Guest: Sophie Grégoire Trudeau Even before Sophie Grégoire Trudeau married Prime Minister Justin Trudeau she was an advocate for mental health, openly sharing her personal struggles with eating disorders. She discusses her new book. She shares those struggles afresh, along with tales of her parents, her schooling, her relationships, in her new book, “Closer Together: Knowing Ourselves, Loving Each Other,” which she describes as a personal journey toward empowerment ..read more

  We asked three published, award-winning Toronto poets to weigh in on Swift’s literary merit at a listening party on the album’s release day. The assignment: dissect three new songs as though Swift were a writer workshopping new pieces. Guests: Sanna Wani, a poet and poetry editor whose latest book, “My Grief The Sun,” was released in 2022; Jody Chan’s most recent volume of poems, “impact statement,” came out earlier this year and they are an artist-in-residence at the University of Toronto’s Queer and Trans Research Lab; Adam Dickinson, an author of four books of poe ..read more

Guests: Leena Usman, Pino Buffone and Kris Rushowy In what could be a landmark lawsuit in Canada, at least five major Ontario school boards are taking some of the largest social media companies to court over their platforms like Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, alleging they have been designed in a way that’s almost “rewiring” the way children behave. The allegations have yet to be proven in court, and there is no set date for when they will be heard, but they are now joining a wave of U.S. school districts doing the same. We find out more about this lawsuit and examine ..read more

Guest: Salman Rushdie, author It has been almost two years since celebrated author Salman Rushdie was attacked on a stage in Erie, New York as he was about to deliver a lecture. In an assault that lasted 27 seconds, a knife went through his right eye and optical nerve, while wounds to his tongue, neck and hand left him a changed man. Salman shares details of the attack — and his recovery — in his new memoir, “Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder.” As interviews for the book are in full swing, Salman tells The Star that any fears of being onstage had long faded. What woul ..read more

Guest: Anuradhapura Dugal, Vice President Community Initiatives at the Canadian Women's Foundation Equal Pay Day is recognized internationally as a day of action, calling on stakeholders to advance women’s economic activity. It symbolizes how much longer women have had to work to catch up to what their male colleagues have earned in the previous year. Showing that women in Canada have worked nearly 16 months to earn what men make in 12. The needle hasn't budged on gender pay inequity in almost three decades. And no one is minding the gender pay gap. We take a look at why, and what it will take ..read more

Guest: Olivia Chow, mayor News over the last couple of weeks around city hall has been heavy on tax worries and mix-ups — thousands of bills sent out for vacant home taxes for occupied properties and concerns about a proposed stormwater fee. Mayor Olivia Chow explains what she thinks went wrong and how she plans to fix it (and “start from scratch” on the vacant home system). She also discusses her plan to deal with the growing number of homeless encampments in parks that have spread around the city, recent Toronto Police Association criticism of her about a letter some councillors signed ..read more

Thousands of property owners across the city got bills this week for vacant home taxes applying to homes they live in. Today, hosts Ed Keenan and Emma Teitel try to understand the comprehensive fiasco in the implementation of the policy. They also talk about the much-feared “rain tax” that will now go back for further study, about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s attempts to announce his way out of his problems and what to do about dangerous dogs in Toronto. Plus, it is IIHF World Women’s Championship time! What would you like to hear on Toronto Star podcasts? Let us know in this survey&nb ..read more

Guests: Sheila Wang and Morgan Sevareid-Bocknek, investigative reporters They're called ”lunch hour facelifts,” cosmetic touch-ups without the surgery. But if you are rethinking your lunch plans, you might want to think again. A recent Star investigation found a lot of these procedures are not as advertised. Across Canada, spas and medical clinics are offering the popular medical procedure marketed as a safe, minimally invasive treatment. But as service providers compete for customers on TikTok and Instagram, showing supposedly incredible results, some of them are maki ..read more

Guest: Toronto Star climate reporter Kate Allen Canada is the leader in maple syrup production and Quebec’s maple syrup producers maintain a strategic reserve stockpile that in recent years held over 100 million pounds of the sweet stuff, but levels have this year dwindled to less than 7 million pounds. Star reporter Kate Allen wrote a feature on this topic and explains how the explanation has something (surprisingly) to do with the pandemic, something (interestingly) to do with successful marketing, and something (maybe) to do with larger climate trends. And she answers the question on a ..read more

Guest: Richard Warnica, staff reporter The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore was a massive component of the port city's entire transportation network, and in a matter of moments this week, it collapsed after being struck by a container ship. The Star’s Richard Warnica reports from the scene, explaining his reflections on standing next to the bridge that used to be there and just isn’t any more, and the massive wreckage of the ship. It’s an event that has massive implications for the city in the immediate aftermath and the longer term, and raises questions across the continent abo ..read more