Atlantic Voice

Kyle Wilby works stories from his own life into teaching the next generation of pharmacists at Dalhousie University to better care for the LGBTQ community. But opening up didn't always come so easily to him. Kyle joins us on the show today to talk about his journey, and the ways he's changing how pharmacies relate to the LGBTQ community in the Maritimes.

The Innu-aimun word Nutshimit roughly means 'being in the country'. But it's also so much more than that, as 20 kids from the Sheshatshiu Innu First Nation learned during a 10 day camping trip into the late winter of Labrador. Tag along for fish gutting, caribou skinning in this story from CBC producer Heidi Atter, with reporting from two of the campers themselves: Florrah Rich and Ray Sillett.

Ever since Chantal Phee heard a family member name drop the Martin Street Co-operative, she's wondered: what is it? Even her dad didn't know he'd grown up in the Black-owned housing co-op in Antigonish, or what that co-op even meant. CBC producer Rose Murphy roadtrips with Chantal to find answers in this week's documentary about untold histories, and the power of having a home. Note: A prominent voice in the radio documentary, Jana MacDonald, died unexpectedly on May 19. It's her research that brought many missing details of this mystery to light.

Some of Nipahtuwet Naka Wespahtuwet Possesom Paul's earliest memories were at powwows. That's where he found a calling to dance - and how ballet came into his life. The co-creator of Pisuwin, the first-ever Wolastoqey ballet, sits down for a chat about his dancing career, and why he's always working to get other Indigenous east coast artists ahead.

Break out a map of Atlantic Canada and you'll notice there's a lot of colonial, patriarchal place names. A. Lot. And as names across our region get a reckoning, Lauren Beck is keeping track. She's the author of Canada's Place Names and How To Change Them, a professor at Mount Allison University, and this week's guest and guide to the history and future of the names around us.

This archival shipwreck story of sonic wizardry spans continents and centuries, courtesy of the great radio producer Chris Brookes. Chris passed away earlier this month in St. John's, but leaves behind a trove of audio stories like this one, that first aired in 2002.

When Jennifer Crawford donned the wild colours of their wrestling persona Moon Miss, they seemed unstoppable in the rookie wrestling season. Then came a huge setback. Luckily - Jennifer is no stranger to setbacks. A comeback story as unexpected as Moon Mist ice cream itself, produced by Emma Smith, David Irish, and Jennifer Crawford.

From archival snippets of slave names to modern police shootings, filmmaker and writer Sylvia Hamilton filters those Black experiences - and her own - into her poetry collection, Tender. She reads us a few poems and talks about the lives within it.

Throughout his life, Craig Mackie used his voice to help others. And he decided to do the same as he faced death, and his choice of medical assistance in dying. A documentary by Jessica Doria-Brown.

Failing: we've all done it. So why don't we talk about it more? 2 scholars at the University of New Brunswick say there's a lot to be gained from opening up about what goes wrong in our lives.

"The way I see it, Rita Joe did not spend decades fighting to find her talk, for me to not try," Mi'kmaw historian Mercedes Peters tells a crowd at the Halifax Central Library. The crowd is there to listen as Mi'kmaw writers and thinkers share personal histories and imagined worlds, all inspired by the legendary poet. Producer Moira Donovan was in the audience too, and brings us inside the event, put off by the Afterwords Literary Festival.

Alone and pregnant, Joy Chukwu-Osazuwa arrived in St. John's from Nigeria to pursue her PhD dreams in 2018. By 2023, her science degree and family life are thriving - and so are her side hustles, all dedicated to helping other international students and immigrants find their way in Canada. Joy is a CBC Black Changemaker for 2023, and this is her story. Reporting by Heather Gillis.

One province holds a dubious distinction in the cost of living crunch: PEI has had the highest inflation in Canada for almost two years. How are Islanders coping? The CBC's Laura Meader and Maggie Brown bring us their stories, and sacrifices.

Michelle Butler Hallett is an award-winning novelist from St. John's. But she turns the pen on herself in her very personal essay, "You're Not Disabled, Disabled." Michelle reads from that essay and shares her experiences of varying mobility and being policed by others, with the hope of sparking compassion and conversation.

Meet some of the Buddhist nuns who make their home in the eastern corner of PEI. They're often the subject of curiosity, but when they looked to expand their residences - they found confrontation instead. A documentary produced by Janna Graham.

This week on AV, Shaina Luck takes us into a dry cell. It’s a windowless prison cell with no working plumbing. The lights are always on and there’s 24-7 monitoring. Guards wait and watch for days, even weeks for prisoners to expel suspected contraband from their bodies. Some consider dry cells torture.

Upright pianos aren't the household fixtures they used to be, to the point they're often given away for free. When CBC producer Myfanwy Davies acquired one such freebie, it sparked this story: of household pianos, and the people who love them. An archival episode from 2016.

A lot of the carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere ends up in our oceans, particularly the North Atlantic. We head out on a Newfoundland expedition using underwater drones try to answer pressing scientific questions, like: why is the North Atlantic so good at absorbing carbon, and how much more can it hold?

When Catherine MacInnis gave birth to her son, it fulfilled her greatest fear. An award-winning documentary about strength, parenthood and a journey to joy, from Sarah Keaveny-Vos.

When Hilding Neilson isn't studying exoplanets or teaching students at Memorial University, he's considering the night sky from a cultural perspective. As an astronomer and a member of the Qalipu Mi'kmaw First Nation, Hilding works to Indigenize astronomy - from pushing for more diversity behind the microscope, to changing the colonizing words often used to describe our interactions with outer space.