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.
- Update frequency
- every 3 days
- Average duration
- 22 minutes
- Episodes
- 1076
- Years Active
- 2020 - 2025
What Mark Carney’s new cabinet reveals about his leadership
Guest: Star National Columnist Susan Delacourt
Prime Minister Mark Carney has unveiled his first cabinet. On Tuesday, ministers were sworn in at Rideau Hall to a trimmed down and reorganized cabinet…
Inside Mark Carney's high stakes visit to Washington
Guest: Ottawa Bureau Chief Tonda MacCharles
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s visit to Washington this week was his first face-to-face meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump since being elected to offi…
How the end of a pilot program for migrant food workers might affect your meals
Guests: Star reporters Nicholas Keung and Ghada Alsharif
During the pandemic, they were called essential. Migrant workers who packed our meat, picked our produce, and kept grocery shelves stocked. In…
The growing price of keeping Toronto festivals safe
Guest: Star city hall reporter Mahdis Habibinia
After the recent devastating vehicle attack at Vancouver’s Lapu Lapu Day festival, Toronto organizers are raising fresh concerns about soaring security…
New report reveals how Ontario schools restrain and isolate students with disabilities
Guest: Shawn Pegg, Director at Community Living Ontario
A new report by Community Living Ontario exposes a disturbing reality faced by children with disabilities in Ontario schools. Based on intervi…
What we learned in the final days of the 2025 election campaign
Guest: Ottawa bureau chief Tonda MacCharles
We’re heading into the final stretch of a charged federal election campaign that’s shaped not just by a critical point in affordability, housing and heal…
How not to get digitally duped this election
Guest: Toronto Star reporter Alex Boyd
As Canada heads toward a federal election, the online information landscape is getting messier, more manipulated, and harder to recognize in real time. From r…
Two years later Canada's biggest gold heist is still unsolved
Guest: Toronto Star crime reporter Peter Edwards
It’s like a Netflix show in real life. A truck driving off with $24 million in gold and cash, stolen from a hangar outside Pearson International Airp…
A screening room of our own
Guests: Jack Blum and Sharon Corder, co-founders of National Canadian Film Day
Over the past few months, the president of the United States has done more to solidify a sense of Canadian identity than…
We can, sort of, bring back the woolly mammoth. But should we?
Guest: Kate Allen, Toronto Star climate change reporter
When the movie Jurassic Park was made in 1993, the technology at the heart of its plot — bringing ancient giant animals back from extinction —…
Is Canada's immigration dream broken?
Guest: Toronto Star senior immigration reporter Nicholas Keung
For years, Canada’s immigration system was held up as a glowing model on the global stage. But what was once seen as a solution— to labo…
‘Torturing us as payback’: How Ontario jail guards exacted a violent, hours-long revenge against inmates
Guest: Brendan Kennedy, investigative reporter at The Star
On Dec. 20, 2023 a guard was assaulted by an inmate at Maplehurst Correctional Complex in Milton, Ontario. The inmate was then immediately r…
A Liberal candidate's controversial comments, an upcoming election and a crisis for Carney
Guest: Toronto Star reporter Raisa Patel
Liberal candidate Paul Chiang's remarks suggesting a political opponent could be handed over to Chinese authorities for a bounty has fuelled outrage, an RCMP…
Why Canada must brace for U.S. interference in the 2025 election
Guest: Toronto Star reporter Allan Woods
Donald Trump and Prime Minister Mark Carney just had their first call since Carney took office, and by all accounts, it was productive. But also, the fact th…
Grandpa, what did you do in the trade war?
Guest: Ken Greenberg, urban designer and co-founder of Elbows Up Toronto
“This is not a trade war,” Charlie Angus said to a packed crowd at a church this week, “it’s an attack on who we are as people…
A life spent undercover with terrorists trying to incite a race war
Guest: Michelle Shephard, former Toronto Star reporter and co-author of “Code Name: Pale Horse: How I Went Undercover to Expose America’s Nazis”
Scott Payne spent his career deep undercover in the dr…
Why a retired college president’s $1M payout is causing controversy
Guest: Toronto Star journalist Janet Hurley
Ontario’s colleges and universities are facing a financial crisis. Millions in deficits, staff layoffs, and program cuts have become the norm. In the mids…
In conversation with Amira Elghawaby on the rise of Islamophobia in Canada and fighting hate
Guest: Amira Elghawaby,Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia
Islamophobia and hate is on the rise in Canada. Political rhetoric is growing more divisive. Statistics show a surge in repor…
They have a league of their own, should they play in it?
Guest: Toronto Star columnist Dave Feschuck
Between the professional hockey leagues, a new professional soccer league and the new franchise in the professional basketball league, women’s sports is f…
“These guys just looked at the crowd and opened fire”
Guest: Toronto Star reporter Abby O'Brien
On Friday, March 7 — opening night at the Piper Arms pub in the historic Old Scott House building in Scarborough — three assailants with guns opened fire on …