Don’t Call Me Resilient

Across the globe, we're witnessing a rise in far-right movements. Just a few weeks ago, the far-right AfD party in Germany secured second place. This marks the first time a far-right party has gained this level of power in the country since the Second World War. Germany is not alone in this trend: Italy, Hungary, Finland, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Croatia are now led by far-right governments.It may come as no surprise that many of these new leaders are increasingly hostile toward universities.In India, under Prime Minister Modi, universities have the lowest academic freedom since the 1940s. In Brazil, former president Jair Bolsonaro claimed that public universities transform students into leftists, gays, drug addicts and perverts.Meanwhile in the United States, Vice President JD Vance has called universities the enemy for allegedly teaching that America is "an evil, racist nation.” President Donald Trump even signed an executive order demanding higher education institutions dismantle their DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) programs. He’s also pulled federal funding from universities that allow "illegal protests”. The U.S. president has [also demanded that Columbia University's Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies Departments be independently reviewed.But, despite this hostility, universities — and students — have historically been springboards for change. It was student protests 25 years ago that helped lead to the downfall of apartheid in South Africa. More recently, in Bangladesh, student protests helped topple the country’s authoritarian leader. This past year, students across the world have raised public awareness of genocide in Gaza.Meanwhile, here in Canada, universities are facing financial pressure because of reductions in international student permits. This drop in revenue has caused alarming budget constraints at universities, revealing a deep reliance on international students as a revenue source.This has led to existential questions about our universities. With today’s world in crisis, what should the role of the university be? And why are our public universities so underfunded? And how can they continue to serve their communities?To help tackle these questions, we sat down with two education professors at the University of British Columbia to discuss the function of the university in a democracy — especially in times of crisis.In this, our final episode of Don't Call Me Resilient, we speak with Annette Henry — a Professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education and cross-appointed to the Institute for Race, Gender, Sexuality and Social Justice. Her work examines race, class, language, gender and culture in education for Black students and educators in Canada.We also speak with Michelle Stack, an associate professor in the Department of Educational Studies whose work looks at educational policy, university rankings and equity and education.At a time when critical conversations in higher education are under attack worldwide, can Canadian universities rise to the challenge and be a force for good?Thank you for spending your time with us.You can find links and more resources related to this episode here. This episode was coproduced by Ateqah Khaki (DCMR associate producer), Marsa Sittheeamorn (student journalist) and Jennifer Moroz (consulting producer). Our sound engineer was Alain Derbez. Josh Mattson provided onsite sound assistance. Thank you to the Journalism Innovation Lab and its crew and the Social Science Research Council of Canada for their generous support.

Virtual influencers are becoming more popular and prevalent everyday. A full-blown industry has sprung up around them – an industry with agencies and companies dedicated to creating and managing them, with some of the top personas earning into the millions annually.But our guest today has noticed a troubling pattern – many virtual influencers are crafted as young, women of color. But their creators? Often men with different racial identities, who work at marketing agencies.Jul Parke is a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information specializing in social media platforms, digital racism, virtual influencers, and AI phenomena. She is currently a visiting scholar at NYU.Jul’s doctoral research explores what motivates companies and creators to produce these virtual, racialized women, which she says is a new form of commercializing gender and racial identity in digital spaces.As we enter the world of AI proliferation, it seems virtual influencers are here to stay. There are at least 200 of these digital personalities out there today, and platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok are rolling out new tools that enable everyday users to craft their own virtual personas.Given the absence of a governing framework for non-humans, the rise of virtual influencers on social media raises a whole host of urgent ethical questions about authenticity online.Visit here for a full list of the virtual influencers and resources discussed in this episode. 

Editor's note: This podcast episode is the first in our Don't Call Me Resilient live event series. Our next event — "AI-generated influencers: A new wave of cultural exploitation?" is coming up on Wednesday February 5th in Toronto — and we'd love for you to be there! Attendance is free. Click here to learn more and save your seat! Food is so much more than what we eat.It is, of course, nourishment — the food we put into our body to fuel ourselves. It can be joyful, like the the smell of pancakes wafting through the house on a Sunday morning, or when loved ones gather around a feast at the dinner table. It can also be deeply personal and defining, connecting us to ancestral history, and cultural and racial identities. And it is also political — especially in the United States — which is the key takeaway in a new book by law scholar Andrea Freeman. Last fall, we sat down with Andrea to discuss her book in the first conversation of our new live events series from Don't Call Me Resilient. In this new episode, we bring you an edited version of that conversation.The book — Ruin their Crops on the Ground: The Politics of Food in the United State from the Trail of Tears to School Lunch (Metropolitan Books/Raincoast) — is a history of the use of food in American law and politics as a weapon of conquest and control.Freeman is a professor at Southwestern University Law School in Los Angeles. Much of her work explores food oppression and examines how food and law policy are influenced by corporate interests, which disproportionately impact and harm marginalized communities.In her book, Prof. Freeman argues that food law and policy have created and maintained racial and society inequality in the U.S., which she says amounts to "food oppression."Our conversation was wide-ranging. We covered some fascinating topics, including the love/hate relationship with frybread, how milk became a symbol of white supremacy and how the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been using nutrition programs — including "government cheese" and the National School Lunch Program — as a dumping ground for unwanted agricultural surpluses since the Great Depression.Freeman's book also explains how this longstanding oppression has produced racial health disparities, resulting in higher rates of diabetes, disease and even premature death among Black, Indigenous and Latino communities.Although the picture is bleak, Freeman — a constitutional law scholar — provides some potential avenues for change, vis-a-vis reparations and the U.S. Constitution.In her concluding chapter, she writes:"Corporations do not feel compassion. Sickness and loss do not move them. Appealing to their humanity is not an effective political strategy. Looking to the White House and its agencies for solutions has yielded only temporary results at best. The Obama era saw improvements in school lunches that Donald Trump swept away during his brief tenure. Joe Biden reinstated stricter guidelines, and the corporations stood ready to beat them back down again. In the face of near-complete capture of the legislative and executive branches, it is time to turn to the courts."In addition to the podcast episode, you can read an excerpt from Freeman's book about frybread — a simple, versatile "comfort food" for many Indigenous communities that she says embodies the contradictions that have dictated Indigenous food and health in North America since colonization.If you'd like to stay up-to-date on the remaining events in our series, follow us on Instagram @dontcallmeresilientpodcast or sign up for our weekly newsletter.This episode was recorded in front of a live audience at Another Story Bookshop in Toronto on Nov. 14, 2024. The episode was hosted and produced by Executive Producer Vinita Srivastava and co-produced by Associate Producer Ateqah Khaki, with support from Consulting Producer Jennifer Moroz. Ryan Clarke was our on-site audio engineer and mixed the episode.

Don't Call Me Resilient is coming back to your podcast feed this month with a whole new series!We’ve been hosting some live events and we’re starting to roll them out as episodes in our feed. You can expect the same thoughtful conversations with scholars, shining a light on how systemic racism permeates our society. And we're diving into some fascinating topics...Like how the US government has used food to suppress and control marginalized communities.We’ll also be looking at the rise of AI-generated influencers… Who creates these virtual social media influencers? And why are so many of them young, racialized women?And that’s just the start!The first episode drops Thursday, January 23, with new episodes monthly after that for the next few months.So stay tuned. And follow us on Instagram @dontcallmeresilientpodcast to learn more about these events, and how to attend.You can also sign up for our weekly newsletter on news stories that intersect with race and racism.

After seven seasons and 65 episodes, we really want to meet our listeners. So we’re going to be taking the podcast on the road, and recording some live episodes across Canada with a live audience. You can expect the same thoughtful conversations with scholars, shining a light on how systemic racism permeates our society.And we’ll be bringing those episodes to our feed in the New Year.Follow us on Instagram @dontcallmeresilientpodcast to learn more about these events, and how to attend - including the first one coming up on Thursday, November 14th in Toronto. You can also stay in touch by re-listening to past episodes, or by signing up for our biweekly newsletter on news stories that intersect with race and racism.We’ll see you back here in 2025! 

Official reports have been declaring systemic racism in North America’s education system for more than 30 years. What will it take to change?Even before COVID-19, education experts were sounding the alarm about the future of racialized children in our schools. And the COVID-19 pandemic has only underscored — even deepened — the divide.On this episode of Don’t Call me Resilient, we speak with Kulsoom Anwer, a high school teacher who joined us from her classroom in one of Toronto’s most marginalized neighbourhoods. With her is Carl James, professor of education at York University. Together we discuss the injustices and inequalities in the education system and, in the conversation, we also explore some possible ways forward.Every week, we highlight articles that drill down into the topics we discuss in the episode. This week, both articles say that combating racism in schools is not only possible, but also that solutions are in the hands of educators.To make change, teachers must not only question existing power dynamics, but they must also acknowledge and validate the racism that is experienced by Black, Indigenous and racialized youth.For more information and resources, go here: SHOW NOTES A full transcript of the episode can be found here: TRANSCRIPT

In this reflective and personal episode of Don’t Call Me Resilient, Prof. Cheryl Thompson of Toronto Metropolitan University and author of Beauty in a Box untangles the wending history of hair relaxers for Black women — and the health risks now linked to them.For decades, Black women have been using hair relaxers to help them “fit into” global mainstream workplaces and the European standards of beauty that continue to dominate them. More recently, research has linked these relaxers to cancer and reproductive health issues — and a spate of lawsuits across the United States, and at least one in Canada, have been brought by Black women against the makers of these relaxants.Prof. Thompson and I get into it: including her own relationship to using relaxers as a Black woman, the lawsuits and the wending history and relationship between these relaxants and Black women. We also — for obvious reasons — dip into The Other Black Girl, the novel that is also now a horror-satire streaming series about mind-controlling hair products.For more information and resource, go here: SHOW NOTESA full transcript of the episode can be found here: TRANSCRIPT

If you don’t pay close attention to news about COVID, you might think the pandemic is nearly over. But for the millions of people worldwide suffering from long COVID, that couldn’t be further from the truth.And the number of those experiencing long-term symptoms keeps growing: At least one in five of us infected with the virus go on to develop long COVID.The effects of long COVID are staggering. Researchers say it can lead to: blood clots, heart disease, damage to the blood vessels, neurological issues, cognitive impairment, nerve damage, chronic pain and extreme fatigue.And there is no treatment for long COVID.So why don’t we hear more about long COVID? Why haven’t governments warned people about the risks we face with infection?It might be that this debilitating disease is largely overlooked because of who gets it: Almost 80 per cent of longhaulers are women.And in the United States, where our guest on this episode is from, many of those suffering from the prevailing conditions of COVID are women of colour, with Black and Latinx people most likely to get the illness.Our insightful guest for this conversation on long COVID is Margot Gage Witvliet, assistant professor at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. Margot is a social epidemiologist who studies health disparities, including as they relate to long COVID and has presented her research findings to the United States Health Equity Task Force on COVID-19.Margot is also a Black woman living with long COVID and has created a support and advocacy group for women of colour.For more information and resources, go here: SHOW NOTESA full transcript of this episode can be found here: TRANSCRIPT

In this episode of Don’t Call Me Resilient, we continue our conversation about forced famine and its use as a powerful tool to control people, land and resources. Starvation has, for centuries, been a part of the colonizer’s “playbook.”We speak with two scholars to explore two historic examples: the decimation of Indigenous populations in the Plains, North America, which historian David Stannard has called the American Holocaust and in India, the 1943 famine in Bengal. According to a recent BBC story, the Bengal famine of 1943 killed more than three million people. It was one of the worst losses of civilian life on the Allied side in the Second World War. (The United Kingdom lost 450,000 lives during that same war.)Although disease, environmental disasters and famine were features of life before colonialism, decades of research has shown how these occurrences were manipulated by colonial powers to prolong starvation and trigger chronic famine. In other words, starvation has been effectively used by colonial powers to control populations, acquire land and the wealth that comes with that. This colonization was accompanied by an “entitlement approach” and the belief that Indigenous populations are inferior to the lives of the colonizer.According to scholars, prior to the arrival of colonialists, both populations at the heart of today’s episode were thriving with healthy and wealthy communities. And although disease and famine existed before the arrival of Europeans, it cannot be denied colonial powers accelerated and even capitalized on chronic famine and the loss of life due to disease and malnutrition.As the famous economist Amartya Sen has said, famine is a function of repression. It springs from the politics of food distribution rather than a lack of food. Imperial policies such as the Boat Denial Policy and Rice Denial Policy meant that, as curator Natasha Ginwala wrote: “freshly harvested grain was set on fire, or even dumped into the river.”Joining on this episode were two experts on the North American and Bengal famines.James Daschuk is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Health Studies at the University of Regina. He is the author of Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation and the Loss of Aboriginal Life.We also spoke with Janam Mukherjee, an Associate Professor of History at Toronto Metropolitan University, and the author of Hungry Bengal: War, Famine and the End of Empire. Mukherjee was recently a primary historical advisor on the BBC Radio 4 series “Three Million,” a five-part documentary on the Bengal famine of 1943.For more information and resources about this, go here: SHOW NOTESA full transcript of this episode can be found here: TRANSCRIPT

Land has so much meaning. It’s more than territory; it represents home, your ancestral connection and culture — but also the means to feed yourself and your country.One of the things that colonizers are famous for is the idea of terra nullius – that the land is empty of people before they come to occupy it.In the case of Palestine, the Jewish settlers in 1948, and the British before that, viewed the desert as empty — something they needed to “make bloom.”But the land was already blooming. There is a long history of Palestinian connection to the land, including through agricultural systems and a rich food culture that is often overlooked by colonial powers.Our guests on this week’s episode of Don’t Call Me Resilient have been working on a film about the importance of preserving Palestinian agriculture and food in exile.Elizabeth Vibert is a professor of colonial history at University of Victoria. She has been doing oral history research to examine historical and contemporary causes of food crises in various settings, including Palestinian refugees in Jordan.Salam Guenette is the consulting producer and cultural and language translator for their documentary project. She holds a master’s degree in history.For more resources and information about this, go here: SHOW NOTESA full transcript of the episode can be found here: TRANSCRIPT

Every year thousands of migrants come to work in Canada. From harvesting the food in our stores to caring for the elderly, these workers form a vital part of the economy. Yet despite being critical, they often face harsh conditions, isolation, abuse, injury and even death as a result of immigration policies designed to leave them powerless.Documentary filmmaker and OCAD University professor Min Sook Lee has been documenting the voices of migrant farm workers in Canada for two decades. What she has to say about the treatment of these workers during COVID-19 shatters any remaining myths about “Canada the Good.” How do we treat the workers who put food on our tables?For more resources and information about this, go here: SHOW NOTESA full transcript of this episode can be found here: TRANSCRIPT

In this episode of Don’t Call Me Resilient, we take a look at the ongoing struggle for land rights and some of the women on the front lines of that battle. These women are the land defenders fighting to protect land against invasive development. Both our guests have stood up to armed forces to protect land.Their work is about protecting the environment. But it is much more than that: it is fundamentally about survival and about the right to live openly on what is stolen land.Ellen Gabriel has been resisting land encroachment for 31 years. She was at the centre of the 1990 Kanehsatake resistance, (known as the Oka crisis), a 78-day standoff to protect ancestral Kanien’kéha:ka (Mohawk) land in Québec.It was a moment in history that many say helped wake them up to Indigenous issues.Anne Spice is a professor of geography and history at Toronto Metroppolitan University. Anne, who is Tlingit from Kwanlin Dun First Nation, was recently on the front lines in the defence of Wet'suwet'en land. After she was arrested on Wet'suwet'en territory last year, a viral video showed the RCMP pointing a gun at the land defenders.Anne can be heard shouting, we are unarmed and we are peaceful.These are the moments that capture our collective attention. But Ellen and Anne’s work goes well beyond what the cameras show.For more resources and information about this, go here: SHOW NOTESA full transcript of this episode can be found here: TRANSCRIPT

This week on the podcast, meet some of our amazing producers who work to put out Don't Call Me Resilient. We chat about what motivates us to cover race and current affairs. We also revisit some of our favourite episodes from the past.And then every two weeks this summer (starting next week), we’ll be sharing some of their picks as full episodes in our "Flashback" Don’t Call Me Resilient feed.To make this summer “Flashback” series, we listened back on our catalogue. In doing so, we realized each one of these conversations has a shelf life beyond its release date. The stories are timeless and explore complex issues in accessible ways, regardless of the news that may have prompted them.There’s a lot to revisit: We’ve produced 65 episodes over 7 seasons! And each one of them covers an urgent topic with insightful guests. By looking at issues through an intersectional lens, our guests help to unpack some of the major issues of our time: the uneven impacts of the climate crisis, the search for missing Indigenous children at Residential School sites, Black health matters, Gaza and policing.Our listeners are active and engagedOur recent listener survey confirmed that our listeners are engaged. You listen and take action, whether it’s sharing an episode or reaching out to a local politician, or in the case of university and public school educators, adding our episodes to your curriculum.Whether you’re a dedicated listener, a dabbler or a newbie, we’re glad to have you as a part of the Don’t Call Me Resilient community.Stay in touch and pitch us your podcast ideasPlease stay in touch: send us questions, comments or suggestions for future episodes at [email protected] — or on Instagram @DontCallMeResilientPodcast.We are thinking ahead to Season 8! If you are a scholar, and are considering sharing your research through podcasting, we’d love to hear from you. To find out more, read the criteria and fill out this pitch form (select Podcast from the drop down menu).

Can you believe we’ve now produced 65 episodes over 7 seasons?Every two weeks over the summer, we will be re-running some of our favourite episodes from past seasons on our podcast feed. Join us next week for a special bonus episode. You’ll get to meet some of our amazing producers who work hard behind the scenes to produce this podcast. We’ll chat about what motivates us to cover race and current affairs every week. We’ll be revisiting some of our favorite episodes from the past.There's a lot to revisit … so many great topics and guests and conversations.It all starts next week - and then every two weeks after, we’ll be bringing you the best of Don’t Call Me Resilient all summer long.

In this episode of 'Don't Call Me Resilient', Nisrin Elamin, Assistant Professor of Anthropolgy and African Studies at the University of Toronto, paints a grim picture of life in Sudan today. She says the current war, which exploded on April 15, 2023,  is devastating both rural and urban communities. Elamin also identifies small pockets of hope. In the absence of a properly functioning government and looming famine, grassroots groups are stepping in to help people survive.Since last April, Sudanese people in both rural and urban areas have been caught in the middle of a violent conflict between two warring military regimes - the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).Human rights groups say the RSF and allied militias are responsible for large-scale massacres targeting specific ethnic groups in the capital Khartoum and the region of Darfur.As a result of the war, more than 10 million people have been displaced from their homes, making Sudan home to the largest displacement of people in the world. A new report by a Dutch think tank says that if no changes occur on the ground, 2.5 million Sudanese people could die of famine by September.Elamin explains how the current war is part of a long legacy of corrupt military rule and land dispossession that have plagued Sudan since its independence from British rule in 1956. She also urges Canadians to pay attention to Canada's possible role in Sudan's war. "This is big business," she says. In fact, she says Canadians are likely complicit in most wars occurring in 2024. "We are complicit...through our pension funds, our university endowments, some of our personal investments. This is big business. I think a lot of people aren't paying attention to what's happening in Sudan because they feel like it's so far removed and it has nothing to do with them. But that is a lie. It does, and it might be closer than you think it is. "Credits Associate producer, Ateqah Khaki and freelance associate producer, Latifa Abdin are co-producers of this episode. Other team members include: Jennifer Moroz (consulting producer) and Krish Dineshkumar (sound designer).

We’re bringing you an extra episode this week. This episode comes from The Conversation Weekly,  our sister podcast from The Conversation UK. The episode, which we're running in full, centres around medically assisted dying. In Canada, medical assistance in dying (Maid) became legal in 2016. And the government intends to extend eligibility to people whose sole reason for ending their life is mental illness. But that planned expansion, now twice delayed, is deeply controversial. In this episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast, Gemma Ware speaks with Karandeep Sonu Gaind a leading psychiatrist from the University of Toronto about why he's a vocal opponent of the law’s expansion. Canada's expansion of its medically assisted dying law to people whose reason for wanting to end their life is mental illness. Gemma starts the episode with The Conversation Canada’s Health and Medical editor, Patricia Nicholson, who explains how assisted dying works in Canada. In this conversation, Professor Gaind explains the intersectional factors around this issue, including race, class and gender.If you’re interested in hearing more conversations like this one, subscribe to The Conversation Weekly wherever you get podcasts.  

Currently the largest electorate in history is heading to the polls in India, where - of course - politicians and political parties are trying their best to influence voters.  Film and popular culture have always provided a reflection of the country's political culture, but  in this election, they are being used more than ever to *sway* voters - especially by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his right-wing, Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, the BJP.  Vinita sits down with two scholars who look at the intersection of politics and popular culture to uncover how Bollywood is creating storylines that support Modi's BJP - and how big a role it might play in the outcome of the world's largest election. Political scientist Sikata Banerjee is Professor Emeritus of Women’s Studies at the University of Victoria She looks at Indian politics through the lens of cinema. And Rakesh Sengupta is Assistant Professor in Department of English and Cinema Studies at the University of Toronto. 

Collectively, the global student protests demanding university divestments from Israel are one of the largest mass protests in recent history. Student protesters are risking their futures as they demand their institutions financially divest from Israel and companies connected to supplying weapons and technology to Israel’s government.Last week, in Calgary, police descended on the University of Calgary campus with riot gear, using shields, batons and rubber bullets, to forcibly remove a group of protesters from an encampment set up on campus.On today's podcast, Vinita speaks with Pratim Sengupta, professor of learning sciences at the University of Calgary. Sengupta was there the night police engulfed the protesters and says the violence he saw shook him to his core. Also on the podcast is Sarita Srivastava, a university leader of a much smaller arts and design campus in downtown Toronto. Srivastava (sister to Vinita) is a sociologist by background and author of the recent book, "Are You Calling Me a Racist?" Together, they look back on what's been happening on campuses amid this mass protest but also plot out a new - gentler - way forward than the one we've been witnessing.

As we approach the start of gardening season, we figured it’s a good time to bring you one of our most talked-about episodes  about the complicated, colonial roots of gardening - which have affected what we plant and who gets to garden.How we garden is deeply tied to colonialism — from the spread of seeds and species around the world to the use of forced labour and slavery that went hand in hand  to the collection and commodification of plants. But there is a growing shift away from the  status symbol of the lawn and manicured gardens, in favour of pollinator-friendly native plants. And there is a growing understanding that centuries-old Indigenous knowledge and practices — like controlled burns — can help foster a more resilient landscape. With concerns about our climate crisis growing, one of the possible avenues for creating more sustainable cities may very well lie in our gardens. Could we have an impact simply by thinking a little differently about the seeds we sow and the "weeds" we pull?Vinita gets into it all with researcher Jacqueline L. Scott and community activist Carolynne Crawley, who leads nature workshops that integrate Indigenous teachings into practice. 

Research shows social media apps are designed to entrap children who are even more susceptible than adults to its harms. Plus, technologies are not neutral: They’re embedded with and actively reinforce structures of racism. A recent survey of Canadian children in grades 7 to 11 found nearly half of participants reported seeing racist or sexist content online, and youth from marginalized groups were more likely than others to encounter this type of content. So, what’s to be done? Five school boards in Ontario have recently sued the makers of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and  Snapchat for $4.5 billion, arguing the social media giants are causing mental health issues and other harms that are making the jobs of educators much harder. The Ontario Premiere has called the lawsuit a waste of time and money, and announced its government was doubling down on a 2019 ban on cellphones in schools as a way to address the problem. It also pledged $30 million to a surveillance program they think will help solve problems in school like cell phone and vape addictions. On today's episode, Vinita gets into it with two education researchers, both former teachers, who challenge the idea of a ban and think there are better ways to address the problem.

Over the last 30 years, there has been an exponential growth of Indigenous media and Indigenous media makers, especially here in Canada which has one of the largest repositories of Indigenous media. However, the road to get here hasn’t been easy. Indigenous filmmakers, producers, and artists have had to navigate the complex and often unfriendly terrain of Canadian media institutions and media production companies. Their negotiations -- and struggles -- have helped make space for a generation of Indigenous media-makers who are increasingly making shows and films on their terms, with their ideas.Karrmen Crey who is Stó:lō from Cheam First Nation, is an associate professor in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, and the author of “Producing Sovereignty: The Rise of Indigenous Media in Canada.” In this special  episode, recorded on-site with an audience in Vancouver at Iron Dog books, Karrmen speaks with Vinita about  the ways  Indigenous creators are using humour along with a sharp critique of pop culture to show just how different the world looks when decision-making power over how stories get told shifts and Indigenous media makers take control.This episode was produced in front of a live audience at Iron Dog Books in Vancouver, in partnership with Simon Fraser University's Faculty of Communication, Art and Technology and the Amplify Podcast Network. Simon Fraser student, Natalie Dusek performed tech duties. Theme music by Zaki Ibrahim, Something in the Water.Image credit: Jana Schmieding plays Reagan, a member of the fictional Minishonka nation, on the sitcom, Rutherford Falls. (Evans Vestal Ward/Peacock)

Many news organizations have reported on the Israel-Gaza war. However, many journalists have criticized those same media organizations for how they have covered the conflict, and have spoken out against what they say is a stifling of Palestinian voices and perspectives. In today's episode, Vinita talks to Sonya Fatah and Asmaa Malik, associate professors of journalism at Toronto Metropolitan University whose research focuses on newsroom culture, global reporting practices and equity in journalism. They argue that these press freedom concerns go far beyond Gaza.

Around the world, people are being forced to leave their homes in droves.  We are seeing it happen in Gaza, as Israeli forces continue to wage war. And in Sudan, which has also been wracked by war.  Then there are the people fleeing political or economic strife - like those living in Haiti, or Venezuela.  Canada has various refugee programs designed to take in those seeking asylum from what's happening in their home countries.  But the problem is, they weren't all created equal.  In today's episode, Vinita talks to Christina Clark-Kazak, professor of public and international affairs at the University of Ottawa.  Clark-Kazak says Canada's refugee system has always been politicized - but never more so than now.

The release of Beyoncé’s new album, Cowboy Carter, was a much awaited event for a lot of us. There was much anticipation about this being a country album — and  a lot of talk about the resistance some radio stations had and still have to that idea. That’s because country music is considered  "white music," even though its Black historical roots  are well documented. But Cowboy Carter is about so much more than country music. It honours other Black musical legends — and challenges the segregation we still see and hear in the music industry today.  Vinita is joined by two experts to talk about it all. Alexis McGee is an Assistant Professor of Writing Studies at the University of British Columbia and author of "From Blues to Beyoncé: A Century of Black Women’s Generational Sonic Rhetorics." And Jada Watson is Assistant Professor of Digital Humanities at the School of Information Studies at the University of Ottawa. Her current research, called SongData, uses music industry data to examine representation in the country music industry. 

In today's episode, we're continuing the conversation we started last week about using forced famine as a tool to control land, resources and people.  For centuries, starvation has been effectively used by colonial powers to control populations, to acquire land and the wealth that comes with that.  Today, we’re looking at the decimation of Indigenous populations in the Plains of North America –.  and the 1943 famine that took three million lives in Bengal, India, which was then under British rule. These are two vastly different populations that were devastated by a complex set of factors. But both populations had a few things in common: they were thriving with healthy and wealthy communities. And although disease and famine existed before the arrival of Europeans, it cannot be denied colonial powers accelerated and even capitalized on chronic famine and the loss of life due to disease and malnutrition. Through these two examples, Vinita looks at how starvation has been used as a tool in the colonial "playbook." She is joined by James Daschuk, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Health Studies at the University of Regina and the author of Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation and the Loss of Aboriginal Life. And Janam Mukherjee is an Associate Professor of History at Toronto Metropolitan University, and the author of Hungry Bengal: War, Famine and the End of Empire. 

On Monday, the European Union's foreign policy chief accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war and provoking famine in Gaza.  They were some of the strongest words against Israel we have heard from a western power about the situation in Gaza since October.  They come on the heels of a UN-backed report that warns that more than one million people — half of Gaza’s population — face catastrophic starvation conditions. The report goes on to say that without an immediate ceasefire and a major influx of food and to areas cut off by fighting, famine and mass death in Gaza are imminent. Scholars of famine say this is, in fact, the worst food deprivation they have observed in war time since the Second World War. And according to international law, intentional starvation of a population is a war crime. In this episode, Vinita breaks down the use of hunger as a tool of war in Gaza with Hilal Elver, former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food and research professor of Global Studies at the University of California Santa Barbara.

On Sunday, nine years after #OscarsSoWhite, millions of us tuned in to the 96th annual Academy Awards — some to simply take in the spectacle. And some to see how much had changed.The hashtag #OscarsSoWhite started after many people noticed that, for a second year in a row, all nominees for four of five major categories were white. The movement called on Hollywood to do better: to better reflect America’s demographic realities and also to expand its  depiction of our histories.The reason: representation in Hollywood matters. What gets put on screens and by whom has reverberating impacts on how all of us see each other and see ourselves.So .... how did the Oscars do this year? And how is the entertainment industry in general faring when it comes to diversity and inclusion?It's a mixed bag. Despite some recent wins, a report from Telefilm Canada revealed that Black women have the least representation in TV and film. They also lead the fewest projects and receive the least funding overall.In today's episode, Vinita breaks down the progress made and the challenges still present especially for women of colour. She is joined by Naila Keleta-Mae, the Canada Research Chair in Race, Gender and Performance and associate professor of communication arts at the University of Waterloo and Mariah Inger, an actor and director and chair of ACTRA National’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging Committee.

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Monk is the lead character of the new movie "American Fiction," which is based on the 2001 novel "Erasure" by Percival Everett. Monk is a Black man but never feels 'Black' enough: he graduated from Harvard, his siblings are doctors, he doesn't play basketball and he writes literary novels.  In fact, his last novel got rejected for not being "Black enough."  As a Black man who thinks about race but also rages against having to talk about it, Monk gets so frustrated that he decides to poke fun of those who uncritically consume what has been sold to them as  "Black culture." He uses a pen name to write an outlandish "Black" book of his own - a story about "thug life" called "My Pafology."  But plot twist: the book becomes wildly popular - and Monk ends up profiting from the stereotypes he so despises. The story has so many layers, and in this last episode of Season 6, Vinita breaks it down with  two scholars who are well versed in Percival Everett's work - and the use of Black stereotypes in pop culture. Vershawn Ashanti Young is the director of Black studies  at the University of Waterloo. And Anthony Stewart is a professor of English at Bucknell University.

In this episode which we're running in full, host Gemma Ware speaks with Doseline Kiguru, a research associate in cultural and literary production in Africa at the University of Bristol in the UK, who has co-published research on the history of choral music and the role it plays in Kenyan national political culture. The episode originally aired on Dec. 11. Kenya is marking 60 years since its independence from British colonial rule on December 12, 1963. Each year, the country celebrates the occasion with a national holiday, Jamhuri Day. And for much of the past 60 years, patriotic choral music has been a regular feature of those celebrations. In this episode, Gemma and Doseline explore how much one song can tell you about the politics of a new nation -- and who controls what gets remembered and what gets forgotten. You can listen to or follow TC Weekly on Apple Podcasts, Spotify YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcasts.Further reading:• All episodes of TC WeeklyFurther Research:Kenya's 'patriotic' choral music has been used to embed a skewed version of historyKenya at 60: the shameful truth about British colonial abuse and how it was covered up

You may have noticed that food bank lines have grown exponentially this year.  In Toronto alone, the number of people who use food banks has doubled since last year and nationwide, the numbers using food banks have jumped by 32 percent from last year and 78 per cent since 2019.  And those who are lining up for food defy the stereotypes: many, for example, are employed full-time. In other words, we are in the middle of a major food insecurity crisis.  And as we head into this holiday season - traditionally a time for giving and sharing and gathering around food - there is no better time to talk about this and help us understand what we as individuals can do to help. According to the latest Statistics Canada data, almost one in five households experiences food insecurity. Single-mother households are especially affected, as are some racialized homes. Black and Indigenous people face the highest rates of food insecurity, with over 46 per cent of Black children and 40 per cent of Indigenous children living in households that don’t have a reliable source of food.But for years, advocates have been saying that more food banks is not the answer.  So what is?  In today's episode, Vinita sits down with Elaine Power, a Professor in Health Studies at Queen’s University whose research focuses on issues related to poverty, class, food and health.  She is also the coauthor of  "The Case for Basic Income: Freedom, Security, Justice." Prof. Power says reducing food insecurity requires our political and business leaders to address the root causes – including the ability of household incomes to meet basic needs.  Some of those solutions won't happen overnight, so she also has tips for individuals looking to make a difference now.

The idea for today's episode started with local Toronto kids, who were reporting experiencing sexist, homophobic and racist attitudes in the classroom, especially  from the boys. The research shows they are not alone; the rise in far right ideologies globally has deeply affected school-age students. Many experts point to Andrew Tate, the far-right social media influencer as one of the culprits.  Teachers say he has a big presence in the classroom. On top of that, there's been an exponential rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia in Canada that have also impacted the classroom. Why are boys especially attracted to  these hateful ideologies? As we near December 6, the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, Vinita speaks to two experts who have been thinking a lot about this question. Teresa Fowler is an assistant professor in the faculty of Education at Concordia University of Edmonton whose research focuses on critical white masculinities. Lance McCready is an associate professor in the Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto.  His research explores education, health and the wellbeing of Black men, boys and queer youth, especially in urban communities and schools. 

When a lot of us think about psychedelics, we think about magic mushrooms - and hallucinatory drug trips.  But the concept of psychedelics as a tool in therapy is  making its way into the mainstream. Online stores have popped up selling psilocybin capsules promising to boost focus. And on a more official front, the Canadian Senate recently recommended  fast-tracking research into how psychedelics can help veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).  But research also suggests psychedelics - including psilocybin ("magic mushrooms") and MDMA - can help heal racial trauma. In today's episode, Vinita speaks to clinical psychologist and University of Ottawa psychology professor Monnica Williams, about how psychedelic-assisted therapy can help with those dealing with this type of trauma, which usually encompasses ongoing experiences of what Williams calls "insults to your person." But it doesn't end there: With racial trauma, Williams says, therapists are also looking at events beyond an individual's lifetime such as "historical trauma, that may have happened decades or even centuries ago, that is still associated with the person's cultural group."  And while psychedelics show incredible promise in treating this type of trauma, many challenges remain. Part of it has to do with legalization and the lack of clinical trials. Another part has to do with the terrible track record institutions have when it comes to communities of colour and drugs. There is a long and ugly history of using Black and racialized bodies without consent for medical experimentation, including drug testing. And we can't ignore the racial roots of the war on drugs and the devastating impact it had - and continues to have - on Black and racialized communities.  Williams tackles these hurdles in her work.  And in this episode, she shares her thoughts about how we can open up the healing properties of psychedelics to racialized people  in need in a way that works with them, rather than against them.

As violence continues to erupt in Gaza, and more than 200 hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7 remain missing, many of us are seeking to better understand the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that has been raging for decades.Some of us assume that the violence between Jewish Israelis and Palestinians — a majority of whom are Muslim — is a religious conflict, but a closer look at the history of the last century reveals that the root of the tension between the two communities is more complicated than that.At its root, it’s  a conflict between two communities that claim the right to the same land. And for millions of Palestinians, it’s about displacement from the land.Land has so much meaning. It’s more than territory: land represents home, your ancestral connection and culture – but also the opportunity to be productive with the land; to feed yourself and your country.One of the things that colonizers are famous for is the idea of terra nullius – that the land is empty of people before they come to occupy it.In the case of Palestine, the Jewish settlers in 1948, and the British before that, viewed the desert as empty and as something they needed to “make bloom.”But the land was already blooming. There is a long history of Palestinian connection to the land, including through agricultural systems and a rich food culture that is often overlooked by colonial powers.Our guests on this week's podcast have been working on a film about the importance of preserving Palestinian agriculture and food in exile.Elizabeth Vibert is a professor of colonial history at University of Victoria. She has been doing oral history research to examine historical and contemporary causes of food crises in various settings including Palestinian refugees in Jordan.Salam Guenette is the consulting producer and cultural and language translator for their documentary project. She holds a master's degree in history.

Earlier this week, nearly five dozen people appeared in a courthouse outside Atlanta, Georgia to answer criminal racketeering charges brought against them by the state. The charges are related to protests against a planned paramilitary police and fire services training facility nicknamed Cop City. Georgia prosecutors have called the demonstrators “militant anarchists.” But many of those charged say they were simply attending a rally or a concert in support of the Stop Cop City movement.  The protesters, their lawyers and their supporter say the government is using heavy-handed tactics to silence the movement -- and worry about the type of precedent this might set for our right to protest. Kamau Franklin, one of the leaders of the Stop Cop City movement and a lawyer himself, and Zohra Ahmed, a professor of law at the University of Georgia, join Vinita to talk about the situation, and why so many people are watching it.

When the Buffy Sainte-Marie news broke last week, people were stunned.  A CBC investigation was accusing the legendary singer-songwriter of lying about her Indigenous roots.  Sainte-Marie had already come out on social media and said she had been claimed by the Piapot Cree First Nation in Saskatchewan - something the Piapot First Nation confirmed. And from earlier conversations about “pretendians” - those faking an Indigenous identity  -  it was clear kinship ties were maybe even more important than genealogy when it comes to establishing Indigeneity. In today’s episode, Lori Campbell, Associate Vice President of Indigenous Engagement at the University of Regina, speaks to Vinita about how this story rolled out, and why it matters to everyone following it.Read Lori Campbell's story in The Conversation Canada:Revelations about Buffy Sainte-Marie’s ancestry are having a devastating impact on Indigenous communities across Canada:https://theconversation.com/revelations-about-buffy-sainte-maries-ancestry-are-having-a-devastating-impact-on-indigenous-communities-across-canada-216602Episode show notes:https://theconversation.com/how-journalists-tell-buffy-sainte-maries-story-matters-explained-by-a-60s-scoop-survivor-216805

It's hard to escape the news coming out of the Middle East. It's everywhere. And it's excruciating to take it all in. First came the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel. 1,400 people were viciously attacked and murdered and at least 200 more were kidnapped and taken hostage. Then came the retaliation by the state of Israel. Almost immediately, those living in Gaza, under the leadership of Hamas, were faced with an evacuation order for more than a million people. They had their food and water supplies cut off and 6,000 bombs were dropped on them in one week. So far, more than 5,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s assault. There is so much polarization that it has become really hard to have a conversation about what is happening - and what has been happening for decades. In today's episode, Vinita speaks to two guests about how and why the conversation is getting shut down - and what we can do about it. Natalie Rothman is a  professor of historical and cultural studies at the University of Toronto Scarborough. She grew up in Israel. She has friends and relatives in the region including family members who have been taken hostage by Hamas. Norma Rantisi is a professor of geography and urban planning at Concordia University who has done work in the region. She has family in the West Bank and is a member of the Academics for Palestine Concordia, and the Palestinian-Canadian Academics and Artists Network.  

Everybody knows it and almost everyone feels it: we’re in the grips of a major housing crisis. Home ownership is out of reach for so many people and for renters, units are hard to find and expensive. It seems everywhere you turn these days, there’s another rent strike. One of the factors driving this affordability crisis has been a shift away from publicly built housing toward large corporate-owned buildings. As Prof. Nemoy Lewis, from the School of Urban and Regional Planning at Toronto Metropolitan University, puts it: now “housing is treated as a commodity, rather than a human right.” He joins Vinita to discuss these corporate landlords and the disproportionate impact they are having on Black and low-income communities. He says it’s creating truly income-polarized cities – and urban centres that are increasingly accessible to only a small group of wealthy people.

For decades, North American Black women have been using hair relaxers  to help them fit into mainstream workplaces and the European standards of beauty that continue to dominate them.  More recently, research has linked these relaxers to cancer and reproductive health issues - and a spate of lawsuits across the United States, and at least one in Canada, have been brought by Black women against the makers of these relaxants. Cheryl Thompson, a professor at Toronto Metropolitan University and author of "Beauty in a Box: Detangling the Roots of Canada's Black Beauty Culture," joins Vinita to untangle the complicated history Black women like herself have with hair relaxants - and where these lawsuits might lead. 

The Republican Party in the United States has moved farther right in recent years. And as it has, you would think racialized Americans might be distancing themselves from it and its policies.But at last week’s GOP Primary presidential debates, three of the seven people on stage were candidates of colour. Racialized citizens also have been drawn to far-right politics, including key players in the January 6th Capitol attack and recent racist attacks.Which begs the question: Why are racialized people upholding white supremacist ideologies that work against them?Daniel Martinez Hosang, a Professor of Ethnicity, Race and Migration and American Studies at Yale University has been exploring this question for a long time. He is the author with Joseph Lowndes of _Producers, Parasites, Patriots, Race, and the New Right Wing Politics of Precarity_. HoSang sat down with us to discuss what he calls the politics of multicultural white supremacy. 

As we approach the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, we take you inside the ongoing quest to document the children who died in Canada's Indian Residential Schools system. Vinita speaks to Terri Cardinal, director of Indigenous Initiatives at MacEwan University, about the search she led to uncover the unmarked graves of those who perished at the Blue Quills Residential School in Alberta. It's deeply personal and emotional work for Terri, whose own father is a survivor of the school. Terri talks about what she found, how she felt, and what she hopes will come of it. She says the number of unmarked graves across the country is much higher than many of us could have imagined. And she says it’s important to keep shining  a light on the rising numbers, especially with so many Canadians in denial about what really happened at these schools.Visit the Conversation Canada's website for more resources. 

Here at Don’t Call Me Resilient, we’re busy prepping new episodes for you … Each week, we’ll be taking our sharply focused anti-racist lens to the news stories unfolding around us. We'll be talking to experts, activists and people living these stories … to bring you a deeply contextual view of what’s happening here in Canada … and around the world. So make sure to follow us on your podcast app. Because a new season of Don’t Call Me Resilient is coming your way Sept. 28. 

I love watching a good adventure movie, especially at the start of summer. I have some great memories of eating popcorn in the local suburban movie theatre while we watched aliens take over a spaceship and a group of kids hunt for long-lost treasure in an underground cave.At the same time, even as a kid, I remember thinking how awful some of the racial and gender stereotypes were.  I specifically remember watching  Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and cringing at the representations onscreen, especially, the ruthless and flat-dimensioned South Asian characters and the ridiculous idea that Indians ate monkey brains – not to mention little Short Round, Indy’s child guide and sidekick played by the young Ke Huy Quan.With the series, filmmakers George Lucas and Steven Spielberg showcased nostalgia for the early mid-century with Indiana Jones, the humanitarian Hunter College professor turned adventurer at the centre. Indy outran all kinds of harrows to ensure the ancient artifacts he chased ended up where he thought they belonged: "in a museum."  (Another now famous line is from _Black Panther_  when Erik Killmonger asks a museum curator: "How do you think your ancestor's got these?")Guilty pleasure or irredeemable Orientalism?  The final Indiana Jones movie, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is coming out tomorrow, 42 years after the first movie was released.  As the series comes to an end, we explore Indy's complicated legacy  — and his famous line: "it belongs in a museum." Will the Indiana Jones franchise reflect the changes in anthropology departments and the growing movements from Indigenous  and Global South communities to return stolen objects and ancestors from western museums? Will it consider that Eurocentric notions of what holds heritage has finally expanded beyond the artifact?Will this new movie be full of highly problematic stories? Or a guilty pleasure? Or, can it be both? Historian Christopher Heaney has spent a lot of time thinking about this. He’s written a book about the "original" Indiana Jones and wrote "Burying Indiana Jones" for the New Yorker. He’s a professor of Latin American History at Penn State University and he joined me on Don't Call Me Resilient  — our last episode of the season, and just in time for summer blockbuster season    — to unpack everything Indiana Jones.

It seems like everyone you talk to has considered taking Ozempic, the drug originally created as a diabetes treatment, but now being used as a weight-loss method.Ever since it arrived in Canada, it’s been in incredibly high demand.While Ozempic may be just the next in a long line of get-thin-quick fads, the drug’s shortages have disproportionate impacts on racialized communities. So do the weight-loss goals that undergird those shortages.

Language, if we are not thinking about it, can be just a way to get from place A to B, a way to order lunch or a way to pass an exam.  But language is much more than a way to communicate with words. This is especially true if you have had your language forcibly removed from you, like the thousands of Indigenous children who survived Canada's colonial assimilation project.Languages hold within them philosophies, worldviews, culture and identity.Language also has a lot to do with our relationships — how we relate to other people, to our families, to our ancestors and to the natural environment.These are precisely the aspects of Indigenous life that the Indian Residential School system was designed to destroy.  Last year, the United Nations acknowledged the importance of Indigenous languages by declaring the decade ahead to be the International Decade of Indigenous Languages.But long before the UN declaration, First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples have been pushing to revitalize more than 70 Indigenous languages across Canada.  In 2019, the Indigenous Languages Act was passed by the government of Canada.Still, progress — and redress — have been slow to come.In this special episode of Don't Call Me Resilient, as we look ahead to National Indigenous Peoples Day, guest host, Veldon Coburn speaks with Prof. Frank Deer, Canada Research Chair and associate dean of Indigenous Education at the University of Manitoba. They tackle the issue of disappearing Indigenous languages and delve into how much more needs to be done to revitalize them and why doing so is critical.This week's episode was produced in collaboration with IndigiNews and their publisher, Eden Fineday. 

On June 22, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will make his first official state visit to the United States. And if his visits to Australia last month, to Canada in 2015 and to Texas in 2019 are any indication, he’ll be given a rockstar welcome.U.S. President Joe Biden has already joked that he wants Modi’s autograph because so many people want to see the Indian PM while he’s in the United States.Of course, Modi has his critics too, who point to the populist leader’s far-right policies and human rights abuses.Yet, as the prime minister of the world’s largest democracy, Modi remains one of the world’s most popular leaders - not just at home, but among the tens of millions who make up the global South Asian diaspora.Last week, perhaps in an acknowledgement of the power of the South Asian diaspora on Indian elections, the former leader of the opposition, Rahul Gandhi, also visited the United States.In the latest episode of Don’t Call Me Resilient, we are asking how important is that diaspora? With India having one of the highest remittance rates in the world, how much does overseas support contribute to Modi’s popularity and success? And what kind of an impact could a progressive element of that diaspora have on Indian politics?Anjali Arondekar joins the podcast to sift through all this. She is a professor of feminist studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is also the founding co-director of the university’s Center for South Asian Studies which hosted a discussion last week with Rajiv Gandhi.ResourcesNarendra Modi’s First State Visit to the US Has Both National and Global Implications (The Wire)The Modi Question (BBC) A Defeat for Modi’s Party in South India Heartens His RivalsIndian politician boasts about getting Muslims killed – on camera (Al Jazeera)The Network of Hindu Nationalists Behind Modi’s Diaspora Diplomacy in the U.S. (The Intercept)From the archives - in The ConversationRead more: India's new citizenship act legalizes a Hindu nationRead more: Trump and Modi: birds of the same feather, but with different world viewsRead more: Just who is Narendra Modi, India's man of the moment?Read more: How the conservative right hijacks religionRead more: Narendra Modi has won the largest election in the world. What will this mean for India?Listen and FollowYou can listen to or follow Don’t Call Me Resilient on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to your favourite podcasts.We’d love to hear from you, including any ideas for future episodes. Join The Conversation on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok and use #DontCallMeResilient.Thank you to Sanjay Ruparelia, Jarislowsky Democracy Chair at TMU and Kalpana Jain, Senior Religion Editor at TCUS who contributed to this episode.

This year we’ve seen an aggressive push to implement anti-trans legislation across the United States. There are currently more than 400 active anti-trans bills across the country.Some legislation denies gender-affirming care to youth – and criminalizes those health-care providers that attempt to do so. Other bills block trans students from participating in sports and still others have banned books with trans content.These bills have at least two things in common. They all aim to make being trans harder in an already hostile society and they are being spearheaded by the far-right.Where does anti-trans sentiment come from?The enforcement of a gender binary likely has much to do with the preservation of white power. And, violence against trans people continues as a result.Is Canada better?What do things look like in Canada? Are we a safe haven or are we following some of the same trends?Recently, a petition signed by almost 160,000 people asked the Canadian government to extend asylum to trans and gender non-conforming people from nations in the West, previously considered safe.To get a better understanding of trans histories in Canada, we are joined by Syrus Marcus Ware, a scholar, artist, activist and assistant professor in the Faculty of Humanities and School of the Arts at McMaster University. He is a co-curator of Blockorama/Blackness Yes! and a co-editor of the best-selling Until We Are Free: Reflections on Black Lives Matter in Canada.We discuss the history of anti-trans and queer actions in Canada. We also speak about backlash and ways to move forward.

In this episode, author and CUNY professor Ava Chin, a 5th generation Chinese New Yorker, discusses her new book, Mott Street: A Chinese American Family’s Story of Exclusion and Homecoming.The book artfully explores themes of exclusion as it relates to all Chinese Americans, plus personally for Chin with her father, a "crown prince" of Chinatown that she didn't meet until adulthood. Chin reveals personal family stories against the backdrop of the U.S. eugenics movement and draws a connecting line between the current rise in violence against Asians in North America and anti-immigration laws more than 100 years old.Chin also showcases the resilience, love lives and dreams of Chinese immigrants as well as their resistance to the attitudes and laws of the era.In our conversation, Chin said:> This story goes back to a period in time, in the era of reconstruction, when the country, when the young country was asking itself, who is an American and who is not, who is one of us? And the decisions that they made back then in the 19th century set us on a course as a nation towards viewing all Asians as being foreign and suspicious. And so the great aim of this book is to shed light on Asian American stories and place Asian Americans into our proper space into the larger American story.

The May long weekend is the unofficial start of summer. And for those of you with home gardens or access to community space, this is the weekend to dust off your gardening tools and visit the garden centre for the growing season ahead.As we approach the start of gardening season, it’s good time to ask some questions about its origins.Whether you plan to get marigolds, plant a vegetable garden or create a pollinator patch — all gardens have complicated roots.In fact, the practice of gardening is deeply tied to colonialism — from the formation of botany as a science, to the spread of seeds, species and knowledge.Coveted tulipsSome of the most recognizable plants today, such as tulips, are the result of early colonial conquests. Originally found growing wild in the valleys where current China and Tibet meet Afghanistan and Russia, tulips were first cultivated in Istanbul as early as 1055.Later, after they were hybridized and commodified by the Dutch, they became highly coveted status symbols because of their gorgeous, but fleeting, blooms. Exploratory botanical voyages by colonial European powers were integral to the expansion of empire. These trips fueled the big business of collecting global plant samples and also led to the emergence of botany as a scientific discipline.Botanical gardens served as labsBotanical gardens played a key role, serving as the laboratories where plant specimens were organized, ordered and named. “Scientific objectivity” asserted a Eurocentric point of view, disrupting and displacing Indigenous Knowledge and ecological practices.The movement and transfer of plants around the world went hand in hand with the transportation of people to provide a labour force, through slavery and indentured servitude.The plantation system cleared out local ecosystems and replaced traditional farming methods with growing cash crops — like sugar-cane, tea and cotton. These were products meant for European curiosities, markets and profit and not for the local populations.Plant and racial hierarchiesThis colonial system of organizing agriculture laid the groundwork for categorizing people in a similar way, establishing a social hierarchy which dehumanized non-Europeans, helping justify slavery and Indigenous genocide, and eventually leading to racial categories.This history has shaped our current relationships to the land, and our gardens. It also informs beliefs about land ownership and access; who has a right to enjoy the land, versus who is expected to be working on it. Who has the literal and figurative space and freedom to garden?Shifting attitudesBut the soil is shifting. There is a growing shift away from the colonial status symbol of the lawn and manicured gardens, in favour of pollinator-friendly native plants.There is also a growing understanding that centuries-old Indigenous land-based knowledge and practices — like controlled burns — can help manage wildfires, and foster a more resilient landscape.With concerns about our climate crisis growing, one of the possible avenues for creating more sustainable cities may very well lie in our gardens.Could we have an impact simply by thinking a little differently about the seeds we sow and the "weeds" we pull?

Mother’s Day is just a few days away. It can be a complicated day. For some, it could mean a bouquet of flowers or a breakfast in bed. For others, it can mean mourning the loss of a loved one or dealing with a haunted past. And still — for others — like the 66 per cent of incarcerated women in prison who are mothers, it can mean something else entirely.Despite a reduction in crime in the last 20 years in Canada, many women attempting to make ends meet for their families end up colliding with the prison system.  In Canada, women’s prisons are filling up. In fact, the fastest-growing prison population in Canada is racialized women. More than one in three women in federal custody are Indigenous. And the percentage of South Asian women and African Canadian women in custody is also disproportionately high.One of the reasons the women’s prison population is rising is poverty.Amidst a financial downturn and ballooning economic inequality, criminalizing attempts at survival is staggering. And the effects on families is devastating.  Adding to this is the complexity that 87 percent of all women in federal prisons in Canada have experienced physical or sexual abuse and many also live with mental health issues.On this episode of Don't Call Me Resilient, we are joined by Rai Reece, a sociologist at Toronto Metropolitan University who researches prisons and feminist criminology. Lorraine Pinnock also joins us. She is the Ontario Coordinator for the Walls to Bridges program which helps women with education when transitioning out of the system. It’s a transition she has made herself. In 2011, Lorraine was incarcerated at the Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener. She has two children.This article was originally published with the headline “More than 60 per cent of incarcerated women are mothers”.