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Talking Radical Radio

Scott Neightalkingradical.ca
Talking Radical Radio brings you grassroots voices from across Canada. It features in-depth interview with people involved in a wide range of activism, organizing, and other social change work, and gives them a chance to take a longer view as they talk about what they're doing, how they're doing it, and why they're doing it.
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Episodes

The future of grassroots media in Canada

In episode #510 of Talking Radical Radio, Scott Neigh interview Saima Desai, Dave Gray-Donald, and Sharmeen Khan. They are all long-time grassroots media-makers – mostly in projects towards the more activist and movement-grounded end of the sector. They talk about their work, about the current state of grassroots media in so-called Canada, and about their vision for what we need to be doing to strengthen both media and movements oriented towards justice and collective liberation. For a more deta...

Feb 28, 202329 min

Injured workers fighting for compensation and care

In episode #509 of Talking Radical Radio, Scott Neigh interviews Eugene Lefrancois, Steve Mantis, and Janet Paterson. They are are injured workers living in Thunder Bay, Ontario, on the north shore of Lake Superior. Lefrancois is the president of the Thunder Bay and District Injured Workers Support Group, while Mantis is that group's treasurer. And Paterson is the president of the Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups. They talk about the issues faced by injured workers in Ontario, and about...

Feb 21, 202328 min

A framework for a decolonial just transition

In episode #508 of Talking Radical Radio, Scott Neigh interviews Emily Eaton and Bronwen Tucker. They are two of the six co-authors of *The End of This World: Climate Justice in So-Called Canada* (Between the Lines, 2023), which outlines a framework for working towards not only a just transition away from fossil fuels but an explicitly *decolonial* just transition. They talk about the intertwined character of the climate crisis and colonization, about the book, and about the struggle for a decol...

Feb 14, 202328 min

Challenging mis- and disinformation about sexual health and rights

In episode #507 of Talking Radical Radio, Scott Neigh interviews Victoria Romero, Emily Tang, and Matthew Johnson. Romero and Tang are university students and members of the National Youth Advisory Council for Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights. Johnson is the director of education for MediaSmarts. They talk about issues of mis- and disinformation when it comes to sexual health and rights, and about this year’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Awareness Week (or SRH Week) campaign. For a m...

Feb 07, 202328 min

From police-free schools to policing-free schools

In episode #506 of Talking Radical Radio, Scott Neigh interviews Hailey Yasmeen Dash and Mae Mason of the Asilu Collective, which Dash described as "a grassroots abolitionist collective fighting and organizing for police-free schools, but also policing-free schools, and to eliminate policing culture, infrastructure, and practices in schools across Ottawa." They talk about the group's origins, its successful campaign to end the School Resource Officer program in Ottawa schools, and its shift to a...

Jan 31, 202328 min

Infrastructure and support for climate justice organizing across Canada

In episode #505 of Talking Radical Radio, Scott Neigh interviews Jacqueline Lee-Tam and Sara Adams of the Climate Justice Organizing Hub. They talk about the origins of the Hub and about its work supporting grassroots organizers across so-called Canada. For a more detailed description of this episode, go here: https://talkingradical.ca/2023/01/24/radio-infrastructure-and-support-for-climate-justice-organizing-across-canada/

Jan 24, 202328 min

Advocacy for cyclists in Halifax

In episode #504 of Talking Radical Radio, Scott Neigh interviews Camila Fisher and Peter Zimmer of the Halifax Cycling Coalition. They talk about the challenges that cyclists face in Halifax and about the advocacy that the coalition is doing to make things better. For a more detailed description of this episode, go here: https://talkingradical.ca/2023/01/17/radio-advocacy-for-halifax-cyclists/

Jan 17, 202328 min

Decolonizing and Indigenizing the map

In episode #503 of Talking Radical Radio, Scott Neigh interviews Anishinaabe cartographer Steve DeRoy, a co-founder of the Indigenous Mapping Collective. They talk about the importance of mapping and about the collective's work to build Indigenous peoples' capacity to, as their website puts it, "map their lands, share their stories, and decolonize place and space." For a more detailed description of this episode, go here: https://talkingradical.ca/2023/01/10/radio-decolonizing-and-indigenizing-t...

Jan 10, 202328 min

Building visibility, equity, and impact for Asian Canadian artists

In episode #502 of Talking Radical Radio, Scott Neigh interviews Shawn Tse, an artist, filmmaker, and organizer based in Edmonton, Alberta. They talk about the CanAsian Arts Network, a digitally-facilitated network of Asian Canadian artists, cultural workers, and organizations that aims to catalyze collaboration and build visibility, equity, impact, and representation. For a more detailed description of this episode, go here: https://talkingradical.ca/2023/01/03/radio-building-visibility-equity-...

Jan 03, 202328 min

REBROADCAST: Immigrant workers confronting the people who exploit them

The following is a rebroadcast of episode #481 of Talking Radical Radio, originally broadcast in July 2022. In it, Scott Neigh interviews Simran Kaur Dhunna and Bikram Singh. They are members of the Naujawan Support Network, a group of international students and immigrant workers who are challenging the exploitation and mistreatment that their members face using protest, mutual support, and collective direct action. They talk about how they directly confront the employers, landlords, immigration...

Dec 27, 202228 min

The hard, slow work of opposing poverty in an era of growing crisis

In episode #501 of Talking Radical Radio, Scott Neigh interviews Sandee Lovas and Silke Force. They are members of the Alliance Against Poverty, a grassroots anti-poverty group based in Kitchener-Waterloo, a city about an hour southwest of Toronto in southern Ontario. They speak about the impact of poverty on their lives and their community, and about the group's campaigns around public transit, housing and homelessness, and other issues. For a more detailed description of this episode, go here:...

Dec 20, 202228 min

Preserving trans histories

In episode #500 of Talking Radical Radio, Scott Neigh interviews Aaron Devor, the Chair in Transgender Studies at the University of Victoria. They talk about the Transgender Archives at UVic, the largest archive in the world of material related to trans people, to research on trans issues, and to struggles by trans communities. For a more detailed description of this episode, go here: https://talkingradical.ca/2022/12/13/radio-preserving-trans-histories/

Dec 13, 202228 min

Forcing Canadian companies to respect human rights

In episode #499 of Talking Radical Radio, Scott Neigh interviews Emily Dwyer and Aidan Gilchrist-Blackwood. Dwyer is the policy director at the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability (CNCA), and Gilchirst-Blackwood is its network coordinator. The CNCA is a broad network of Canadian civil society organizations – including labour, human rights, faith-based, and environmental organizations of a wide range of kinds and sizes from across the country – that are working to ensure that Canadian co...

Dec 06, 202228 min

A legal challenge to keep Ontario students safe from COVID-19

In episode #498 of Talking Radical Radio, Scott Neigh interviews Heather Hanwell, Kate Laing, and "Hannah". They are members of Ontario School Safety, a group of Ontario residents, mostly parents, who are committed to ensuring that the province's schools are safe enough for students, teachers, and other education workers, in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. They talk about Ontario's response to COVID in schools so far, about the many things the province should be doing but isn't, an...

Nov 29, 202228 min

Working for a multi-issue "revolution of care" in Newfoundland

In episode #497 of Talking Radical Radio, Scott Neigh interviews Kerri Claire Neil. She is an activist in St. John's, Newfoundland, and the co-chair of the Social Justice Co-operative NL, an activist organization whose members work on a wide range of social, political, and environmental issues. They talk about why the group is a co-operative, the many struggles its members are involved in, and their “Revolution of Care Manifesto.” For a more detailed description of this episode, go here: https:/...

Nov 22, 202228 min

Mobilizing musicians around the world in support of Palestine

In episode #496 of Talking Radical Radio, Scott Neigh interviews Stefan Christoff, a musician and long-time activist based in Tiohti:áke, or Montreal. Christoff is the co-ordinator of Musicians for Palestine, a network of musicians from around the world committed to speaking up in support of Palestinian human rights. He talks about the work involved in building a global initiative of this sort, and about the network's most recent statement, which was released in September 2022. For a more detail...

Nov 15, 202228 min

Seeking healing, justice, and change in the wake of the convoy occupation

In episode #495 of Talking Radical Radio, Scott Neigh interviews Debbie Owusu-Akyeeah and Gaëlle Muderi. They are involved in the Ottawa People's Commission on the Convoy Occupation, Owusu-Akyeeah as a commissioner and Muderi as project coordinator. The commission is a grassroots, nonpartisan initiative to listen to the voices of Ottawa residents in order to chronicle what happened in the city during and after February's convoy protest, and to document its impacts on the people who live there. T...

Nov 08, 202228 min

Settlers building decolonial solidarity with the Wet'suwet'en

In episode #494 of Talking Radical Radio, Scott Neigh interviews Kate Turner and Chantal Pelletier. They are part of the Decolonial Solidarity Campaign, a network of affinity groups across so-called Canada acting in solidarity with the Wet'suwet'en people's struggle against the Coastal Gas Link pipeline by targeting the Royal Bank of Canada, one of the pipeline's main financers. They talk about what it really means to act in solidarity in principled, accountable ways, and about the campaign. For...

Nov 01, 202228 min

Ongoing Wet'suwet'en resistance to the CGL pipeline

In episode #493 of Talking Radical Radio, Scott Neigh interviews Jennifer Wickham. She is a Cas Yikh (Grizzly Bear House) member in the Gidimt’en Clan of the Wet’suwet’en people, and the media co-ordinator for the Gidimt'en Checkpoint. She talks about her people's ongoing fight against the Coastal Gas Link (CGL) pipeline. For a more detailed description of this episode, go here: https://talkingradical.ca/2022/10/25/radio-ongoing-wetsuweten-resistance-to-the-cgl-pipeline/

Oct 25, 202228 min

Anti-racism in smaller cities and towns

In episode #492 of Talking Radical Radio, Scott Neigh interviews Saleh Waziruddin, an anti-racist activist in St. Catharines, Ontario and an executive committee member of the Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association. They talk about doing locally-focused grassroots anti-racism work in a place like Niagara -- comprised of smaller cities, towns, and rural areas -- and how it differs from anti-racism in larger cities. For a more detailed description of this episode, go here: https://talkingradical.ca...

Oct 18, 202228 min

Migrant worker organizing in Nova Scotia

In episode #491 of Talking Radical Radio, Scott Neigh interviews Stacey Gomez, a migrant justice organizer with No One Is Illegal - Halifax/Kjipuktuk. They talk about the group's work as the first grassroots effort in Atlantic Canada to organize with migrant agricultural workers. (Observant listeners may have noticed that the number of this week's episode is quite a bit higher than last week's -- over the weekend, I discovered two errors in numbering from back in 2019 that meant there had been 1...

Oct 11, 202228 min

Bringing sustainability and justice together in a small community

In episode #490 of Talking Radical Radio, Scott Neigh interviews long-time climate campaigner Jason Mogus. They speak not about his climate work but about his involvement in Salt Spring Solutions, a community group on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia that is working to tackle the island's housing crisis, in the face of opposition that is largely framed in environmental terms. They also talk about what relevance the struggle on Salt Spring Island has for the broader environmental and climat...

Oct 04, 202228 min

Feminism in the arts

In episode #489 of Talking Radical Radio, Scott Neigh interviews Shawna Dempsey. She is a performance and video artist, and also the co-executive director of Mentoring Artists for Women's Art (MAWA), a feminist artist-run centre in Winnipeg. She talks about feminism in the arts and about MAWA's decades of work. For a more detailed description of this episode, go here: https://talkingradical.ca/2022/09/27/radio-feminism-in-the-arts/

Sep 27, 202228 min

Older adults and the fight for climate action

In episode #488 of Talking Radical Radio, Scott Neigh interviews Betty Plewes and Emma Bider. Plewes is a co-founder and steering committee member of Climate Legacy, a group of retired people working together to engage and mobilize other older adults in action to address the climate crisis. Bider is the group's communications coordinator. For a more detailed description of this episode, go here: https://talkingradical.ca/2022/09/20/radio-older-adults-and-the-fight-for-climate-action/

Sep 20, 202228 min

British Columbia's general strike that almost was

In episode #487 of Talking Radical Radio, Scott Neigh interviews long-time Vancouver writer David Spaner. He recently published a new book, *Solidarity: Canada's Unknown Revolution of 1983* (Ronsdale Press, 2021). The resistance that it documents -- to a right-wing provincial government in British Columbia -- was one of the largest grassroots uprisings in Canadian history and came within a hairsbreadth of becoming a general strike, but it is little remembered today. For a more detailed descripti...

Sep 13, 202228 min

Low-wage workers organizing in Newfoundland

In episode #486 of Talking Radical Radio, Scott Neigh interviews Mark Nichols. He is an organizer with the Workers' Action Network of Newfoundland and Labrador, which brings together workers in low-wage, precarious jobs to support each other and to fight collectively for decent work for all. For a more detailed description of the episode, go here: https://talkingradical.ca/2022/09/06/radio-low-wage-workers-organizing-in-newfoundland/

Sep 06, 202228 min

Practical climate action in Atlantic Canada

In episode #485 of Talking Radical Radio, Scott Neigh interviews Emma Norton, a climate activist based in Nova Scotia. They talk about her work as the operations director at the ReCover Initaitive and the Atlantic director with the Climate Emergency Unit, and about the crucial interconnection between practical measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and grassroots political work aimed at policy change. For a more detailed description of this episode, go here: https://talkingradical.ca/2022/0...

Aug 30, 202228 min

REBROADCAST: Grassroots organizing by Métis people in Winnipeg

The following is a rebroadcast of episode #434 of Talking Radical Radio, originally broadcast in December 2021. In it, Scott Neigh interviews Breanne Lavallee-Heckert, Chantale Garand, and Kianna Durston. They are Métis people based in Winnipeg and members of Red River Echoes, a collective of Métis people that is focused on grassroots organizing, land back, and the active reclamation of Métis sovereignty in Winnipeg. For a more detailed description of this episode, go here: https://talkingradica...

Aug 23, 202228 min

Anti-ableism and disaility justice education

In episode #484 of Talking Radical Radio, Scott Neigh interviews Dev Ramsawakh and Kate Welsh. They are co-creators of the CRIP Collective, a small group of Toronto-based disabled educators and artists who do anti-ableism, anti-oppression, and disability justice-related workshops, and various other kinds of community building with disabled people, using an intersectional approach. They talk about disability, ableism, and the collective's use of education as a tool for change. For a more detailed...

Aug 16, 202228 min

A broad coalition pushing for climate action in Ontario

In episode #483 of Talking Radical Radio, Scott Neigh interviews Mili Roy and Angela Bischoff. They are involved, in different capacities, in the Ontario Climate Emergency Campaign, a broad, loose, non-partisan coalition of individuals and groups working hard to get Ontario to improve its response to the climate crisis. They talk about the crisis, about the campaign's 12-point Climate Action Plan to address it, and about the strengths and weaknesses of working in a broad coalition. For a more de...

Aug 09, 202228 min
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