Spot on the Couch: Recent Episodes

Spot on the Couch

Welcome to Spot on the Couch - a show about navigating the rapidly changing world around us, while focusing on important cultural, political and social moments. In a world where you can often feel out of place, there’s always a spot for you, here, on our couch! Join Sav, Tat, and Yas, your hosts, on Tuesdays to learn more about the particular topic of the week. Thanks so much for listening, stay connected via our socials:

www.instagram.com/spotonthecouch/

spotonthecouchpodcast@gmail.com

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Join hosts Sav, Tat, and Yas as they interview  Dr. S. Trimble and discus an intersectional approach to horror and apocalypse. As COVID-19 dominates the ins-and-outs of our lives, learn about how QTBIPOC folx can reimagine ourselves through the apocalypse.

Dr. S. Trimble is a writer, pop culture analyst, and WGS professor at the University of Toronto. Trimble's book, "Undead Ends," was published just last year.

Read more on Dr. Trimble work through their book: https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/undead-ends/9780813593647

[this was recorded before the COVID-19 outbreak started occurring in so-called "Canada"]

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What is Gentrification?

It's a pretty big buzzword within the popular lexicon right now, yet many of us still don't fully understand it. Join Sav, Tat, and Yas, your hosts, for this informative episode on gentrification in Toronto. The pod invites two amazing guests, Mercedes Sharpe Zayas and Aysha Ahmadjan, about the gentrification going on within the city of Toronto.

Mercedes Sharpe Zayas is the Workforce Planning Coordinator for the Parkdale Community Economic Development (PCED) Project, within the Parkdale People’s Economy (PPE). We talk with Mercedes about unpacking the structures of gentrification, and will walk listeners through the issues that Parkdale faces as it is being rapidly gentrified, and the resistance that has been happening.

To Learn more about what has been going on in Parkdale, the PPE, and ways to get involved check out these links:

  • The new Parkdale People’s Economy website can be found here . It includes our ‘Parkdale People’s Calendar’ which features upcoming events and the 2019 schedule for our community meetings. The content on our website is still super out of date and needs to be updated to reflect all our current activities, but hopefully this is a good starting point! You can also find our research reports, like the Parkdale Community Planning Study and the Parkdale Community Benefits Framework.
  • The PNLT website can be found here. They also have great videos on the rooming house crisis, like this one.
  • Video on the Parkdale Rent Strike.
  • The Parkdale People’s Map is a great visual reference to demonstrate the impact of development and investments in the neighbourhood
  • The Public Studio’s Art, Design, and Gentrification zine, which can be found here.
  • The Ogimaa Mikana Project which can be found here.

Aysha Ahmadjan is a talented artist, activist and community organizer who will be giving us a breakdown of the Google Sidewalk Labs project on the Quayside and discussing its contribution to gentrification in the city.

To Learn more about what has been going on with Google sidewalk Labs, and ways to get involved check out these links:

  • Find the Google Sidewalk Labs' master innovation plan (MIDP) here
  • Find #BlockSidewalk 's website and signup list here

To find out more about what the hosts talk about, check out these article:

  • Stein, S. (2019, June 26). Gentrification Is a Feature, Not a Bug, of Capitalist Urban Planning. Jacobin. Retrieved from here.

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Join us this episode as we critically engage with the concept of the Canadian wilderness and the ways in which it is not always accessible for all bodies . The pod invites our good friend, Jennifer Dallan to engage in this discussion with us. Jenny is a certified interpretive naturalist and hiking guide with experience working in the provincial and national parks, in Northern Ontario and Canadian Rocky Mountains.

To learn more about some of the things we mentioned throughout the episode check out the following literature:

  • Decolonization is Not a Metaphor by Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang

  • The Souls of Black Folk: Of our Spiritual Strivings by W.E.B Du Bois

Instagram Accounts Mentioned:

@unlikelyhikers

@indigenouswomenhike

@melaninbasecamp

@womenwhohike

Organizations Mentioned:

  • Park Bus

  • UTOC

  • Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC)

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Welcome to Spot on the Couch - a show about navigating the rapidly changing world around us, while focusing on important cultural, political and social moments. In a world where you can often feel out of place, there’s always a spot for you, here, on our couch!

Join Sav, Tat, and Yas, your hosts, for this brief introduction as we give you a feel for the pod, and a quick overview of our first official episode.

Thanks so much for listening, stay connected via email: spotonthecouchpodcast@gmail.com

www.instagram.com/spotonthecouch/