It’s back to school time for children across Canada but don’t let all the social media posts of kids with smiles and backpacks fool you into thinking that the kids are alright.
For our season opener of the @Risk podcast, host Jodi Butts speaks with Sara Austin, world class champion for children and the Founder and CEO of Children First Canada, about why Canada is year over year a worse place for kids to grow up and what we can do to change that.
Let’s start with a little celebration: This is the 50th episode of Open to Debate! Thanks to each and every one of you for listening. We look forward to many episodes to come.
For this milestone moment, we are excited to welcome a special guest to help us navigate the question: What is the state of Canada’s courts? Plus, as a bonus, we get into the topic of…thriller novels and the virtues of Stephen King.
On this episode of Open to Debate, David Moscrop talks with the Right Honourable Beverley McLachlin, jurist, former and longest-serving Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, and author of three books, including the upcoming thriller Denial.
Dan Gardner is the New York Times best-selling author of books about psychology and decision-making.
On the final episode of Season 1 of @ Risk, host Jodi Butts speaks with Dan Gardner to discuss whether preparing for the full array of low-probability high-consequence events is as important as preparing for another pandemic?
The free market is notorious for its contradictions and inequities. Competition tends towards monopoly. Owners accrue capital at the top but extract it from labour at the bottom. Large enterprises enter, disrupt, and even decimate communities, often leaving workers holding the bag, worse off than they were before.
It doesn’t have to be this way. There are alternative economic systems to capitalism; there are also alternative market arrangements within capitalism–or something like it. One such model sees workers as the owners and beneficiaries of enterprise. So, we ask: What’s the case for employee-owned businesses?
On this episode of Open to Debate, David Moscrop talks with Jon Shell, managing director and partner of Social Capital Partners.
On this episode of @Risk, journalist, fashion entrepreneur, Canada Walk of Fame and Order of Canada inductee, Jeanne Beker speaks with host, Jodi Butts, about the future of fashion, staying relevant and aging in style.
On this episode of @Risk, host Jodi Butts is joined by best-selling author and Amazon First Novel Award winner, Michelle Good, and Dr. Lisa Richardson, strategic health advisor on Indigenous health at the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine, to discuss the role of education, collaboration and story-telling in achieving truth and reconciliation.
Despite a steady stream of news about the politics of the day, each of us might be forgiven for being unsure what a member of Parliament actually does. Even members themselves, from time to time, seem unsure. Are they lawmakers? Government foot soldiers? Opposition sentries? Committee investigators? Community service-persons? Issue advocates? An admixture of each?
The fact is that the role of an MP often depends on the member, the party, and context of the day. But as elusive as a simple rundown of the gig may be, it’s still worth asking: Can members of Parliament break the mold?
On this episode of Open to Debate, David Moscrop talks with Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, member of Parliament for Beaches-East York and member of the Liberal Party of Canada.
One year after the public release of reports of the Canadian Armed Forces detailing disturbing conditions in long-term care facilities in Ontario and Quebec battling COVID-19 outbreaks, Globe and Mail columnist and best-selling author, André Picard, and Shirlee Sharkey, the formidable CEO of SE Health join host, Jodi Butts, to discuss how to fix our failing elder care and social support systems once and for all.
In 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States recognized same-sex marriage in the country as a fundamental right protected by the Constitution. The ruling was the culmination of decades of legal battles and advocacy labour by the gay rights community and their allies.
The story of same-sex marriage in the United States is long and complicated. But one author has distilled this history into an accessible and engrossing tale of policy, legal, and personal battles. Yet while the book ends in a ruling for justice and equality, the story of 2SLGBTQ+ rights in the United States continues. And so do the battles. So, we ask: What is the future of same-sex marriage in the United States?
On this live episode of Open to Debate, David Moscrop talks with Sasha Issenberg, American journalist and author of four books, including his latest, The Engagement: America’s Quarter-Century Struggle Over Same-Sex Marriage.