Voices In Recovery Podcast

I encourage all of our listeners and supporters to take a moment of silence wherever you might be today. This week we lost a beautiful human and a deeply compassionate activist, Batool. She was one of the first people to welcome me and many others to the Palestinian movement - her kindness and beauty of spirit will live on in all of us who knew her ❤️️ One of my favorite humans on planet earth, Mi...

This week Darcy and I examine the constant racism within law enforcement and the government as G7 approaches us all. We examine the trauma of disconnecting from systems once becoming a part of them. The doubt, fear, confusion, and uncertainty of resisting the systems in power based on history. We have been shown time and time again what happens when people stand up against government powers and th...

This week's guest, Agnes, stops by and shares a bit of their journey and how it led them to starting Starlings Community. She was a nurse working within the broken system and as her life journey progressed she knew she needed to move into a different compassionate place to be of use to other humans. Thank you Agnes, we appreciate you and all that you do.

This week our guest, Sonny stops by with his husband, Wes and we hear about their individual and sometimes collective journeys together. They are a part of the Gay Druze Community, which has members from all over the world. We talk about shedding the different, and similar dogmas we were hampered with from childhood. As we become more and more ourselves, dogma often simply slides off of us. Other...

Since the recording of this episode, myself and other folks involved in the pro Palestine, end the Genocide movement have been approached by members of police intelligence officers from both the Calgary Police Service and the RCMP. They've approached most of us under the guise of "building community". Due to the RCMP's continued violence against indigenous people of Canada and the world, I refused...

This week, Lia stops by and shares her incredible journey as a young, 14 year old entering into the volatile world of politics. We talk about her discovery of alcohol as a coping mechanism. She talks about her understanding of alcohol as a problematic part of her and her partner's life a few months into their collective journey years ago. She talks about living life and continuing to grown and evo...

This week Darcy and I sit down to chat about the complicated task of maintaining empathy in a world where it's seen and treated as a weakness and a defect. We talk about government tactics to destroy morale, connectivity, and solidarity of protestors. The obvious and unapologetic imbalance in police response to Black, Indigenous and People of Color protesting in our cities. The audacity of local l...

This week, Darcy and I sit down and chat about millennial scoop and the continued use of the child welfare system to enforce racist and colonial control over indigenous peoples of turtle Island.  We talk about the foster care system which continues the policy of "killing the indigenous" within every indigenous child in order to assimilate them to colonial kkkanada. We also discuss the continued ge...

This week's guest, Steve from Stonewall Recovery Centre here in Calgary stops by and shares portions of his journey. He talks about not only his life in active addiction, but through his coming out as a queer man in a fuller recovery for himself.  I won't share too much, we have a great conversation and it is always lovely sitting down with members of the queer community We are full of love for St...

This week artist, frontline worker, activist, and advocate; Nikk Goodswimmer also known as PunkIndigenous (they/she 2S) is Stoney Nakota and Cree from Treaty 8 Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation. They share their incredible, painful and harrowing journey starting with the millennial scoop of 2000's. Where the federal government continued its awful practice of removing indigenous children from their familie...

This week's guest, Kyle, stops by and shares his journey through addiction into recovery. Kyle essentially grew up working in the restaurant and bar industry while working and studying finance. There were times when working in the bar industry when his alcoholism simply took over after multiple times of sobriety. Kyle's story is an illustration of how what once was fun and exciting can quickly tur...

This week my friend and all around amazing human, Michelle Robinson stops by and we discuss the very real, ongoing world of racism - not only policing. We discuss how other government bodies police Black, Indigenous, People of Color, the unhoused, identifiable queer folkx, and those engaged in active drug use. We examine a recent altercation that I had with police, as a witness to them "dealing" w...

This week's guest, Aidan stops by and shares about his life. He talks about the violence he experienced when the Calgary police attacked and assaulted peaceful protestors and students May 9th, 2024. We are sharing some of the photos of his injuries taken directly after being released. We talk about his life and the journey which brought him to activism. Thank you Aidan, don't ever stop standing up...

Welp, 2024 is over and now what... 2025!? Darcy and I try to turn our frowns upside down with a year end episode. We do talk about loss and the awfulness of some humans in our world. We also talk about something neither of us have had in plenty this last year. Hope. Opportunity to work harder on ourselves so that we can be of more use to others in our daily lives. Whomever we may encounter. Happy...

This week, Jasmine stops by to share their journey into and within their life of recovery. She could not imagine a life without drinking and using, as that was her modelling as a child. She believes that her life would always be like the lives of her family. Her mother was a victim of the 60's scoop and we learn that every step the government took to eradicate her family, led her to recovery. She...

This week Darcy and I sit down to approach our emotions and thoughts about so many things happening within and without us. We recognize that, as we talked from our point of privilege; genocide is happening across our planet. Colonial powers attempt to tighten their grips in several countries not their own. Trans Rights are being taken away in private, silenced government rooms. Local activists are...

This week's guest, Kenna Burima stops by and shares her incredible journey into advocacy and activism using her art and creative energy. I won't try and tell you that we have a linear conversation because neither of us are linear thinkers. I think she is a bundle of love and positive, healing energy. After sitting and chatting with Kenna, I also recognize someone who has survived and is trying to...

This week, Karla Marx stops by and shares her beautiful journey. She has been involved in activism for about ten years and is a beautiful, talented performer. An hour with Karla could never do them justice, as you will find out when you listen. I appreciate your work in our community and your continued pursuit of equality for all humans. We are incredibly lucky to have you out here standing up for...

This week's guest, Abir, stops by and shares her incredible journey through this life. She shares her family's journey from the Middle East in the 90's when Islamophobia and xenophobia was really hitting its stride across the west and even the east. We talk about the Canadian dream and the emptiness felt when folks realized they traded one form of militant idealism to another. Canada is something...

This week, Jon stops by and shares about his life. We talk about many parts of his life and look at the current situation of our fellow suffering humans across the planet. That is how we met in fact, gathering to support folks, who are demonized in the western media. This of course allows us to explore and condemn the history of racism, the Crown and the Canadian government have created and perpet...

This week's guest and one of our favorite humans ever, Taylor Dumais stops by and shares about their incredible journey. She is the president of Sacred Turtle Women's Healing Centre  https://www.facebook.com/share/NWeY4YPqUvQVB3xD/ and is a part of the great, growing movement across Turtle Island returning us to the guidance of grandmothers. Thank you for sharing your light with us, we appreciate...

This week, Darcy and I sit together and talk about turning 50 and the continued, escalating genocide against Palestinians and so many others in our world, as I write this. We share about grief, loss, change, aging, police violence, racism and our provincial government, and the general feeling that everyone is on simmer and soon there'll be some kind of catastrophic event. We as usual, just run wil...

This week's guest, Mike, comes to us from a SMART Recovery perspective and i found it refreshing. Chatting with him about recovery, evolutionary biology, evolutionary psychology, etc gave my brain an incredible boost of really nice chemicals as I learned quite a lot - just enough to know that I really know nothing. I hope it does the same for all of you. Mike explains some of the finer points of S...

This week our friend, Wesam from Justice for Palestinians Calgary stops by with a UofC student to share about continued police brutality, violence, and ongoing bullying.  We talk about May 9th, 2024 when the Calgary police escalated and attacked unarmed students and protestors at the University of Calgary. We talked about how Edmonton police doubled down on the violence and brutality May 11th at t...

This week, our friend, Peter, returns and shares about the last few very tumultuous years in recovery - since covid. He shared about how deeply his connections have shifted and adjusted through medical distress, emotional upheaval, and incredible learning. I appreciate being able to sit down and talk about the sometimes debilitating road to happy destiny. Talking about recovery is one thing, livin...