Below the Radar
290 episodes - English - Latest episode: 12 days ago - ★★★★★ - 3 ratingsAmplifying ideas that fly below the radar. We talk environmental and social justice, arts, culture, community-building and urban issues with featured guests.
This podcast is produced by SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement as a part of our Knowledge Democracy Project @ 312 Main — encouraging the meaningful exchange of ideas and information across communities.
Hosted and currently produced by:
Am Johal
Joey Malbon
Julia Aoki
Kathy Feng
Samantha Walters
Visit our website for archived audio and video recordings of our public events: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/library.html
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Episodes
The Climate Imaginary: Preserving Cultural Heritage — with Charles J. Henry
November 15, 2022 08:00 - 37 minutes - 34.7 MBOn the third episode of our Below the Radar series: The Climate Imaginary, our host Am Johal is joined by Charles Henry. Charles is a scholar and current president of the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). He joins Host Am Johal to discuss climate change and the works of CLIR on ensuring cultural heritage artifacts are safe and accessible within the digital space. Charles identifies current climate conditions as a threat to cultural artifacts and archives. Charles also talk...
The Climate Imaginary: The Art Shaped Hole in the Climate Crisis — with Kendra Fanconi
November 01, 2022 19:43 - 37 minutes - 34.8 MBOn the second episode of our Below the Radar series: The Climate Imaginary, Steve Tornes and Alex K Masse sit down to talk with Kendra Fanconi, artistic director of The Only Animal. Kendra’s work with The Only Animal—a theatre company based in Vancouver—arises from a deep engagement with place and unfolds in collaboration with the natural world. Together, they discuss the process of making theatre in the anthropocene, The Only Animal’s Artist Brigade cohort of 100 climate-engaged artists, and...
The Climate Imaginary: Beneath the Poetry, the Barricade — with Stephen Collis
November 01, 2022 07:00 - 29 minutes - 27.2 MBThis episode of Below the Radar is a special live recording from SFU School for the Contemporary Art’s Re-orientation day 2022: Contemporary Arts + Climate Change on September 8th, 2022. It’s also the first episode of our new series: The Climate Imaginary. Stephen Collis is an award winning writer and a professor in the English department at SFU. Stephen joins our host Am Johal for a discussion on the relationship between art and environmental activism; They look at what art and writing can...
Drug Policy — with Dr. Kora DeBeck, Erica McAdam, Kali Sedgemore, and Dean Wilson
October 25, 2022 07:00 - 35 minutes - 32.2 MBThis week, our host Am Johal is joined by Dr. Kora DeBeck, Erica McAdam, Kali Sedgemore, and Dean Wilson; four guests who all do important work in research and advocacy for drug users in Vancouver. They discuss the recent research that they’ve been involved in as well as the past and present models of drug policy in the city, looking at various decriminalisation policies and the current pressing issues of toxic drug supplies and community relationships with the law. Together they consider the...
The Art of Making Unfinished — with Leela Gandhi
October 18, 2022 11:00 - 28 minutes - 26.4 MBLeela Gandhi is a professor and writer of the book, Affective Communities: Anticolonial Thought, Fin-de-Siècle Radicalism, and the Politics of Friendship. This episode goes into different forms of friendship in the contexts of democracy, post-colonialism, and climate change; and how friendship can change depending on different circumstances. It is fitting that this episode is hosted by Am Johal and Matt Hern, two close friends writing a book together about friendship and community. Full epis...
Nietzsche and Friendship — with Willow Verkerk
October 11, 2022 07:00 - 37 minutes - 34.4 MBPhilosophy scholar and author Willow Verkerk sits down with Am Johal to discuss Nietzsche and his ideas of friendship, as well as her current work on the Gendered Mimesis project at KU Leuven. Willow compares Nietzsche’s more agonistic notion of friendship with other philosophers like Aristotle, Kant, Derrida – and draws from Luce Irigaray to consider friendship from a more gendered lens. Willow also speaks about her creative writing in the past as a form of expression, and discusses her cur...
Bob Williams Unplugged — with Bob Williams
October 04, 2022 07:00 - 1 hour - 55.8 MBBob Williams is the writer of the book Using Power Well: Bob Williams and the Making of British Columbia, which describes his many political contributions to British Columbia. In this episode, our host Am Johal sits down with Bob to discuss his public life and the political impacts that his decisions continue to have. Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/188-bob-williams.html Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/van...
Freedom Singer — with Khari Wendell McClelland
September 27, 2022 07:00 - 27 minutes - 25.2 MBKhari Wendell McClelland—a diversely talented musician, writer, and community facilitator—joins Am Johal to discuss music as a tool for community healing. Khari explores music as an interactive process, and sees music as an opportunity to connect with the surrounding community. As an artist, he speaks about the importance of one's presence and the ability to connect with the audience. He says his willingness to interact with the community gave birth to so many of his collaborations. Khari...
A Walk Around The Sun — with Erika Lewis
September 20, 2022 07:00 - 19 minutes - 17.9 MBErika Lewis is a singer and musician of Tuba Skinny, a blues and ragtime band from New Orleans. Erika is also a solo artist, with the albums, “Waiting for Stars” (2016) and “A Walk Around the Sun” (2022). This episode goes into the different musical influences of New Orleans, Erika’s move from blues to country, and her overall experiences of street busking and touring internationally. There is also a discussion of her health scare and how it pushed the release of her latest album. This episo...
Science Fiction & Social Justice — with Walidah Imarisha
September 13, 2022 07:00 - 26 minutes - 24.1 MBSituated within the current context of police brutality, for-profit prisons, and excessive incarceration rates, Am Johal sits down with educator, writer, and public scholar, Walidah Imarisha. Walidah describes her creative works involving ideas and futures of police and prison abolition, including her book Angels with Dirty Faces, and her current work developing Space to Breathe – a film that looks back on our present moment of the abolitionist movement from a future where police and prisons...
Born in Flames — with Lizzie Borden
September 06, 2022 07:00 - 49 minutes - 45.4 MBOn this episode of Below the Radar, host Am Johal is joined by Lizzie Borden, an independent filmmaker who's been directing & creating since the 1970s. Lizzie describes her unique creative journey, as a filmmaker who never went to film school and instead came into filmmaking after studying visual arts. She discusses her inspirations, which vary from gallery art, to second-wave feminism, to women in Marxism. She also dives into her colourful filmography: Regrouping, her 1976 experimental docu...
The Creative Instigator’s Handbook — with Leanne Prain
August 30, 2022 07:00 - 34 minutes - 31.2 MBLeanne Prain is the writer of The Creative Instigator's Handbook: A DIY Guide to Making Social Change and Yarn Bombing: The Art of Crochet & Knit Graffiti. In this episode, Melissa Roach and Leanne discuss the inspiration for The Creative Instigator's Handbook, the different range of projects and artists described in the book, the impact of the pandemic, and the creativity of “Do It Yourself” art projects. Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-th...
SISOSIG: If We Need More Homes, Why Can’t We Build Them?
August 19, 2022 21:30 - 28 minutes - 25.8 MBThis week we’re highlighting an episode created by our friends at Urbanarium City Talks, from their Should I Stay Or Should I Go? podcast. This series follows Jenny Tan on her mission to figure out how to keep on living in Vancouver, as she explores the housing crisis from her trailer home in the Westend. Throughout the series, Jenny asks Sonja Trauss, president of YIMBY, journalist/writer Sam Cooper, developers Heather Tremain, Tony Pappajohn and Leslie Shieh, Andy Yan, director of SFU's C...
The Trip Diary: B-Line to the Future — with Bowinn Ma & Uytae Lee
July 26, 2022 07:00 - 57 minutes - 53 MBOn the fourth and final episode of The Trip Diary, Steve Tornes speaks with Bowinn Ma and Uytae Lee about their public engagement work involving transit systems, as well as the possible futures of transportation in the Lower Mainland. Bowinn and Steve have a conversation about INSTPP and B-Line/rapid bus initiative in West Vancouver, while Uytae described how his series, “Uytae Lee's Stories About Here,” brings awareness to urban planning concepts to a larger audience. Full episode details: ...
The Trip Diary: Cycling in Numbers — with Councillor Tony Valente & Dr. Meghan Winters
July 19, 2022 07:00 - 57 minutes - 52.5 MBOn this third episode of The Trip Diary, Steve Tornes speaks with Councillor Tony Valente and Dr. Meghan Winters talks about cycling, advocacy, and street allocations. Tony describes his advocacy work before being elected to council, and what steps transportation advocates can take in other cities, as well as the development of Esplanade Street as a complete street. Meghan talked about her different research looking at cycling and street reallocations across different North American cities, a...
The Trip Diary: A City in Transit — with Peter V. Hall
July 12, 2022 07:00 - 35 minutes - 32.4 MBOn this second episode of The Trip Diary, Steve Tornes speaks with Dr. Peter V. Hall about the Employer Transit Subsidy Study, a research project which examined the factors that encourage people to switch from driving to public transit and who, even if you made transit free, would still not use public transit. Compared to our last episode on equity, this research is quantitative and numbers based, and yet, even though it involved big data, it still cares deeply about equity. Peter further di...
The Trip Diary: Geographies of Identity
July 05, 2022 07:00 - 1 hour - 56.5 MBOn this first episode of The Trip Diary, Steve Tornes speaks with Lori Macdonald and Sadia Tabassum about their research on transit-based mobility through an equitable lens. Lori discusses how recent migrants to the City of Vancouver learn and familiarize themselves to a new public transportation network, while Sadia describes how transit spaces affect women of colour in different ways, pushing back against the concept of the “universal transit user”. Both Lori and Sadia discuss their researc...
The Trip Diary: Geographies of Identity — with Lori Macdonald and Sadia Tabassum
July 05, 2022 07:00 - 1 hour - 56.5 MBOn this first episode of The Trip Diary, Steve Tornes speaks with Lori Macdonald and Sadia Tabassum about their research on transit-based mobility through an equitable lens. Lori discusses how recent migrants to the City of Vancouver learn and familiarize themselves to a new public transportation network, while Sadia describes how transit spaces affect women of colour in different ways, pushing back against the concept of the “universal transit user”. Both Lori and Sadia discuss their researc...
Forced Labour, Modern Slavery and the Global Supply Chain — Genevieve LeBaron
June 28, 2022 08:00 - 31 minutes - 28.5 MBGenevieve LeBaron is a new Professor and Director of the School of Public Policy at Simon Fraser University, and the Principle Investigator of the ReStructure Lab. In this episode, Am and Genevieve discuss her research work on forced labour and the global market forces which incentivize those practices. They also discuss the new role for public policy in solving real-world solutions as well as the unique context of the School of Public Policy at SFU and its broader impact. Full episode detai...
Rez Dog Blues & The Haiku — with William Lindsay
June 21, 2022 07:00 - 31 minutes - 29.2 MBWilliam Lindsay worked as an educator at Simon Fraser University, the University of British Columbia, and Concordia University. In this episode, Am and William discuss the writing process for his latest book, “Rez Dog Blues & The Haiku: A Savage Life in Bits and Pieces,” and its focus on music and movies, horror and hope, and the honest depiction of Indigneous life, in the 60s and 70s, on reserve and then in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. Content Warning: The stories in this series deal...
Prophet Against Slavery: The Story of Benjamin Lay — with David Lester
June 14, 2022 08:00 - 33 minutes - 31.1 MBDavid Lester is the author and graphic designer of Prophet Against Slavery, Benjamin Lay: A Graphic Novel and he is the illustrator of 1919: A Graphic History of the Winnipeg General Strike. David is also the guitarist for the bands, Mecca Normal and Horde of Two. This episode explores the subject of the book, Benjamin Lay, the radical Quaker who used guerrilla theatre to shame slave owners and traders, as well as the intersection of political activism and art in David’s personal and professi...
From Dialogue to Action — with Shauna Sylvester
June 07, 2022 07:00 - 35 minutes - 32.7 MBShauna Sylvester is the former Executive Director of the SFU Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue and is moving on to be the Executive Director of the Urban Sustainability Directors’ Network. Shauna has also been involved in various organizations, such as the Social Planning and Research Council of B.C., the Institute for Media, Policy and Civil Society, Canada’s World, among others. This episode explores the impacts and changes made through these organizations, as well as how Shauna developed ...
Advancing University-Community Engagement — with Magda Goemans
May 24, 2022 07:15 - 26 minutes - 24.4 MBIn community engagement, values of relationship-building, trust, understanding, and care are paramount—which means listening and learning on both sides. In this episode of Below the Radar, host Am Johal is joined by Magda Goemans, manager of Community Campus Engage Canada. Together, they discuss her almost decade-long journey in the field of community engagement, the priorities of their practice, and plans they hold for the future. Magda describes Community Campus Engage Canada as a netwo...
Settler Memory: The Disavowal of Indigeneity and the Politics of Race — with Kevin Bruyneel
May 17, 2022 07:00 - 36 minutes - 33.1 MBSettler Memory: The Disavowal of Indigeneity and the Politics of Race in the United States (University of North Carolina Press 2021) is about the displacement of Indigeneity in the discourse around race in American political theory, with settler memory being about recognizing or acknowledging the history of Indigenous peoples in colonialism, and then disavowing the active presence of settler colonialism and Indigenous politics in the present. Am and Kevin discuss how Black theorists, like Ja...
Critical Community Engaged Scholarship — with Liz Jackson
May 10, 2022 07:00 - 28 minutes - 26.5 MBThe Community Engaged Scholarship Institute, situated at the University of Guelph, brings together community and campus skills and resources in order to advance community-identified research goals. This episode describes various projects, such as the Community Engaged Teaching and Learning (CETL) Program, the Research Shop, and the Guelph Lab. Am and Liz discuss the role of the Institute and how community engaged research can be used to provide a foundation for policy development and in wide...
Remembering BC’s 1983 Solidarity Uprising — with David Spaner
May 03, 2022 07:00 - 38 minutes - 35.4 MBIn 1983, the province of British Columbia saw the rise of a social movement like no other since — uniting activists, community organizations and trade unionists in protest. This time on Below the Radar, host Am Johal speaks to David Spaner, an author, cultural critic, and organizer who has written a compelling history of the Solidarity resistance movement. Released in December of 2021 by Ronsdale Press, Solidarity: Canada's Unknown Revolution of 1983 is David’s chronicling of the organizing ...
Earworm and Event — with Eldritch Priest
April 26, 2022 07:15 - 29 minutes - 27 MBSFU's School for the Contemporary Arts Assistant Professor Eldritch Priest joins this episode Below the Radarl to discuss the potential in nonsense and failure, the phenomenon of the earworm, and his journey from musicianship to employing theory. In this episode, Eldritch explores his beginnings as a jazz guitarist, the practices that guide his work and his teachings, and the path that led him to composition and beyond. He dives into the legitimacy and aesthetic possibilities of failure an...
A Conversation About Urban Choreography — with Justine A. Chambers, Alana Gerecke & Annabel Vaughan
April 19, 2022 07:00 - 1 hour - 66.1 MBThis episode of Below the Radar is a special live event recording from “A Conversation About Urban Choreography,” presented in-person at SFU’s Vancouver campus on November 9, 2021. Taking gesture as a point of entry, Justine A. Chambers and Alana Gerecke extend their collaborative exploration of the everyday choreographies that are built into an urban experience. Combining artistic and academic research, they index the various bodily orientations cultivated by the built and social structures...
Overlapping Crises and Community Responses — with Micheal Vonn
April 12, 2022 07:00 - 27 minutes - 25.1 MBMicheal Vonn, from the PHS Community Services Society, joins Am Johal to discuss the relation between overdose prevention initiatives with different health policies at different stages of the pandemic. This is a conversation about how policies may not take into account marginalized, at risk groups, especially in the context of crises, whether for a pandemic, or for climate change resiliency. As someone with extensive experience in law and public health, Micheal ends the discussion by talking...
Housing Affordability and Safe Supply — with Jean Swanson
April 05, 2022 17:30 - 32 minutes - 30.2 MBCity of Vancouver Councillor Jean Swanson joins Am Johal to discuss her time in politics, both as an anti-poverty activist, and as a city councillor. In this episode, they discuss the housing affordability crisis in Vancouver, the need for safe supply, and the high cost of living. Jean also describes how she was introduced to political activism through Bruce Eriksen and Libby Davies, the experience of developing a community newsletter, and her memories of being a political candidate over the...
The Pleasure in Liberation — with adrienne maree brown
March 29, 2022 09:00 - 34 minutes - 31.7 MBIn this episode of Below the Radar, host Am Johal is joined by adrienne maree brown, organizer and author of nonfiction activism explorations Pleasure Activism, Emergent Strategy, and more. Together, they discuss brown's history as a community organizer and facilitator, the powers of solidarity and pleasure in activism, and some of her inspirations—from Audre Lorde and Octavia Butler to the beauty of nature itself. Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/...
Honouring Indigenous Children & Motherhood — with Angel Gates and Eva Takakanew
March 22, 2022 17:37 - 20 minutes - 18.4 MBContent Warning: The stories in this series deal with difficult and sometimes traumatic topics. This episode in particular discusses substance use, family separation and residential schools. Please practice self care, stop listening, and seek help if you need to. Scroll down to find links to available supports. For the final installment of the Voices of the Street podcast series, host Angel Gates invites Megaphone author Eva Takakanew into conversation about her powerful writings. As longt...
Voices of the Street: Empty Inside — with Angel Gates and Peter Thompson
March 15, 2022 07:00 - 17 minutes - 15.8 MBContent Warning: The stories in this series deal with difficult and sometimes traumatic topics. Please practice self care, stop listening, and seek help if you need to. Scroll down to find links to available supports. Storyteller, actor and activist Angel Gates invites Megaphone author Peter Thompson into conversation about his poem, “Empty Inside.” Peter’s piece, published in the 2021 Voices of the Street anthology, is a poetic contemplation of loneliness and isolation during the COVID-19 p...
Voices of the Street: My Mother’s Comfort — with Nicolas Leech-Crier and Eva Takakanew
March 08, 2022 08:00 - 16 minutes - 15.4 MBContent Warning: The stories in this series deal with difficult and sometimes traumatic topics. This episode in particular discusses substance use, family separation and residential schools. Please practice self care, stop listening, and seek help if you need to. Scroll down to find links to available supports. The fourth episode of the Voices of the Street podcast series features a conversation on Indigenous honour, healing and empowerment, with your host, Nicolas Leech-Crier. Nicolas inte...
Voices of the Street: Without Prejudice — with Yvonne Mark and Dennis Gates
March 01, 2022 08:00 - 12 minutes - 11.9 MBContent Warning: The stories in this series deal with difficult and sometimes traumatic topics. Please practice self care, stop listening, and seek help if you need to. Scroll down to find links to available supports. For the third installment of the Voices of the Street podcast, we have a candid and heartful conversation between host Yvonne Mark and Megaphone writer Dennis Gates in response to his piece “Without Prejudice,” published in the 2021 Voices of the Street anthology. In his piece...
Voices of the Street: The Din from Within — with Jules Chapman
February 22, 2022 08:00 - 6 minutes - 5.86 MBContent Warning: The stories in this series deal with difficult and sometimes traumatic topics. Please practice self care, stop listening, and seek help if you need to. Scroll down to find links to available supports. Be transported into the soundscapes of two different poems. This installment of the Voices of the Street podcast is produced by Jules Chapman, a writer and peer support worker who is deeply involved in the Downtown Eastside community. Jules reads from the Voices of the Street...
Voices of the Street: Why I Choose to Stay — with Nicolas Leech-Crier and Mr. Essential
February 15, 2022 08:00 - 12 minutes - 11.6 MBContent Warning: The stories in this series deal with difficult and sometimes traumatic topics. Please practice self care, stop listening, and seek help if you need to. Scroll down to find links to available supports. The Voices of the Street podcast makes its debut on Below the Radar! Over the next six weeks, follow along as Megaphone storytellers weave tales and read from the 2021 Voices of the Street anthology. In this first installment, we hear from poet, writer, actor, research tech and...
Voices Of The Street Trailer
February 12, 2022 00:51 - 3 minutes - 3.32 MBContent Warning: The stories in this series deal with difficult and sometimes traumatic topics. Please practice self care, stop listening and seek support if you need to. Help is available (links below)! The 2021 Voices of the Street anthology, “INSIDE we are all the same,” jumps from the page in this special podcast series. For four Megaphone storytellers, poetry and prose from last year’s special literary edition are a starting point for exploring the themes that moved them — in a whole ne...
The Future of Urban Housing & Climate Policy — with Christine Boyle
February 08, 2022 08:00 - 35 minutes - 32.6 MBCity of Vancouver Councillor Christine Boyle sits down with Am Johal to discuss her hopes for the City’s future, and what can be done on the municipal level to combat the climate crisis, the housing crisis, and issue of drug poisoning on Vancouver’s streets. An organizer, minister and activist, Christine also speaks to her work on the City’s United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Task Force and how the City can take action on the crises we are facing in a way that ad...
Russian Influence in Eastern Europe — with Rumena Filipova
February 03, 2022 08:00 - 40 minutes - 37 MBWriter, researcher, and Chairperson of the Institute for Global Analytics, Rumena Filipova joins host Am Johal to discuss her latest book, Constructing the Limits of Europe: Identity and Foreign Policy in Poland, Bulgaria, and Russia since 1989. Rumena speaks to how dominant conceptions of national identity have shaped the foreign policy behaviour of the Balkan states, Hungary and Russia. She explores the internal politics of European Union member states, the competing regional forces of Euro...
Terror Capitalism and Uyghur Dispossession — with Darren Byler
February 01, 2022 20:21 - 40 minutes - 37.3 MBSociocultural anthropologist and assistant professor at SFU’s School for International Studies, Darren Byler joins Am Johal to speak about his latest book, “Terror Capitalism: Uyghur Dispossession and Masculinity in a Chinese City.” Darren describes how China surveilles and dispossesses Uyghur populations through a mass digital surveillance system, connecting it to the war on terror. Darren and Am also discuss the similarities and differences between the colonialism of China with India, Israe...
Badiou, Universalism and Racial Politics — with Elisabeth Paquette
January 25, 2022 08:00 - 23 minutes - 21.7 MBContinental philosopher and assistant professor of Philosophy and Women Gender Studies at the University of North Carolina, Elisabeth Paquette, joins Am Johal to speak about her latest book, Universal Emancipation: Race Beyond Badiou. Elisabeth speaks about some of her transformative moments as a continental philosopher, including an essential question posed to her by Paget Henry, and her experience joining the Black Lives Matter Charlotte Protests in 2016. Her and Am also speak about the im...
Experimental Pedagogy & Art — with Alessandra Pomarico
January 18, 2022 08:00 - 44 minutes - 40.8 MBIn this episode, we spoke with Alessandra Pomarico about creating collaborative art for social change, both before and during the pandemic. The show begins by talking about friendship and different collectives in Italy and New York, before moving on to new ways of thinking which combine resistance and existence (re-existence). Centring re-existence in Latin American ideas and the Zapatista movement, Alessandra puts forward a new way of learning through collective living and collaborative art ...
ALIVE: Creating Systems of Change — with Scott Clark
January 11, 2022 08:00 - 35 minutes - 32.4 MBOn this week’s episode, we sat down with long-time Indigenous-rights advocate Scott Clark of the Coast Salish S'Klallam nation, and discussed creating systems of change from the ground up that produce positive and evidence based results. Diving into his work with ALIVE, or Aboriginal Life in Vancouver Enhancement Society, Scott talks about his hope regarding youth-led movements while critiquing how settler governments continue to fail Indigenous people. Having decades of experience working w...
Intergenerational Community Building – with InterGenNS
January 06, 2022 19:51 - 31 minutes - 28.8 MBAm Johal sits down with the team at InterGenNS, a North Shore community project working to inspire intergenerational connections. This intergenerational trio, Rachelle Patille, Sue Carabetta, and June Maynard, speak about bridging the gap of academia and community, the impacts that COVID had on project goals and funding, and the challenges of embarking upon community-engaged research. The team also explores their personal stories that led them towards intergenerational programming, and discu...
Vancouver Podcast Festival: Podcasting Climate Change
January 04, 2022 18:37 - 1 hour - 65.3 MBThe climatic events of 2021 (heat, fires, floods, storms) have brought home the reality of climate change like never before — and the urgency for media to address this crisis couldn’t feel greater. But how do we talk about the climate emergency in ways that move us away from despair and disaster coverage? How can podcasts shift the conversation in ways the mainstream media cannot or refuses to do? How do we talk about climate justice, Indigenous sovereignty, and de-colonizing media? For this...
Bramah and the Beggar Boy — with Renée Sarojini Saklikar
December 21, 2021 08:00 - 39 minutes - 36 MBWriter and poet, Renée Sarojini Saklikar joins Am Johal on this episode of Below the Radar to talk about her latest work, Bramah and The Beggar Boy, first in a series, THOT J BAP (The Heart Of This Journey Bears All Patterns). In this episode, Renée reads passages from her new story and discusses the act of writing as a woman of colour, her creative process, and how writing can be a form of survival and resistance. Her book is an epic poem and story which was an amazing 10-year undertaking, ...
Dialogue & Social Change — with Mark Winston
December 14, 2021 08:00 - 34 minutes - 31.9 MBBelow the Radar explores the transformational capacity of dialogue with apiculturist, award-winning author, and SFU Professor of Biological Sciences Mark Winston. He is in conversation with host Am Johal about SFU’s Semester in Dialogue program and the importance of providing students with opportunities to be engaged with their communities. Mark shares how part of a university’s job is to help people realize who they want to be in the world, speaking to the impact of alternative pedagogical ...
Performing History & Land in Vancouver’s Stanley Park — with Selena Couture
December 07, 2021 18:33 - 40 minutes - 36.8 MBPerformance scholar and Associate Professor in the Dramatic Arts department at the University of Alberta Selena Couture joins Am Johal to talk about her latest book, Against the Current and Into the Light. Selena speaks about how her book explores varying historical and contemporary performances involving Stanley Park through language, relationships to land, and the unlearning of settler knowledges. She draws from colonial and counter-colonial performances such as the 1946 Jubilee show, and t...
LGBTQ2S+ Health: Impacts of Stigma — with Travis Salway
November 30, 2021 08:00 - 31 minutes - 28.7 MBTravis Salway, a social epidemiologist and Assistant Professor with SFU’s Faculty of Health Sciences, joins Am Johal in a conversation about syndemic theory, the state of conversion therapy in Canada, and LGBTQ2S+ affirming healthcare. Going in-depth about the structural health disadvantages of LGBTQ2S+ people and the multiple epidemics concurrently affecting them, Am and Travis discuss how Canada still needs to do more to achieve an equal society. Travis also speaks to the current limitatio...