On today's episode we turn our attention down South to Venezuela! With the amount of attention that the country is getting from both the mainstream press and right wing groups we decided to get the Socialist perspective on the crisis that the country is facing. Joining us today is an activist based in Caracas who explains to us the Venezuelan situation.

An election in Ontario draws near! The polls are neck and neck between the Conservatives and the NDP. Is Doug Ford Canada's Trump? Would the NDP be able to fend off the challanges of free market capitalism? Should we put toddlers on power generating bicycles to solve both expensive daycare and unaffordable hydro rates in one fell swoop? Tune in now to find out.

Today we try something a little different with our first film review of Ready Player One! We compare the book (which was much better) to the film, the cyberpunk genre and how it relates to the post-Cold-War era of history, the inability of Hollywood to truly grasp the anti-capitalist nature of the novel as well as the slow trajectory of the Internet towards commercialisation and commodification.

Today we discuss the hot topic of freedom of speech. Do we give a platform to fascists? Does hate speech have a place? Is Ben a hypocrite for celebrating the takedown of The Daily Stormer while also celebrating the death of Antony Scalia? Tune in now to find out.

If you want to read Leigh's article about free speech that was mentioned in the episode here's a link:

https://ricochet.media/en/292/lost-in-translation-charlie-hebdo-free-speech-and-the-unilingual-left

Come to Victoria! A city just for you!

Music credit:

"Presenterator" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Today we have mental health & NDP activist Ryan on the show to talk about the work he does advocating for the rights and interests of those with mental health issues and needs. We also talk about the issues & challanges with the Canadian health care system in general and our proposed secret back-channel for doctors from Cuba to meet the burgeoning needs of health care in this country & the brain drain of doctors and nurses to the USA. Also, obligatory plug for Ryan's new podcast about mental health "The Weight".

What better way to enjoy the West Coast of Canada than reading verbatim a batshit insane hippie / conspiracy theory / "green left" newpaper? Welcome to Victoria and the Gulf islands. Enjoy a little piece of our home. Does anyone smell patchouli?

Totally normal and cool episode of the podcast.

Today we talk about neoliberalism and the NGO "industrial complex". Can charities enact real substantive change? Have NGO's just been co-opted by "the system" or can they actually make the world a better place? We discuss this with our guest Dakota, and also talk briefly about whether or not Jagmeet Singh can answer a yes or no question (spoiler: the answer is no).

So we started a little side project where we read articles from a hippie/conspiracy theorist newspaper called The New Agora. It's fun and irreverant and good.