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.

Guest: Allan Woods, Toronto Star global and national affairs reporter

On the weekend, a 20-year-old gunman opened fire at a Donald Trump campaign rally, apparently injuring the former president, killing a bystander, and injuring two others. Toronto Star reporter Allan Woods wrote this week about the history of political violence and assassinations in the U.S., and about what that history might teach about how to step back from the brink of civil war. He also discusses the political fallout and implications of the shooting, the ongoing Republican National Convention, and whether those in attendance are tempering or ratcheting up their rhetoric.

This episode was produced by Julia De Laurentiis Johnston and Paulo Marques

In our series, “The Kids Aren’t All Right,” the Star has been highlighting the many ways in which children are struggling in Toronto. Mayor Olivia Chow joins “This Matters” to talk about why she thinks a lot of these areas stem from housing affordability and about her plan to try to break the logjam on that file. She also discusses her history of advocating for children at the city and what inspired it, and gives some concrete steps she plans to take in the next year or two to try to make things easier for families and children.

Employees are taking care of business but are businesses taking care of employees? Within a matter of weeks, Canadians, and people around the world, have learned which industries and workers are essential for our survival. So are major companies doing enough to protect them? Is it time we consider how to make our economy more sustainable in a post-COVID world? Adrian Cheung talks to Toby Heaps and Michelynn Lafleche from Corporate Knights about the economic realities so many of us face—and especially in a time of crisis—what our workplaces owe us.

Star City Hall Bureau Chief, David Rider, talks with Dr. Eileen de Villa, Toronto’s public health guardian, on her life and the weight of the fight against COVID-19. Dr. de Villa, medical officer of health, is the eye of Toronto’s public health hurricane. David Rider got a few of de Villa’s precious minutes to check up on the doctor.

Some people can work at home, avoid transit, connect to colleagues and friends via Zoom, order supplies to their door, stockpile necessities, and avoid COVID-19. Others can't. Saba Eitizaz speaks to Ian Goldin, of Oxford, about how the Coronavirus has highlighted a class divide and what kind of world will we live in after this is over. Saba also speaks to the Toronto Star’s social justice reporter Laurie Monsebraaten about how this looks in Toronto and who are the most vulnerable falling through the cracks.

Raju Mudhar speaks to Kate Allen, the Star’s science and technology reporter, and asked under what circumstances it’s safe to go out for a stroll. The messages about physical distancing seem to be finally getting through to Canadians, as the mantras of “stay inside” and “stay at home” have been repeated over and over again by public health leaders. But that does leave us with a bit of a strange question: Is it okay to go outside for a walk?

Adrian Cheung talks to Ben Makuch, national security reporter for Vice News, about why some neo-Nazis and white supremacists view the COVID-19 pandemic as their moment to act out their racist ideologies.

Raju Mudhar speaks to fellow Toronto Star journalist May Warren about her experience with COVID-19. She discusses how she got COVID-19, how she couldn’t get tested and how much this disease beat her down, regardless of how young she is and revealing how community spread has been in Toronto longer than expected and how—without widespread testing—it’s hard to know how pervasive this is. 

What is it really like to serve on the frontline of a pandemic? What are doctors and nurses seeing in emergency rooms? How are our healthcare workers coping with the mental stress of making life and death decisions at an unprecedented time, while also being exposed daily to COVID-19? Adrian Cheung talks to an ER doctor, Dr. David Carr, in Toronto. Carr has worked in emergency medicine for nearly two decades and gives a firsthand account on what healthcare workers are facing in the fight against COVID-19.

Yesterday, as Ontario races to get ahead of the COVID-19 curve, the government announced that children won’t be returning to class until at least May 4. In today’s episode, Saba Eitizaz talks with Dr. Sejal Patel, associate professor of Early Childhood Studies at Ryerson University—and a parent herself—about ways to cope and keep your kids engaged. Saba also speaks to Hema Lozano, a young mother of four, about some unique ways she’s come up with to keep her little ones learning.

From fraud to cyber-attacks and terrorism, bad actors may be trying to take advantage of this COVID-19 pandemic. Raju Mudhar discusses crime in the age of COVID-19 and how the actions of some could affect Canadians’ civil liberties with Stephanie Carvin, assistant professor at Carleton University and an expert on security issues, who has consulted for the US Department of Defence and worked as a security analyst for the Government of Canada.

Scientists all over the world are working on finding ways to test and develop vaccines for COVID-19. Raju Mudhar talks with a member of the team of researchers who collaborated to become one of the first to isolate the COVID-19 virus. Dr. Karen Mossman, now in self isolation and a professor of pathology and molecular medicine and VP of research at McMaster University, talks about what it took to isolate the virus, what creating a vaccine entails, and what is giving her hope.

Guest: Dr. Amy Gajaria, psychiatrist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)

Wait times of up to two years. There are not enough publicly funded therapists. Emergency rooms are overwhelmed by children in crisis. Ontario’s child and youth mental health system is at a breaking point. The Mental Health Commission of Canada reports that mental illness affects more than one million children and youth in the country. And while the provincial government has stood up and started to take notice with new funding announcements this year, there remain simply not enough resources to help young people suffering from mental illness. As part of “The Kids Aren’t All Right“ series, reporter Kenyon Wallace – who wrote on mental health and children – speaks with Dr. Amy Gajaria.

Audio Sources: CBC News

This episode was produced by Paolo Marques, Brian Bradley and Kenyon Wallace.

When “accidental hero” Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19, and more NBAers followed, it triggered a domino effect that shut the doors of every major sport in North America. After Canada was the first to announce it would not send athletes, the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics games were postponed until 2021. We are joined by Hayley Wickenheiser, four-time Olympic Gold medalist, who has been training to become an emergency room doctor, and Bruce Arthur, Toronto Star columnist.

We’ve barely had a chance to process the COVID-19 pandemic that has up-ended every element of our live. So what happens to our minds when we’re faced with a pandemic? Why do we panic buy and hoard items? How does fear of a virus turn into xenophobia and distrust of other people? Adrian Cheung talks to Dr. Steven Taylor, clinical psychologist from UBC and author of the book, “The Psychology of Pandemics,” in which he presciently says that a pandemic is imminent.

Many millennials and gen Xers are stuck in the middle, having to deal with young children and older parents who often have health issues. With older people more likely to be at higher risk to COVID-19, many people — particularly women — are feeling like they have to parent their parents, while keeping an eye on kids. To talk about these issues, we reached Dr. Nathan Stall, a physician who specializes in internal medicine and geriatrics at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Toronto.

The term “flattening the curve” is everywhere, in personal discussion and the media coverage of COVID-19. But how far away is everyone from actually flattening it, here in Canada and around the world? What lessons can we learn for when the worst of COVID-19 hits us and our healthcare system? Today, Adrian Cheung talks to two infectious disease doctors, Dr. Albert Ko from Yale’s School of Public Health and Dr. Susy Hota from the University Health Network – on how being proactive vs. reactive changes the impact of the virus, and what it will really take to flatten the curve for good.

In the first episode of This Matters, a daily news podcast from the Toronto Star, the team works from home in self isolation like millions across the world. COVID-19 has resulted in the need for social distancing, self isolation and quarantine in what is already considered a lonely time. As the world gets used to its new normal, this social disconnection might become even more baked into people’s lives, straining already frayed communal ties. Or could it draw people closer together? Today, Saba Eitizaz talks with Dr. Ami Rokach, a clinical psychologist who has studied loneliness for forty years. She is also joined by the Star’s culture reporter, Karon Liu, who talks about navigating life, parties and partners while in self isolation.

Coming soon from the Toronto Star, This Matters is a daily news podcast that will help make sense of an increasingly frantic news cycle, one big issue at a time, Monday to Friday. Hosts Adrian Cheung, Saba Eitizaz and Raju Mudhar will cover issues that impact and affect Canadians.

Guest: Ivy Lynn Bourgeault, Professor in the School of Sociological and Anthropological Studies at the University of Ottawa

Ontario’s registered nurses will now be able to independently prescribe some medications such as vaccines, medicines to quit smoking and for pain relief or wound care. The government sees this as an effort to tackle Ontario’s acute health care crisis, where more than two million people currently lacking a family doctor. This is the latest in a series of recent moves to expand the role of some health professionals to try and fill the gap, including pharmacists and midwives. We explore what this means for health care.

This episode was produced by Paulo Marques, Brian Bradley and Saba Eitizaz.

Guest: Noor Javed, city news reporter

At the peak of the pandemic, the Ford government turned to Minister’s Zoning Orders (known as MZOs) as the speediest solution to the housing crisis and direly needed construction of long-term-care facilities. Former housing minister Steve Clark issued more than 100 MZOs between 2019 and 2023. But in the wake of the Greenbelt scandal, scrutiny is now shifting to these MZOs and if they have actually fast-tracked development efforts. The Star did its own analysis and found little progress in the past four years to support that claim.

Audio sources: Ontario Nature, CHCH News

This episode was produced by Paulo Marques, Brian Bradley and Saba Eitizaz.

Guest: Richard Warnica, business feature writer

When Toronto hosted a packed WNBA exhibition game in May, hopes were high that the city would soon get its own team, but by then, “the game was already over,” writer Richard Warnica says. Local sports powerhouse Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE) had already considered and rejected the idea, mostly because two particular members of the board were set against it. At a time when women’s professional sports seem to be awakening across the continent, Warnica has the exclusive on how Toronto ruled itself out, possibly missing an opportunity for exponential growth in the fan base.

Audio Source: Sportsnet

Guest: Katie Daubs, senior writer

As Ontario’s schools struggle with resources and ripple effects of the pandemic, experts say students with diverse needs like attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) aren’t getting the help they require. ADHD is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders in children, yet there is no official ministry categorization making it difficult to support in classrooms. As part of the Star’s “The Kids Aren’t All Right” series, senior writer Katie Daubs talked to one high school student about her experience.

This episode was produced by Paolo Marques and Brian Bradley.

Guest: Jennifer Pagliaro, crime reporter

Many parents across Toronto struggle to balance keeping their kids safe and letting them develop a sense of independence. In a city where crime concerns are rising and rising faster for younger people, some weigh on that balance more than others. In one family, their son was shot before he was two years old. For the Star’s “The Kids Aren’t All Right” series, reporter Jennifer Pagliaro looked at life after a shooting and what could work to prevent others from suffering the same tragedy.

This episode was produced by Paolo Marques, Julia De Laurentiis Johnston and Edward Keenan.

Guest: Kate Allen, climate change reporter

Fresh air, trees, grass on bare feet. The sound of birds while playing on a playground. Leisurely swinging in the shadow of a tree. Many of us have childhood memories outside in parks and forests, and research shows this time is key to our physical, mental and social well-being and development. So what about the children being raised in urban centres like Toronto, where green space has shrunk significantly over the past two decades as the region faces pressure to build housing and city reports warn that the amount of parkland per person risks falling further. As part of the Star’s “The Kids Aren’t All Right” series, climate change reporter Kate Allen joins “This Matters” to discuss the impacts on children and their development.

This episode was produced by Paolo Marques and Brian Bradley.

Guest: jade guthrie, FoodShare Toronto

When kids don’t get enough to eat at home or they worry about running out of food, it can affect everything in their lives from their ability to learn and grow, to their ability to be healthy and resilient. Yet food insecurity is the reality of 1.8 million kids in Canada. In this episode from the Star’s “The Kids Aren’t All Right” series, guest host Alyshah Hasham and jade guthrie of FoodShare Toronto discusses what we can do to turn the crisis around.

This episode was produced by Paulo Marques, Julia De Laurentiis Johnston and Alyshah Hasham.

Guest: Victoria Gibson, affordable housing reporter

Housing affordability and accessibility are only getting worse. For many Canadians, they might be just one bill or unexpected expense away from being unable to afford that month’s rent. Renovations, rent, or repair expenses are all factors that have led to more than 600,000 kids growing up in precarious housing across the country. As part of the series “The Kids Aren’t All Right,” we take a look at what that means and how a child might experience these challenges.

This episode was produced by Paulo Marques, Brian Bradley and Saba Eitizaz.

Guest: Megan Ogilvie, health reporter

Ever since the COVID pandemic, Canada’s health care system is near a breaking point and may take years to fix. Among the issues, experts are worried that many children are not getting needed surgery within the safe medical window. An estimated 17,000 children are on long waiting lists for surgeries that could improve the quality of their lives. Some of them wait for months or years. Some might never recover. The Star’s health reporter Megan Ogilvie unpacks the impact it has on children and their families.

This episode was produced by Paulo Marques, Julia De Laurentiis Johnston and Saba Eitizaz.

Guest: Amy Dempsey, series editor

In many different aspects of life, kids in Toronto are struggling right now. Housing is unaffordable, educational supports are lacking, surgical wait times are long and the social safety net is frayed. Amy Dempsey is editor of the series “The Kids Aren’t All Right,” which looks at the varied and interconnected ways we’re letting down the next generation and what we might start doing to fix it.

This episode was produced by Sean Pattendon, Julia De Laurentiis Johnston and Edward Keenan.

Guests: David Rider and Ben Spurr

Since her election in June, Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow has begun the work she was elected to do — building relationships with councillors and the premier, trying to kick start affordable housing and working to fix the city’s budget hole. David Rider, city hall bureau chief, and Ben Spurr, reporter, have talked to her allies, opponents and city experts to evaluate how far she’s come, how much further she has to go and potential political landmines in the coming mayoral schedule.

This episode was produced by Sean Pattendon, Julia De Laurentiis Johnston and Edward Keenan.

Guest: Deborah Dundas, books editor

The 2023 Scotiabank Giller Prize, Canada’s prestigious literary award, will be handed out on Nov. 13. Five books were shortlisted last week from a longlist of twelve, picked out of more than a hundred books that were submitted across the country. Star books editor Deborah Dundas walks us through the most buzzworthy books and gives great recommendations to add to our holiday reading and gift lists.

This episode was produced by Paulo Marques, Brian Bradley and Saba Eitizaz.

Audio Sources: Wellington Square Books, Vancouver Public Library, Kobo, Waterstones, Notre Dame Day

Guest: Amy Laski, founder of the Tween Girls Hockey League

The city’s policy for allocating recreational permits for sports facilities favours tradition. Long-term permit holders get renewed year after year. That’s great for building up those leagues, but leaves any newcomers, including those trying to serve girls and others who feel left out of the existing sports culture, scrambling to try to find a way in. Hockey mom and league founder Amy Laski outlines her struggle to get the city to accommodate her league and fix the policies that led to it.

This episode was produced by Sean Pattendon, Julia De Laurentiis Johnston and Edward Keenan.

Guest: Dr. Sasha High, internal medicine and obesity physician

Ozempic has been all over the news and social media as it has been hailed as the miracle drug for weight loss. As it is a trend among A-list celebrities, it’s also found itself surrounded by controversy. Experts say Ozempic is a medicine, not a TikTok trend and needs to be taken with the advice of your doctor. Last year, Ozempic hype and reported off-label use led to a shortage of the drug in certain regions for people who needed it, including diabetics. It isn’t all black and white — diabetes and obesity are often interrelated — and this drug and others like it could be a game changer for those struggling with both. That’s around seven per cent of the population in Canada.

This episode was produced by Paulo Marques, Julia De Laurentiis Johnston and Saba Eitizaz.

Guest: Lydia Greene, student nurse

For a long while, Lydia Greene would forgo many vaccines for her and her children, believing them akin to poison. A mother of three and a former quality-control chemist for a pharmaceutical plant, Greene called herself an anti-vaxxer. But when COVID-19 put vaccine safety into the spotlight, she decided to dig deeper into the research and concluded she might actually be wrong. She talks to “This Matters” about how she got from there to here, what it was like to administer her first vaccine as a student nurse and about grappling with that very human quandary of what it feels like to realize you’re wrong.

This episode is produced by Alex Boyd, Julia De Laurentiis Johnston and Sean Pattendon

Guest: Amy Dempsey, feature writer

Less than a century ago, a single raccoon raiding a garbage bin was front-page news in Toronto, while today the trash pandas are everywhere. Feature writer Amy Dempsey, who documented how the creatures outsmarted the city’s waste-bin engineers, takes a closer look at our love-hate relationships with these animals, the city’s frustrated attempts to control them and how and why they’ve made themselves at home in Toronto (and invited themselves to join Amy’s wedding).

This episode was produced by Paulo Marques, Julia De Laurentiis Johnston and Edward Keenan.

Audio Sources: CBC, Toronto Star

Guest: Michael Lewis, journalist and author

In 2019, Sam Bankman-Fried set up a crypto exchange called FTX. Over the course of two years, as the price of crypto skyrocketed, so did his fortune, until it was estimated at as much as $26.5 billion U.S. SBF, as he became known, was feted by celebrities from football star Tom Brady to comedian Larry David. Then, in November 2022, it all came crashing down. SBF was accused of diverting $8 billion of investors’ money from FTX to his hedge fund Alameda Research, and making huge purchases, including more than $100 million in political donations. At just 31, he is now in U.S. court on seven fraud charges in the first of several trials. (This one expected to run six weeks.) Michael Lewis, journalist and author of such bestselling books as “The Big Short” and “Moneyball,” was in the position of following Bankman-Fried throughout his rise and spectacular fall and has just published a book on the subject, “Going Infinite.” Lewis joins “This Matters.”

This episode was produced by Sean Pattendon, Brian Bradley and Deborah Dundas.

More than a week ago Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made an unprecedented move. He accused Indian government agents of involvement in the death of exiled Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil; an accusation that New Delhi has denied strongly and dismissed as “absurd.” Since then, both countries have been in a diplomatic showdown, including tit-for-tat expulsions of each other’s diplomats. The tensions have spiralled since then with travel advisories for citizens on both sides, with India also suspending visa services in Canada. Diplomatic conflict between two G20 members raises the potential of drawing in mutual allies and transforming the conflict into a global one. The implications are serious, especially for ordinary people on both sides who will be impacted by the changing winds of foreign policy. We get two journalists from both countries to weigh in with the Canadian and Indian perspectives.

This episode was produced by Paulo Marques, Julia De Laurentiis Johnston and Saba Eitizaz.

Guest: Legendary sports broadcaster Dave Hodge, formerly of TSN and Hockey Night in Canada

Hosts: Bruce Arthur and Dave Feschuk

When Brendan Shanahan took over the helm of the Maple Leafs in 2014, he vowed not to repeat the sins of various predecessors accused of rushing the team-building process. Shanahan insisted he would exercise patience. But after eight post-season runs in which the Maple Leafs have only once advanced beyond the opening round, Shanahan’s refusal to give up on the team’s core stars is accompanied by the reek of stubborn incompetence. Here Arthur, Feschuk and Hodge try to make sense of Shanahan’s approach while pointing out the glaring blind spots that have left the Maple Leafs a long way away from interrupting the longest Stanley Cup drought in the history of the NHL, 57 years and counting.

PLUS: Arthur, Feschuk and Hodge discuss the highs and lows of the Shanaplan era.

The Blue Jays clinched a playoff spot on Sunday and will start the Wild Card series agains the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday. The Star's baseball podcast Deep Left Field has gone daily for the playoff run, so This Matters guest host Mike Wilner brings you this clinch episode.

You’ll hear from Blue Jays (and Deep Left Field regulars) Kevin Kiermaier and Jordan Romano, along with Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and Matt Chapman. You’ll also hear John Schneider’s post-game speech to the team. And we answer your email questions to DeepLFPodcast@gmail.com as we get you set for the Jays’ first-round date with Minnesota.

Hosts: Toronto Star columnists Edward Keenan and Emma Teitel

In this episode: The week that was in Toronto and beyond: Including questions about whether the Eglinton Crosstown will be built in any of our lifetimes (and whether they’ll let us know if it is), the fallout from the celebration of a Nazi soldier that ruined what should have been a good and meaningful day for the federal government, Olivia Chow’s measures of progress in Ottawa and at Queen’s Park, and Emma Teitel’s theory about why we’re destined to always hate Yonge-Dundas Square.

This episode was produced by Sean Pattendon, Julia De Laurentiis Johnston, Emma Teitel and Ed Keenan.

On this episode: Guest host Althia Raj talks with Bernie Farber, the founding chair of the anti-hate network, the former CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress

Last week, the Speaker of the House of Commons, Anthony Rota, invited Yaroslav Hunka, a 98-year-old constituent, to come to Ottawa and hear Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s address. Rota introduced him in the House as a Ukranian who'd fought the Russians during World War Two and was proud to support the troops again. Hunka received two standing ovations before MPs, journalists and the world realized they were honouring someone who'd pledged allegiance to Hitler and fought with the Nazis. An international crisis erupted with Russia using the incident in its disinformation campaign. Rota was pressured to resign and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered an apology. But is it enough? Our guest today is Bernie Farber, the founding chair of the anti-hate network, the former CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress and someone who knows more than most about Canada's history with Nazi war criminals.

Audio sources: CPAC

This episode was produced by Althia Raj and Sean Pattendon.

Guest: Toronto Star Queen’s Park Bureau Chief Robert Benzie

In this episode: Doug Ford’s foray into a mayoral election he promised to stay out of was just the start of a summer where nothing seemed to go right for his government and where the Greenbelt swap scandal exploded — costing his government cabinet ministers, senior staff members, and oodles of popular support. The Star’s Robert Benzie details how the summer sun scorched Ford’s popularity, and discusses the mood in the government caucus and where they go from here.

Audio sources: Canadian Press, Global

This episode was produced by Paulo Marques, Julia De Laurentiis Johnston and Ed Keenan.

Guest: Brandi Morin, French/Cree/Iroquois journalist from Treaty 6 in Alberta

Indigenous people have been on the frontlines of fighting to protect and sustain the land and environment for years. They warn that the west’s supposedly eco-friendly climate strategy is also a repeat of history. Resources needed for sustainable alternate energy such as mineral mining continues the practise of extracting from the earth, threatening Indigenous lands and people. One of these new frontlines is Nevada’s remote Thacker Pass where a battle is playing out in Paiute and Shoshone territories between the local Indigenous tribes and a Canadian mining company that is mining the lithium beneath their land.A recently released short documentary “Thacker Pass: Mining the Sacred” by award-winning journalist Brandi Morin and Geordie Day took us to the heart of it. It's part of a cross-border project between Ricochet Media, IndigiNews and The Real News Network in the United States.

According to the Real News Network, in 2022, the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe signed a Community Benefits Agreement with Lithium Americas. At roughly 64 kms away, the reservation is the closest – and poorest – in the region.The company said in a statement to Real News Network: '"We are pleased to have the support of the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe as we advance Thacker Pass and look forward to generations of future collaboration."'

Audio sources: Ricochet media, IndigiNews, The Real News Network

This episode was produced by Paulo Marques, Julia De Laurentiis Johnston and Saba Eitizaz.

Guests: Martin Regg Cohn, Queen’s Park columnist

In this episode, columnist Martin Regg Cohn joins to tackle the avalanche of news coming from Queen’s Park including Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow’s visit (and common ground with the premier), the debate for Liberal party leadership hopefuls and Premier Doug Ford reversing his earlier reversal on Greenbelt protections. All of that, plus what you can learn in the bleachers at a youth sports game.

This episode was produced by Edward Keenan, Sean Pattendon and Julia De Laurentiis Johnston.

Audio Sources: YouTube and The Dais at TMU

Guest: Mark Maloney, author

Mark Maloney is the author of the book “Toronto Mayors,” which profiles all 65 people who’ve held the city's top job. He joins “This Matters” to talk about the rogues gallery of scandalous scoundrels in our past, share who he considers the Mount Rushmore of best (and most beloved) mayors and give his thoughts on the city’s recurring state of explosive growth and underfunded infrastructure.

This episode was produced by Edward Keenan, Paolo Marques and Julia De Laurentiis Johnston.

Guest: Ed Jackson, community historian

Hanlan’s Point is known as Toronto’s clothing-optional beach, but it has deeper significance as a historically queer space and has recently been recognized for its place in city history. The beach in the Toronto Islands was the site of Canada’s first Pride celebration in 1971 and a place, just outside of the spotlight, that was quietly known for decades as a safe gathering spot when it was not safe to be out elsewhere. It has some ugly history too, including homophobic violence and police harassment, that has flared up all too recently. Ed Jackson is a community historian and co-editor of the book “Any Other Way: How Toronto Got Queer.” He joins “This Matters” to talk about this significance.

This episode was produced by Julia De Laurentiis Johnston, Sean Pattendon and Brian Bradley.

Audio Sources: Friends of Hanlan’s

Guest: Wendy Gillis, crime and policing reporter

Chilling testimony has been delivered in the ongoing trial of the man accused of killing four members of a Muslim family in 2021. For Canadian Muslims, it’s a reopening of old wounds and a litmus test of Canada’s anti-terrorism laws. Four members of the Afzaal family were killed just over two years ago in London, Ont., when the accused allegedly struck and killed Salman Afzaal, 46, Madiha Salman, 44, Salman’s mother Talat Afzaal, 74, and Yumna Afzaal, 15, with his pick up truck. Salman’s 9-year-old son was the sole survivor of the attack. The incident sparked shock and horror over Islamophobic violence fuelled by online hate and disinformation. In the first week of the murder trial, taking place in Windsor, Ont., prosecutors have been laying out the evidence. The details have been disturbing and painful. We try to unpack what we know so far.

This episode was produced by Paulo Marques, Julia De Laurentiis Johnston, Wendy Gillis and Saba Eitizaz.