Blue and Goldcast: Recent Episodes
UBC Office of the President
Santa's guest is student-athlete Coltyn Liu, who overcame adversity to become a star volleyball player for UBC.
UBC President Santa Ono and history professor Henry Yu discuss Asian History Month which this year is taking place against a background of anti-Asian racism, and racism against other ABIPOC groups and individuals,
UBC Chancellor Steven Point discusses his distinguished career and amazing life with host Santa Ono.
Santa talks to Margaret Moss, the Interim Associate Vice-President, Equity & Inclusion, about her current role and her work with UBC's First Nations House of Learning.
Dr. Julio Montaner shares highlights of his distinguished career in HIV/AIDS research with Santa.
Ars Scientia is an ongoing UBC research excellence cluster which pairs scientists and artists, challenging them to create work that stepped outside of their respective disciplines and bridge the academic gap between arts and science. Today, Santa speaks to Daniel Korchinski and Josephine Lee. Daniel, a physicist, and Josephine, an artist were paired together to create collaborative research that called on both their areas of expertise.
In this episode of the Blue & Goldcast, Santa talks to Nancy Hermiston, chair of UBC's Voice and Opera Division, director of UBC's Opera Ensemble and University Marshall; who Santa describes as "the face of UBC."
In the first episode of the Blue and Goldcast for 2022, Santa Ono talks with two scholars working to improve scholarly integrity at UBC. Dr. Ross Hickey is an associate professor in the Faculty of Management and the Department of Economics, Philosophy and Political Science at UBC’s Okanagan campus. Jacqui Brinkman is the Director of Graduate Student Professional Development at the UBC Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. Both Ross and Jacqui are involved with UBC's Scholarly Integrity Initiative, which aims to help UBC's researchers and scholars do responsible work.
Santa talks to UBC Journalism professor Peter Klein, the executive director of the Global Reporting Centre, about the future of journalism.
UBC Professor Tina Loo talks to Santa about her research into power, colonialism, and environmental history.
In the 30th episode of the Blue and Goldcast, Santa chats with UBC Olympic medalists Hillary Janssens and Evan Dunfee about their experiences at the Summer Games.
Santa Ono chats with UBC Okanagan student Mikey Friedland, who has just returned from an epic bicycle ride to the Arctic Ocean to raise funds and awareness of mental health issues.
Santa talks to UBC engineering professor Dr. Madjid Mohseni and Chief Liliane Squinas of the Lhoosk'uz Dené Nation about how UBC and and Lhoosk'uz Dené Nation collaborated to build a sustainable water treatment plant for the community.
In this episode of the Blue & Goldcast, Santa talks to the directors of the Peter P. Dhillon Centre for Business Ethics about why ethics matter in business more than ever.
In a wide-ranging interview, Santa and his guest, Dr. Handel Wright, discusses anti-racism, Black Studies, and inclusion at UBC.
In this episode of the Blue & Goldcast, Santa talks to Dr. Glenn Regehr is a researcher in health professions education in the Faculty of Medicine.
In this episode of the Blue and Goldcast, Santa talks to Dr. Daniel Vigo, assistant professor at UBC's Institute of Mental Health. He's working on an app called Minder, designed to help students get the mental health support they may need.
In a special Father's Day episode of the Blue & Goldcast, Santa talks to UBC Faculty of Medicine Professor David Kuhl about his research into fatherhood and masculinity. Dr. Kuhl holds the Mohammad H. Mohseni Foundation Chair in Men's Health, Integrity and Wellbeing at Vancouver Coastal Health with support from the VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation.
In this episode of the Blue and Goldcast, Santa talks to Karen Cheung and Lukas Chrostowski about their new platform technology and biosensor that can be used as a COVID-19 diagnostic tool.
UBC's Vancouver campus sits at the tip of one of the most important estuaries in the province, the Fraser River. In this estuary alone, there are 102 species at risk of extinction. Santa's guest today, Tara Martin of the Faculty of Forestry, studies this area, as well as how to best save species at risk.
Bhargav Thoom and Daniel Zhao are both mechanical engineering students at our Vancouver campus. They're also the leads of the UBC Thunderbikes, a student design team working on electric bikes. In this episode of the Blue & Goldcast they talk to Santa about the Thunderbikes electrical bike project.
In this episode, Santa talks to UBC Okanagan professor Kevin Golovin about his anti-fouling and anti-fogging face shields and his "cool" research.
UBC Okanagan professors Jan Cioe and Jannick Eikenaar talk to Santa about the university's senates and why they matter.
UBC professors Johan Foster and Orlando Rojas have been working with a multidisciplinary team of researchers and scientists to design what may be the world’s first fully compostable and biodegradable medical mask—the CanMask.
I'm joined by Sheryl Staub-French, the Associate Dean of UBC's Faculty of Applied Science, to discuss the faculty's equity, diversity, and inclusion strategies. Here at UBC, we're committed to doing better by all of our students, faculty, and staff. That means advancing and prioritizing our understanding of equity, diversity, and inclusion, or EDI, not just to make our campuses better learning environments for everyone, but also to look at ways we can transform systems of oppression in the wider world.
In this episode of the Blue and Goldcast, Santa Ono talks to his senior academic advisor on mental health, UBC Journalism Professor Kathryn Gretsinger. Kathryn and her team of 80 students, journalists, and academics have been working on a cross-border investigation into mental health issues with 10 journalism schools in Canada and the US.
In this episode of the Blue and Goldcast, UBC President Santa Ono talks to Karen Ragoonaden about the complexities - and the necessity - of fostering equity, diversity and inclusion at a modern university.
UBC President Santa Ono talks to UBC Law Professor Camden Hutchison about the differences and similarities between the Supreme Court of Canada and the Supreme Court of the USA.
Dr. Walter Mérida is the president’s senior advisor on climate, as well as the director of the Clean Energy Research Centre. Dr. Mérida and Santa sit down to discuss how UBC can continue its role as a climate leader in Canada and beyond.
You can find out more about UBC’s climate emergency response here.
This week on the Blue and Goldcast, join Santa and guests for a roundtable discussion about how the Faculty of Land and Food Systems is integrating anti-racist and social equity frameworks into the natural sciences, while partnering with communities along the way.
Dr. Will Valley is Associate Professor of Teaching at UBC’s Faculty of Land and Food Systems.
Stephanie Lim is the UBC Community Relations Coordinator for the Faculty of Land and Food Systems.
Tatyana Daniels is a Research Assistant and dietetics student at UBC’s Faculty of Land and Food Systems. She is a member of the Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en First Nations.
Kevin Huang is the Executive Director of the Hua Foundation, a community partner working with the Faculty of Land and Food Systems to increase community participation through youth empowerment opportunities.
You can learn more about the Faculty of Land and Food Systems’ Just Food initiative at https://www.landfood.ubc.ca/learning-tools-for-just-food/
On September 14th, UBC launched its 2021 Indigenous Strategic Plan. On this episode of Blue & Goldcast, Santa Ono sits down with Dr. Sheryl Lightfoot. She was one of the driving forces behind the strategic plan, and is Santa’s senior advisor on Indigenous Affairs. They discuss UBC’s commitment to decolonizing its campuses, pedagogy and structures.
In the fourth episode of The Blue and Goldcast, Jen and Santa talk about women in STEM, the importance of mentorship, and ways for institutions like UBC to encourage diversity. They hear a story from UBC Mathematics Professor, Stephanie van Willigenburg, about her struggle to find a place in a disproportionately-male field.
As the NHL and NFL struggle with an epidemic of concussions, we talk about brain science and sports policy. Santa, Jen and their guest, Dr. Naznin Virji-Babul, discuss mysteries of the brain, the social impact of concussions, and the role that Universities like UBC should play in making sports safer.
Will artificial intelligence usher in the next industrial revolution? In this episode, we look at the social, political, and economic consequences of AI. We profile UBC professor’s quest to make a ‘smart wheelchair’ for patients in long-term care.
In the first episode of Blue and Goldcast, we focus on indigenous research methodologies: how can we include traditional ways of knowing into the university?
The Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences was hosted at UBC from June 1st to the 7th, 2019. It’s the largest academic conference in Canada. As delegates shared big ideas, Santa and Margot discuss the future of higher education with Jessica Riddell of Bishop’s University.
Why are younger Canadians feeling more squeezed than ever before? In this episode, UBC Associate Professor and founder of Generation Squeeze, Paul Kershaw, discusses the barriers between advocacy and academia. And we meet the new co-host of the Blue & Goldcast, Allard School of Law professor Margot Young.
Can parking garages help us tackle climate change? On this episode, we look at how UBC has turned itself into a Living Lab. UBC Mechanical Engineering Professor Walter Merida explains to Santa Ono how UBC experiments with itself -- with its buildings, its operations, and its surroundings -- to develop innovative green technologies.
On the fifth episode of The Blue and Goldcast, Santa and Jen meet two professors who are charting a new path for higher education in Canada. Dave Ng, a biologist and associate director of the Michael Smith Laboratories and Allen Sens, a Professor of Teaching in UBC's political science department teach ASIC 200, a class that explores global issues from both a science and humanities lens.
Emily Jenkins still remembers the basketball coach that changed her life. Now, she’s an assistant professor at UBC’s School of Nursing, and works in youth mental health. Emily joins Santa and Margot to discuss how she wound up in this career, her collaborative work with young people, and how universities can help students and faculty experiencing mental illness.