The Decibel

The Globe and Mail

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Clear stakes behind the day’s story.

The gist

The Decibel follows one consequential story at a time, usually through a calm interview with a reporter or subject-matter guest. It suits listeners who want context before opinion, with Canadian implications kept in view even when the story begins abroad.

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About The Decibel

The Decibel is a measured daily news program from The Globe and Mail, shaped around one story per episode. It favors explanation over argument. The show’s recent range is broad: Canadian movies outperforming expectations, people who negotiate with ransomware attackers, Mark Carney’s move into majority government, the future of North American free trade, CRA service problems, and the pressure that conflict around the Strait of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandeb Strait can put on daily costs. The connective tissue is consequence. Each episode starts from a specific question and follows it outward. Why would a Canadian film succeed by being unapologetically Toronto? How does a ransomware demand fall from millions to a lower figure? What does a two-seat majority actually change? Why does a shipping lane in the Gulf show up in fuel, groceries, airfare, fertilizer, or insurance? The conversations are guided but not rushed. Reporters and guests are given space to explain the background, while short steering questions keep the episode from drifting into lecture mode. The tone is sober and accessible. It can handle parliamentary arithmetic, threat intelligence, tariff politics, consumer prices, and regional security without making the listener feel excluded. It also keeps a Canadian frame in view. Global stories are not treated as distant abstractions; they are connected to food prices, trade relationships, public services, film audiences, and the way Canadians experience large systems. The show is especially useful when a headline feels important but the mechanism behind it is unclear. It supplies the mechanism. Then it names the stakes.

Made for: For listeners who follow Canadian news and want concise context on politics, money, culture, trade, public services, and global conflict. It suits people who prefer calm explanation to panel shouting or headline skimming.

What sets it apart: The show’s strength is its practical Canadian lens: even large geopolitical and economic stories are brought back to households, institutions, markets, and Parliament. Its interview format gives reporters and guests enough time to explain systems without losing the thread.

In their own words

Context is everything. Join us Monday to Friday for a Canadian daily news podcast from The Globe and Mail. Explore a story shaping our world, in conversation with reporters, experts, and the people at the centre of the news.

As heard by us

Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026

The Decibel turns consequential stories into lucid conversations about the systems, decisions and practical stakes beneath them.

The Decibel takes one consequential question at a time and builds outward from the basics. Cheryl Sutherland guides conversations with reporters from The Globe and Mail and subject specialists, using direct follow-ups to make complicated systems understandable without flattening…

Read our full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Potash prices and surrogate pay: Cheryl Sutherland takes your "how does that work?" seriously.

Press play if you want

to hear why a proudly Toronto film can travel without a geography lesson
to understand why Canadian surrogates can claim expenses while others in the process get paid

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Canadian politicsNorth American tradeconsumer pricespublic servicescybercrime and ransomwareglobal shipping chokepointsCanadian film and cultureMiddle East conflict

Talks about

Leisure

Best episodes of The Decibel

Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.

Why Canadian movies are having a momentApr 17, 2026

A clear look at Canada's recent film uptick.

Canada's movie business gets a numbers-first reading, starting with a bleak 2025 box office and then an early-2026 uptick that industry people have not seen often.

Iran’s power grows ahead of peace talks as Gulf remains on edgeApr 10, 2026

A ceasefire story that turns a shipping lane into the hour's pressure point.

The hour follows a fragile ceasefire between the U.S., Israel, and Iran, with Benjamin Netanyahu authorizing direct negotiations with Lebanon after deadly airstrikes on Beirut and the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed.

Another crucial strait that could strangle the global economyApr 8, 2026

A clear look at how one narrow strait could ripple through shipping, prices, and war.

This segment moves from the Strait of Hormuz to the Bab al-Mandeb Strait off Yemen, and that shift gives the piece its best footing. It turns a lesser-known chokepoint into something concrete, tracing the impact on shipping, oil prices, inflation, supply chains, and the wider…

Saskatchewan’s new massive ‘pink gold’ mineApr 7, 2026

A Saskatchewan potash megaproject becomes a tidy test of jobs, exports, and sovereignty.

The Decibel turns Saskatchewan's $18 billion potash mine into a clear industrial and policy story. Kate Helmore lays out what potash is, why the coral pink potassium compound matters for fertilizer and plant growth, and why the project is being cast as the biggest investment in…

Navigating Canada's fertility industryApr 6, 2026

A personal fertility story that also lays out Canada's surrogacy rules.

The Decibel follows Catherine Blaisbaum through a fertility struggle that feels immediate without slipping into sentimentality. Sonogram images, four miscarriages, and the long search for a second child give the episode its force, while the reporting stays anchored in the limits…

Why some doctors are critical of B.C.’s new health care regulationsApr 2, 2026

A clear guide to BC's biggest overhaul of health-professional oversight in decades.

British Columbia's overhaul of health-care regulation gets treated with unusual care here. The episode lays out why colleges license and monitor professionals, how those rules are meant to protect the public, and why this reform is being framed as the biggest change in Canada in…

Artemis II: A Canadian heads to the dark side of the moonApr 1, 2026

A clear Artemis II explainer that keeps the mission's stakes in view.

Artemis II is a clean, high-stakes package about NASA's next crewed moon mission. It keeps the focus on what matters: the first human trip to the moon since 1972, a four-person crew going farther than any human has traveled in space, and a flyby that puts the moon's far side at…

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Find your next episode

About The Decibel

In their own words

As heard by us

Why you'd press play

Talks about

Best episodes of The Decibel

Podcasts like The Decibel

Episodes

Hockey Night in Canada without the NHL

The booze war within the trade war

In Her Defence: Police officer preys on vulnerable women

Havana Syndrome: new allegation of Canadian spying

The new AI moment we’re in

He preyed on women using a police database. Then they found out

What’s on and off the table at Trump and Xi’s meeting

Liberal omnibus bill sparks outcry from unions, environmentalists

Canada’s controversial system of equalization payments, explained

A reality check on Canada’s future with the EU

Introducing In Her Defence: Breach of Trust

The Canadian military is preparing for major conflicts

Airports, AI data centres and Carney’s ‘supercycle’ of investment

The cash-strapped, disorganized fight to keep Alberta in Canada

The office is back (at least in Canada’s financial hub)

Carney pitches Canada to the world’s biggest investors

The trade war has created a boom for lobbyists

What the current bond market turmoil says about the economy

The trade war is heating up. So is foreign investment in Canada

Violence against teachers is surging

Canadian professors on how AI is changing education

A pediatric emergency physician on the risks of e-scooters

What’s behind the implosion of the B.C. Conservatives

How small businesses are handling the trade war

Why people are taking vacations to pick up new skills

Navigating Canada’s fertility industry

At its core, the Canada-U.S. trade dispute is about autos

Canada hits U.S. with retaliatory tariffs

Canadian businesses prepare for long-haul trade war

Why Canada’s biggest paid plasma collector has paused operations

Skinny, Inc. Part 3: Body image in the age of Ozempic

Carney’s tricky trade balancing act

Foreign actors target Alberta’s separatist referendum

The fate of ship crews stuck in the Strait of Hormuz

Ticks are spreading more than just Lyme disease

Skinny, Inc. Part 2: The big business of Ozempic

What it’s like to flee the B.C. wildfires

Luluemon’s fight to stay on top of athleisure

Canadian banks are going big on AI

Making Halifax into Canada’s defence city

Skinny, Inc. Part 1: The Canadian connection to Ozempic

How Gen Z says ‘oui’: Meet Quebec’s young sovereigntists

Canadian NATO intern accused of spying

Inside ‘Davos on the dock,’ the invite-only Muskoka conference

Who are the people hacking hackers?

Ontario’s failed bid to expand Toronto’s island airport

What’s up with Canada’s condo market?

Why chicken is so expensive right now

The Odyssey and IMAX’s Canadian roots

How much AI music is in your playlist?

Trump’s gamble on a Depression-era tariff law

What Canada can learn from Indigenous fire practices

Decoding Mark Carney’s strategic narrative about Canada

The resistance to AI data centres in Canada

Pitch and Power: How the ’90 World Cup captured England’s heart

Another crucial strait that could strangle the global economy

How much forest management matters in wildfires

What Canada gave up to (hopefully) open the Gordie Howe bridge

The Bishnoi gang and the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar

The reasons Canadians aren’t taking their paid vacation

Pitch and Power: Italian agony, psychology of the penalty kick

To ban or not to ban: Canadian teens weigh in on social media

Why Canada’s banks are doing so much better than the economy

The new pipeline push in Canada

Why copper theft is on the rise and costing millions

The Canadian spy agency you may not have heard of

How alcohol sales explain Canada’s internal trade problem

After 250 years of living next to the U.S., what’s next?

A new era of trade uncertainty for Canada, the U.S., and Mexico

Why Canada struggles to stop the illegal wildlife trade

Dating sucks right now, here’s why