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
- 1077
- Years Active
- 2020 - 2025
Misinformed by disinformation and a lack of media literacy
Disinformation and misinformation can make us emotional and angry and can even lead to violence. So how do we learn to recognize that and better assess the information we are flooded with? On today’s…
On Trump and truth: Daniel Dale in conversation with Edward Keenan
In the wake of the insurrection at the Capitol building, Donald Trump’s second impeachment and Joe Biden’s upcoming inauguration, eyes are on the U.S. capital.
As the end of Trump’s term comes a clos…
Lockdown confusion, compromises and contradictions
With warnings of “fall off [our] chair” coronavirus modelling data, Ontario Premier Doug Ford enacted what he calls a tougher lockdown, but critics are calling its guidelines confusing and contradict…
How sportsmanship brought two nations and the lacrosse world closer
The Iroquois Nationals Lacrosse team are ranked as one of the top teams in the world, but were passed over for the upcoming World Games likely in part due to their fight for sovereignty. This slight …
Privacy vs. potential: The big questions around smart cities
Toronto’s Sidewalk Labs might have started with a splash and ended with a splatter, but “smart tech” to run cities is still part of a future we cannot avoid. On today’s episode John Lorinc, Spacing s…
What Ontario can do to save seniors and LTCs
Ontario’s long-term care homes are in crisis once again, and doctors and medical experts are criticizing the province for delays in the vaccination rollout, a lack of transparency and its failures to…
An attempted coup against American democracy
On the day the U.S. Congress voted to certify the ballots confirming Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States, a pro-Trump mob stormed into the U.S. Capitol threatening to upend the resul…
Are stronger, longer lockdowns needed to save lives and the economy?
If we buckle down for one last, longer lockdown, could we avoid a third wave of COVID-19, save lives and see improved economic outcomes? A new report says just that. Saba Eitizaz speaks with Robert G…
Why Toronto will reveal which workplaces have COVID outbreaks
After pressure from advocates and health officials, Toronto will be naming employers with COVID-19 outbreaks that pose a significant risk to public health. It’s a change in policy many have long been…
New year, new career? A recruiter’s tips for a pandemic job hunt
COVID-19, among other things, has been a global pandemic of unemployment. Millions have been laid off, asked to take indefinite leave or outright fired. On “This Matters” today, host Saba Eitizaz tal…
The not-too-distant future of travel (Rebroadcast)
This is a rebroadcast from July 6, 2020.
How do we travel now? What are the ways that are safest? Travel bubbles, a road-trip renaissance, camping, RVing, longer and more meaningful trips, visiting f…
Murder hornet hunters: How one beekeeping couple tracked and terminated a nest in BC (Rebroadcast)
This is a rebroadcast from May 8, 2020.
Murder hornets. Murder. Hornets. The Asian giant hornet has quite the moniker, given for its sting and appetite for the offspring of honey bees, and the threat…
Desmond Cole and the case for defunding police (Rebroadcast)
This is a rebroadcast from June 9, 2020.
Desmond Cole, activist, journalist and author, offers his opinion in a conversation with Adrian Cheung, on the movement to defund policing and why he thinks t…
That’s all folks, the singularity is near. Elon Musk’s cyber pigs and brain computer tech (Rebroadcast)
This is a rebroadcast from September 3, 2020.
Brain computer technology is at a point where the potential medical implications are so exciting many players are pursuing different approaches to the fi…
What we can learn from the disabled community during COVID-19 (Rebroadcast)
This is a rebroadcast from July 13, 2020. Full transcription available here (thanks to Access Now for transcribing).
A lot of us haven’t thought about the fact that the way we’re experiencing the wor…
Let it snow, TO! Remake the city and embrace winter (Rebroadcast)
This episode is a rebroadcast from December 1.
While Toronto transforms in the summer, it seems to go into hiding in the winter. But now with COVID considered, it may be wise to embrace the season a…
COVID can take out restaurants but not great food
Food writer and editor Suresh Doss specializes in highlighting the culinary gems in Toronto’s strip malls and plazas. He joins the Star’s food reporter Karon Liu on “This Matters” to talk about the p…
Looking out for good news
On this feel good episode of “This Matters,” host Saba Eitizaz talks to Toronto Star digital producer Andy Macdonald, who started our very own good news section, about some news stories that got us t…
The case for hitting the 'reset' button on the internet and social media
Is it time to reset our relationship with digital technology and social media? Tech expert and director of Citizen Lab, Ron Deibert explores that question in “Reset: Reclaiming the Internet for Civil…
Closing time: 2020's real estate and housing year-end wrap up
From houses, condos and commercial, to apartment rentals and affordable housing, 2020 was a wild ride for real estate when many markets in the GTA managed to defy the pandemic’s ability to crush anyt…