2021

Writer 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.

Below 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.

Performance 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.

Women, Work, More is a Below the Radar series highlighting the experiences of women across varying life-stages and social intersections.

Travis Salway, a social epidemiologist and an assistant professor in 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.

For this final episode of Women, Work, More, host Alyha Bardi speaks with Sheila Block, a senior economist from the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives, and Jo-Ann Hannah, retired Director of the Pensions and Benefits at Unifor, and board member at the BC Financial Services Authority.

The director of the SFU Labour Studies program, Kendra Strauss, joins Am Johal in a conversation about systemic challenges facing workers, and the ways in which workers shape economies and exercise power in the workplace.

A transnational labour scholar, co-founder of Justicia for Migrant Workers, and assistant professor from SFU's Labour Studies Program, Evelyn Encalada Grez joins this episode of Women, Work, More to speak about migrant women and their experiences of transnational loving.

Ken Lyotier tells stories from his early days in the Downtown Eastside and how he came to found United We Can, an initiative by binners, for binners. United We Can creates economic opportunities for those who rely on collecting and returning recyclables for their income.

SFU Sociology and Anthropology Professor Amanda Watson, joins Alyha Bardi to speak about her recent book, The Juggling Mother: Coming Undone in an Age of Anxiety. Amanda speaks about our cultural fascination with the figure of the juggling mother, explores the ableism and racism behind this depiction, and scrutinizes the immense pressures of motherhood that are often ignored — from juggling work & home life, to breastfeeding, to acting unencumbered at work.

Nick Montgomery joins Below the Radar to talk solutions to what he calls ‘structural precarity’ in housing. He is in conversation with host Melissa Roach about a newly launched project he has co-founded, Solidarity Housing, a new model that supports homeowners in transitioning their homes to become permanently affordable housing.

Women, Work, More kicks off with an investigation into the experiences of young women in the workplace. Host Alyha Bardi speaks with Kaitlyn Matulewicz, a labour organizer with a background in labour law, who is also the Executive Director of the Worker Solidarity Network. They speak about the unique barriers and harassment experienced by young women working front-of-house positions in the food service and hospitality industry.

Lama Mugabo joins Below the Radar to speak to building community and solidarity, from Rwanda to Hogan’s Alley. Lama is a Rwandan-born community organizer and planner with deep roots in the Downtown Eastside and the Black community in Vancouver.

An artist, community organizer, and a former staff member and longtime friend of SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement, Andrea Creamer joins Below the Radar to catch up with your host, Am Johal. They talk grassroots arts organizing, her experiences as a fine arts student in SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts and at the University of Toronto, and taking a community-centred approach to healthcare and wellness.

In our latest series on the Below the Radar podcast, we chatted with five leaders of the climate justice movement: Khelsilem, Anjali Appadurai, Eugene Kung, Marc Lee, and Grand Chief Stewart Phillip. They each talked about their personal experiences as activists and how we can work towards mitigating climate change and addressing systemic inequality.

Host Am Johal is joined by Julietta Singh, talking about her newly-released book, 'The Breaks', which “takes the form of a letter to her young daughter about race, inheritance, and mothering at the end of the world.”

Philosopher, cultural theorist, and author of The Psychoanalysis of Artificial Intelligence, Dr. Isabel Millar joins Am Johal to speak about the psychoanalytical questions of AI and subjectivity. They talk about how Isabel’s work draws from Jacques Lacan, the importance of considering sexuality and the body in conversations about AI, and acknowledging how intelligence is a dynamic concept that changes throughout history.

Award-winning artist, filmmaker, and activist Andrea Luka Zimmerman joins Below the Radar from the UK to speak to us about her approach to making art and films — in deep collaboration, over long periods of time, and always cultivating community. Host Am Johal speaks to Andrea about how her work explores counter-memories to structural violence and how we dream together to build new worlds.

Wrapping up our series on Climate Justice and Inequality, Grand Chief Stewart Phillip joins Below the Radar to talk about his history of activism as a lifelong advocate for Indigenous Peoples’ Title and Rights. He and Am speak about his role in historical battles for Indigenous land rights over the decades, and the future of land defense.

Environmental lawyer Eugene Kung joins Below the Radar’s Climate Justice & Inequality series to discuss pipeline politics in BC and the role of law in fighting the climate crisis. Eugene shares about how law has been wielded as a mechanism for enacting colonialism, and the various ways it can instead be a tool for effecting major change and upholding human rights.

Alyha is a fourth year sociology and labour studies student with a deep interest in capitalist critiques, social movements, climate, and human rights. During her co-op placement, Alyha has been creating engaging communications materials, assisting with the upcoming launch of our new website, and curating her own mini series for the Below the Radar podcast.

Co-Director of the Climate Justice Project at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, and senior economist, Marc Lee, joins Am Johal to discuss the successes and failures of Canadian climate policies across the political spectrum.

Community leader and climate justice activist Anjali Appadurai joins Am Johal to talk about the growth of the climate movement, and shifting the focus from being ‘green’ to centring justice for all in the fight against climate change.

Squamish Nation Councillor and community leader Khelsilem joins Am Johal on this first episode of Below the Radar’s Climate Justice & Inequality series. In this episode, they discuss the climate crisis as a result of the colonial project, how climate change hits hardest for those already at a disadvantage, and the spaces where colonialism has existed within climate movements.

Below the Radar dives into the call for a feminist economic recovery and a just transition with SFU School of Communication PhD Candidate Alicia Massie. Alicia is a Progressive Economics Fellow with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and a Research Assistant and conference organizer with SFU’s Community-Engaged Research Initiative.

Visual arts students on the SFU VOCE team reflect on making art for a distanced audience and how gallery experiences will continue to change as we slowly emerge from the pandemic.

Critical theorist Alberto Toscano joins Am Johal in conversation about his work and writings, as he joins SFU as a visiting faculty member with the Digital Democracies Institute in SFU’s School of Communication.

Javier Campos joins host Am Johal to discuss reframing the way we think about heritage. Javier is an architect and Principal Designer with Campos Studio, as well as the current president of Heritage Vancouver Society. Together, they explore what heritage means today as a living and changing concept. They discuss the dark roots of heritage, and how heritage has been deployed to erase and exclude the histories of communities who have been dispossessed and harmed by the settler-colonial project.

FoodShare’s Executive Director and lifelong anti-poverty activist Paul Taylor joins host Am Johal in this episode of Below the Radar. In this conversation, they delve into the work Paul has done in both Toronto and Vancouver with various activist organizations such as FoodShare, the Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House, and Gordon Neighbourhood House.

Community-engaged scholar, current Researcher-in-Residence with SFU’s Community-Engaged Research Initiative and food system planner Tammara Soma joins Am Johal on this episode of Below the Radar. She shares with us what drives her interest in food systems and sustainability, and their relationship to equity and justice. Tammara speaks to her experience and the process of researching in communities –– where she aims to have everyone’s voices represented at the table.

Lawyer, climate storyteller, and founder of the UBC Climate Hub, Grace Nosek, joins host Am Johal on a mission — to publicly uncover feelings of ‘climate doom’ and ‘individual responsibility’ as narratives dispelled by the fossil fuel industry. While leading this charge, Grace speaks about Exxon Mobil at the forefront of climate science — spinning its narrative web that entangles anyspace from broadcasting and universities, to legislation.

Dancer, aerialist, choreographer and producer Gabrielle Martin joins host Am Johal on this episode of Below the Radar. Gabrielle tells us how her passion for dance has taken her from spinning fire in an East Van park, to touring the world with Cavalia and Cirque du Soleil, to choreographing and producing her own works.

As The Power of Disability podcast series comes to a close, we are looking back on the series, recounting its beginnings, and encapsulating the insights of each guest. Host Al Etmanski spoke with six guests with disabilities who have been key forces of change — in arts, activism, policy change, and many other sites of social transformation and innovation.

Taiko drumming enthusiast and specialist in modern and contemporary Japanese art Namiko Kunimoto, joins Am Johal on this installment of Below the Radar. Throughout this episode, Namiko explores Japanese imperialism, Olympic dissent, and the internment of Japanese Canadians; while drawing from the works of artists such as Takayama Akira and Shimada Yoshiko.

This final installment of the Power of Disability series highlights an unsung hero of the disability movement, Barb Goode. Host Al Etmanski is in conversation with Barb about her work around self-advocacy for people with learning and developmental disabilities. Barb speaks to the importance of plain language and the harm that comes from labelling people.

Below the Radar invites Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg scholar, writer and artist Leanne Betasamosake Simpson into conversation about her latest album, Theory Of Ice, as a thinking through of water as a connector. She talks with host Am Johal about covering Willie Dunn’s “I Pity the Country,” and how her work aligns with, and is inspired by, a long tradition of Indigenous musicians and activists.

The Power of Disability host, Al Etmanski is joined by partners and disability advocates Tim Louis and Penny Parry. Tim is a lawyer, politician, and longtime leader of the disability movement within British Columbia. Penny has worked as a university professor, artist, and youth care practitioner.

Below the Radar explores equity and public engagement in knowledge-making and learning with community-engaged scholars from the Honors Living-Learning Community at Rutgers University-Newark (HLLC). HLLC is a transformational college access program that aims to provide equitable opportunities to those that have been systematically disenfranchised.

Rabia Khedr, an activist, consultant, former Human Rights Commissioner and motivational speaker who ‘wears many hijabs,’ joins Al Etmanski for this Power of Disability conversation.

Glenn Alteen is a writer, curator, and co-founder of grunt gallery. Having retired after 36 years in May 2020, Glenn joins host Am Johal to talk about his tenure as Program Director of grunt gallery, and his work on The Blue Cabin Floating Artist Residency.

For emerging researchers, the process of publishing in an academic journal is “a bit of black box,” says SFU Geography professor and Minor Revisions host Eugene McCann. SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement got a chance to speak with McCann about his experience hosting Minor Revisions, the intentions driving the podcast, and how he hopes these conversations will make the publishing process more approachable.

Non-visual artist Carmen Papalia speaks with Al Etmanski about the rampancy of ableism across institutions — from the art world to healthcare, to the symbol of the white cane. Carmen and Al discuss how institutions can be sites of retraumatization that can often overlook and underappreciate variations in ability.

Theorist and author Asad Haider joins Below the Radar to discuss questions he explores in his book, Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump. Asad discusses how class dynamics cannot be separated from identity-driven movements.

Lifelong activist and wheelchair user Judy Heumann joins Al Etmanski for this instalment of The Power of Disability. Judy is a powerful advocate in the disability movement both in the US and globally.

Blackfoot and Sámi writer, actor, producer and director, Elle–Máijá Tailfeathers joins host Am Johal on this episode of Below the Radar to talk about her latest film Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy. Together they discussed how Tailfeathers created the feature documentary film, which takes place in her community of Kainai First Nation in Southern Alberta, and look at the impacts of the drug-poisoning epidemic over a period of four years in that community.

Tonya Surman, a social entrepreneur who has built multiple world-changing projects which put people and the planet first, was invited to speak at the sixth annual Jim Green Memorial Lecture on Wednesday, March 7th at the SFU Goldcorp Centre fort the Arts. For the past six years, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement has supported and organized the annual Jim Green Memorial Lecture with the help of various partners. This year’s event was co-sponsored by SFU Public Square, SFU RADIUS, and LEDlab.

Al Etmanski interviews Victoria Maxwell, the Bipolar Princess. They discuss the role of art and creativity in the process of change, the dramatic increase in antidepressant prescriptions and the fact that depression is the number one source of disability in the world today.

SFU Mathematics professor Caroline Colijn joins host Am Johal to talk about the role of data modelling in the response to COVID-19. Caroline holds the Canada 150 Research Chair in Mathematics for Infection, Evolution and Public Health, and works at the intersection of mathematics and public health, with a particular focus on the spread and evolution of infectious diseases.

Longtime community organizer and social entrepreneur Al Etmanski talks to Am Johal about where the movement for disability justice is headed — with lived experience leading the way. Al speaks to the urgent need for a basic income for people with disabilities, and how to build up a grassroots political movement to advance social change.

Barbara Steenbergen from the International Union of Tenants, European Union office, joins Am Johal on this episode of Below the Radar. Together they discuss the role of the tenant unions in Europe as well as their advances in housing policies and protecting tenant rights.

Am Johal is joined by Ethọ́s Lab founder Anthonia Ogundele on this episode of Below the Radar. Anthonia shares about her career in emergency management and sustainability and the origins of Ethos Lab. Anthonia also discusses the inequalities of the education system with respect to STEAM and innovation programs, and the importance of centering the Black experience when creating spaces for youth.

Below the Radar invites Harsha Walia to discuss migrant justice, movement practices, and the underlying forces that govern oppressive border practices on a global scale. She is in conversation with host Am Johal about her recently released book, Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism (Fernwood Publishing, 2021).

Claire Williams speaks to the potential of direct cash transfers to help lift people out of poverty. A co-founder and CEO of Foundations for Social Change, Claire joins Am Johal on Below the Radar to share results from the New Leaf Project, a pilot initiative exploring the impact of direct cash transfers on the lives of people experiencing homelessness in Vancouver.

On this episode of Below the Radar, Am Johal is joined by Roxanne Panchasi from SFU’s History Department and Brit Bachmann from UNIT/PITT. Together they discuss their latest collaboration, La Commune 2021, a free online school commemorating the 150 anniversary of the Paris Commune.

With the onset of the pandemic came a pressing need to bring health science information to the public, and fast. SFU researcher Alice Fleerackers joins Below the Radar to discuss the uptake of pre-print, or un-peer reviewed research by news media in the age of COVID-19. She speaks to host Melissa Roach about a recent study she has co-authored that analyzes how media communicate uncertainty in COVID-19 research.

SFU librarian Heather De Forest joins our host Am Johal to discuss the Community Scholars Program, a project that provides staff of charitable and non-profit organizations in BC with access to academic research and knowledge.

Author and educator David Chang of SFU’s Faculty of Education joins Am Johal for a conversation about what it means to live an ethical life during the Anthropocene — an epoch marked by the monumental environmental impact of human activity. David is co-editor of a recently published collection of scholarly and creative essays, A Book of Ecological Virtues: Living Well in the Anthropocene.

It’s our pleasure to introduce an important member of our team who is hard at work behind the scenes of Below the Radar, Kathy Feng.

Russell Wallace is a traditional Líl'wat singer, composer, and producer from Mount Currie. He has been singing and making music his whole life. He talks with host Am Johal about his musical roots — singing traditional songs for his community and beyond, alongside his mother and siblings, as the performance group Tzo’Kam.

Below the Radar speaks to some of the artists behind New Red Order, a public secret society that invites people to transform their complicity in Indigenous appropriation and performing Indigeneity into support for Indigenous futures and land sovereignty.

The COVID-19 pandemic has not only been devastating to our communities, it has laid bare so many of the inequities that have been ongoing within our institutions and communities.

Charmaine Lyn joins Below the Radar to share learnings from her career in making social change from within post-secondary institutions. Charmaine is the Director of Changemaker Education for Ashoka Canada and works with different changemaker campuses across the country to advance social justice in our institutions and communities through community engagement.

SFU Urban Studies professor Anthony Perl joins host Am Johal in conversation about urban mobility and the policy challenges and opportunities that shape the way people move through Canada’s largest urban centres: Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver.

Host Am Johal catches up with author, activist, voice actor and Juno-nominated comedian Charlie Demers about his pandemic year, and how he reads this turbulent moment in politics. They talk about everything from the life of civil rights figure Jack O’Dell, to a strange year for stand-up comedy, to Charlie’s studies in theology.

BC’s Attorney General and Minister of Housing David Eby joins Am Johal for this episode of Below the Radar, discussing policy solutions to BC’s housing crisis — from protecting tenants’ rights and serving those who are under-housed to curbing speculation and quashing renovictions, to addressing issues of supply and an aging rental stock.

Global health epidemiologist Angela Kaida joins Below the Radar to share her passion for research to support the sexual and reproductive health of women and nonbinary people. An associate professor in SFU’s Faculty of Health Sciences and a recent researcher-in-residence with SFU’s Community-Engaged Research Initiative, Angela adopts an interdisciplinary, community-driven, ethics-based approach to researching the health of people living with HIV.

Below the Radar checks in with Simon Fraser University’s recently installed president and vice-chancellor, Joy Johnson. Stepping into her new role in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Joy speaks to how SFU is working to meet the current challenges it is facing, from adapting to online learning and an added strain on mental health, to addressing systemic racism and inequality within the university and beyond.

Below the Radar explores critical theory, anti-authoritarianism, the philosophy of technology, and the storied academic career of SFU School of Communication professor Andrew Feenberg, who studied under influential theorists, including renowned German-American philosopher Herbert Marcuse of the Frankfurt School.