Don’t Call Me Resilient

The UN’s recent resolution to recognize Nakba Day on May 15 , to mark the anniversary of the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes in 1948, helps to acknowledge past traumas but does the resolution have other implications? On this week’s episode of Don’t Call Me Resilient , we meet up with M. Muhannad Ayyash, professor of sociology at Mount Royal University in Calgary to help unpack some of t...

Although King Charles will have a low-key ceremony on his coronation day this May 6, the Crown Jewels will still figure prominently. An exploration of the story of the jewels tells a tale of brutal exploitation, rape and the original looting. Join us on Don't Call Me Resilient to follow the jewels.   Much of what was called the British Empire was built from stolen riches - globally - and also from...

Beef premiered on Netflix this month to rave reviews and quickly became the top watched series on Netflix in the U.S. In Canada, it took the No. 2 spot. Beef is a dark comedy series created by Lee Sung Jin. It follows two L.A. strangers, courageously played by Ali Wong and Steven Yeun, who get into a road rage incident — and end up in an escalating feud. The show is a beautiful meditation on life...

Fast fashion is that ever-changing need to have the latest beautiful thing at a bargain price - that club-ready piece of clothing, that status symbol shoe, or that must-have top you just found at the mall. But that cheap statement piece comes at a price. The fashion industry is the second most polluting industry in the world, after the oil and gas sector. It’s also famously unfair to its workers,...

Last week, the Vatican finally distanced itself from the Doctrine of Discovery — a hundreds of years old decree that justified land theft and enslavement of people who were not Christian. In this episode of 'Don't Call Me Resilient,' political and Indigenous studies scholar Veldon Coburn explains why the Vatican's repudiation of the Doctrine is a huge symbolic victory. We also examine what this re...

In this episode, migration expert Christina Clark-Kazak explains the devastating consequences of last week's meeting between United States President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The meeting resulted in significant changes to a cross-border agreement and has already impacted the lives of thousands of asylum seekers attempting to make a life in Canada. We explore what these...

Host Vinita Srivastava goes deep with academic experts and those with lived experience to bring you your weekly dose of news, from an anti-racist perspective.

A lot of us turn to comedians we know and love to help us laugh at ourselves, our communities or the overwhelm of politics. Just look at the beautiful accolades received by Trevor Noah this month as he bade goodbye to his Daily Show audiences . Noah and other comedians like Roy Wood Jr., Mindy Kaling, Ali Wong, Chris Rock, and Hasan Minhaj put race and other sensitive issues at the centre of their...

It was 15 years ago: police officers flooded C. W. Jefferys Collegiate in northwest Toronto. Outside, hundreds of anxious parents stood waiting for answers. The news that police delivered – as we now know –  was tragic. Fifteen-year-old Jordan Manners had been killed. It was the first time anyone had been fatally shot inside a Toronto school. Jordan’s death stunned his community and the nation. An...

We’ve all heard the buzzwords: Equity, diversity, inclusion. For some, these terms evoke social change but for others, they conjure empty promises on a glossy corporate brochure or a workplace’s ineffective policy statement at the bottom of a job listing. In 2020, when Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd, worldwide protests against anti-Black police brutality and racism...

Despite the jokes about our egos, many of us journalists got into the business because we felt a need to call out powerful institutions. But journalism itself is one of those powerful institutions, and it has failed time and again to address criticisms around who gets to tell the news and whose perspectives get left out. Some researchers have called this a crisis of journalism, a “digital reckonin...

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 staggerin...

Join us on this episode of Don’t Call Me Resilient as we speak with researcher and migration expert Yvonne Su about climate-induced migration and the burden of care that is owed to displaced people. Recently, there have been some troubling images coming out of Pakistan, where devastating floods have taken the lives of more than 1,500 people and displaced close to 8 million . The floods have also s...

Welcome to Don’t Call Me Resilient, where we tackle systemic racism head-on and figure out ways to deal with it. This season, we’ll be delving into everything from tokenism at work to how long COVID is hitting women of colour especially hard. And from how climate change is wreaking havoc on the most vulnerable to how most journalists have a lot to learn about telling Indigenous stories. In each of...

At Don’t Call Me Resilient , we’ve been busy planning season 4 of the podcast, which starts to roll out in November. We’re even starting to think about season 5. But we decided to stop production to talk about something we felt we couldn’t ignore. We’ve watched this incredible spectacle around the Queen’s death and public outpouring of support and love for the British monarchy. Here in Canada, Que...

As we approach Canada Day — and the prospect of the return of "freedom" protests in Ottawa   — let's consider the meaning and symbolism of the Canadian flag. After weeks of the so-called "freedom convoy" last winter, many of us took a hard look at the symbolism of the Canadian flag and its recent association with white supremacy. Some felt a new fear or anger at what they feel the flag represents....

Today, I speak with two people involved in sound studies who believe sound is an element of resistance. They explain why — in our hyper-visualized age of Instagram-perfect photos, sound is so compelling and why soundscapes can help to amplify voices of resistance. Nimalan Yoganathan is a PhD candidate at Concordia University. He studies protest tactics, and he looks at how different sound practiti...

Today we explore how applying critical race theory in classrooms across Canada helps both students and teachers. Teresa Fowler, assistant professor of Education at Concordia University of Edmonton joins us. So does Dwayne Brown, a PhD student in Education at York University, and a grade seven teacher with the Toronto District School Board. Both Brown and Fowler use critical race theory in their cl...

When you think diamonds, you probably think of romance, weddings and Valentine’s Day. And it’s no accident we think this way: A century of marketing has convinced us that diamonds symbolize love. In Canada, magazine ads celebrate the “purity” of Northern Canadian diamonds as an ethical alternative to conflict diamonds. But this marketing strategy actually hides enormous social problems that people...

TikTok is perceived as a highly addictive video sharing platform with a lot of lively music and dance videos that encourages participation and replication: think macarena times 100 million. For many people it sounds like frivolous waste of time. But  the app has revealed itself to have more depth than initially meets the eye. TikTok can be a place to learn , become politically aware and even disco...

Many people have an idealized vision of Canada as a gentle, kind and accepting society. However, last year, as a Muslim Canadian family took their evening stroll during lockdown in London, Ont., a white man rammed his pickup truck into them. Four of the five family members were killed. The incident sparked horror and outrage. But the truth of the matter is anti-Muslim sentiment has been on the ste...

**Warning: This episode contains details that some listeners may find distressing ** It's been a year since the unmarked graves of 215 Indigenous children — some of them as young as three years old — were found on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia. In this episode, Vinita speaks to Veldon Coburn, assistant professor at the Institute of Indigenous Rese...

You can listen to all of the episodes or follow 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 and Instagram and use #DontCallMeResilient. Season 3 episodes launch May 18, 2022!

It felt like these Oscars were the first ones that weren’t actually so white . The whole event felt different. With attempts to display a more inclusive Hollywood , the showcase seemed to go beyond its usual tokenism. But there was the Will Smith-Chris Rock fiasco taking attention away from all this. In what became one of the most infamous moments in the history of the Oscars, Smith got out of his...

One out of every eight households in Canada is food insecure. For racialized Canadians, that number is higher – two to three times the national average. In this episode, Vinita asks what is happening with our food systems, and what we can do to make them fairer with two women who have been tackling this issue for years. Melana Roberts is Chair of Food Secure Canada and one of the leaders behind Ca...