B-Side Stories

"Amazing Wellingtonians doing incredible things". B-Sides founder and Wellington City Councillor Laurie Foon talks about why she became a councillor, her vision for the city, and what the key decisions are facing us in the long term plan, in conversation with Patricia Given and Sadie Coe.

...And why is poo so central to all this?

Home Ground creates space for women in the justice system to pause, nurture hope, activate social change and create better lives for themselves and future generations.

On a Home Ground project, artists (inside and outside of prison) make creative works using dance, performance, photography, writing, painting and music to address the issues women and whānau face in the justice system.

Jacqui and Hazel came onto B-Side Stories to talk to Sadie Coe about the collective strength of women honouring the wisdom of their lived experience, and the power of creativity.

https://www.homegroundnz.com/

Photo credit: PM with support from Fraser Crichton

B-Side Stories is broadcast with help from NZ on Air.

Julia Marshall of Gecko Press is a children's book publisher and advocate for the magic of reading. She spoke with David about how it takes a village to make a book

https://geckopress.com

Helen and Trish talk to Perrine about Crip the Lit, a group of great local writers who identify as disabled.

Ben talks to Perrine about the work Unions Wellington do to support working people in Pōneke, the links between unions and activism, and how the union movement changes with the times

Housewitches by B-Side Stories

Laura interviews Lily Lewis from Make it 16 NZ - the incredible youth-led organisation advocating for a lower voting age in Aotearoa. They've taken their case all the way to the High Court of New Zealand.

Laura's full unedited conversation with Abe Gray about the history of the movement to legalise cannabis in Aotearoa. Abe is botanist, a science communicator and an activist, who has been fighting for nearly 20 years to make cannabis legal. Visit www.yeswecannabis.org.nz to join the calls for legalisation in 2020. Or if you need to read more, Abe recommends the Office of the Prime Minister's Chief Science Advisor: https://www.pmcsa.ac.nz/topics/cannabis/

There was going to be a School Strike 4 Climate march event in September, but new Covid-19 uncertainty has led to its cancellation. Laura spoke to The Wellington Regional Secretary for SS4C, Rhiannon Mackie, about why the climate movement is still so important and what it's like to be involved in SS4C.

Playcentre is a unique parent cooperative model of early childhood education created right here in Wellington, New Zealand, back in 1941. The kaupapa of Playcentre is "Whānau tupu ngātahi — Families growing together". 

Playcentre members Jesse Pirini and Kate Mitcalfe spoke to B-Sides host Sadie Coe about what it feels like to be part of a community of adults and children sharing learning alongside each other, and the joys and challenges of that shared commitment and input. 

We learned about how their Playcentre experience informs Jesse and Kate's adult lives, about the organisation's commitment to the Treaty of Waitangi, and, most of all, about the fundamental wellbeing that comes from the connections made at Playcentre.