Podcast appearances and mentions of vicky mochama

How did Mark Carney erase a 20-point deficit in the polls and lead the Liberals to victory? Why did Pierre Poilievre's momentum hit a wall at the very worst time for Conservatives? Who should be the next leader of the NDP? Will the election results actually fuel separation sentiments in Alberta?  2:30 | Our Real Talk Group Chat Round Table - YWCA CEO Katherine O'Neill, comms strategist Jenny Adams, Edmonton city councillor Sarah Hamilton, lawyer Harman Kandola, and real estate broker Jarrett Campbell - dig into the election results, including early pressure on PM Mark Carney, Pierre Poilievre in a tough spot as Opposition Leader without a seat, and the future of the NDP. We're joined by Party All The Time host Vicky Mochama (8:45), Liberal MP-elect Corey Hogan (46:10), and Conservative MP-elect Mike Lake (1:47:30).  PARTY ALL THE TIME: https://youtu.be/faCnUZsxmcQ?si=NL0UCxMj7jUwGURi REGISTER FOR THE REAL TALK GOLF CLASSIC: https://www.ryanjespersen.com/real-ta... FOLLOW US ON TIKTOK, X, INSTAGRAM, and LINKEDIN: @realtalkrj & @ryanjespersen  JOIN US ON FACEBOOK: @ryanjespersen  REAL TALK MERCH: https://ryanjespersen.com/merch RECEIVE EXCLUSIVE PERKS - BECOME A REAL TALK PATRON: patreon.com/ryanjespersen THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING OUR SPONSORS! https://ryanjespersen.com/sponsors The views and opinions expressed in this show are those of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Relay Communications Group Inc. or any affiliates.

We're less than a week out from a hugely significant election. The Pope's just passed away. Alleged corruption plagues the Alberta government. The planet is on a road to ruin. But fear not...we've got inspiring takes on (nearly) all of it in this episode of Real Talk!  5:30 | Party All The Time host Vicky Mochama gives us her thoughts on Pope Francis' legacy and the significance of his death. We talk about a new Conservative ad campaign, diaspora voting, foreign policy positions, and key storylines with six days to go 'til Canada votes.  PARTY ALL THE TIME: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/party-all-the-time/id1803891407 24:15 | What prompted former deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk to file a conduct complaint with the Law Society aimed at Alberta's justice minister Mickey Amery and lawyer Matthew Lindsay? We ask him. 49:45 | Alberta researchers are advancing nature-based solutions to pressing environmental challenges facing prairie landscapes impacted by industry. Athabasca University's Dr. Srijak Bhatnagar and Lethbridge Polytechnic's Dr. Adriana Morrell explain how their collaboration could transform conservation efforts. READ MORE: https://www.athabascau.ca/news/research-and-innovation/science-and-environment/coalmine-grassland.html? TELL US WHAT YOU THINK: talk@ryanjespersen.com  REGISTER FOR THE REAL TALK GOLF CLASSIC: https://www.ryanjespersen.com/real-ta... FOLLOW US ON TIKTOK, X, INSTAGRAM, and LINKEDIN: @realtalkrj & @ryanjespersen  JOIN US ON FACEBOOK: @ryanjespersen  REAL TALK MERCH: https://ryanjespersen.com/merch RECEIVE EXCLUSIVE PERKS - BECOME A REAL TALK PATRON: patreon.com/ryanjespersen THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING OUR SPONSORS! https://ryanjespersen.com/sponsors The views and opinions expressed in this show are those of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Relay Communications Group Inc. or any affiliates.

Prank gone horribly wrong: Liberal staffers plant unflattering campaign buttons at a Conservative event, then blab all about it at the bar. What were they thinking? Pierre Poilievre says he's step outside the Charter to crack down on Canada's most violent criminals. Could he gain a few points with the public, or is it a risky move?  4:00 | Vicky Mochama talks Buttongate, Pierre Poilievre and the notwithstanding clause, climate change, and Donald Trump eyeing up Canada's critical minerals.  PARTY ALL THE TIME on Spotify: https://rtrj.info/PATTSpotify PARTY ALL THE TIME on Apple Podcasts: https://rtrj.info/PATTApplePodcasts PARTY ALL THE TIME on YouTube: https://rtrj.info/041325PATT 49:00 | Jespo and Johnny debrief on Buttongate and Trump's hot mic gaffe with El Salvador's president.  1:02:00 | California's governor is appealing to Canadian tourists. Would you travel to the States right now?  TELL US: talk@ryanjespersen.com  1:06:00 | Ryan's fired up on the tenth anniversary of an unsolved murder (though everybody knows who did it).  1:23:30 | Real Talker Don's not happy about Dr. Andy Knight's characterization of the Canadian Armed Forces in our April 14, 2025 episode. DR. ANDY KNIGHT ON REAL TALK: https://rtrj.info/041425Knight SUPPORT THE FULL HOUSE LOTTERY TODAY! https://fullhouse.ca/ REGISTER FOR THE REAL TALK GOLF CLASSIC: https://www.ryanjespersen.com/real-ta... FOLLOW US ON TIKTOK, X, INSTAGRAM, and LINKEDIN: @realtalkrj & @ryanjespersen  JOIN US ON FACEBOOK: @ryanjespersen  REAL TALK MERCH: https://ryanjespersen.com/merch RECEIVE EXCLUSIVE PERKS - BECOME A REAL TALK PATRON: patreon.com/ryanjespersen THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING OUR SPONSORS! https://ryanjespersen.com/sponsors The views and opinions expressed in this show are those of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Relay Communications Group Inc. or any affiliates.

This episode is all about the bottom line. With headlines screaming "Market Mayhem," what's the average investor supposed to think, let alone do? Is now a good time to buy? Or is it time to sell before things get worse? And...whatever happened to election campaigns that were supposed to be all about AFFORDABILITY? 4:50 | We check in with Marshall McAlister, president at North Road Investment Counsel, for a steady perspective on the stock market responding to Donald Trump's tariffs.  CHECK OUT NORTH ROAD INVESTMENT COUNSEL: https://www.northroadic.com/ 24:15 | Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper makes a rare campaign appearance in Nisku, just south of Edmonton, endorsing Pierre Poilievre for PM. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith claps back at Mark Carney, saying she "will not shut up". 41:00 | Vicky Mochama takes a mortgage affordability test for everybody to witness, as we check in with the host of Canada's newest must-listen political podcast Party All The Time. Are the big campaigns hitting or missing the mark with housing policy? What's in it for renters?  PARTY ALL THE TIME // EPISODE TWO: https://rtrj.info/040725PATT 1:20:00 | Some Edmonton renters just saw their rents triple overnight. Is rent control a possibility in Alberta? (The government says hell no.) Nurses have a big new deal. Jespo and Johnny take a look at stories making news.  TELL US WHAT YOU THINK: talk@ryanjespersen.com  REGISTER FOR THE REAL TALK GOLF CLASSIC: https://www.ryanjespersen.com/real-ta... JOIN US APRIL 12 at the ICCHANGE GALA: https://www.icchange.ca/2025gala FOLLOW US ON TIKTOK, X, INSTAGRAM, and LINKEDIN: @realtalkrj & @ryanjespersen  JOIN US ON FACEBOOK: @ryanjespersen  REAL TALK MERCH: https://ryanjespersen.com/merch RECEIVE EXCLUSIVE PERKS - BECOME A REAL TALK PATRON: patreon.com/ryanjespersen THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING OUR SPONSORS! https://ryanjespersen.com/sponsors The views and opinions expressed in this show are those of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Relay Communications Group Inc. or any affiliates.

Paul Chiang is out as the Liberal candidate in Markham-Unionville after suggesting a political opponent should be turned over to Chinese authorities. Mark McKenzie is out as the Conservative candidate in Windsor after a podcast interview surfaced wherein he calls for Justin Trudeau's, er, execution.  3:15 | Was standing by Chiang (for a day or two, anyway) Mark Carney's biggest mistake to date? We talk to Vicky Mochama, host of the new political podcast Party All The Time.  CHECK OUT PARTY ALL THE TIME: https://rtrj.info/PATTepisodeone 40:00 | The Full House Lottery Early Bird deadline is looming! Don't miss your shot at Alberta's biggest Early Bird value: 31 cars in 31 days! Lindsay Robertson, VP at the Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation, takes us into the $2.25M Legacy dream home (and Jespo's dream lake getaway - the Fritz Tiny Home), trips for life, and the life-saving services the Full House Lottery supports. BUY YOUR TICKETS TODAY: https://fullhouse.ca/ TOUR THE LEGACY DREAM HOME: https://youtu.be/HQ0ilISYo1g?si=aVeHRnkALlcbLBRZ 58:45 | Real Talker Sarah heard a rumour about the Mike Myers/Mark Carney ads, Janelle says there's no way Trump wrote that post about the call with Carney, Jim in B.C. says our Group Chat Round Table (March 31) missed the mark on a few things, and Sean's reminiscing about Conservative parties in past.  WATCH SEAN'S FUTURE OF FOOD EPISODE: https://www.youtube.com/live/AMsK380FbLM?si=CX05Hg2ZQSHvfiS4&t=1 1:12:45 | Jespo and Johnny have details about our YouTube channel memberships, a new perk - the Real Talk Community Chat, and an exclusive event on April 17 for our Real Talk Patrons.  SUPPORT REAL TALK on PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/c/ryanjespersen 1:23:00 | It's our first Two Million View video!  PAY LESS FOR INTERNET, ELECTRICITY, and NATURAL GAS: https://parkpower.ca/realtalk/ REGISTER FOR THE REAL TALK GOLF CLASSIC: https://www.ryanjespersen.com/real-ta... JOIN US APRIL 12 at the ICCHANGE GALA: https://www.icchange.ca/2025gala FOLLOW US ON TIKTOK, X, INSTAGRAM, and LINKEDIN: @realtalkrj & @ryanjespersen  JOIN US ON FACEBOOK: @ryanjespersen  REAL TALK MERCH: https://ryanjespersen.com/merch RECEIVE EXCLUSIVE PERKS - BECOME A REAL TALK PATRON: patreon.com/ryanjespersen THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING OUR SPONSORS! https://ryanjespersen.com/sponsors The views and opinions expressed in this show are those of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Relay Communications Group Inc. or any affiliates.

Pollsters are starting to talk about a Mark Carney majority government. What a twist from just a few months ago, when it appeared Pierre Poilievre would cake walk his way to the PMO. Should Conservatives be hitting the panic button, or is there enough time to turn this trend around?  2:30 | Every Friday through the campaign, we're working with the policy firm Meredith, Boseenkool, and Phillips to present conversations across the political specetrum. This week, it's Rahim Mohamed and Shannon Phillips summing up Week One of the campaign, debating Danielle Smith's appearance with Ben Shapiro at a fundraiser in Florida, and allegations Mark Carney cheated on his PhD dissertation at Oxford.  TELL US WHAT YOU THINK: leave a comment below!  1:01:30 | Should Pierre Poilievre grow a beard? We ask AI to cook up a couple photos for your review in this very serious and undeniably insightful segment.  1:12:45 | We're thrilled to be working with Vicky Mochama on the new podcast Party All The Time. Episode One is out - subscribe, check it out, and let us know what you think!  PARTY ALL THE TIME ON APPLE PODCASTS: https://rtrj.info/PATTApplePodcasts PARTY ALL THE TIME ON SPOTIFY: https://rtrj.info/PATTSpotify PARTY ALL THE TIME TRAILER: https://rtrj.info/PATTTrailer 1:19:45 | Jenny and Nathan have no time for Premier Danielle Smith's trip to Florida, Ron doesn't like what he's hearing about Alberta separating from Canada, Michael calls out the Kool-Aid drinkers, and Brian has a question for "51st State" supporters. It's The Flamethrower presented by the DQs of Northwest Edmonton and Sherwood Park!  FIRE UP YOUR FLAMETHROWER: talk@ryanjespersen.com  When you visit the DQs in Palisades, Namao, Newcastle, Westmount, and Baseline Road, be sure to tell 'em Real Talk sent you!  PAY LESS FOR INTERNET, ELECTRICITY, and NATURAL GAS: https://parkpower.ca/realtalk/ KNOCK 50% OFF an annual subscription to Alberta Views with the promo code AVRJ: https://albertaviews.ca/ REGISTER FOR THE REAL TALK GOLF CLASSIC: https://www.ryanjespersen.com/real-ta... JOIN US APRIL 12 at the ICCHANGE GALA: https://www.icchange.ca/2025gala FOLLOW US ON TIKTOK, X, INSTAGRAM, and LINKEDIN: @realtalkrj & @ryanjespersen  JOIN US ON FACEBOOK: @ryanjespersen  REAL TALK MERCH: https://ryanjespersen.com/merch RECEIVE EXCLUSIVE PERKS - BECOME A REAL TALK PATRON: patreon.com/ryanjespersen THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING OUR SPONSORS! https://ryanjespersen.com/sponsors The views and opinions expressed in this show are those of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Relay Communications Group Inc. or any affiliates.

NEW SHOW ALERT! We're proud to be partnering with host Vicky Mochama on a brand new weekly news and politics show about the big personalities, bigger issues and pettiest dramas in Canada. Catch new episodes of Party All The Time every Friday through the federal election campaign right here on our YouTube channel and wherever you get your podcasts.   9:00 | Just a few days into the federal election campaign, the politician catching the most headlines isn't even a federal leader. We talk to Vicky about Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's comments to Breitbart and why so many Canadians are pushing back. We get into CSIS revelations re: Indian interference in the 2022 Conservative leadership race won by Pierre Poilievre, and the unbelievable story of a journalist mistakenly included in a government group chat about bombing missions in Yemen. (Let us know what you think about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's response in the comments!) PARTY ALL THE TIME ON APPLE PODCASTS: https://rtrj.info/PATTApplePodcasts PARTY ALL THE TIME ON SPOTIFY: https://rtrj.info/PATTSpotify PARTY ALL THE TIME TRAILER: https://rtrj.info/PATTTrailer 1:06:00 | "If Carney stays, Alberta leaves." A particularly loud group of Albertans say they'll campaign to separate from Canada if the Liberals win the election. Do you take this stuff seriously? Jespo and Johnny discuss, with feedback on the Real Talk Live Chat powered by Park Power. SAVE BIG WITH PARK POWER: https://parkpower.ca/realtalk/ KNOCK 50% OFF an annual subscription to Alberta Views with the promo code AVRJ: https://albertaviews.ca/ REGISTER FOR THE REAL TALK GOLF CLASSIC: https://www.ryanjespersen.com/real-ta... FOLLOW US ON TIKTOK, X, INSTAGRAM, and LINKEDIN: @realtalkrj & @ryanjespersen  JOIN US ON FACEBOOK: @ryanjespersen  REAL TALK MERCH: https://ryanjespersen.com/merch RECEIVE EXCLUSIVE PERKS - BECOME A REAL TALK PATRON: patreon.com/ryanjespersen THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING OUR SPONSORS! https://ryanjespersen.com/sponsors The views and opinions expressed in this show are those of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Relay Communications Group Inc. or any affiliates.

A shortage of Black-led and Black-serving social infrastructure spaces in north Etobicoke Scarborough where Somalis predominantly live has led to the creation of the Somali Centre for Culture and Recreation. Now all the group needs is a permanent location to serve the community. TVO's diversity reporter Vicky Mochama discusses the progress on that goal.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What was life like during the COVID-19 pandemic? A group called Filipinas of HamOnt put the call out to their community to document their experiences through art, writing or video storytelling. Those expressions are being contained in an archive at Hamilton Public Library. TVO's diversity journalist Vicky Mochama tells us how the project helped the women find the Filipinx community in Hamilton.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In November, Sikh Nation will be running donation events across Ontario to combat blood shortage. Experts say there's a pressing need for diverse donors. TVO.org's diversity reporter Vicky Mochama discusses barriers to blood donation, why specialized matching is important, and how similar initiatives are needed.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Queen Elizabeth II died on Thursday at the age of 96. She was on the throne for 70 years, making her the longest-reigning British monarch in history. Her rule was marked by modernizing the monarchy, increased philanthropy, timeless fashion and the occasional joke.While the Queen was widely beloved, the popularity of the monarchy has been waning here in Canada and elsewhere. Vicky Mochama, royals writer and contributor to The Globe, tells us about the Queen's life and legacy, and how we might reckon with the monarchy now that she is gone.

It's been six months since the COVID-19 pandemic threw everything up in the air. And if politics slid into the background in the early days, they came roaring back this summer. The WE scandal for the Liberals, a new leader for the Conservatives, and election talk bubbling up as the fall session approaches. To catch up, The Agenda welcomes Shachi Kurl, executive director of the non-partisan public opinion research organization, the Angus Reid Institute; Sean Speer, professor at the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy; Jeffrey Simpson, former Globe and Mail national affairs columnist, now a fellow at the University of Ottawa; and journalist Vicky Mochama.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In recent years—and especially during the Covid pandemic—lots of people have touted the benefits of Canada’s universal health care system. But how universal is it?In Canada, the umbrella of universal health care excludes many services that are essential to Canadians. This includes dentistry, the bulk of mental health services and, most crucially, pharmaceuticals. Even before the pandemic hit in March 2020, Canadians were having trouble paying for their prescription drugs. According to a report from the Canadian Nurses’ Union, one in 10 Canadians don’t take their medications regularly because they can’t afford the out-of-pocket costs. Most health care workers have been aware of our system’s shortcomings for some time. In this episode of No Little Plans, host Vicky Mochama speaks with Danyaal Raza, a primary care physician at the Department of Family & Community Medicine at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. He’s also the Board Chair of Canadian Doctors for Medicare, an organization of physicians who’ve banded together to close the gaps in the publicly funded system. In Ontario, where Dr. Raza works, there is a publicly funded pharmacare system, but people only qualify for it if they’re young enough, old enough or poor enough. Others get coverage from their jobs, if they’re lucky to have a job with benefits. According to Dr. Raza:“There's this huge gap right in the middle. People who are working part-time, precarious work, freelancers, people who are in the working poor, who are having to make some very significant decisions about what to pay for.” As of 2018, 2.1 million Canadians were working contract—and therefore non-benefit—jobs, and Dr. Raza cites a study from the Canadian Medical Association Journal reporting that many Canadians are cutting down on utilities and groceries in order to afford their prescriptions. When patients can’t pay for their medications, Dr. Raza says, doctors often dip into their own supplies to help them get the drugs they need. At his own clinic at St. Michael’s Hospital, they have what they call a “comfort fund” to help needy patients, and they regularly fundraise to help fill that gap. And the problem is only getting worse in the Covid era, as thousands of Canadians are losing their jobs and drug plans.“The beautiful thing about hospital and physician care is that you just need your health card, and you get the care that you need. That's what we need for prescription drugs, particularly in times where we're facing such a high degree of economic uncertainty and of uncertainty with respect to our health”When a patient is dealing with chronic health problems, the inability to afford their prescriptions adds a significant mental burden on top of their existing illness. In this episode, Mochama spoke to Rowan Burdge, a patient advocate who lives with Type 1 diabetes on the west coast and requires multiple daily injections of insulin. The Nurses’ Union estimates that “57 per cent of Canadians with diabetes reported failing to adhere to their prescribed therapies due to affordability issues related to medications, devices and supplies.” Burdge says that in her own experience, access and costs of medication vary wildly depending on where you live—when she moved to Saskatchewan for a year and a half, the same medications that cost her $300 in B.C. suddenly cost her $700. She is currently covered by a provincial drug plan, her work benefits and private insurance, and she still often has to pay out of pocket to cover her insulin. Her private insurance, for example, has a cap of $5,000 per year. Last year, she went so far as to crowdfund coverage on GoFundMe.“I've spent upwards of $100,000 of my personal money on medication—on fair pharmacare copays, on prescription co-pays, on deductibles and limits and things like that. It's been a very expensive ride”Toward the end of the episode, Mochama spoke to Dr. Jacalyn Duffin, a medical historian and retired hematologist at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. She also runs a website devoted to the issue of drug shortages in Canada. She first became interested in the subject about a decade ago, when a patient with metastatic breast cancer could not obtain a drug to control the nausea caused by her chemotherapy. On any given day, there are more than 1,500 drugs in short supply in Canada, she says—often, these shortages are due to problems with pricing, sourcing and manufacturing. Dr. Duffin wants Canada to create an “essential medicines” list, which would require the government to ensure the availability of certain drugs. Dr. Nav Persaud, who works in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at St. Michael’s Hospital, has created a prototype of this list. In a study, he found that distributing these essential medicines for free leads to a 44-per-cent increase in adherence, as well as improved health outcomes.Says Dr. Duffin:“A lot of Canadians don't know that there is a drug shortage until they're affected by it. We need to maintain a concerted effort to get to the bottom of the drug shortages and find out the cause.”CREDITS: No Little Plans is hosted by Vicky Mochama. This episode was produced by Ellen Payne Smith  with executive production by Katie Jensen. This podcast was created by Strategic Content Labs by Vocal Fry Studios for Community Foundations of Canada. Subscribe or listen to us via the outlets above, and follow us at @nolittlepodcast on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Meanwhile, like Daniel Burnham said: “Make big plans; aim high in hope and work.”

Carla Qualtrough, Employment Minister; Jagmeet Singh, NDP Leader; Perry Bellegarde, Assembly of First Nations; Kevin Gallagher, CTV News; Denise Balkissoon, Chatelaine; Yves Giroux, Parliamentary Budget Officer; Vicky Mochama, The Conversation. *The viewpoints expressed in this podcast represent the opinions of the host and participants as of the date of publication and are not intended to be a substitute for medical advice and best practices by leading medical authorities as the information surrounding the current coronavirus pandemic is constantly evolving.

Richard Madan, CTV News; Bishop Harding Smith, Minnesota Acts Now; Ahmed Hussen, Social Development Minister; Sandy Hudson, Black Lives Matter; Robyn Maynard, Author, ’Policing Black Lives: State violence in Canada from slavery to the the present’; Kennedy Stewart, Vancouver Mayor; Glen McGregor, CTV News; Vicky Mochama, The Conversation; Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, University of Toronto.  *The viewpoints expressed in this podcast represent the opinions of the host and participants as of the date of publication and are not intended to be a substitute for medical advice and best practices by leading medical authorities as the information surrounding the current coronavirus pandemic is constantly evolving.

By 2030, those over 65 will account for 23 percent of the population. The Covid-19 pandemic has put the lives of seniors under a spotlight. Getting online - especially right now - can mean the difference between getting food to your house, connecting with family, and getting the vital information you need to protect yourself. When digital literacy isn't promoted across all ages of society, what do we risk losing?For most of us, Zoom calls with family members, online exercise classes, ordering food for delivery and any manner of Google-able things have been mandatory to our mental and physical health during the pandemic. But for older Canadians, it’s different. Many seniors lack a basic access to these lifelines. Researchers put it down to “digital ageism”—the subject of this episode of No Little Plans.Canada is aging. By 2030, 23 per cent of the population will consist of Canadians over 65, a cohort that we’ve been hearing will live longer than ever before. All of our assumptions on healthy ageing, however, have been overshadowed in the last few months by Covid-19. The crisis has made us examine how much the systems we have in place in society are failing older people, how ill-prepared we are to protect the spread of the virus in assisted living facilities—and how far we have yet to come in improving seniors’ capacity to stay informed, safe and cared for in an increasingly networked world.As Concordia University’s Kim Sawchuk explains in this episode, digital ageism is fundamentally about the denial of services to older people. Sawchuk is a professor of Communication Studies at the university. She’s written on age, ageing and its cultural impact since 1996. She is also a principal investigator Ageing + Communication + Technologies (ACT), a project that brings together researchers and partners to address how new forms of communication affect the experience of ageing.“We need to provide access to people in their post-retirement years to devices and services,” Sawchuk argues. “We do not need to blame older people for not knowing.” Instead of the bias directed at seniors—that they’re somehow unable to learn new skills—Sawchuk makes the case for more access to digital literacy programs, plus a policy shift that make the internet and data in general more affordable to those on fixed incomes. “We need to lower the cost of access. We need to get rid of exorbitant punitive fees for data overages,” she says. “If we value universal health care and citizenship, we have to think about the universal right to access in this country.”To find out more about the relationship of seniors to digital literacy, we spoke with Craig Silverman, the media editor of BuzzFeed. His team recently published a series of stories on the website under the banner “Protect Your Parents from the Internet Week.”Silverman recalls the idea took root in early 2019, when he read independent research about Twitter and Facebook that noted people over 65 were struggling to distinguish between credible news and false claims online. He also points to “a generational susceptibility to the role algorithms play” in targeting content to demographics and user types. “All of us to some extent can fall to disinformation or misinformation,” Silverman notes, but his research discovered senior citizens were particularly prone to believing the misinformation, and to falling prey to malware and to online scams.One of his takeaways for how to fix this problem goes back to the idea of broader education: Silverman points out that we have a wide array of digital literacy programs for school-aged students, but not nearly the same for those over 65. Filling that gap, he says, are public libraries with their roster of digital literacy programs tailored to various age groups and communities. Still, more needs to be done.The way Kim Sawchuk sees it, everyone, no matter their age, should be able to engage in using technology “with joy and not stress.” In making this episode, we discovered a perfect example of this principle. We dropped in on a virtual gathering of members of RECAA, an organization in Montreal that advocates for senior communities. (The full name is Respecting Elder Communities Against Abuse.) The Zoom call was a rehearsal for members of an elder choir and their choir master—pure joy hearing and seeing those voices lift each other up.Seventy-seven year old Anne Caines, a volunteer coordinator at RECAA, spoke to us about how members of the organization call each other elders instead of seniors. “Elders, for us, denotes a relationship rather than a category or demographic group,” she said.When the conversation turned to the pandemic, Caines made a point of touching on the invaluable nature of digital literacy and how her peers lack the technology to stay in touch with their community. “Why can’t we see our loved ones?” she asked. Why can’t we get more older Canadians connected to the people they need most—at a time when they need it most of all?CREDITS: No Little Plans is hosted by Vicky Mochama. This episode was produced by Ellen Payne Smith and Jay Cockburn, with executive production by Katie Jensen. This podcast was created by Strategic Content Labs by Vocal Fry Studios for Community Foundations of Canada. Subscribe or listen to us via the outlets above, and follow us at @nolittlepodcast on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Meanwhile, like Daniel Burnham said: “Make big plans; aim high in hope and work.”

The term ecological grief captures the profound sense of loss, dread and fear people feel when trying to cope with climate change. We talk about this new mental-health paradigm, how acute it is in endangered communities in the North, as well as its unexpected companion—hope. In late 2019, New York Times journalist Cara Buckley wrote one of the first mainstream news stories about struggling with a little-discussed form of mental-health crisis. “Have you ever known someone who cited the Anthropocene in a dating profile? Who doled out carbon offset gift certificates at the holidays? Who sees new babies and immediately flashes to the approximately 15 tons of carbon emissions the average American emits per year? Who walks around shops thinking about where all the packaging ends up? You do now.” Perplexed about how to cope, she went about “searching for a cure” for a knot of emotions—including anger, frustration, sadness and fear—brought on by thinking about the future of the planet. (That search included attending a workshop in Brooklyn called  “Cultivating Active Hope: Living With Joy Amidst the Climate Crisis.”) Like countless others, Buckley was suffering from ecological grief. It’s not technically new. For arguably hundreds of years, people with a connection to the environment and its well-being have suffered in the face of its destruction. But the term ecological grief was coined in 2018 by authors of a research publication, including Ashlee Cunsolo, director of the Labrador Institute of Memorial University. In this episode of No Little Plans, Cunsolo talks at length with host Vicky Mochama about her experience, starting with a definition: “Ecological grief is the pain that people feel in connection to the loss of something that isn’t human. It can be as a species. It can be a body of water. It can be a singular animal. It can be a beloved place.” That pain is particularly acute with those who live or work in endangered communities. Cunsolo is one of them. The Labrador Institute is a leading centre of research, education, outreach and policy, by and for the North. Cunsolo and her small team spent two years investigating one of the hardest hit areas, Northern Labrador, which included hundreds of conversations with residents and elders. There, mourning losses due to climate change was described to her as a 'grief without end.' “It’s not like when you lose a loved one. Societies have structures around that. We have rituals. We have funerals. You can take bereavement leave. People come around you…. When it was around ecological grief and loss, people almost felt alone. They felt sometimes embarrassed, sometimes ashamed to talk about it.” Preventing that isolation—by taking about eco grief as a real, scientific issue—is one of the key factors that motivates Cunsolo’s research. In fact, the field some now call “ecopsychology” is enabling a more widespread acknowledgment of the psychological and emotional connections that people have to the natural world, whether they’re bearing day-to-day witness to loss in the North or dealing with the anxiety from a distance, like Cara Buckley describes in her New York Times story. One of the most prominent voices of eco grief is also one of the most visible leaders of the climate movement. Greta Thunberg and her family have spoken often about her personal struggles. For Thunberg and for other young leaders, such as Indigenous water activist Autumn Peltier, the personal is the political. Their work starts with acknowledging the very presence of a physical and emotional environment-to-human bond. During this podcast episode, Vicky talks to Hillary McGregor, a 22-year-old coordinator at Indigenous Sport and Wellness in Ontario who helped develop a leadership program for Indigenous youth in Canada called the Standing Bear Program. Many youth, he says, have seen first-hand the effects of the climate crisis on their communities. This underscores a disconnect between their front-line experience and the more existential climate change debates among politicians and policymakers. “[The youth] are not really questioning whether or not climate change is happening. They want to know: What are the solutions going to be? How can I contribute now to make things better for my community?” That pivot from experiencing loss to being proactive is key to carving out space for hope—that unexpected but necessary companion to eco grief. Near the end of the episode, we hear from Hillary’s mother, Deborah McGregor, an associate professor and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Environmental Justice at York University’s Osgoode Hall. Professor McGregor acknowledges that eco grief is real, but not new, and that pain of this kind has been a fact of life across hundreds of years for Indigenous communities. She tracks the progression of grief to panic about the annihilation of the planet and, in turn, to a scaling up of measures by front-liners to demand change. “It's been a crisis for a long time. But Indigenous peoples have managed to survive and been resilient and adapted over that. So maybe there’s something that we can offer other people about how to survive, how to work through this and the kind of knowledge and skills that you need to be able to do that.” This includes better governance that enlists people witnessing climate-change first hand in leadership roles. It includes pressuring world leaders to move past the high-level discussions about, for instance, whether carbon tax is a good idea. As host Vicky Mochama concludes: “Maybe it’s time we took a step back and listened to the people that climate change is affecting directly and learn from them. We are past the point of figuring it out as we go. But there’s also hope and resilience: Youth have come out all over to address climate change. We’re grieving together. It’s time to act together.” CREDITS: No Little Plans is hosted by Vicky Mochama. This episode was produced by Dorsa Eslami, Ellen Payne Smith and Matthew McKinnon, with executive production by Katie Jensen. This podcast was created by Strategic Content Labs by Vocal Fry Studios for Community Foundations of Canada. Subscribe or listen to us via the outlets above, and follow us at @nolittlepodcast on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Meanwhile, like Daniel Burnham said: “Make big plans; aim high in hope and work.”

The Sustainable Development Goals aim to improve the most important things about life on Earth. The prevention and treatment of substance abuse is targeted by SDG 3, Health and Wellbeing—but drug use is a shadow that cuts across the path of so many others, and therefore merits special attention. We talk about that. In the early 1990s, someone thought this public service announcement was a good idea. Thirty years later, the accidental anthem has become a bemusing relic of the war on drugs—which was already decades old, and had proven itself interminable, when this first aired on Canadian television. Two years ago, the Government of Canada ended almost a century of marijuana prohibition by passing Bill C-45, or the Cannabis Act. So far, the rollout of legal pot from coast to coast to coast has had its highs and lows. Most pointedly, the black market is still thriving, with Statistics Canada estimating that about three quarters of the country’s cannabis users are still getting high on an illegal supply. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health’s earnest Cannabis in Canada website is chock full of educational resources, health information, travel tips, business requirements and more—including PSAs for the modern era. In 1993, British Columbia’s chief coroner investigated an “inordinately high number” of drug-related deaths within the context of a “very real and very serious” problem with illegal drug use. At the time, there had been 330 such deaths in the province. That was the highest number B.C. had ever experienced, and the event is widely remembered as the country’s first overdose epidemic. By three years ago, that same statistic had soared to 1,473 lives lost annually—an increase of more than 400 percent in a generation’s time. All the while, considerable attention has focused on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES), a neighbourhood with inordinately high rates of mental illness and drug addiction among its homeless and housing insecure populations. Across the country, other urban centres have similarly troubled communities, but the current opioid crisis does not discriminate. Overdose deaths are unquestionably a national happening, with a body count of almost 14,000 between January 2016 to June 2019. Drug overdoses are currently claiming more Canadian lives than motor vehicle accidents and homicides combined. Today’s street drugs are incredibly strong, with scores of addicts at daily risk of their next shot being the one that will end them. Last December, the Public Health Agency of Canada released this statement: Many of these deaths are a result of the contamination of the illegal drug supply with toxic substances. Fentanyl and other illegal and highly toxic synthetic opioids continue to be a major driver of this crisis… The opioid overdose crisis is a complex problem that we know will take time to turn around. To have a significant and lasting impact, we need to continue working together on whole-of-society changes. This includes addressing the stigma that surrounds substance use, implementing further harm reduction measures and reducing barriers to treatment. It also means continuing to work together to better understand and address the drivers of this crisis, such as mental illness, and social and economic factors that put Canadians at increased risk. Crackdown is a podcast about “the drug war, covered by drug users as war correspondents.” Host and executive producer Garth Mullins is a journalist and radio producer who survived the DTES of the early ’90s, back when B.C. experienced that first wave of alarming deaths. He is a careful, empathetic interviewer who is wide open about sharing his own history of drug use. We recommend a visit to Crackdown’s website to hear the dozen episodes that they have made so far. Or just find and follow the show on iTunes, Spotify or another podcast provider. It tells stories you will not hear elsewhere, from a perspective you might not think to consider. Marilou Gagnon (RN, PhD) is president of the Harm Reduction Nurses Association (hrna-aiirm.ca), a professional organization with a national mission to “promote the advancement of harm reduction nursing through practice, education, research and advocacy.” In practice, this results in actions including: “Serving as a national voice for harm reduction and related nursing issues” “Creating a dynamic network to support and mentor nurses across the country” “Advocating for the rights and dignity of people who use drugs and their families” Last summer, acting in a direct response to the opioid crisis, HRNA called for the decriminalization of people who use drugs in B.C.—which, notice, is different than the decriminalization of drugs. “This is a critical way forward to address the overdose crisis and to promote greater health, wellbeing, justice, and equity at an individual and population level,” the group’s statement concluded. “Additional steps include ensuring access to a safer supply of substances, housing, mental health services, treatment, support, and harm reduction services.” Nicole Kief, formerly of the ACLU, is a legal advocate for Prisoners’ Legal Services in B.C. This role puts her near another front line of the current crisis: federal and provincial prisons. According to the Correction Service of Canada, overdoses and overdose deaths among prisoners more than doubled within a five-year period spanning 2012 to 2017. The Office of the Correctional Investigator’s 2017–2018 annual report includes the remarkable fact that there are now “more drug detector dogs working in federal penitentiaries than in the entire Canada Border Services Agency.” During the past several years, Kief and her colleagues have fielded a growing number of pleas for assistance with a pair of drug-related issues: one, unbearably long waiting lists for Methadose and other “opioid agonist” treatments; and two, forced cold-turkey withdrawals from high-dose addictions. Prisoners’ Legal Services appealed to the Correction Service on both fronts—and got nowhere. In June 2018, the group filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission. That did something. Since then, Kief says there’s been a noticeable drop in prisoner reports about both issues. Near the end of this episode, host Vicky Mochama reads the following quotation from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes: Many of the communities and people caught up in the drugs trade, whether users, small-scale traffickers, producers or cultivators, often constitute the most vulnerable and marginalised segments of society, the “further behind” which the SDGs have endeavoured to reach first. This, in a nutshell, is why we’ve made this episode. And below, in six minutes, is how to administer a potentially life-saving shot of Naxolone to a person who is overdosing on opioids. These injection kits are widely—and freely—available in Canadian pharmacies, and offered with hands-on training similar to what’s depicted in this video.CREDITS: No Little Plans is hosted by Vicky Mochama. This episode was produced by Dorsa Eslami, Ellen Payne Smith, Jay Cockburn, and Matthew McKinnon, with executive production by Katie Jensen. This podcast was created by Strategic Content Labs by Vocal Fry Studios for Community Foundations of Canada. Subscribe or listen to us via the outlets above, and follow us at @nolittlepodcast on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Meanwhile, like Daniel Burnham said: “Make big plans; aim high in hope and work.”

In season three, episode four of Pull Quotes the shares the highlights of the Ryerson Review of Journalism’s recent event: JournalismXActivism: In Conversation with Desmond Cole. Host Ashley Fraser sat down for a live chat with Desmond Cole to navigate the line between activism and journalism. Then, host Tanja Saric and journalist Vicky Mochama join in on this episode of Pull Quotes to talk Twitter and controlling your brand. Contributors: Ashley Fraser (chief podcast editor), Tanja Saric (podcast producer) and Sean Young (guest producer) with technical production help from Angela Glover and Lindsay Hanna. Pull Quotes executive producer is Sonya Fatah.

Rihanna sang it and we are going to talk about it: work work work. The good news is that lots of people in Canada are working. In December , we hit a record low in unemployment, and it’s stayed low. As for the economy, there are lots of ways to measure that, but suffice it to say, it’s growing. Here’s the catch though: the figures are good, but the work? Not necessarily. From the rise of apps like Uber, Fiverr and Foodora to the increase in AI and automation, workers in 2019 are dealing with a totally new landscape. This statistic has been flirting with historic lows since last autumn, as the number of jobless Canadian adults has ranged between 5.4 and 5.8 percent over the past 12 months. However, much of the change has been attributed to increases in self-employment—a trend that economists tend to regard with skepticism. “Meh. Looking past the new record low in the unemployment rate, this report was a bit on the soft side,” TD Bank senior economist Brian DePratto told CBC News in May, as the jobless rate dipped to 5.4. “All of the job gains (and then some) are down to self-employment, and the drop in the unemployment rate was driven by fewer Canadians engaging with labour markets, notably among the under-55 population.” The Workers Action Centre, a labour organization that supports non-union workers, helps Ontario employees know their rights in English, Chinese, Spanish, Tamil, Somali, Punjabi and Bengali. In 2015, a consortium of poverty advocates, healthcare researchers and community groups launched the Ontario chapter of what’s become a North American movement: the fight for a minimum wage of $15/hour and “fair” working conditions for all. So far, Alberta is the lone Canadian province or territory to reach that payment threshold. (Follow this link for more information about Alberta’s official wage standards.) Saskatchewan has the country’s lowest minimum wage, clocking in at $11.32/hour. However, there’s more to it than just money. At 15andfairness.org, the full list of demands for workers includes: Equal pay for equal work Decent hours Paid leave Protections for migrant workers Rules that protect everyone Job security and respect at work Right to organize and unionize The precarious employment conditions described in this episode are not limited to just Toronto’s Pearson Airport—although Canada’s largest airport, with its legions of food service workers, is an unsurprising place for “contract flipping” to happen on a massive scale. “It’s an issue for thousands of workers not just at airports, but at colleges, universities and corporations where outside contractors provide food services,” _The Tyee_’s Andrew MacLeod reported earlier this year. Flips commonly happen after contracted workers pull together and unionize. Employers respond by replacing their service providers’ contracts with rival, cheaper—and non-unionized—alternatives. Sometimes, the new provider will hire the same workers back to fulfill their same duties (absent union protections). Most times, if not all, any benefits accrued during the previous contract are stopped, and do not carry over to the new deal. “It gets brutal,” is how one unnamed Amazon worker describes the global retailer’s labour conditions in this sprawling exposé by Business Insider. None of the 20-plus anonymous employees who went on record for this piece is located in Canada—but there is no shortage of Canadian concerns about how Amazon and its subsidiaries treat their employees. For example, this past January, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Canada Local 175 filed a complaint against Amazon Canada Fulfillment Services Inc. for creating a “chilling effect” that stymied worker efforts to unionize. Sara Mojtehezadeh, the Toronto Star’s award-winning work and wealth reporter, has written extensively about “precarious work, labour issues, migrant workers, workplace health and safety, workers’ compensation and inequality.” Recent clippings from her beat include: Protesters charged after occupying Doug Ford’s constituency office to demand stronger protections for temp workers (October 16, 2019) The life and death of Fiera Foods temp worker Enrico Miranda (October 4, 2019) Future of gig economy workers at stake in Foodora couriers’ unionization battle (September 10, 2019) Labour ministry to reduce number of inspectors probing workplace abuse, union memo reveals (June 6, 2019) The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) tracks standards of employment protection—”synthetic indicators of the strictness of regulation on dismissals and the use of temporary contracts”—for its dozens of member countries, including Canada. Here is its overview of Canadian statistics; here is its dataset specific to temporary contracts. And below is a video that defines what OECD considers decent work. “Foodora workers say they’re not robots” (August 18, 2019): In which one of Canada’s few remaining alt-weeklies, Toronto’s NOW Magazine, spells out the pertinent details of what figures to become a common labour fight, particularly within the so-called gig economy: non-unionized delivery workers vs. service industry disruptors. “You see some crazy shit everyday, and the way the actual wage structure is set up, you are incentivized to [ride] way faster than you should,” Christopher Williams tells NOW. The Foodora rider is an organizer of Foodsters United, an offshoot of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. This summer, CUPW filed an unfair labour practice complaint on Foodsters’ behalf. Meanwhile, Foodora’s position is that the union effort failed to reach a threshold of 40 percent participation, and therefore cannot be considered valid. CREDITS: No Little Plans is hosted by Vicky Mochama. This episode was produced by Dorsa Eslami, Jay Cockburn, and Matthew McKinnon, with executive production by Katie Jensen. Special thanks to Ausma Malik and the Atkinson Foundation. This podcast was created by Strategic Content Labs by Vocal Fry Studios for Community Foundations of Canada. Subscribe or listen to us via the outlets above, and follow us at @nolittlepodcast on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Meanwhile, like Daniel Burnham said: “Make big plans; aim high in hope and work.”

Haviah Mighty drops by the Cavern after a big win: She's the winner of the 2019 Polaris Prize for the album, 13th floor. Lauren and Haviah get into how to work with a producer, writing for discomfort, and using your voice as an instrument. “My approach is to open up minds so that the ignorance won't be so wilful.” Our favourite moments: “I'm talking about these themes that can constitute discomfort, depending on what the listener looks like. My intention when giving the information is for there to be a dialogue based on the information.” [4:30] “When you say ‘I don't see color,' you're dismissing all of the people that do… My approach is to open up minds so that the ignorance won't be so wilful” [7:05]“I'm not DIY in the ‘I want to do everything myself way'; I'm DIY in the ‘I want my input to be considered way.” [10:19] “I was listening to the new Da Baby record…He has a cool energy.” [14:28] “You can pull inspiration from anywhere” [15:25] “I'm very into music. I have a great ear. I feel like I know enough about how things sound to know what notes I can't hit…” [17:26] “I took one hip-hop class and I wasn't even the best one! I just know that I don't consider myself to be a dance so it's funny when people are like, “You're such a good dancer.” [18:55] “[My sisters] are just really talented people. Involving them just makes the most sense.” [20:00] “I don't have to be as critical of being a good music because my standards are really high.” [25:08] “My competitiveness, my musicality? That's kind of instilled.” [26:12] Haviah Mighty's 2019 tour is coming to Halifax (October 26), Mississauga (October 27), Edmonton (November 7), Calgary (November 8), and Brampton (November 30). Tour dates can be found on her site. CREDITS: Cavern of Secrets is hosted by Lauren Mitchell. Produced by Ellen Payne Smith & Katie Jensen, with assistance from Vicky Mochama and Sarah Daniel. 

Author, funny woman and busy person Eden Robinson calls into the Cavern from Kitimat, British Columbia to talk nail polish, carting around family in a big car and the gift that menopause gives you. Eden's books include Traplines, the Giller-nominated Son Of A Trickster, and Blood Sports. Her trilogy, the Trickster series, is becoming a miniseries for CBC and her novel, Monkey Beach, is becoming a film. “If you need stories, take the bus.” Our favourite moments: “Dad had Parkinson's. He found that seal fat was very helpful. The cousins who hunted - in the beginning, they would bring us neat little packets of seal...but towards the end, they were just leaving, like, half a seal in a bucket.  [5:40] “He was always embarrassed that I wasn't a lady. And I was always like, 'You taught me to buck wood and change oil. I don't remember any tea parties.'" [7:00] “I find [that] if I try to write to an outline or if I write to a plan, my muse gets inhibited.” [14:14] “I was realizing how few years I have left if I'm writing a book about every five years. Okay, there are books I won't be able to write.” [21:30] "I also don't have a lot of anxiety about what people think about me. I remember being very concerned about that. And them menopause just wipes that out.” [22:40] CREDITS: Cavern of Secrets is hosted by Lauren Mitchell. Produced by Ellen Payne Smith & Katie Jensen, with assistance from Vicky Mochama and Sarah Daniel. 

Carly Lewis, journalist, kind woman and spectacular human being, joins host Lauren Mitchell in the Cavern. Carly has written for the Globe and Mail, New York Magazine, the Atlantic, Hazlitt and more. She talks about the value of feeling isolated, getting away from your anger and making sure your parents drink water. “I feel like everybody has a little invisible suitcase with them and in that suitcase is their anger.” Our favourite moments: “You should strive to be the person you needed when you were younger.” [3:27] “I had to learn how to feel safe in myself. And that was a hard-fought lesson.” [7:40] “It was also really important to me to be a strong loner.” [8:45] “Anytime I have made a platform for myself that is based on anger or taking up space to be vocal about sexual assault or harassment or anything like that, I have left that space feeling tremendously guilty.” [9:20] “I feel like everybody has a little invisible suitcase with them and in that suitcase is their anger.” [11:17] “Now that I've gotten more powerful just by virtue of getting older, I'm less angry. Even though there's so much to be angry about, but I'm not walking around the world furious in the way that I kind of used to be.” [12:35] This is when I learned to ask for forgiveness, not permission: When I asked my mom if i could sleep over in an orchard in Grimsby Ontario with a bunch of boys and my mom was, like, absolutely-the-fuck-not.” [15:35] “I've stopped thinking about happiness as a state or a promised land or a quest. I've started thinking about it as a fog that just kind of comes or goes away…” [22:30] “Something out there does not want me to have a stable place to live...Something out there wants me to get used to be transient.” [26:45] CREDITS: Cavern of Secrets is hosted by Lauren Mitchell. Produced by Ellen Payne Smith & Katie Jensen, with assistance from Vicky Mochama and Sarah Daniel. 

Georgia Webber, writer and illustrator, comes to the Cavern of Secrets to talk about what it means when you can't express yourself, learning to draw again, and allowing the possibility that someone will say ‘yes' and help you. Georgia's graphic memoir, Dumb, is about what it means to become voiceless and how it changes you. Our favourite moments: “If there's something that calls for my voice to be raised at all in a really loud way, I can push it if I want to and I most of the time really want to. But it's a bad idea.” [4:43] “I had always wanted to make comics but I didn't feel like I was good enough to start. Which is a terrible trap to be caught in.” [5:34] I hit send. I woke up the next morning and I felt - god, I'm gonna sound like such an asshole right now - I felt the closest thing I can to enlightened.” [10:05] It's much harder for us to accept something that changes constantly and it's much harder for the wide broad us to accept complication” [14:55] “It's also fascinating to collaborate with someone and have her voice at the centre of it but she can't see what I'm doing. She's exercising a massive amount of trust…” [17:00] “This idea of disability as a shift in health paradigm as the rest of the world to accept is something that I'm grappling with” [24:00] “I could see all the accommodations that were being made for people who had those different needs and being in that space and sharing it with them was not a detriment to my experience in any way” [28:05] CREDITS: Cavern of Secrets is hosted by Lauren Mitchell. Produced by Ellen Payne Smith & Katie Jensen, with assistance from Vicky Mochama and Sarah Daniel. 

Sarah Hagi, writer and queen of Twitter @geeklylonglegs, comes to the Cavern of Secrets to talk about the Garfield restaurant, the Blackest cartoons and how to have fun (again) as a writer. “It was intended to be a joke piece where I was like, yeah, Bugs Bunny is black.” Our favourite moments: “In a lot of ways, editors only hit me up when it's like ‘ooh, we need a little spice here' which is annoying.” [9:55] The thing about when you make something your brand. And I don't know how it happened but I associated myself with Garfield but it happened somehow. And to this day, people are always sending me something to do with Garfield. Like, people who do not know me. And it feels great But again, I'm like, “Oh no is this why I'm single?” [10:50] “I was walking down Bloor with my friend and I was really sad and crying, then I was like “What's Garfield doing on that storefront?” [11:59] “I spent my whole life thinking, “Julia Stiles? She's got RHYTHM. Only to realize now that she cannot dance” [21:37] “I didn't go to my prom. I went to Dairy Queen.” [23:51] CREDITS: Cavern of Secrets is hosted by Lauren Mitchell. Produced by Ellen Payne Smith & Katie Jensen, with assistance from Vicky Mochama and Sarah Daniel. 

Monica Heisey, author, comedian, TV writer and all around warm and funny individual joins host Lauren Mitchell in the Cavern to talk about the years that have passed. After a three year hiatus, Cavern of Secrets is back. Since then, Monica has become even more successful, gotten a divorce, and moved to London where she's delighting the locals with her British accent. “I was more of a Greek mythology girl than a horse girl…” Our favourite moments: “My friend Lindsey [Weber] who is a host of and creator of Who Weekly says the best dirt - the worst dirt - is in a little-known podcast before [someone] got super famous.” [3:12] “I'm not sure confidence is real. I think it's something we're projecting onto other people…” [6:01] “Everyone's trying and not sure they're doing it right” [9:18] “One thing that [divorce] gave me was: I was so sad, I was just very heartbroken that it didn't work. It led to this wonderful freedom. These petty occupations that have taken up so much of my time ... I care a lot less about things but in a way that feels good.” [10:18] “In a way, the very difficult emotional things was...very good?” [12:54] “I'm doing a lot of developing [tv shows] right now and production companies will say, we don't want to limit you, you're the creative. And in theory, that's nice. I feel like that episode where school closes and Lisa Simpson is jumping around in front of Marge and saying “Grade me! Please! Grade Me” [15:00] “It's such a disaster to say you're writing a second book because everyone believes you.” [16:15] “On LUSH products, there's a picture on the bottom of the person who made the product and it was this man named Brandon and he had big ear spacers. Every time I was putting my thigh chafe cream on, I just pictured Brandon saying "Good for you. You do whatever's good for you."” [18:57] “All my favourite shows are British comedies so I just want to go over there and [say] “Please please, here I am!” [25:12] “They have a list of awards that you can win “or equivalent”. And I had to say that the Canadian Screen Awards is the Emmys for Canada. Just put it on your list! It's real!” [26:55] CREDITS: Cavern of Secrets is hosted by Lauren Mitchell. Produced by Ellen Payne Smith & Katie Jensen, with assistance from Jay Cockburn, Vicky Mochama, and Sarah Daniel. 

Food insecurity is a fact of life for almost half of all households in Nunavut. Finding—and affording—sustenance is a daily challenge across Canada's North. To meet the UN’s goal of zero hunger by 2030, we must start at the top and work our way down. About one in eight households in Canada is food insecure, according to the University of Toronto’s PROOF research team. This means that “over 4 million Canadians, including 1.15 million children, [are] living in homes that struggle to put food on the table.” The Qajuqturvik Food Centre is a registered charity that supports its community in three areas. They are: Food access, via a community meal that it serves daily Food skills, including a culinary training program for underemployed Iqalummiut and cooking classes for kids Engagement and advocacy to compel change from politicians and policy makers As heard in this episode: In the 1950s and ’60s, the RCMP and other authorities killed sled dogs that they no longer considered healthy. To many Inuit, though, the dogs were killed for no reason. Many elders viscerally remember the day when their dogs were killed. For many Inuit, it is a tragic flashpoint for when life began to change for the worse. In 2006, the RCMP concluded that no organized slaughter had ever occurred. In 2010, the Qikiqtani Truth Commission reported that RCMP officers had been following animal control laws—but that they had failed to explain their actions to the dogs’ owners. “Many Inuit were not even told why their dogs were shot,” the Commission noted. This episode is no small matter in the North. The federal government apologized to Qikiqtani Inuit for the killing of the qimmiit this past August. Carolyn Bennett, minister of Crown-Indigenous relations and northern affairs, announced that Ottawa would provide roughly $20 million in funding for programs that support history, governance, healing and revitalization. “Canada needs a more healthy, just and sustainable food system that ensures everyone’s right to food. The very establishment of a federal food policy, with associated budget lines, is an important first step in realizing that vision. Food Secure Canada has been calling for government leaders to develop a joined-up national food policy since our founding in 2001, and we are encouraged that the new Policy takes an integrated approach”—Gisèle Yasmeen, executive director, Food Secure Canada. The Government of Canada announced this country’s first-ever national food policy earlier this year. It is specifically intended, in part, to help Canada meet its commitments to the SDGs. Learn more about that in this backgrounder. Nutrition North Canada is a subsidy program that seeks to improve access to perishable nutritious food for Canadians who live in isolated Northern communities. It has recently been subjected to multiple changes, all of which are intended to improve its utility and effectiveness. Again, consult this backgrounder to learn more. CREDITS: No Little Plans is hosted by Vicky Mochama. This episode was produced by Dorsa Eslami and Matthew McKinnon, with executive production by Katie Jensen. This podcast was created by Strategic Content Labs by Vocal Fry Studios for Community Foundations of Canada. Subscribe or listen to us via the outlets above, and follow us at @nolittlepodcast on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Meanwhile, like Daniel Burnham said: “Make big plans; aim high in hope and work.”

"When your career is starting to get bigger it highlights all those things you thought being popular would fix — it does *not* fix them." - Jasmyn Burke of WeavesRecording this ep with Jasmyn was what I imagine hanging out with Rihanna would feel like — just a unexpectedly glowy moment between two women talking about snacks and yoga and handling your shit. Jasmyn spoke openly about breaking away from her Type A model student days, as well as how being biracial affects life in the public eye. Featuring laughter and commentary from the lovely Vicky Mochama of Vocal Fry Studios.Weaves: weaves.bandcamp.com

BuzzFeed's Elamin Abdelmahmoud and Vocal Fry Studios' Vicky Mochama join host Sarah Turnbull at Toronto's Lakeview Diner to talk about the mixed messages surrounding Meng Wanzhou's extradition, Canada's new food guide, and the nominations for the 91st Academy Awards.

The health of our oceans and seas affects everything from human health to food security to global climate and international economics. The seas and oceans provide work to 3 billion people around the world—and they need help from all of us. Water is a very big deal. Here’s some proof: Water covers about 71 percent of the Earth’s surface (USGS Water Science School) Oceans represent 99 percent of the planet’s living space when measured by volume (United Nations) The livelihoods of more than three billion people are reliant on marine and coastal biodiversity; similarly, oceans are the primary source of protein for three billion people (United Nations) And here is Vice’s Motherboard asking a very good question: Why Haven’t We Explored the Ocean[s] Like Outer Space?  The purpose of SDG 14 is to “conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.” Learn more about its targets and indicators, and track their progress, directly from the UN. Canada has the world’s longest coastline—202,080 kilometres spanning the Pacific, Arctic and Atlantic Oceans. The gap between us and number two is massive: That’s Norway, at a mere 58,133 kilometres. Canada has committed to conserving “at least 10 per cent of coastal and marine areas, consistent with national and international law and based on the best available scientific information” by 2020. According to Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Environment and Climate Change Canada, by 2017, our efforts had covered close to 8 percent. Alia Dharssi is a Vancouver-based journalist whose work focuses on sustainability, global development and Canada’s policies on plastic pollution. She’s been reporting on the SDGs for the Discourse, and has published articles including: “Plastic pollution pileup on Canada’s beaches exposes environmental policy gaps” “How microplastics get into the food system” “What you can do about plastic pollution” You can follow more of her work on her own website. Josh Laughren is the executive director of Oceana Canada, an offshoot of an American organization founded to address a deficit in spending on ocean advocacy by environmental advocacy groups. He has spent two decades focusing on conservation and climate change, helping to establish marine protected areas across Canada’s coasts and leading our first Earth Hour. Much of his interview for this episode relates to this 2016 article he wrote for iPolitics: “What is Ottawa hiding in our oceans?” It concludes with this challenge to the federal government: The government of Prime Minister Trudeau was elected on a platform of openness and change. This transparency is needed in the management of our fisheries and oceans and it can be created by taking such actions as making public a list of Canada’s fisheries and their status, and releasing the fisheries checklist that is used to conduct stock assessments. By delivering on their election promise to increase transparency, the Trudeau government and Fisheries Minister Hunter Tootoo have an historic opportunity to restore our oceans to their healthiest potential, for now and for generations to come. You can help reduce marine debris by joining the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, a conservation partnership by WWF and Ocean Wise. It began in 1994, when employees and volunteers from the Vancouver Aquarium worked together to remove debris from a beach in Stanley Park. The effort has since gone national, with well over 20,000 cleanups removing more than 1.3 million kg of trash from Canadian shorelines. CREDITS: No Little Plans is hosted by Vicky Mochama. This episode was produced by Katie Jensen, Sajae Elder and Matthew McKinnon. This podcast was created by Strategic Content Labs by Vocal Fry Studios for Community Foundations of Canada. Subscribe or listen to us via the outlets above, and follow us at @nolittlepodcast on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Meanwhile, like Daniel Burnham said: “Make big plans; aim high in hope and work.”

In Canada, women represent a little over 50% of our population. How did we get so bad at addressing problems that affect half of us? And what do we need to do to improve the lives of girls who will be women in 2030? According to the Canadian Women’s Foundation: 1.9 million Canadian women live on “low income,” which means they struggle to cover basic needs like food, winter clothing and housingSome groups of females are likelier than others to be poor. The prevalance of poverty is highest—34.3%—among First Nations women and girlsDubravka Šimonovic is the UN’s Special Rapporteur on violence against women. When she visited Canada in the spring of 2018, she pointed out that we still don’t have a specific federal law that addresses gender-based violence and domestic violence. Canada, Šimonovic said, needs both a national action plan and a separate plan that specifically focuses on violence against Indigenous women. Her end-of-mission statement (full text) is a tour de force: During my visit, I noted with concern that the services providers and other interlocutors I met unanimously denounced the dire shortage of shelters for women and children escaping violence and a general lack of affordable public housing, including transitional housing and second stage accommodation and employment opportunities. In official UN verbiage: While some forms of discrimination against women and girls are diminishing, gender inequality continues to hold women back and deprives them of basic rights and opportunities. Empowering women requires addressing structural issues such as unfair social norms and attitudes as well as developing progressive legal frameworks that promote equality between women and men. Paulette Senior, president and CEO of the Canadian Women’s Foundation, has advocated to every level of government about things that really matter: poverty, violence against women, housing, social justice and immigration. She credits the experience of immigrating to Canada from Jamaica as a young girl with inspiring a career that’s all about, as CWF puts it, “empowering women and girls to overcome barriers and reach their full potential.” From Status of Women Canada: 1982: Gender equality is enshrined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms 1995: At the UN’s Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, Canada commits to using gender-based analysis (more on that below) to advance gender equality 2015: The Government of Canada renews its commitment to GBA 2016: Year one of the Government’s four-year “Action Plan on Gender-based Analysis“ The Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability tracks national incidents of femicide, which describes the killing of women and girls precisely because they are women and girls. Follow this link to read the September 2018 report in full, or use this one for just the lowlights: On average…one woman or girl is killed every other day in this country, a consistent trend during the past four decades. Harriet McLachlan, deputy director (interim) of Canada Without Poverty, has the lived experiences of childhood violence and sexual abuse, almost 35 years of poverty, and 19 years as a single parent. She is the immediate past-president (2011–2017) of the CWP’s board of directors, and has worked in several community organizations over her 25-year career. In 2016, Canada placed 35th in the World Economic Forum’s gender equality rankingsAs reported by Macleans, the combined earnings of Canadian women are 31% less than the combined earnings of Canadian men. Women of colour earn 37.5% less than men, and Indigenous women earn 54% less than menAs reported by Statistics Canada: “Women earn $0.87 for every dollar earned by men, largely as a result of wage inequality between women and men within occupations.” Also, more women than men work part-time, because they’re busy caring for kids. Worse, the gender employment gap is largest in the cities with highest day‑care feesFacts about women and education in Canada: Even though women are outperforming men when it comes to completing college and university degrees (source) They are still much less likely to get those degrees in engineering or computer sciences—which are the highest-earning STEM fields (source) It’s also harder for women to crawl out of educational debt. Women hold the majority of Canada’s student debt, and they take longer than men to pay it off (source) According to a 2016 report, the so-called “pink tax” on personal care products sees Canadian women paying 43% more than Canadian men for things like soap. Although the federal government eliminated GST on tampons and other menstrual products in 2015, it has kept earning from them in the form of import tariffs: $4 million that year, to be precise. CREDITS: No Little Plans is hosted by Vicky Mochama. This episode was produced by Katie Jensen, Elena Hudgins Lyle, and Matthew McKinnon. This podcast was created by Strategic Content Labs by Vocal Fry Studios for Community Foundations of Canada. Subscribe or listen to us via the outlets above, and follow us at @nolittlepodcast on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Meanwhile, like Daniel Burnham said: “Make big plans; aim high in hope and work.”

When we think of a homeless person, we tend to see the stereotypical image: an older single guy who is sleeping on the streets. But the reality is way more complicated. Nearly a third of people experiencing homelessness are women. Almost one in five are young people. Families stay in shelters for twice as long as individuals, and Indigenous populations are overrepresented. But how do we fix it? Meet Erin Dej and Jesse Thistle, two experts with big ideas on how to eradicate homelessness in Canada. Erin Dej has a PhD in criminology from the University of Ottawa and an MA in legal studies from Carleton University. She previously held a postdoctoral fellowship with York University’s Canadian Observatory on Homelessness—a “non-partisan research and policy partnership between academics, policy and decision makers, service providers and people with lived experience of homelessness.” She is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Criminology at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario. At COH’s Homeless Hub, Erin worked on A New Direction, a framework for homelessness prevention that draws on lessons learned from Wales, Scotland, Australia and Germany—countries that have tried, and succeeded with, thoughtful, effective strategies to improve the lives of their neediest citizens. Jesse Thistle previously had what he has called “a long career as a homeless drug addict.” He is now a Trudeau and Vanier Scholar, a Governor General medalist, the resident scholar of Indigenous homelessness at COH and an advocate for the rights of Indigenous homeless people across Canada. His life story and academic works have been widely reported: “He was once a homeless drug addict. Now he’s one of York’s top students” (Toronto Star, 2016)“From street to scholar: Jesse Thistle creates new definition of Indigenous homelessness” (CBC Radio, 2017) Jesse has created “an Indigenous definition for homelessness” that expands far beyond the mere fact of not having a roof to sleep under. His broader understanding of the experience includes a dozen “dimensions” that better explain it. For the full definition of Indigenous homelessness in Canada, visit homelesshub.ca/IndigenousHomelessness. CREDITS: No Little Plans is hosted by Vicky Mochama. This episode was produced by Katie Jensen, Elena Hudgins Lyle, and Matthew McKinnon. This podcast was created by Strategic Content Labs by Vocal Fry Studios for Community Foundations of Canada. Subscribe or listen to us via the outlets above, and follow us at @nolittlepodcast on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Meanwhile, like Daniel Burnham said: “Make big plans; aim high in hope and work.” 

The United Nations created the Sustainable Development Goals to help make the world a (much) better place by 2030. Meet three of the experts—Joseph Wong, John McArthur, and Deborah Glaser—who are already pursuing the goals, and hear why the tremendous effort it will take to achieve them is worth it. Dr. Joseph Wong leads The Reach Project, a research initiative based in the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto. His work focuses on those who are hardest to reach—which is a massive barrier to help. “In the Reach Project, teams of students from diverse backgrounds spend months researching programs that have proven successful in combatting poverty in developing countries,” Wong has said. “Their exhaustive final reports are like how-to manuals, enabling others around the world to learn from and adapt these initiatives. Local successes are thus shared as viable global solutions, potentially benefiting millions.”  John McArthur is a senior fellow in the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institution, a senior adviser to the United Nations Foundation, and a board governor for the International Development Research Centre. You can hear more from him in the video below, or follow this link to catch his 2017 appearance on TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin, in which McArthur discussed Canada’s early pursuits of the SDGs. Our third guest, Deborah Glaser, is a senior policy analyst for the BC Council for International Cooperation. This year, BCCIC completed a voluntary review of Canada’s Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. The comprehensive, must-read document opens with this pledge from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: The Sustainable Development Goals are as meaningful in Canada as they are around the world, and we are committed to their implementation. Our priorities at home align with our priorities abroad: building economic growth that works for everyone, advancing gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, taking action on climate change, and narrowing persistent socioeconomic gaps that hold too many people back. No one country can solve these problems alone—but by working together, we can create a better future for all our citizens. CREDITS: No Little Plans is hosted by Vicky Mochama of Vocal Fry Studios and produced by Katie Jensen. This podcast was created by Strategic Content Labs by Vocal Fry Studios for Community Foundations of Canada. Subscribe or listen to us via the outlets above, and follow us at @nolittlepodcast on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Meanwhile, like Daniel Burnham said: “Make big plans; aim high in hope and work.” 

In 2015, the United Nations challenged the world to meet 17 big goals that have one encompassing ambition: Leave no one behind. The Sustainable Development Goals are meant to improve the health of the planet and the lives of everyone on it. We have until 2030 to achieve them. This is No Little Plans, a podcast about the state of SDG progress in Canada, featuring many of the people who are doing the most to help this country succeed. CREDITS: No Little Plans is hosted by Vicky Mochama of Vocal Fry Studios and produced by Katie Jensen. This podcast was created by Strategic Content Labs by Vocal Fry Studios for Community Foundations of Canada. Subscribe or listen to us via the outlets above, and follow us at @nolittlepodcast on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Meanwhile, like Daniel Burnham said: “Make big plans; aim high in hope and work.”

Tori Allen is a freelance producer and journalist living in Thailand. We became friends during her eight years at CBC Radio working on Metro Morning, q and DNTO. Last year Tori and I sat in the bunkie of a cottage at our annual Lady Camp trip and talked about how living abroad as a 'trailing spouse' means she constantly reinvents herself for work, something she realizes she has always done.   WHAT I SHOULD HAVE SAID  A double header of regrets from podcasters and journalists Vicky Mochama and Katie Jensen, creators of the new Vocal Fry Studios, an affordable and inclusive Toronto podcast studio and community workspace. @vmochama @katiejensen   @vocalfrystudios   MENTIONED ON THE SHOW Pacific Content, the company Tori worked with, which creates original podcasts with brands. @pacificcontent   FOLLOW ALL THE #MEDIAGIRLFRIENDS ON TWITTER @mediagfs   SEND EMAIL nanaabaduncan@gmail.com

VOCAL FRY STUDIOS with Vicky Mochama and Katie Jensen BORING BUILDINGS with Alex Bozikovic STEREOBLIND with Emma Healey TUNES: Water Me by Lizzo White Babies by Liz Phair These Words by The Lemon Twigs

Last week, billionaires Barry and Honey Sherman were found dead in their Toronto home. As we parse through language in the press like "suspicious" and "police sources," what do we know and which interests are at play? Metro columnist and former CANADALAND employee Vicky Mochama called Lindsay Shepherd a crying white girl on CBC's Sunday politics show, infuriating an army of people who have probably never seen the show before. True crime writer and veteran crime reporter James Dubro guest hosts. James's twitter: @jamesdubro Support CANADALAND: http://canadalandshow.com/join See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week’s bonus is a lightning round of Good For The Blacks from our Toronto live show! Brittany, Eric and special guests Vicky Mochama and Sarah Hagi discuss a topic that has taken over the tabloids. Is the relationship between American actress Meghan Markle and the UK’s Prince Harry good or bad for Black culture?

Drake might be proud of us, but are we proud of him? In our latest Good For The Blacks, we debate Drizzy’s sampling of the African diaspora with Vicky Mochama and Sarah Hagi.

On this episode, guest host Ashey Csanady and Vicky Mochama look at CBC's recently launched comedy portal and wonders if it's relevant and, you know, funny. Also, a preliminary look into Shattered Mirror, the recently-released examination of the state of Canadian media from the Public Policy Forum. Vicky Mochama is the national columnist for Metro News.Support CANADALAND: https://canadaland.com/joinSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The specific way men interview women (5:05), Rory Gilmore, journalist (17:17), and the Avril Lavigne riots of 2021 (48:27)

We've got a bunch of stuff in the works over the next month that we are really excited for but first... Scott and Greg talk about the recent attempt by Canadaland to talk about the Israel and Palestine issue and Canadian media coverage of it. Scott and Greg break down self-fulfilling prophecies that Jesse Brown, Vicky Mochama, Supriya Dwivedi used to justify their piss poor discussion of the issue. Here is the episode of Canadaland short cuts episode http://www.canadalandshow.com/podcast/short-cuts-83-oh-god-fine-lets-talk-israel/ Here is Yves Engler's response in Rabble.ca http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/yves-engler/2016/09/anti-palestinian-media-bias-still-remains-untouchable-even-to-can

Guest co-host Vicky Mochama went out to the Hill to interview women about what it’s like to work in a space built for 19th century gentlemen.   In the wake of the NDP convention, the big question is whether Canada can stomach a party that’s a centimetre off centre.    A powerful listener calls in with opinions on the Senate.    Subscribe to Vicky’s newsletter, NOT SORRY.

NOT SORRY writer Vicky Mochama co-hosts.   Vicky and Jesse talk about the reporting in the first week of Jian Ghomeshi's sexual assault trial. Journalists fail to understand Vicky's satire. Jesse recounts how he embarrassed himself in an exchange with Peter Mansbridge.Support CANADALAND: https://canadaland.com/joinSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.