Inmates recall seeing feces on the walls and using tampons for earplugs to drown out the constant screaming of other prisoners.

Today in Ontario, thousands more people are behind bars than just a few years ago. But the number of cells remains the same.

Reports of violence, lockdowns and inadequate healthcare are on the rise. Most inmates haven’t been tried yet and this is all happening while federal and provincial politicians debate new bail reform bills — legislation that could lead to even more accused people being incarcerated.

Julie Ireton brings us this documentary called “Catch 22”

Laura and Nick Bordignon fell in love with their daughter before she was born. They named her Makayla. They decorated her nursery. Nick snuggled up to Laura's stomach and read to her at night.

But seven months into the pregnancy Laura stopped feeling Makayla's movements, and doctors confirmed the worst. Makayla is one of about 3-thousand stillborn babies delivered every year in Canada. And despite the devastation that comes with that experience – stillbirth is seldom talked about. For many it’s still taboo. This is one family's story of confronting that taboo and advocating for better medical care for those who experience it.

When Arthur Arnold resigned from the Moscow Symphony Orchestra in protest of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, he walked away from one of the world's most prestigious symphony stages. This decision would bring him a world away, to Powell River, British Columbia, a town tucked between the ocean and the mountains with a population of 13,000.

This town is at a crossroads. Two years ago, its economic heart, a massive pulp and paper mill, shut down. The plant closure left residents wondering what would come next.

But some are hoping that the city’s past could help define its future. There’s a deep history of arts and culture that goes back to the very beginnings of Powell River. And now with people like Arthur Arnold bringing in world class musicians and building an arts hub in town - there’s hope that music could help fill the void left by the loss of the pulp and paper industry.

Produced by Liz Hoath and Joan Webber.

Storylines is part of the CBC Audio Doc Unit

(This episode first aired in September, 2025)

In this episode, we step inside a Toronto classroom where some 30 students from diverse backgrounds lift their voices and sing as part of the University of Toronto’s first-ever Black gospel choir class. Led by Professor Darren Hamiliton, the students, many with no background in gospel music, learn that there is more to this musical tradition than they imagined.

In this documentary, Let it Shine, CBC doc producer Alisa Siegel follows these students over the course of the academic year as they discover a deeper understanding of Black musical tradition and its message of faith, freedom and joy.

Produced by Alisa Siegel, with thanks to Julia Pagel and Greg Kelly and originally aired on The Current

Storylines is part of the CBC Audio Doc Unit

(This is a repeat epiosde)

Stephanie Azzarello was dying. To survive, doctors told her she needed to find someone willing to donate part of their liver.

Her story went out on social media and late one night, it reached the phone of a nurse and mother in Portland Oregon. There was something about Stephanie’s story that made Trisha Beard want to help.

Liz Hoath brings us this story about two women whose lives became intertwined because of an act of generosity. Storylines is part of the CBC Audio Doc Unit

(This show first aired in Sept. 2025)

In July 2024, seven fishermen from around New-Wes-Valley, Newfoundland set out on their fishing boat in search of turbot.

While at sea that day a fire broke out near the engine room, before long the bunkroom was full of smoke. The seven sailors had no choice but to abandon ship and before long they were sitting in a small life-raft.

What followed was a 52-hour ordeal that tested not just their will to survive, but the bonds between them. The situation could not have been more dire, two of the men couldn’t swim, supplies were dwindling and a thick fog hampered rescue efforts.

In this documentary, 52 Hours Lost at Sea, find out what it was like to spend more than two days adrift in the North Atlantic.

Produced by Mary-Catherine McIntosh and the Audio documentary unit / the doc originally aired on The Current.

Storylines is part of the CBC Audio Doc Unit

(This show first aired on Feb. 2025)

One Yukon community is fighting back against wildfires with an unlikely weapon —trees. The plan seems counterintuitive, using trees to stop a fire, but Aspens are fire-resistant unlike the flammable trees like spruces and pines found around the city. But growing the almost two million trees to make the firebreak isn’t easy. It’s going to take a lot of hard work and a lot of little seeds. But if it works, it could be a game changer.

Storylines is part of the CBC Audio Doc Unit

Complaints are common. Cormorants kill trees. They eat too many fish. Their colonies stink.

Warren Hoselton has had enough. After three years of watching his beloved trees around his Ontario home be decimated by cormorant poop, he wants action. The birds have to go.

But not everyone has a hate-on for cormorants. Avian ecologists say it's not fair to fault birds for doing what nature designed them to do.

The ones living in a park on the edges of Canada’s largest city, reached 20,000 this year, angering locals worried about their impact. In Toronto, they’re trying to relocate them. Elsewhere, hunters shoot them.

All across North America cormorants make enemies because of the mess they leave behind.

Storylines is part of the CBC Audio Doc Unit