IdeaCity: Recent Episodes
TEDxYYC
IdeaCity is a podcast that asks: what ideas does a city need to be ready for the future? Join us as we explore the people whose ideas make their city great and the futures they're hoping, and helping, to build.
In the past 5 years Alice Lam has started several nonprofits including vollyapp.com, a free website to connect volunteers to nonprofits, the Calgary Community Fridge - a barrier-free pantry and fridge in Crescent Heights, as well as Good Neighbour Market - a pay-what-you-want thrift store run by volunteers to provide Calgarians a barrier-free shopping experience regardless of ability to pay.
In this episode, Lam discusses how to build non-profits, why the demand for low-income services keep growing among senior and immigrant populations and how an online punk forum led to her first foray into community work.
"Art is created best when it's in a nurturing, safe creative space" So says Ishita Singla, Founder and Artistic Director of Madhuban Performing Arts.
Ishita is a passionate, self-taught artist who has performed in the community for more than 14 years. Ishita has worked tirelessly to promote South Asian art and heritage through dance, collaborating with various charitable and not-for-profit initiatives. Since in 2016, Madhuban has volunteered performances for more than 75+ different cultural organizations, charitable and not-for-profit initiatives.
We asked Ishita about what it's like fostering a family feeling within a group, bringing Bollywood to Calgary and how dance is faring in the digital age.
In this episode, we talk to Kat Simmers and Ryan Danny Owens, co-creators of the award-winning graphic novel series Pass Me By, a romantic coming-of-age story about understanding queer identity, memory and what happens to the stories you never tell. Simmers and Owen share the importance of storytelling within and between communities, why queer representation in rural prairie settings is important and how the unique qualities of the graphic novel allow them to present stories in a way no other medium could.
In this episode, we talk to Heesoo Cho, co-founder and managing director of Sabi Mind, a clinic using ketamine, a psychedelic substance, to treat both mental health and physical issues. He shares his insights about the state of mental health today, how different psychedelics are appropriate for different types of patients and how the Japanese art of kintsugi, repairing broken items with gold lacquer, inspires their work
In this episode, we talk to Sharon Stevens, a multi award-winning media artist, activist, and founder of the Equinox Vigil, an event that offered those without religious traditions an opportunity to honour the lives of loved ones who have passed through art, ritual and community. We cover why Western society seems afraid of death, how we can get past that, and the important role that community plays in the grieving process.
In this episode, we talk to the multi-talented Beni Johnson, Culture Cultivator, Event Producer, MC, Creative Media Specialist and founder of 10 at 10 Music & Culture, where he's created hundreds of hip hop events featuring just as many artists, raising thousands of dollars for charity and providing media coverage for the urban arts and marginalized communities. Beni shares what it takes to keep a community hub going for more than a decade, which resources are essential for building community events, and who you should be listening to in the local hip hop scene.
In this episode, we talk to Darren Krause, founder of Livewire Calgary, a local, independent news organization that takes a community-focused approach to journalism. Darren shares with us war stories from his time working in various news outlets over the years, the difference between local and community journalism, and why having journalists reporting on stories closer to home is essential for a city.
In this episode, we talk to Josiah Sinanan, host of Calgary’s award-winning Anticulture podcast, a cultural podcast that seeks to re-establish the North American concept of culture by focusing on the stories of the individuals around us.
In this episode, we talk with writer and historian Shaun Hunter about her book Calgary Through the Eyes of Writers. Shaun shares with us how the idea to compile Calgary's many literary appearances in one place came to be, what she learned about the city in the making of the book, and why these alternate approaches to documenting a place can improve our understanding of it.