This episode features Susie Stauffer - she is the Neighbourhood Support Worker at Onward Willow NG & Community Centre, part of the Guelph Neighbourhood Support Coalition. The work these organizations do ALL of the time is so important. Guelph is so lucky to be structured on this model, distributed clothing, food, as well as access to services. And it's realllllly difficult to continue in the wake of a pandemic - the needs ramp up, and so do the risks. Susie and I talk about what support could look like, about the incredible resilience we've witnessed within marginalized communities. 

This interview was originally recorded on March 17th 2020

Today's episode travels all the way to England, where I speak to Dom Stingas Paczko - Dom and I originally connected about eight years ago, through one of Dom's amazing projects: a music magazine and label called Choose My Music Records. Dom LOVES Guelph music and has given our little city an incredible platform over in England.

In England they have closed the schools for the remainder of the school year. In some ways, England isn't so different than Canada in terms of how they're approaching these things, same types of closures us at this point, and there are a lot of similar fears, too - at the time of our interview some folks were still gathering at pubs, and Dom suspects they're looking at a total lock down imminently.

This interview was originally recorded on March 18th 2020

Today's interview is with Barbara Salsberg Mathews, a local artist and performer, who is in Quarantine after having returned from a cruise to Cambodia and Vietnam. The cruise was organized over a year ago, and was meant to be eleven days - five days in and they were hurried home. It was interesting to hear the different ways other countries are dealing with this crisis - in some cases some of the smaller places are taking it even more seriously, aware of how devastated their health care systems would be by an outbreak.

Barb is keeping positive, despite it all, and is offering free online mime lessons each day to pass the time :) You can find her daily public posts on her facebook page.

This interview was originally recorded on March 17th 2020

For this episode I interview local-to-Guelph mom-in-tech, Ruth Morton. Ruth and her husband both work in tech and are able to continue working from home at this time, and and are sharing this space with their twin eleven year old boys. Between "Family Saturdays" online, Minecraft, and dog walks, they're making it work.

This interview was originally recorded on March 17th 2020

Photo credit: Chris Healey

This episode I speak with Crickett Wilder, who recently relocated from Guelph to Dawson City to work at the Dawson Women's Shelter. Crickett has wise words for folks who also experience anxiety ("Avoid survival websites!"), and made some neat observations about things helpful to learn right now, such as "What does six feet look like"? We also talked about how awesome it would be for us all to create an assets inventory. And how we should listen to Indigenous folks. It was an inspiring conversation! I hope you enjoy it!

This interview was originally recorded on March 16th 2020

This episode features Robin Cecelia Posluns, a local to Guelph Children's Entertainer. We talk about the immediate impacts this has had on her livelihood, the way in which this may permanently change the health practices involved in facepainting and Henna, the ripple affect of event cancelation, and our shared dreams of a universal basic income.

Robin can be found at https://www.facebook.com/kittyfacepainting

The interview was recorded on March 16th 2020

In this debut episode I interview Barry Rooke, the Executive Director of the NCRA - National Campus and Community Radio Association, in Ottawa ON. We talk about what's going on for Barry during this time, as well as the role of Campus and Community radio in the climate of a global pandemic. If you are interested in being interviewed for this show, please reach out to me at [email protected]

Interview Recorded March 17 2020