I love podcasts – listening to them, creating them, training people to become podcasters and meeting fellow producers and hearing about what motivates them.
Straight out of university I started working as a television producer at the CBC on a show called CounterSpin – a live political debate show that aired 5 days a week on CBC Newsworld.
A few years later I went through cancer treatments and was immune compromised and missed interacting with people in the ways I had been before as a community engaged artist, activist and journalist.
Podcasting gave me a way to stay connected to life outside of the cancer hospital. During a time when I felt so disconnected, podcasts were a way to hear other peoples’ authentic stories, to reflect on my own and to contemplate some of the big questions about life.
That lead me to create a short radio documentary with CBC Outfront called “Ring That Bell” about my experience facing and recovering from cancer.
In 2010 I started freelancing for the CBC radio show DNTO (Definitely Not the Opera) sharing stories from my personal life which you can listen to here.
In 2017 I helped start the Story Weaver Podcast at the University of Toronto’s Hart House where I collaborated with First Nations House, The Center for International Experience and some amazing producers from CBC’s The Doc Project to train students to become podcasters.
Composed of ten student podcasters, the team behind Storyweavers has helped develop and gather personal narratives from indigenous, international and newcomer students at U of T.
