Featured Episodes - from scratch media

María Sifone grew up wondering why people stared uncomfortably at her sister's disability. She wasn't used to thinking of disability as difference and experienced none of the social awkwardness that some people exhibited around her sister. Here, María explores our discomfort with disability and profiles Centennial Infant and Child Centre's Preschool program where typically developing children laugh and learn alongside peers with complex needs.

Let's make mental health something we can talk about, says Olivia Quenneville. In this podcast, she calls attention to the work Jack.org is doing to normalize open conversation about mental health in an effort to improve and even save lives.

Nicole Laverty helps us understand social anxiety and the reasons why the Improv for Anxiety program at Toronto's Second City seems to be so helpful.

Mark grant looks at the changes taking place in Regent Park's Children's Book Bank. Not quite a library, not quite a bookstore, the Book Bank makes books freely available to children without membership cards or late fees, and it's thriving.

Courtney Ryckman looks at the case against Anita Krajnc, a Toronto Pig Save activist charged with mischief for giving water to pigs en route to slaughter. She explores the power of bearing witness to animal suffering and the criminalization of compassion for farm animals.

Alexandra Prochshenko profiles Hot Doc's new DocX project and the ethics of virtual reality documentary film. She asks whether these documentaries are more than cyberspace amusement parks for first world audiences.

In only 15 years, the number of devices connected to the internet has grown to ten billion. In this episode, Dennis explores the implications of this massive societal shift.

Adam and Lauren explore the ways in which citizen journalism has modernized the way journalists gather information. If citizens are their primary source, how do we know the information gathered is valid?

Rachael casts light on the online culture revolving around witchcraft that most of us know nothing about.

Rivawn reveals who is watching us and why we should care. Let’s be real, there’s no such thing as privacy online...

Madelaine points out that if it has ever made sense to call an illegal act “not that illegal,” it’s in the case of downloading copyrighted files. But our copyright laws just got revamped.

Eilish reminds us that 10% of the world can’t connect to the Internet. Approximately 4 billion people living in the poorest, rural areas of India, Africa and South America are at a huge disadvantage in our technologically dependent world.

Julia examines the ways Yelp has changed the food industry. What does the site have to say about the types of people who leave reviews?