For this episode I interview Anne Marshall of Junia Matchmaking Services. COVID may mean social distancing, but does it HAVE to be the end of dating, or starting new relationships? Not necessarily! Today Anne uses her expertise in matchmaking, online dating, and social media to explore what new love can look like in the time of COVID

This interview was originally recorded on March 26th 2020

This episode features Monte Fenske, a local factory worker and co-parent of his eleven year old daughter. I met Monte through karaoke - he's been spending this past year branching out to expand his social circle, singing and performing comedy and improv. All of that has taken a pretty big shift at this point, but he's making it work.

This interview was originally recorded on March 26th 2020

In this episode of "Bridging the Social Distance" I interview my step-sister Caitlin , who lives in New York City. Caitlin is a publicist, working from home during this time, quarantined with her partner in Queens, one of the areas of the city hit the hardest by the COVID-19 outbreak. New York as described by Caitlin is so different than anything we've come to associate with the city - Every university asked for a full evacuation, meaning tens of thousands of young people have left the city. Many people who have homes elsewhere have left too. What's left is a New York full of almost exclusively people for whom it is their only home, and during this time that home is an intense and potentially dangerous place to stay. But despite the hard realities, we try to find some potential silver linings, imagining the shifts that may come when New Yorkers -folks used to spending every waking moment out on the town- spend quality time in their actual homes, slow down their schedules, and experience quiet where it is usually impossible.

This interview was originally recorded on March 31st, 2020

Today's new episode of Bridging the Social distance interviews psychotherapist Shane Smyth of Spacious Mind Counselling and Psychotherapy Centre. Shane is based out of Guelph, but during this interview I reached him in a small Cree community in Northern Quebec. We talk about the role and space for counselling and support in times of crisis, the process of trying to adapt to online for platforms for therapy, mindfulness, ADD, and lots of other interesting topics. Shane shares a quote, how we "can't remember the future", and don't yet know the full potential we have for caring for each other. While recognizing the heaviness of our current situation, we also explore the positive possibilities, including moving away from the patriarchy towards the feminist concept of the sharing of power.

This interview was originally recorded on March 25th 2020

This episode features Guelph's own Scott McGovern of Ed Video Media Arts Centre.  Scott and I catch up about what our respective organizations are hoping to do in terms of maintaining a platform for artists and community members during this time, and ponder what the future of art might look like: should we be fighting to retain the forms of art we love, or leaning into new possibilities? Where do we find the balance?

This interview was originally recorded on March 24th 2020

For this episode I interview Mervyn Horgan, an Associate Professor in the department of Sociology & Anthropology at the University of Guelph. If you think it would be interesting to talk to a sociologist about the potential outcomes of social-distancing, you would be right! We discuss what shared space looks like in a climate of quarantine, how social dynamics shift when we're universally impacted by a global crisis, and the importance of archiving our social histories.

This interview was originally recorded on March 24th 2020

For this episode I interview Nao O'Connor: The two of us originally met when CFRU tabled at the Tech and Trades event at G.C.V.I last year. Nao originally arrived to Guelph from Tokyo Japan as an international exchange student, intitially only planning to stay for that school year. But he fell in love with our city and now calls Guelph home, relocating - and releasing a brand new album with - his musical project Sober Sound Record, and studying at Mohawk College. College is now remote, his co-op placements in limbo, and Nao's choice is not an easy one: while he stays in touch with his family and friends back in Japan, he's aware that he can't return for the foreseeable future, or else he likely won't be allowed to come back to Canada. We talk about playing music, and why we love Guelph, and you'll get to hear the whole new album interspersed throughout the interview.

This interview was originally recorded on March 22nd 2020

This episode features Robert Dayton - an artist/comedian/performer also known as "The Canadian Romantic". Robert has been calling Los Angeles home for the past year, but had to make the difficult decision to suddenly return to Canada, for fear of otherwise being stranded in the US with no healthcare and no vehicle. For the first half of this episode my interview with Robert catches him on March 17th while he's still in L.A., hurriedly packing his bag, hoping to make it to the vet then the airport for a last-minute flight to Canada. The second half is an interview from March 20th, after Robert is safely settled and quarantined with his cat at his brother's house in Surrey B.C. This was a really difficult choice for Robert - having returned to Canada he's not sure if or when he'll be able to return to his life and home and friends in L.A. But had he stayed in the U.S. without healthcare or access to a vehicle, he may have seen the city shut down around him leaving him with very few resources.

This is a hard time financially for a lot of livelihoods, but not just because of COVID - part of what we talk about is how when it comes to working in the arts, and trying to afford to live in big cities, the hard times have been encroaching for awhile.

This interview was originally recorded on March 17th  and March 20th 2020

For this episode I interview musician, instructor, voice actress and artist Kat Burns, aka KASHKA over in Prince Edward County. Kashka, like many musicians, was immediately hit by this crisis in a myriad of ways. We talk about what support could look like, the ways we're trying to find security, and also lean into the fact that this really is really hard. The episode is also full of lots of Kat's amazing music.

This interview was originally recorded on March 18th 2020

Today's episode features an interview with Ana Sanfrutos Cano, an Art Curator who coordinates Hybrid - a Contemporary Art Festival in Madrid, Spain. Ana is in lockdown in out in the country, working remotely on future projects based around "Social Togetherness", wondering what these projects might look like on the other side of this pandemic. It was scary but important to hear reports of the reality of what is happening in Spain right now - hopefully it will help emphasize to us here that we need to do whatever we can to do to flatten the curve.

This interview was originally recorded on March 19th 2020