The Sunday Edition for August 23, 2020

Listen to this week's episode with guest-host Kevin Sylvester:

Why Major League Baseball isn't doing enough to combat systemic racism: From the batting cage to the pitcher's mound, young Black baseball prospects face racist stereotypes and recruiters throughout their training and scouting. Baseball columnist Shakeia Taylor believes that even though the MLB puts on a good show of acting as though it cares about racism, the league is not doing nearly enough to change racist attitudes and provide Black players with equal opportunities.

We guard more secrets about salaries than about sex, and employers want to keep it that way: Those in a hiring position know what everyone earns, but employees are in the dark. That's because asking people how much money they make is a cultural taboo. Melanie Simms, a professor of work and employment at the University of Glasgow, believes it would be not only helpful, but subversive, if we were transparent about our salaries.

Writer Joan Didion says the only way she can deal with grief is to write through it (reprise): Novelist, screenwriter, playwright and journalist Joan Didion experienced two horrific losses in less than two years: the sudden death of her husband John Gregory Dunne, then the death of her daughter Quintana. Michael Enright spoke with her after the release of her book Blue Nights, a rumination on motherhood, frailty, ageing and loss.

Music this week by: Pierre Leduc, Obuxum, Soul Secret Agency, Myriad3 and El Michels Affair

Kevin Sylvester is a writer and illustrator. His books include The Almost Epic Squad: Mucus Mayhem, the Neil Flambé Capers (now at six books), and the MINRs trilogy. For more than a decade, he worked at CBC National Radio Sports as a reporter, producer, documentary-maker, writer and host. Sylvester covered several Olympic Games, and he won the B'nai Brith Human Rights Award in 1998 for "Black Ice," a documentary about racism in hockey.