The Tommy Douglas Institute

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The Tommy Douglas Institute is a progressive space of dialogue for educational communities and wider communities to explore, discuss and advance ideas of critical pedagogy and educating for change in the 21st century.

The Tommy Douglas Institute is pleased to bring you the seventh series of our podcast.

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The Tommy Douglas Institute and rabble.ca, with the support of The Douglas Coldwell Layton Foundation, are pleased to present:


The "Courage My Friends" Podcast, Series VII

COVID!   CAPITALISM!   CLIMATE!

Three storms have converged and we’re all caught in the vortex. What brought us to this point? Can we go back to normal? Do we even want to? From economic and climate justice to rethinking cities and peoples’ health, this 7-part series invites thinkers and activists to envision the possibilities of a newer, brighter and necessary future.

In the words of the great Tommy Douglas…

Courage, my friends; 'tis not too late to build a better world. 

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Series VII Podcasts

Series VII, Episode 1: Climate and the City – Are We Ready?

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Guest: David Miller (Managing Director, C40 Centre for City Climate Policy and Economy / Former Mayor of Toronto)

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Series VII, Episode 2: Truth and Reconciliation: How Is Canada Doing?

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Guests: Eva Jewell (Research Director, Yellowhead Institute), Kaila Johnston (Director of Education, Outreach and Public Programming, National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation – NCTR)

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Series VII, Episode 3: EdTech, AI and Platform Capitalism in the Classroom

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Guests: Dr. Rahul Kumar (Researcher, Faculty Brock University), Dr. Tanner Mirrlees (Political Economist/Faculty, Ontario Tech University)

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Series VI Podcasts

Series VI, Episode 1: Climate, Conflict and the Meaning of Peace 

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Guests: Tamara Lorincz (Environmental Feminist, Peace Activist), Linda Thyer (Physician and Member, Doctors for Planetary Health — West Coast),

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Series VI, Episode 2: Labour Fair 2024 Keynote: Corporate Power vs. Labour Power - It’s Our Work!

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Guest: JP Hornick (President, OPSEU/SEFPO)

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Series VI, Episode 3: Labour Fair 2024: Inequality Inc: Corporate Power vs. Workers’ Rights 

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Guests: Lauren Ravon (Executive Director, OXFAM Canada), Jared Ong (Organizer, Workers’ Action Centre)

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Series VI, Episode 4: Scholasticide and Solidarity: The Mind and Memory of Gaza 

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Guests: Dr. Chandni Desai (Faculty, Researcher, University of Toronto / Host, Liberation Pedagogy Podcast), Dr. Muhannad Ayyash (Faculty, Mount Royal University / Policy Analyst, Al Shabaka, The Palestinian Policy Network)

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Series V Podcasts

Series V, Episode 1: BRICS: Summits, Coups & A Changing World Order 

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Guest: Vijay Prashad (author, public intellectual, Director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research)

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Series V, Episode 2: Series V, Episode 2: At the Planet In Focus Film Festival

Listen now

Guests: Katherine Bruce (Executive Director,PiF), Deirdre Leowinata (Filmmaker), Alfonso Salinas (Traditional Wellness Coordinator, Filmmaker), Liz Marshall (Filmmaker)

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Series V, Episode 3: Mouth Open, Story Jump Out: Storytelling for Change

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Guests: Kesha Christie (Storyteller, Founder, Talkin’Tales), Njoki Mbũrũ (Storyteller, CFC Transformational Storytelling Fellow), Rani Sanderson (Storytelling Workshop Facilitator, StoryCentre Canada)

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Series V, Episode 4: Gaza: Humanitarian Agencies Call for a Ceasefire Now

Listen now

Guests: Dalia al-Awqati (Head of Humanitarian Affairs, Save the Children Canada) and 
Lauren Ravon (Executive Director of Oxfam Canada) 

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Series V, Episode 5: Menopause and Work in Canada: Menopause is Natural, Suffering is Not

Listen now

Guests: Janet Ko (President and Co-Founder, Menopause Foundation of Canada) and Trish Barbato (Co-Founder, Menopause Foundation of Canada and President/CEO, Arthritis Society of Canada)

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Series V, Episode 6: Inequality Inc.: Corporate Power vs. Public Action

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Guests: Lauren Ravon (Executive Director, Oxfam Canada) and Michèle Biss (National Director, National Right to Housing Network)

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Series IV Podcasts

Series IV, Episode 1: Labour Education: Film, Fair and Organizing

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Guests: Kathryn Payne (Faculty/ Labour Fair Organizer, George Brown College), Lorene Oikawa (Filmmaker and Board Member, Canadian Labour International Film Festival - CLiFF), Derek Blackadder (Labour Organizer and Board Member, CLiFF)

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Series IV, Episode 2: The Other P3s: Pandemic, Privatization, Precarity... and Planet!! Senator Hassan Yussuff Keynote Address, 31st Annual Labour Fair, George Brown College

Listen Now

Keynote Speaker: Senator Hassan Yussuff (Canadian Senator and Past President, Canadian Labour Congress)

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Series IV, Episode 3: Good Jobs, Clean Economy: Pushing for a Just Transition 

Listen Now

Guest: Jamie Kirkpatrick (Senior Program Manager, Blue Green Canada)

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Series IV, Episode 4: Asking for a Friend: Living Organ Donations, A Gift Beyond Words 

Listen Now

Guests: William Woolrich (Faculty, George Brown College and York University), Candice Coghlan (Education & Outreach Coordinator, UHN’s Ajmera Transplant Ctr)

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Series IV, Episode 5: Labour Fair 2023: Gig Workers and Precarity in the 21st Century

LISTEN NOW

Guests: Simran Dhunna (Member, Naujawa Support Network), Jobanjeet Kaur (Member, Naujawa Support Network), Jennifer Scott (President, Gig Workers United)

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Series IV, Episode 6: Iron & Earth: From the Oil Patch to the Renewable Economy

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Guests: Ana Guerra Marin (Communities Director & Just Transition Lead, Iron & Earth), Dara Wawaite-Chabot (Indigenous Lead Researcher, Iron & Earth)

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Series IV, Episode 7: Labour Fair 2023: Food Justice, Labour Rights and Social Gastronomy

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Guests: Joshna Maharaj (Chef, Activist, Educator & Author), Charlotte Big Canoe (Partner and Membership Director, The Full Plate), Chris Ramsaroop (Educator and activist, Justicia for Migrant Workers)

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Series III Podcasts

Series III, Episode 1: Privatization of Public Health: Protecting Universal Healthcare for the Common Good

Listen Now

Guests: JP Hornick (President, OPSEU/SEFPO) and Naheed Dosani (Palliative Care Physician and Health Justice Activist)

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Series III, Episode 2: Migrant Workers and the “Pandemic Paradox”: The Unseen Hands That Truly Keep Us Afloat

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Guests: Ethel Tungohan (Canada Research Chair in Canadian Migration Policy, Impacts and Activism), Jhoey Dulaca (Organizer with the Caregivers’ Action Centre/Migrant Workers Alliance for Change) and Chris Ramsaroop (Activist and Organizer, Justicia for Migrant Workers)

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Series III, Episode 3: Home is Where the Community is: Housing as a Human Right

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Guests: Dania Majid (Director of the Tenant Duty Council Program at the Advocacy Center for Tenants Ontario (ACTO)), John Ecker (director of Research and Evaluation at the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness) and Haydar Shouly (Senior Manager of Shelters and Shelter Programs with Dixon Hall)

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Series III, Episode 4, Part I: Mouth Open, Story Jump Out: The Power and Purpose of Storytelling in These Times

Listen Now

Guests: Teagan de Laronde (Storyteller, First Story), Richardo Keens-Douglas (Storyteller, Author, Actor, Playwright) and Dan Yashinsky (Storyteller, Writer, Community Animator)

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Series III, Episode 4, Part II: Mouth Open, Story Jump Out: The Power and Purpose of Storytelling in These Times

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Guests: Rhoma Spencer (Storyteller, Actor, Playwright, Filmmaker), Lynn Torrie (Storyteller, Educator) and Rico Rodriguez (Storyteller, Founder of Queers in Your Ears)

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Series III, Episode 5: Home is Where the Earth Is: The Climate Crisis Meets the Housing Crisis

Listen Now

Guests: Guest: Emmay Mah (Executive Director, Toronto Environmental Alliance)

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Series III, Episode 6: From Contract Negotiation to Political Protest: Reflecting on Ontario's Education Workers' Fight for Jobs, Rights, and Dignity

Listen Now

Guest: Laura Walton (President, CUPE’s Ontario School Boards Council of Unions (OSBCU)

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Series III, Episode 7: Who's Hungry… and Why?: Food Banks, Food Insecurity and Ending Hunger for Good

Listen Now

Guest: Guests: Neil Hetherington (CEO, The Daily Bread Food Bank) and Maria Rio (Director of Development and Communication, The Stop Community Food Centre)

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Series III, Episode 8: COP15 and 30x30 Part I: Turning the Tide on Biodiversity Loss and Mass Extinction

Listen Now

Guests: Tim Gray (Executive Director, Environmental Defence) and Sandra Schwartz (National Executive Director, CPAWS – Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society)

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Series III, Episode 9: COP15 and 30x30 Part II: Indigenous-Led Conservation and Saving the Greenbelt

Listen Now

Guest: Jeff Monague (Manager, Springwater Provincial Park & Fmr Chief Beausoleil First Nation)

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Series III, Episode 10: Capitalism and the Mental Health Crisis

Listen Now

Guests:
Madeleine Ritts
(Social Worker, Researcher, Writer),
Michelle Sraha-Yeboah (Researcher on Mental Health in Black Communities),
Jon Weier (Researcher and Educator in Labor Issues)

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Series III, Episode 11: Telling Black Histories: Writing, Recuperation and Resistance, Part 1

Listen now

Guest: George Elliott Clarke (4th Poet Laureate of Toronto, 7th Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate)

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Series III, Episode 11: Telling Black Histories: Writing, Recuperation and Resistance, Part 2

Listen now

Guest: George Elliott Clarke (4th Poet Laureate of Toronto, 7th Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate)

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Series II Podcasts

Series II, Episode 1: Education, Critical Pedagogy and the Future of Learning in a Post-Pandemic World

Listen now

Guest: Henry A. Giroux (author, educator, and public intellectual)

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Series II, Episode 2: Ecological Grief: Mourning the Past, Fearing the Future and Finding Hope

Listen now

Guest: Ashlee Cunsolo (Dean, School of Arctic and Subarctic Studies of the Labrador Institute of Memorial University and leading voice on climate change, mental health and ecological grief)

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Series II, Episode 3: Conflict, Climate and Refugees: Borderless Crises in a Bordered World and the Politics of Asylum

Listen Now 

Guests: Loly Rico (Executive Director, FCJ Refugee Centre) and Rachel Bryce (Co-Chair of the Climate Migration Working Group, Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers)

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Series II, Episode 4: Mental Health in the Workplace: Are we Working Well?

Listen now

Guests: Jonathan Weier (Academic Advisor, Douglas Coldwell Layton Foundation) and Tom Parkin (Principle, Impact Strategies)

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Series II, Episode 5: COVID, Capitalism, Climate: The Standard of Double-Standards Between the Global North and the Global South

Listen now

Guest: Vijay Prashad (historian, journalist, writer and Executive Director of Tri-Continental Institute for Social Research)

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Series II, episode 6: COVID, inequality and the billionaire space-race

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Guests: Linda McQuaig (author, journalist, activist) and Ian Thomson (Manager of Policy, Oxfam Canada)

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Series II, Episode 7: Climate Anxiety & Climate Justice Organizing: Fearing the Future, Finding Hope and Fighting for Our Planet – Part I

Listen Now

Guest: Bryanna Brown (climate activist with Indigenous Climate Action and originator of Land Back)

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Series II, Episode 8: Climate Anxiety & Climate Justice Organizing: Fearing the Future, Finding Hope and Fighting for Our Planet – Part II

Listen now

Guests: Aliya Hirji (climate justice organizer and activist) and Marie Dolcetti-Koros (National Chairperson, Canadian Federation of Students)

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Series I Podcasts

Series I, Episode 1: The Convergence: COVID! Capitalism! Climate!

Listen Now

Guests: Ed Broadbent (Politician and Chair, The Broadbent Institute) and Kofi Hope (thought leader, social entrepreneur and Toronto Star columnist)

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Series I, Episode 2: Labour & Economic Security: Bread and Roses in a Post-Pandemic World

Listen Now

Guests: John Clarke (anti-poverty activist) and Paul Meinema (President, United Food & Commercial Workers, Canada)

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Series I, Episode 3: Sustainable Food and Zero Hunger: The Future and the Right to Eat

Listen Now

Guest: Paul Taylor (Executive Director, FoodShare Toronto)

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Series I, Episode 4: From Epidemic to Pandemic: Rethinking Health

Listen Now

Guests: Keith McCrady (Executive Director, 2-Spirited People of the 1st Nations) and Zoe Dodd (Harm Reduction Worker, University Health Network) 

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Series I, Episode 5: Toward a Rights-Based City: Access, Equality, Sustainability

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Guests: Cheryll Case (Founder and Principle Urban Planner, CP Planning) and Dave Meslin (Community Activist and Founder, Toronto Public Space Committee)

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Series I, Episode 6: COVID, Capitalism, Climate: The Way Forward / Building a Better World on a Sustainable Planet

Listen Now

Guest: Dr. Vandana Shiva (Activist, Author, Eco-Feminist, Climate Justice Leader)

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