rabble radio

In December, we at  rabble.ca  asked "What are the organizations that inspire you? Who are the activists leading progressive change? Who are the rabble rousers to watch in 2021?" And you responded. Over the next while, we'll be running both print and audio features about the people and organizations you nominated. Follow our rabble rousers to watch  here . Our guest today is heading for a courtroo...

In December, we at  rabble.ca  asked "What are the organizations that inspire you? Who are the activists leading progressive change? Who are the rabble rousers to watch in 2021?" And you responded. Over the next while, we'll be running both print and audio features about the people and organizations you nominated. Follow our rabble rousers to watch  here . In 2020, amidst the pandemic, the distric...

In December, we at  rabble.ca  asked "What are the organizations that inspire you? Who are the activists leading progressive change? Who are the rabble rousers to watch in 2021?" And you responded. Over the next while, we'll be running both print and audio features about the people and organizations you nominated. Follow our rabble rousers to watch  here . We begin our podcast series with a nomina...

A couple of weeks ago we did an interview with a classical musician who told us how important the online environment is to musicians. With live performances cancelled, the online world is the only way for them to reach their audiences. Today we hear from a director of photography in the film world who says that musicians are keeping film makers busy. And before that we take a dive into the world o...

Before we started this series  My Art Wears a Mask , rabble.ca podcast producer Victoria Fenner sent a shout out on rabble inviting emerging artists to share their experiences doing art in the time of COVID-19. Here is one of the responses she received: "My name is  Tricia Robinson  and I'm a a 30-year-old female illustrator in Montreal, Quebec. I'm also a labour organizer and founder of a labour...

Today we're going to hear two conversations with two classical musicians, and also, some really fabulous music. Today's guests are both string players -- Maxime Despax is a viola player whose family home is in Gatineau, Quebec, but he's studying in Toronto right now. Yanet Campbell is a violinist who was born in Cuba. She is now studying at the Glenn Gould Studio of the Royal Conservatory of Music...

"I think the thing about this pandemic and everything going online has made it more accessible for people like me who live in remote places or for people who don't live in remote places but as disabled but who can't leave their house still."  -- Kimberly Edgar Kimberly Edgar  is an award-winning comic artist living on Tr'ondek Hwech'in land in so-called Dawson City, Yukon. Kimberly's work reflects...

A few months ago when all of the rabble staff members were talking about what we could do to focus on the effects of COVID, our editor-in-chief, Matt DiMera, suggested that we do a podcast series focusing on Canada's emerging artists. This series you will hear over the next six weeks is exactly that.  Every week until December 24, we'll be sharing the ideas, words and art of six emerging artists f...

Why are so many people saying that we can deal with climate change, or we can put all of our efforts into stopping COVID-19, but we can't do both at the same time? Today's show is about a report that says we can, and  must , look at this in a holistic way. Farmers for Climate Solutions is putting forward proposals that link recovery from COVID-19 with solutions to mitigate the effects of climate c...

This year's Pride celebrations all over the country are very different from years past because of COVID-19. It's taking a lot of creativity, amidst a whole bunch of disappointment to create celebrations which can't include getting together in person. A lot of festivals are going online.  Pride Hamilton  just had its online festival online this past Sunday, June 14. This year's festival would have...

In the ongoing coverage of the COVID-19 crisis, there are many places that we don't hear a lot about. One of the places is Africa. On today's rabble radio, we're playing two interviews from rabble contributors who have reached out to their colleagues and contacts in Africa -- one in Mozambique, another in Tanzania. In some ways, the challenges people face there aren't a lot different from here. Bu...

Liz Marshall's new film  Meat the Futur e  focuses on a new way of producing meat -- one where the animal doesn't have to be killed. Instead, cells are taken from a living animal and meat is produced from those cells. The possibility presents a brave new world of animal agriculture, a world where we can still eat meat without participating in the harm and suffering that is rampant in the current i...

The seeds we buy to plant our gardens are an exercise of hope in a tiny package. After all, how do we know that those little bitty things are ever going to amount to anything? For farmers, the annual spring seed shipment can bring with it a whole mixture of emotions as they wondered what those bags would bring. What kind of weather conditions will exist this year? Will it be a full harvest, or wou...

Being an activist brings an emotional burden. The issues we deal with are intense, difficult and sometimes without any immediate solution. And often, we try to deal with these issues through logically planning a strategy and communicating issues using words. It's an intellectual process, but with a lot of underlying emotional baggage. Elisa Lee has some thoughts about how to get under the intellec...

Last year, when  rabble.ca  staff had one of our rare in-person staff retreats, we were talking about the climate crisis and how difficult it was to get around the fear that we all felt. So we decided to make it an editorial focus. That was back in August. At the time we came up with the idea, we had no way of knowing that our fear would be even greater because of the COVID-19 pandemic. So, when w...

Are you one of those people who would like to try vegan cooking but you just dont know how to get started? On today's rabble radio, we'll help you out, as our contribution to  rabble.ca 's  vegan challenge . The vegan challenge is a good way for "veg-curious" people to try a vegan diet for a short time in a fun environment along with other rabble staff and readers. It's a way to encourage each oth...

Covering a country like Canada while COVID-19 is wreaking havoc is a difficult thing to do. Canada is so large with lots of regional differences. And nowhere in the country is the difference so stark as it is between Canada's North and the rest of the country. Today we have two interviews from two different parts of the north --  one from  Cumberland House  in northern Saskatchewan, and another fr...

There are thousands of people in Canada involved in international humanitarian work. According to CARE Canada in a 2011 study, there were 14,000 full-time and 32,000 part-time workers working in international development in our country. And there are also thousands of volunteers who go oversees to provide health-care relief, build schools, help out in community radio stations, and assist in enviro...

Gaza is only 365 square kilometres and home to almost two million Palestinians. It's been under a comprehensive Israeli land and sea blockade for 13 years. Israeli military assaults in 2008-2009, 2012 and 2014 have laid waste to much of its infrastructure. Poor sanitation, lack of clean water, poverty, unemployment and an acute shortage of hospital beds and equipment are a perfect storm for diseas...

Lois Ross , our agriculture columnist at  rabble.ca  has been a frequent visitor to Cuba. This year's trip was a little different and somewhat unnerving as she watched the COVID-19 pandemic cross the ocean and start to affect North America. She got home over a month ago, and the situation she was seeing was worrying, though not like it is today. She's home, she's safe ... with some thoughts about...

Those of us who are gig workers and small business owners were relieved to hear the announcement yesterday that there will be some support for people like us in this time of COVID-19. But, we're not out of the woods yet. We don't know how it's all going to work. And if it works like employment insurance does, 55 per cent of already marginal incomes isn't much money. On today's rabble radio, Victor...

People who haven't been to university in a very long time might think of a student union as a club on campus. The reality is that most student unions in Canadian universities are sizeable employers. The student unions at larger universities employ a few hundred people, and not just students. Full-time people rely on their jobs with the students union to pay their mortgates and feed their families....

Podcasters Itisha Giri and Bhrikuti Rai are fed up with the male-dominated discourse in Nepali media and are determined to change it. The hosts of Boju Bajai are using their platform to speak to women, for women and about women in a space where many voices are left behind. Giri, a writer, and Rai, a journalist, met in 2016 at an audition for  The Vagina Monologues  in Kathmandu. They bonded over h...

Increasing diversity in the newsrooms of the nation is a topic which has been talked about and strategized around for several decades. But has all that talk resulted in action which has increased the number of people of colour and Black journalists in Canada's news media? Our two guests on rabble radio today say there is still a long way to go. Anita Li of  Canadian Journalists of Colour ; and Nad...

Video gaming is a pastime which keeps growing and growing with no signs that it's ever going to stop. According to the Entertainment Software Association of Canada in a  2018 report , 23 million people in Canada play video games. They say that makes Canada one of the biggest per capita populations of gamers in the world. They also have another surprising figure -- half of those gamers are women. F...