Cherry Picking with Alexia Benn

In 2021, host Alexia Benn interviewed Ned Taylor for the first time. At the time, Taylor was a Saanich City Councillor and CRD Board Member. We catch up with him three years later to see whats new. Now a current Saanich South Provincial MLA Candidate, Ned Taylor and Alexia Benn hash up topics of safe supply, conservative fearmongering (a nearly prophetic discussion considering the backing out of t...

Hello dear friends and welcome back to the podcast!  It's been a year, hasn't it? Time flies when you have no other choice than to live each day out in a perpetual cycle embodying Sisyphus. How nice it is to be able to catch up like this amidst it all.  I know life has changed for me since I last hosted, and I'm sure it has for you too. So join me today for a chat as we consolidate...

What does it mean to be Canadian? Come one, come all. Welcome back to the pod. Today we talk about titles, the genuine joy of fulfilling employment, and a pressing question of necessity when it comes to Canada's status as a Commonwealth country under the British monarchy. There's been a petition initiated by a man in Abbotsford, brought to the House of Commons by the Conservative candida...

Baby we are back in a big way. It's been a year! Literally. I hope it has been a good one for you. Your host Alexia has been caught up in the world in a whirlwind. It's been so long I barely know where to begin! So, without further ado, lets get into it. Today's episode is really more of a catch up, recorded in January of 2023. This one is to those who are personally invested.  A bo...

Hello and welcome to Episode 21 of Cherry Picking with Alexia Benn. This Episode comes as an interlude, bridging the first and second seasons of the show together. This episode stands unique as it is probably the most scattered chronologically thus far.  How so?  This episode was recorded on February 2nd, 2022 and edited on July 5th 2022. In it, I share an old blog post I'd written on January...

Hello everyone! Today marks our 20th episode of the show, and with that milestone, also the conclusion of our first season.  And what a season it has been! Today we go over some pleasantries and I lay out my plan for this break, catching listeners up on what I have in store for season 2 and what can be expected. Lots of little tweaks and improvements to be made, and I couldn't be more excited...

Good morning and happy Wednesday! I'm pleased to have my first episode out on time in a little while here and man, does it feel good. Today on Episode 19 of Cherry Picking we talk about the Metaverse. Or Meta? The Meta. Metaverse. Something vaguely reminiscent of Facebook but more ominous and somehow even less cool. This episode covers a brief history of a long slew of the legal entanglements...

Hello! Before anything else, I would like to answer the above question with a resounding no! However, in today's episode of Cherry Picking, we'll dive into the opinion of someone who might disagree. To start off we'll discuss the concept of racialization, the process of developing and attributing features to a group of people on the basis of race with the intention of justifying a s...

If you're anything like me, you might have a pile of dirty laundry somewhere in your room. On a chair, on the floor, maybe it's in a basket. It's a human ailment, clothes get dirty and need to be cleaned, they're worn again and it all starts over. What a thing. We all have different systems of organization we use on a day to day basis, even as ordinary as moving piles of clothe...

This week on Episode 16 of Cherry Picking, we take a look at exactly how much money was spent in just 5 months on RCMP enforcement of logging up at Fairy Creek, alongside numbers from the enforcement of Coastal Gaslink on Wet'suwet'en territory. But, it runs deeper than that. A few weeks ago, we discussed Trudeau's promise to increase military spending by 70% over the course of 20 y...

Inspired by the recent 'atmospheric river' on Monday that delivered over an entire month of rain in one day in some areas, today on Episode 15 of Cherry Picking, we delve into the topic of climate change. And as of now, the lower mainland is extremely insecure in its supply chain connections with the rest of Canada due to this event. What does this mean? Portions of the Coquihalla highwa...

Today on Episode 14 of Cherry Picking we embark on a journey exploring the role that conspiracy theories play in supporting the ever quaking foundations of our social society as we know it. Why are conspiracy theories so appealing? And why are they oh so dangerous?  The best conspiracies are ones that include pieces of truth, and the most notorious conspiracy theories are the ones that aren't...

This week on Episode 13, your host is dishevelled. Big changes are incoming and I am experiencing some existential dread. So, today, I just spoke from the heart. No notes, just cold. I'll be back next Wednesday with a carefully thought out episode topic, cohesive transitions of ideas, speaking on big concepts that matter and tie into the real world.   But today I talked about myself, what&apo...

Today on Episode 12 of Cherry Picking we dive right into the petrol tainted freshwater. In case you missed it, Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut, is currently under a non-potable water advisory. This situation serves as a starting point to explore the relationship that Canada has with its freshwater supply. Why is water so important? What role has water played, or continues to play, in political dis...

This week on Episode 11 we are all over the map, truly. Join today's episode to hear a recap of some of the motions made over the past few weeks regarding Fairy Creek. The fight is far from over, and really it's just begun. Having a clearer understanding of what we are working on within legal terms gives us more space to understand what can be done.  Then, we talk about Squid Games. What...

Today on Episode 10 of Cherry Picking, we address the 'bombshell' of the Pandora Papers dropped on October 3rd, along with Frances Haugen's blowing of the whistle, followed by an honourable mention to the outages of Facebook, Instagram, Facebook messenger, and Whatsapp which caused a loss of billions (though I see stocks are now making a swift recovery, hmmm).  I grew up with a dad...

Tomorrow is National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, a new holiday introduced by government this year in the wake of the now thousands of Indigenous children who have been recovered from mass graves at residential 'school' sites. While we should all be wearing orange to symbolically show our support for Indigenous communities, in episode 9 we will be digging a little bit deeper. We&apo...

There's no way to summarize this appropriately. In Episode 8,  we'll be addressing Indigenous relations with the Canadian state from a variety of perspectives, grounded in history, and based on my education. We'll talk about whiteness, the media, and the Canadian State as factors in the perception of how one may view this topic. Then, we'll go over the 21 things of the book &ap...

Election day is only 5 days away. In today's episode of Cherry Picking, we'll discuss the ideologies that are represented by the active political parties in Canada, as well as jump into a few key issues present in this election cycle.  At the end of the day, your vote is a representation of your support for a particular leader. Before we express this support, let's be clear about wh...

Today on Episode 6 of Cherry Picking with Alexia Benn, we dive into a quick but incredibly important conversation about voting.  With the upcoming federal election coming in fast on September 20th, it can be difficult to figure out how to make the most of your vote. In BC, only 52% of eligible voters aged 18-24 voted in 2019.  We can't use the excuse that it's simply too complicated. Tun...

Today on Episode 5 of Cherry Picking we are joined by Matt Swiech, a hospitality worker turned entrepreneur. Matt began investing in a business idea of his back in December of 2020, driven by the lack of food security on Vancouver Island. He's identified a problem with the relationship to the food that we eat, taken a creative approach to solve challenges in setting up his business, and is se...

Today on Episode 4 of Cherry Picking with Alexia Benn, we dip our toes into the world of modern agriculture production.  Food is how we fuel our bodies to get us where we need to go and do what we need to do. However, humans are more disconnected now than ever before from the food we eat. What is the impact of the way we grow food, fund, and fuel our agricultural production on the climate? How muc...

Today on Episode 3 of Cherry Picking with Alexia Benn, Saanich City Council member and CRD Director Ned Taylor joins the show to discuss municipal government.  At 19, Ned became the youngest Saanich City Council member elected. On the show, we'll discuss how he became involved in politics, why involvement at the local level is so important and influential, while also getting into the topic of...

Today in Episode 2 we take a deep, yet incredibly shallow, dive into the broader concept of Canada. Intended to set the stage for future discussion, we'll touch on how Canada came to be and the basics of issues that define our current political state. Topics such as colonialism, immigration, resource extraction, trade relationships, and the democratic deficit will be introduced and described....

Welcome to Episode 1 of Cherry Picking with Alexia Benn. Today's episode introduces your host, Alexia, and what lead her to create this podcast.  We'll explore several key themes that will be prominent throughout the episode, what this show sets out to do, and what you can expect from future episodes. Come as you are with an open mind.  Cheers, Alexia Instagram