Talking Radical Radio

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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/

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/

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:...

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:...

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,...

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...

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/

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...

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...

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:...

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...

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...

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....

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/

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:...