As It Happens

As It Happens: Tuesday Edition

Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2017

Episode transcript

Part One

Quebec Justice Minister on face-covering
Quebec's Justice Minister would like to apologize for the lack of clarity around the province's ban on face-covering: it's not about targeting Muslim women, she says — it's about improving communication and safety. 

NXIVM case
It's billed as a self-help group. But according to a New York Times investigation, and our guest, a secret organization called NXIVM gave its members something far less constructive — and far more disturbing. 

Arachnophobia study
If you go around stomping on spiders, it's because arachnophobia is built in to us — and to reach this conclusion, all scientists had to do was show spiders to each experimental subject: a baby.  

Part Two

Syria doctor
A photo of a starving infant gives the world a shocking glimpse of what's happening in the Ghouta region of Syria — where, a doctor says, more than a thousand children are suffering from serious malnutrition. 

Nut allergy death
An Edmonton man with a nut allergy dies after inhaling particles from sandblasting, which contained traces of walnut shells — and now, his family is demanding new warning labels for industrial products. 

Part Three

Hawking PhD
You might think a doctoral thesis about the origins of the cosmos would be a crashing bore — but when that thesis is by Stephen Hawking, and it was offered for free online, it wound up crashing the website. 

Chow Quen Lee obit
Chow Quen Lee didn't just live a long life — although she was 105 when she died. She also lived a full life. And that life included joining a class-action lawsuit against the government over its Chinese head tax.