Canadian journalism has been struggling for quite a while, with layoffs and local newspapers closing shop. Facebook’s reaction to the Online News Act and has added a layer of difficulty for independent news, who will lose a key platform for sharing their content. Can working together save independent journalism? On today’s episode we talked to Andre Goulet and Eric Wickham about their new initiative that brings together news from 20 independent, local, regional, and national media outlets from across Canada. Unrigged provides up-to-the-hour news from across the country, from organizations such as The Hoser, The Progress Report, The Breach, Ricochet, PressProgress and more.

The country is pretty divided on climate change and what to do about it. Can deep canvassing help to get people on board with decarbonization? Is deep canvassing the pixie dust necessary to bridge political divisions? How does it work, anyway? On today’s episode Kristen spoke with Montana Burgess, the Executive Director of Neighbours United, an organization based in interior BC that led the first complete deep canvassing program on climate anywhere in the world. Neighbours United is such a cool organization, and they are working to promote community engagement for climate action across Canada. Listen in on our conversation about what it’s like talking to people about climate change, and how deep canvassing can help to not only build consensus but also shows that we all have a lot more in common than we might think. 

With the shifting nature of work, downtowns in many cities are emptying out, leading to business closures and fears about a “transit death spiral”, all while it is becoming ever more difficult to find affordable housing. Is it time for bold thinking to transform our cities so they are greener and more inclusive than they were before? We talk to Patrick Esmonde-White, host of Canada Re-Imagined, a podcast that explores futuristic and utopian solutions to Canadian issues including poverty and climate change. Patrick has worked in a variety of industries including federal and municipal levels of government, oil, journalism, and broadcast radio.

Western governments say that they are working toward a net-zero future. But are those same governments propping up fossil fuel companies with billions of dollars in subsidies? And how can we change that? On today’s episode we talk to Katrina Miller, the Executive Director of Canadians for Tax Fairness about their new report, Taxes and the Path to a Green Economy, which is all about how the Canadian tax system continues to subsidize fossil fuel companies and how to change that. Katrina has worked for over twenty years to win environmental and social justice improvements at every level of government, collaborating with a wide array of labour, community, and academic experts, and helping organizations and individuals hone their skills and strategies.

As countries look to reach net-zero and to reduce their energy dependence on Russia, nuclear is having a moment. Nuclear energy is a non-emitting source of energy, but it also comes with some pretty big risks. Should countries be building new nuclear power plants? Or would this solution cause bigger problems? Environmentalists have been divided on nuclear energy for quite a while, and that debate is getting even more heated as the climate crisis becomes part of our everyday lives. On today’s Halloween episode we were joined by friend of the pod, climate activist, and recovering scientist Robert Miller to talk about the two spookiest things we could think of: climate change and nuclear winter.

It feels like everyone is struggling to get by. With poverty and inequality on the rise, is unconditional cash the ticket to a happier, healthier, more equal society? Universal basic income is gaining momentum around the world – including in Canada, where the Senate is currently considering Bill S-233, which would require the federal government to develop a national framework for implementing a guaranteed livable income. There are now dozens of UBI pilot projects underway in cities around the world. So, what does the evidence tell us about Universal Basic Income programs and their impact on people, communities, and the environment? We are joined by Sean Kline, the Director of Stanford University’s Basic Income Lab, to discuss UBI pilots in America and around the world.

This year of cascading disasters is a good reminder that climate change has arrived, and some impacts are here to stay even after we reach net-zero. Is climate repair an opportunity to get back to a place of relative safety for humanity? Or is it just another delay tactic? On today’s episode we dig into the debate on climate repair with Andrew Dana Hudson. Andrew is a sustainability researcher and a speculative fiction writer who has written a new book, Our Shared Storm, which imagines climate five possible realities of our climate future. Andrew explains what climate repair is and the role that these technologies like direct air capture can play even after we transition off of fossil fuels.

Sure, the rent is too damned high – but are we currently in a housing crisis? Or is the housing market working exactly as it was intended? On the first episode of our brand new season, we were joined by Ricardo Tranjan of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives to talk housing. Ricardo just wrote a fantastic new book called the Tenant Class, which makes the argument that tenants are an exploited class and calls for more tenant organizing as a solution.

We are living in a biodiversity crisis: 42,000 animal species are currently threatened with extinction, which is more than a quarter of all species that have been assessed for the International Union of Concerned Scientists’ Red List. But are zoos a solution? On today’s episode we talked to Dr. Albrecht Schulte-Hostedde, a Professor in the School of Natural Sciences at Laurentian University. Albrecht is an evolutionary ecologist who has worked with the Toronto Zoo, so we asked him all about his work with zoos and how accredited zoos work to promote conservation.