What on Earth is Going on?

Yan Lianke is one of China's most influential living writers. His often-satirical works have earned him an international readership. He has been touted for the Nobel Prize in Literature. And yet, most of Yan's books are effectively (if not formally) banned in China.

Ben brings together three previous guests (Tricia Baldwin, Elizabeth Goodyear-Grant and Daniel Woolf) to discuss the rise of China, the absurdity of modern life, and what government power will look like in the future. Their point of departure is a 2018 profile of Yan Lianke in The New Yorker magazine.

Note: you don't need to read anything before listening to the conversation; the below piece is a starting point only.

Read the article in The New Yorker by Jiayang Fan.

Read the blog post for this episode.

About Yan Lianke

Yan Lianke has secured his place as contemporary China's most essential and daring novelist, "with his superlative gifts for storytelling and penetrating eye for truth" (New York Times Book Review). His newest novel, The Day the Sun Died—winner of the Dream of the Red Chamber Award, one of the most prestigious honours for Chinese-language novels—is a haunting story of a town caught in a waking nightmare.

Yan was born in an impoverished region of Song County, Henan Province in 1958. His parents, illiterate farmers who lacked the means to send him to university, encouraged him to enlist in the army, where he rose in the ranks to become a propaganda writer. Upon returning to civilian life, Yan embarked on a career as a novelist. Over the last 30 years, he has produced an extensive body of work that ranges from novels, novellas and short fiction to essays and criticism. Although he has had two of his novels banned in China and was, for a period of three years, prohibited from obtaining a passport or travelling abroad, Yan continues to speak honestly about the impact that government censorship—and self-censorship—have had on contemporary Chinese writers.

His full-length novels include: The Dream of Ding Village (丁庄梦, Ding Zhuang Meng), a tale of the blood trade and subsequent AIDS epidemic in a rural Henan village; The Joy of Living (Alt title: The Living, 受活, Shou Huo), a sweeping tale of the lives of disabled rural villagers from the Chinese Communist revolution through the years of reform and opening; The Sunlit Years (日光流年, Riguang Liunian); Solidity of Water (also called Hard as Water, 坚硬如水, Jianying Ru Shui) and Serve the People (为人民服务, Wei Renmin Fuwu), which was banned in China and later translated into English, French and Japanese.

He has published ten collections of novellas and short stories: among them, the critically acclaimed Days, Months, Years (年月日, Nian Yue Ri), Song of Balou (耙耧天歌, Balou Tiange) and a five-volume set of his collected works. He is a member of the Chinese Writers' Association and the recipient of numerous literary awards, including the first and second Lu Xun Literary Prizes and the Lao She Award for literary excellence, awarded in recognition of his novel The Joy of Living (受活, Shou Huo), considered by many to be his master work. Yan is also a winner of the Franz Kafka Prize.

About the Guests

Tricia Baldwin

Listen to Ben's previous podcast conversation with Tricia (Episode 12 on The Role the Arts Play)

Tricia Baldwin became the Director of the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts ('the Isabel') in December 2014, and works with a tremendously talented team at the Isabel. Tricia is responsible for its programming featuring top diverse emerging and established artists, education, student and community engagement resulting in significant increase in audience participation, socially engaged art, and facilities management. She established the Isabel as an arts incubator for new works, the Ka'tarohkwi Festival of Indigenous Arts with curator Dylan Robinson, the Isabel Human Rights Arts Festival, and the Isabel Overton Bader Canadian Violin Competition. Tricia is the co-creator of Queen's University's new M.A. in Arts Leadership program with Queen's Dan School of Drama and Music, and is the course developer and instructor of the program's Contract Negotiations in the Arts graduate course. A champion of training the next generation of arts leaders, Tricia has been a mentor with the Canadian Heritage Talent to Lead Program and the Cultural Career Council of Ontario Mentor Program. Tricia recently served on the International Association of Venue Managers Association conference panel on arts management education.

Prior to the Isabel, Tricia Baldwin was the Managing Director of Tafelmusik from 2000 to 2014. During this period, Tafelmusik doubled its operating revenues and increased its endowment seventeen fold. The orchestra undertook over 50 national and international tours, created 20 recordings and films that garnered significant industry awards and nominations that led to the launching of its recording label and digital concert hall, established artist training programs attracting pre-professional musicians from around the world, and undertook a successful $3M venue renovation. Tricia also headed up Tafelmusik's expansion of venues within Toronto that contributed to the doubling of earned revenues and significant audience development. Prior to Tafelmusik, she was the Executive Director of Ballet British Columbia and General Manager of the Kingston Symphony. Tricia received her Bachelor of Music (University of Toronto) and her MBA (York University), and has continued her education with courses from Harvard Business School, University of Oxford School of Continuing Studies, the Harvard Kennedy School, and Boston University.

Tricia Baldwin has been awarded the Canada Council for the Arts' John Hobday Award in Arts Management, a scholarship to attend Harvard University's Strategic Perspectives in Non-Profit Management program, First Prize for Student Philosophy Essay from the University of Oxford School of Continuing Studies, and the Queen's Human Rights Initiative Award. As a volunteer, she currently serves on the Advisory Board of the York University Schulich School of Business Arts, Media, and Entertainment Management program, the City of Kingston Arts Advisory Board and Professional Development Working Group, and St. Lawrence College Music and Digital Media Program Advisory Committee. She has been a panel advisor/juror/assessor for the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Manitoba Arts Council, City of Toronto Cultural Services, City of Barrie Department of Culture, and the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Learn more about Tricia.

Elizabeth Goodyear-Grant

Listen to Ben's previous podcast conversation with Elizabeth (Episode 37 on US Politics: Women, Polarization and the Media)

Elizabeth Goodyear-Grant (Ph.D. McGill) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Studies at Queen's University, and the Director of both the Queen's Institute of Intergovernmental Relations (IIGR) as well as the Canadian Opinion Research Archive (CORA). Her research focuses on Canadian and comparative politics, with particular interests in electoral politics, voting behaviour, and public opinion; news media; and the political representation of women. She is the author of Gendered News: Media Coverage and Electoral Politics in Canada (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2013), which won the 2016 Pierre Savard Award from the International Council of Canadian Studies, and was one of three books shortlisted for the Canadian Political Science Association's 2014 Donald Smiley Prize.

In Gendered News, Goodyear-Grant presents compelling evidence that gender structures certain aspects of news coverage of candidates and politicians – not how much they're covered, but certainly how they're covered – and demonstrates that these differences can impact negatively on female candidates' and leaders' electoral prospects and political careers, contributing to the persistent under-representation of women at all levels of politics. Goodyear-Grant has also published work on attitudes toward democracy and political representation, attitudes toward the use of referenda, and so on, all part of a larger research agenda that concentrates on representation and political behaviour published in venues such as Political Behaviour, Politics & Gender, Electoral Studies, Commonwealth & Comparative Politics, and the Canadian Journal of Political Science.

In the Department of Political Studies at Queen's, Goodyear-Grant teaches courses on campaigns and elections; women, gender, and politics; Canadian politics more generally; and empirical methods.

Learn more about Elizabeth Goodyear-Grant or follow her on Twitter (@eplusgg).

Daniel Woolf

Listen to Ben's previous podcast conversation with Daniel (Episode 10 on History and Jazz)

Daniel Robert Woolf is the 20th Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Queen's University, a role he stepped into on September 1, 2009.

It wasn't his first time on the campus, of course: Principal Woolf studied at Queen's as an undergraduate in the late 1970s, graduating with a degree in history in 1980.

After earning his doctorate at Oxford University (DPhil'83), Dr. Woolf returned to Queen's in 1984 as a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) postdoctoral fellow in history.

His teaching career took him from Queen's to Bishop's University, before he joined the history department at Dalhousie University in 1987. Seven years later, he became a full professor, then associate dean and later, the acting dean of Graduate Studies. In 1999, Dr. Woolf moved to McMaster University, where he held the role of dean of the Faculty of Humanities. He joined the University of Alberta as dean of Arts in 2002.

Dr. Woolf, who is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, the Royal Society of Canada and the Royal Historical Society, admits that learning he would become the principal of his alma mater initially inspired feelings of "shock, elation, and a little bit of fear," and he continues to regard his role as both an honour and a challenge.

A specialist in early modern British cultural history and the history of historical thought and writing, Dr. Woolf continues to teach at Queen's on a part-time basis as a professor in the Department of History, and also pursues his own research and writing. He is the author or editor of a number of scholarly articles, monographs and books, including the five-volume Oxford History of Historical Writing (2011-2012) and a textbook on historiography entitled A Global History of History (Cambridge University Press, 2011), which has been translated into several languages.

But Principal Woolf isn't just about books (though he does have a growing collection of old and rare ones!) – he is also a fan of music (especially jazz), classic movies and is the father of three (one of whom is also a Queen's graduate).

Born in London, England, Dr. Woolf grew up in Winnipeg. A love of academia runs in his family: his mother taught English at university, his physician father was a member of a medical school faculty, and his uncle is a historian of modern Europe.

Dr. Woolf, who began his second term as principal in 2014, is motivated by Queen's students and by their dedication to making a difference in the world. While the university is a bigger place than it was when he was a student, it is also more research-intensive and has a more diverse student body.

Since taking the helm, Dr. Woolf has built new connections with government, industry and institutions across Canada, led Queen's through an extensive series of planning exercises, established the Principal's Commission on Mental Health, and overseen the Initiative Campaign, the most ambitious fundraising campaign in Queen's history.

Principal Woolf's term concludes on June 30, 2019.

What is the optimal emotional state of eSports players to increase their win rate? Can the range of emotions displayed in movies determine which are most likely to win an Oscar? And when should Bradley Cooper cry in such a movie to produce the greatest effect?

These are just some of the questions that artificial intelligence (AI) is solving. Ben's guest Jeff Lui is at the forefront of the field. Formerly a Global People and AI Designer at Google, Jeff is now the Director of AI for Deloitte in Toronto.

Read the blog post for this episode.

About the Guest

Jeff Lui is currently a director of artificial intelligence in Deloitte's Applied Innovations Practice. His current role has Jeff spearheading Deloitte's EmotionPlus Platform, which uses machine learning to predict emotions and sentiment, and determine predictive recommendations based on data science. He also helps companies with their transformational AI journey, particularly at the intersection of IQ and EQ. Prior to Deloitte, Jeff spent 4 years working at Google on their People & AI Team, both in Toronto and at GooglePlex in Mountain View, where he helped Google transform from a traditional tech organization into one that is now fully driven by data science.

Jeff is currently a PhD Student at Queen's University, focusing on AI and Ethics. He is also a CPA, has an MBA from the Schulich School of Business and holds an undergraduate degree in Finance and Computer Science from the University of Western Ontario. In his spare time, Jeff continues to code and experiment with machine learning models, while driving research on how organizations can optimize for happiness.

Learn more about Jeff Lui or follow him on Twitter (@jefflui).

If there is one industry that exemplifies the extraordinary disruption and change we have undergone over the past couple decades, it might just be the news. The way we produce, deliver and receive the news is changing fast, and social media is just one of many forces that upends this cornerstone of democracy. How can journalists and newsmakers compete?

Joining Ben is Jessica Vomiero, National Online Journalist for Global News, who is also studying "media disruption" at Ryerson University in Toronto.

Read the blog post for this episode.

Sources and Links

Here are a few sources mentioned in this conversation:

JSource: J-Source/ProjetJ is a publication of the Canadian Journalism Project, a venture led by the journalism programs at Ryerson University and Carleton University and supported by the post-secondary journalism programs at member institutions of J- Schools Canada/EcolesJ (j-schoolscanada.ca) as well as by a group of donors.

Niemen Lab, Harvard University: The Nieman Journalism Lab is an attempt to help journalism figure out its future in an Internet age.

About the Guest

Jessica is a National Online Journalist with GlobalNews.ca.

Jessica has been a journalist since the age of 15, when she talked the editors of a local paper into giving her a monthly column. Since then, her work has been seen in outlets like TechVibes, MobileSyrup, the Financial Post and CBC Radio, among others. In 2017, she graduated from the Ryerson School of Journalism, where she specialized in multimedia journalism.

She's worked in a wide variety of digital mediums and most recently spearheaded the Business section for Canada's largest technology news site, MobileSyrup.com. During her time there, she wrote often about Canada's innovation policy, the changing face of Canadian transportation through ride sharing and autonomous cars, and the relationship between digital streaming and Canadian content.

She's interested in technology, entrepreneurship, politics, and the different forces at work in the market today.

Learn more about Jess or follow her on Twitter (@JessicaVomiero).

Should the artifacts of history be owned by any country, or should they be shared as common human heritage? If ancient Greek and Roman civilizations remain in many ways the backbone of our culture, society and laws, who gets to interpret them? And what about those with an entirely different lineage, especially indigenous peoples? Who are Classics for and to whom do they belong?

Featuring:

Fabio Colivicchi, Professor Raphaelle Walsh-Beauchamp, Student Desmond Wong, Alumnus Ben Charland, Moderator

This panel discussion and Q&A was recorded with a live audience at the Department of Classics, Queen's University, on 21 March 2019.

Terry Fallis is a celebrated Canadian author of novels such as Up and Down (2012) and One Brother Shy (2017). Before writing the hit 2008 novel, The Best Laid Plans—about a man who must run a seemingly hopeless political campaign in order to get out of politics—Terry worked as a political staffer for several MPs and ministers, and in public relations with Thornley Fallis.

Terry joins Ben to discuss the SNC-Lavalin scandal, the liabilities of Justin Trudeau's style, the power of perspective in politics, and much more.

About the Guest

"Terry Fallis writes just about the tidiest romantic comedic novels you can find on earth, let alone in Canada." - The Globe and Mail

A two-time winner of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, Terry Fallis is the award-winning author of six national bestsellers, including his most recent One Brother Shy (2017), all published by McClelland & Stewart.

His debut novel, The Best Laid Plans (2008),won the 2008 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour and was crowned the 2011 winner of CBC Canada Reads as the "essential Canadian novel of the decade." In January 2014, CBC aired a six-part television miniseries based on The Best Laid Plans earning very positive reviews. In September 2015, it debuted as a stage musical in Vancouver, produced by Touchstone Theatre and Patrick Street Productions. The High Road (2010) was published in September 2010 and was a finalist for the 2011 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour. Terry's third novel, Up and Down (2012), was released in September 2012. It debuted on The Globe and Mail bestsellers list, was a finalist for the 2013 Leacock Medal, and won the 2013 Ontario Library Association Evergreen Award. Terry's fourth novel, No Relation (2014), hit bookstores in May 2014, opened on The Globe and Mail bestsellers list, and won the 2015 Leacock Medal. M&S published Terry's fifth novel, Poles Apart (2015), in October 2015, opening on several bestsellers lists including The Globe and Mail. It was a finalist for the 2016 Leacock Medal. One Brother Shy (2017) was published in May 2017 and was an instant bestseller.

In June, 2013, the Canadian Booksellers Association presented Terry with the Libris Award for Author of the Year.

Terry Fallis earned a Bachelor of Engineering degree from McMaster University (1983) where he became engulfed in university politics and somehow persuaded the undergraduates to elect him President of the Students Union.

After graduation, he turned his back on engineering and joined future Prime Minister Jean Chretien's full time staff for the 1984 federal Liberal Leadership campaign.

He served on the political staff of the Liberal Minister of State for Youth, the Honourable Jean Lapierre, in the short-lived cabinet of Prime Minister John Turner. He stayed with Lapierre as his Legislative Assistant in opposition (1984-85) following the landslide victory of Brian Mulroney and the Progressive Conservative Party.

Terry returned to Toronto in 1985 as Legislative Assistant to the Honourable Robert Nixon, Treasurer (now called Finance Minister) in the newly-elected Liberal Ontario government led by Premier David Peterson.

For nearly eight years (1988-95) after leaving provincial politics, he was a government affairs and communications consultant with the international PR firm, Hill and Knowlton, including stints as Vice President running the Ontario government affairs group and finally President of Berger & Associates, a Hill and Knowlton subsidiary.

In 1995, he co-founded Thornley Fallis with Joe Thornley, a full service communications consulting agency with offices in Ottawa and Toronto. Terry also created and co-hosted more than 200 episodes of the popular business podcast, Inside PR.

For more than 25 years, Terry has counselled corporate and government clients on various fronts including crisis communications, media relations, issues management, marketing communications, public opinion polling, public affairs, stakeholder relations, etc. He has also written speeches for CEOs, cabinet ministers, and other community leaders.

Terry is a sought-after speaker, sits on a number of boards, and lives in Toronto with his wife and two sons.

Learn more about Terry and follow him on Twitter (@TerryFallis).

Before she was appointed as an independent Senator in 2016, Kim Pate was already a powerful and outspoken voice for marginalized people in Canada, especially women and girls caught up in the criminal justice and prison system. For over 35 years Kim has advocated for policies and practices that lead to fairer, more positive outcomes, and has recently fought against segregation and solitary confinement. She is also the host of a new podcast: Appointed.

Senator Pate joins Ben to discuss the deeper and often personal journey of reform and justice in Canada.

About the Guest

Kim Pate was appointed to the Senate of Canada on November 10, 2016. First and foremost, the mother of Michael and Madison, she is also a nationally renowned advocate who has spent the last 35 years working in and around the legal and penal systems of Canada, with and on behalf of some of the most marginalized, victimized, criminalized and institutionalized — particularly imprisoned youth, men and women.

Senator Pate graduated from Dalhousie Law School in 1984 with honours in the Clinical Law Programme and has completed post graduate work in the area of forensic mental health. She was the Executive Director of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies (CAEFS) from January 1992 until her appointment to the Senate in November 2016. CAEFS is a federation of local societies who provide services and work in coalition with Aboriginal women, women with mental health issues and other disabling conditions, young women, visible minority and immigrant women, poor women and those isolated and otherwise deprived of potential sources of support. Prior to her work with CAEFS, she worked with youth and men in a number of capacities with the local John Howard Society in Calgary, as well as the national office. She has developed and taught Prison Law, Human Rights and Social Justice and Defending Battered Women on Trial courses at the Faculties of Law at the University of Ottawa, Dalhousie University and the University of Saskatchewan. She also occupied the Sallows Chair in Human Rights at the University of Saskatchewan College of Law in 2014 and 2015.

Kim Pate is widely credited as the driving force behind the Inquiry into Certain Events at the Prison for Women in Kingston, headed by Justice Louise Arbour. During the Inquiry, she supported women as they aired their experiences and was a critical resource and witness in the Inquiry itself. She also persuaded the Attorney General and Minister of Justice to initiate the Self-Defence Review and appoint the Honourable Madam Justice Lynn Ratushny to review the convictions and sentences of women jailed for using lethal force to defend themselves and/or their children against abusive men. She then worked tirelessly in pursuit of the implementation of the many positive recommendations from both. Senator Pate has been instrumental in building coalitions across the country with other equality-seeking women's, anti-racism, anti-poverty and human rights groups and organizations; and, in this capacity, has worked with feminist legal scholars, lawyers, other professionals and front-line advocates and activists — from Indigenous communities to transition house and rape crisis centre workers.

Kim Pate is a member of the Order of Canada, a recipient of the Governor General's Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case, the Canadian Bar Associations's Bertha Wilson Touchstone Award, and five honourary doctorates (Law Society of Upper Canada, University of Ottawa, Carleton University, St. Thomas University and Wilfred Laurier University) and numerous other awards. Her extensive list of publications, national and international speaking engagements and her strategic intervention and advocacy for substantive equality testify to her commitment to broader social, economic and cultural change. She continues to make significant contributions to public education around the issues of women's inequality and discriminatory treatment within social, economic and criminal justice spheres.

Senator Pate strongly believes that the contributions of women who have experienced marginalization, discrimination and oppression should be recognized and respected and she seeks to credit and empower women. She maintains contact with women in prison through her numerous visits to Canada's federal prisons and strongly encourages other advocates, scholars, service providers, judges and parliamentarians to ground their efforts in a similar way.

Senator Pate lives in Ottawa, Ontario.

Learn more about Kim or follow her on Twitter (@KPateontheHill).

Terry O'Reilly is the host of CBC's Under the Influence (formerly The Age of Persuasion), and he joins Ben this week on the podcast. They discuss Terry's advertising career, his book This I Know: Marketing Lessons from Under the Influence, his ceaseless curiosity, the counterintuitive insight of chickens painted purple, and the unrelenting power of an idea. Terry also gives Ben the scoop on an exciting new project!

The full archive of Terry's Under the Influence is now available for free, wherever you get your podcasts.

About the Guest

Terry O'Reilly began his career as Copy Chief for FM108 Radio in Burlington, Ontario, where he discovered that with meticulous planning and attention to detail, you can still fall flat on your face. With that learning, he went on to become an award-winning copywriter for Toronto advertising agencies Campbell-Ewald, Doyle Dane Bernbach and Chiat/Day. He created campaigns for many of the top brands in the country, including Labatt, Molson, Pepsi USA, Goodyear Tires, Tim Hortons, Volkswagen, Nissan and the Hudson's Bay Company.

In 1990, Terry co-founded Pirate Radio & Television. A creative audio production company producing scripts, sound and music for radio and television commercials, Pirate grew to a staff of 50 with 8 recording studios in Toronto and New York City.

Terry has won a few hundred national and international awards for his writing and directing, and has worked with such notable actors as Alec Baldwin, Ellen DeGeneres, Kiefer Sutherland, Bob Newhart, Martin Short and Drew Carey. He even managed to create an advertising campaign for a group of nuns. (Good story there).

In demand as a keynote speaker, Terry talks about key marketing issues all companies and organizations face – from the critical need to embed emotion in marketing, to why customer service = profit, to how to change a negative perception, to why smart marketers don't outspend their competitors – they outsmart them.

He served on the inaugural Radio Jury at the Cannes International Advertising Festival in 2005, and was named chairman of the following award show juries:

The Marketing Awards (Co-Chair) Canada The International Clio Awards in Miami The London International Advertising Awards

When he's not creating advertising, he's talking about it as the host of the award-winning CBC Radio One/Sirius Satellite/WBEZ Chicago radio show, Under The Influence, which is the follow-up to the hit series, The Age of Persuasion. The New York Radio Festivals awarded his show the Grand Prize as Best Radio Program in 2011 and again in 2012, and iTunes chose it as "Best New Podcast of 2011" and one of the Best Podcasts of 2015.

Terry has been given the following career awards:

Lifetime Achievement Award – American Marketing Association Lifetime Achievement Award – Advertising & Design Club of Canada Lifetime Achievement Award – Television Advertising Bureau

Honorary Degrees have been bestowed on Terry from these great institutions:

McMaster University – Honorary Doctorate of Laws Humber College Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning – Bachelor Degree in Applied Studies St. Mary's University – Honorary Doctor of Civil Law

He has also been honoured by Ryerson University with the following:

Inaugural inductee to RTA School of Media Hall of Fame Alumni Achievement Awards 2015

He has co-written a best-selling book called The Age of Persuasion: How Marketing Ate Our Culture, published in Canada by Knopf, and in the U.S. by Counterpoint Press in Berkeley.

He has written a new book titled This I Know: Marketing Lessons From Under The Influence, published in Canada, the U.S. and China.

He has a wonderful wife and three lovely daughters.

Who like some of his work.

Learn more about Terry or follow him on Twitter (@terryoinfluence).

Climate change could be the greatest crisis we have ever faced. Is it possible to deal with it under the economic frameworks that gird our society -- the very frameworks that allowed carbon emissions to spiral so far out of control in the first place? And can we solve these existential problems at the same time as address economic inequality and the global democratic deficit?

Joining Ben is Kyla Tienhaara, academic, activist and author of Green Keynesianism and the Global Financial Crisis.

About the Guest

Kyla is a Canada Research Chair in Economy and Environment and Assistant Professor in the School of Environmental Studies and Department of Global Development at Queen's University. She completed her PhD at the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (2008). She also holds a Master's degree in environmental science and law from the University of Nottingham (2002) and a Bachelor of Science in environmental science, with a minor in international relations, from the University of British Columbia (2001).

Kyla's main area of interest is the intersection between environmental governance and the global economic system. Her PhD thesis examined investor-state disputes concerning environmental regulation that were brought to international arbitration under bilateral and regional investment agreements. This research was published in The Expropriation of Environmental Governance: Protecting Foreign Investors at the Expense of Public Policy (2009).

Kyla's most recent book, Green Keynesianism and the Global Financial Crisis (2018) explores the experience of Australia, Canada, Japan, Korea, and the United States with green stimulus programs following the 2008 global financial crisis.

Learn more about Kyla or follow her on Twitter (@KylaTienhaara).

There are countless resources about personal development, and they all express a similar theme: summon the will and make things happen. Whether intrinsically or because of years of practice, Logan Brown lives what he preaches.

Logan is a musician and music teacher who also hosts the Brown Sound Podcast, which gives its listeners the tools to lead more meaningful lives. He joins Ben to discuss the creative and business sides of music, learning to play music, and the backstory of his own weekly podcast.

About the Guest

Logan Brown is a guitar player and singer/song-writer unlike any you have ever heard. Blending the lazy backbeat of funk, the virtuosity of fusion, and the story telling of soul and blues he is a spectacle to witness live, the listener is taken on a journey through decades of influence and transported to the future.

Getting his start in his hometown of Kingston, Ontario, Logan donned a pseudonym that would later evolve into a full fledged character, in the same vein as Ziggy Stardust or Sasha Fierce, called NUBS. After releasing three records under this name Logan realized it was time for a change.

After the release of his second EP "Spend The Night" Logan found himself putting away the bells and whistles he used to use when writing and beginning to extract all that he could out of his voice and his guitar. Instead of thrusting the listener into this brand new NUBS, Logan decided it was better to put an end to the pseudonym and continue his story without the nickname.

Logan still performs all of his music released under NUBS as well as brand new songs pushing the boundaries of music and guitar playing. As a full time professional musician he is always writing and learning, no two shows will be the same, the only option is to catch Logan whenever and wherever he is playing next.

After five years as a professional musician, averaging 300 shows per year, countless sessions, and records being played worldwide, Logan launched a subscription-based teaching service (Brown Sound Lessons) as well as the Brown Sound Podcast, a weekly motivation centric podcast aimed at bettering the lives of listeners and providing value to those looking for tools of a meaningful life.

Listen to Logan's podcast, visit his YouTube channel, or check out his music duo, Taylor Angus.

Watch the video of this episode.

What does it mean to be live? Can a hologram be considered performance? Is going to the theatre a private or communal act? And should performing artists embrace and incorporate technological change—or should they resist, and build an oasis from social media and screen time? What on earth is going on with live performance in the digital age?

Listen to the first-ever recording of the podcast with a live audience! The panel, moderated by Ben, features Colleen Renihan, Craig Walker and Michael Wheeler of the Dan School of Drama and Music.

About the Panel

Colleen Renihan

Colleen Renihan was delighted to join the Dan School of Drama and Music faculty as a Queen's National Scholar in 2016. She earned a B. Mus. in Vocal Performance from the University of Manitoba, an Artist Diploma in Opera Performance from the Vancouver Academy of Music, and an MA and PhD in Musicology at the University of Toronto in 2011 with generous funding support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Her dissertation Sounding the Past was a finalist for the Society for American Music's Housewright Dissertation Award.

Dr. Renihan's research considers aspects of opera and operatic culture from a postmodern perspective. Inherently interdisciplinary in nature, it explores cultural politics, popular culture, performance theory, temporality, memory theory, opera's interactions with media (specifically film), and opera's potential for intervention in current debates in the philosophy of history. Her work has been published in a variety of edited collections and journals, including, most recently, twentieth century music, The Journal of the Society for American Music, and Music, Sound, and the Moving Image. Forthcoming publications include an invited chapter on Benjamin Britten's coronation opera Gloriana to an edited collection for Boydell & Brewer, and a chapter on affective listening in Harry Somers's Louis Riel for Wilfrid Laurier Press. Two current book projects explore the historiographical dimensions of American postwar opera, and innovation in Canadian opera and music theatre 1970-2010.

Dr. Renihan has presented her research at academic conferences in Canada, the United States, and Europe, including chapter and national meetings of the American Musicological Society, and in 2010, she participated in the Society for Music Theory's graduate student workshop on 'Music and Narrative' with Michael Klein. She was a founding member of Operatics (a working group for the interdisciplinary study of opera) at the University of Toronto, a founding member of IPMC (Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Music in Canada), and has been involved with several research and writing projects at the Canadian Music Centre.

Learn more about Colleen.

Craig Walker is Director of the Dan School of Drama and Music and Professor of Drama, and is also cross-appointed to the Departments of English and Cultural Studies. Dr. Walker earned his Ph.D. at the University of Toronto, where he had taken his earlier degrees in English. He has taught courses in most subjects in Queen's Drama at one time or another.

As a director, for the Queen's Drama, Dr. Walker has directed the world premiere of Orbit, a play about the daughters of Galileo by Jennifer Wise (2014), a double-bill of Michel Tremblay's Counter Service and Nina Shengold's Lives of the Great Waitresses (2012), Thornton Wilder's Our Town (2010), his own adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's Drums In the Night (2008), John Lazarus' Meltdown (2005), Michel Tremblay's Les Belles Soeurs (2003), Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth (2000), his own translation of Odon von Horvath's Judgement Day (1999), Richard Rose and D.D. Kugler's adaptation of Timothy Findley's Not Wanted on the Voyage (1997), the medieval morality play Everyman (1996) and Elmer Rice's The Adding Machine (1993). From 1997 to 2007, Dr. Walker was Artistic Director of Theatre Kingston, during which time the company produced 54 plays, 36 of which were Canadian, including 18 world premieres.

On the academic side (see profile on academia.edu), Dr. Walker's most recent publication is "Canadian Drama and the Nationalist Impulse" in The Oxford Handbook to Canadian Literature. He is the author of The Buried Astrolabe: Canadian Dramatic Imagination and Western Tradition and co-editor (with Jennifer Wise of the University of Victoria) of The Broadview Anthology of Drama: Plays from the Western Theatre, Volumes I and II and The Broadview Anthology of Drama, Concise Edition. He was Book Review Editor for Modern Drama for two years, from 1998 to 2000. In 2009, he was appointed as a Corresponding Scholar at the Shaw Festival. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Learn more about Craig.

Michael Wheeler is Artistic Director of SpiderWebShow Performance, an online performance company working at a national scale. His previous position was as Executive Director of Generator, a mentoring, teaching, and innovation incubator that empowers independent artists, producers and leaders in Toronto. He has co-curated The Freefall Festival with The Theatre Centre and HATCH emerging artist projects with Harbourfront Centre. In 2017, he will co-curate the first Festival of Live Digital Art (foldA) at The Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts.

As Founding Artistic Director of Praxis Theatre and a theatre director, he has produced and created numerous independent works including Rifles (2 Dora nominations), the World Premiere of Jesus Chrysler by Tara Beagan presented in association with Theatre Passe Muraille, a National Tour of the SummerWorks Award-winning G20 drama You Should Have Stayed Home, and Jesse Brown's Canadaland World Tour of Canada.

Much of Michael's work has intertwined with online tools, as editor and publisher of websites like PraxisTheatre.com (Winner Best Blog Post & Best Arts and Culture Blog: Canadian Blog Awards), DepartmentOfCulture.ca, AfricaTrilogy.ca, WreckingBall.ca and most recently SpiderWebShow.ca. He holds a BA (distinction) from McGill University and a Masters of Fine Arts from The American Repertory/Moscow Art Theatre Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University.

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