World of Stories

As Margrit and Eileen wrap up season two, we look forward to some things we're hopeful about in a post-pandemic world. Things like compassion and understanding, redefining family and relationships, greater accessibility, and dare we say it... lower real estate prices? 

Recommendation of the Episode: Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake (https://www.merlinsheldrake.com/entangled-life).

Question of the Episode: What are your hopes for a post-pandemic world? 

Join the conversation on Twitter at twitter.com/World_ofStories or email us at [email protected].

What does it mean to be happy and healthy? Especially during a pandemic? Margrit & Eileen break down ideas about well-being, including a critique of the wellness industry. 

Recommendations of the Episode: The Depression Project on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/realdepressionproject/) and Nedi Nezu: Good Medicine by Tenille K. Campbell (https://arsenalpulp.com/Books/N/nedi-nezu-Good-Medicine).

Question of the Episode: What are some of your well-being needs? 

Join the conversation on Twitter at twitter.com/World_ofStories or email us at [email protected].

Our number one fan returns to World of Stories! Special guest Ann Gagné joins Margrit and Eileen to talk about precarious work in academia, accessibility in education and beyond, touch and tactility in a pandemic, and so much more! Be sure to check out Ann's new books, The Canadian Precariat (https://www.ubcpress.ca/the-canadian-precariat) and Embodying the Tactile in Victorian Literature (https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781793617309/Embodying-the-Tactile-in-Victorian-Literature-Touching-Bodies-Bodies-Touching). 

Recommendations of the Episode: Academic Ableism by Jay Timothy Dolmage (https://www.press.umich.edu/9708722/academic_ableism), On Being Included by Sara Ahmed (https://www.dukeupress.edu/on-being-included), and Feel Ways: A Scarborough Anthology (https://www.mawenzihouse.com/product/feel-ways/). 

Join the conversation on Twitter at twitter.com/World_ofStories or email us at [email protected].

Margrit & Eileen chat about perfectionism and the internal and external pressures to live up to unrealistic and unattainable expectations. They talk about the false equivalency of perfection equalling professionalism and how perfectionism is both the result of and cause of metal health issues. Finally, in a pandemic where so many of our interactions are through video conference, perfectionism has been taken to a whole new level.

Recommendations of the Episode: (It's Great to) Suck at Something by Karen Rinaldi and easy crafting activities, like connect-the-dots.

Question of the Episode: Do you suffer from perfectionism? How do you combat it?

Join the conversation on Twitter at twitter.com/World_ofStories or email us at [email protected].

Margrit & Eileen welcome Lee Czechowski to the podcast! Lee (they/them) is a queer mixed Anishnaabe/Settler midwifery student at Laurentian University. They love singing, puns, puzzles, coffee, and their three cats. When they used to have spare time, they spent it hiking, driving across the country, and building the best little queer haven in Northern Ontario.

We talk about working in a hospital during a pandemic, the gender-stereotypes in midwifery, being an advocate for queer and trans parents, and finding joy during difficult times. 

Recommendations of the Episode: Sovereign Erotics: A Collection of Two-Spirit Literature (https://www.ubcpress.ca/sovereign-erotics) and A History of My Brief Body by Billy Ray Belcourt (https://billy-raybelcourt.com/a-history-of-my-brief-body). 

Full transcript available at www.WorldOfStories.org/S2E7.

What is the meaning of friendship? What are the different types of friendship? What important are friendships compared to other types of relationships? Margrit & Eileen chat about how the pandemic has strengthened some friendships and strained others; society's hierarchy of relationships that often puts friendships at the bottom; and what this means for community building. 

Recommendations of the Episode: Elementary (https://www.amazon.com/Elementary-Season-1/dp/B009IJJ5B4) and Sense8 (https://www.netflix.com/ca/title/80025744).

Question of the Episode: How has the pandemic changed your friendships and what role do your friends play in your life? 

Join the conversation on Twitter at twitter.com/World_ofStories or email us at [email protected].

Margrit and Eileen chat with Sarika Narinesingh, a communications instructor at George Brown College in Toronto. We talk about taking care of your physical body during the pandemic as a form of resistance against white supremacy, how the pandemic has affected education, and the importance of a living wage. Full episode available April 2, 2021.

Recommendations of the episode: Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart (https://www.douglasdstuart.com/books) and Luster by Raven Leilani (https://ravenleilani.weebly.com/)

Join the conversation on Twitter at twitter.com/World_OfStories or email us at [email protected].

Full transcript available at worldofstories.org/s2e5

Eileen's got a million projects on the go, but one that is close to her heart is Queer of Colour: a storytelling platform where queer people of colour have a safe space to tell their own stories on their own terms.

In this episode of World of Stories, Margrit interviews Eileen on how the project was started and how she hopes for it to grow.

Recommendation of the episode: queerofcolour.ca by Eileen Liu

Instagram: instagram.com/queerofcolour

Facebook: facebook.com/queerofcolour

Twitter: twitter.com/queerofcolour

Question of the episode: What kinds of stories do you think are missing from our culture? What would you like to see more of?

Join the conversation on Twitter at twitter.com/World_OfStories or email us at [email protected].

Full episode transcript available at worldofstories.org/s2e4.

No discussion about labour & productivity is complete without talking about rest. How do we rest? How often? In what way? For what purpose? The need to stay productive is so deeply entrenched in our capitalistic society that resting has become a revolutionary act, an act of resistance. Margrit & Eileen chat about how we think about rest and how we protect our time for rest.

Recommendations of the Episode:

How to do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/600671/how-to-do-nothing-by-jenny-odell/9781612197494/)

Burnout by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski (https://www.burnoutbook.net/)

Question of the Episode: What do you do for rest? How do you make sure you're getting enough rest?

Full transcript available at worldofstories.org/s2e3

Join the conversation on Twitter @World_OfStories or email us at [email protected].

How has the pandemic shed light on the way we work, how we're productive, and the value of our labour? Margrit & Eileen chat about how we view labour and productivity in a capitalist society and how our value as human beings is often linked to how productive we are. The flip side, isn't true, though. Artists, athletes, and people from marginalized communities are regularly expected to work without compensation or recognition. This has been so obviously highlighted by the lack of material support given to frontline workers during the pandemic. 

Recommendation of the Episode: Margrit has been reading Craft in the Real World by Matthew Salesses. Salesses is an international adoptee, born in Korea and raised by a white family in the US. He writes about many accepted storytelling conventions are grounded in Western imperialism and ideas. Whereas, Asian and African stories that follow different storytelling structures are often dismissed as not worthy of publications. 

Question of the Episode: How do you measure productivity? How do you value labour? 

Join the conversation on Twitter at @World_ofStories or email us directly at [email protected]. 

Full transcript is available at worldofstories.org.