The Sunday Magazinewith Piya Chattopadhyay

Dr. Peter Hotez, the Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, argues that impediments to ending the pandemic lie in people who will not get vaccinated, and the billions globally who won't have access to vaccines for months or years to come.

Montreal-based artist and curator Karen Tam has made a career of exploring the commodification of Chinese-Canadian cultural spaces, and how Chinese Canadians have ensured their own economic survival. Tam reflects on culture, identity, and the devastating effects of racism and fear in Canada's Asian communities.

Labour journalist Sarah Jaffe says we need to rethink the idea that our jobs should be sources of personal fulfilment — let alone love. She argues that this attitude is used to keep workers — from nurses and teachers, to writers and Uber drivers — down for years, and even more so during the pandemic.

Baseball is back this weekend. But with so much going on in the world, from the raging pandemic to crushing social inequities, it may seem silly to pay so much attention to a ball game. But according to journalist Larry Olmsted, sports fandom provides real benefits both for us as individuals and as a society.

Host Piya Chattopadhyay speaks with Bruce Jones of the Brookings Institution about heightened tensions between North America and China, journalist Kevin Roose talks about how artificial intelligence and automation have changed our lives, our jobs, even our tastes, psychologist Peter Lovatt discusses how dancing is a fundamental human need and a way to heal ourselves and bioethicist Jessica Pierce discusses the pandemic pet boom.

There are deep reasons why so many of us are longing for the chance to move and sweat with others in shared spaces again, according to psychologist Peter Lovatt. He trained as a professional dancer, and went on to study dance in academia, and he tells Piya Chattopadhyay that dancing is a fundamental human need and a way to heal ourselves and the world.

The pet boom was one of the more surprising — if understandable — pandemic phenomena we witnessed this past year. But with vaccines rolling out, and potentially a return to "normal" life on the horizon, what will it mean for all these new pets? Bioethicist and writer Jessica Pierce fears pet shelters will once again be filled with pets we no longer have time for. But if there's a silver lining to the pet boom, she says, it's that we've hopefully come to better appreciate the emotional work our pets do.

This past week, U.S. President Joe Biden called for democracies to work together to hold China accountable on a number of issues, including human rights abuses. The rhetoric has left many wondering whether a new Cold War is brewing, with the U.S. and China as central players. Bruce Jones from the Brookings Institution think tank joins Piya Chattopadhyay to unpack the evidence he sees for the world being divided, once again, into two main geopolitical camps.

Host Piya Chattopadhyay explores the significance of new COVID-19 vaccine trials on kids, talks to Toronto Star journalist Joanna Chiu about snap trials in China for Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, chats with the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Elizabeth Kolbert about whether we can really engineer ourselves out of the ecological mess we've made, and talks to psychiatrist Dr. Mona Gupta about offering medical assistance in dying to those wishing to end their suffering due to a mental illness.

A panel of experts has two years to come up with rules and safeguards around how requests for assisted dying from people with mental illness alone are handled.

The author of The Sixth Extinction Elizabeth Kolbert looks at the nature of the future with her new book Under a White Sky.

Pediatrician and vaccine researcher Dr. Joanne Langley offers insights on how the COVID-19 vaccine will be tested and rolled out for children.

Science journalist Emily Anthes shares insights from her book The Great Indoors, on how things like window placement and ventilation can change your mood, behaviour and productivity and why we need to take building design more seriously.

Canadian photographer Thomas Vijayan just won World Nature Photographer of the Year for his striking image of an orangutan climbing a tree in Borneo. He explains what it took to get his winning shot, and what his passion for wildlife photography has taught him about our need to respect nature.

Do the snap trials in China for Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig offer any hope for their release? And where will Canada-US-China relations go from here? Journalist Joanna Chiu covers Canada-China relations for the Toronto Star and is also a friend of Kovrig's from time the two spent working in Beijing. She joins Piya Chattopadhyay to put the trials in context.

Host Piya Chattopadhyay discusses what a year of pandemic life is doing to our brains, talks to economist Noreena Hertz about how we got so lonely, and what we can do to come together again, chats with Arlo Parks about the healing power of music in difficult times, and learns what loving the hedgehog can teach us about empathy and care for our natural world.

Her bittersweet debut album, written in lockdown at her parents’ home, has brought hope and solace to fans right around the world.

A year of social isolation combined with constant stress and -- for some -- trauma means many are dealing with brain fog or even cognitive decline, and the mental strain that has been building for a year might take awhile to let up.

Writer and economist Noreena Hertz on how we got so lonely, and what we can do to come together again.

Turns out hedgehogs, those cute little mammals covered in porcupine-like quills, are common carriers for a bacteria called salmonella.