – the formal review date for the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement – it has become clear that there will be no 16-year ext...
Why Canada struggles to stop the illegal wildlife trade
Billions of dollars of illegal wildlife parts get trafficked around the world each year. Think elephant tusks, rhino horns, polar bear pelts and even...
Dating sucks right now, here’s why
Dating can be rough, but it seems to be especially bad right now. According to Statistics Canada, in the 1980s, 68 per cent of Canadians aged 25 to 29...
The ‘valley of death’ for Canadian businesses
Canadian businesses don’t have an innovation problem – they have a growth funding problem. Small- and medium-sized businesses often find themselves in...
Canada’s push for nuclear power
The federal government wants Canada to get back into nuclear energy, pushing to increase nuclear power use and to build and export more Canadian-made...
Why more LGBTQ+ people are trying to flee the U.S.
On June 20, Rainbow Railroad released a report on the state of global LGBTQ+ persecution. As an advocacy group, Rainbow Railroad helps at-risk LGBTQ+...
How short-term rentals are fuelling human trafficking in Canada
A court case in Winnipeg has offered a rare glimpse into the mechanics of how human trafficking can work. And it showed that short-rental rentals, lik...
Patrick Radden Keefe, in conversation at The Globe
Patrick Radden Keefe, investigative journalist and staff writer at The New Yorker, is best known for his narrative non-fiction true crime stories and...
U.S. and Iran sign an initial peace deal – now the challenge begins
The U.S. and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding this week to end the war, and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The 14-paragraph agreement lays out...
Saskatchewan could hold the key to Canada’s foreign trade goals
Could Saskatchewan be the key to unlocking Canada’s trade potential? While Ottawa works to double non-U.S. exports over the next decade and rebuild im...
The fight to make streaming platforms fund Canadian content
Canada’s Online Streaming Act is a thorn in the side of the U.S. administration. The law, passed in 2023, brings streaming platforms like Netflix, Par...
Ready to launch: Canada enters the space age
Despite Canada’s contributions to space technology and science, it lags behind other G7 nations in rocket launching capabilities. But that’s now chang...
Seafood supply changing East Coast menus this summer
Summer is peak tourist season for the Atlantic provinces, and many restaurants rely on revenue made during the season to get them through the rest of...
Introducing Pitch and Power: How Soccer Shapes Everything
Introducing Pitch and Power: How Soccer Shapes Everything, The Globe and Mail’s new soccer podcast for World Cup 2026. Every Thursday, throughout the...
Pierre Poilievre: An interview, in full
Following The Decibel’s analysis of a one-on-one interview with Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, listeners wrote in and asked for an uncut interv...
Canada’s first steps towards a social media ban
The government’s new Safe Social Media Act, introduced on Wednesday, will require social media companies to block users below the age of 16 from havin...
The risks and rewards of the IPO hype in Canada
There’s a surge of excitement around a few big companies going public this year – like Apotex and SpaceX both going on stock exchanges this week. Thes...
World Cup 2026: Breakout stars, dark horses and Canada’s chances
The World Cup starts on Thursday, beginning what will be the largest iteration of a hugely popular global event. This time, there are 104 matches with...
Is smoking making a comeback?
Smoking cigarettes is cool again. Apparently. Social media and accounts online are raving about the habit, turning it into a trend with images from ce...
Carney’s plan for AI in Canada, explained
The federal government released its plan for AI, and it includes a lot of new money ($2.3 billion, to be precise) towards training, adoption and suppo...
Patrolling the Arctic with the Canadian military
As Canada builds out its military, there has been an increasing focus on arctic security. But military strategies that work in the southern part of th...
The recession question
Canada’s economy has stalled. According to Statistics Canada, Canada’s real GDP contracted 0.1 per cent on an annualized basis in the first quarter of...
How alcohol sales explain Canada’s internal trade problem
Interprovincial trade within Canada is complicated. Existing barriers mean that many goods, like alcohol, often can’t be sold across provincial and te...
Unpaid and overworked: labour violations in Canadian trucking
The Canadian trucking industry touches almost every aspect of commercial life — most Canadian products on store shelves made at least some part of th...
A crack in Carney’s Liberal caucus over climate
Liberal MP Steven Guilbeault has announced his resignation from Mark Carney’s government, after stepping down from cabinet last fall.. During his time...
Uncovering FIFA’s costly World Cup demands on Canadian cities
Vancouver and Toronto are getting ready to host FIFA World Cup matches in June and July, and the demands FIFA makes tend to be costly. Requirements fr...
What’s behind the surge in military enlistment in Canada
Canada has been pushing to increase its defence efforts. Earlier this year, Canada reached their NATO defence spending target of two per cent of GDP....
The search for graves at Tk’emlups, five years on
Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation near Kamloops, B.C. was the site of a national reckoning over the legacy of residential schools. On May 27, 2021,...
A reality check on Alberta separatism
Political tensions are rising in Alberta. Last week, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced the province will hold a referendum on whether to hold a...
Deaths raise concerns over selling plasma in Canada
Getting paid for plasma – the yellow-gold liquid part of blood – in Canada is still pretty new. It’s full of protein and antibodies and can be used to...
An interview with Pierre Poilievre
Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, sat down with The Globe’s editorial board for an interview last week. They asked him...