This week, Prime Minister Mark Carney is in the United Arab Emirates to try to shore up foreign investment ahead of next week’s G20 summit in South Africa. Human rights groups and Sudanese activists are calling on Carney to condemn the U.A.E. for allegedly sending weapons to Sudan — a claim the country denies — but federal officials won’t say whether he’ll raise the issue. Geoffrey York is the Globe’s Africa Bureau Chief. He’s on the show to talk about what’s been happening in Sudan and why Carney and other foreign leaders are hesitant to put pressure on the U.A.E.

Last week, over 20,000 pages of the late Jeffrey Epstein’s emails, texts and other documents were released. In one email, Epstein – the deceased child sex trafficker with ties to U.S. President Donald Trump – writes that Trump “knew about the girls.” It has intensified the public outcry for the U.S. government to release all of its investigative files on Epstein. And on Tuesday, the U.S. Congress voted to make all of its information public. Today, the Globe’s international correspondent, Nathan VanderKlippe joins the show. He’s been following the rift the Epstein scandal has caused within Trump’s MAGA base, the President’s evolving response, and what the released emails tell us about the Canadians connected to Epstein.

Beef prices are currently around 23 per cent above their five-year average. And there’s no relief in sight. Kate Helmore is The Globe’s agriculture and food policy reporter. She explains what’s going on in the beef industry to cause these sky-high prices.

In May, a B.C. billionaire named Weihong (Ruby) Liu made a $69.1-million deal to acquire 28 leases of former Hudson’s Bay stores. Her company, Central Walk, owned malls where three of those stores were located, so those leases went unopposed; however, landlords of the other 25 stores were skeptical of her ability to operate her proposed stores. She had cash, real estate experience, and a vision — but no experience running a major retailer. Susan Krashinsky Robertson is the Globe’s retailing reporter. She’s been covering the fallout from the demise of Canada’s oldest retailer. Today, she’s on the show to talk about what she learned about Ruby Liu over the course of the hearings, and why her bid to take over 25 more stores ultimately failed.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has unveiled the next set of projects the federal government plans to prioritize in a bid to jumpstart Canada’s economy. The announcement focused on energy and mining, with six projects across the country ranging from liquefied natural gas to critical minerals. But many questions remain about how these projects will work and what disputes they will cause. Adam Radwanski, feature writer and policy columnist for The Globe joins The Decibel to talk about Carney’s strategy, how the newly-created Major Projects Office fits in and whether this plan meets the moment.

Where in Canada is it best to rent right now? The Globe analyzed cities from coast to coast to coast, comparing cities’ median incomes with their average rental prices, to find out which places are the most renter-friendly. The Globe’s personal finance reporter Salmaan Farooqui joins The Decibel to break down where and why rents are trending downward, why it’s a good time to take advantage of the rental market and what advice realtors have for renters.

On the day the budget was tabled, Chris d’Entremont, the lone Conservative MP from Nova Scotia, crossed the floor to the Liberals. Two days later, Matt Jeneroux, a Conservative MP from Alberta, announced he would be leaving politics altogether. His name had also been circulated as a potential defector to the Liberals. These moves overshadowed news of Carney’s first budget — and d’Entremont’s move gives him one more crucial seat ahead of next week’s confidence vote, which could trigger an election. Poilievre’s opposition benches, however, appear increasingly shaky. Campbell Clark is the Globe’s chief political writer. He’s on the show to talk about what these moves mean for Poilievre and the Conservatives, why people cross the floor to begin with, and what past defections can teach us about the moment the Conservatives are facing now. Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

A precedent-setting ruling involving Aboriginal title at the B.C. Supreme Court has caused widespread uncertainty and tension in the province. In August, Justice Barbara Young decided that Cowichan First Nation had title to roughly 800 acres in the city of Richmond — including private property. The ruling has raised questions over both residential and commercial property rights, as well as governance of the region. Today, B.C. politics reporter Justine Hunter joins the show. She’ll explain the case, the divisive response, and the impact it could have on Indigenous land claims across the province... and the country. Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

A big part of the federal budget rests on the assumption that its measures will spur the private sector to invest in Canada…a lot. It’s projecting a half-trillion worth of investment. But at a time when Canada is suffering from sluggish productivity and the impact of U.S. tariffs, how realistic is it to expect businesses to invest? James Bradshaw covers institutional investing for The Globe and Mail. He explains how the government is trying to spur 500-billion dollars in investments from the private sector, and how something called a ‘productivity super deduction’ is meant to fix an issue that has long plagued the country.

Parents are increasingly relying on elaborate calendar systems to keep track of their families’ activities – from a shared calendar or paper planner to high-end devices that can create a calendar for you by scraping data from your emails. Some parents say it helps them better involve their teen children in scheduling their lives; for others, they feel themselves becoming beholden to their calendars – a draconian digital personal assistant. Zosia Bielski is The Globe’s time use reporter. She joins us to talk about how families are using technology to try to ease the mental load, and what these ever-evolving calendar systems reveal to us about how we value our time.

For more than a decade, Canada’s condo boom was on. Investors, at home and abroad, drove the craze over reselling preconstruction units. Rents skyrocketed, all while the condos themselves shrank in size. Today, the bubble has burst and the housing crisis continues. New condo sales in markets like Toronto and Hamilton are at 35-year lows and prices are driving potential homebuyers out of the city core. Is this actually an opportunity for developers to course correct to find “the missing middle?” Erica Alini, personal economics reporter for The Globe, explains why shoebox condos have been so appealing for North American developers, why the market for them has cratered and what needs to change to build cities with higher density at a liveable scale.

On Tuesday, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne tabled the first federal budget from Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government. It had long been advertised as a fiscal plan that would make difficult decisions to put Canada’s economy on the right track. The Globe sent more than a dozen journalists to Ottawa to study the details and assess how transformative this budget actually is. We break down what it says in terms of the deficit, job cuts to the federal public service, defence spending, health care supports, immigration plans and other measures that will affect Canadians.

Today, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne is set to deliver the first budget under Prime Minister Mark Carney. Early announcements have signalled sweeping cuts to the public sector. There’s no guarantee that the budget will pass, given Carney is presiding over a minority government. The NDP has said they wouldn’t rule out abstaining from the budget vote; for his part, Carney has said he’s ready to fight another election campaign if it comes down to that. But beneath all the politics surrounding the budget are actual policies and plans for the government. It’s the job of the Parliamentary Budget Officer, or PBO, to provide non-partisan analysis of these plans to parliamentarians – does the math add up? Are these predictions sound? Today on the show, Yves Giroux, who was the PBO from 2018 until early September this year, is here to walk us through what to watch for when the budget drops later today.

North Atlantic right whales are nearing extinction, with fewer than 400 left in the world. We know what is killing them: getting hit by shipping boats, entangled in fishing lines and the impacts of climate change — which is changing the location of their food sources. But now, researchers think that human-made noise in the ocean may be having an effect too. Jenn Thornhill Verma is an environmental journalist who has been reporting on the plight of the North Atlantic right whale as part of her Entangled series for The Globe and Mail, in partnership with the Pulitzer Center’s Ocean Reporting Network. She explains how scientists are starting to understand how these whales communicate and how loud noises we’re making may be driving them closer to extinction.

On Sunday, most Canadians gain an hour of sleep as the clocks get turned back to standard time. But while most of us have gotten used to the bi-annual time change, our bodies have not. And with a growing number of experts saying the practice messes with our sleep – should Canadians stop messing with the clock? Today, psychology professor Joseph De Koninck is here. He studies sleep at the University of Ottawa, and his recent research looks at how Daylight Savings Time impacts our circadian rhythms, what we can do to minimize the health effects the change has, and why he thinks Canada should consider staying on Standard Time year-round.

Last weekend, Quebec passed new legislation that would impose a new contract on doctors, who have been in negotiations with the provincial government since March, 2023. Known as Bill 2, it sets out targets that Quebec doctors must meet in order to achieve the government’s health care goals, including access to primary care for all Quebeckers by January, 2027. The catch? If doctors don’t meet these targets, they can be penalized by having up to 15 per cent of their pay clawed back. André Picard, Globe health reporter and columnist, is on the show to break down why Bill 2 is drawing controversy, how doctors are responding to it, and what that means for patient care in Quebec.

On Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump ended trade talks with Canada and threatened to hike tariffs on Canadian imports by another 10 per cent because of Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s anti-tariff ad. Now, Trump says he doesn’t plan to meet with Carney “for a long time”, as both leaders head to Asia for trade summits and turn their attention to repairing trade relations with China. The Globe’s chief political writer, Campbell Clark, joins the show. He’ll explain why Ford’s ad struck such a nerve, the fallout from halted U.S.-Canada trade negotiations, and the stakes for Canada as both Carney and Trump prepare to meet with President Xi Jinping.

‘Til death do us part – that’s the promise couples make to each other when they tie the knot. But what happens in the event of a divorce? Disentangling a marriage can carry a big financial burden if the division of property, pets and assets are in the mix. Once derided as unromantic, the pre-nuptial agreement is now gaining popularity among young Canadians planning to get married. Mariya Postelnyak, consumer affairs reporter for The Globe, talks about how pre-nups legally work in Canada, what’s included and what isn’t in agreements, and why more couples are navigating the tricky conversation before marriage.

As Canadians, we’ve spent a lot of time over the past year talking about what it means to be Canadian and how to support our country. For some people, that looks like checking labels at the grocery store or limiting travel to the United States. But as the Globe’s film and deputy arts editor Barry Hertz argues, now is also the moment to bolster Canadian culture. And we’re squandering it. So today, Barry is on the show to talk about the state of the arts in Canada right now (and yes, Quebec is a different story), what the government should be doing differently, and what we stand to lose if we blow this generational opportunity to strengthen Canadian culture.

The Toronto Blue Jays are headed to the World Series for the first time in over 30 years. It’s the third time in franchise history that Canada’s team is playing for the championship. But this monumental moment isn’t just for the diehard Jays fans – everyone can get in on the fun. So today, we bring you The Decibel’s bandwagoner’s guide to not feeling totally lost as the Jays try to make history. Producer and lifelong fan Madeleine White will walk us through some baseball 101 – including the lingo, superstitions, weird stats, what makes this season’s team so special, and whether she thinks we’ve got a shot against the Los Angeles Dodgers.