Changemakers Without Borders

In this new 4-part series, Professor Tarah Brookfield from Wilfred Laurier University joins Changemakers to talk about the history of the suffragist movement in Canada, and the leading men and women who made a difference in this field. This episode focuses on the first women who made the break act of casting their ballots, among interesting stories behind the issue of women's rights and how it affected every aspect of a woman's life in 19th century Canada.

Did you ever feel nervous on stage? How about off-stage, when you're in an interview, a debate with a friend, or an argument with your sibling? Bernie Roehl answers questions about improv, and teaching it for the past 30 years. So he knows a thing or two about getting people to let out their "inner actor", and release their self-criticisms. It turns out that improv doesn't only help us with our confidence, it can help familial relationships, romantic ones, and even when we're at work toiling through a tough day. Bernie co-founded Theatre on the Edge in Waterloo, Ontario, to teach people how to feel strong, and to believe in themselves and their capabilities.

Bernie Roehl talks about the possibilities VR holds in store for us, and what he's developing in the field while teaching at the University of Waterloo, Ontario. Roehl has designed one of the first curriculums on virtual reality for community college programs in Canada, and authored several books, among them, “Playing God: Creating Virtual Worlds”. His VR packages are used by VR enthusiasts until today. In Part 2, we talk about Theatre on the Edge, one of the first improv theatre institutions in South-Western Ontario, which Roehl co-founded in 1981, and what improv can do to improv our lives and strengthen our spirit.

What if you saw so much that the image of battle was burned underneath your eyelids? That with every minute in the night your mind is filled with the picture of ruin, of people strewn on the ground,  with their skin black, heads swollen like puss-balloons from atomic smoke? What would you do if someone said it wasn't real, that it was all a hoax, that the atomic bomb never existed? Those same people say that the holocaust never occurred, either. We will dig into the stories of survivors, and changemakers, who's skin was ripped and lives completely changed by two opposing forces: the Japanese, and the American.

We get into conversation with James Cunningham, co-founder of P.A.C.E (Penticton and Area Cooperative Enterprise), which provides workplace training and employment opportunities to those struggling with addictions and mental challenges, who are also often homeless or disabled. P.A.C.E trains them to be responsible adults who can not only start to piece their life back together, but make a difference in the community around them.

Why did Samuel Clemens published an endorsement for the society of supernatural research? Was Samuel a good father, and family man? Why did his wife wear only black for an entire year? Writers are usually recluses. But he was one of the best orators America had ever come to know, and one of the first to write anti-slavery literature.

Florence's parents were appalled when they heard that she wanted to be a nurse, considering her status, and the number of suitors that were just waiting to ask for her hand. What about revolutionizing nursing? Or inventing pie charts?

Rosalind Franklin risked her livelihood and health to discover the double-helix, and her research didn't stop there. In Part 2, we will get a glimpse of the rare female scientist in World War II era who became a changemaker in three different fields of science, and perhaps, a bit, about the little we know of the lonely scientist's love life.

What happens behind closed doors in prestigious university labs comes out slowly, in trails of information and bits of knowledge, or sometimes none at all, to the point where the wrong people will get awarded, and the right people may even die young, like what happened to one Rosalind Franklin. This is her story, of a young woman with ambition and talent, and her journey to discover the double helix, the structure of the DNA, and the deceit and intrigue that lurked in the background that wasn't discovered until much later. Some don't even know it until today.

What happens behind closed doors in prestigious university labs comes out slowly, in trails of information and bits of knowledge, or sometimes none at all, to the point where the wrong people will get awarded, and the right people may even die young, like what happened to one Rosalind Franklin. This is her story, of a young woman with ambition and talent, and her journey to discover the double helix, the structure of the DNA, and the deceit and intrigue that lurked in the background that wasn't discovered until much later. Some don't even know it until today.