Below the Radar

Al Etmanski interviews Victoria Maxwell, the Bipolar Princess. They discuss the role of art and creativity in the process of change, the dramatic increase in antidepressant prescriptions and the fact that depression is the number one source of disability in the world today. They also speak to the need for universal mental health care. Victoria explains why we need to shift from recovery as a possibility to recovery as an expectation. The episode ends with Victoria providing the answer to her most recent Psychology Today post, “Is there Love after the Psych Ward?"

“Recovery shouldn’t be a possibility. It should be an expectation.” – Victoria Maxwell

Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/the-power-of-disability/victoria-maxwell.html

Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/victoria-maxwell.html

ABOUT THE SERIES

The Power of Disability is a series of Below the Radar. Host Al Etmanski brings us enlightening conversations, featuring guests with disabilities who have been influential in arts, activism, science, and more. This series is a continuation of the work Al has shared in the book, The Power of Disability: 10 Lessons for Surviving, Thriving, and Changing the World, which reveals that people with disabilities are the invisible force that has shaped history.

Hear more in this series: https://www.sfu.ca/sfuwoodwards/community-engagement/Below-the-Radar/the-power-of-disability.html

RESOURCES

— Website and free newsletter: http://victoriamaxwell.com/

— Mental Health E-Guides (free and downloadable): http://victoriamaxwell.com/free-resources/

— “Crazy for Life: Escapades of a bipolar princess” via Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/crazy-life

Bio:

Victoria Maxwell, BFA, BPP* is a sought-after international (and funny) keynote speaker, performing artist and workshop leader. She uses her personal story of recovery from mental illness to increase awareness, transform negative beliefs and ignite powerful conversations about mental health.

Blending 30 years as an actor, and 15 as a wellness warrior, Victoria inspires people to take immediate action to improve their well-being. She was named one of Canada’s top leaders in Mental Health by the National Centre for Addiction and Mental Health centre (CAMH) and honoured with the National Difference Makers award.

Her plays, keynotes and other efforts have won or been nominated for over 14 awards. They include the Entertainment Industries Council PRISM Award, SAMHSA Voice Award, best foreign stage play at the Moondance International Film Festival, and one of Top Ten Entrepreneurs with Disabilities. She has blogged for Psychology Today for the past 12 years.

Cite this episode:

Chicago Style

Etmanski, Al. “The Power of Disability Part 1 — with Victoria Maxwell” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, April 22, 2021. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/the-power-of-disability/victoria-maxwell.html

SFU Mathematics professor Caroline Colijn joins host Am Johal to talk about the role of data modelling in the response to COVID-19. Caroline holds the Canada 150 Research Chair in Mathematics for Infection, Evolution and Public Health, and works at the intersection of mathematics and public health, with a particular focus on the spread and evolution of infectious diseases.

She has been working alongside colleagues since the beginning of the pandemic, using data to mathematically model the trajectory of COVID-19 and to inform public policy. In this interview, she gives a brief overview of how we’ve arrived at this point in the pandemic here in BC. They discuss the potential benefits of prioritizing high-contact workers in the rollout of vaccines, variants of concern in BC, and what data tells us about COVID-19 spread in the weeks and months to come.

Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/117-caroline-colijn.html

Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/117-caroline-colijn.html

Resources:

— Mathematics, Genomics And Prediction In Infection And Evolution (MAGPIE) research group: https://www.sfu.ca/magpie/home.html

— “SFU to lead new national infectious disease modeling network” - SFU News: http://www.sfu.ca/sfunews/stories/2021/04/sfu-to-lead-new-national-infectious-disease-modeling-network.html

— “B.C. could hit 3,000 new COVID-19 cases a day if contact trends don’t go down: health officials” - Global News: https://globalnews.ca/news/7760618/british-columbia-set-to-unveil-latest-covid-19-modelling-data-thursday-afternoon/

— “Modelling shows more work needed to stop COVID from overwhelming B.C. hospitals” - The Vancouver Sun: https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/modelling-shows-more-work-needed-to-stop-covid-from-overwhelming-b-c-hospitals

— “Is BC Ready for a COVID Wildfire?” - The Tyee: https://thetyee.ca/News/2021/04/09/BC-Ready-COVID-Wildfire/

— “How BC Fumbled the Third Wave” - The Tyee: https://thetyee.ca/News/2021/04/07/How-BC-Fumbled-Third-Wave/

— “Is it young people who need to focus on individual responsibility in B.C.'s pandemic, or is it John Horgan?” - CBC News: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-covid-march-circuit-lockdown-1.5969125

— “She Plots the Possible Arcs of the Pandemic” - The Tyee: https://thetyee.ca/News/2020/03/26/Pandemic-Plot-Arc/

Bio:

Caroline Colijn works at the interface of mathematics, evolution, infection and public health. She joined SFU's Mathematics Department in 2018 as a Canada 150 Research Chair in Mathematics for Infection, Evolution and Public Health. She did her PhD in applied mathematics at the University of Waterloo, where she studied the foundations of quantum mechanics. She changed tack in her postdoctoral years, working on mathematical modelling with Prof. Michael Mackey at McGill and on TB modelling and epidemiology in Megan Murray's group at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Broad Institute at MIT. She moved to the Department of Engineering Mathematics in Bristol, England in 2007 and joined Imperial College London's Department of Mathematics in 2011. She has broad interests in applications of mathematics to questions in evolution and public health, and was a founding member of Imperial's Centre for the Mathematics of Precision Healthcare.

Cite this episode:

Chicago Style

Johal, Am. “Charting the Pandemic with Data Modelling — with Caroline Colijn.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, April 20, 2021. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/117-caroline-colijn.html.

Longtime community organizer and social entrepreneur Al Etmanski talks to Am Johal about where the movement for disability justice is headed — with lived experience leading the way. Al speaks to the urgent need for a basic income for people with disabilities, and how to build up a grassroots political movement to advance social change.

Al Etmanski is also the host of an upcoming series of Below the Radar, called The Power of Disability. The series will highlight six incredible changemakers with disabilities who are also powerful advocates in the disability community. Al and Am discuss the origins of the series and the importance of shining a light on the often overlooked contributions of people with disabilities.

Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/116-al-etmanski.html

Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/116-al-etmanski.html

Resources:

— Al Etmanski’s website: https://aletmanski.com/

— The Power of Disability: 10 Lessons for Surviving, Thriving, and Changing the World by Al Etmanski: https://aletmanski.com/books/#powerofdisability

— The Power of Disability Digest: https://aletmanski.com/disability-digest/

— Ashoka Fellow profile: https://ashokacanada.org/fellow/al-etmanski/

— Ashoka Canada: https://ashokacanada.org/

Bio:

Al Etmanski is a community organizer, social entrepreneur, and author. He’s been a parent activist in the disability world since his daughter Liz was born. He led the closure of institutions and segregated schools in British Columbia, and founded Canada’s first Family Support Institute. In 1989 he co-founded Planned Lifetime Advocacy Network (PLAN) with his wife Vickie Cammack. While at PLAN he lobbied into existence the world’s first Disability Savings Plan. Al is a global Ashoka fellow and a member of John McKnight’s Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) network. He has received many awards for his activism including the Order of Canada and the Big Picture award from his peers in the disability movement.

Cite this episode:

Chicago Style

Johal, Am. “Field Notes from the Disability Justice Movement — with Al Etmanski.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, April 15, 2021. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/116-al-etmanski.html.

Barbara Steenbergen from the International Union of Tenants, European Union office, joins Am Johal on this episode of Below the Radar. Together they discuss the role of the tenant unions in Europe as well as their advances in housing policies and protecting tenant rights.

Barbara talks about the European housing context, and how tenant social movements in Europe led to the establishment of tenant unions. She discusses successful progressive housing policies in Berlin, Vienna, and the Scandinavian model for public housing, as well as some of the progress being made in countries that have an extremely high home ownership rate, like Spain and Portugal.

Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/115-barbara-steenbergen.html

Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/115-barbara-steenbergen.html

— International Union of Tenants: https://www.iut.nu/about-iut/

— Berlin’s Tenants Association (Berliner Mieterverein): https://www.berliner-mieterverein.de/sprachen/englisch.htm

— UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing: http://unhousingrapp.org/

— International Social Housing Festival - Helsinki June 2022: https://socialhousingfestival.eu/#:~:text=The%202022%20edition%20of%20International,now%20and%20in%20the%20future.

Bio:

Barbara has been committed to tenant protection for more than 19 years, starting in 2001 as head of the presidential office of the German Tenants' Union in Berlin and as political coordinator for energy policy and international affairs.

Since 2013 she has been a member of the Executive Board of the International Union of Tenants. She is responsible for the political relations and representation of the interests of the European tenant associations towards the EU Commission, the EU Parliament and the EU Council. She is a German citizen and holds a master's degree in political science from the University of Bonn, Germany and a bachelor in public administration.

Cite this episode:

Chicago Style

Johal, Am. “Building Tenant Power — with Barbara Steenbergen.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, April 14, 2021. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/115-barbara-steenbergen.html.

Am Johal is joined by Ethọ́s Lab founder Anthonia Ogundele on this episode of Below the Radar. Anthonia shares about her career in emergency management and sustainability and the origins of Ethọ́s Lab. Anthonia also discusses the inequalities of the education system with respect to STEAM and innovation programs, and the importance of centering the Black experience when creating spaces for youth.

Ethọ́s Lab is a non-profit social enterprise that is developing an online collaborative platform and creative co-working spaces for youth ages 13-18 that foster the exploration of culture and STEAM.

Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/114-anthonia-ogundele.html

Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/114-anthonia-ogundele.html

Resources

— Ethos Lab: https://www.ethoslab.space/

— Solid State: https://solidstate.coop/

— Building Atlanthos: Shifting from Consumers to Creators – Black Youth in the Fourth Place: https://urbanarium.org/building-atlanthos-shifting-consumers-creators-%E2%80%93-black-youth-fourth-place

— ‘The Cheeky Proletariat’ Is for the People: https://thetyee.ca/Culture/2019/04/08/Cheeky-Proletariat-People/

Bio:

As a trained planner and resilience professional, Anthonia Ogundele has a passion for cities and engaging communities.

She was a member of the North East False Creek Stewardship Committee, igniting the re-imaging on Hogan’s Alley. In 2016 she turned a storefront facing closet into the Cheeky Proletariat, located on Carrall street, which is an accessible and inclusive space for the free expression of all people.

She recently left her role at Vancity Credit Union, as the Manager of Environmental Sustainability, Business Continuity and Emergency Planning to become the Founder of the Ethọ́s Lab, a non-profit social enterprise leveraging the cooperative model to develop an online collaborative platform and creative co-working spaces for youth ages 12-18, that foster Culture and STEM focused Exploration.

Through Ethọ́s Lab she is hoping to inspire a legacy of Black leadership as well as answer the question: "What might place/Space making look like when you centre the Humanity of the Black experience?"

Cite this episode:

Chicago Style

Johal, Am. “Designing Equitable Spaces — with Anthonia Ogundele.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, April 7, 2021. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/114-anthonia-ogundele.html.

Below the Radar invites Harsha Walia to discuss migrant justice, movement practices, and the underlying forces that govern oppressive border practices on a global scale. She is in conversation with host Am Johal about her recently released book, Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism (Fernwood Publishing, 2021).

In this episode, they discuss Harsha’s interrogation of border imperialism and the violence enacted through borders. Am asks Harsha about how her organizing background around race and migration informs her writing. She speaks to a nuanced framework for thinking about borders and migrant justice globally, connecting issues of populist nationalism, racial capitalism, migrant workers, deportations and detentions, eco-fascism, the technology of border enforcement, and more.

Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/113-harsha-walia.html

Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/113-harsha-walia.html

Resources:

— Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism (Fernwood Publishing, 2021) by Harsha Walia: https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/border-and-rule

— Undoing Border Imperialism (AK Press, 2013) by Harsha Walia: https://www.akpress.org/undoing-border-imperialism.html

— No One Is Illegal: https://noii-van.resist.ca/

— BC Civil Liberties Association: https://bccla.org/

Bio:

Harsha Walia is a South Asian activist and writer based in Vancouver, unceded Coast Salish Territories. She has been involved in community-based grassroots migrant justice, feminist, anti-racist, Indigenous solidarity, anti-capitalist, Palestinian liberation, and anti-imperialist movements, including No One is Illegal and Women’s Memorial March Committee. She is formally trained in law, and has worked with women in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. She is the author of Undoing Border Imperialism (2013) and Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism and the Rise of Racist Nationalism. She currently works as Executive Director of the BC Civil Liberties Association.

Cite this episode:

Chicago Style

Johal, Am. “Border and Rule — with Harsha Walia.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, March 30, 2021. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/113-harsha-walia.html.

Below the Radar has partnered with the Or Galley to bring you recordings of the Gas Imaginary Conversations series. This is the second of two talks from The Gas Imaginary, presented by the Or Gallery. This event was recorded virtually on Dec. 5, 2020.

In this panel, Rachel O’Reilly, Tania Willard and Kanahus Manuel—with moderation by Denise Ryner—discuss the ongoing challenges of asserting land rights and the protection of water from each of their respective contexts. The speakers address the role of artistic practices and visual culture in making such struggles resonate with communities, both at home and across distance.

Tania Willard, Secwepemc Nation, works as an artist and curator within the shifting ideas of contemporary and traditional as it relates to cultural arts and production. She often engages bodies of knowledge and skills that are conceptually linked to her interest in intersections between Aboriginal and other cultures. Her curatorial work includes Beat Nation: Art Hip Hop and Aboriginal Culture (http://www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/the_exhibitions/exhibit_beat_nation.html), a national touring exhibition first presented at Vancouver Art Gallery in 2011 as well as residencies at grunt gallery and Kamloops Art Gallery. She is currently assistant professor in Creative Studies at University of British Columbia Okanagan (Kelowna BC). She also founded and operates BUSH gallery, a conceptual space for land-based art and action led by Indigenous artists.

Kanahus Manuel belongs to the Secwepemc Nation and founded the Tiny House Warrior movement as part of her ongoing work as an Indigenous water and land defender. She is also a member of the Secwepemc Women’s Warrior Society. Her family has led the struggle for rights and sovereignty in Secwepemcul’ecw (territory of the Secwepemc people) for generations. Her late father Arthur Manuel, a former Secwepemc chief and residential school survivor, was an author and global champion for Indigenous rights and title in Canada and abroad. Her late grandfather George Manuel was the second president of the National Indian Brotherhood (now the Assembly of First Nations) and founding president of the World Council of Indigenous Peoples.

The Tiny House Warriors: Our Land Is Home Is A Part Of A Mission To Stop The Trans Mountain Pipeline From Crossing Unceded Secwepemc Territory In British Columbia. Ten Tiny Houses Will Be Built And Placed Strategically Along The 518 Km Trans Mountain Pipeline Route To Assert Secwepemc Law And Jurisdiction And Block Access To This Pipeline.

Donate to Tiny House Warriors: https://www.classy.org/give/267006/#!/donation/checkout

Seed is Australia’s first Indigenous youth climate network. The organisation is building a movement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people for climate justice with the Australian Youth Climate Coalition. Their vision is for a just and sustainable future with strong cultures and communities, powered by renewable energy.

Donate to Seed Mob: https://www.seedmob.org.au/donate

Watch the video recording of this conversation here (CC included in video): https://thegasimaginary.orgalleryprojects.org/talks/

Listen to the Gas Imaginary Conversations No. 1: https://soundcloud.com/sfuw-community-engagement/gas-imaginary-1

About The Gas Imaginary:

A multi-disciplinary project using poetry, collaborative drawings, installation, moving images, and lectures to unpack the broader significance of ‘settler conceptualism’, the racial logic of the property form and fossil fuel-based labour politics as capital reaches the limits of land use. In ongoing dialogue with elders of Gooreng Gooreng country and settler women activists, where fracking was approved for mass installation in ‘Australia’, new elements of this work address the threatened destruction to 50% of the Northern Territory.

Read more: https://thegasimaginary.orgalleryprojects.org/

Image: Rachel O'Reilly, INFRACTIONS, 2019, acrylic paint and marker. Photo: Dennis Ha.

Claire Williams speaks to the potential of direct cash transfers to help lift people out of poverty. A co-founder and CEO of Foundations for Social Change, Claire joins Am Johal on Below the Radar to share results from the New Leaf Project, a pilot initiative exploring the impact of direct cash transfers on the lives of people experiencing homelessness in Vancouver.

Claire and Am talk about issues of stigma around mistrust in financial assistance programs, as well as reducing the barriers and bureaucracy that people meet with when trying to connect with aid and resources. Claire also shared some learnings from the project and participant feedback that will inform their expansion efforts, with the hope that the project’s continued success will model how direct giving could be practically implemented in policy.

Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/112-claire-williams.html

Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/112-claire-williams.html

Resources:

— Foundations for Social Change: https://forsocialchange.org/

— New Leaf Project: https://forsocialchange.org/new-leaf-project-overview

— TEDxTalk by Rutger Bregman: Poverty isn’t a lack of character; it’s a lack of cash: https://www.ted.com/talks/rutger_bregman_poverty_isn_t_a_lack_of_character_it_s_a_lack_of_cash?language=en

Bio:

Claire Elizabeth Williams is the Co-Founder and CEO of Foundations for Social Change (FSC), a charitable organization whose mission is to advance social change through evidence-based research and innovation.

She is the driving force behind the New Leaf Project, North America’s first direct-giving pilot with people experiencing homelessness, which has made an impact on the global stage.

Inspired to be a positive force for change, Claire is dedicated to cultivating compassionate communities and advancing new models of leadership. In 2021 she was named one of the Top 25 Women of Influence™, an award that recognizes the extraordinary accomplishments of Canada’s diverse women role models. In 2020, Claire was placed on the 21 Founders to Watch list prepared by “The Future of Good” – Canada’s leading digital publication covering the world of social impact.

Prior to Foundations for Social Change, Claire worked as an environmental consultant where she had the opportunity to collaborate with Indigenous Peoples, the private sector companies, and government to promote environmental protection, corporate responsibility and sustainable land-use. During this time, she honed her skills in relationship building, strategic planning and project management. Claire holds a BA (High Distinction) in Environmental Studies and Economics from Carleton University and Master of Planning with Distinction from Dalhousie University.

Cite this episode:

Chicago Style

Johal, Am. “Poverty Reduction Through Cash Transfers — with Claire Williams.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, March 23, 2021. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/112-claire-williams.html.

On this episode of Below the Radar, Am Johal is joined by Roxanne Panchasi from SFU’s History Department and Brit Bachmann from UNIT/PITT. Together they discuss their latest collaboration, La Commune 2021, a free online school commemorating the 150 anniversary of the Paris Commune.

Roxanne and Brit share how the idea of La Commune 2021 came about. They talk about the historical importance of the Paris Commune, how it has resonated in other historical periods, and its relevance in particular in this moment of history.

Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/111-roxanne-panchasi-brit-bachmann.html

Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/111-roxanne-panchasi-brit-bachmann.html

Resources:

— La Commune 2021: https://www.unitpitt.ca/la-commune/

— UNIT/PITT: https://www.unitpitt.ca/

— New Books in French Studies podcast by Roxanne Panchasi: https://roxannepanchasi.com/portfolio/new-books-in-french-studies/

— The Anarchist Library: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/search?query=paris+commune

— Documents of the Paris Commune: https://www.marxists.org/history/france/paris-commune/documents/index.htm

— Club Atomique upcoming book from Roxanne Panchasi: https://roxannepanchasi.com/home-2/club-atomique/

Bio:

Roxanne is an Associate Professor of History at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada who specializes in the twentieth and twenty-first century France, and the French empire, and its legacies. Her first book, Future Tense: The Culture of Anticipation in France Between the Wars was published by Cornell University Press in 2009. She has written on a range of subjects including: nineteenth-century graphology, prosthetics, the Paris Commune, experimental film, and the teaching of History. Her current book project focuses on the cultural politics of French nuclear weapons and testing in the Algerian Sahara. In it, she examines military, scientific, diplomatic, literary, audio-visual, testimonial, and memorial sources as a broad archive of the”French” bomb in empire. Her most recent article, ‘“No Hiroshima in Africa”: The Algerian War and the Question of French Nuclear Tests in the Sahara’ appeared in the Spring 2019 issue of History Present. In 2013, Dr. Panchasi launched New Books in French Studies, a podcast channel featuring discussions with scholars of France and the Francophone world about their latest books that she hosts on the New Books Network.

Brit Bachmann is a multidisciplinary artist who writes, draws, and throws clay in Vancouver, Canada, on unceded land belonging to the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. She is the Executive Director of UNIT/PITT Society for Art & Critical Awareness, and co-founder of ReIssue with Casey Wei. Brit has previously worked in administration and outreach at VIVO Media Arts Centre, Capture Photography Festival, The Cinematheque; and notably, as Editor-In-Chief of Discorder Magazine (2015-18). She has served on the programming committee of CFRO Vancouver Co-op Radio (2015-18), and the Polaris Music Prize jury (2016-19). Brit is a member of the Board of Directors of VIVO Media Arts Centre, and the Pacific Association of Artist Run Centres (PAARC). She has a Bachelor of Fine Art from the University of British Columbia–Okanagan.

Cite this episode:

Chicago Style

Johal, Am. “La Commune 2021 — with Roxanne Panchasi and Brit Bachmann.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, March 22, 2021. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/111-roxanne-panchasi-brit-bachmann.html.

With the onset of the pandemic came a pressing need to bring health science information to the public, and fast. SFU researcher Alice Fleerackers joins Below the Radar to discuss the uptake of pre-print, or un-peer reviewed research by news media in the age of COVID-19. She speaks to host Melissa Roach about a recent study she has co-authored that analyzes how media communicate uncertainty in COVID-19 research.

Alice is a freelance writer and researcher specializing in online science communication. Currently, she is a researcher at ScholCommLab, the Research Officer at Art the Science, and a Science in Society Editor at Science Borealis. She is also a PhD student at SFU, where she is exploring how uncertain health science is communicated online.

In this episode, we discuss the advantages and drawbacks of reporting on unpublished health research; issues of public trust in journalism and science; and how researchers, communicators, and consumers of health science media can each navigate these complexities, even as the ground shifts beneath our feet.

Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/110-alice-fleerackers.html

Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/110-alice-fleerackers.html

Resources:

— STUDY: “Communicating Scientific Uncertainty in an Age of COVID-19: An Investigation into the Use of Preprints by Digital Media Outlets” - Health Communication: https://www.scholcommlab.ca/wp-content/plugins/zotpress/lib/request/request.dl.php?api_user_id=1298012&dlkey=Q2PLARSL&content_type=application/pdf

— Scholarly Communications Lab: http://scholcommlab.ca/

— ASAPbio Preprints FAQ page: https://asapbio.org/preprint-info/preprint-faq

— #PreprintsInThePublicEye event [Video]: https://youtu.be/tTXFwYzLPwc

— “Problems with Preprints: Covering Rough-Draft Manuscripts Responsibly” - The Open Notebook: https://www.theopennotebook.com/2020/06/01/problems-with-preprints-covering-rough-draft-manuscripts-responsibly/

Press Coverage:

— “In the rush for coronavirus information, unreviewed scientific papers are being publicized” - The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/in-the-rush-for-coronavirus-information-unreviewed-scientific-papers-are-being-publicized-152912

— “News media outlets vary widely in how they cover preprint studies, new research finds” - The Journalist’s Resource (includes other helpful resources): https://journalistsresource.org/studies/society/news-media/how-media-cover-preprint-studies/

— “Media outlets inconsistently mention uncertain status of COVID-19 preprints” - Science: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/01/media-outlets-inconsistently-mention-uncertain-status-covid-19-preprints

Bio:

Alice Fleerackers is a freelance writer, a researcher at the ScholCommLab, the Communications Officer at Art the Science, and a Science in Society Editor at Science Borealis.

As a doctoral student at Simon Fraser University, she is working under the supervision of Dr. Juan Pablo Alperin to explore how controversial science is communicated in the digital sphere.

With degrees in psychology and publishing, Alice is passionate about bringing research into everyday life. As a professional communicator and researcher, she’s had the pleasure of interviewing psychologists, scientists, and many others on everything from the psychology of cat video addiction to the science behind astrological belief. She’s also worked as a magazine editor, a newspaper writer, and a book publicist, and has contributed to outlets such as the Globe and Mail, Nautilus, and more.

Cite this episode:

Chicago Style

Roach, Melissa. “Communicating Scientific Uncertainty About COVID-19 — with Alice Fleerackers.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio,March 16, 2021. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/110-alice-fleerackers.html.