LISTEN: Harbinger Media Network wants to let the sun in on progressive spaces.

The Harbinger Media Network is Canada’s impressive progressive podcast community of over 80 podcasts. It’s directed by André Goulet in Montreal, who also serves as the Community Director at Unrigged, what he calls the “journalism equivalent of Harbinger”, and includes 27 publishers from around the country focused on progressive journalism.André says that right now progressive podcasts (and progressive media in general) have found themselves in a precarious position. “The right wing is very well funded in terms of independent media, very powerful, very influential. That sucks because their values are awful. We're trying to model what it would look like to have an alternative to that.” He says that Canadian progressive spaces are balkanized, that “the oars are not rowing in the same direction in the Canadian Left”. That’s why part of the broader mission for Harbinger “with no sense of urgency” he explained, is to figure out what would happen to progressive spaces if we focused on building friendships and community, “and see where it gets us in 2028?”“This experience of having 50-60 people in a room, drinking a beer in the evening, and being like, ’so my fun tonight was going out and basically watching a live podcast but also [attending] a community gathering of people who do this work in journalism and in podcasting’. Harbinger wants to model spaces that are fun, cool, warm, smart, funny – like letting the sun in. When community radio stations do that really well, they become places where people can come and participate in the medium of radio. Harbinger can't be a space where there's room for like 8,000 people, but I think it should be a space that helps to energize other communities.”Pod the North is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit podthenorth.substack.com/subscribe