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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.

RSV: as hospitals struggle, a mother shares her story

21 mins; December 05, 2022

Will China’s protests over zero-COVID spark lasting change?

21 mins; December 02, 2022

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s power move with sovereignty act

21 mins; December 01, 2022

Migration cessation: a process that could cost refugees their Canadian future

20 mins; November 30, 2022

How Toronto police made an arrest in two cold cases

21 mins; November 29, 2022

The PM, the protestors and the public inquiry

21 mins; November 28, 2022

Greenbelt development: Looking into who owns what

23 mins; November 25, 2022

What you need to know about Ontario’s new housing legislation

19 mins; November 24, 2022

Show me the money! Toronto’s $2.3 billion dollar budget shortfall

20 mins; November 23, 2022

Do mayors need even stronger powers?

21 mins; November 22, 2022

Advocates sound the alarm over youth violence in the GTA

20 mins; November 21, 2022

To mask or not to mask, that is (still) the question

16 mins; November 18, 2022

Is the GOP still on Trump’s wavelength?

19 mins; November 17, 2022

Kicking off the World Cup

23 mins; November 16, 2022

The cold truth about the fastest warming place on Earth

23 mins; November 15, 2022

Michael’s choice: The ethics of medical assistance in dying

26 mins; November 14, 2022

Developing the Greenbelt: Ontario’s new plan to build on protected lands

20 mins; November 11, 2022

Climate justice centre stage at COP27

23 mins; November 10, 2022

The kids aren’t alright: flu, RSV, COVID and medicine shortages

20 mins; November 09, 2022

Do you feel like somebody’s watching you...at work?

18 mins; November 08, 2022

How do you want to spend the final years of your life?

26 mins; November 07, 2022

How did the manufacturing sector suffer so many COVID fatalities?

20 mins; November 04, 2022

The good books: Star recommends your holiday reads

16 mins; November 03, 2022

CUPE vs. the province: Schools, the notwithstanding clause and workers' rights

18 mins; November 02, 2022

The Drug User Liberation Front: Selling drugs to try to save lives

20 mins; November 01, 2022

Toronto’s homeless shelter system is stretched to the brink

21 mins; October 31, 2022

Ontario’s new housing plan: construction targets, density and development

21 mins; October 28, 2022

‘Don’t take my emotion as weakness’: Patricia Jaggernauth in conversation

25 mins; October 27, 2022

Grocery store price freezes backfire

26 mins; October 26, 2022

City hall’s new faces, tight races and Toronto’s oncoming challenges

21 mins; October 25, 2022

Inquiry into invocation of the Emergencies Act: what we know so far

21 mins; October 24, 2022

With Jacob Hoggard sentenced for sexual assault, what are the larger implications?

17 mins; October 21, 2022

Canada’s growing corporate tax gap

21 mins; October 20, 2022

The inner workings of hostage diplomacy and prisoner swaps

23 mins; October 19, 2022

Toronto, the not so good. Can’t we do better?

19 mins; October 18, 2022

Are we ready to head back to the office? If so, how?

21 mins; October 17, 2022

Is a recession inevitable? An economist’s view

19 mins; October 14, 2022

Analyzing the current attacks in Ukraine and what happens next

22 mins; October 13, 2022

What you need to know about Bill C-11 and online streaming in Canada

22 mins; October 12, 2022

Elon Musk finally agreed to buy Twitter. What comes next?

22 mins; October 11, 2022

The Hockey Canada scandal and the culture of sport

23 mins; October 07, 2022

BONUS: Mike Wilner talks Blue Jays with Alek Manoah, John Schneider and Ross Stripling

79 hours 5 mins; October 07, 2022

View from Taiwan: A conversation on national security

16 mins; October 06, 2022

Why sex workers are taking the government to court to reform the law

17 mins; October 05, 2022

Scandal and sexual abuse allegations at a Canadian megachurch

16 mins; October 04, 2022

‘Women, life, freedom’: Inside Iran’s new revolution

23 mins; October 03, 2022

Is the pandemic over? It depends on who you ask

22 mins; September 30, 2022

What truth and reconciliation means: a candid conversation

22 mins; September 29, 2022

They threatened Pierre Poilievre’s wife. What is Diagolon?

18 mins; September 28, 2022

The criminalization of HIV non-disclosure

25 mins; September 27, 2022

Who should pay for Pakistan’s cataclysmic flood?

24 mins; September 26, 2022

BONUS: 'It's Political with Althia Raj' looks at Pierre Poilievre’s Big Tent

34 mins; September 24, 2022

A complicated country: Edward Keenan on reporting from the U.S.

20 mins; September 23, 2022

Inflation, affordability, recession? What you need to know

19 mins; September 22, 2022

Stranded with a broken wheelchair, Maayan Ziv on airline accessibility

24 mins; September 21, 2022

How the Great Resignation became the Great Retirement in Canada

22 mins; September 20, 2022

Meet one of the youth climate activists suing the province

20 mins; September 19, 2022

In a London pub Lisa LaFlamme and Rosie DiManno discuss the Queen

25 mins; September 17, 2022

Indigenous women reflect on the Queen and the monarchy

23 mins; September 15, 2022

Up in smoke? The reckoning coming for cannabis stores

21 mins; September 14, 2022

Reality TV check: An investigation of ‘4 Days to Save the World’

21 mins; September 13, 2022

Pierre Poilievre: What’s next for the new Conservative leader

21 mins; September 12, 2022

Saskatchewan aftermath: How the community is trying to heal

20 mins; September 09, 2022

Vision Zero: Are the city’s safer street policies working?

16 mins; September 08, 2022

Gaming the system: How casino-style gaming machines got into bingo halls

17 mins; September 07, 2022

The overrepresentation of Black people when Peel police use force

22 mins; September 06, 2022

The bivalent vaccine and the COVID way forward

19 mins; September 02, 2022

How Bill 7 could change health care in the province

20 mins; September 01, 2022

Allegations of abuse within Canada’s temporary foreign worker program

20 mins; August 31, 2022

What you need to know about Toronto’s upcoming municipal election

23 mins; August 30, 2022

Death threats for doing your job: Journalists discuss being on the receiving end

26 mins; August 29, 2022

Grey Matters: LaFlamme exit ignites conversation on workplace sexism and ageism

21 mins; August 26, 2022

What you need to know about sustainable aviation fuels

18 mins; August 25, 2022

The Mayor of Peterborough’s f-bombs and the challenge of working in city politics

20 mins; August 24, 2022

How did misinformation feed the myth that COVID vaccines killed hundreds of Canadians?

22 mins; August 23, 2022

Ontario to disabled teen: lose funding or independence

22 mins; August 22, 2022

Quebec’s Bill 21 and its latest controversy

18 mins; August 19, 2022

Ontario’s not-so-strong mayor plan

19 mins; August 18, 2022

Why the cost and use of temp agency nurses is skyrocketing

25 mins; August 17, 2022

Back to school and what to expect

17 mins; August 16, 2022

Renovictions and tenants rights: How the city is trying to help renters

19 mins; August 15, 2022

905 politicians behaving badly

19 mins; August 12, 2022

Internationally trained medical staff could help Ontario hospitals but can’t

21 mins; August 11, 2022

Politics of public space: Cyclists and High Park

16 mins; August 10, 2022

Sexism in skilled trades: Meet a woman bringing change

19 mins; August 09, 2022

The metaverse is coming. What does that mean?

20 mins; August 08, 2022

Nancy Pelosi has left Taiwan, but the crisis is just beginning

21 mins; August 05, 2022

How the B.C. coast is a cruise ship dumping ground

18 mins; August 04, 2022

If routine Pap tests are becoming a thing of the past, why is Ontario lagging behind?

18 mins; August 03, 2022

What the Nova Scotia shooting reveals about survivors of domestic violence

18 mins; August 02, 2022

Housing correction: How far will the market fall?

17 mins; July 29, 2022

Thousands of Afghans are waiting for Canada’s help. Time is running out

17 mins; July 28, 2022

What will it take for the Pope’s apology to mean something?

17 mins; July 27, 2022

Monkeypox is a global health emergency. We talk to someone who went through it

23 mins; July 26, 2022

Planes, blame and airport shame: Pearson’s problems investigated

19 mins; July 25, 2022

Summer of strikes: Looking at the labour movement now

23 mins; July 22, 2022

Scorching weather signals crisis point: is Canada prepared?

21 mins; July 21, 2022

What the new ‘strong-mayor’ plan means for municipal politics

20 mins; July 20, 2022

Panic buttons and peril: the new reality for Canadian politicians

17 mins; July 19, 2022

How Canada's top three supermarket chains are making money from inflation

20 mins; July 18, 2022

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