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PODCAST

This Matters

The world is changing every day. Now, more than ever, these questions matter. What"s happening? And why should you care? This Matters, a daily news podcast from the Toronto Star, aims to answer those questions, on important stories and ideas, every day, Monday to Friday. Hosts Saba Eitizaz and Ed Keenan talk to their fellow journalists, experts and newsmakers about the social, cultural, political and economic stories that shape your life.

news documentary

All Episodes

19:11

The doctor is in, but over a million Ontarians are...

This Matters ·

2025/11/25

Guest: Megan Ogilvie, Toronto Star health reporter A new study has found that over a million Ontarians — that's more than one in ten people with a family doctor — live far outside their physician's region, often more than 30 kilometres away. Some are driving hours just to get a check-up. Others may be skipping care altogether because of the logistics. And it's leading to worsening health outcomes; more ER visits, missed diagnoses, and care that falls through the cracks. It's a hidden layer of

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29:36

If Canada went to war, could our hospitals cope? A...

This Matters ·

2025/11/21

Guest: Bruce Arthur, Toronto Star columnist In a high-stakes war games exercise held in Toronto, top military officials, health-care leaders, and government representatives gathered behind closed doors to game out a scenario few Canadians can ever imagine; war arriving on our doorstep. The exercise, called Canada Paratus, was a joint initiative led by the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, in collaboration with the Canadian Armed Forces, the Canadian Institute for

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24:14

Behind the scenes of a narrow budget win for Mark...

This Matters ·

2025/11/18

Guest: Tonda MacCharles, Ottawa bureau chief Canada avoided a snap election Monday night as the Liberal government pushed its federal budget through by a two-vote margin, 170 to 168. Support from Green Party Leader Elizabeth May and two NDP abstentions proved decisive after intense pressure and last-minute talks. The close call raises new questions about the stability of the Liberal minority and what might be ahead in the coming months as the government brings forward the budget implementatin bill

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33:00

Dispatches from Texas: Trump's America up close

This Matters ·

2025/11/14

Guest: Richard Warnica, Senior Opinion Writer In this episode, we explore Richard's recent visit to Texas as a vivid microcosm of Trump's current America. He reports on cratering trust in vaccines, increasingly aggressive ICE arrests that are cleaving families apart, and the dismantling of public media meant to help citizens understand their world. His conversations with advocates, lawyers, and local leaders highlight a landscape shaped by disease, cruelty, and deliberate ignorance — all unfolding

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30:31

Can One Great Idea fix Toronto?

This Matters ·

2025/11/11

Guest: Ed Keenan, Toronto Star city columnist Toronto has always been a contradiction; a city people fall in love with and get fed up with, often at the same time. This year, the Toronto Star explored those many shades in our Toronto the Better series, digging into the cracks, complexities, and questions around how to actually make the city better. Now we want you to join the conversation. We're launching One Great Idea — a project asking for your bold, beautiful, or just plain weird ideas to help

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29:24

Listen: Exploring the human behind the hero, Canadian...

This Matters ·

2025/11/07

Guests: Sean Menard, Toronto-based filmmaker and director of 'Run Terry Run' and Kirsten Fox, a director at the Terry Fox Foundation and Terry Fox's niece. Terry Fox is a Canadian institution. His crown of thick brown spirals, heathergrey 2.5 inch shorts, 'Marathon of Hope' shirt and prosthetic walking leg he fashioned to support athletic capacity are legendary markers of a truly extraordinary human being. But there's so much more to Fox than just these instantly recognizable symbols. Terry Fox's

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26:32

Baseball is a game of failure. The Blue Jays and a...

This Matters ·

2025/11/04

Guest: Bruce Arthur, Columnist The Jays didn't win the world series on Saturday, after an extremely close loss to the LA Dodgers in the 11th inning - and the city is still reeling from a heartbreaking final result. Nearly 11 million Canadians tuned in on Saturday to watch the Jays try and take home the trophy for the first time in thirty-two years. Bruce Arthur, sports columnist at the Star, is here today to talk about how luck (destiny?) had a guiding hand in the series, why so many people across

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23:02

What's the best neighbourhood for Halloween in...

This Matters ·

2025/10/31

GUEST: Katie Daubs, Toronto Star reporter With Halloween landing on the same night as Game 6 of the World Series — and the Jays in it — Toronto is bracing for one of the busiest Fridays of the year. Whether you're heading out with the kids or planning to squeeze in some trick-or-treating before first pitch, you might be wondering: where are the best neighbourhoods to score big on candy? This year, the Toronto Star crunched the numbers. Reporter Katie Daubs and the digital team ranked all 158 city

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24:04

How Ontario employers are getting away with $200...

This Matters ·

2025/10/28

Guest: Ghada Alsharif, Toronto Star immigration & work reporter A new report has revealed that workers in Ontario are being shortchanged by nearly $200 million in unpaid wages. It's called wage theft and, in many cases, workers aren't getting paid even after the province officially orders their employers to do so. Less than a quarter of the money sent to Ontario's Ministry of Finance for collection has actually been recovered, leaving tens of thousands of workers still out of pocket. In this

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34:56

The Toronto Blue Jays at the World Series, an episode...

This Matters ·

2025/10/24

Guest: Mike Wilner, baseball columnist & host of Deep Left Field baseball podcast For the first time in 32 years, the Blue Jays have a shot at winning the World Series, with Game 1 against the LA Dodgers happening tonight. It's been a long road to get here: waiting for conditions to be just right; to have the right players in place; for hard work and alchemy to strike that optimal balance. Whether you’ve been paying attention to this team for years or just since the start of this crucial round of

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22:11

Listen: Bill C-3 and who qualifies as Canadian

This Matters ·

2025/10/21

Guest: Nicholas Keung, Toronto Star immigration reporter A federal bill that could restore citizenship to people born abroad is drawing renewed political debate over who qualifies as Canadian and what rules should apply. Bill C-3 was introduced after a court found Canada’s two-generation limit on citizenship by descent to be unconstitutional. The proposed legislation would allow Canadians born outside the country to pass citizenship to their children, even if those children are also born abroad,

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20:49

How E-bikes and scooters took over Toronto's streets

This Matters ·

2025/10/17

Guest: Ben Cohen, Toronto Star City Hall reporter Electric scooters weaving through sidewalks, e-bikes flying through intersections, and mopeds cutting into bike lanes have become a common sight in Toronto. The city is being rapidly reshaped by the rise of micromobility; fast, electric vehicles that don’t require a driver’s licence or plates and remain only lightly regulated. The result has been more collisions, rising emergency room visits and growing confusion over who belongs where. While city

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25:19

10 years ago, the Jays lost the first two games at...

This Matters ·

2025/10/14

Guest: Mike Wilner, baseball columnist & host of Deep Left Field baseball podcast The Blue Jays are currently battling the Seattle Mariners in the American League Championship Series (or ALCS for short), the one that precedes the World Series. Getting this far in the season has Toronto whipped into a lather at the possibility that their team may be within grasp of the big prize. A prize that likely feels a little further away after last night's game: the Jays lost, for the second time in this

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20:21

The Worst Commute

This Matters ·

2025/10/10

Guest: Andy Takagi, Toronto Star transportation reporter Many of us know this pain too well: waiting on a very late bus or crawling between subway stations with no idea when we’ll get to where we're trying to go. Long commutes can famously take a real toll on your quality of life and Andy Takagi is walking a mile - or, rather, commuting several miles - in the shoes of those who claim to have the worst commutes in the city. Andy shares insights from his written series on the subject, The Worst

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20:24

Inside Canada's biggest dark web drug bust

This Matters ·

2025/10/07

Guest: Omar Mosleh, Toronto Star reporter The RCMP says it has dismantled one of the largest dark web drug networks in Canadian history, a GTA-based group called RoadRunna that was allegedly shipping about 400 packages of drugs a week across Canada, including through Canada Post. Seven people from Toronto, Brampton and Mississauga are facing charges after officers seized 75 kilograms of cocaine, MDMA, heroin, meth, ketamine and more than 10,000 pills. But the RoadRunna bust is part of a larger

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20:09

We look at the Jays ALDS matchup against the New York...

This Matters ·

2025/10/03

In honour of the Blue Jays playoff run starting tomorrow, we’re sharing an episode from our sister podcast Deep Left Field. Guest: RUSH frontman and Blue Jays fanatic Geddy Lee The Blue Jays are on the eve of their American League division series against the New York Yankees, which begins Saturday afternoon. We talk to the Jays' most famous fan, the lead singer, bassist and keyboardist from the legendary Canadian rock band Rush, who also happens to be a massive baseball geek. Geddy Lee shares his

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27:33

Truth and Reconciliation and the reality of...

This Matters ·

2025/09/30

Guest: Steve Teekens, Executive Director, Na-Me-Res, a Toronto-based Indigenous-run non-profit that provides temporary, transitional and permanent housing Indigenous people make up less than one per cent of Toronto’s population, but about 15 percent of the city’s homeless. Nationally, they are around 5 percent of the population yet account for more than a third of those without homes. These numbers reflect the ongoing legacy of residential schools, the Sixties Scoop, and systems that continue to

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31:10

Has Big Tech rewired Gen Z?

This Matters ·

2025/09/26

Guest: Ava Smithing, advocacy director at the Young People's Alliance Young people today have been raised with the most powerful tools in human history at their fingertips. Entire childhoods have played out online, with algorithms acting as babysitter, therapist, and mirror through which they see themselves. And now, we’re seeing what happens when the first generation raised on smart phones comes of age; shaped by platforms designed to manipulate attention and monetize minds. Ava Smithing was just

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23:42

Why Toronto's garbage problem stinks for everyone

This Matters ·

2025/09/23

Guests: Star journalists Ben Spurr and Mahdis Habibinia The Star’s City Hall bureau has been digging deep into the garbage with its Waste Not, Want Not series, examining how Toronto handles its trash and how the choices we make shape our city. In this episode, City Hall Bureau Chief Ben Spurr explains where most of our garbage actually ends up and what options the city has next, with its main landfill nearing capacity in just over a decade. Then, reporter Mahdis Habibinia shares what she learned

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26:58

Serial vandalism of Toronto speed cameras are about...

This Matters ·

2025/09/19

Lately, speed cameras in this city and neighbouring cities have become a symbol and target of people’s rage. The Parkside Drive speed camera was erected when this spot saw a horrific and fatal crash in 2021, due to speeding. It is now Toronto’s most prolific speed cam and was recently cut down by vandals for the seventh time in eleven months. And earlier this month 16 cameras across the city were taken out in a single night. This week, three more have come down. The City of Vaughan has decided to

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1,101 results

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