Episode 7 - Covering the opioid crisis with Marcus Gee

(July 9, 2021) What’s it like being a journalist captivated by a serious social issue? For the past two years, award winning journalist Marcus Gee has been writing about what some call the “other” pandemic—deaths from opioid overdose, an epidemic that’s killing 17 people a day in Canada, and that the health system is struggling to cope with. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the situation has become much worse. In some areas of the country, death by overdose has doubled. Marcus Gee has talked to, and written about, medical practitioners, opioid users, and the family and friends they sometimes leave behind. Their stories are full of loss, yet populated by real but suffering serious trauma–trauma they want the wider world to know about. We ask him how he goes about covering the story, why he started to report on it in the first place, what he’s found and if he see reasons for hope.

Talking UP is an interview show dedicated to writers, journalists and authors working on issues of social justice, equity, and the nonprofit sector. Guests talk about their reporting and research, what drives their work, and what’s important to them. Listeners will have the opportunity to widen their lens, develop their understanding and figure out where we might go from here.