The Big Story The Big Story+

The five-day work week has been the standard for decades. But not forever. Once upon a time, it was a six-day week. So why can't it go from five to four?

This isn't an idle question. Pilot projects and studies in countries around the world, including some in Canada, have proven that a four-day week can make employees more productive, as well as cause them to miss less time leaving work for appointments. Companies that have experimented with a four-day work have mostly decided to keep it. If at one time, it seems a crazy idea that just might work, by now there's enough data to show us that it does.

So ... why are you working today? Why am I?

GUEST: Jared Lindzon, writing in The Globe and Mail

With $432 billion in spending, it's safe to say not everything included in Tuesday's federal budget got its share of headlines. And for top-line items, that makes sense. Health care and the cost of living are things that impact every Canadian.

But it can sometimes take a day or two to sort out all the rest—smaller line items that might matter a lot to some people, or long-awaited promises that have finally made it into the document. Or, on the flip side, to get through the entire document and realize what's not in there at all...

So what do you need to know about this budget that can't be summed up by a headline? And what will its real impact be down the road?

GUEST: Cormac Mac Sweeney, Parliament Hill reporter, CityNews

It's a sport well over a century old. It has historically resisted change. It has also, however, been losing relevance by the year, as it gets slower and slower and the action becomes rarer and rarer. Baseball has been withering on the vine. Until (allegedly) this year!

For the first time in decades, Major League Baseball has made substantial and fundamental changes to its rules, including a previously unthinkable addition — a clock for the timeless game. So why now? What will these changes do to the sport, and its audience? Is this enough to finally fix baseball?

GUEST: Shi Davidi, senior baseball columnist, Sportsnet

Almost five years ago, one of the very first episodes of this podcast was about how baseball was a sport in decline. Games were too long, and too boring. The fan base was getting older and older, and younger generations didn't care. The game was less diverse and had less action, and attendance and ratings were declining.

In the years to follow, this problem grew worse and worse—until finally even the traditionalists at the heart of the sport realized the game they loved, and profited from, was becoming increasingly irrelevant.

So today, we visit the past, and the problem with baseball. Tomorrow, the solution ... if it works.

GUEST: Stephen Brunt, sportswriter

First it was a campaign promise. Then a key plank of the Liberal-NDP supply and confidence agreement. Then it morphed into drug pricing reforms, which were delayed, and changed and delayed and ... well, we're still waiting. Meanwhile, the organization that helped devise the plan has seen resignations, amid accusations that the federal Liberal government has caved to huge pharmaceutical companies.

The promise of pharmacare goes back decades in Canadian politics. For a while it seemed like it might be within reach, or at least we'd get price relief on expensive drugs for those without insurance. Instead, we're still in limbo. What happened?

GUEST: Dr. Danyaal Raza, family physician; Assistant Professor, University of Toronto Department of Family & Community Medicine

It's the most ambitious offshore mining project in Canadian history, and the fight for approvals has been long and arduous. That's because of both its scope, its dangers and the potential windfall to a province that badly needs it.

So what is Bay du Nord? What does it promise and what, exactly, are the risks? And how do you balance the need to phase out fossil fuels with the future of an entire province's economy?

GUEST: Lyndsie Bourgon, writing in Maclean's magazine