Guest: Toronto Star Editor-in-chief Nicole MacIntyre talks about the genesis of the “Toronto the Better” series which looks for ways to improve life in the city in ways big and small

This is the time of year for winter blahs, and it arrives amid what seems to be a years-long Toronto blues, in which Star Editor-in-chief Nicole MacIntyre admits she’s felt in danger of “falling out of love” with the city. But it’s also the time of year for resolutions, and so the Star has launched the “Toronto the Better” series which looks for ways to improve life in the city in ways big and small, from institutional fixes to self-help hacks. MacIntyre talks about the genesis of the idea, including the role her own recreational softball team played in inspiring parts of it, and talks about the things that can make us happy—things we can do ourselves and things the city can do for us—and breaks apart what being happy even means. Host Edward Keenan and MacIntyre discuss how the personal and the institutional combine and conflict to add up to a life worth living in the city. And we hear about the year-long plan to explore those topics in the Star. PLUS: Revisiting the first time Keenan and MacIntryre met in a conversation on the waterfront, a conversation directly relevant to this new initiative.

It’s been a historic week in Ottawa. On Friday, Jan. 10, members of the Star’s Ottawa bureau sat for a discussion about how we got to the point where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau decided he must step down as leader of the federal Liberal party and PM, and exactly where the Liberals must go from here.

Join the Star's Deputy Ottawa Bureau Chief, Alex Ballingall, Ottawa Bureau Reporter, Ryan Tumilty, and moderator Robert Benzie, Queen's Park Bureau Chief.

Guest: Toronto Mayor Oliva ChowHost: Edward Keenan

In this episode of This Matters Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow talks about the housing and school nutrition progress she says are her biggest achievements of 2024, reflects on passing the biggest tax increase in post-amalgamation history and fields a question on what Torontonians should expect from the tax increase coming in the 2025 budget. Also, she shares her own response to the shelter crisis report that led the city manager to call the city’s commitment to housing as a human right “aspirational,” and discusses her plans to open libraries on weekends. Host Edward Keenan also asks her about a raft of issues where her critics and supporters seems to agree she’s ducking fights they expect her to take on—and she explains whether they all have her all wrong.

PLUS: Seasonally appropriate conversation about why some of the best things about Toronto, in 2024 and beyond, involve ice.

This week, This Matters is publishing episodes of the Toronto Star's new podcast Small Things Big Climate.

Of all the climate solutions out there, the heat pump is a no brainer. Not only will it reduce your emissions by 60 per cent or more, it’s cheaper to operate, improves air quality and makes your home more comfortable. Despite these many qualities, many people are getting talked out of getting a heat pump by their HVAC contractor.

Guests: John Gultig, heat pump owner, Michelle Hjort, Energy Advisor at Energy Neighbour and carbontech innovator Phil de Luna.

This week, This Matters is publishing episodes of the Toronto Star's new podcast Small Things Big Climate.

Sometimes it feels like you need a PhD to figure out how to shop for lower carbon groceries. Why isn’t there a simple rule of thumb to follow? Host Marco Chown Oved starts this episode with a simple question: What’s more important for the climate, what you eat or where it comes from? And the answer is: It isn’t even close.

Guests: Jonathan Foley, Executive Director of Project Drawdown, Cory Van Groningen, beef farmer at Hillview Farm, partnered with VG Meats and Rowe Farms, Brent Preston, farmer at The New Farm, President of Farmers for Climate Solutions.

This week, This Matters is publishing episodes of the Toronto Star's new podcast Small Things Big Climate.

We live in a world built for cars. But as we sit in endless traffic, it’s hard not to think they’ve become a victim of their own success. Enter e-bikes. They’re big enough to replace delivery trucks, but small enough to zip past the bumper-to-bumper gridlock. They’re increasingly popular among food delivery people, families with young kids and seniors and soon may be replacing pick up trucks as a rural mode of transportation.

Guests: Jennifer McLaughlin, manager of rider experience at Zygg E-Bikes, Kevin McLaughlin, founder of Zygg, AutoShare and Evergreen and Joanna Kyriazis, director of public affairs at Clean Energy Canada.

This week, This Matters is publishing episodes of the Toronto Star's new podcast Small Things Big Climate.

Plastic is a miracle substance that’s revolutionized healthcare, keeping things sterile, and has replaced glass and metal packaging, reducing carbon emissions from shipping goods. It even keeps produce fresh for longer, reducing waste and the carbon emissions that come from rotting food.

But those positives have for too long overshadowed the negatives. Some plastic is toxic. It’s building up in the ecosystem and in our bodies. Today, plastic can be found in virtually every aspect of our lives. Not only in shopping bags, pop bottles and straws, but in places you’d never expect, like furniture and construction materials, and clothes. Yes clothes. Join us for a shopping trip to learn how your pants are contributing to climate change.

Guests: Kelly Drennan, founder of Fashion Takes Action and Max Liboiron, a professor of geography at Memorial University of Newfoundland and director of the Civic Laboratory for Environmental Action Research (CLEAR).

This week, This Matters is publishing episodes of the Toronto Star's new podcast Small Things Big Climate.

The way we talk about climate change needs to, well, change. Everything is either invisible, like emissions, or incomprehensible, like megatonnes, or inconceivable, like reductions of national emissions 25 years in the future. The cause of climate change is simple: it’s fire. To end global warming, we need to stop burning things. Guests: Tim Stezik of Toronto Fire Services, Lytton fire survivor and author Meghan Fandrich and Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of Fire Weather, John Valliant.

This week, This Matters is publishing episodes of the Toronto Star's new podcast Small Things Big Climate.    The Star is often inundated with emails from readers asking what they can do to fight climate change. While there are lots of things people can do to lower their personal carbon emissions – and it’s important to feel like you’re part of the solution – individual action cannot end global warming on its own. So in this episode we take a look at community groups working on scaling up individual action to the neighbourhood level, and ask a former environmental activist turned Member of Provincial Parliament whether writing politicians actually makes a difference.

• Host: Marco Chown Oved, Climate Change Reporter, Toronto Star
• Guests: David Langille and Julia Morgan, co-chairs of the Pocket Change Project. Peter Tabuns, former head of Greenpeace Canada and the Ontario NDP’s environment critic.

To hear more episodes, go to Small Things Big Climate or find it in your podcast feed. 

Guest: Toronto Star reporter Mark Colley and contributor Aisling Murphy

In this episode, This Matters looks at the Tay-Tay-takeover of Toronto, in which the pop star’s six concerts over 10 days have been estimated to bring in as many as a half a million tourists and pump hundreds of millions of dollars into the economy. Reporter Mark Colley provides some perspective on the phenomenon and all it has entailed, from massive security, transit and traffic planning, to the scene around the city. Aisling Murphy, the Star’s resident Swiftie, was at the show on Thursday night, and provides a look at the vibes inside, and a perspective on what the performance was like. PLUS: How Taylor’s Toronto “secret songs” in her first performance tied into the season.

 

 

Guest: The Toronto Star’s Richard Warnica, reporting from Washington, DC

In this episode, This Matters returns from hiatus with a special episode on the U.S. Election. Knowing all that they know about Donald Trump — after the court convictions and the insurrection and the threats and open bigotry, and after a campaign in which he sometimes seemed increasingly undisciplined — Americans sent him back to the Oval Office. And they voted for him by higher margins than in 2016. The day after the election, the Star’s Richard Warnica, who has been reporting on Trump since the 2016 campaign and who travelled the U.S. during this campaign, joins Edward Keenan who covered part of Trump’s first term as the Star’s Washington Bureau Chief. The two discuss the mood at Kamala Harris’ election night party, what Warnica observed about Trump voters, and why Americans might expect a more effective form of authoritarianism from a second Trump term. PLUS: How the Democratic party may have been right about public opinion on abortion access and wrong about how it would affect the presidential results.