The Current

After supermarket chains in at least seven European countries have had their freezers hacked, security experts around the world are trying to figure out who did it and how to protect their clients. We speak with security expert Stephanie Sabatini, founder and owner of Astria Cybersecurity, and Evan Fraser, director of the Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph about how vulnerable Canada's food systems are to hackers.

Recently medical experts agreed on the first consensus medical guidelines on stuttering. It's a step forward for a condition that affects more 400,000 Canadians. Alexandra D’Agostino-Seguin has lived with a stutter since she was in elementary school and talks about how that experience has shaped her. Her mother, Eeva Stierwalt, is a National Coordinator at the Canadian Stuttering Association and reflects on what it was like to raise a child who stutters. Dr. Gerald Maguire, founder of the Stuttering Research and Treatment Society, talks about his hopes for better treatment for the condition.

Edward Burtynsky is world famous for his monumental photographs that reveal in overwhelming detail the impact that human beings have had on planet earth. He has travelled all over the world documenting mines, quarries, recycling yards, tailings pods, refineries and factories — places that are essential to the modern world but few of us get to see. We talk about how his working class upbringing in St. Catharines, Ontario, working at General Motors, and in gold mines of northern Ontario shapes his art and how he wants Canadians to weigh the cost of industrial development at a time when major projects are under consideration.

Zadie Smith talks to Matt on stage at Massey Hall about her most recent book, Dead And Alive, in which she examines art, fiction, social media, the idea of the vanishing public commons, and what makes us human. She also reflects on aging and generational gaps and finding joy in dancing — and what Gen X got wrong (lots) and right (movies).

On November 1st, half of Canada's clocks rolled back an hour, but the other half didn't, as many of the Western provinces are ditching seasonal time changes in favour of permanent daylight saving time. And we can't forget that some provinces and territories have multiple time zones and some are just naming their own - like Alberta, who announced they will now be following permanent "Alberta Time." So what time is it, and why — and what time should it be? We speak with Patricia Lakin-Thomas, a chronobiologist at York University, about why time in Canada is getting so confusing — and why she's concerned most of the province is making the wrong choice.