TELUS Talks with Tamara Taggart

The weeds in your garden have a fascinating personal history. Jessica J. Lee is challenging us to reframe our ideas of the natural world. As an environmental historian, she is an expert in exploring the entangled relationships between people and plants. We discuss Jessica's fascination with the language used to describe plant species, such as "invasive" and "native" and dive into her new book Dispersals: On Plants, Borders, and Belonging.

From ancient Greece to modern media, rhetoric has played a massive role in how we perceive reality. Robin Reames is a rhetorician, author and professor at Indiana University and she argues that understanding rhetorical techniques helps us avoid being manipulated by authority figures who don't have our best interests at heart. Robin discusses how we can decode rhetoric and talks about her new book The Ancient Art of Thinking For Yourself: The Power of Rhetoric in Polarized Times.

When Miranda Newman was growing up, her mother didn't know if Miranda needed 'a psychologist or an exorcist.' It took years for Miranda to be diagnosed with borderline personality disorder - an explanation for the complicated way she moved through the world. Miranda discusses her experiences navigating the Canadian mental healthcare system, her work breaking the stigma around her diagnosis and her new memoir Rough Magic: Living with Borderline Personality Disorder.

How can we get ourselves in the right headspace to lead? The importance of leaders having leadership skills can't be overstated. Dr. Diane McIntosh joins us to discuss the psychology of a successful leader, how to create a thriving work environment and her new co-authored book, You Belong Here: How to Make People Feel Safe to Be Their Best, Take Bold Risks, and Win.

For as long as Kate Manne can remember, she wanted to be smaller. Even as a feminist philosopher, she wasn't exempt from the cultural conditioning that drives so many of us to a negative body image. Kate draws on her research from her new book, Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia, to discuss what fatphobia is, how it works and why it's a vital social justice issue for everyone.

What started as a casual effort to increase disability awareness turned into a social media following of almost 100,000. Ashley Harris Whaley launched her 'Disability Reframed' Instagram account in 2020, and as her following grew, she also published her first children's book, I Am, You Are, to help children and adults have meaningful discussions about disability and ableism. Ashley discusses her grassroots activism, the importance of representation and her experience parenting with a disability.