Raw Talk Podcast

Tuberculosis (TB) is a bacterial infectious disease that affects millions of people globally every year. Despite being one of the oldest infectious diseases in humans, control of the epidemic through treatment and vaccination has remained out of reach. In today’s episode, we learned about what makes TB so difficult to control, from immunology to stigma. First, Dr. Jun Liu, a Professor in the Depar...

It's only natural to be curious about the most essential need for human health and survival: water. In this episode, we learn about clean water, recognizing the drastic difference in water security between communities and what can be done about it. We spoke with Dr. Jay Famiglietti, a hydrologist at the University of Saskatchewan, about water infrastructure in terms of freshwater availability, cli...

As we have learned through the COVID-19 pandemic, the health of communities around the world is connected through shared technologies, institutions, and values. In this episode, we explore these connections outside the context of a pandemic. We learn how issues in global health are prioritized, funded, and measured; about the roots of global health in imperialism, and what it means to decolonize g...

There are things in life that people take for granted every day. For many of us, that is the privilege of moving about in a world that was designed for our bodies and our physical abilities. Imagine not being able to get to a meeting on time because the nearest subway isn’t accessible. Imagine not getting any matches on a dating profile because 2 years ago you got into a car accident and now you g...

As Canadians, we're usually quite proud of our excellent healthcare system. However, as we learned in Episodes 83 on organ donation, 82 on amputation, and others, gaps in public coverage and long wait times sometimes prevent Canadians from accessing the best care. Enter "medical tourism", or "medical travel". In this episode, we explored what it might be like for Canadians to access care abroad. W...

About 90% of Canadians say they support organ and tissue donation but less than 20% have made plans to donate. To tackle this discrepancy, Nova Scotia is set to become the first province in the country to have presumed consent for organ and tissue donation beginning in 2021. In this episode of Raw Talk, we speak to Jed Gross about the opt-in/opt-out systems, the ethical dilemmas of organ allocatio...

On April 12, 1980, 22-year old Terry Fox dipped his toe into the icy Atlantic Ocean outside St John's, Newfoundland before setting out on one of the most inspiring athletic feats the world has ever seen. 40 years later, adaptive athletes continue to inspire movement and movements across the world. In this episode of Raw Talk Podcast, we explore lower-limb amputation, the phenomenon of phantom limb...

Memory is essential for forming individual identity, as well as the process of learning. Yet, memory is not without its faults. In this episode of Raw Talk Podcast, we try to understand what memory is, the processes that affect the quality of our memories and the implications of faulty memory on the validity of eyewitness testimonies in the legal system. First we hear from Joey DeGrandis who share...

2020 has been a strange, unpredictable and challenging year, as the coronavirus has impacted our lives in countless ways. Here at Raw Talk, we found ourselves struggling to keep up with COVID-19 research and understand the impacts of the pandemic on our society. So, instead of our usual live event this year, we created COVIDecoded: a weekly YouTube live stream of discussions with experts on all th...

Your favourite medical science podcast is making the most of ‘the new normal’ - this year’s Raw Talk Live event was broadcast entirely on YouTube! Over 8 weeks, we spoke to researchers all across Canada about all things COVID-19. Our 8th and final instalment focuses on immunity and SARS-CoV2. Controlling this novel pathogen will no doubt require immune systems to adapt, and supporting those change...

Your favourite medical science podcast is making the most of ‘the new normal’ - this year’s Raw Talk Live event was broadcast entirely on YouTube! Over 8 weeks, we spoke to researchers all across Canada about all things COVID-19. Our 7th instalment focuses on health equity – the historical context and impact of longstanding systemic inequities; how the pandemic has highlighted existing inequities...

Your favourite medical science podcast is making the most of ‘the new normal’ - this year’s Raw Talk Live event was broadcast entirely on YouTube! Over 8 weeks, we spoke to researchers all across Canada about all things COVID-19. Our 6th instalment focuses on COVID-19 testing – what the tests tell us and how they work, how testing has changed the course of the pandemic, and what we can expect from...

Your favourite medical science podcast is making the most of ‘the new normal’ - this year’s Raw Talk Live event was broadcast entirely on YouTube! Over 8 weeks, we spoke to researchers all across Canada about all things COVID-19. Our 5th instalment focuses on the connections between the COVID-19 pandemic and Climate Change: similarities on both personal and structural levels, key differences, and...

Your favourite medical science podcast is making the most of ‘the new normal’ - this year’s Raw Talk Live event was broadcast entirely on YouTube! Over 8 weeks, we spoke to researchers all across Canada about all things COVID-19. Our fourth instalment features public health experts Dr. Jeff Kwong and Professor Vivek Goel in a discussion on the public health response to COVID-19 in Canada and Ontar...

Your favourite medical science podcast is making the most of ‘the new normal’ - this year’s Raw Talk Live event was broadcast entirely on YouTube! Over 8 weeks, we spoke to researchers all across Canada about all things COVID-19. Our third instalment features Dr. Rima Styra, an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto and clinician-investigator at the University Health Networ...

Your favourite medical science podcast is making the most of ‘the new normal’ - this year’s Raw Talk Live event was broadcast entirely on YouTube! Over 8 weeks, we spoke to researchers all across Canada about all things COVID-19. Our second instalment features Dr Sharmistha Mishra, infectious disease physician and mathematical modeler, and Linwei Wang, senior epidemiologist, both at St. Michael’s...

Your favourite medical science podcast is making the most of ‘the new normal’ - this year’s Raw Talk Live event was broadcast entirely on YouTube! Over 8 weeks, we spoke to researchers all across Canada about all things COVID-19. Our first instalment features Dr. Karen Mossman, molecular virologist and Vice President of Research at McMaster University. Dr. Mossman discusses how coronaviruses, part...

In part two of our maternal health series, we explore the journey through pregnancy, birth, and the post-natal period – including the planning involved, the decisions made, and any healthcare a person may receive along the way. We started out our conversation with Madeleine Springate-Combs, a midwife in Ontario, who told us about why someone may choose to receive care from a midwife and the philos...

Maternal health refers to the journey from pregnancy to child birth to the postnatal period. Every mother's experience is different and includes a continuum of scientific and medical, through to psychosocial and spiritual aspects. This episode is the first of a two-part series focused on this important topic. We spoke to Dr. Kaajal Abrol, a Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Specialist in...

Acceptance of transgender and non-binary folks in Canada has come a long way in the last decade and arguably much of this progress was made in just the last few years. While many of us take for granted the ability to express our true selves, it was only in June of 2017 that gender identity and expression was officially recognized and protected from discrimination under the Canadian Human Rights Ac...

Sports play an important role in our culture, from the individual level where many participate in recreational activities for exercise and social benefits, to the national and international levels where professional sports are a huge industry worth billions. Sports can strongly unite people, but athletes of every level from the weekend warrior to the professional athlete can face challenges that r...

Music, we listen to it when waking up, while in transit, at work, and with friends. It is a form of entertainment, but also has the potential to provide so much more. Music is a universal language with the ability to connect and reach people on social, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual levels. It can bring us joy and motivate us, accompany us through difficult times, evoke nostalgia, and alle...

While humans have struggled for millennia with the spread of contagious diseases, rapid global movement of people and food now magnifies the risks of outbreaks, requiring better monitoring and faster response than ever before. Completely by coincidence, during the making of this episode, the 2019 novel coronavirus spread from Wuhan to the rest of Asia, Europe, and North America. The World Health O...

Our genetic information makes us who we are. "Hacking" into such an essential part of nature used to be something that happened only in science fiction. However, technology and scientific knowledge are evolving rapidly and "bio-hacking" has gone from sci-fi to reality. In fact, scientists and doctors around the world are conducting studies to see whether genetic engineering techniques could be use...

Climate change has been called the defining issue of our time. Its scope, complexity, and impact pose an enormous challenge to humanity. Political, economic, ecological, agricultural, and health systems are already being affected in unprecedented ways. In this episode, we sat down with climate experts and activists to discuss these issues. First, we heard from George Kourounis, renowned global adv...