Woodstein Media Podcast

On this podcast, I chat with acclaimed Canadian poet John Barton about his new book Compulsory Figures. During the conversation, we touch on topics from family through the lens of the father and patriarchy, and move onto contemporary issues before ending with more Queer focused discussion. The book is a masterful collection of poems that evokes deep emotional involvement from the reader. It is ava...

On this podcast, I chat with Stevie Bees about the boost that David Tennant gave to their trans-positive T-shirt brand. You can see and order a shirt yourself at www.steviesafespaces.com. That boost in popularity has enabled Stevie to infuse more positive energy into the gender-diverse community we live in through activism, bursaries, and public speaking. We also speak about some of the more terri...

On this podcast, I chat with Jason Davis, the NDP candidate for Perth-Wellington in the 2025 Ontario Election. This has been a snap election, and it will all be over by the end of February 27. We chatted about healthcare, education, harm reduction, and transportation, and he lays out plans for a responsible Ontario government that would help lift the weight that our current government has download...

On this podcast, I chat with James Montgomery, the New Blue candidate for Perth-Wellington in the 2025 Ontario Election. This has been a snap election, and it will all be over by the end of February 27. We chat about Healthcare, Education, harm reduction, transportation, and what he means when he says, “More bang for the buck.” The talk turned to the changes in our relationship with the United Sta...

The Woodstein Media Podcast kicks off season two with interviews of some local candidates in the 2025 Ontario election. The first episode features a conversation with Ashley Fox, the Liberal Party candidate for Perth-Wellington. In this conversation, we discuss why a focus on health care is essential for the overall well-being of the province, transportation in rural communities, how the decline i...

Mish Waraksa, a Primary Care Nurse Practitioner with over four years of experience working in safer opioid supply programs in Toronto, discussed how contaminants in the illicit opioid supply chain complicate the job of healthcare workers and the life-threatening side effects that come with Benzodiazepines and other impurities getting mixed into the street supply. The conversation also focuses on t...

Katie Langille is a Primary Care Nurse Practitioner in the SOS Program at the Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre. This community-based health service organization in southwest Toronto offers a wide range of services, including primary health care, dental care, harm reduction, health promotion, counselling, and community development programming.  The SOS program is a Safer Opioid Supply pr...

This podcast features a discussion about the push to provide more effective harm reduction services, education, outreach and advocacy to enhance and save the lives of people most at risk from the toxic drug crisis in the Atlantic provinces of Canada. Katie Upham is the Harm Reduction Educator of the Substance User Network of the Atlantic Region (SUNAR) and a member of many other advocacy and drug...

The Woodstein Media Podcast bounces back to music chatter with Dick Lucas, the voice fronting SUBHUMANS, Culture Shock, and Citizen Fish.  For over 45 years he has been venting his thoughts on life and politics over the punk, ska, and reggae sounds of those bands and even in his 60s there does not seem to be any indication he’ll be hanging up his microphone. Balancing that microphone might be some...

As this podcast was being edited, Pierre Poilievre raved in Parliament about life-saving efforts to help drug users. He was reprimanded and ejected from the chamber, and eventually, the rest of the Conservative caucus walked out in protest. Speaker Greg Fergus cautioned Justin Trudeau and Poilievre during a feisty question period to avoid making direct accusations about the character of another MP...

(All photos contributed by Leah den Bok and used by permission) In February, I explored the streets of Philadelphia, and the Mutter Museum was a must-see site. One of the exhibits, Unhoused: Personal Stories and Public Health, features photos by the guest on this podcast, Leah den Bok. She is a photographer from Ontario, whom I wrote about years ago when she spoke at a United Way event, Faces of H...

This episode features a conversation with Casey and Core, cofounders of Barrie, Ontario's independent music label Tarantula Tapes. They talk about releasing music they love and some of the problems they have overcome regarding quality control working at a DIY level. They recommend some of their favourite releases from the label's first three years and future releases they are hyped to bring to mus...

This episode features a conversation with Jillian Clair about the movement to legalize magic mushrooms and her research into the benefits of Psilocybin, that ingredient some mushrooms have which adds that psychedelic touch to them that many of us have grown to love. The mood-stabilizing gift from nature that governments want to deny access to. As users, and not scientists studying Psilocybin, much...

On this episode, Barrie Ontario musician Earl Wyvern discusses their history and involvement in the DIY Arts Collective, which progressed to a deep involvement in music, promoting shows through Gay Ass Productions and slamming eardrums on recording and stages for the past ten years. They are currently playing with Angry Spells and digging deeper into what they refer to as their “horrendous progres...

On this episode, award-winning musician, writer, poet, activist, broadcaster and washing machine engineer Joe Solo speaks about spreading his message of social justice, anti-fascism, and socialism in his music and books from Scarborough. Not the Scarborough that will jump into the minds of people raised in southern Ontario, but the one across the Atlantic on England’s North Sea coast. Solo began h...

As anti-trans rhetoric gets normalized across Canada, activists stand up to the hatred.  This episode highlights the work and activism of Celeste Trianon, a trans-feminine jurist and activist. On the legal front, she helps people in Quebec with name and gender marker changes. Across Canada, she has been involved in activism, resisting hatred directed towards the 2SLGBTQIA community, specifically t...

This episode features a conversation with singer-songwriter Carol Hodge. She is a versatile musician living in Yorkshire, UK, who has been performing styles as diverse as the punk sounds of CRASS, which she has been touring with Steve Ignorant since 2011, to introspective pop songs full of intelligence, wit and poignancy delivered with a “cynical optimism.” Hodge’s life is deeply steeped in music,...

This episode spotlights harm reduction services provided by Positive Living Niagara.  Talia Storm, Director of StreetWorks Services, discusses supervised consumption, safer supply and other services that have saved lives during the toxic drug crisis. As Storm says, the staff at StreetWorks are just the passengers, and the individuals accessing the services are driving the car because harm reductio...

Since May, a group of concerned citizens known as the Drag Storytime Guardians have supported Drag Story Time and Pride events throughout Southwestern Ontario. At the heart of the guardians is a 70-year-old biker, Sista Patricia, who has been putting what she has learned, marching for the rights of women and the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, into action to protect families and drag queens from far-right f...

The friendships that pulled the Yeastie Girlz together in the 1980s have stood the test of time. Although Cammie Toloui, Joyce Jimenez, Jane Guskin, and Kate (Rosenberger) Razo now live in four cities, making it tough to pull together gatherings in person, recent events brought them together online regularly.  The Yeastie Girlz have accomplished much in their life experiences over the past 35 year...

Many bands were formed out of friendships started at the club, and the Yeastie Girlz was one of them. The group’s initial lineup featured Cammie Toloui, Joyce Jimenez, and Jane Guskin. In December 1987, Kate (Rosenberger) Razo stepped in when Guskin left to travel to Central America.   Most bands in the Gilman scene were made up of young men, with a smattering of women. So, although one of the clu...

“We come together with this common caring of respect for animals and our planet,” states Sue Spahr, one of the founders of the Wishbone Animal Rights Lab in Toronto, which opened its doors at the end of March.  This episode features a conversation with Spahr about the lab’s role as a hub for animal rights activists, a lending library of equipment and information and a studio for making animal-posi...

This episode features a conversation with Kristin Crane, director of Social Research & Planning for United Way Perth Huron, about the living wage, which leapt over $3 from $17. 55 to $20.70 when the most recent calculation was announced in November 2022. The numbers used in this discussion are from the area in which this podcast is produced: Perth and Huron County.  Crane touches on universal...

Episode 16 features a conversation with Toronto comedian Bonez Poley, who learned their performance chops in the Ontario punk and metal music scenes before crossing over into stand-up.  Poley’s debut comedy album is set for release on May 30, and in the discussion, there are hints at several other surprises to be announced soon. Oh, and #FuckAirBNB. Support Wood-stein.ca by becoming a Patron. http...

In episode 15, Bruce Duncan Skeaff, the president and chair of the board at the Stratford Pride Community Centre, assesses how things have been going as it approaches the one-year mark since opening. He discusses what he had expected the role of the SPCC would have been for the local 2SLGBTQIA+ community and how it has been utilized as a resource to help people. Skeaff also promoted Stratford’s “b...