People First Radio

Dr. Paula Cook and Dr. Darlene Petersen specialize in addiction medicine, and practice in different parts of Utah. They joined People First Radio and shared a number of topics, including systemic barriers to accessing treatment in the U.S., intersections between addiction and other determinants of health, and the role of trauma in substance use. Petersen […]

Culture journalist Mihika Agarwal shares insights from her recent reporting in The Walrus on AI companion bots, which mimic the experience of a close, sometimes even intimate relationship. “Think chat GPT, but it will pretend like it’s your lover or partner,” she said. Agarwal compares the situation to the 2013 film Her, in which a […]

Christine Korol, a Vancouver based psychologist, says it’s not uncommon for people to diagnose themselves with a mental health condition based on information they’ve seen online or on a social media platform. “It comes in waves,” she said. “A few years ago, Tourette’s seemed to be all the rage.” Korol says a few years ago, […]

Patricia, Beatriz, and Constanza Morén are three sisters living in Spain. They joined People First Radio to share memories of their father, who died last year. “He was the best father a daughter could have,” Constanza said. “My father worked as an industrial engineer in the civil service in Spain and made a very good […]

For the last five years, Calgary based clinical psychologist Jonathon Stea has been posting online to try and confront misinformation related to mental health. “I really started out on social media and just in more popular media, trying to debunk myths related to the nature of cannabis addiction,” he said. “Once I got to social […]

From getting help for his own mental health, to working to change the culture around mental health at his fraternity at UBC, to insights from his role as a community mental health worker supporting people with diagnoses like schizophrenia, Noah Battista shares his journey to becoming an advocate for mental health. Battista says he was […]

Heather McDonald and Shane Steinhauer were in attendance at Nanaimo’s event marking International Overdose Awareness Day on August 31, 2024. The Monday following the event, they spoke with People First Radio. The pair have worked together on a grass roots peer outreach initiative called Nightkeepers. McDonald said that in the week leading up to and […]

Speeches and stories from events held to mark International Overdose Awareness Day, August 31, 2024, in Nanaimo and Victoria. Amber McGrath urged people to lift others up and take action. “I know there’s been many times that I’ve sat on a sidewalk and cried for an hour and not one person said, ‘are you okay?'” […]

Author Bryce Andrews rowed his way up the Salish Sea from Seattle as he got to work on a future book exploring the area’s ecosystem. Along the way, he’s also encountered plenty of other folks on the water, and Andrews says he’s been struck by their kindness and manifest decency. “People are often just so […]

Mark DeVries of Parksville had spent decades visiting doctors and specialists for a variety of symptoms, including joint pains and daily headaches, which he says he was always told were normal. It was only recently that DeVreis, 57, received a diagnosis of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), a condition that affects connective tissue. “It was my nurse […]