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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

Working to reinvigorate Canada's peace movement

In episode #280 of Talking Radical Radio (July 24, 2018), Scott Neigh interviews Dave Gehl and Ed Lehman, members of the Regina Peace Council. Over their decades of involvement in issues of war and peace, they have seen the peace movement grow and shrink multiple times. They believe that the world needs a large and vigorous peace movement now more than ever, and they are doing what they can in Saskatchewan to try and revive it. Scott Neigh interviews them about the Regina Peace Council and about...

Jul 24, 201828 min

Prisoner justice – from speaking out to organizing on the ground

In episode #279 of Talking Radical Radio (July 17, 2018), Scott Neigh interviews El Jones. She is a poet, educator, and organizer based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and is that city's former poet laureate. She is deeply involved in working for justice for prisoners through a combined prisoner-led radio show and community organization called Black Power Hour. They talk about the fight against the injustices of policing and prisons, and about the importance of not just speaking out on issues but of ge...

Jul 17, 201828 min

People with lived experience of homelessness walking for justice

In episode #278 of Talking Radical Radio (July 10, 2018), Scott Neigh interviews Kym Hines, Hugh Lampkin, and Cynthia Travers. They are all social justice activists with lived experience of homelessness, who live in Victoria, Vancouver, and Kamloops, British Columbia, respectively. They talk about the Poor Persons Walk, an action taking place in a number of British Columbia communities later in July. For a more detailed description of this episode, go here: http://talkingradical.ca/2018/07/10/tr...

Jul 10, 201828 min

Fighting for the rights of disabled women

In episode #277 of Talking Radical Radio, Scott Neigh interviews Bonnie Brayton. She is the executive of the DisAbled Women's Network Canada, the country's only national advocacy organization focused on the needs and rights of women with disabilities. She talks about the issues that disabled women and girls face and about DAWN Canada's work. For a more detailed description of the episode, go here: http://talkingradical.ca/2018/07/03/trr-disabled_womens_network/

Jul 03, 201828 min

Fighting homelessness in Ontario's past and in its Doug Ford future

In episode #276 of Talking Radical Radio (June 26, 2018), Scott Neigh interviews Cathy Crowe, who was worked for decades as a street nurse in Toronto. Not only has she delivered community-based primary health care to homeless and poor people over that time, but has also been involved in a wide range of activism, organizing, and advocacy around homelessness, poverty, and housing. They talk about that long history of involvement, about what she describes as the "post-apocalyptic scene" that result...

Jun 26, 201828 min

Pushing rural organizations to be more welcoming to trans and gender-diverse people

In episode #275 of Talking Radical Radio (June 19, 2018), Scott Neigh interviews Behc Jax-Lynx and Cara Tierney. They work with a small organization called Building through Education and Community Knowledge, which uses educational approaches to push organizations in rural and suburban Ontario to do better when it comes to equity for transgender and gender-diverse people. They speak about the barriers that trans and gender-diverse people face, about their work, and about their broader vision for ...

Jun 19, 201828 min

Queerspawn speak out: Growing up in queer and trans families

In episode #274 of Talking Radical Radio (June 12, 2018), Scott Neigh interviews Sadie Epstein-Fine and Makeda Zook, the editors of a new anthology called Spawning Generations: Rants and Reflections on Growing Up with LGBTQ+ Parents. They talk about the importance of queerspawn (i.e. people with LGBTQ+ parents) having the space to tell their own stories, about the book, and about its launch on June 18 at Glad Day Books in Toronto. For a more detailed description of the episode, go here: http://t...

Jun 12, 201828 min

From anti-privatization to pro-public

In episode #273 of Talking Radical Radio (June 5, 2018), Scott Neigh interviews David McDonald, an academic whose work has focused on issues related to public services and privatization. They talk about his role as a co-organizer of The Future is Public, a conference happening in Montreal on June 15 and 16 that will bring together more than 150 activists, trade unionists, and researchers from across North America to discuss struggles and successes from around the world and to begin figuring out ...

Jun 05, 201828 min

Demanding justice for Black cleaning workers in Halifax

In episode #272 of Talking Radical Radio (May 29, 2018), Scott Neigh interviews Taylor MacLean and Darius Mirshahi. MacLean is a cleaning worker in Halifax. Mirshahi is an organizer with SEIU Local 2 in the same city, in particular with their Justice for Janitors campaign. They talk about anti-Black racism in the workplace, about precarious work, about an injustice faced by MacLean and a number of other Black cleaning workers, and about the human rights complaint and community campaign that the ...

May 29, 201828 min

International direct action to support the people of Palestine

In episode #271 of Talking Radical Radio (May 22, 2018), Scott Neigh interviews Wendy Goldsmith and Ron Rosseau. Goldsmith is a social worker who lives in London, Ontario. Rousseau is a postal worker in the Yukon, as well as the president of his local of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers and the Vice President for Indigenous peoples of the Canadian Labour Congress. They speak about their involvement in this year's efforts by the Canada Boat to Gaza and its international counterpart, the Freed...

May 22, 201828 min

Political hip hop, grassroots activism, and movement support for the arts

In episode #270 of Talking Radical Radio (May 15, 2018), Scott Neigh interviews Mohammad Ali, the Socialist Vocalist. Ali is a hip hop artist based in Toronto known for his sharp political lyrics and for his deep commitment to struggles for social justice. They speak about Ali's music, about his involvement in activism and organizing, and about the ways that social movements in Canada need to do a better job at engaging with and supporting the arts. For a more detailed description of this episod...

May 15, 201828 min

Design for the margins: New tools for online privacy, security, and anonymity

In episode #269 of Talking Radical Radio (May 8, 2018), Scott Neigh interviews Erinn Atwater and Dan Ballard. They are two of the three founders of the Open Privacy Research Society, an innovative new not-for-profit organization based in Vancouver that is devoted to developing new tools for online security, privacy, and anonymity using an approach that centres the needs of people who are marginalized in a variety of ways. For a more detailed description of this episode, go here: http://talkingra...

May 08, 201828 min

Left organizing in South Asian communities in Montreal

In episode #268 of Talking Radical Radio (May 1, 2018), Scott Neigh interviews Shazma Abdulla and Vijay Kolinjivadi. They are members of a Montreal-based collective called Garam Masala -- an acronym short for Groupe d'action révolutionnaire sud-Asiatique de Montréal and Montreal Alliance of South Asian Leftists and Allies. They speak about the group and about its grassroots political work in Montreal, particularly in the context of the city's South Asian communities. For a more detailed descript...

May 01, 201828 min

Nurses standing up for patient care

In episode #267 of Talking Radical Radio (April 24, 2018), Scott Neigh interviews Sandi Mowat, the president of the Manitoba Union of Nurses. The current government in the province is committed to transforming the delivery of healthcare, but the experiences of MNU members show that the changes to the system so far have not been good for patients, have not been good for nurses, and have not been good for the quality of patient care. In response, nurses in Manitoba are taking a number of approache...

Apr 24, 201828 min

Seeking justice in Saskatchewan in the wake of the Gerald Stanley verdict

In episode #266 of Talking Radical Radio (April 17, 2018), Scott Neigh interviews Prescott Demas, a Dakota man, originally from Chanupa Wakpa and currently living in Regina. He was one of a number of Indigenous people and allies who, in the wake of the acquittals of Gerald Stanley and Raymond Cormier in February, set up the Justice for Our Stolen Children Camp in a park across from the Saskatchewan legislature. They talk about the verdicts, about the camp, and about what needs to happen for us t...

Apr 17, 201828 min

Queering space, both online and off

In episode #265 of Talking Radical Radio, Scott Neigh interviews Lucas LaRochelle, an online project that is attempting to explore what queer space means and what queering space can look like. Scott Neigh interviews them about the site, about the recent instance of it being hacked by a Trump supporter, and about the radical queer vision that underlies the project. For a more detailed description of this episode, go here: http://talkingradical.ca/2018/04/10/trr-queering_the_map/

Apr 10, 201828 min

Building community resilience in the face of climate change

In episode #264 of Talking Radical Radio (April 3, 2018), Scott Neigh interviews Sheila Murray, Beatrice Ekoko, Lidia Ferreira, and Michelle Sullivan. They work with the Lighthouse Project, a pilot that aims to develop new approaches for building resilience in a number of Ontario communities in the face of the growing spectrum of threats presented by climate change. They talk about those threats, about what exactly resilience might look like, and about the different approaches they are using to ...

Apr 03, 201828 min

Bringing stalking into the #MeToo conversations about gendered violence

In episode #263 of Talking Radical Radio (March 27, 2018), Scott Neigh interviews Julie Lalonde, a long-time women's rights advocate and public educator whose work focuses on sexual and gendered violence. Two years ago, when a man she had been in a relationship with for a couple of years more than a decade before unexpectedly passed away, she was finally able to reveal that he had been stalking her that entire time. She talks about her work since then to bring stalking into broader conversations...

Mar 27, 201828 min

Mi'kmaq water protectors blocking fossil fuel infrastructure in Nova Scotia

In episode #262 of Talking Radical Radio (March 20, 2018), Scott Neigh interviews Dorene Bernard and Rebecca Moore. Dorene is a Mi'kmaq woman of the Otter Clan from Sipekne'katik First Nation and a residential school survivor, and she describes herself as a grassroots grandmother, a water walker, and a water protector. Rebecca Moore is a Mi'kmaq woman from Pictou Landing First Nation and a water protector. They talk about the treaty camp and other grassroots Mi'kmaq resistance that is blocking t...

Mar 20, 201828 min

Thirty-five years of peace activism in Calgary

Episode #261 of Talking Radical Radio (March 13, 2018) features an interview with Trudy Govier, who has been a peace activist in Calgary, Alberta, since the early 1980s. She was one of the founders in 1982 of the group known now as the Ploughshares Calgary Society, and today she is still involved. She talks with Scott Neigh about how the world and peace activism have changed in the last three and a half decades, and about the ways in which the Ploughshares Calgary Society is still patiently and ...

Mar 13, 201828 min

Fighting the school-to-prison pipeline in Toronto

In episode #260 of Talking Radical Radio (March 6, 2018), Scott Neigh interviews Alison Fisher and Melanie Carrington. Alison is a teacher in the Toronto District School Board. Melanie is a social worker and the mother of a son who is currently in elementary school in Toronto. Both are also graduate students and members of Education Not Incarceration. They speak about the successful campaign waged by ENI and other groups to end the School Resource Officer (SRO) Program and get armed, uniformed p...

Mar 06, 201828 min

Defending marine ecosystems and fisheries from fossil fuel development

In episode #259 of Talking Radical Radio (February 27, 2018), Scott Neigh interviews Gretchen Fitzgerald and John Davis. Gretchen is the national program director for the Sierra Club Canada Foundation. John is the director of the Clean Ocean Action Committee, a consortium of organizations based in the east coast fishing industry. Both are part of the Offshore Alliance, a coalition working to oppose regulatory changes that they argue would put the marine environment and the fishery at risk and wo...

Feb 27, 201828 min

Environmental justice and the law in Canada

In episode #258 of Talking Radical Radio (February 20, 2018), Scott Neigh interviews Nathalie Chalifour and Angela Lee. They are scholars in the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa whose work focuses on exploring how the law can be used to advance the cause of environmental justice in the Canadian context. They talk about that work, including some of its specific relevance to climate change and to the food system, and about some of the ways that legal work and scholarly work can be mobili...

Feb 20, 201828 min

An Indigenous approach for responding to gender violence

In episode #257 of Talking Radical Radio (February 13, 2018), Scott Neigh speaks with Joyce Fossella and Val Joseph. Fossella is from the Lillooet Nation. Joseph is from the Kwakwaka'wakw Nation. Both work as part of the Warriors Against Violence Society, an organization in Vancouver that responds to gender-based violence using a holistic approach that is grounded in Indigenous cultures and in the context of the ongoing reality of colonial violence and trauma from the broader society that impact...

Feb 13, 201828 min

Educating for justice at the intersections of sexual health and mental health

In episode #256 of Talking Radical Radio (February 6, 2018), Scott Neigh speaks with Ashling Ligate and Frédérique Chabot. Ligate is a registered nurse in an acute care unit of a psychiatric hospital and Chabot is the director of health promotion for Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights. They speak about the intersections of sexual health and mental health, about the "Mind Your 'Business'" Sexual and Reproductive Health Week campaign, and about the ways in which working with frontline heal...

Feb 06, 201828 min

Defending minimum wage victories from big business backlash

In episode #255 of Talking Radical Radio (January 30, 2018), Scott Neigh interviews Pam Frache. She is the Ontario coordinator of the Fight for $15 and Fairness campaign. They won major victories around minimum wage increases and reforms to labour law in 2017. And this year, with a provincial election looming, they are facing a major backlash from big business. Frache talks about the overall trajectory of the campaign, about the backlash, and about fighting to defend what they won last year. For...

Jan 30, 201828 min

Towards an anti-capitalist and anti-colonial environmentalism

In episode #254 of Talking Radical Radio, Scott Neigh interviews Chelsea Fougere and Sam Krawec. They are members of Solidarity Halifax, a membership-based, nonsectarian, pluralist, democratic, and anti-capitalist organization based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. And today they talk about their work on its Ecojustice Committee, which aims to bring anti-capitalists and environmentalists together, and to create a space for people to engage in analysis and action that works towards building an anti-capit...

Jan 23, 201828 min

A new grassroots student organization emerging from solidarity with striking faculty

In episode #253 of Talking Radical Radio (January 16, 2018), Scott Neigh interviews James Fauvelle and Mohammad Ali Aumeer. They are both students at community colleges in Ontario. During the five-week strike by college faculty in late 2017, they got involved in organizing student solidarity with the strikers. And from that work they and other students have founded a new grassroots organization that aims to mobilize students for equitable, accessible education and more demoratic and accountable ...

Jan 16, 201828 min

Tenant organizing in Canada's most expensive city

In episode #252 of Talking Radical Radio (January 9, 2017), Scott Neigh interviews Kell Gerlings and Neil Vokey about the work of the Vancouver Tenants Union. Kell is an organizer with an anti-poverty group called Raise the Rates and is a member of the steering committee of the Vancouver Tenants Union, while Neil is an independent filmmaker and one of the founding members of the group. They talk about the harsh realities facing tenants in Vancouver and about what the tenants union is doing to fi...

Jan 09, 201828 min

Decolonizing the arts in Canada

In episode #251 of Talking Radical Radio (January 2, 2018), Scott Neigh interviews Clayton Windatt. He is, in his own words, a "Metis non-status Indian," and he lives in Sturgeon Falls in northern Ontario. He is the executive director of an organization called the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective (ACC). Their members are Indigenous curators and artists – generally those whose focus is contemporary art – from across Canada, and to an extent in the United States, and their mandate is both to suppo...

Jan 02, 201828 min
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