The rainbownation's Podcast

It's been a minute...and a HALF! Rainbow Nation podcast took some time off since Fall 2023 but we are back in time for Pride 2025! Christine & Russel got the chance to interview "Inport Vinyl" crew, the entertainment team synonymous with a "Vinyl Night" at the Wheelhouse Brewing Company in Prince Rupert, located at 380 Bill Murray Drive, Prince Rupert, B.C. in the historic heritage building th...

Hello!  This week we have been able to sit down with B.C. North-coast MLA Jennifer Rice.   Here is a biography of Jennifer Rice: Jennifer Rice was elected the MLA for North Coast in 2013, 2017 and re-elected in 2020. She was recently appointed to the role of Parliamentary Secretary for Rural Health.  She has worked hard to improve safety for people travelling along the Highway of Tears (highway 16...

Hello besties! We are back for a fabulous podcast on the eve of another Pride month with the lovely, super busy and all around doll - Havana Fisher. Havana is originally from Hartley Bay and enjoying her busy time with helping out at Prince Rupert Middle School (with the GSA - Skittles Club), as well as her space in Wap Sigatgyet (House of Building Strength), Indigenous Education Centre.   An arti...

We are very excited to share a discussion we had with Dr. Rakel Kling from Northern Health, about MonkeyPox.   We asked listeners to submit questions for Dr. Kling and she was kind enough to sit with us over Zoom to answer them. There is a lot of information out there, true and untrue.  Dr. Kling gave us some resources to be better informed and to share: the Northern Health  website is a good star...

Sheila Gordon-Payne is running for Prince Rupert City Council this upcoming election, and we wanted to sit down with her and get to know her a little better.  Sheila works in healthcare and is an avid traveller.  She's been a long time resident of Prince Rupert and is passionate about seeing the city flourish in collaboration with the residents.  Lots of topics covered here from housing, homelessn...

Today Christine & Russel got a chance to sit down with one of the mayoral candidates for the upcoming municipal election in Prince Rupert, Chrystopher Thompson.  Chrystopher has worked in education for 13 years and presently is an Indigenous mentor at Pacific Coast School (PCS).   A new face to the political arena, we wanted to get to know Chrystopher a little better, who is he and what he stands...

Hi Gay, Happy Pride month! < / corporate rainbow washing >  It's a great day to be queer and an even better day to get to talk to Out & Queer teacher from Charles Hays Secondary School,  Danielle Dueck! Dueck (it's ok, I can call her that), is also helping with the Gay Straight Alliance at CHSS and has been one of the key people in having the Pride float in the latest Seafest parade in Prince Rupe...

Happy National Coming Out Day! Christine and Russel take a minute to catch up with each other's busy lives over a rainy weekend in the RUP. Lots of suggestions for entertainment shows to binge on for hibernation season.   Music wise, Adele's upcoming release upon us is giving us life! It's the first episode we got to be in the same space again face to face for quite some time! Have a listen to som...

Happy Pride!  Prince Rupert has had its first Pride event thanks to the fabulous couple, Angelo Octaviano & Kyle Hill.  Angelo sent out an invite to a small group of friends for a gathering at the Rainbow Bridge in Cow Bay in Prince Rupert, British Columbia to celebrate Pride on Saturday June 19, 2021.   There was a lot of music, dancing and fabulous support from cars that honked as they drove by....

Samuel Brennan is a teacher at the Prince Rupert Middle School that teaches French Immersion.   He helps out with the "Skittles" group (gender / sex alliance) while Lori Leighton is taking a bit of a much needed break.  Sam is originally from Ottawa and moved to Prince Rupert late last year during the pandemic and our 9 feet of rainfall.  He has yet to fully be present as we are all still in the p...

Welcome to season 3 episode 2 with Mr. Braden Etzerza.  Braden is a young queer returning Rupertite / Ts'msyen  that has a degree in Environmental Science.  He is currently employed with the Metlakatla Stewardship Society as the Climate Action Coordinator.  He is extremely passionate about food security & sovereignty as well as finding renewable energy sources among other exciting duties with his...

Season 3 ! Recorded in late January, we were able to catch up with one another over Zoom, musing on the transition of political leaders to the south of us and what that means for LGBTQ and the world. We interviewed Pastor Diana Edis, from St. Paul's Lutheran Prince Rupert Church about her work in the community and the new book club Queers the Word. Our discussion included her passion for reaching...

Teacher, artist, creator and 80's movie aficionado, Alana Rice is a teacher and one of Christine's colleagues. She captures art 🖼 in the Northwest and her pieces can be viewed and purchased at: https://alanariceartist.com    You can view the pieces, email her directly if you have any questions, and learn some of the background for each piece.  Alana came to us with an interesting premise to talk a...

Teri Forster is a local nurse that is also a representative for all the nurses in the North West in the B.C. Nurses Union, representing workers with disabilities. She is an Ally to the LGBT community, helping organize events across the north west.  She is an avid Cos Play participant (Belle from Beauty & the Beast, Shrek, Queen of Hearts and others) and has competed provincially (Vancouver, Prince...

Blake is a former Rupertite that took time out of his extremely busy schedule to talk to Christine & Russel about his new project : opening his new restaurant in Canmore Alberta with his fiancé and business partner.  Blake talks about previous accomplishments in his culinary career and it is impressive to say the least! Quending is settling into a "new normal" for virtual Pride events and Christin...

Christine & Russel check in with each other from their separate spaces via Zoom and talk about what it's been like so far in the quarantine time in the world.  Discussion on how the world has slowed down, how people are being creative, creating and nurturing projects and how people are being kind to each other during these mentally and emotionally exhausting ties.  Some ideas from Christine on how...

This is definitely one of the longest podcasts we've recorded so far.  It would be great if this was a 'part one' to a longer conversation with Prince Rupert's current mayor, Lee Brain.  Lee offered up a bit of his weekend to sit down with us to talk about the exciting plans for Prince Rupert.  Lee talks extensively about the protocols, procedures and challenges to deal with before STARTING with a...

Happy 2020 ! Lori Leighton is one of Christine's closest friends that she has known for a long time (close to 40 years!).  Lori works at Prince Rupert Middle School as an Indigenous Counsellor as well, she facilitates the "Skittles" group (a Gay / Straight Alliance group for middle school aged children). She counsels Grade 8 and French Immersion, she teaches Advisory Class as well as Storm 8 (that...

Recorded on November 11, 2019, Christine and Russel talk all things Remembrance Day, the fallout of fake news and Rainbow Poppies.  Quending is Drag Queen Story Time!  The guest for this podcast is Mike Pucci, Manager - Administrative Services for DP World.  We get a brief history of the company (Dubai Ports) and talk Port expansion, the wonder and science of Wind Alarms and other future plans for...

It was a good conversation with Mr. Jared Paolinelli in October, the day of the election.  We talked about all things Skeena Kayaking, the fun aspects of the Hospitality / Tourism industry in the small community of Prince Rupert. We talk travelling the world - the fun and challenges as a gay man in some corners of the world.  Jared shares some tips on buying mattresses, and sleep clinics and how t...

Welcome to season 2! Russel and Christine are back and lamenting on the Summer with their activities (Russel's adventures in baking and Christine's continuing with her Masters degree !! ) .  Is there such a thing as Pride burnout ? Netflix and other streaming services are welcomed with the pre-hibernation of Fall.  Russel & Christine get a phone call and are able to talk to Ivan Coyote, before the...

Russel ventures to Vancouver for Pride in August 2019.  Marcia Guno takes over the podcast to interview Russel the day of the parade.  Before the parade, after the parade and even gets to interview Melanie Mark, Minister of Advanced Education, Skills and Training Vancouver-Mount Pleasant.  The wrap up at the end of the day is book ended with Russel & Christine listening to the 'In and Out' podcast...

Woohoo! We made it to episode 13 of Rainbow Nation Podcasts! Christine & Russel review the amazing first season of this awesome project.  Rainbow Nation will be taking a break over the summer, but will be back in the fall with some great guests and possibly different format .   Enjoy the wrap up and don't forget to stream the other episodes on iTunes, Spotify or Podbean.   love, peace & rainbows

It's the 12th episode of Rainbow Nation and we have Andrea Wilmot joining us to talk about her role in the field of nursing.  She is a Diabetes Educator "Clinical Educator for Chronic Disease" and chats with us about Smithers, what keeps her grounded in Prince Rupert and self care . 

Suzo is an artist living in Prince Rupert.  She invited us to her studio to chat and we picked her brain about her pieces, what she would like to see happen with artists and their work and what's changed from her earlier works to now.