In the qathet School District on B.C.’s north Sunshine Coast, a group of Indigenous high school students attend a special land-based learning program. They get many of their required subjects covered, while also learning traditional skills like hunting, fishing, and preparing community meals. Kathryn Marlow headed out on the water with the GIJE (Land) Program.

Over 10,000 people immigrated to Greater Victoria between 2016 to 2021. But why did they come here, over other Canadian regions? And what makes them stay - or move on to other cities? This is Vancouver Island host Kathryn Marlow speaks with two immigrants, Hostion Ho and Andrea McCoy (who also co-host a podcast about immigration called “Canadian Salad”).

Right now on Vancouver Island there are several projects underway to turn urban or industrial spaces back into natural places or parks. But what does it take to go from asphalt and buildings, to water and plants? In this episode, host Kathryn Marlow dives deep on one such project in the Comox Valley: Kus-kus-sum.

Things are tense at the council table in the tiny village of Sayward. It's not the first time things have gotten ugly in a small community's government, and it won't be the last - leaving one resident asking if the village council should disband. CBC reporter Justin McElroy walks us through what this could look like, and if it's something the people of Sayward even want.

Debut novelist Giselle Vriesen read fantasy books as an escape when she was a teen on Salt Spring Island, but she never saw her heritage reflected. Young adult fantasy is a popular book genre, but it’s often rooted in Greek, or other western mythologies. On this episode of This is Vancouver Island, she talks about building worlds based on mythology from her own Jamaican, Chinese, and European-Canadian backgrounds — and how she couldn’t help but include some rainforests and oceans too. Her first book, called Why We Play with Fire, is out now.