Talk Description to Me

Christine and JJ are always up for new adventures and experiences, especially when there are interesting visuals to describe and gab about!  This week, Talk Description To Me embarks on a new season of on-location escapades, sponsored by Air Canada. To kick things off, the description duo are invited to Toronto’s Pearson International Airport for the national airline’s official send-off of Team Ca...

Anyone who lives in a city or town has heard of gentrification, but what exactly does it look like? In this episode, Christine and JJ head to Toronto's Chinatown to describe the visuals of gentrification in their hometown.  Special thanks to Yang Wang, Jun Yan, and Liu Hong for supporting this episode through dedicated work and generous donations. Your contributions to the community are very...

With the year coming to a close, and another batch of innovative accessibility projects under their belts, Christine and JJ look back on some of their favourite gigs from 2025. Join your old pals for this Year in Review episode, packed with lively conversation and description-rich clips from their other podcast projects, including Luminocity, The Disability Collective, the Described Toronto Podcas...

As you probably know, your friends here at Talk Description to Me love a good story. We like reading them, writing them, and sharing them! This year, to celebrate the holidays, we'd like to offer you a story written and read by our very own Christine Malec (with a bit of help from JJ). Thank you for continuing to travel with us on our description-rich journey. May the season treat you and you...

What does it look and feel like to be in a sea of 50,000 gleeful, sequinned, Taylor Swift fans? That's what our own budding Swiftie Christine wanted to know! In this episode, Christine and JJ take their surround sound mic to the SkyDome and describe the atmosphere, the friendship bracelets, and the fans heading into one of Taylor Swift's six sold out Toronto shows.  Send us a quick note!...

It's no secret that Christine and JJ love their work, and when they get a fun and interesting gig they want to share it with everyone! This Halloween, JJ had the pleasure of describing the Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Christine was in the audience to hear it. The production was staged by good friends at The Disability Collective, and featured audience participation, and an amazing all-Deaf...

What better way to keep summer vibes alive than a trip to the fair? In this special, on-location episode, Christine and JJ explore the wonders of the Canadian National Exhibition, better known to locals as the CNE or the Ex! Join the two friends as they take a nostalgic stroll down the bustling midway, and describe the roller coasters, carnival games, and deep-fried delights, all captured in boomi...

For several years Christine and JJ have been working with Toronto's Luminato Festival, presenting live art, theatre, and dance performances to Blind and Low Vision audiences through the online radio program Radio Lumi. This year, Radio Lumi is expanding its arts and accessibility coverage and shifting its focus to podcasting,  which has everyone very excited. On this bonus episode of Talk Des...

Part 2 of 2.  Love them or hate them, AI writing tools like Chat GPT have the potential to change the way we write, communicate, and learn. One group looking to harness the technology with, and for, the Blind community is Be My Eyes, an outfit which  connects Blind and low-vision users with sighted volunteers through live video calls. Now,  Be My Eyes has partnered with OpenAI to create Be My AI,...

Love them or hate them, AI writing tools like ChatGPT have the potential to change the way we write, communicate, and learn. One group looking to harness the technology with, and for, the Blind community is Be My Eyes, an outfit which  connects Blind and low-vision users with sighted volunteers through live video calls. Now,  Be My Eyes has partnered with OpenAI to create Be My AI, a free app-base...

Ravines are a distinctive part of the urban landscape of Toronto. They create a network of natural green space that is one of the city’s defining features.  Edited by Christine and introduced by JJ, you’re about  to experience a described walk through part of one of them, led by Arborist Todd Irvine, funded by Park People's Ravine Champions program and organized by Katherine Sanders and guest...

The Star Trek universe is alive, well, and moving at warp speed. To celebrate Star Trek Day JJ joins Christine in her backyard for a casual  conversation about the visuals of two Trek shows, the animated series Lower Decks, and the live action prequel Strange New Worlds. Fast-paced animation, and the complexities of prequel aesthetics, are too much for traditional inline description, so with the s...

Christmas is a wonderful time to get in touch with old friends, to catch up over a warm mug of hot chocolate, to say "How have you been? I've really missed you!" Well, we've really missed you! This year, to celebrate the season, we'd like to make this small Christmas offering: a reading of How The Grinch Stole Christmas by the one-and-only Dr. Seuss. But Christine is Chris...

Talk Description to Me is hitting pause -- for the time being! To mark their final episode in this two-year run, Christine and JJ packed a picnic, hopped on a ferry, and headed to the Toronto Islands. Sitting on a park bench, facing the Toronto skyline, the two friends shared one last description-rich conversation before unplugging their mics for a spell.  To all of our listeners, thank you for ta...

Fuelled once again by Christine's insatiable curiosity, today Talk Description to Me explores the visuals of river systems. How do rivers form? Are the headwaters obvious? Are stream networks visible in satellite images? Does a river in the Amazon look the same as a river in Egypt? With the help of diagrams, descriptions of maps, and tactile primers on continental geography, JJ and Christine...

Back in May, Christine and JJ began examining and describing the world of virtual reality. Today the intrepid pair wraps up the three-part series, exploring surreal spaces and fantastical experiences, including a trippy meditation realm, and a journey to Jurassic World. Then JJ's  in-house tech expert Owen joins the conversation to provide a teenage take on VR.  Send us a quick note! Support...

Spy movies are perfect for Audio Description. There are subtle clues to describe, exotic and seedy locations to expound on, and often great visual storytelling for the Describer to work with. But what about those moments that whip by too fast for the AD Narrator? Today, Christine and JJ break down the visuals of spy movie tropes: gadgets, lairs, disguises, hacking, and tracking.  Send us a quick n...

If you live in a city, you have lots of animals as neighbours; squirrels, raccoons, rats, skunks, maybe even foxes or coyotes. But what do they look like? How do they move, eat, and interact? This week, Christine and JJ describe the visuals of urban wildlife. That's right trash pandas -- we're talking about you! Send us a quick note! Support the show

Slide whistle falls off of cliffs, and twinkle toes powering Stone Age cars were just a few of the sound effects that made Saturday morning cartoons popular with Blind and Low Vision kids in the days before Audio Description. Today, Christine and JJ aim to fill in some visual gaps by describing the look of classic cartoons, from prehistoric gadget gags in The Flintstones, to cutting edge camera wo...

Women had been excluded from voting in ancient Greece, republican Rome, and in emerging European and North American democracies. By the mid 19th century, many had had enough and began demanding suffrage; the right to vote in political elections. While some worked within existing systems, others attacked with amazing savvy and ferocity,  resulting not only in stunning, even shocking visuals, but ev...

The school year is wrapping up, and students everywhere are gleefully donning their caps and gowns, eager to graduate. This week, to honour the hard work and dedication of students who are Blind and Low Vision, Christine and JJ describe the visuals of convocation ceremonies and regalia. Congratulations, Class of '22!  Send us a quick note! Support the show

The visuals of food prep and cooking can be kind of a mystery, so this week Christine and JJ are donning their jaunty chef's hats and stepping into the kitchen to demystify fancy flambéing, precarious pizza tossing, and curious candy making. Bon appetite! Send us a quick note! Support the show

It's time for our second annual Pride episode! Last year, in episode 57, we described the visuals of Toronto's Pride Parade. This year we take a look at the historical event that led to the first political (and  celebratory!) Pride Marches in North America: the Stonewall riots. To hear firsthand accounts from those who were at Stonewall, and journalists who have studied the event and its...

Summer is upon us, so it's time to get outside and do summery things. Today, Christine and JJ take their cues from the weather, the season, and some listener requests, and put their summer hats on. First, they head to the cabin to explore the forest, the trees, and the dappled sun. Then, they journey to the fair to stroll the midway and hit some roller coasters. All through the power of descr...

On this podcast, we have tasked ourselves with "Describing the visuals of the world around us."  Right now, the world around us includes mass school shootings. After consulting with Blind and Low Vision community members on various social media platforms, today we reluctantly carry on  with the promise inherent in our mandate. In this episode, Christine and JJ describe and discuss the vi...